Babe in (non)swaddling clothes

I was going to wait and post on this until we were through the other side, but I'm beginning to think we may never get there, so here it goes.

This story starts with a swaddle blanket. Sounds innocent enough, right? Well, Grayson LOVES to be swaddled to sleep at night. It helps his arms not jerk and wake himself up because of babies' falling reflex. This miracle blanket has brought us many hours of sleep for the last four months.

Things changed last Saturday night when I went in to check on Grayson and he was facing the opposite direction than how I had laid him down in the crib. He was crying and kicking yet still swaddled so his arms were immobile by his side. I got scared thinking that he could roll over and not be able to roll back due to the swaddle blanket, so we decided to stop swaddling him (cold turkey) on Sunday night (right before returning to work might I add).

Night #1
Sunday night we went through our normal bedtime routine, except that I didn't put Grayson in his swaddle blanket. To make up for it, I rocked him a little longer than usual in hopes that he would get into a good, deep sleep. That worked for about two hours and then he woke up every hour (almost on the hour) from 11:30 p.m. through the rest of the night.

We're trying to let him "cry it out" when he wakes up at night, but I had to find a balance between letting him cry and comforting him enough so he wouldn't cry all night (literally). It was a very, very long night to say the least.

Night #2
Monday night Michael and I were sleep deprived, yet determined and refused to go back to swaddling without a fight. I rocked Grayson in our usual routine and even patted him a while once he was in his crib. Again, this lasted about two hours until 11:30 p.m. and then he was screaming his head off. We waited to let him cry it out a little, but he was starting to go hoarse so I experimented to see if he would roll onto his stomach and go back to sleep. That worked for a while, but I was a nervous wreck thinking he might stop breathing so I couldn't go back to sleep. He slept soundly until about 2:30 a.m. and then was up on and off again until 6:30 a.m., but it was a little better than night #1.

Night #3
By Tuesday night, Michael and I were past the point of sleep deprivation and crankiness ensued. Not on Grayson's part, but on ours. We went through our normal routine and even downloaded a new white noise CD in hopes it would help. Once Grayson was in his crib, I also managed to tuck his left arm in tight with the blanket which seemed to help him sleep longer (but he could get out of it if he rolled around). We got a good four hour stretch of sleep before the crying fits began at 1:30 a.m. He had a very wet diaper so I changed that which bought us another two hours. At 3:30 a.m. we were back to square one so I rolled him onto his stomach again and that got us through to 5:30 a.m. Again, this was a little progress but still miserable.

At this point, I'm desperate for the nights of sleep we used to get, but then my stubborn streak kicks in and I refuse to give up when we're already three nights into this process.

The crazy part is that once Grayson wakes up to feed (around 6-6:30 a.m.) we then keep him in the bed with us as we get ready for work. He sleeps soundly with both arms out above his head without fail. I'm thinking this may be because our mattress is softer than the one in his crib, so I may try putting him to sleep in the pack-and-play for a few nights instead of his crib. That mattress seems a little softer without being a safety hazard.

Michael and I are willing to try anything right about now, so feel free to throw out suggestions. I do want to avoid other sleep bag products out there that we'll eventually have to ween him from again. So, please say a little prayer for us before you go to sleep tonight. I have a feeling it's going to take a miracle to get through the rest of this process.