Cracking the Baby Code

It's 8 pm and where are the children?? Asleep she shouts as she giggles and downs her second glass of wine. Ahhhh, I think we've finally cracked the Millie and Ruby code. The hours between 7 and 10 have been exceptionally rough the last two months. We put Emmett to bed at 7, and he's been fighting that a lot lately. Lots of tears and throwing lovies and stuffed animals out of the crib, but we long ago learned to ignore him until he falls asleep (except when necessary to go throw said loveys back into the crib and maybe get roped back into one more round of Amazing Grace (Gace Gace Sit demands Emmett which translated means sit down and sing me Amazing Grace woman, you are my bedtime slave). The girls eat at 7 pm and are usually very sleepy, but as soon as we lie them in their cribs they start crying. Thus ensues 2 or 3 more hours of carrying them around, putting them in the swing, getting them to sleep, only to have them wake up as soon as we try and lie them down again. Often we would get them good and asleep only for it to be time for them to eat again. I haven't been able to bear letting my "preshush little babies cry." I would wake them up at 10 because I wanted to go to bed! Why is it that it takes someone else to point out or try out the obvious????? Enter Pam from stage left.....

Pam has been coming to help with the girls three nights/week since the girls were born. I love love love the days when I know that Pam is coming that night. It makes me giddily happy and as my friend Jenny's husband says, "People who think money doesn't buy happiness have never had a baby nurse." It's expensive, but worth every penny. Scott is out of town right now, so Pam came early this past Friday night. Normally Pam doesn't come until 10 pm, but since Scott was gone she came at 6. I used the opportunity for a girl's night out with my friend Beth. When Beth and I got home, Pam said she had fed the girls and put them down in their cribs. What??????? She said they had fussed some, but she would go in and check on them, and they would stop crying. The on again off again crying ensued for a little while then they fell asleep. She also said that she was going to let them sleep through the 10 pm feeding and see how long she could get them to go. That was fine with me, since I wasn't the one doing it. Knowing they are 12 lbs now I knew it was time (but mostly because I wasn't the one doing it). Scott and I had actually tried to let them sleep through the 10 pm feeding the night before, but they only made it to 11. OK Pam, I thought...good luck, see you on the flip side. Well, she showed me and she got the girls to go until 2 am!

Encouraged by Pam's success, I decided that I could also put the girls to bed after their 7 pm bottle. Here I am, 3 days after Pam's initial night and they are asleep in their beds. Some nights have gone better than others, and last night I caved and put Ruby in the swing for awhile, but I was back on it tonight. I turned off the baby monitor, and although I could hear them crying I could also ignore (My Mom is in town and she had Dancing with the Stars on so loud that it helped drown out the crying). I just took Jake to bed at 8 and all seemed quiet upstairs. I had a big grin on my face as I crept into Jake and Emmett's bathroom to get Jake's toothbrush when I heard, "Mamma, Mamma, MAAAAMMMMAAAA!" from Emmett's room.  Argh.....another round of Amazing Grace but back into the crib he went and I think he's asleep now. Jake still has some weird sleep issues and it was 11 pm before he went to sleep last night. We still have to give him muscle relaxers in the middle of the night in order to stay asleep, but it's so much better than it used to be that I really have no complaints. The girls are still sleeping through the 10 pm feeding and going until 1 or 2, so I guess we have officially dropped one feeding. I wish we had dropped the 2 am instead of the 10 pm, but beggars can't be choosers. I am starting to see the light! Mostly time is going by so fast, and as much as I want things to be easier, I am so afraid that it is moving too fast and I am not appreciating the small things.

Ruby and Millie