Mouth Kisses

I know....that title is bizarre. It will all make sense soon, so be patient. First a little background. As you have read in the previous post, we have been trying to sort out Perron's stomach issues. As an update on that, they switched his medication to Prevacid which is much stronger and that has helped tremendously. Thank God! However, it was not the answer to our sleep issues that had developed along with the stomach issues. He would sometimes sleep 3 hours in a row for Stephen, but by the time my shift started he would be up every 45 minutes to an hour and a half. Exhausting! He would sleep great in his bouncer and even better in our arms but the second you tried to lie him down forget about it. What did Albert Einstein say? The definition of insanity of is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. We would feed him, hold him up right for 30 minutes for his reflux and he would be sound asleept. However, the second he hit the crib he would quickly startle himself away. Because he is a preemie, his little nervous system is more immature then most newborns his startle reflex is very strong and he doesn't have great control of his arms and legs. He moves them constantly which while great is also a big problem when trying to sleep.

We had given up on swaddling very early because we thought he didn't like it. He would always cry and squirm as soon as we finished the swaddle. However, this weekend Stephen and I were at our wits end. In one of my many middle of the night research sessions I had come across the Harvey Karp and the Happiest Baby on the Block. THIS MAN IS A GENIUS! Hence the mouth kisses...I have told Stephen on more than one occasion that if I were to ever meet this man, I would kiss him square on the mouth...with tounge if necessary :) His philosophy is so simple and commonsensical, but IT WORKS! He bases is on the five S's: swaddling, side, shushing, swinging and sucking. I would recommend this book and philosophy to any mother expecting their first child. The best part is that is even comes as a DVD, which works great since we know Stephen refusing to read :) I on the other hand read the book in less than 24 hours.

Now onto the other mouth kiss. If I ever meet the inventor of the Miracle Blanket...I will mouth kiss them too...girl or boy! As I had mentioned, we thought Perron hated to be swaddled; however, after reading Dr. Karp's book I realized that they might fight it but it is what they need to help them calm down. It is really the cornerstone of Dr. Harp's philosophy, so if you can't get that down you can't really do his other 4 S's. So we have a little Houdini on our hands and I knew that we would not make it with just a regular swaddle with a blanket...plus I am not really that good at it. so I remembered that some of my friends had the miracle blanket and had recommended it. So Stephen and I went on line and bought one right away...and had it two day aired here (at this point we didn't realize you could by them at retail).

So I tried it last night and he slept a total of 8 and a half hours!!!! Unheard of!!! He went from 10:45 to 12:45 and then stephen fed him and put him to bed and then he slept until 5 am and after I fed him he went back down until 8:30 am. Unbelievable! The best part of the miracle blanket is that I can just lay him in the crib and he stays there. He doesn't flail about, he doesn't wake up, he just stays asleep. It truly is a miracle.

Now, I am not sure if this is just a fluke or if it is a trend, but this is the most positive I have felt about finding a solution to our sleep issues. I know he is still going to wake up two times to feed right now because he is just still so small, but I think we are a step closer to getting him to eventually sleep through the night. Please pray that this continues to work and we can all start to get some more sleep. He is still a little houdini and I came in at five am he had scooted down to the bottom of the crib and was pushed up again the crib rail and had his blanket semi-unwrapped and had it loosely wrapped around his neck (yes that freaked me out). I think that we might pin the tail of the blanket in tonight to make sure it doesn't do that again. It didn't do it this morning so I think he might have just wiggled really hard.

So anyhow, we are so happy that he slept so well and we are hoping that this trend continues!!!