Emily & The Arm Conundrum

Emily is 3 weeks old, which means we are halfway through my least favorite kid age (0-6 weeks).  The reason I dislike this age?  Well besides the sleep deprivation and lack of baby smiles, there's those pesky arms.

Lay them on their back, the arms go up and the crying begins.  Swaddle them and they wiggle and grunt until they work their arms free.  And then they get upset with those flailing arms all over again.  It's a neverending cycle and especially a problem at night. All 3 of my babies have been equally fascinated and frustrated by their arms and it drives me insane!  I've tried swaddlewraps (harder to get out of, but the grunting is relentless), swaddling with the hands up by baby's face (makes them think they're hungry) and not swaddling at all (a complete disaster.)  The whole thing makes me yearn for the old days of tummy sleeping.

Ah well, we'll survive it, she'll figure out how to sleep on her back and before long we'll encounter some other tiny trouble.  But I'm looking forward to the day when that first real smile makes all these sleepless nights fade from my memory