A Mama Trick

As a mom, you develop a bag of tricks that will always get you out of a bind.  This is a nifty little trick I aquired from a girl on The Bump and I'll be forever grateful... (well, maybe not FOREVER, but definitely for a few years).

It all started last Christmas.  We were staying at my in-laws house, and Marco (who was 6 months old) was sleeping in the Pack n' Play.  Since we were in a new environment and he wasn't in his crib, he was giving us such a hard time to be put down.  We tried letting him cry a little, we tried soothing, we tried rocking, we tried nursing... nothing worked.  The second we dropped him (gently) into the Pack n' Play, he'd wake up screaming.  After about 2 hours of this, he was exhausted but refused to give in.  Finally, I remembered what the girl had told me, "put a used article of your clothing in the crib with him".  Immediately, I ripped off my shirt (kinda like The Hulk) and laid Marco down on top of it.  His reaction was priceless!  He dug his face into it, his eyes kinda rolled around for a second and he instantly fell asleep.  My shirt, with my mommy smell on it, was like a drug to him.  It amazed me!  We shoved this trick into our handy bag o' tricks and used it on MANY occasion.

Last night, I had to step out for a while and Mauricio was left alone with both boys.  Apparently Jonas became difficult at some point, and Mau was trying to prepare dinner and entertain Marco simultaneously.  So, Mau reached into our bag o' tricks and pulled out this little handy ditty.  He went into our clothes hamper and grabbed a shirt I had been wearing earlier that day.  He wrapped it around Jonas and he immediately calmed down and fell asleep.  When I got home, I found a lump of clothes on top of a pillow... with a baby underneath!  He slept like that for at least 3 hours, until I woke him up to feed him.  Here's a picture of what I found upon coming home... (I adjusted the shirt because it was covering his face too):

This works!  As of yet, it has been FAIL-PROOF!  I don't think it'll work on Marco anymore, but for those little, fussy, mama-needy babies, it works like a charm!