Here goes nothin'!

7.09 p.m.

So, tonight we try to put him down without swaddling him!

I know, I know...he is 8 months old now, and should be sleeping without it anyway. Well, seeing as he has never slept well, and seemed to be calmed by the swaddle, we have not seen fit to change anything. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Well, it's not broke, and it doesn't work either. He has been up more and more during the night as of late, and thinking that it can't get any worse, we decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and start the transition of putting him down sans wrapping.

7.13 p.m.

He is not sleeping, but not fussing. Correction. Currently fussing. In addition to the pacifier that was in his mouth when we put him down, there are two others in the crib with him. He has always gone right to sleep with the swaddle, and then anytime after 10.30 p.m. is fair game for fussing or crying. It seems that he is not going immediately to sleep tonight. Hooray. Will report more later.

7.20 p.m.

Not asleep. Kicking. Quiet though. Hoping for more good things...

7.50 p.m.

Still not asleep. Still kicking and now sometimes fussing. Hooray.

8.28 p.m.

He was crying for over 20 minutes. I went in to let him know that neither was the sky falling nor had our love for him run out. I discovered that instead of my hope that he would use his now-free hands to put a pacifier into his mouth, he was taking it out and tossing it aside. He appreciated my supportive hand on his chest, but as soon as I left, he started wailing again. It has been quiet for a few minutes now. History has shown, however, that as soon as you think, "Hey, it's been quiet for a few minutes now," the tendency would be to follow that with the totally irrational presumption that he is asleep and will continue in his sedentary state for a period of time no less than 8 hours. I will not be fooled by this. I stand firm in my pessimistic state that this will indeed be a very long evening for all involved. To my neighbors, if you are reading this, I apologize in advance.

8.47 p.m.

Active fussing. I knew it was too good to be true. Here's hoping that the night won't be as bad as I think it will be.

6.19 a.m.

Remember how I said that it couldn't get any worse? I was wrong.

7.30 a.m.

Daddy is now at work. He got to wear earplugs last night, and was still up multiple times. Mommy didn't wear earplugs because it was her turn to be on duty last night. Very little sleep happened, and there was even less rest. Super. Mostly, those pesky hands got in the way of him getting to sleep. When we went in there, E was found to be rubbing his eyes a lot, and generally keeping himself awake, as opposed to lying there, still, waiting for his eyes to shut on their own. Here's hoping that he works this out soon.