My evil plan is working

When BB was little (that sounds funny, since he's only 5.5 months old! By little, I mean a newborn) he wouldn't nap for very long and definitely not in his bassinet. Momma needed sleep! Then around one month old he started to warm up to the swing. The back & forth motion kept him from crying (hurray!) and sometimes he'd even fall asleep! Before he started sleeping through the night, our morning routine was to get up and have his feeding, play for a short while, and then into his swing for a looong morning nap. At that point, I'd crash my tired butt onto the couch and nap as well. Sometimes he'd need me to wind the swing up for him; he'd cry out when the swing started to slow down, I'd stumble over and crank my little heart out, and then we'd both fall asleep again. 

Probably as a result of my over-reliance on the swing, ALL of baby BB's naps started taking place in the swing... unless he happened to fall asleep during a nursing session, in which case he would nap on my chest (no complaints from me on that one... it gives me a chance to drift and get some snuggles from my otherwise wiggly baby!) or I'd carefully move him over to his crib (and most times he'd wake up as soon as my hands were off of him!)

At BB's last appointment with the doctor for his four month needles, he weighed in at 17 lbs. Our swing was second hand (my cousin, T, gave it to us, and she got it from a yard sale or something) so of course it didn't come with a manual. I have no idea what the maximum weight is for the swing. For all I know it could be only 20 lbs, and BB is just about there! I do know that it's not swinging as fast these days, and needs to be cranked more frequently - I'm guessing this is due to his weight. So although it's been nice to have an easy way to get him to sleep, I've been feeling like the swing is more of an annoyance now than a help. Besides, he can't be a baby forever, he needs to learn to sleep in his bed the way the rest of the world does!

Here comes the plan part!

I decided that for his naps we would no longer rely on the swing. At nap time he gets a clean diaper, a story, a hug & kiss, and then it's into the crib. My plan was to start yesterday.

However, yesterday was a weird day. He woke up at 5:30 and after nursing, he passed out in my arms. So I held him until 7:44, then laid him down next to me in bed and napped next to him. (Ahhh, it was so nice to get that extra sleep and the cuddles!) As a result of this, I missed my opportunity to try out my plan in the morning. So I gave it a try about 45 minutes before he was due for his next feed. When I put him in his crib he cried and screamed for an unacceptable amount of time, so I held him for a few minutes and he actually fell asleep in my arms (that doesn't often happen without a feeding!) I transferred him to his crib, and he slept for about 30 minutes. I fed him when he woke up, and he promptly fell asleep again after his meal and slept cuddled up on me for an hour. He probably would have slept longer, but I had tried to move him to his crib and he was NOT happy about that! Two cuddle naps in one day... it's been a long time since that's happened!

So, yesterday didn't quite work out. Today is a new day! He woke up at almost 6:00 this morning. He had his breakfast and played. At 8:00, I changed his diaper, read him a story in the bedroom, gave him a hug and kiss, and put him in his crib. I then turned on the baby monitor and walked out at 8:16. He cried for three minutes. And then promptly fell asleep, and has been asleep for an hour and 15 minutes now. Score one for mommy! This may not be so hard after all!

Maybe I was the one with the addiction to the swing?