Well, Chris is in on this story as well. So, it turns out the girls are willful! There was almost no way that wouldn't be the case, it is just a little rough coming to terms with it in the form of two exceedingly feisty 12(ish) pounders.
I've had weights that weigh more than them and here they are, eating my lunch. Well, technically they are not yet on solids but you get the idea. The first battle in our relationship was pitched over sleeping. To say that our 3+ weeks of travel screwed up their schedule (sleep and otherwise) is probably an understatement. I know I promised not to talk of poo... but I have never seen that color green. Seriously. We definitely messed with them pretty good.
With some work, combined with the fact that they are troopers, everyone was mostly back on a schedule a few days after we got home. Over the trip we talked a lot about sleep training. The truth was that it took hours at night to put them down. Bathing, feeding, bouncing, singing all our material and making some up, walking, cajoling... it felt like a high stake parental variety show and we were getting "gonged" on every number. (Yeah, I'm not sure I entirely followed that comment either but just go with me.)
It seems like it took us a really long time to transition from "they need to be nurtured to sleep, whatever it takes" to "they are just pissed and don't want to be put down." But it was true, somewhere in the last few weeks they just decided that we weren't gonna tell them to go down. Swaddles were on but teeny, tiny gloves were off... and they were PISSED. Charlotte in particular would thrash around and wail while you held her. Forget show tunes, it was like a damn rodeo and you just tried to hold on to her. It did help that she was hog tied in a little baby straight jacket (aka "the Miracle Blanket"), and thank God. Without that thing she could probably throw both of us.
We finally concluded last night that if they were just steaming mad (which they were... like little baby sweaty head pissed off) then how much neurological damage could we do if we let 'em scream it out a little? So, we did. It took Charlotte all of 10 minutes to put herself to sleep. Emerson took 23 minutes and a few reassuring visits. We haven't gotten them to sleep that early in weeks, maybe months. Today's naps have taken less than 4 minutes each of crying. Take that, Babies! And, by that I mean, "I am really glad you are resting better now, little loves".
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