So close!

I think the greatest invention in baby gear has to be the Halo sleep sack. It has given me back what the first six weeks of newborn-ness had taken away...sleep. I spent several nights at the beginning rocking, singing, shhh-ing, dancing- you name it, I tried it. But it was all in vain. I felt like I was missing something. There must have been one key piece of advice that I missed during the pregnancy that would soothe Isla and allow us to both get a good nights sleep.

It wasn't until one random night that Isla was being extra squirmy that I realized the power that comes with the compression of a sleep sack. I'm sure it was around 2 AM when Isla decided that she didn't feel like sleeping any longer. It's not that she was crying, but just very awake. Even skin-to-skin (which typcially works like a charm) wasn't doing it this time. At one point she almost squirmed right out of my arms, so I had to hold her a little tighter. After she stopped squirming for a minute, I eased up on my kung-fu grip and tried to rock her to sleep. Within about 30 seconds she was back to flopping every which way. I tightened up again, and she settled down again. And then it finally hit me- she likes being held tight! Granted this was after about an hour and a half of wrestling with her and trying everything else, but at least I figured it out.

So we decided one night that it was about time to try out the sleep sack. I had hopes, but wasn't going to get too excited about it just in case it didn't work out as we planned. That thing was heaven-sent. She was sleeping 10 freaking hours! There were a few times that we would have to get up to put her pacifier back in, but for the most part she was out cold. I should've known that even things as great as this wouldn't last forever. As she has become better at rolling over, we couldn't really have her arms swaddled at her side in case she rolled over on her stomach during the night. So now we're back to square one and hoping that she will learn quickly how to sleep at night without her sleep sack. I have a feeling it's going to be rough for a little while.

- On a side note, the WubbaNub that she has in her mouth is also an incredible invention. The little stuffed animal helps keep the pacifier in her mouth and she also like to hold on to it.