Crying It Out

Though there are many things difficult about parenting I think getting kids to sleep is at the top of the list. I am writin this as my baby girls "cry it out" upstairs for the fifth night in a row. UGH!! I absolutely HATE it! However, with two babies you can imagine how elusive sleep can be. Up until this week I hadn't really been able to talk to my husband unless a few stressed words over crying babies counts (it doesn't in my book). My DVR is at risk of not recording because it is so full since I have been running up and down the stairs pushing binkies into two crying mouths. It seemed once one baby was asleep the other would wake and around and around we'd go. That would be my night. I'd end up feeling a combination of resentment (if my husband had his turn downstairs) or guilt (that he was stuck up there). So, after we decided to consult a child sleep specialist (Kim West, author of Good Night Sleep Tight), and I read Dr. Marc Weisbluth's Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child; I decided to let them "cry it out". It doesn't seem to be progressing as well or as quickly as I thought. It took our son about a week of max thirty minute crying to get it. That was after he nursed himself to sleep for a year then suddenly decided that he wouldn't fall asleep that way anymore. That was a year of a bad habit. I am starting this early thinking that it can't possibly take that long! But you see, they get stubbornness from both sides of our families. Why couldn't we just have easy, lay you down and you look around and whammy you're asleep. Ahhhh, the challenges of parenting twins!! I guess there is one good thing - they will usually fall asleep for naps without the screaming. Thank God for small blessings!