Sleep Training

Since September, a couple of members of this house have been going through sleep training.

That would be me and Jordan. As in, we're being trained on how to handle children that don't sleep.

Since September, this whole "no sleeping" thing with the boys has thrown us for a serious loop. Jordan and I breed sleepers. Period. Take for instance Rio, up only once in the night by a few weeks old, and fully sleeping through at 10 weeks. Sure, we had some hiccups when she was a toddler, but it was always just a phase. Rio was and is a good sleeper. The other night Nolan had inadvertently set her alarm and when I went in at 1:31 in the morning, after hearing it buzz for 5 minutes and not knowing where it was coming from, she was fast asleep. Snoring in fact. The only evidence that it had disturbed her at all was that in the morning she told me she had heard birds chirping in her sleep!

Peaceful Rio 

Enter the boys. They came home from the hospital on a 4 hour schedule, so only up once a night. That turned into sleeping through the night reasonably quickly. As with Rio we could put them down in their cribs and walk away - no bedtime routine required. This was an especially impressive feat given that there were two of them and they were both buying into this no nonsense routine!

Identical sleepers

Well fast forward to this September when they are nearly 2, and all hell breaks loose. We struggled with Asher for months. We were especially worried it was CP related - either something neurological messing with his circadian rhythm, or painful muscle spasms. But no, not CP related at all. Little stinker related. It was everything from not going to sleep to waking up for long periods in the middle of the night to starting the day at 4am, all for no apparent reason. On really bad nights it was a combo of all of the above.

So we tried crying it out, with minimal success - pretty impossible with a brother trying to sleep next to you. We tried bringing him to bed with us. Minimal success. We tried later bedtime, earlier bedtime, shortening nap, and lengthening nap. We introduced a noise maker, staggered bedtime with Nolan, and even homeopathic calming tablets. Nothing was repeatedly working.

And then he just stopped. Like that, he was (mostly) sleeping through the night again.

And then it was Nolan's turn. Refusing to go to bed or inconsolable for hours in the middle of the night. This in turn woke Asher every single time, as Asher is a much lighter sleeper. Two screaming, stubborn toddlers in the middle of the night is not something I'd wish on my worst enemy. Ok, maybe on my worst enemy, but no one else.

So we juggled and experimented and trialed and errored a few things, and for now we think we've come up with a solution: normal naps, normal bedtime, at the same time. If they go down at the exact same time again (after months of going down separately) they seem to be happy.

So for we'll go with it, as for the past few nights - knock on wood - it seems to be working. I'm not counting my breath however, knowing that as soon as tonight plans might need to change again. Over the past almost 5 months we have definitely learned that we need to do whatever it takes to get these boys, and ourselves, some sleep. If that means crying or co-sleeping or watching movies at 3am we'll do it. Because we have learned an important lesson - these are just phases. Our kids are good sleepers. One day, we all will sleep again.

That said, there are two talking, laughing little monsters in their cribs, refusing to go for naps...