Put a Sling on 'Em




This video was originally blogged at: http://marvelouskiddo.blogs...

My cousin Carrie posted this video on her facebook page a while ago. She is the proud mommy of new twins who is trying to figure out how to sling two babies at once :). I thought the video was cute and appropriate for the state of things in our house these days.

I've been a proponent of slings for babies since Millie was born. It took me a while to find ones that I liked and was comfortable with -- we literally tried about 5 different kinds. The hotsling is very popular, but I had a hard time using it with the girls when they were newborns -- I was afraid they couldn't breathe, were uncomfortable, etc. They just seemed to get lost in all that fabric. Basically, it made me worry more than it gave me comfort. So we bought the ergobaby -- which I love. However I've generally used the sling only when we go out for walks or running errands rather than around the house choosing to just hold my babies when I needed to.

Lately though, Merrill has been having some trouble sleeping for naps. She is going to sleep fine, but will only stay asleep in her bed for up to 15 minutes. The wakings mean I have to start the nap process all over in an attempt to get her back to sleep. The constant cycle of putting down, waking up, getting to sleep, putting down, etc. makes it very difficult to establish a good sleeping schedule, spend enough time with Millie in productive play, get anything else done around the house, and guarantee that Merrill is getting the sleep she needs. She will sleep longer if she is held or if I lie with her, but that's not always possible given I also need to attend to Millie. The Ergobaby is a bit cumbersome for use in the house, so I've resurrected the hotsling in a desperate attempt to get Merrill some solid sleep while still being able to do things around the house. This is only day two of my little experiment, but it seems to be working. Merrill has been sleeping/nursing in the sling today for about an hour and I've been able to play with Millie, blog, drink some tea and relax a bit about her recent lack of sleep ;). Merrill seems to enjoy the sling both when she is awake and when she is sleeping.

I'm a little dismayed at this recent sleeping development that Merrill has thrown at us. I was thrilled (and a little freaked out) when she came home from the hospital and was able to sleep on her own for hours at a time and even able to fall asleep in her crib on her own. Millie was never able to do that as an infant -- falling asleep has always been a challenge for her and she's always needed a lot of help (meaning close human contact ;) ). I know that babies/children can change their sleep patterns habits frequently, going from good sleepers to poor and back again, so that may be what is happening here. It may also be a "mommy" phase or teeth, or any number of things! For now, I'm just happy she's sleeping.

Millie thought the sling was pretty cool and decided that it would help her baby sleep too. She had fun playing with it yesterday when Merrill was done with it :).