Scary Mama Moment

Yesterday morning, David came in and woke me up with Mollie. He said "I've got good news and some kinda scary news. The good news is that Mollie slept all night in her crib." My head was swimming with ideas of what the "scary news" could be. I immediately thought that she had managed to get her swaddle over her face while she was asleep. Then he said, "She slept on her stomach." I felt ill. I had no idea that Mollie was able to roll over in her swaddle, and I was well-aware of the danger that this poses for infants. Babies who can roll onto their stomachs must be able to roll back over in case they are in distress. (can't breath, etc.) David said that Mollie was laying there perfectly swaddled and asleep. He was scared too.

The risk of SIDS has terrified me since Mollie was born. She slept in our room until she was about 4 months old. Then we started alternated sleeping in her room upstairs with her. I have been very cautious about keeping things such as blankets and pj's away from her face. David is the master of a tight swaddle that can't budge. I don't let her sleep in bed next to me- even though she would love that. (So would I!) We tried to get her to sleep with a pacifier for awhile, I breastfeed her, and I don't smoke. There is a humidifier next to her crib, and we keep her room a cool 70 degrees with pj's that keep her warm but not too hot. We always place her on her back to sleep and don't use wedges. All of these precautions help reduce the risk of SIDS. Last night, after my day of freaking out about our sleep slip-up with Mollie, the news had a new SIDS report. New research has shown that babies who die from SIDS have been found to have a seratonin deficiency, causing them to have a hard time rousing themselves in a time of distress. In other words, if a baby is having trouble breathing on his stomach, he won't wake-up to roll over. This is so scary! They have no way to test for this deficiency so far.

Nothing in the world terrifies me more than losing my sweet little baby that we tried so hard to get. I hope we can all pray for these little angles as they lay peacefully resting in their beds.

Last night, our little Mollie went to sleep in a sleep sack. She slept for 15 minutes and woke-up. This went on a few times before being relocated to her bouncy seat. No swaddle equaled less sleep for all involved, but a safer sleep for Mollie. I gave in and fed her around 1:20, finally getting about 3.5 hours of sleep for myself. I wonder how long it will be before she sleeps through the night again- she did it once in her crib!

My little baby is 5.5 months old now. It seems like yesterday when she was just one day old, sleeping in my arms in the hospital.