Thanks so much for the sleep suggestions and also for the sympathy. We do swaddle Baby Genius, and this, I believe is the only reason he (and consequently, we) gets any sleep at all. Otherwise his roaming hands and wild feet would wake him up instantly. That said, we’re convinced he must be Houdini reincarnated, for given the time, this boy can escape even the tightest of swaddles. We often awake to hear him grunting only to look over and find him wriggling his shoulders until he can bust a hand loose. There is a very specific grunt associated with the swaddle break, and despite our frustration with his unwillingness to sleep, we find his escape artist ways to be very cute. I think we’re going to start trying the special swaddler wraps again to see if they’ll confine him (I can see his eyes glinting at the new challenge already). Before, these things would just result in wild kicking, but his sleep kicking seems to have subsided some.
On the pacifier front, we just can’t get him to take one on his own. For him, pacifiers are a social habit, much like smoking can be. If Mama (J) holds it for him and talks to him, he’ll take it, but the moment she tries to walk away, he spits it out. He won’t take it from me at all. We have these old school natural rubber pacifiers that we use, and I thought maybe they were too big or heavy, so I got some run-of-the-mill silicone pacifiers, but he completely refuses those. The kid prefers his either social sucking on the old school paci or just his fist or his arm (he occasionally even gives himself hickies)–or better yet, Mama’s finger–if he must be pacified at all.
I have even tried putting him down for naps in his crib this week, and even when he seems to be in the soundest of sleeps, he’ll awaken just moments after I leave the room.
I fear that he may just not be much of a sleeper, and that would be okay if he didn’t get so cranky about it. But it is entirey possible that he’s going through another growth spurt and that this is a temporary strike. Only time will tell.
reproducing genius 