So the day after we got back into the country, I attended a "baby whisperer" workshop which I had booked about a month or so ago. She gave us her suggested routines for 4 - 7 month olds and I decided to give it a go.
It has only been 3 days, but I have to say that I am optimistic so far! I tried to implement a routine earlier on but the girls slept when they were supposed to be awake, and refused to sleep when they were supposed to nap. I quickly got over trying to make them do what they didn't want to and decided to just enjoy them while they were awake. And they only napped for 45 mins at a time, but it didn't bother me. And for a while it all worked.
But in the last month or so, I've been feeling like I've just been treading water and haven't really felt in control of the whole situation.
So I don't know if it's because I'm more ready now, or because the girls are more ready now, or a combination of both. But whatever it is, it seems to be going relatively well so far! The girls are napping on schedule, and napping for 1 - 2 hours at a time. And now, instead of thinking oh my gosh, I forgot to check what time they last fed/napped and I'm not sure if that's a hungry or tired cry or something else (you'd think I'd know their cries by now, but not really), I'm more confident as a mother and can say oh yes, they are getting tired and they'll go to bed in 20 or whatever mins time.
And this confidence must be good for the babies. I'm sure they'll start to enjoy the routine more and more, as they'll know what to expect and what comes next. Best of all, the baby whisperer was totally cool about being flexible with the timings. So for example, we went out today and the girls couldn't sleep when they were supposed to as there was too much going on around them. No biggy, I just adjusted their next nap and made it earlier and made them sleep longer, and then continued with dinner/bath time as per normal.
The other thing I wanted to try was weaning them off their dummies. Cos although the dummies were godsends in the beginning, they are now the bane of my life. My girls have always been good night sleepers with the odd wake up in the night to feed. And I'm all for night feeds - gotta bulk these girls up! But one night (admittedly, was the worst night we've had), I counted 11 dummy plugs that I had to do through the night. Yes, it is just a matter of getting up and sticking the dummy back in their mouths. But when you have to do it 11 times, you feel like you are going to go crazy and you end up with very little sleep.
So for the past 3 nights (hey, might as well jump in feet first and do it all at once) I've tried to put them to bed at night without their dummies. They can use them during the day as it seemed silly to wean them during the day when I'm trying to extend day naps. So for now, they stay during the day.
Anyway, back to nights. First night went better than hoped. I had to shush and rock the bassinette occasionaly as there was lots of grizzling. For an hour. But no crying. But then Ruby woke up about half an hour later and she's sick, and is sounding pretty miserable so I gave in and gave her the dummy.
They both slept and slept until 3ish, when Ruby woke up with a coughing fit. And woke up Ava. So I fed them both and managed to settle Ava again sans dummy within about 15 mins. And then more sleeping until 7:15am woohoo.
2nd night I caved again and gave Ruby her dummy as she hasn't been sleeping well with all the coughing fits, and poor wee thing was exhausted. Ava was asleep sans dummy within 16 minutes! But then she woke up at 10ish and got more and more worked up. Finally I fed her and she seemed to be starving which is weird for that time of the night. And then Josh took over and managed to settle her without the dummy (Yay, as I was ready to cave, but together we did it!).
Again, both girls slept until 3ish but we settled both with a feed and sans dummies.
Tonight is night number 3 and Ava seems to be on a roll. We'll see how the rest of the night pans out but so far, looks like we can get her to go to sleep at night without the dummy!!
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