Desperately Seeking Sleep

 Don't let this sweet picture fool you: they're only pretending to sleep :) Margaret/Julia

Apparently I do not birth good sleepers. Caroline was 10 months old before she finally started sleeping through the night and even then she traded those few moments of night waking for an un-godly 5am wake up time that dragged on for a couple months. Do you know what there is to do at 5am? Nothing. Not a thing. Except sit around and watch your first born child wide awake and grinning at you like a Cheshire cat.

Thankfully, at almost 2 and a half years old, Caroline is a "good" sleeper. She still takes a 2 hours nap and sleeps about 11 hours at night. Too bad Santa is bringing her a "big girl" bed for Christmas. I have a feeling that with that bed Santa will also be bringing some long nights for Mommy and Daddy as Caroline will no doubt test out her new found freedom.

It probably doesn't matter anyways because our sleep problems do not end there. I had such high hopes for the twins and their sleeping habits. It all started out well enough. They came into this world seemingly pre-programmed with a 3 hour schedule. Sleep for three hours, wake up, eat, and repeat. This lasted for a wonderful 2 months or so. And then the bottom fell out.

Julia decided that every three hours was just not working for her anymore and decided that a 2 hour schedule fit her needs much better. To Margaret's credit, she is definitely a much better sleeper, but it's hard to sleep when the "Screaming Eagle" is going full blast just a few feet away from your crib and so she often times wakes up when Julia does. When not disturbed, Margaret has only been getting up once around 4 or 5, so I guess we should give her bonus points for that.

So what to do when you're exhausted and you have two nearly 5 month olds with horrible sleeping habits?

Well, I just don't know. Many of my friends say to let them cry-it-out, but I don't have the heart to listen to my sweet girls scream desperately for someone to come to their rescue. And the times I do let them cry, they go back to sleep after about 25 minutes of wailing, sleep for about 15 minutes, and then wake up and start all over again. Not exactly productive.

Give them formula, you say? Tried that. Following our doctor's advice, I give the twins 6 ounces (that's a lot, folks) of formula at 10pm every night. Last night, that held Julia over until exactly 1:11 am.

Pacifiers or loveys, you say? No and no. Margaret never took a pacifier and Julia isn't too keen on hers anymore. I tried giving Julia a lovey the other day and it actually seemed to work. She played with it until she fell asleep but then woke back up 10 minutes later because it was covering her entire head. Not exactly what I would call safe.

Send in your husband, you say? Well, that might work if Paul was here. The poor guy is chained to his desk at work until well past midnight on a regular basis and is exhausted himself.

Yes, it seems as if these sleep issues are not going to be an easy fix. It's a darn good thing both girls are perpetually happy, regardless of how much sleep they've gotten, and that I find them far too adorable to stay mad at for not sleeping.

Stayed tuned for news of progress, but until then we'll keep trucking along, slugging caffeine during the day, and desperately seeking sleep at night!

Sleep? I can't be bothered to sleep!

Bright-eyed Margaret.

Wide awake and adorable (Margaret/Julia)