The 12 Hours' Sleep Journey: Part 3

I have to say I didn't think I would be writing the conclusion to this journey so quickly! Obviously with infants the smallest change can cause regression and constant reinforcement is necessary, so I know that just because they've slept good for a week or so doesn't mean our work is done. In fact, it's not uncommon to hear whining before 7:45 (our morning goal, so they'll be ready to eat at 8).

Usually it's pretty easy to get them back to sleep, though. For Levi if you just put the pacifier back in he's usually good to go a bit longer. It's going to be great when he can do that himself... And for Allie, she started sucking her fingers this week and since then we've had to wake her up from all naps and in the morning to eat! I know some people discourage it or try to stop it altogether, but if self-soothing is what I'm working towards then Allie's got it! I've done some research. It doesn't give you crooked teeth like everyone says, and it only causes problems with the child's bite, usually an overbite, if they continue to do it past age 5 when problems can no longer correct themselves. I just need to make sure Allie's not like her mommy and does it until she's 11 (The dangers of home schooling...) Anyway, jumping off of that rabbit trail. If they do wake up before I'd like them to it's not the end of the world.

The book says 12 hours' sleep on the cover, but recognizes that not all people need 12 hours of sleep, so they're actually in their beds for 12 hours sleeping or chilling (for lack of a better term). If they want to lay in there awake that's fine. Of course most babies don't just lay in their beds happy, so we got them crib soothers, which provide some entertainment for them until it's time to get up, but sometimes it actually puts them back to sleep.

When all these things fail, and they will. They win. I'm not going to keep trying to get them to take a pacifier or look at the crib soother for 30 minutes if they don't want to, so we start earlier. Actually, as I began writing this at 7am the twins somehow knew it and wanted to show me who's boss. We're not going to make it to 8 this morning.

The hardest part about this schedule is keeping them awake between short naps and feedings, which are usually 2 hours after shorter naps. If they sleep too much during the day they won't sleep a long enough time at night. This involves a lot of entertaining on our part. I can't just let them play under their floor gym for an hour and do laundry or anything else that I want or need to do. They get tired of looking at the sea horse or monkey or whatever is hanging on there and need a change of scenery. I'm not looking forward to Paul going back to work and having to do this entertaining on my own. I've done it before, but not for this long. Usually I ending up holding one or both of them because that's all that will keep them happy in the end.

Overall, I'm happy with how things are going. They eat every 4 hours and only 4 times a day. They eat the same as they've been eating just more at a time. Usually between 25-28 ounces each a day. They typically go down easy for naps and sleep through them without waking up a hundred times like they used to, and most importantly they are in their beds, usually sleeping, for 12 hours at night (not that I get that much sleep, thanks to pumping I've still got to wake up at 6:30 anyway). I have it better than a lot of people with one baby.

I can't take all the credit for how well things are going, but I do think babies like routines a lot. People always say that God won't give you more than you can handle (which is taken out of context, but you know they say this). Well, God gave me two pretty manageable babies. Not manageable enough to take them grocery shopping with me by myself, but they sleep great, don't have colic, don't have gas, or any things that make babies really difficult. Obviously, God knew I couldn't handle even one of those, and I need to remember these things the next time I want to scream out loud because the twins are both screaming and nothing I can do makes them stop!