The Never Ending Sleep Saga Continues

I swear the babies have a built in sensor that lets them know when I curl up in bed for the night.  It never fails that within 5 minutes one or the other of them wakes up crying.  Okay, to be fair it's not ALL the time, but it sure does feel like it lately.

Ayden used to sleep through the night.  What happened to my sleeper?  Now he's waking up a few times/week.  Some might say that isn't so bad and I would tend to agree, if he would go BACK to sleep.  However, he cries incessantly if you put him down and he won't go to sleep if you are holding him.  It's a lose lose situation, especially if he wakes up his sister, which is usually the case.

Rylee on the other hand, has always been a bad sleeper.  We had gotten to the point that she was sleeping in her crib until somewhere between 3-5:00am until I had to go get her, but lately its been more like 10:00 or 11:00pm.  Before we moved, I was usually able to put her back down in the pack n play in the spare room.  That hasn't been working here.  I usually end up just sleeping with her in the twin bed, which I do have to say is at least soooo much nicer than sleeping on the couch like we used to do.

Last night, both babies woke up crying at 10:40pm.  I had just curled up for the night.  Sigh.  I went in and got Rylee and Tony got Ayden.  Since it was so early still, I figured I'd just hold Rylee and lay her back down in her crib until they both went back to sleep.  Tony got Ayden back to sleep and Rylee was conked out in my arms.

This is where I messed up....

I put Rylee back down in her crib.  Guess what?  She started crying and woke Ayden back up.  Frustrating!  I crawled back into bed and waited to see if they would go back to sleep.  After 10 minutes of screaming, I went in to get Rylee, held her for a few minutes, and then put her down in the pack n play with instructions for Tony to go get her if she was still crying after 15-20 minutes.  Then I worked to comfort Ayden and get him settled back down.  Of course Rylee kept crying, so eventually Tony went in and held her for awhile before putting her back down.  Then he went to bed.  I waited so that hopefully she would be good and asleep before I put Ayden down.  Nope, as soon as I laid him down, he started crying and then so did she.  Of course.

I got her and crawled in the twin bed, wishful that Ayden would be exhausted and eventually go to sleep.  Rylee went right to sleep.  Ayden did not.

Finally, after 20 minutes, I decided I'd better go in and settle him down.  However, I'm not comfortable leaving Rylee sleeping in the bed by herself.  I'm afraid she'll wake up and fall out of the bed.  I tried to gently move her to the pack n play.  She started crying of course.  I hoped she would go to sleep after a few minutes.  I took Ayden out to the living room and held him for awhile.  Of course, as I mentioned earlier, he doesn't go to sleep like this, but he is at least content and not crying his little heart out.  My hope is always that he will at least eventually go to sleep.  But.... Rylee kept crying.  And crying.  And crying.  For 30 minutes!

I finally tried to put Ayden back down, but he wanted nothing to do with that.  Again, I hoped he would cry for a few minutes and go to sleep.

We repeated this drama for 3 hours.  THREE hours!  And of course my husband was clueless and sleeping away.  I could be bitter about that (okay, let's be honest.  I AM a little bitter about that!), but I also knew he had to get up and work the next day.  Besides that, I also knew that it would not make a bit of difference if he were to be up and helping.  The babies are perfectly fine until you put them back down.  Then they cry and wake the other one up, regardless of where we are in the house.  So, it wouldn't have helped the situation if he were up too.  That would only result in us BOTH being extremely grumpy the next day.

Finally, at 1:30am and after Rylee had been crying in the pack n play for 40 minutes that go round, I gave Ayden some Ibprofin and made the baby switch again.  I layed down with Rylee in the twin bed and prayed (begged) that Ayden would go to sleep.  Rylee was asleep instantly.  After about 5 minutes, Ayden finally was too.  It was 1:50am.

It makes me feel so bad to let one or the other of them cry for so long, but I CAN'T do both of them at once!  It just doesn't work.  They are too big and heavy, and they would never, ever go to sleep!

I know that there are people that think I am doing the wrong thing by giving in and sleeping with Rylee when she wakes up in the middle of the night, but you know what?  If I had just layed down with her to begin with at the start of all this last night, when Tony had gotten Ayden back to sleep and she was asleep in my arms, we ALL would have gotten sleep last night.  This would have lasted 45 minutes instead of just over 3 hours!  As much as I would like to sleep in my own bed with my husband, I would rather just get sleep period, regardless of where.  Besides that, I know the day will come sooner than later that my daughter will not be sleeping with me anymore.  While it's inconvenient and a little annoying that she doesn't sleep through the night by herself very often, I need to just relax and enjoy the extra snuggles while I can.  Plus, then I get to sleep too!

Now, if only Ayden would sleep through the night again....  If they both aren't sleeping through the night, I am in trouble!