Operation De-Swaddling

We are happy to report that Operation De-Swaddling has been successful! Priya is officially able to sleep without her "straight jacket"! This is a huge victory for us! We began the de-swaddling process about a week and a half ago. With each passing day, Priya seemed to catch on more and more. We started with nap times only - expecting to wait a bit longer before seeing if she could handle the night hours as well. Priya intially started this challenge by dropping from 1 to 1 1/2 hour naps to only 10-20 minutes! She would wake up and not be able to put herself back to sleep. She gradually stretched the nap time out to 30 minutes and then 45. She's even had a few naps that have lasted more than an hour! While nap times don't seem to be at the quality they've previously been, her progress leads us to believe that as time goes by she'll improve more and more.

The night success actually happened by accident! Ashish is usually at work when I do Priya's bed time routine to put her down to sleep. He has been on paternity leave for about a week now and has been fantastic in reinforcing her day time nap routines. He happened to put her down for the night on Wednesday and forgot that we were still swaddling her for the night time shift. When I came home I was anxious - assuming that we'd be in for a night of many wakings and lots of crying. I was surprised to make it to the next morning without as much as a peep from our little trouper. We tried it again last night and she slept for a whopping 13 & 3/4 hours STRAIGHT!!! Tonight she again went to sleep without being swaddled and chattered quietly for a few minutes before drifting into a deep sleep.

Needless to say, we are thrilled with this great accomplishment. We are so proud of our little Priya and happy to say MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!