Nap Rules

The Routine commands that I feed the twins, keep them awake for a while, set them down for a nap, and repeat. My main interaction with the twins still involves trying to make them sleep when I want them to sleep, and stay awake when I want them to stay awake. I don’t remember this phase taking so long with Abbie, possibly because I’ve blocked it out of my mind. I thought that at this point with Abbie, my only challenge was getting her to sleep when I wanted her to sleep; convincing her to stay awake at that age was like convincing the vice president to discharge his firearm – done and done.

Keeping the twins awake can involve a little more work, but they’re better than a couple weeks ago. No longer do I spend their wake time torturing them with foot tickles and sternum rubs to keep them awake; just holding them upright is enough to keep them awake now. They still don’t have good head control, but they can hold their heads straight if they concentrate, and to concentrate they have to stay awake. Otherwise their heads flop uncomfortably if they try to sleep, which saves me the trouble of having to torture them.

Sometimes they’re content to sleep and let their heads flop heedlessly in the breeze created as Abbie bounds between forbidden objects in a limit-testing spree. At this point, my newest weapon to keep them awake is to throw them. I just bounce them up and down a little more forcefully than gentle, always keeping my hands on their bodies for support in case they suddenly go Plushenko on me and attempt a quadruple toe loop. This always spurts the eyes wide open by the second bounce as they try to discern why their world is rapidly moving.

After wildly stimulating them, I set them down for their nap. They’re still on an identical nap schedule, which is a blessing. Not that they sleep for their entire nap. I still have to spend a lot off time inserting pacifiers to calm them during when they should be sleeping, but it’s a lot better than it was a couple weeks ago. Ian has a habit of waking 45 minutes early from his nap, and fussing for about 15 minutes before going back to sleep. Tory, sensing the fussing void, then starts fussing 30 minutes early from his nap before falling back asleep 15 minutes later. It’s like they’re both awake and fussing for half-an-hour, when they’re really just ganging up on me by taking turns. Maybe the fact that there’s only one of Abbie is why I don’t remember this phase taking so long with her.