the trouble with sleep

I'll just start this post out by saying- I love my girls. I pretty much want to spend every second of every day with them. They're adorable, sweet and just so fun to watch; most of the time it doesn't feel like a job to watch them all day.

Until nap time.

Nap time is the bane of my existence lately. I mean, it's never really been easy, but I think before I thought, "Oh, they're only 4 (or 5 or 6 or 7) months old, so the napping just isn't consistent yet". Well, tomorrow they are 9 months old; and I'm ready for some reliable napping, dammit. Just even one nap per day that I could count on even MOST of the time would be nice.

This is generally how it goes: Around 9:30-ish they start rubbing their eyes and seeming sleepy. So, I check their diapers and get ready to put them down for a nap. Now, my girls still have to be rocked to sleep (sigh. that's a post for another day), but I can't take them both in the bedroom at once, because while I'm rocking one, the other one will cry, or babble and keep the other awake. I used to just leave them on the floor playing with toys, but then they learned to roll over/sit up/scoot around, so that was no longer an option. Once they started being able to sit up, they stopped enjoying their swings at all. Then I started putting them in their activity chairs, but they would cry after being out here a few minutes by themselves. So, I now put them in their activity chairs, with a bunch of toys, right in front of the running washing machine. Laugh, but it works. They love watching the washing machine go.

ANYway, so one of them (usually just the least cranky one) sits in front of the washer playing in her chair, and I rock the other one to sleep. Usually takes between 5-10 minutes. I keep the door cracked so I can hear if activity chair baby starts crying at all. Once the first baby is down for her nap, I go get the second. If all goes well, that baby will quietly let me rock her to sleep. If all DOESN'T go well, that baby will cry and fuss and not WANT to go to sleep, and then will subsequently wake the first baby. Then I sigh and try and start all over again, this time with the second baby in the room, hoping she keeps quiet long enough to get the first baby back to sleep.

Once they're finally asleep all the books say, "oh, yeah, your babies will totally take two naps a day. One should be an hour long and the other should be two hours long. If they don't sleep that long, your baby is NOT getting enough sleep!" So, yay! The first nap will be an HOUR? Great! I'll get some breakfast and maybe take a shower and tidy up a bit and.... oh. I hear crying over the baby monitor 20 minutes in to the nap. I RUN down the hall to try and stop it before the other baby wakes up and NOPE. They are both awake. End of nap.

Second nap goes pretty much the same, except they are MORE cranky and MORE tired, so yay! This will probably be the 2 hour nap! Just like the book says! No? 40 minutes? And not even 40 minutes straight through. 40 minutes with me rocking one of the babies after they woke 25 minutes in.

Now, if this second nap ends early enough, I usually try and do a third nap. Sometimes I just take them for a drive, because honestly? I'm tired of the nap game for the day. But, if their second nap ends too late, and they aren't going to be tired for a third nap until 4:30 or so, then it's too late. We can't give them a nap too late, because it will interfere with their bedtime of 7pm.

I really don't quite know what to do about all of this. Most of the problem with the naps lies with them waking each other up. We could separate them, but ultimately, we want them to be used to the other baby and their noises. I'd also like to stop them from waking up 20-30 minutes in to the nap and having to rock them back to sleep. Because even just one hour that I could have for myself during the day to get things done, would be great.

I have the book "The no cry nap solution" and I have read some parts of it, but methinks it's time to just read the whole damn thing cover to cover, because mama needs a SOLUTION. And also, a shower.

(old picture. back when they fell asleep pretty darn easily.)