Sleep Status

The twins’ sleeping habits continue to evolve. They’re not exactly improving, but they’re evolving. We’re consistently down to one feeding overnight. I don’t know when the last time was that I had to feed them twice in a night. That may be because the sleep deprivation prevents me from remembering, but I’m pretty certain that it’s been more than a month since their last double feeding. They even go about six hours between feedings overnight sometimes, and six hours officially qualifies as “sleeping through the night” by some people. Granted these are probably deliriously sleep-deprived people, but their opinion counts too. So they’re officially down to one feeding a night, and will occasionally “sleep through the night” by some definition. That doesn’t mean they only wake up once a night, though.

I usually set them down for the night about 11pm, or 11:15pm if they pee on their outfits while I’m changing them. The first time they wake up is at 2am, and I mean “at,” not “about.” I could throw a meatloaf in the oven at 1am, fall asleep, and they will wake me up when it’s ready to eat an hour later. I don’t know what I’d do with a cooked meatloaf at 2am, but it would be there if I need it. Every morning when I hear them fussing and see the clock at 2, I’ll roll out of bed, stumble to their crib, and give them their pacifiers. They go right back to sleep, and I return to bed.

They usually wake up again about an hour later. Again I’ll stumble to their bed and give them their pacifiers, but I’ll go to the kitchen afterwards to prepare their feeding. After the milk warms for a couple of minutes, I’ll take it to their crib for their feeding. If they’re still fussing, I’ll feed them right away. If they went back to sleep, I’ll set the bottles next to their crib, and curl up on the couch until they wake up. Sometimes they start fussing before the cat has a chance to sneak onto my blanket. Sometimes they sleep for another 90 minutes, giving the cat more than enough time to cut circulation to my lower leg while I sleep.

After the 3am-4:30am feeding, they go right back to sleep, and so do I. Then, no matter what time I fed them, they start fussing at 6am, and this is one of those “pull your meatloaf out of the oven precisely at 6am” wake ups. This is consistent with their nap routine when they wake up an hour before I want them awake no matter when I set them down. I always just ignore them at their 6am fussing, and they fall back asleep within a few minutes. At least they stay asleep until about 7am, at which point they wake up angry. I’ll roll out of bed, wonder why I never get to sleep earlier, and prepare their breakfast. Afterwards I make breakfast for Abbie and I. Some sort of meatloaf-like food generally sounds good.