would be so nice. They have been off track all day today, starting at 3:15am. Been up twice already since I put them to bed tonight. Strongly thinking of investing in a lot of ear plugs.
Reading Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child and can't quite commit to the "let them cry all night" school of thought. I like his schedule for daytime naps though. Need to figure out what works for night.
Any suggestions? I don't mind letting them cry for a bit, considering they spent about 2 months crying nonstop. But I can't just ignore it for a night. But I'm getting desperate for at least 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Cross your fingers for tonight!
4 comments:
Hi Debbie,
I rarely comment because well frankly I don't feel I have much to say often. However, I did want to just empathize and offer support in this area if I can. When I had my son (albeit I didn't have twins so I know this adds much more for you) it took me 4 months of awful nights of no sleep until I read the same book and got so desperate I gave the cry it out a go. I was not at all wanting to go this route but I had some hubby support to keep me committed. The first night he would cry (not super hard) for about 10 minutes and sleep for a while. This repeated a few times that night. The next night was less as well as the 3rd night. By the 4th night he didn't make a peep for a good 8 hours. It soon got to where he slept from about 7pm until 6am no problem. He's been a great night and nap sleeper until he hit 3yrs and that's a whole different story. I've had a couple friends who would just go in and speak a few words, maybe rub their babies tummies but not pick them up and they had some success with this as well. For what it's worth, I wish you good luck! Your children are super cute!
Elisa
Debbie~
I've also been reading the same book. Miss McKenna has been STTN since mid-May. Her brother, on the other hand, has been a whole other ballgame!!! He was a horrible sleeper at night and out of desperation, I was putting him in the swing to sleep ... that was NOT a habit I wanted to keep. So, I finally moved him out of their bedroom and into the pack n play in the living room at night so he wouldn't wake her up. I started letting him cry it out and there were a couple of nights that he cried hard for 1-2 hours. That was hard. The first night or two I lay awake listening to it (and it was muffled as he was on the other side of the house). After that, out of pure exhaustion, I started falling asleep after about 20 minutes of the crying. When I would wake up, he would be sleeping. I didn't know how long he had cried for, but knew that he had finally given in and gone to sleep. This lasted for about two weeks, until he finally started sleeping all night long, but was still waking around 5:30 or 6:00, but I believe that was because the sunshine was waking him up that early. After his 4 month appt on Wednesday, I moved the pnp into their room (he moves a lot when he sleeps and always ends up hitting the bars in his crib and waking up) and he has been sleeping great ever since. The last three nights he has slept from 9-7. I'm hoping in the next month or so to get their bedtime adjusted to 7-7.
Good luck!!! I know how hard it is to let them cry, but in our experience it truly did help!! They can be stubborn little peanuts!!! I hope you get some good sleep SOON!!!
Kelly
It's all crossed for you, sistah. I'm like a pretzel here! Sleep babies, sleep!
We did the CIO method too starting around 8 or 9 months. It totally sucks the first few nights, but after the third or fourth night it got a lot better, going from 45 mins. to 10 mins. of fussing. Now we have a little routine, and a set nap schedule so there's minor fusing when I close the door and they fall asleep within 5 minutes.
It's not for every mom and it about rips your heart out. We did 10 minute room checks when we first started. Unfortunately for us they cried worse when we were in the room.
That being said, do what works for you and stay with it. I think whatever method you use, consistency is the key!
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