Hotdog, I think she's got it!

Cupcake started rolling over about 3 weeks ago stomach to back. She would ball up her legs underneath her and kick so she would flip over on her back. It's the funniest thing! But of course, that opened up a whole new can of worms in the sleep department. I've gone against the rules and put all of my reflux babies on their stomach's early. They've all learned to roll over stomach to back fairly quickly. But the problem is, it's usually MONTHS before they learned to roll back to stomach so in the mean time they're like turtle's on their backs and their eyes pop wide open and they will not go back to sleep. None of my kids got used to sleeping on their back until they were old enough to roll onto their tummy if they weren't comfy.

I stopped swaddling Cupcake about a week and a half ago and moved her to her bedroom four nights ago. I started putting her on her stomach to sleep at night instead of swaddled on her back, resigned to the fact she probably still wouldn't sleep through the night since she can still flip over. Surprisingly, the night she turned 3 months old, October 17th, she's slept through the night and hasn't offered to flip over in her sleep...YET. I know it's probably coming, though.

Cupcake is a certified thumb sucker. I've always wanted a thumb sucker as it insanely adorable and it keeps them little longer. I know I'll regret this when she's say 12 and still doing it, but right now it's nice. She refuses pacifiers now and only needs her thumb to go to sleep. I don't even have to rock her although I admit I do just to have some one on one time with her. Life is too short to stress about her getting used to falling asleep on me every day. I know she won't. After three kids, holding her a few times a week until she falls asleep will not a habit make. All of my kids have healthy sleep habits.

So for four nights now, she's slept through the night, 7 am to 7 pm. Four nights is her record, we'll see tonight if she's got it for sure. Unfortunately for me, I'm suffering from some kind of allergy crud (we all are except Hubby, the lucky dog), and I haven't got to really feel rested yet. It'll be nice when I'm feeling better and can wake up all refreshed. Right now I still feel like I've been hit by a truck. Cupcake even has it, too, as I suctioned bloody snot from her nose this morning. Looks like she's going to have the family allergies, too. And of course, a stopped up nose in an infant has the potential to break our new pattern of sleep, so I'm really hoping it doesn't get any worse than it is right now!

Reflux Burping 101

Traditionally, reflux babies are hard to burp.  As a mother of three of them, you find new and creative ways to get the air out and I usually go in this order...

1. The classic upright against your shoulder.
2. When that doesn't work, you hang them half way over your shoulder so it's pressing on their gut.
3. When that doesn't work, you sit them upright your leg and move them back and forth and continue patting...
4. Next comes walking around while they're upright against your shoulder.  If you walk flat footed and jar them a bit, it works much better (If I had stairs, I'd be getting my exercise in, that's for sure, I've read that's a great way too!)
5. After that, you pat a little harder, because SURELY after all this, the air should be out by now.
6. Eventually, you hold their stomach up to your ear and move them back and forth gently to make sure you hear their stomach contents sloshing which, indeed, indicates there is air present.
7. When all else fails, you do laundry.  

Yes, you read me right.  Do laundry.  Or pee.  Or take a nap.  At 2 am, all you can do with a relaxed baby who is sleeping and won't burp is lay her down until she's ready to.  Last night, I happened to have peed before I fed her.  I just remembered half way through that I had laundry in the washer that needed to go in the dryer before it soured.  So I laid her down flat and proceeded to do laundry.  AT TWO A.M. people.

You see, the beauty of laying them flat when they have a big air bubble is that it somehow brings it up (think about us having reflux and how they tell us not to lay flat it will make it worse).  After a minute or two of them laying like this, they'll start to squirm.  All three of mine have done this and if I just ignore them or put them down before they've burped good enough, they wake up after a few minutes crying.

When they start to squirm, you begin all over again with the steps I mentioned above.  Very rarely do I get past the first classic shoulder position.  After that, I just plop her back down and she's back to sleep for good until she's ready to eat again.  Reflux babies are my specialty apparently.  New Baby doesn't spit up much but has more of the "silent" kind where it just pops up in her throat and she swallows it back down.  But hey, at least I got a head start on my chores for today!