Yes, they really are sleeping twelve hours at night. They are in the same room in their individual cribs. You might be wondering how we did it. I can hardly believe it myself. Well this is our tale of getting the triplets to sleep TWELVE hours at night.
When I became pregnant I scoured the internet for other triplet mommas out there so I could gather some insight on what to expect in this very unexpected journey. In my search I stumbled upon a blog (http://thegaydosgang.blogspot.com/). She has three girls. In the course of following her journey, she recommended this book (Twelve hours of sleep by twelve weeks old). She swore by it and was using it for her kids. I copied her post and filed it away for later. (This is her post about it. It outlines the whole book. I do recommend buying the book though because there are a few extras that she left out.)
We had to wait until the triplets were old enough to start the program. The requirements are different if you have a singleton, twins, or triplets. If you have done any research on sleep training, there are three different theories that I have encountered. There is cry it out, limited cry it out, and no cry. My preference is limited cry it out and occasional cry it out. This is what the book uses. Basically, the kid can cry for three to five minutes straight before you go in and soothe them by patting their back, giving a pacifier, changing their position, and/or calmingly saying everything is all right. They focus on teaching your child how to sleep and self soothe.
The first obstacle was to get the kids eating 6-8 ounces every four hours. They had been eating 3-4 ounces every three hours. I looked at my nine pound Cecelia and thought ooookaaayyyy. I didn’t know how that much food was going to fit into her belly without her spitting it all up. The book said they would start to self regulate the amount of food as you started to spread out the feedings. It was worth a shot. Its not like I had a back up plan.
This phase took ten days. We transitioned from every three hours to every three and a half hours. It took four days for them to get that down. Then, we went to every three hours and forty-five minutes. Another three days passed. Finally, we went to every four hours. Another three days passed. Success!
Now that we were feeding every four hours, we could begin the night training. I was not looking forward to this part at all. The book said they had to self regulate. I couldn’t wake up the others to feed them just because one woke up for food. Thoughts of sleepless nights flashed in my head every time I thought about starting. I knew this would be the hardest part. But it would be worth it in the end. I just had to stick to the plan and remember this is baby boot camp.
At this point they were already eating twice at night (11pm/2am). The book said the second feeding is usually the first one to go and then the first feeding. The first night Athan didn’t wake up for the second feeding at all. He slept from 11pm until the 6am feeding. I thought this must already be working. (Little did I know he would not want to give up the 11pm feeding for FOUR MORE WEEKS!) Three nights later Cecelia and Niko didn’t wake up for the 11pm feeding. I was getting happier each day. Three more nights and Niko slept the whole night! We were on a roll. In the mean time Cecelia was eating less and less on her 2am feeding. Finally, a week later she slept the whole night. I was thinking this book had some kind of magical powers. This can’t be for real! Two of my three kids was sleeping 12 hours straight!
By the time of this milestone, we are four weeks into the program and waiting for Athan to sleep the whole night. Every three days I began decreasing his intake by half an ounce at night. He would wake up and cry like a mad man for that feeding. I felt like I was starving him. (If you have seen pictures of him, I have clearly not starved that boy. And I log how many ounces he was getting each day. He was getting the correct intake.) Then he would have a hard time going back to sleep. His head would move from side to side trying to get into a position. As I continued to decrease the amount of milk, things got worse. He would wake up every hour after the 11pm feeding. I would go in and pat him. Leave. He cried for five minutes. I went back in. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. We finally broke the habit.
Well there were several habits to break. First, he wanted to be in the swing to sleep. Then, he wanted to snuggle to fall asleep. Finally, he had to be patted to sleep. All the while, I am not getting any sleep. He would cry on and off for a half hour and then fall asleep. Then he would wake up in two hours. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. We adjusted and put night diapers on him and changed his mattress, but he was still waking up. Craziness I tell you! All the while I am feeling like a horrible mother who is starving her child and not making everything better. This is when I wanted to quit and just give him a full bottle each night. That way I would have my sanity back and he would sleep most of the night. It was a great compromise. But, that blasted book promised me twelve hours and I WANTED MY TWELVE HOURS! If Cecelia and Niko were doing it, there is no reason why he couldn’t. I had to stick to the plan in the book. If I would give up now, I would never know if it would work. So we continued. We got all the way to one ounce at 11pm. Then, he wanted it at 12:30am. Then 1am. I was getting excited at that point because when Cecelia wanted it at 1:30 she started sleeping the whole night a couple of days after that. Finally, he wanted it at 2am. We were almost there! I decided to make him wait until 9:30am to take his morning nap. It seemed like he thought the morning was an extension of his nighttime sleep. Then it happened. There was no crying AT ALL for the WHOLE NIGHT!!! Was it a one time thing? The next day the same thing happened. Ohhhh my GOD!!! It worked! It worked! It worked! I was beginning to think it never would.
I had to endure A LOT of complaining/crying when training them. There was nothing easy about training Athan. Nikolas was the easiest one. Cecelia caught on rather quickly as well. All I know is this book worked with three very different babies. Things aren’t perfect with Athan, but we always go back to the book to adjust his schedule and he gets back on track. If you have a baby, give it a shot and you could very well be sleeping like a normal person in less than six weeks. I know I feel like a new woman and I actually get things done in the house.
I want to end this post with two pictures that encapsulate sheer bliss for a new mom.
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