Remember that cute video and picture I posted a while ago with the twins swinging angelically in their swings? Well...those swings slowly became like the devil in our lives. Sure, the twins could sleep for long blocks of time during the day - if they were in their swings. But what happens at night when we expect them to sleep in their non-swinging cribs? The babies were able to go to sleep no problem in their cribs at night. However, 30 - 40 minutes later, when they realized they were not being lulled to sleep by the back and forth motion of their swings, they would wake up and not like the stationary feeling of their cribs. Throw in the fact that Cameron's pacifier fell out every 5 minutes and that equaled a long night for everyone.
We went through about 3 weeks of this. Each twin waking up 2 - 3 times during the night. It got to the point where I would just bring the twins down, put them in their swings, and sleep the rest of the night on the couch. Even though we are new parents, we knew this was not the answer to our problems.
Finally last Sunday, we were at our wits end. We had actually figured out that the twins were relying too much on their swings. We decided to let them take their first nap in them, but then have them sleep on boppys for the second nap. Needles to say, this did not work. We began to get panicky realizing what we had done to our poor children.
I began to frantically scour the internet and was pleased (scared??!) to see that this is a very common problem. But how to fix it? I had found a great blog from a mom who wrote about all kinds of issues and different ways to fix them. Good stuff but I wasn't quite finding what I needed. I then randomly clicked on a comment on one of her blogs and someone had said they were using the Sleep Sense Program. If I could insert a halo and the Hallelujah Chorus around the title Sleep Sense Program in this blog, I totally would.
As I read through the description, I realized this is what we needed. A quick credit card transaction later, the book was electronically downloaded to my computer. In between feedings and screamings, I now frantically read through this document.
So....did Mike and I need some parent training? You betcha!!
"Your child needs a soother or pacifier in order to get to sleep. Of course, whenever that
soother falls out, YOU'RE the one who has to go put it back in." Hmm...yes, that sounds familiar.
You are waking up with your child once, twice, three (or more) times each night. The reason? Your little one needs to learn to fall asleep WITHOUT your help. I'll tell you how in a minute..." Oh, please do!!
"Don't let your baby fall asleep with a pacifier in." Been there, done that.
"Don't go running in the minute your child starts to cry. Wait a few minutes. In fact, wait 10 minutes." Wait -- I need to listen to my babies cry? That's just awful!
"Don't let the baby fall asleep while taking the bottle. Put them into their cribs sleepy, but awake." Oh -- I was always excited when one of the babies fell asleep while taking their bottle. I felt like I was one step closer to them being able to sleep in their cribs. Stupid me!
We instantly began to implement all of Dana's ideas and have seen dramatic success. Little Cameron is now sleeping in our bedroom in the pac-n-play until we can get each of their sleep schedules fixed. The nightmare which was last Sunday was we finally got both babies asleep in the nursery only to have one wake up, scream, and then both began screaming. Not fun, people, not fun!
It is now day 5 of The Sleep Sense Program and the babies are doing great. Both are able to fall asleep without the use of the swings or pacifiers and are able to STAY asleep! Naps are still a struggle but they are slowly starting to sleep through the night!
Some pictures of the last week!!
Mommy - Can we please have our swings back??
Allie - maybe if we look really cute they'll let us have our swings back!!
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