Hey y’all. So, I pretty much abandoned ship in terms of the sleep training. While the current mode of operation is really not so great (babies sleeping on me all night, me as the human pacifier, a kabillion wakeups as one or another of us moves) the alternative — hours and hours of screaming, less sleep than ever — was not worth it. Neither option is really sustainable, though! I will probably have to start it up again soon, but for now I am living with the lesser of two evils until I catch up enough on sleep to try it again.
Basically, the issue is twofold: 1) The babies want to sleep with my nipple in their mouth and 2) I am unwilling to let them cry alone in a room in order to "break them" of this very strong (but also very natural) sleep association, at least when they are this young. I was hoping some "crying with company" and other things would help, and maybe it would in the long run, but after a week with very little improvement I couldn’t hack it. With three kids under the age of three, I need more than three hours sleep!
So we are back to them sleeping on me, and me as the human pacifier. I get a few more hours of sleep this way, there is no crying, however, our sleep is disjointed and my arms sometimes go numb. I know lots of people in this boat (I can say from experience it is WAY easier with one baby, though), and its one I seriously totally envisioned, very clearly, when I was told I was having twins. I knew I would be here, and it would suck (ha, literally). So its not like this whole sleep stuff was any big surprise.
But, in the first few months when these things were a little less ingrained, I was not (and am still not) willing to sacrifice breastfeeding for it, or let them cry alone, so here we are! Wheee!
To those of you worried about my sanity, never fear. Yeah, it gets really really bad, fast, when I don’t get sleep. And that is going to happen again, when I restart the experiment, unless I hire a night nanny or something. But on days when I do get at least a cumulative 5 hours sleep, or even when I don’t but they are at least not screaming for hours on end, I feel pretty good about how we are all managing. I feel like a rockstar for getting dinner on the table many nights, going grocery shopping, taking all three to the park, finding time to do projects with Emma, or even just getting to the dishes….
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Kristin,
You ARE a Rock Star!!!!
Just what I was gonna say ~ Ditto, Kimberlee’s comment. As someone said once, ‘this, too, shall pass’…….
I agree, you ARE A ROCKSTAR! I couldn’t let Bryce CIO at that age either, it’s just way wrong on so many levels, I agree. It may work for some parents but I just couldn’t do it either. But, I did start training around 6 months I think, it might have been a little sooner. I’ve forgotten. They suggest waiting even longer now. For some reason I thought you were letting them CIO and I knew you were AP? Hope you are catching up on some zzz’s. Thinking of you guys.