July 17, 2009

Bedtime Battles Revisited

So, we were at the Pediatrician this morning and he asked about their sleeping habits. When I told him, he was shocked and he said to me, "Twins are supposed to be harder. Don't tell anyone else about this or all the other parents will be jealous." Having read the previous Bedtime Battles Blog, you may be wondering what terrors he has been dealing with, but actually, a lot has changed...

When we were on vacation, everything seemed to click. I don't know exactly what it was. We thought it was that the babies were so worn out from watching the "big kids" all day, but it has been consistent and even better since we've been home. We thought it was THE swing (a big swing rather than our little travel ones) that our friends gave us (they had a similar sleeper to Ryan and THE swing helped her), but we have been "practicing" having him not sleep in THE swing and 9 out of 10 times he falls asleep easily in his basinette.

Now, I lay them down for bed, or their naps and they fuss. Sometimes they cry hard, but never for long. Usually, within 5 minutes it's silent. Sometimes longer, but almost never longer than 15 minutes. If it is longer than 15 minutes it's always only one baby. If it's Ryan I put him in his swing (because he cannot settle down when you try to rock him to sleep), and he's out within 5 minutes. If it's Allie I take her and rock her (because she cannot settle down in the swing) and she's out within 5 minutes! For naps they sleep 45-90 minutes consistently and occasionally 2 hrs. At night they almost always sleep at least 8 hours - it is a rare occassion when one of them sleeps less. Almost every night one of them sleeps 10 hours (but not always the same one every night). And a few times both have them have slept the ENTIRE night (11 hours!)!!!

I don't know what has brought about the change, but we are loving it! I can finally get things done during the day, and the sleep at night has made Lucas and I entirely different people. I know things will probably change once they start teething and there will be the ocassional sickness that will throw everything into a tailspin, but we're fully enjoying the sleep for now!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have been praying for the twins to sleep and for God to protect all of our new babies. HE is so Good!! Enjoy the quiet times and treasure the awake ones. They will grow up fast. Everyone told me that and I didn't believe it. But it is so TRUE! Love you all, NANA

the monkeys' mama said...

That is SO awesome! Yay for you and yay for the twins!

Lauren and Jeff said...

You've got the right idea. Enjoy any and all sleep your babies allow you! Congrats on sleep for everyone!!

Anonymous said...

I love those outfits. Aren't they the cutest twins ever!!!!! Hugs and Kisses from MI Nana...miss you so much.