When I think back of the baby-toddler-time, I think of SLEEP. Or rather the lack of it. They say that babies’ sleep can be of varying quality in the first years but usually stabilizes around the age of three. Here’s our case.
My memories from the first year are a bit blurry, but as I recall, it was a relatively smooth ride. Both our twins slept well during the night. I normally got up just once to nurse. The hungry one always woke up first, I nursed him and after that, I picked up and nursed the other one while he was asleep. Our days were rolling by, we had our routines. Especially with twins, it ‘s CRUCIAL to be one step ahead. Avoid getting into situations where you have to handle babies that are overtired, too hungry, too bored or too much of anything. That could just devastate you and make you regret the whole parenting thing. I was pretty good at it – and the boys were good too. I know, for instance, that some babies only take short naps during the daytime, but our boys have usually slept quite long, on average 1½ hours. The trickiest part was to get them to fall asleep more or less simultaneously. By the end of the first year, I even managed to repaint upstairs. All while the boys were napping. Well, at least that’s how I remembered it. But when Andrea and I spoke about it the other day, he just looked at me: “Have you forgotten? How it was?!?” Now that I have found the journal I wrote during their first years, it’s clear that my memories are more romantic than the reality! Here is the real version: One child did not sleep well during the evening hours (when we FINALLY had our chill-out time). He used to wake up and cry every 15-20 minutes for the first 2-3 hours. But he eventually fell into a deep and calm sleep until the next morning. The other one woke up 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 times during the night, killing our precious sleep and making us feel like a total wreck the next day. I guess the glass is half full though. We could have gotten TWO babies who didn’t enjoy sleep as much as we do, but at least one of them was kind of a sleeper! One more thing that I had forgotten all about: the cold and flu seasons that knocked the routines out in an instant. JUST as we’d got them into place again since the last fever. Simply put – FRUSTRATING!! However, I want to point out how important it is to establish routines. And be prepared to do the work more than once because they WILL get erased! If you’re not already doing it, keep the same schedule for your kids – think of it like running a mini Kindergarten =) So, by having good routines and learning your baby’s sleep pattern – you could make a huge impact on your daily life. And it’s not hard! That’s the best part. Be consistent. When you start implementing it- you’ll be AMAZED at how soon you’ll start to see results. Good luck!