Sleep Deprivation

There are certain things in life that you can't possibly appreciate until they are gone. Like the memory of being full when you're starving. Sleep is one of those things and for the past nine months we haven't been getting nearly enough. With two babies waking up in the middle of the night, we're getting up four or five times every night. Some nights as soon as we get one baby back to sleep the other starts crying. Those are the rough nights, as are the times I'm getting up at 6am to get ready for court. I've been so tired lately that I feel nauseous all the time and I'm getting bad headaches and I'm nearing rock bottom with my Dr. Pepper addiction.

Now as far as I can tell, there are two main theories you'll see displayed in bookstores on parenting. One is "attachment parenting," and the other is the "parent centered" approach. There are two things you need to know about these styles: the first is that everyone has an opinion and the second is that you're better off discussing the benefits of communism to a room full of trust fund beneficiaries.

Each style has a specific method for getting a baby to sleep--and the spectrum is: letting the baby cry to sleep from birth to sleeping with your parents indefinitely. Most people fall somewhere in between, except for really annoying people who's babies sleep all through the night from the time they were brought home from the hospital--these people are imaginary and don't actually exist.

And so we have decided. Something had to be done. And although we have always been the attachment style type of parents we are now also "ferberizers."

We moved Evelyn's crib into the guest room. Moved her white noise machine (air fliter), gave her a nice nightlight. We gave the girls lavender scented aromatherapy baths, we feed them rice and grains to keep them full throughout the night and kept them on their routine. Andre took the first shift and everything went quite well. The girls only woke up once each and went back to sleep very quickly. He checked on them, then went in again at 5 minutes, then 10 and they fell asleep on their own.

It was awful to hear them cry, even for a moment. I wanted to pick them up and bring them into our bed and snuggle next to them. But this morning I felt really great. I felt like I had slept soundly for the first time--ever. And I felt like I could be a better parent too. Instead of struggling to stay awake as I fed them breakfast, I put on some podcasts, laughed with them, made myself breakfast too, and enjoyed my time with them. And they seemed fine this morning too.

so tonight is my turn and so far so good...both babies are sound asleep in their beds and I am off to mine.