Monday, September 26, 2011

Have Swing - Will Travel

A few months ago my BFF, Beth, and I had a conversation that went something like this:

ME: I just hope Harper sleeps better than Shyla did. I mean, I can remember nights when Shyla wasn't sleeping so Stevie would put her in her car seat...

BETH: Yeah, and drive around?

ME: No, he'd put her in her car seat then just swing her back and forth and back and forth. Too bad there's nothing that could do that for him.

BETH: You...mean...like...a...swing?

ME: Oh yeah, I guess there is something that does that!

BETH: Why don't you borrow Sadie's swing while Harper is a baby?

ME: Cool.

So we borrowed the swing and Harper quickly became very accustomed to it. It has become part of our routine. Each night around 5:30 Harper gets the fussies. So I hold her and feed her and walk with her. Then Stevie holds her and walks with her. Then we bathe her. Then I feed her and walk some more. Around 8:00 we put her in the swing, swinging, with the music playing and the mobile moving. She calms down and falls asleep and eventually someone carries her back to her bassinet in our room. Where she sleeps all night like an angel!

It's a great routine and it works.

Until we broke the routine.

We recently took a 4 day vacation to the White Mountains and were unable to pack the swing. Bad idea. The first night we were up with her until about 11 PM, then next night it was about 10:30 PM, and the third night it was about 10 PM (with my mom rocking her for literally hours).

Last night we were home again and she was snoozing by 8:30 PM - in her beloved swing. It took an extra 30 minutes because the batteries were dead so we had to swing it manually and the mobile wasn't moving and there was no music. Today I bought a 10 pack of batteries.

We have a few trips coming up and you can be sure we will have that swing with us!

2 comments:

Amy Vargas said...

Graco has a travel swing! It folds up nicely! I highly recommend it =) Aiden & Cam Loved it!

Erin = ) said...

Ah Beth, that genius ; ) So glad you've find some go-to tricks for Miss Harper...she's gotta rest up for all the ADORING that goes on when her godparents are around!