Fullhouse is hit by ultimate fatigue weapon.

[von Nev]

Hi Fullhouse,

I have two 2-years olds and the only way we got through the first year (and even now) was to be very disciplined on the times the kids go to sleep and do everything in your power to not got in the room every time they cry.

If they got up crying, and it did not sound like they were hurt or sick, we would wait 5 minutes outside the door to their room and see if it got worse. Usually they went back to sleep. Those first days listening to one of our babies cry for 5 minutes was heartbreaking but my wife always said, "They are feed, they have a clean diaper, and they are not hurt. It's ok."

If they were still crying after 5 minutes but it did not get worse we would wait 5 more minutes. Most of the time they went back to sleep. After 8-10 minutes of continuous crying we would go in there and see what was up but we tried to avoid picking them up or rocking them back to sleep. If you rock them to sleep, sleep in their room or have them sleep in your bed with you they want it all the time (they love being comfortable) but your fatigue factor goes to 1000!! Those little bundles of joy are very smart and pick up your patterns pretty quick.

Using this method we ended up getting them into a pattern that once they were in bed at 7 pm we did not get them back out until around 6 am. Those 11 hours were a god send for our sanity. My wife (I credit her) got them sleeping 9 hours straight by age 5 months.

When they were the age of your little one they went to bed at 7 pm. Since they were feeding every couple of hours, I would take the 10 pm feeding shift and play games until midnight and then my wife would take the 2 am feeding. And then we would get them up at 7 am. With this arrangement my wife slept from 9 pm to 2 am then from 3 am to 7 pm (9 hours). I slept from 12 am to 7 am (7 hours). When they stopped feeding every couple hours and we stopped the 2 am feeding my wife (who had the kids all day) slept from 10 pm to 7 am (9 hours). I still slept 7 hours.

This is what worked for us. Your mileage may vary. I think in our case too that having twins helped immensely as when they woke up at night or in the morning they had eachother to entertain and comfort. Now that they are two 2-year olds it seems harder.

Good luck and do enjoy this time with the baby. Take lots of pictures and videos. They grow up so fast.

Congrats!

Marty