The Great Crib Transition!!!

Okay, okay. I know I promised to blog about the twins' first trip to California, but I've been having a very difficult time trying to find the time. I wonder why. I did want to let everyone know that something very exciting has happened - the boys are now sleeping in their own room in their own cribs!

It was our initial plan to keep them in their bassinets until six months of age - this is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics because of SIDS. Well, after speaking with several different moms about this, I felt that transitioning them to their cribs sooner rather than later would help us all get better sleep. It's funny how as quiet as you TRY to be, there's just some noises you cannot control. And even when they are tiny noises - they can seem so BIG. The toilet flushing, the sound of my electric toothbrush, the bed creaking as we crawl into it, the clinking of the dogs' collar and name tag. So with a very heavy heart, we decided to move them into their rooms and into their cribs.

Just a quick recap. The boys slept in their bassinets for probably the first month they were home. The bassinets were in our room and we kept them in the same bassinet on my side of the bed. When Graham started showing signs of colic - the horrible hours of SCREAMING, the inability to sleep, etc etc., I started putting him in bed next to me. Then Killian got moved into bed with us - well, actually he was next to Graham who was next to me. Eventually Clint would have Killian sleep next to him when Graham's colic got really bad - I mean, poor Mama staying up until five in the morning with a screaming baby bad. After about two months of the boys sleeping in bed with us - we were done and ready to get our space back. During this time we were chained to the boys and we didn't put them to sleep until we went to sleep and of course we were super uncomfortable not being able to really move around much. So when we got back from California, the transition back to the bassinet was on.

This transition sucked. The boys were waking up all the time, sometimes with us ending up putting them back in bed with us. It was so hard to go back to getting up ALL THE TIME in the middle of the night because while they were sleeping in bed with us, they would both sleep through the night. But we kept on with the transition and pretty soon they were doing better. Not great but definitely better. And then about a week ago we made THE BIG move. We learned to establish a routine - change their diaper and into jammies, read a book as a family, drink their bottle and then off to bed. We finally even get to use their mobiles. For the most part they go down pretty well, most nights they don't even cry. Some nights one will cry or both, but it doesn't seem to last too long - maybe five or ten minutes. As for sleeping through the night, well . . . we're getting there. The last four or five nights Graham has gotten GREAT sleep, sometimes sleeping seven to nine hours. Killian though (the normally better sleeper), has been waking up every single night between 3 and 4 am. We think this is due to the fact that his teething is waking him up, and once he's awake, he is HUNGRY! So all in all, they have taken to their cribs quite well, way better than we ever had hoped and imagined. Clint even took down their bassinets and put them in storage.

How are we sleeping? Well Clint sleeps GREAT! He even gets to play video games again once they go to sleep. Me? Well it takes me forever to fall asleep now, no matter how exhausted I am. Most of the time it's around one or one thirty, and then of course I am the one waking up to all their noises and cries, waking up Clint to "get your son" or getting the baby myself. And then of course I'm up at seven to pump and feed the first one awake. So I'm still getting just a few hours sleep a night but I know it will get better, simply because it has to.

The next step? Getting them to sleep in their cribs for their morning and afternoon naps. What's going on with their naps now you ask. Well in the morning they sleep for about two hours in their swing and in the afternoon . . . well they fall asleep here and there for anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes in their bouncer chairs. Although today I did get Killian to sleep in his crib for a two hour afternoon nap today. WooHoo!!! Next week the boys will be five months old and starting on rice cereal. Very exciting - be sure to look out for a blog on that. And just maybe someday I'll get that Cali blog out . . . just maybe. Of course tomorrow I start my last semester of Grad school and have the Comps to prepare for, so who knows what will happen. That's life with twins . . . who really knows what will happen ;-)

Love to all -
Rhiannon
P.S. - Clint shot this video early one morning when he wasn't quite awake. This explains the poor quality ;-)