Sleep Sacks

My baby doesn't sleep.

Yours does? Please offer advice.

With my first child, we had a hard time getting her to sleep (she would cry for HOURS), but once she was out, she was pretty good. By 6 months of age, when she woke up in the night we spent 1 week ignoring her and then she has slept pretty soundly ever since. And she now goes to bed like a dream. We put her in, say her prayers with her, walk away and rarely hear from her again.

I thought I knew all the tricks and all the rules. Kaitlyn has turned all the theories upside down. I have tried every sleep method (I think) except to cry it out. But that one is hard to do since the girls share a room and it doesn't seem fair to make Mady lose sleep while her sister figures it out.

One thing I have learned is that a baby needs to stay under their covers to stay sleeping. There's something about being cold that wakes them up. The only hiccup we had with Mady's sleeping patterns was when she started to crawl out of her covers. If I forgot to re-cover her before I went to bed she would wake up a couple hours later. I learned too late about the wonder that is the sleep sack.

I'm a minimalist when it comes to things that a person actually NEEDS for a baby. I don't see the point in spending a lot of money on items that serve one purpose and/or have a short life-span.

The sleep sack has made it on my list of items every new mother should have (someday I'll make a complete list and post it). You may not use the sleep sack for the first couple months when your baby likes to be swaddled, but let me tell you, in that window between swaddling and when they learn how to move, it's a great time to get them used to it. It has saved me already from getting up every hour, to only getting up every 3 (Ha! No, seriously, someone give me more pointers. There must be something I have missed!).

So, since Kaitlyn only had 1 sleep sack, and she is notorious for filling a diaper to the point that it overflows, and I can't seem to ever keep laundry completely up to date. I figured it was time to make a couple more sacks to add to the collection.

I took the pattern off the sack she already had (first time I did that. I was quite proud) and whipped each one up in an evening (there are 14 seams to sew, including the zipper, so they really are quite quick).

Wanna see? Here they are!

Cute, huh?

So that's how I spent my weekend.

And I took a nap on Sunday afternoon. Did I mention Kaitlyn is getting teeth? That probably adds to the whole not sleeping thing. She cut the second one through this morning. I'm REALLY hoping tonight she's kind and goes to bed without waking up 6 times.