HOLLY & MACEY - STORY - Help with Sleeping & Settling in Our Own Home
We started our family with 4 beautiful children who used to sleep and then we had twins girls Holly and Macey who didn't sleep !!
It started off with Holly having a couple of ear infections and not feeling well, so we moved her into our bed while she was sick just so everybody could get some sleep (big mistake). Then it became every night in our bed. Holly would scream all night if she was separated from us, even though her cot was in our room. We thought this was ok at first until she grew and grew then kicked us and rolled on us, she was making sure we weren't leaving her, but we weren't getting any sleep.
So after a couple of months of sleeping like this I decided to move to the sofa couch in the lounge room with Holly so my husband could get a good nights sleep. He had to cope with work all week with 5:00am starts and it was OK for a little while until Macey started to sense that Holly wasn't in the room so she joined us on the sofa couch through the night!!! Now they both were crying all day, they were so over tired due to lack of sleep through the night, they hardly slept during the day unless it was in my arms and with four other kids in the family who were needing our attention life was becoming very difficult. I was exhausted, I knew it wasn't working but had no idea what to do about it or where to go for help.
I had in my head that we just had to put up with it, that this is how it is until our private maternal & child health nurse came for a visit to do an 18 month check up with the girls and as a part of this asked about their sleeping habits. I pointed to the sofa couch showing her their bed. She could see how tired and grizzly the girls were and she explained to me about how I could start a new routine for them and implement it. She stayed longer that day to show me what she meant and helped me put the girls to bed for an afternoon nap (not a normal occurrence in this house). Macey quickly settled to sleep in her cot but Holly was so determined to break my heart this day. She wasn't going to go to sleep (she was used to crying and have me come pick her up again). The M&CHN could see that I was struggling with this and sat with Holly until she went to sleep. She then helped me plan a new routine for the girls which would help them by becoming predictable. A couple of day later on the weekend she rang us and offered to come around again which we gratefully accepted. She really wanted it to work for us, as we had told her we did too. She spent half the day with us showing us what to do and giving us support and advice all the way which we are so grateful for!! It was a struggle but the girls were now sleeping in their beds.
It took a few days ( surprisingly few really ) and lots of determination and tears but we now have two sleeping babies who stay in their beds and are happier through the day. We learnt to have a routine again, to be strong and persistent and stick to it. We now understand we are the parents and know when the girls are tired and need to go to bed to sleep and realize they wont always be happy about it.
two happy parents
Nicky & Greg
