Sleep Training

We've hit a downward spiral in our house when it comes to sleep. I think it all started when Eli and Elsie got diagnosed with reflux. They'd wake in the night and be truly uncomfortable. Scott and I would rock them back to sleep and lay them back in their crib.

Well, they're not sick anymore, but Eli keeps waking in the night. It used to be that he would wake a couple times in the night, and not even want to eat, but would want to be rocked back to sleep. Well that was fine, but then he woke up even more times in the night, and then he wouldn't want to be put down.

Gradually we got to the point where I was rocking and pacing the floor (he would cry if I sat down in the rocker) for literally hours on end. He would sleep in my arms as long as I didn't stop rocking him or pacing. Obviously this got old.

I won't give you the details regarding my mental break down, but just know that we should all feel sorry for Scott.

Anyhow, we now have a plan in tact, and while we didn't intend to start a sleep training plan this early, we know that Eli (and Elsie) should be able to self-soothe back to sleep.

To make a long and very detailed plan short, we had to stop swaddling them so that their hands were free to help soothe themselves. We spent a couple nights helping them back to sleep until they got used to being unswaddled. Now we are letting them cry for specific increments of time before walking in to comfort them. And when we comfort them we aren't picking them up, but we are giving them their pacifier.

Luckily they don't wake each other with their cries. But the bad thing about that is that they both cry at different waking times, which means twice as long listening to that heart breaking sound of our babies cry.

They both go to bed so easy, and put themselves to sleep on their own... initially. Its just the night wakings that we are being tormented with.

This soon will pass, but until it does I am operating on literally 2-3 hours of sleep max per night. Every morning I am still able to get up and get going like always. (With the exception of one morning, and boy was that ugly!) I can only praise God for giving me the strength to get out the door and on time for preschool with three kids and all the other details that a day brings with only that little sleep. He gives what we need, and I am so thankful.

Right now we are prepared for another long night of waking babies and crying. Please pray they figure out this sleep thing in the next couple nights, because Scott leaves for a conference Sunday afternoon, and won't be back until Wednesday. I rely so much on his encouragement and support.

Its funny because I remember going through the newborn phase and thinking, "Hey, this twin thing isn't so hard!" I can honestly say we are having a worse time now that they are six months old than we did when they were newborns. Crazy! Oh well. Thanks to our friends for thinking of us, and praying for our sweet babies. I promise I have some pictures to post soon, but right now I think I'm going to bed early!