More uninterrupted sleep = happy babies and parents! For the past week and a half or so, the girls have been sleeping from around 7:30/8 p.m.-ish to 2:30 a.m. pretty consistently. After their night feed, they’ve been sleeping until around 7 a.m. I know there’s probably a lot of people out there who are thinking BIG WHOOP. My baby was sleeping through the night at FOUR DAYS because I’M AWESOME, but for us, this is serious progress. We are definitely getting better sleep over at this casa! It was as if the girls just decided one day that they would start sleeping like actual human beings! “Amelia and I discussed it, and we decided you guys need a break,” Samantha informed me.
I’ve been reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins which has given me a few good tips on how to consolidate the twins’ nap and sleep schedules to be roughly around the same time. I like that the book calls it “sleep consolidation” instead of “sleep training” which, for me, brings up images of screaming babies/parents hysterically crying because they aren’t supposed to console said babies all in the name of getting them to sleep through the night. I’m definitely not tough enough to handle anything close to the “cry it out method,” and am thus wary of anything labeled “sleep training.” A lot of the book has some suggestions that seem a little bit harsh and unrealistic (like having mom go out of the house for the first few nights of training so that the babies can’t smell her and cry to be soothed), so I’m kind of just skimming through and picking up anything I like.
Anyway, what drove me to finally read this book is that the girls have pretty much been on the same night sleep schedule lately, but on completely different day nap schedules, which has been driving me crazy! One of the things the book (like every other baby sleep book out there) recommends is to put the babies down for naps when they are awake, but drowsy, which sounds like DUH, WHO DOESN’T KNOW THAT, but it’s actually something I don’t normally do. I’m usually holding one or more babies and they typically fall asleep in my arms. Otherwise, they tend to squirm around and do anything but sleep. According to the book, this is all my fault because I’ve “spoiled” them, although I don’t really believe babies this young can be spoiled, so whatevs. However, since getting them to nap around the same time and fall asleep more independently are my goals, I’m going to give some of the suggestions a shot.
Another thing Jake and I are going to try is moving their bed time to be a little bit earlier. Typically, we’ve been taking the girls on a stroller ride around 6:30 p.m., which puts them to sleep for a bit. However, when we get home, they immediately wake up and want to eat, and by the time they are done, they are so exhausted that they fuss through bath time and are hard to calm down for bed around 7:30-8ish. By being more vigilant about making sure the girls get some uninterrupted naps (Bandit…I’m glaring at you right now…) and putting them to bed before they are completely exhausted, they should theoretically fall asleep for the night without Jake having to read aloud whatever science fiction novel he is reading at the time in an attempt to bore the girls to sleep…this also bores ME to sleep and I’m sick of it. I will report back on how it goes!
Lots of love,
