The Sleep War

There are so many things that I could write about:

• An update on Rylee's hemangioma - the ulcers are actually healing and it is doing much better at the moment.  So much better!
• Rylee had an orthopedic therapy appointment this past week in an attempt to try getting her to eat better.  She is not eating well, and what she does eat gets puked up sometimes.  I don't know at this point if the appointment has helped.
• Both babies have torticollis.  This may be a contributing factor to Rylee's eating problems, although Ayden has torticollis worse than she does.  He has a pretty extreme flat spot on the left side of his head.  It's possible he may have to wear a helmet.  It's also possibly the reason he cannot hold a pacifier in his mouth for very long.  We have a physical therapy appointment for both babies on Thursday.
• The babies seem to have switched places.  Rylee now is a fairly happy baby and Ayden is pretty fussy.

Like I said, I have a lot of things I could write about that really deserve their own post.  But I am going to vent about our sleeping struggles.  Sigh....

The babies have been sleeping in their Rock n' Plays (RNP) since the first day we brought them home.  I'm giving you a very brief update on our sleeping arrangement to this point.  Our original plan was for them to sleep in our room in the RNP's.  That lasted about half a night.  We then moved them to the living room, which is where they've been ever since, with me sleeping on the couch.  It's not that Tony isn't willing to help with the babies at night, because he is.  It's just that my life is sooooo much better if he is not sleep deprived.  He gets extremely grumpy, and I'm to emotional (hormonal) to take it.  He also works long days with an 1:20 minute commute.  I'd rather him get his sleep.  The other reason this arrangement originated was because neither one of us was comfortable going to sleep without watching, or at least being close to the babies.  We were so afraid of one of them, or both, stopping breathing.  That's what being in the NICU does to you, with all those stupid alarms!  Okay, we really appreciated the alarms.  They just went off often enough to scare us.

What we've been doing for the past three months is that Tony would come home and take over at about 7:00pm and I would go to bed and sleep till about 11:00 or midnight.  Then he would come wake me up and I would move to the couch.  On the weekends, he would wait until around 1:00am and I would go back to bed in the morning for a long nap.

In the past few weeks, I've been really feeling tied down to this schedule.  Instead of being able to go for a walk, or run, or have family time in the evening with all of us, I was going to bed.  Instead of enjoying my weekend, I was sleeping half the days away.

In addition to that, Ayden has really started fighting sleep during the day.  He's not sleeping and he is becoming more and more cranky.  He used to be our happy go lucky, smiley baby!!!  What happened to him?  Well, he is flat out exhausted because he only takes 20-30 minute cat naps at a time during the day. An hour if I'm lucky.  That just doesn't cut it for a 3 month old, who is only one and a half month old adjusted.

I've come to the conclusion that it's time to start sleep training and moving these babies into their nursery and into their cribs.  I've read a few books on sleep training and swallowed up any other bloggers experiences in this department.  You know, learn from those that go before me and all that.  When it comes down to it though, we have no frickin clue as to what we are doing.  I don't want to resort to the cry it out method, but I have fast learned that them crying is unavoidable.  They are going to cry.  It seems they are going to cry no matter what we do.  Ayden especially.  He is so over tired and it seems there is nothing we can do.  We HAVE to get this sleep training thing down for his sake, and for our sanity.

With that said, once Ayden does finally settle down, he has been sleeping for about a 7 hour stretch in his crib.  I feed him and am able to put him back down in his crib.  He then sleeps for another 2-3 hours.  I feed him, and then put him back again in his crib for another couple hours.  Yay!  That's not a bad night once we finally get him to calm down and actually sleep!

Rylee seems to go down okay and can sleep through her brother's crying for a little while, but he eventually wakes her up.  We are a little more hesitant to let her cry for very long because she makes herself sick and ends up puking.  She did this the other night.  Thankfully, we were going in to get her because Tony found her choking on her vomit.  That didn't scare us or anything.  Big sigh.  However, she does usually tend to do okay and can put herself to sleep.  She did sleep in there through one night (with a couple feedings in between) and has taken a few nice long naps in there as well.

If only her brother would get on the same page.

I could bore you with the details of what we've been doing to put them down, but I won't right now.  Just know that we have declared war on this sleep thing, and this is one battle that I really, really hope that the parents have the perseverance and strength to compete for the long haul and come out the victor.  It would be a win win situation for all involved.  Now, if we could just get Ayden to agree....

Rylee's very first time napping in the crib.  It lasted 41 minutes.

Another nap and a not quite successful escape!

Ayden's first time going down in a crib, but he hi-jacked his sister's crib.

We've managed ONE nap in his crib.  He was put down length wise, but managed to turn himself to lay sideways!

*In case you are wondering why we don't swaddle Ayden, there are a few reasons.  1. I'm afraid to swaddle him in a blanket because he always manages to escape and I don't want that blanket in there with him.  No SIDS for us!  2. This big boy doesn't fit in the swaddlers with the velcro!  3. He hates being swaddled.