They were right

They said to get as much sleep as possible before the baby/babies come.

They said you'll never get to sleep in again.

They said your life will revolve around bedtimes and nap times.

Whomever these "they" are were stinking right.  And I hate them.

Bedfords have been struggling in the sleep department lately to say the very least.
 We have done everything possible to get and get some sleep.  I mean everything.

Take 3 naps instead of 2.

Fan on.

Fan off.

Sound machine up loud.  Sound machine turned down soft.

Extra large amounts of food during the day. (which could be why Finny is a 20 lb. chunk)

Rocking back to sleep when they wake up.

Teething tablets (which Wes thinks I am straight drugging my children to sleep.  Nope.  Homeopathic homey)

Window open.  Window closed.

Swaddling them again.

Letting them cry themselves to sleep.

Sleeping on the floor with them in their room til they fall asleep.

Bringing them to our bed.  (seriously last resort.  I swear as soon as their tiny, little, crying, fussy head hits our mattress, they are asleep)

I haven't gone to Tylenol quite yet, but there's no telling what I'll do in a zombie induced state.

After talking it over with a couple of mommy buddies, praying like it's my job, and having nice, long talks with the babies about the importance of sleep, this is what has been working for us the past week:

1) Sleep train yo!  Sleep train. This infamous "they" told me about this a while back. I read books on it, and was fully prepared to train these little rascals.  I thought that they were because they were sleeping through the night, however we were rocking them to sleep.  It was working up until they were about 7 months.  Then things changed and they started waking up.  3 times a night.  Each.

So at nap time and bed time, I set them in their cribs and let them soothe themselves to sleep.  That way if they wake up in the middle of the night, they know how to fall back to sleep by themselves.  This of course was rough at first, but they got the hang of it real quick.  For the past week they've been falling asleep by themselves.

2) Amber necklace.  Audrey was the main culprit of these 3 am parties, and was fussy almost constantly.  So I decided to get her an Amber necklace.  People swear by these, but I was skeptical.  She has been wearing it for about a week, and is rested and happy again.  Coincidence?  I think not.  She is, however, the only one in our family to have about 5 mosquito bites. . the hippie ju-ju-bees might be making her especially tasty.

Fingers crossed these things continue to work and I don't have to resort to drugging my babies to sleep.  I won't, at least not consciously.

So in short, they were right.
They were also right when they say that it is all worth it.  Even when they've kept you up all night and you want to pull your hair out, they are so worth it.

Finny in a basket

 PS Audrey is on the move.  Help!