Sleep Update

I used to think "that will NEVER be us" when I would hear parents say that they were still having trouble getting their 10-month-old to sleep through the night. I used to think, "How could that be? How could parents not have a full night's rest for 10 months straight? Don't they know how to make their baby go to sleep? They must not be doing it right." Well, we've been doing it right and we're still not sure how to make our baby go to sleep! What works with one baby does not work with the other. The bottom line is that Wes and I are still sleep-deprived.

Unfortunately, it's been over 11 months since we've had a full night's rest. Don't get me wrong, we've gotten really close many times, but there has yet to be a night where Gavin AND Vivian have both slept from 7-8pm until 5-6am. Gavin has achieved this feat many, many times. And because of that, I think we actually might love him a little more. Miss Vivian, on the other hand, has only slept that long without waking up a handful of times (in the last 11 months!). But of course on the few nights where she slept soundly through the night, Gavin did not.

The current (and by "current", I mean the last two weeks or so) sleep schedule has been going a little something like this:

• Gav & Viv are put down for the night (ha!) between 7 and 8pm
• One of them wakes up 2-3 hours later, but just needs a quick butt-pat to go back to sleep
• Then, Viv will usually wake up around 12-2am and will not go back to sleep without some significant cuddling, rocking, or even a bottle. Note: Viv has been on a medication where nightmares are a side effect (I know, it sucks). And so that is likely the reason why she wakes up and cannot go back to sleep with a simple butt-pat. Even though she has an excuse, it still sucks.
• Then, if we're lucky, we'll get to sleep until 5-6am where Gavin and/or Vivian will wake up, drink some juice or water and go back to sleep for an hour or two. This is not always the case though. Gavin has been known to wake up at 4am instead.
• So, if you're following this, on a good night, we'll get up once with one baby around 11pm just for a few minutes, then with Viv around 1am for 20-30 minutes, and then with just Gavin around 5am for 10 minutes before one of us wakes up for the day around 6:30 or so. That's a good night! On a bad night (which is not very atypical by the way), we'll get up once with one baby around 11pm just for a few minutes, then with Viv around 1am for 20-30 minutes, then with Gavin around 4am for 10-15 minutes, then with Viv around 5:30 for 10-15 minutes, and then with Gavin and Vivian for the day around 6:30am.

Needless to say, the sleep update is that the sleep schedule is not where we would like it to be.