The Happiest Baby and a Houdini

I know- I know 2 post in one day!! I have had so many things I have wanted to blog lately but haven't been able to. Landry has decided- well actually, he has never been a big fan of nap time. Don't get me wrong- he loves to sleep, but only when in the arms of someone. So, unfortunately that limits my time on what I can do in one day. For example, last Friday Landry and I went over to my mother and daddy's house for the afternoon just to hang out. I was letting her take care of him while I just relaxed. She had a load of laundry in the dryer when we got there- 3 hours later she still didn't have her clothes folded. ha ha! I find this absolutely hilarious! I just kept telling her- "now you know why my house looks the way it does and why I can't get anything done!" She would have him rocked sound asleep and as soon as she would lay him down his eyes would pop open. But what is so funny is he is totally opposite at night. He is such a good sleeper and is only getting up about once a night to eat but he immediately goes back to sleep. That little booger just wants to be held during the day. I know all the books say this is a bad thing- but the way I look at it is he is only little once so I am going to soak it up b/c there will be a day when he will not want me to hold him anymore- so until then I will hold him and cuddle with him as much as possible b/c he loves to cuddle!

We have found a book that my aunt Susan gave us when I was pregnant with Landry a complete life saver! It's called "The Happiest Baby on the Block" by Harvey Karp. When Landry was about 6 weeks old he went through a phase where every night around 7:30pm he would just have a complete breakdown and cry. We tried everything- bouncing, singing, walking, rocking, shhhh'ing. Nothing really worked very well and by 9:00 we were completely exhausted and out of ideas. He would finally calm down and go right to sleep. I asked our pediatrician about this and was worried he was becoming colic. He assured me that if this was the only time of the day he was doing it that he wasn't colic b/c colic babies cried at least 3 hours a day, at least 3 days a week and at least 3 weeks out of the month. He did not reach that limit by a long shot. But I was confused b/c Landry has always been a good baby- but he was just getting really fussy. Our pediatrician told us that babies are like elderly patients who have Alzheimer's. They get so much sensory input throughout the day and their bodies just need to shut down. But instead of them just going to sleep they need to get rid of all that energy so they just cry it out. I didn't want to accept him crying for and hour at a time so I picked up my book and begin to read it. The author talks about how babies really need a 4th trimester outside of the womb to comfort them. To accomplish this you need to perform the 5 "S's" when a baby is crying (if they aren't hungry, hurting, or need a diaper change). They are 1. Swaddling the baby 2. Turing them on their side or stomach 3. Shhhh-ing them 4. Swinging them (or in our case bounce) 5. Giving them a pacifier to suck on. This has worked very well for us and Landry and we owe aunt Susan big time for this! She has made our nights a lot more peaceful and Landry a lot happier at night!! I know it probably won't work for all babies but would recommend this book to anyone and at least let them try it. Thanks Aunt Susan!! :)

Due to the book I was just referring to we swaddle Landry nice and tight every night before he goes to sleep- somewhow he always seems to break free during the night!
Please notice in the first picture no arms or hands are outside of the swaddle. When I get up to feed him in the middle of the night his hands are somehow out of his swaddle and are up by his face. We call him our little Houdini. We have no idea how he gets out of it- I think he knows magic!!

I took a chance and made this picture of him one night when he was already asleep and just hoped he wouldn't wake up so I could share this story with the evidence.

This is Landry the next morning wide awake and smiling. He always wakes up smiling with his arms out of his blanket we have swaddled him so tightly in! There is nothing that makes my day better than waking up to his smiling face every morning!