Sleep Training...Ugh....(edited)

So today is day one of sleep training our twins to go to bed and self-soothe. We are going to listen to a lot of crying tonight and just the thought of it has caused me a lot of stress leading up to bedtime tonight. As I type this, I am listening to Victoria scream and cry harder and harder. Mommy is a little upset :(

We're following the advice of Dr. Weis.sb.u.rg who wrote the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins. He is more well known for his book about sleep habits for a singleton (Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby) but of course, we bought the book on twins.

It has been 2 minutes and Victoria is crying so hard she has hit fever pitch already with her crying. It's the kind of crying that just tears at your soul and makes you want to run into the room and scoop her up and cradle her tightly against your chest.

:(

Caitlyn was in the drowsy but still awake state when I put her down and she promptly fell asleep without any crying so that was one baby down, one more to go.

We agreed to use the approach "modified extinction" where you basically ignore the crying with an upper time limit on the crying. We agreed on 45 minutes before we go into check on them. Seems harsh, but this method is supposed to work within a few days rather than weeks with the next method and I want to make this suffering as short as possible.

Three minutes and counting...42 minutes to go.

She's screaming so hard now she's frantic and crying the hardest I've ever heard her.

Mommy is going to start crying soon...there are tears in my eyes now.

Basically, the crux of this book is that good sleeping habits are learned and are not inherent in human nature. It is our duty as parents to teach our children to self-soothe and to learn now to put themselves to sleep rather than relying on us to rock them/sing to them/breastfeed them/hold them to sleep.

8:08pm...silence?

Is she asleep?

We have the benefit of having a video monitor and my DH just confirmed that she has fallen asleep!!

I can't believe it!

8:08 and she's asleep! I cannot imagine those parents who had to listen to their children cry for over an hour. 8 minutes and I was about ready to crack myself. Can we hope for such early success with bedtime?

I guess only time will tell...

****************************

9:04pm...guess who woke up and started crying again? She's crying but it's more of a fussing kind of crying but she's building up steam...

9:08pm...both have started crying...Caitlyn a little more intermittent than Victoria but there is a chorus going...

9:11pm...Victoria has gone back full throttle and it looks like she's calling to me on the monitor and my heart is just being squeezed tight right now. She's positively shrieking now...

9:15pm - they've both stopped but they're both awake. Caitlyn is still fussing for Mommy...but they're not cr...oh wait, yes, they have gone back to crying...

9:18pm - loud murmurings of dissent but the crying has ceased for now. Let's see how long it lasts.

9:21pm - silence...golden silence...

9:26pm - Victoria is crying again...her little face is all scrunched up and her sister is punctuating her high pitched crying with a yelp here and there. I don't know how anyone sits through a solid hour of this torture...

9:33pm - I *think* they've fallen asleep. Again, we'll see how long this lasts...