From the moment we were told we were expecting triplets we were somewhat excited, we knew it would be hard work, we knew we woudn't get much sleep but we were ready and willing to give it our best. Which looking back I think we have with Esmae, Indigo and Miller not far off two (August) we can't believe how quick time has gone. We have nurtured three tiny babies into three beautiful children who I am so proud of.
Ill give some background as to why we choose to do sleep training. After 22 months of having our triplets we had managed to have 5 full nights sleep ever, some nights were ok only getting up once or twice then there were some nights we didnt even manage a couple of hours. We knew this was expected and the first year I managed very well on the little sleep we got, although as they got older we expected them to sleep better and more than they were. To be honest from the lack of sleep my memory is at some points blank so parts of this are hard to write.
The babies had always been in such a good routine, the going to bed part was never an issue we always have them in bed by 7Pm. But when we got into bed it would be how many times will we be up tonight, not how many hours sleep can I get. So most of the research I looked into was changing the bedtime routine before they went to bed and that will help them sleep better. We also looked into natural remedy's, and wasted a lot of money on things we thought would help.
What is came down to was when one would wake, they could usually wake the other two, so as soon as they did we got up to settle them most of the time by bottle. We also tried the calming stroking their face, or rubbing their backs which usually ended worst as they would get even more worked up, all of the different approaches we took just simply didn't work for us.
With constant trips to the doctors as they always seem to get every bug that goes around they could tell how tired I was, on a couple of occasions I even asked if they could give them something to help them sleep, of course the answer was NO and it will get better soon. A couple of months ago I could feel myself getting more and more drained, never had any energy and was often feeling down about things. The babies who were now not babies but very clever children knew exactly how to keep us up through the night, the light at the end of the tunnel seemed to be darker than ever and I wondered when I would ever get some sleep.
I felt so bad for Kane who had to keep his focus at work all day and some nights was up as much as me, of course with the stress of no sleep we often had arguments and was getting to the point we both knew we had to do something to change the habits which was now daily life to the kids.
I had then heard from someone that this person had tried it and it worked, I messaged her to ask some questions about it and she decided to come over and discuss it with me. The thought of sleep training made both Kane and I quite nervous, we knew our children were so used to waking frequently and wondered if they would cope.
The basis of sleep training we decided to go for was an approach called the extinction method which pretty much means to extinguish any bad habits put in place and for the children to learn how to sleep by self settling. We kept the normal bedtime routine as it worked for us and it was just when they woke through the night you go in and say in a nice and but firm manner 'its sleeptime' then lie the child down and walk out. 5 minitues later go in and do same thing, then 10 mins, then 10 mins then 15 and 15 minutes til they settle. So in many ways the cry it out method. It was so scary to think we were going to try this as we had never really let them cry it out. But the thing we had to keep in mind was we didnt sleep too and it was time for the children to get some better habits in place.
Both kane and I are forever grateful to Bec who helped us immensely through our sleep training journey and we will always be so thankful for everything you did, it has actually been life changing!
Im not going to lie, its not easy and some nights the kids got the point some nights they tested and tested til they gave in. But the results have been amazing, we no longer have to make 5 bottles before in prep of the night ahead or go to bed dreading going to sleep as we knew we would be up soon, but now can happily go to bed and look forward to the morning/day ahead. We are still up usually around once or twice a night but that usually is just to say 'sleeptime now' and walk out and as soon as you walk out they dont even cry or anything im sure we will have the odd night that doesnt work and we will have to be up due to sickness or teething but we will know that overall we are getting so much sleep its great.
I know there are a lot of people who dont believe in sleep training babies, and it took me til 22 months before we needed to make the change but if you think you would like to try it please message me or ask what we did! If it has worked for me and my triplets it may work for you.
