Well, we had to do it with Cooper. Sleeping, or should I say lack of sleeping, was getting worse and worse with Cooper. Our little guy has been rocked to sleep since the day he was brought home. We rock him to sleep, put him in his bed, he wakes up (several times), we rock again, put him back in bed, I think you get the picture. We had a week of REALLY bad nights and finally commited to what the books say to do.
We started letting Cooper cry it out on a night that was going really bad. We did exactly what we aren't supposed to do, we made this decision when he was already so over tired. It was 10:20. We did everything wrong this night. We were already so tired (remember, this was going on several nights of no sleep) and we had to figure out what to do with Chloe who was sleeping so comfortably in her bed like always. Yes, we rock Chloe to sleep too but she goes down quickly, not really even rocking her, we put her in her bed, and she is down for the night. We can even lay Chloe on her little sofa bed in the living room if we are tending to Cooper and she falls asleep on her own. I know, we still aren't doing it right. We still need to work on Chloe but not now. One baby at a time. I'll come back to this challenge in a bit.
We set up a playpen in our bedroom and put Cooper in it determined to let him cry it out. He SCREAMED and SCREAMED and SCREAMED for 20 minutes. When tempting to try this "cry it out" thing before, we didn't go past 10 minutes. The whole time I was crying. We decided that he couldn't handle knowing we were in the room with him. We were in our bed, he was screaming in the playpen, the room was pitch dark, etc. I don't even know what we were thinking now that I'm typing this. This was our effort to do this thing with Cooper and not interrupt Chloe's sleep. What do you do with twins? Not this, it was like dangling a carrot in front of him. His parents were right there!
So, after 20 minutes, yes I was watching the clock, we got up and gave Cooper water who was now crying, "wata, wata, wata..." We gave him some motrin, surely he wasn't feeling good after all of this, and switched out babies. We put Chloe who was still sleeping in the playpen and put Cooper in his bed. He SCREAMED and SCREAMED and SCREAMED for 30 minutes and then it went silent. Yes, I'm still watching the clock. It's 11:30 and the house was silent. He went from screaming to silence. I placed my ear to the door of their bedroom and heard him breathing. He was asleep. We did it. It was absolute torture but he was finally asleep and we didn't give in. He slept through the night. This was Day 1 of tough love.
Day 2. I reflected all day on everything we did wrong the night before but was mentally ready to do this thing. So, I decided we would "turn down the house" at 6:45. One of us would take Cooper into their bedroom with books, lovey, paci and blankie while the other had Chloe doing the same in the living room. Day 2, I took Cooper. This emotional guilty feelin' Mama needed this time with her boy. I read to him for about 15 min. and then put him in his bed while he was awake, turned his lullaby CD on, turned the lights off, and closed his door. Yes, he started SCREAMING the minute he was placed in the bed. Outside his room I watched the clock. He was asleep in 6 minutes. He goes from SCREAMING to silence, there is no in between. He slept through the night without waking at all.
Day 3. Dad's turn to take Cooper. He did the same routine. We watched the clock for 3 minutes. He screamed for 3 minutes and then went to sleep.
Day 4. Dad took the turn again. Same routine, less than 1 minute of screaming. The digital clock never turned over to the next minute. This night he had a terrible cough and he did wake up a few times due to his cough. We didn't go in his room. He cried just a bit and went back to sleep. Before, we would run and get him before he woke up Chloe.
Day 5. That's tonight. I was alone tonight during bedtime with both babies. Hmmm...I couldn't go into the room with Cooper and leave Chloe out in the living room by herself. I went ahead and read to both of them out in the living room. I just walked Cooper into his room after reading. After I picked up his lovie, blankie, paci and turned on the lullaby music he started crying a sad cry as I walked him to his crib. Oh, that hurt. I did it though, I put him in his bed and walked out. He was alseep before I reached the middle of the living to get the view of the clock.
So, we're doing this. Tough love totally stinks but I can already see the difference. I have been a mess all week. Oh, and that cough. We decide to do this tough love thing while he has a double ear infection and cough. Yep, we took him to the doctor yesterday because all of the other kids at the babysitters were sick. More guilt added.
Are you wondering where Chloe is through all of this? Still sleeping in the playpen. Now what? I did move the playpen into Maddie's room but she's with us this weekend so the playpen is back in my room this evening. Chloe sleeps through anything though. I don't think she minds the playpen but somehow we have to figure out how to put her back in the room with Cooper. And, how do we teach her to go to sleep on her own without interferring with Cooper? She does cry if we put her in the crib awake so it is something we need to work on with her as well. However, the need isn't as significant because she falls asleep so quickly while we are rocking her and stays asleep. I'm still pondering over this one. My thought tonight is to try putting them in their beds at the same time. I just think Chloe might cry longer right now than Cooper and I don't want to go backwards with Cooper. This is definitely what I call a twin challenge. I think we are at the point that I could continue to do the same thing with Chloe and then just place her in her crib after she is asleep. I am hoping that it wasn't Chloe's movements and sounds that woke up Cooper so much. I will try putting her back in her crib first to see if it was her that woke him up. I'm rambling. Stay tuned.
Needless to say, the fact that my boy is still giving me kisses at night makes my heart feel better about all of this. I also race into his room in the morning to wake him up. I hold him tight in the mornings telling him how proud I am of him for sleeping so good. He smiles and then points towards the living room. That means he's ready to play and he's over it!
No comments:
Post a Comment