Ellie's Magic Chair

The last week or so, we have started having a lot of trouble getting Ellie to fall asleep and stay asleep. She went from 2 hour naps and 3-4 hours stretches as night without much trouble to 20 minutes and up every hour at night. Needless to say, we were all really tired and cranky. The only way Ellie would go to sleep is if she was being held and moved. Now, during the day this isn't that big of a deal because I can just haul her around in the Moby wrap and eventually she passes out for an hour.

But the whole "hold me or I'll scream" thing of her's really doesn't work for us at night. We spent several night taking turns being up with her or I would sleep with her in the bed with me, which made me nervous.

After a terrible Sunday night, I took to the interwebz to find an alternative sleeping situation. It was there that I found this:

It's the Fisher Price Rock n' Play Sleeper. This contraption looked promising. It keeps her tucked in like her swing, which she loves. It keeps her moving like she requires. It's under $50 too so that's a big plus in case it doesn't work out.

Ellie and I went out to Tarjay to pick one up. We got it home and a few minutes later is was assembled. I nursed her, swaddled her, and put her in it and......success!! Kiddo passed out and stayed out! Cue the choir of angels singing from above. That night, for the first time in a week, she slept for 3.5 hour stretches and I didn't have to pull her into bed with me at all for the first time since she was born. Today, she has napped in it like a champ. And now, as I type, she is down for the night in it with no fussing or waking up. This thing is ah-maz-ing!

So my advice to any mommys-to-be reading, add this thing to your registry ASAP. At only $50, its much cheaper than most bassinets and it is super portable so you can move it to other rooms easily. I bring it in the office during the day so I can rock her to sleep while I'm on the computer and quickly shush her if she starts to wake up.

Now I am off to bed where I am holding out hope for 4 hours of continuous sleep.