Kiddo Update: Pretending and Swaddle No More

Time for a little text update on what the kids are up to these days.  Over the weekend, Jakob greatly impressed me with some top notch pretending.  He's been playing on his own with his cars and trucks for a while now, sometimes for long chunks of time, so this isn't entirely new.  But he's demonstrated how wonderful his imagination is on a new level.  I was sitting on the rug playing with Everleigh on Friday evening, and Jakob came over and said he was eating some blueberries.  Then he held out his empty hands and offered me some, and he loved it when I pretended to shove them in my mouth and chew.  For the next 15 minutes he came over with all sorts of other foods for us to eat, then he would run back to the store to get something else.  On occasion he would bring over a toy and pretend it was something else, like when he brought over the Sophie giraffe and said it was an ice cream cone.  He was giggling up a storm, and I was so proud!

Everleigh has been a swaddle baby since the day we brought her home.  It's a great tool when babies are young to help prevent the startle reflex from waking them up, plus they like the tightness of the wrap because it reminds them of being in the womb.  It definitely worked well for her, but the last month or so it's been a double edged sword.  She's rolling over and can break out of it, which are signs we needed to stop using it.  Plus, as the nights wore on, she would get fussier and arch her back more often, which eventually we figured must be due to having gas and being unable to get it out while wrapped.  This weekend I decided to stop wrapping her (mainly because I've got tomorrow off and can rest up if needed), and it's been rough so far.  She absolutely wouldn't sleep unwrapped on her back because she kicks her legs up and flails her arms.  It got so bad that I ended up just putting her on her tummy to sleep.  She's strong enough to sleep there now, but it still makes me nervous about SIDS.  Anyway, she still needs to get used to sleeping on her tummy, and it's been a few restless nights in a row, but I think once she gets used to this it'll be much better for her, because she can get her gas out that way, and her arms are a little less free than they are when she's on her back.  Jakob started sleeping better (by his standards) once he started sleeping on his tummy too.  Fingers crossed for us that it doesn't take her too long to adjust!