New Year and Follow-up Thankfulness

I've written a couple posts recently about changes the girls were going to be experiencing. I thought I'd follow up on those--I know I was praying. Some of you must have been too, because things really did turn out much better than I could have hoped.

 

Holiday travel. I had written about how my anxious heart feared and dreaded holiday travel this year. Mostly, I feared that disrupting the girls' schedule would poke a hole in the raft of routine that we'd worked so hard to inflate.

 

As some of you predicted, the girls adjusted to the changes with minimal difficulty, and had no trouble transitioning back once we got home. This mama is beyond thankful! Here are a few things we did to maintain some consistence away from home:

• We departed as the girls were supposed to be going to sleep. Two of the trips were around two hours long, so we left when the girls were supposed to going down for a nap. The other trip was four hours, which we made at night as the girls were supposed to go to bed. They did a pretty good job of transitioning from the car to their crib.
• We made their sleeping environment as close to home as possible. We brought along a box fan for white noise as well as their sleep sacks, blankets and binks. Their room at home is dark, really dark. We covered windows with blankets in attempts make wherever they were sleeping as dark as possible.
• We stuck to their schedule. If it was naptime, it didn't matter if we were in the middle of opening presents, we made sure that we kept to their schedule.
• We kept bedtime and naptime routine the same. We also made a point to have family say goodnight early, so that we could give the girls some time to wind down from the extra stimulation.
• We remained flexible. One of their naps just wasn't working, so we got in the car and went for a drive. We wanted them to be well rested, so that they could have a good visit with family.

Transitioning to separate cribs. We made the change this past Friday since it was a long weekend, and Brad would be around in case things didn't go well. Between their two naps we set up the second crib in their room. We put the cribs in an "L" shape, so that they can still interact if they want to. We divided up the binks, and assigned a crib to each of them.

The girls' first sleep apart from one another was their afternoon nap. It did not go well. I think I cried as much as they did. They struggled so much; it broke my heart. That night went, only slightly better. As predicted, Hadley had a harder time being apart from her sister. Again--just a lot of struggling to figure out how to sleep apart from one another.

The next day went better. Much better, Infinitely better. No crying at all. Now, when I put them down for naps, Brynne lays down. In the same motion of me laying Hadley down, she is sitting up and pulling herself up to standing. I let her do it. The first time it happened, I watched her for a few moments before leaving the room, I saw that she is peeking at her sister. After I left, I heard her through the monitor chatting to Brynne for a few minutes, and then it was quiet, and that was it.

What a blessing to have such resilient and adaptable daughters. Brynne and Hadley pretty much rock. I am also enormously thankful for my awesome, supportive husband, who has really big shoulders for me to cry on as my babies grow up.

 

267. The girls' excitement at getting to drink out of cups.

 

 

268. Brynne banging on the register.

269. Two babies warm with sleep.

270. Almost 11 months of babies sleeping in the same crib.

271. Fairly easy transition to separate cribs.

272. Lots of meals in the freezer.

273. An awesome husband who prepared all those meals.

274. Fascination with the frog night light.

 

 

275. Going to aerobics with Laila.

 

276. Getting home without the muffler falling off.

 

277. Listening to Hadley chattering away in her crib first thing in the morning.

 

278. Ringing in the new year sound asleep.