Success!

Ever night after Hannah and Hailey were born have been ruff. As I would assume it is for every new parent. We just have an extra challenge thrown in to the mix with two babies. But the last few nights at my parents house, Christmas Eve and Christmas night, were especially challenging.

Hailey sometimes wakes up with tummy issues and screams. I feel really bad because there is not a lot we can do other than hold her, kiss her, and try to calm her down. We are giving her gas medicine that sometimes works, but at this point the doctor says to wait on switching formula. (Al thought I am pretty sure we are going to try sensitive formula with her over the next week or so.)

So Christmas Eve and night were not good nights for Hailey. And that we have been able to deal with. We usually just end up sleeping on the couch with her sleeping on our chest. That leaves the other one of us able to go back to bed and sleep. Well not these two nights. Hailey was upset and we couldn't get her calmed down as easily as we have in the past. But Hannah was WIDE AWAKE in the middle of the night. As soon as we would put her down in the pack-n-play she would scream until we picked her up. Eventually, both nights, Jake and I ended up sitting on the couch with either a little girl who was screaming in pain, or a little girl who just didn't want to go to sleep and would sure as heck let you know if you tried.

After over 48 hours with maybe 5 hours of sleep, none of it in more that 30min chunks, we decided it was way past time to start a routine with the girls for bedtime. I always thought that it would just be something that happened with them, especially with having to have them on a 3 hour feeding when they were just born. But boy was I wrong. We have truly paid for it.

Last night at about 9 o'clock we did tummy time with each of the girls. They are great at holding up their heads and turning them from side to side...but they don't like it at all and usually cry the whole time. Crying = good way to tire out little girls. After about 15min or so of tummy time for each of them we gave them a nice warm bath, washed their hair, and massaged them dry. Gave them a bottle, read them a story, and put them to bed.

I was expecting crying. Having to endure a very long 5min of screaming from both girls. Consoling them and then enduring another 5min of screaming. But, guess what? It didn't happen! There was no crying, no screaming, no fussing at all. Both girls went right to sleep actually. 45 min later I decided to go to sleep. Yeah, the whole "sleep when your baby is sleeping" thing...we actually listened to this time.

Both girls slept for over 3hours! And each time they woke up they went right back to sleep for another 3 hours. Hallelujah!!! Needless to say, after a great night of sleep, I feel great! I hope this routine helps get the girls to sleep at night. Even if every night can't be this amazing, I will take these when I can.

Woohoo, one happy mommy :O)