On Sleep

I must think about Sleep more than any other subject. Because I don't get enough of it. Not nearly. So I'm always trying to figure out how to get more (everything except going to bed early myself. I need my me-time!... I'm such a hypocrite). Now you get to hear all about it.

Like I've mentioned a million times before, Liam and Dash started getting out of bed in the middle of the night when they switched to toddler beds just after Grey was born. Twice they went a week without getting up but then got back into the habit. Now they've gone almost two weeks so I'm starting to hope this is the real deal.

Now the real trouble is their wake-up time. With toddler beds, they went from post-7am waketime to waking around 6:15. I dreamed of them sleeping until 7. Then a couple weeks ago, it drifted earlier and earlier, landing between 4:30 (I KNOW) and 5:30am. I was dying. Not figuratively, literally. I'd put them back in bed and they'd get back out over and over.

I determined that a big problem was that they didn't have a cue for when it's okay to get out of bed. There was no hope it waiting until sun-up. So what else is there? I found a clock on Amazon that has a light alarm- I can set the "alarm" for a certain time, when it'll light up bright green. So we tell them that they can only get out of bed when the green light is on. So if they wake up early, they can see that they need to stay in bed (if they don't, mom and dad keep putting them back in bed and that's no fun, so may as well stay). It's been a week now and I think it's starting to sink in. We've had one night where neither got up until 6:20 (well, Dash got up in the night but only because of diaper incident)! So, fingers crossed.

We had also put the kabosh on naptime  a couple months ago because it would take them forever to fall asleep, if they did at all. It was ridiculous trying to coordinate it with Grey's sleeping and we thought it might help them sleep better at night. But Liam and Dash would get so cranky by the end of the day and they weren't sleeping any more during the night. I decided to reinstitute naptime.

As I tried to make it work, I made a discovery. I had to completely alter my method of putting them to sleep for their naptime. With their crib, I used to do a little calming routine, a quick cuddle, then putting them in bed where they could play a bit then fall asleep. With escapable beds, the little play time turned into huge playtime. So one day, while they were getting riled up, I decided to scoop Liam up and rock him in a big cuddle. Thirty seconds in, he started falling asleep right there in my arms. Just moments before he was acting like a nut. So I started doing long cuddle sessions and sitting by their beds, stroking their hair and faces. It worked wonders. Asleep within 15 minutes.

With their super early wake-ups, I decided to put their naps at the same time as Grey's first nap. Grey usually sleeps until about 8am (bless him) so his first nap's at 10am. I'd put him to sleep, because it's super duper easy-- he gets droopy eyed, I put him in his bed, ta da-- then start the boys getting ready. But recently as they've slept until a more reasonable time, they're not as tired that early and take a hecka lot longer to fall asleep. A couple times it's taken the whole of Grey's nap to get them to sleep. And that's maddening, I tell you. Thus, I'm now trying to wait until a little before Grey's second nap, getting the twins to sleep first and then putting Grey down. We'll see if I can get that consistently coordinated and how it effects the daily schedule.

Grey, meanwhile, is doing pretty well at night. He gets up once to eat, around 2am. Then he might cry at times throughout the rest of the night until eight. Or he might not. He's still figuring it all out. He's no longer swaddled and really likes to roll onto his side. It's cute.

Okay, that's enough. Thank you for indulging me in my sleep diatribe.