Wonder Woman and Sleep Training

A friend of mine sent me a text the other morning that said:

"I think you are like a young version of Lynda Carter. Wonder Woman. She is on the today show today and I thought of you."

All I could think was man, I wish I had Wonder Woman's powers these days. Then I started to wonder what were her powers? It seems as though she gave up all her powers to stay on planet earth and what she was left with was superhuman strength. And well, maybe, just maybe I have this superhuman strength these days, otherwise, I wouldn't have made it this far with a 2 year old and 5 month old twins.

So, the other night I decided to turn into Wonder Woman.
The babies started to sleep very poorly a week ago and I was at my limit. After 4 nights of no sleep...seriously, no sleep I lost it. That night I put the babies down to bed at 9:00pm. My head must have hit  my pillow 8 times by 2:00am and I had nothing but maybe 10 minutes of sleep. I was so mad. When a baby started to cry at 2am, I just let them cry...actually scream over the monitor. After an uncomfortable amount of time my husband turned over in the bed and said, "are you just going to let him cry" and I said "YES". So my husband said, then why do you have the monitor on. That's when I lost it. I said something like "So I can hear when they stop crying. If it's bothering you so much why don't you just get up and help. I've been doing this for 5 months and you never get up with them. Never never never. I jumped out of bed turned the monitor off, slammed our door. Opened the microwave put a bottle inside, slammed the microwave closed, opened it, got the bottle slammed it back closed, marched myself back into the babies room for the umpteenth time, slammed their door closed behind me, picked up the culprit and stuck a bottle in his mouth.

AHH, yes, I felt much better by slamming all the things I possibly could, secretly in hopes that I would wake my 2 year old up since she is my husbands responsibility at night then he'd be forced to get up with someone! But of course she slept and of course my dear husband walked into the babies room and said, here, let me take him. At this point I was boiling. And I said, "You've had 5 months to help - GET OUT!"

Of course I wanted his help. I had been wanting it for the past few days that led up to this. But I didn't want to have to ask for it. I wanted him to recognize I needed help. I said things like, I don't know how much longer I can do this. They've been sleeping terrible the last few night. Maybe when my dad comes to visit I can have him take turns getting up...of course, my husband never offered. What was I thinking? He could read my mind? I guess so. Don't we women just want that?

So at 3:30 when the next baby started crying and I was back in bed, I leaned over and said, "can you go get her". He said sure, but then asked a million questions, does she want a bottle, should I bring her back to bed, should I change her diaper. My response, "I don't care what you do, just get her back to sleep". Because of that I got about 2 hours of sleep that night.

In the morning, my poor husband who I beat up the night before with my angry words said, "I'm willing to help and do whatever you need me to, you know that, you just need to ask. I'm not like you and I don't just know what to do". By this time I had already decided it was time to Sleep Train.

After 4 nights of no sleep I decided the 5th night was time for sleep training, or else someone was going to really loose it. I mean really lose it. So sleep training it was. Babies went down at 9:00. The first baby who woke was around 11:30. I grabbed my night robe, as I always do because I freeze at night. When I get out of the covers I am super cold so I put on a little light weight white and pink robe with a hood and go get a baby. Well tonight my night robe turned into my superhero cape. As I put it on I envisioned myself as Wonder Woman and even put on the hoody. Well I know she doesn't ware a cape, but it amused me nonetheless. I turned the monitor off and sat on the couch. I timed 5 minutes and then went into the nursery, picked up the culprit and rocked and nursed him back to sleep. Then I went back to bed. When the next cries came over the monitor, I turned it off, put on my superhero cape and sat on the couch. I waited 10 minutes. Then went in and soothed my child back to sleep. This continued on all night with the increments on the couch getting longer and longer. I clung to my cape tighter and tighter telling myself, "don't give in. you have supernatural powers and you can do this."

By the 3rd night both babies slept from 9pm - 5am. Took a bottle and went back to sleep until 8:30.

Somehow my friend giving me a little boost that I reminded her of Wonder Woman did wonders. It got me in the mood to say "I can do this!"

Wonder Woman, ahh, how I love thee.