Sleep

Baby sleep... I will never understand it as long as I live.  Just when we think we have things figured out, they go ahead and change the rules.

They both go down for bed at night fairly easy. They talk and play and giggle with each other for anywhere between 10-30 minutes (occasionally sometimes more) and then they go to sleep.  Ayden continues to sleep through the night, with a few exceptions here and there.  Sometimes Rylee does wake him up, and also when he was sick he had a hard time because he had trouble breathing, but otherwise he is a great nighttime sleeper.

And then there's Rylee.  We were actually doing pretty good there for awhile.  She was sleeping most nights until about 4:30-5:00am, and then I'd go in and get her when she woke up, and we'd finish the night out on the couch together.  If you recall, for several months she had been waking up anywhere between 10:00 and midnight, so this was a vast improvement.  For awhile now, if she ever wakes up before 3:00, I've been putting her in the spare bedroom in the pack n' play, but it always takes longer for her to go back to sleep when we do that.

Naps were also going pretty good, with the exception that Rylee almost ALWAYS poops right after we put her down for her morning nap.  Once we then change her diaper, we'd put her back down and then they'd both sleep for about 2.5 hours.  Yes!!!  Then they'd also take a short afternoon nap.

Then Thanksgiving happened.  Surprisingly, even though they were in the same room, they actually did nap during the day while we were gone to Sunriver.  Not as long of naps, but they did take them.  And then nighttime.  The first night, they both went to sleep okay but Rylee did not STAY asleep.  She decided she wanted to party for a few hours that night.  She would. not. go. back. to. sleep.  The second night, neither one of them wanted to go to bed.  They knew something was going on in the rest of the house and they wanted no part of going to bed.  Their 7:00 bedtime turned out to be more like 9:00 and they had to be held to go to sleep.  Yet again, Rylee was awake for several hours in the middle of the night.  To be fair, she was super constipated and I think that had a big thing to do with it.  She would go to sleep for about 45 minutes and then wake up crying. She was pretty gassy and was only happy if I was standing up and rocking her.  As soon as I would sit down, she started crying again.  Then she'd finally go to sleep for another 45 minutes or so, and we'd repeat.  This continued all night!  It was pure torture!  For both of us, I'm sure.  It was even more challenging because I was also trying to make sure she didn't wake up the other 24 people staying in the house!

Since we've been back home, nap times have been terrible!  Neither one of them want to go to sleep!  They cry.  Actually, Rylee's taken on a whole new level of screaming to let us know she's not happy.  It is absolutely exhausting when they refuse to go to sleep.  I ride it out and they do eventually fall asleep, but the naps have been much, much shorter and it is so hard to listen to them cry SO MUCH.  Rylee has been waking up after only 35-40 minutes, through one sleep cycle, and then waking up crying screaming.  I wait about 5-10 minutes for her to go back to sleep, and then if she doesn't I go in, pick her up and comfort her, and put her back down again.  She screams some more, and then generally falls back to sleep within a few minutes and sleeps for another hour or so.  The nice thing is that once Rylee is up, she is almost always in a very good mood.  Once Ayden wakes up from his afternoon nap, he is the biggest grouch EVER!  It's almost not worth having him take that afternoon nap because he wakes up crying and is so grumpy.

The last few weeks, since we've been home from our Thanksgiving trip, Rylee has been waking up at night around 11:30 to midnight again, and not wanting to go back to sleep.  She cries if I put her in the pnp, and she wants to party if I go to the couch with her.  If she won't go to sleep with me holding her, I always put her back in the pnp, but sometimes she's in there for over an hour alternating between crying and playing. She's been up as much as 2.5 hours during the night.  Why doesn't she sleep?????

Then Tuesday night, she teased us.  She slept ALL NIGHT in her crib!!!!!  Hallelujah!   It was only the second time EVER she has slept all night in her crib, and she made it to 6:20am! I thought maybe we'd turned a corner.  But the very next night, she was up to her usual antics.  Sigh.....

You may wonder why I don't just ignore her when she wakes up during the night and let her go back to sleep.  Here's why - last night I heard her wake up at 2:30am.  She wasn't crying, but I could hear her talking.  I waited a few minutes, but then I made a beeline to take her out of the nursery.  When I walked into the room, she was standing up BOUNCING in her crib, and trying to wake up Ayden.  Okay, there's only one thing worse than one baby that won't sleep at night, and that is TWO babies that won't sleep at night!

I definitely can see how people with only one baby think they know the magic trick to getting babies to sleep once they figure it out.  If we only had Ayden, I'd think our system works great!  I'd be able to say we have a great sleeper.  Yes, naps have been a bit challenging lately, but he does sleep all night.  However, I know first hand that what works for one baby most definitely does not work for all.  We do the exact same routine with both Ayden and Rylee every night. He sleeps great, and she does not.

I do have an obsession with checking in on them while they are sleeping and sometimes taking pictures. They are so cute and innocent while they are sleeping.

I think it's adorable when he's snuggling his little minky blanket

He makes my heart melt

Pure sweetness

She fell asleep with her feet in HIS crib.  Plus, she never sleeps on her back!  Guess I shouldn't say never.

She fell asleep ON her Seahorse!

Again, asleep on her Seahorse!  Silly girl.

At Sunriver, he fell asleep with his legs scrunched up on the side of the pnp.