I think she is ready to be free of swaddling...

Lately I have noticed that Morgan is wiggling more and more out of swaddles at night, thus causing me to be more nervous, because on a few occasions I have heard the smallest little baby noise from her and when I check, she has wiggled out of the swaddle.  Before it has only been an arm or two.  Recently (a couple of times) she wiggled herself down into the swaddle where the it covers her mouth and nose.  Thankfully I am such a light sleeper I hear her getting frustrated and am able to redo her swaddle.  I ask myself how I can stop this from happening, do I make the bandana tighter?  I don't want to squeeze her too tight and I already tie it pretty tight as is.  

Well the night before last night I look over at her and she has totally gotten out of the swaddle. Her entire bare body is exposed (naked with diaper).  However the bandana is still tied in a knot and so the blanket is all bunched up underneath her back and neck, while the bandana is around her neck.  I quickly jump out of bed with my eyes half open when I notice this on the monitor.  My heart pounds and I am thinking "I am really starting to hate this swaddling thing".  I never swaddled Hunter. I never heard of it then.  

So anyways I googled "swaddling" and when is a baby ready to be unswaddled.  Morgan shows all the signs.  She recently screams and fights to not be swaddled, and as before she would often calm down automatically and be calm once swaddled.  Now she gets mad and wiggles, and fights and cries when you go to swaddle her.  BIG SIGN!  Getting out of her swaddles more and more during the nights because she is moving more during her sleep.  BIG SIGN! 

Constantly wakes herself or can't get comfortable while you hold her swaddled and so she fights you, making it hard to get her to sleep.  BIG SIGN!!!

Also she doesn't nap any more being swaddled and she sleeps great with out it during the days. BIG SIGN!

So tonight my little girl is in a "night gown" and no swaddle.  By the way she has ALWAYS liked her feet to not be covered up, even when swaddled we would have to open the bottom to let her feet hang out.  So cute!!! 

Well its late and I need my sleep, lets see how night #1 goes with no swaddle!!! And please no snake dreams!!!! Ugh!!! 

PS:  Sorry for the bad photo, my camera was dropped the night of 4th of July and is broken.  I plan on getting a new camera this weekend.  Until then I have had to resort to the camera phone!!!! 

Expert Answers

The BabyCenter Editorial Team

Wrapping your newborn snugly in a blanket, or swaddling her, can help her feel safe and secure and may even help prevent SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). A study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in May 2005 suggests that babies who are swaddled sleep better (have fewer spontaneous awakenings and fall back to sleep more quickly) and are more responsive to outside stimuli than babies who are not swaddled during sleep. Swaddling, then, may help your baby feel more secure sleeping on her back and enable her to wake up more easily if something is amiss.

Not all babies like to be swaddled, though, and most outgrow it quickly. "By about 2 months, your baby will be moving around more in sleep, and swaddling could make her uncomfortable and contribute to night waking," says Judith Owens, a pediatrician and director of the Pediatric Sleep Disorders Clinic at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. If your newborn starts to fuss when you swaddle her but you'd like to keep doing it a bit longer, swaddle her with her arms and hands free.

If you're worried that your unswaddled baby will be cold, dress her in a blanket-type sleeper at bedtime. And keep in mind that your baby probably doesn't need to be dressed as warmly as you think. Cooler temperatures are actually more conducive to sleep, Owens says.

Overdressing your baby or keeping her room too warm can put her at an increased risk for SIDS. The temperature in your baby's room should feel comfortable to you; 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit is a good range.

Enough Already -

Okay so this is like snake #2 in 3 days sitting at my back door.  However get this... I opened my mouth too soon and he must have heard me because the cat sitting next to this snake was MILO.  Yes Milo, the one that I said typically only brings me live lizards, drops them near my feet some place and then walks to the food bowl for his treat in return.  

So now I am terrified to step out onto my patio.  For I see Milo sitting there and I am calling him in and mind you it is 10:00 pm.  He isn't coming and and he just sits there, so I of course go to pick him up in annoyance at him and all of the sudden this brown that blends in with my brown door mat moved just enough to catch my eye.  I look and right next to my right foot all curled up is this snake.  

The first thing I noticed was his head (slightly triangled) and so I freak out.  "OMG, bad snake, bad snake" is all I could seem to say.  So I grab Milo toss him away from the snake.  And sitting on the table from Sunday was the net.  So I grab the next and I toss it over the snake.  He is a feisty thing too. 

I run in and I grab the "thong" from the kitchen and I grab this little bug capture thing Hunter has. I grab the snake and slowly pick it up and put it in the bug capture.  This snake strikes by the way.  I am literately shaking while I am doing this and of course with all the noise I was making, Hunter comes running to see all the excitement. I quickly tell him to shut the door that this is a BAD snake.  

So the snake is inside the bug thing and the bug lid on top is a magnifying glass so here I am studying the snake as he keeps striking at me.  I have to admit the little guy made me jump a couple of times.  Hey man he didn't look so small looking through the magnifying glass.  LOL 

So I go in and I do one of my favorite things, and I think it is one of my favorite things because I love to learn and I feel I learn something new all the time... and that's GOOGLING! So I googled the snake.

As it turns out it is a baby "Brown Water Snake" in which can appear and be confused with the cottonmouth water snakes.  Brown water snakes have all the appearances of that of a poisonous snake, such as the head shape, color and location. 

All this time I am thinking what am I going to do with this "BAD" snake and how did Milo not get bitten by it.  

So of course after my "google research" on the snake, I realized Milo my super brave kitty #2, brought to me a baby brown water snake.  In one of the research things I found it said this:

Conservation Status: Brown watersnakes are common in our region and are not protected. However, like other watersnakes, this species is often mistaken for the venomous cottonmouth because of their coloring, habitat, and slightly triangular head. Sadly, this ignorance leads to the needless killing of many watersnakes annually.

Okay so how in the heck am I to kill a baby brown water snake after reading something like that?  And I don't want to leave it trapped in that bug thing all night either so I can think about it and have bad dreams over it.  So I go get my fancy UGGS, I get the pink gloves, I get the thong... (I need to take a picture of my very fashionable, snake catching gear) and I pick up the snake inside the bug catcher.  I walk it to the back fence and I toss the entire bug catcher, hoping it would open and the snake would escape. NOOOO... of course the lid didn't open.  By now I am about to pee my pants, for it is dark, I can barely see anything and I am thinking "what if there is more snakes where I am standing now".  YIKES!!!  So I then lean over and I quickly take the thongs and tap on the lid causing it to open.  I jumped back and ran inside and locked the door (as if the snake was going to chase me back or something) and I look out the window to see if I can see the snake leave.  I couldn't it was too far away and too dark.  

So there you go.  I didn't kill the baby brown water snake... I learned a thing or two tonight about different types of water snakes and now I need to go give MILO a big fat rub down and some extra treats and hope that he doesn't feel the need to bring me another any time soon and he showed me that he isn't just some lazy lizard catcher after all.  SMILING! 

Baby Smiles or like Drugs ---

Baby's first smiles give mom's brain a buzz

Tiny grins light up reward centers that lead to quality care, study says

Any mother who's ever felt a jolt of joy at her baby’s first grin knows how intoxicating that can be.

Now, scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine say there’s more to the baby buzz than just a rush of happy feelings. Turns out that seeing your own child smile actually activates the pleasure receptors in the brain typically associated with food, sex  — and drug addiction.

“It may be that seeing your own baby’s face is like a ‘natural high,’ said Lane Strathearn, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor and and Texas Children's Hospital who studied the brain reactions of 28 first-time moms.

“We know similar brain circuits are activated,” he added. “Whether that feels the same as a shot of cocaine, I’m not sure.”

Strathearn and his team used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan the mothers' brain reactions to photographs of their own 5-month to 10-month-old babies and those of others in three emotional states: happy, neutral and sad.

As expected, the sight of their own happy babies sent blood rushing to the moms’ brain regions associated with dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in addiction. The spike rewarded the mothers with a neural kick that prompted them to want to take action to care for their babies, Strathearn said.

“It makes sense biologically,” said Strathearn, whose work is published in the latest issue of the journal Pediatrics. “It establishes that bond between parent and child.”

The work is important, Strathearn said, not only because it documents the brain activity of healthy moms, but also because it could provide a baseline for studying the brains of abusive or addicted mothers and lead to possible interventions.

"We want to understand what happens in this relationship with mothers and babies," added Strathearn, who is a research associate in Baylor's Human Neuroimaging Laboratory.

No spike for crying babies

Surprisingly, however, the moms in the study didn’t respond as strongly to their own infants when their expressions were neutral — or when they were in distress. The neural scans showed the mothers responded to all crying infants about the same, by activating areas of the brain involved in conflict.

“We were expecting a different reaction with sad faces,” Strathearn said. Although it’s not exactly clear, that could mean that mothers are wired to react to all crying babies, not just their own.

The new study provides important insights into maternal responses to babies' emotional cues, said Regina Sullivan, a researcher at Joe LeDoux's Emotional Brain Institute, which is affiliated with the National S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research and New York University.

But it doesn't clear up one big mystery of brain study: Are the documented brain reactions the result of instinct or socialization?

"We don't know whether this response is learned or innate," Sullivan said. "People tend to think that we're innately good parents, but it so happens that parenting in humans and in non-human primates has to be learned."

‘It's got to be like crack’

Whether she responded because of instinct or expectation, the results of the study were no surprise to Katrina Lyons, 39, a Houston high school science teacher who joined the research project three years ago, just before the birth of her first son.

Lyons said it’s hard even to describe the joy she felt at the sight of Aiden’s first smiles or those of his brother, Jack, who is 1.

“Does it feel like a high? Oh, yeah,” said Lyons, who surrounds herself with photos of her boys. “It’s got to be like crack. I just have to see them everywhere."

The Pediatrics study focused on the brain reactions of well-educated, middle-class mothers, but it could have implications for others. Moms who are depressed, for instance, typically fail to respond to their smiling babies.

And other studies have shown that using cocaine, a drug that activates the dopamine reward systems, might interfere with the brain perks prompted by smiling babies. That could explain high rates of child abuse among cocaine-addicted mothers, Strathearn said.

Other scientists are looking at the effects of infant emotions on fathers, but the current study was limited to biological mothers and babies, Strathern noted.

His work was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Kane Family Foundation, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

If the research can help, Lyons said she was happy to participate.

“I think that’s good for all babies,” she said. “Everybody deserves a mama who loves them.”

4th Trimester is over!!!

I'm 3 Months Old 

Well they say that the first 3 months of a babies life is considered to be the 4th trimester.  As of today Morgan is 3 months old, so I guess I can now introduce to you my new baby girl.  

We will be going in for her 3 month appointment and for her other 2 shots she was to have gotten at the 2 month appointment. 

She currently weighs about 14 lbs and something. She is 23 1/2 long and is very healthy.  

Morgan is learning so much every day.  She is such a strong little girl.  She has been holding her head up for many weeks now and loves to sit up and face outward when you hold her.  She is eager to grow and be independent already.  She normally hates tummy time, but recently when placed her in front of the mirror on her boppy pillow (on tummy), she would coo and smile at herself.  I think it just gives her the distraction she needs to not focus so much on tummy and holding her head.  

Recently what I have noticed in her is that she is really trying hard to figure out and control her arms and hands.  I have to say that I guess I didn't pay that close of attention with little things like this with Hunter.  I really noticed while watching Morgan in her swing the other day and on her playmat or just about anywhere.  She is learning to get her hands and arms to move where she wants them.  She is figuring out how to extend them when she wants to touch something.  With out having full control right now, her arms still jerk and quickly swing back at her almost hitting herself in the face.  At one point she reached out and got her hand on the subject she was reaching for, and she had it there long enough that she was opening and closing her fingers in a quick motion, trying to figure out how to grab the toy. I was so proud of her and amazed as I watched her learning how to do something. 

She has not learned to roll over or anything yet, but she has on a couple of times wiggled herself off her playmat by pushing herself backwards with her feet. She just loves attention and she will talk to you and giggle, and be ware when she smiles at you it lights up the room.  I love, love, love her smile.  I can be having a bad day, exhausted from a long day, even frustrated at her at times....and the moment she smiles, all of those emotions are melted away.  I think she has this figured out too, because she will be fussing about something and I am frustrated with her, all of the sudden we will star at each other and before you know it, she has both of us smiling and giggling.  It is the best. 

We are sort of starting to get on a regular sleeping and eating schedule (with some flex).  Meaning for the most part she is pretty regular with her sleeping times and feeding times, but on occasion she will mess it up.  In the last week or two I am finally able to get her down to take naps.  As before she would have days where she would sleep 15-20 minutes here and there all day long.  The other days where she would take a 1-3 hour nap.  For me it was exhausting because I am still getting up with her in the nights, then unable to try and catch a little nap with her during the day because I wouldn't know what kind of napping day it would be.  So was never able to catch up on sleep. 

She still wakes up twice during the nights, giving me 5 hours at the most of solid sleep time.  I want more, but no complaints with this either.  Morgan sleeps in her swaddle, in her bassinet during the nights.  At he 4:00 am feeding I will typically let her arms out of her swaddle, feed her and let her sleep next to me for the next few hours, because after the 4:00 am feeding, it goes back to the every 2 hour schedule.  Often when she is in bed with me, I also let her get in a little tummy sleep time, as well when she naps.  This has only been over the last few weeks, as before we swaddled her even during nap time just so her arms wouldn't jump, scaring her and waking her.  She really seems to enjoy sleeping her her tummy even more now.  She gets that from mommy, I love to sleep on my tummy. 

I was just saying to myself and then to Hunter last night while at Rain Forest Cafe at the mall, that I was nervous that she may already be starting to teeth.  She has learned how to put her hands in her mouth and she tried to eat her entire fist to the point she gags herself sometimes.  Additionally she is drooling like a waterfall. Which is a sign of teething.  Hunter got his first tooth at 4 months old, so Morgan may follow that the same.  I don't want her to have her first tooth yet.  I am pretty confident she is my last little offspring, and I want to enjoy every baby phase as long as possible. 

Oh and recently she has gotten herself in that stage where she wiggles in constant distraction when eating.  So as you try to feed her a bottle she wiggles her head around and can't sit still.  Yea that's fun! HA! She is also getting to where she will fight to not go to sleep. It's too funny to watch sometimes, she will fight and fight to not close her eyes.  

Anyways, I am sure I could write all day long about my little butterfly.  She is lovely. I am so, so, thankful I have my little girl.  I can't imagine life with out her now. 

I love you baby girl!!!!

My Sunday treat from Shilo - 'Water Snake'

Okay so I have 3 kitties in the home at this time for I am 'cat-sitting' Hunters cat from his dads house since they are up in the Cape for the summer.  She is a super sweet and gentle kitty named Maddie.  

Well all 3 cats are supposed to be indoor cats, for they are all declawed and fixed.  However they love to sunbath out on my patio, or relax in the shade in the bushes or on the chase chair and they never go any further than my fence in my back yard (well except for Shilo).  Anyways, they are all so desperately wanting my attention and I am often giving it to the baby.  So lately and just about every day they bring me treats.  Maddie you have to understand this is her first time getting to play the hunting lion she is underneath all that fluffy girly looking fur.  So she recently brought in her first lizard.  You could see how excited she was and so proud.  Then a couple of days later she brings in a frog, yes a FROG!  

Milo he just brings in lizards to me (alive) and then he walks over to his food bowl because he knows I reward him with his own treat and Milo, like Garfield LOVES to eat. 

Shilo however is known to bring to me just about anything he can. He is creative and brave!  He in the past has brought to me snakes, but typically they are small in size and harmless.  Well lately he has been the one wanting most of my attention.  When I rock the baby while feeding her he will jump up in my lap, while trying to balance himself with the motion of the rocking and sit next to the baby and just look at me with these pitiful eyes.  So today he decided he would make me OH SO PROUD.... I look out my door and there is the BIG SNAKE.  OMG!!!

So the first thing I do is I make sure to get all cats in and away from it.  I put on my UGG boots (they are think and will protect my legs and feet), I grab my really thick pink cleaning cloves, Hunter's bug catcher net (from Easter Bunny) and cooking thongs.  Here I go.....

So I step outside and this thing sticks it tongue out at me.  Although all curled up, he is letting me know to not come near him. I am very nervous at this point, but my son is watching and I have to be OH SO BRAVE myself (dang it!). INHALE...EXHALE....

Okay so I take the net and in my head I count to three really fast and plop the net down over the snake.  Okay.... crap-hola...now what? So I then take the cooking thong and I grab his head and I hold on tightly on outside of net.  

Now this is the tricky part, I have to now turn the net over while keeping focus on my grip of the snake with the cooking thongs.  So I do this with graceful coordination and wah-la I have a net, with a cooking thong, with a snake.... now what? So I walk out to the back of my fence but I am too scared to let it go.  So I am walking around in circles looking for anyone near by to scream help to.

A few homes down I see a guy out cleaning his grill, minding his own business, probably just thinking what he was going to cook up on the grill later today.  Here I come, with my net, with a snake, with the cooking thong, as well as my fancy uggs and pretty pink gloves in my PJ's.  He looks at me sees the long tail of the snake hanging out of the net and he says "HOLY S---" you get it. 

So then he goes into the house and I hear him with excitement telling his wife that there is a girl out there with a snake that her cat brought to her.  They come out holding a trash bag and the thought goes between letting the snake go in the water or putting it in the trash bag and killing it.  My thought...I don't want to see this snake a few weeks from now back in my yard and twice it's size. A snake is a snake as a spider is a spider to me - simple!!  So we opt for the trash bag.  

So here we go, I have to take my net, with the snake with the cooking thong.... (can you tell I like to say that - HA!) and now place it in the trash bag.  Mind you the guy is looking pretty scared himself and so I do it, I take the snake and the net and I slowly toss the snake in the bag.  The guy jumps (yes he jumps back two feet) and DROPS the bag, with the net with the snake... I still have the cooking thongs in my hand.  So I act quickly and I press down on the trash bag and snake with the thong and take the net out and as I hold down the snake the guy then grabs it, ties it up and we all take a deep breath.  Actually I was sweating by then.  

He says he doesn't want to kill it but doesn't want to let it out either, so I said "its your now do what you want" and I leave to go back to my kids at the house.  So I assume he killed the snake, I don't know...but I do know this, SHILO is going to get some much needed luv'en when he comes back in.  My brave, brave.... kitty. 

So how is your Sunday going so far?  

It's not even noon here yet and already I have gotten up with two kids, we took a little Sunday ride to Mc D's for some pancakes and hash-browns. Come home start a load of laundry (washing all sheets on beds) and Hunter is playing hockey on xbox 360, while I just fed and put Morgan down for a nap and I take a moment to share my snake story.  Now the whites are done....gotta run!!!