So we have been having sleep issues in this house. Back in September, I started to take away the twins 10 o'clock bottle. Thanks to Sotoriffic twins, I had a terrific schedule to follow. It worked great for about a month. I honestly can't remember why it stopped working. I can't remember if it was due to me not following the schedule close enough, if teething happened, if they got sick, or what it was. Well, Friday was horrible. The twins went down at 6:30-7:00 and went to sleep fine (they seem to go to sleep fine). At around 10pm, Thomas woke screaming! I tried to let him cry, but he was screaming at the top of his lungs. I was so afraid that I'd end up with 3 awake kids that I finally got him up. I changed his diaper, sang to him fed him, gave him tylenol, rocked him, but nothing seemed to settle him. I was home alone til 11:30 and once Tom came home, I hoped that maybe that would settle him, but no. Finally after 3 hours he went to sleep. Through these 3 hours I attempted to put him back in his crib, but each time he screamed at the top of his lungs. Then lucky me got to get up with Eva Rose at around 3:30 am. Sat the schedule was totally off and again he woke, but this time it was midnight and for about an hour. I now can't remember what time Eva Rose woke. I think it may have been more like 6 which is very doable and I would be psyched if all 3 kids slept til 6am. I'd actually be happy if they went back to sleeping til 5am (I won't complain if they at least let me sleep straight through til then. I do think that Thomas may be teething since he seems more cranky than normal. He is my light sleeper in general and Eva Rose is definitely my good sleeper. Michael, thankfully is sleeping mostly through the night. I think I may need to get either the Weissbluth book recommended from my twins group or The Baby Whisperer recommended my our family practitioner. Someday, maybe, I'll sleep through the night again. Til then, wish me the strength to get through.
Crazy life, but even sleep deprived, I wouldn't change a thing!
Amy
I would say, for night sleep, you may also want to read Ferber's book. He talks a LOT about sleep associations and may give you soem additional insights into what is keeping your kids from getting back to sleep if they wake up in the middle of the night. The fact of the matter is, a boy Thomas' age does not need to eat in the middle of the night, esp. if he eats three meals/4 bottles during the day. I don't have a copy to lend you but I'm sure another MOT does - or maybe they have it at the library? That's where I got my Weissbluth.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your sleep troubles. Do they all sleep in one room? We took the advice of another MOT and decided that we can't run in when one cries to try to avoid waking the other kid because they have to learn to sleep through each other's noise. We have no choice. We don't have the room or space for them to sleep separately. My son was initially a light sleeper, but has now learned to sleep through his sister's crying. We chose to go through CIO, which was tough, but taught them how to fall asleep on their own and how to put themselves back to sleep if they woke up in the middle of the night. It's hard to listen to them cry, but I found trying to intervene only made the getting back to sleep part take longer. Now, they rarely cry in the middle of the night, but if they do, we don't go in (unless they're ill). And normally, within minutes the crying child is back to sleep. Check out Weissbluth and Ferber. Hopefully you'll find some useful tips there. I read parts of the Baby Whisperer, but it seemed to tough to implement with twins.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!