sleeping arrangements

Here is some back ground before I explain the new sleeping arrangements :)

The twins moved from the bassinets in our room to a crib after 2 weeks (they were 6 weeks old at that time). They both slept in Kaden's crib until they were 4 months old, until they started to wake each other up. Then they slept in their own cribs and all was great! We were never the type that was insanely against having our children sleep in our bed, but of course that woulnd't be our first choice...obviously so, since we have twins. But last summer, in August of '09, both babies got very sick. This was their first sickness of any kind and I am pretty pleased that they lasted 10 1/2 months w/o even a cold! But they got some sort of flu and threw up all day for 10 days. Can you even imagine have TWO sick infants? We were constantly cleaning up vomit but besides the mess and pure exhaustion, it was absolutely heart wrenching seeing them so miserable. Miserable is an understatement. The night they got sick, I did as well. Actually, Kaleiah and I randomly started vomiting at the same time at about 1:30 am. I was hanging over the toilet when she started crying in her room and when Randy went to check on her he realized she was sick too. I ended up having to go to the ER (and waking up my mom at 2am to come over and stay with the babies) bc I was in so much pain. I was on an IV and was there (still vomiting and feeling horrible) until 6am. They said it was probably food poisoning. My guess is the babies got sick bc they were still being breast fed and I passed it to them. So, here we were, two extremely sick babies and one very sick mommy. So thankful for such a great husband and my amazing parents who helped out. The next 10 days were pretty much hell, like I said, taking care of 2 sick 10 months old is no easy feat. We were exhausted and so stressed out bc they refused to eat or drink. They would only nurse which was great bc it provided them nutrients and comfort but it was still hard. But they lost so much weight during the 2 weeks they were sick (KW 1.5 lbs and KH 2 lbs). So heartbreaking. Another tough part was they wanted to be held every single moment of the day an night. It was so great to have my parents and Randy's mom here almost everyday, all day to help comfort and hold them. But at night, it was rough. They just would not let us put them down. They would cry and cry and they were still so sick and just wanted comfort. Thus began a new sleeping arrangement. For the first time in their life (besides a few naps as newborns), they slept with us in our bed. It was all we could do to make sure all 4 of us got some much needed sleep and rest. We need to rest or we'd never get well. So for a week we had 2 babies in our bed. It was pretty cramped and we hoped it wouldn't last for long. But it was great that we did find something that worked.
As soon as they got better, we tried getting them back to sleep in their own room. Kaleiah went back with pretty much no problem. Kaden was a different story. He would NOT. We tried for weeks and then our of exhaustion and frustration we let him continue sleeping with us. Again, it worked to keep the whole family sleeping. I know some people do not agree with co sleeping and I know many poeple frowned upon us for doing that. But to those people I say mind our own and don' worry about it! You aren't the ones doing it and again, it simply worked. We would say, ok, this can't go on for more than a month or so. But months went by and then a year went by and our little buddy was still w/ Mommy and Daddy! I'll let you in on a little secret, we both kind of love it. Kaden is so sweet and cuddly and just craves being close and next to us :) And even though sometimes we wished we could get him sleeping back in his room, I said he in only a baby ONCE. He is only this small once. He won't need us forever and he won't be in here forever. So I just soak it up bc I know in just a short time he'll be grown.
We have tried so many times in the past year to get him back in his crib but one of the hardest parts about having twins that share a room is having one wake the other up. By keeping him in our room, we have gotten such great sleep the past year bc even when one would wake up crying, it wouldn't disturb the other. Another big reason why we stuck with that arrangement.
Well, we decided that since they twins just turned 2, that we try again and that it's time for Kaden to be back in his room.
We decided to try first with naps and once we get that down, move on to bed time. Well, I am SO HAPPY to say that this is the 3rd day in a row that he has gone down for naps in his own room! I am so proud of him and he's pretty proud of himself, too :)
Kaleiah, like I said, has always slept in her crib except for that one week last summer. But until she was 16 months she had to either be nursed or rocked to sleep (usually both). At 16 months she started to be go to sleep on her own when I put her in her crib awake. She is a great sleeper. Kaden had to be nursed to sleep until 14 months and then rocked to sleep until about 20 months (again, such sweet moments I cherished). For the last 4 months we would often lay in our bed w/ him until he drifted off to sleep, even for naps. I often fell asleep with him which was nice :)
On Saturday I decided to just try to get him to nap in therwith out ANY assistance from me it and it was pretty easy. I was a little nervous about how Kaleiah would react, since she was used to having the room to herself. Now she had her buddy and I thought they bot might be too excited to sleep! Well, I put Kaden in his crib with some of his favorite things and just explained that this is where he sleeps and that sissy always sleeps in her crib too. He barley whined. That is one of the good things I think about waiting until now bc at 2, I know he understands what I am telling him. So I told him that sister would be right there sleeping in her crib and that he's a big boy so he needs to sleep in his crib. A few min later I heard them talking to each other and playing :) I only had to go in twice and tell them to lay down and go ni-night and after 30 min both of them were sound asleep! So not only did he go to sleep in his own crib and own room but he did it him self w/o any help from me! I was sooo happy and so proud of him. Yesterday he fought it a little but I promised him that if he slept in his crib we'd go to Dinseyland we he woke up :) When he did wake up I praised him and told him what a good job he did and like the first day, he smiled and said "yeah!" and you could see how proud he was :) I know this might all sound funny bc this is not a big deal to most people bc most babies always sleep in their crib/room. But it was a big step after having him in our bed for 14 months!
Today was 3rd day in a row and I am confidant that this is the new sleeping arranging, for good :) Next week we are going to start doing it with bed time. I just wanted to blog about it since this blog is basically their baby book :)