Sleep Training for 6 Month Old Twins--One Month In (read sleep background in previous post first)

Or I could title this:

How sleep training changed my life and possibly saved my sanity and marriage.

These are notes from the sleep log I started when we did Weissbluth's CIO sleep training. I kept very careful notes to document any patterns and adjust times if needed:

• The twins were exactly 5 months old (4 months adjusted). They sleep in cribs next to each other (in an "L" shaped formation in our room.
• We hung a dark piece of fabric up (so ghetto!) over our roll shade as the room wasn't dark enough. BUT, we did not want to do black out shades as I've heard from too many moms that now there kids won't sleep unless it's pitch black in the room. The last thing we want is to be bringing black garbage bags and masking tape when we go someone else's house!
• We found that moving up the time we put them down to sleep helped greatly. We never realized we were putting them to bed too late and that they wouldn't wake any earlier from us putting them to sleep earlier. We experimented with the timing, but the sleep notes helped me to see what was their optimal time.
• We also started a very strict bedtime routine. I can't stress how important this is and what a difference this made.

Our Bedtime Routine:

• Classical music and chill play time for 30 minutes prior to going to bed--no exersaucers, no jumperoos, no bouncy seats with crazy lights. Low stimulation.
• Bath
• Dried off and lotion baby massage on our bed in very dark bedroom, just enough light coming in from window to still read a book, no lights on
• Warm BM bottles ready at the bedside
• Cradle hold baby while propped up in bed, taking turns reading books (We kept the same 3-4 books, but might change them up after awhile. For now, we wanted repetition for everything).
• Burp and cuddle baby
• Pull shade completely
• Put baby in crib
• Sing a song--same song every night (because the cribs are in an L shape, if I put them down at the closet points together, I can still reach in and hold both their hands or rub their heads, backs, etc while I sing to them.)
• Tell them I love them, night night.
• Leave the room.

Night One--Total time crying: 45 minutes (on and off, not constant)

6pm down

10 minutes babbling from both, followed by slight crying from both

After all was quiet from Grunter, Whoop Whoop escalated the crying

W2's crying went up and down like a swing, when all was quiet at 6:40.

I breathed a sigh of relief, followed by a grimace as he started up again.

But then all was quiet at 6:45 for the rest of the night.

10pm, woke up for dream feed, went immediately back to sleep, no fussing

2:30am, woke to nurse, went immediately back to sleep, no fussing

6am, woke to nurse, went immediately back to sleep at 6:30am, no fussing

8am, woke up to nurse and up for the day

Night Two--Total time crying: 40 minutes (on and off, not constant)

5:40 down

10 minutes babble, then quiet Grunter and crying W2

W2 again goes up and down with the crying

6:25 all goes completely quiet.

10pm, woke up for dream feed, went immediately back to sleep, no fussing

3am, woke to nurse, went immediately back to sleep, no fussing

4:57am, W2 woke up. Decided to let him fuss a bit and see if he'd get himself back to sleep

13 minutes later all is quiet

5:57am, Grunter wakes up with a poopy diaper, won't be soothed so I wake up W2 and nurse both of them.

6:30am, they both go back to sleep until 8am, no fuss, up for the day at 8am

9am, nursing

Night Three--Total time crying: 20 minutes (on and off, not constant)

6:50 down

Not a sound from Grunter

10 minutes of babbling from W2

7pm, slight crying from W2, followed by 5 minutes of silence

7:07, slight crying again from W2

7:10, all quiet for the night

Night Four--Total Time Crying: 10 minutes

6:35 down, drowsy but awake

No sound from either

6:44 slight fussing from W2

6:47 both crying/whining

6:55, all quiet for the night

Night Five--Total Time Fussing: 20 minutes but no REAL crying

6:08 Down, quiet babbling from both

6:22, slight crying/whining from W2

6:25, heavier from W2 but still not crying

6:27, babbling W2

6:28 All Quiet for the night

Night Six--No Crying

6:20 Fell asleep during their bottles

Transferred to cribs and never woke up

All Quiet for the night

Night Seven--Total Time Crying: 45 minutes

6:00 Down, naps were really messed up that day and babies are super fussy

Overly tired W2 wails for 45 minutes then conks out

Grunter sleeps through everything

Horrible Session, but yeah for Grunter--he's got it.

Night Eight--Total Time Fussing/Crying: 18 minutes

6pm Down

6-6:05pm Babbling from both

Grunter falls asleep

6:05-6:14 Babbling from W2

6:15-6:18 Crying from W2

6:19 All Quiet

****For the first 8 nights we still did a bit (minute or two) of rocking/swaying/soothing. Starting night 10 we simply put them in their cribs***

Night Nine--No Crying

6:13 Down, drowsy but awake

No rocking, swaying, just a bath, bottle, book and song--kiss kiss night night

10 Minutes light babbling from Grunter

6:23 All Quiet for the night

Night Ten--Total Time Crying: 20-30 on and off

5:40 Down

Took too long for W2 to burp and he got cranky. Was already fussy since he'd been up since 3:45

No crying from Grunter

W2 cried on and off for 20-30 minutes

6:10 All Quiet

Night Eleven--No Crying

5:40 Down

5:40-6pm, Both are babbling

6pm, very slight crying from W2 for 1-2 minutes

6:10 All Quiet

Night Twelve--No Crying

6:10pm Down, Grunter is asleep

6:15, W2 babbling

6:25 All Quiet

Night Thirteen--Total Time Fussing: 20 minutes

5:25 Down, slight crying from W2

5:30 Babbling from both

5:40-6pm, on and off crying/fussing

6pm All Quiet

Night Fourteen--No Crying

5:30 Down

W2 had fallen asleep in arms during bottle

All Quiet

I have notes for the entire month, but I think you get the idea.

Basically, Grunter got it really fast and is a super sleeper and W2 took a lot longer. Grunter is a really deep sleeper and W2 is much lighter.

Also, we saw a pattern develop: W2 is a real people person, he hates to be alone. The babies would go to sleep at the same time and babble to each other for a good 5-10 minutes. Then Grunter would fall asleep and Bam! W2 would then start crying! It's like he's saying "Hey?! Where did my babble buddy go?!"

We also learned after 2 weeks that 6pm was really too late for their bedtime. We pushed it back to 5:30-5:45 and had much less crying.

In fact, for the rest of the month, most nights were no crying--perhaps some babbling/fussing, but no real crying and that's what we are finding true to this day.

In fact, now almost 1.5 months later, we can put them in their cribs and they smile at us, but they don't fuss or cry when we leave the room.

They rarely fuss at all during the night, waking only to feed and we put them right back down when they are done eating.

If we do have fussing in the middle of the night, unless it's eating time--we DO NOT go get them. If the fussing turns into full blown crying, we go check the diaper situation. If that's OK, we let them CIO for 5-10/15 minutes. IF they are still crying then, we go ahead and pick them up and try to settle them. Usually this works. It's the secret world of babies, so you just have to take it night by night.

Also key is to not turn on any lights at night. We only have a small night light we turn on for diaper changes and quickly turn back off again. There are no toys, no talking, in fact we try to not even make eye contact! If we do, they start to smile and want to play! It's night time boys, only for sleeping.

They sleep until 6am-6:30am. IF we had them in their own room, I'm pretty sure we could let them amuse themselves until 7am. However, since they are right beside us, once they are awake it's not like we're getting any more sleep with their chattering, so we might as well get up and start the day.

Questions? I hope this helps!

I can't stress what a difference this has made. Yes, the crying was tough in the beginning, but I just had to remind myself that W2 could cry up to 2 hours IN MY ARMS before and he has never cried that long doing CIO.

We have our evenings back.

We have cooked dinner almost every night which we love plus, it saves us money.

We can MAKE PLANS to do something (one of us) while the other one stays home.

We can watch a movie.

We can have a date night because all the nanny has to do is come on over!

It's great. Super freaking fantastic and I am SO glad we did this.

Next UP: Nap Training!!