Baby Boot Camp



Before I tell you about Baby Boot Camp, I’d like to say that we are not too poor to afford a Christmas tree!  I’m not sure what all I said about not having one in previous posts, but apparently, it came across as us being too broke for a tree.  Oops!  That isn’t the case — I’m just to CHEAP to want to spend more than $75 or so on one.  :)

Now that I’ve cleared that up, it’s time to talk about Baby Boot Camp.  The boys are 13+ months old.  They do not sleep through the night (if you do not have twins, insert your comment about how so-and-so was sleeping through the night since 8 weeks; if you have twins, nod your head in sympathy).  Some days, I think they will never sleep through the night.  But dang it, I am trying my hardest this week to correct that.

The problem with twinfants is this — when you’ve got two sharing a room, and one wakes up and starts to cry, you find it much easier on your sanity to try to rush in and comfort him any way you can before he wakes up his brother and you have two screaming infants.  The problem is that they then get dependant on you helping them fall asleep, and soon enough, they NEED you to come help them and then no one is sleeping.  Such is the case in our house.

I am a heavy sleeper.  Very heavy.  I have slept through not one but TWO fires in my building in college and various other things that should have woekn me up (like earthquakes).  The boys’ crying doesn’t even wake me up (unless I am alone with them, I guess my subconscious makes sure I am not in too deep a sleep).  What then happens is I am sleeping and Skip goes to the boys and generally brings one or both of them back to me to nurse.  It’s the easiest thing to do, and they usually just stay in bed with us or go back to their beds, but after two years of interrupted sleep (I could nt sleep through the night when I was pregnant), I would like to rejoin the land of the conscious.  Therefore — Baby Boot Camp.

I started on Wednesday night.  I put them down to bed — the part they usually do pretty well with.  The change was that any time they woke in the night, they did not get picked up or nursed.  I gave them their binkies (which Ace promptly threw back at me and screamed harder) and gently talked to them (which made Nate bounce up and down and holler) and then got a pillow and blanket and slept on their floor.  They cried quite a bit that night, but I was there in their room and talked to them gently and did my best to soothe them without soothing them (if that makes any sense).

Thursday and Friday night I did the same thing, and it’s getting bed.  They aren’t waking as much, and when they do, they don’t need as long or as much from me to fall back to sleep.  Ace does have a bit of a harder time, and he likes to hold my hand through the bars of the crib, so I admit I do cave and hold his hand quite a bit, but it’s a step in the right direction.  I just hope we are soon at the point where I don’t need to (or feel the need to) sleep on their bedroom floor.  It’s not the most comfortable place in the house to sleep!

Night four of Boot Camp is already in progress…  wish us luck!

8 Replies to “Baby Boot Camp”

  1. Good luck! We had the hardest time with Katie and Kota sleeping through. Siblings pose the same problems with not wanting to wake the other! We had to baby boot camp each of them too. Took a couple weeks but they got it. ;)

  2. Sounds like a good plan Sommer – I can’t imagine how hard it would be to get 2 in the same room sleeping through the night. I’m trying to figure out how to keep my 2 sleeping through the night when they have to sleep in the same room while visiting my mom next week – HAHA

  3. I heard that was the way to do it. I think I saw it on “The Nanny”. But she also did a few other things. One she didn’t talk to the child at all, but started out pretty close. Also she was not facing the child but turned to the side and just looked at the wall. Then each night she sat further and further away from the crib until she was out the door. I don’t think she had the mother sleep in the room. It was the method to get the child to go to sleep at bedtime. But I think it would work equally as well and you have an “endpoint” – when you are out the door!

  4. I have 20 month old twins. You lasted longer with this no sleep thing than I did. She slept through the night at 6 months but he always woke once around 2-3am. I would nurse him and he’d go back to sleep in 5-10min. It was super easy to do but it still interrupted my sleep. Finally when I was working a week of nights, at 8 months, we basically had our nanny spend the night and wean him. She got up with him and petted on him but no milk. Cried an hour the first night then a bit less each night thereafter. She did end up caveing in the first night and gave him about 1oz of milk but none after that. Took about 5 nights. We did it this way as then I wasn’t even there to be tempted to go in and feed him. We got lucky in that his crying rarely woke up his sister. I figured that she was the same size as he was and could sleep 11 hours straight without food then so could he and that he didn’t need the food just wanted the Mom factor. They both, mostly him, still cry out at night some. Probably 4 times a week. But he goes back to sleep in less than 5 min on his own now. In fact, I ususally don’t even wake up with it. Think I am trained to sleep through those awakenings now. Keep at it. I think you are doing it exactly right. You’ll just wonder in a week when you are getting sleep why you didn’t do it sooner. Wishing you the best of luck.

  5. Good luck! Keep it going that is the hardest part. I don’t have twins but my nearly 2 year old still wakes almost every night. I haven’t had the strength to do ‘boot camp’ but you may have just inspired me! Keep us updated.

  6. Oh, Sommer…I’m right there with ya! I have both sleeping in our bed right now AND they both need a bottle in the middle of the night so I need to break down and do baby boot camp on my end too! I’m just not sure whether or not to try getting ONE into the nursery first and then worry about the other or just do both at the same time. Keep at it….you’re giving me hope!

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