In the beginning, we kept lights on in our house pretty much around the clock.

We were pretty much awake around the clock (they ate every 3 hours, and it took 1.5 hours to feed them, then I pumped for 30 minutes). Keeping the lights on helped keep me from snuggling back down into a cozy, dark, warm spot just two more minutes, so a lamp in the living room, the light over the kitchen sink, and the light over the stove stayed on during dark hours.

Now, the only light that stays on is the one on the refrigerator’s ice/water dispenser.

In the beginning, they slept on their backs in swaddles and barely moved a muscle.

Now, they all sleep with a small lovey blanket and a soothe-n-glow seahorse. Toby has one of my shirts, and the girls have bigger, satin-rimmed blankets. I think their positions vary with every half hour.

In the beginning, they slept through anything – even when I ran the vacuum under their cribs or among chaos in the pack-n-play set up in our living room.

Now, we tiptoe and hold our breaths till they are asleep, we hiss commands at the dog to not go click-clicking down the hall outside their room (let alone bark at passing threats neighborhood people), and we freeze in place if we drop or bang into something.

In the beginning, we put them in their cribs drowsy but awake. They’d often fall asleep within moments, drunk on milk and exhausted with life as trying-to-catch-up preemies.

Now, we put them in their cribs sleepy but awake. They protest a bit at first, but they chatter to themselves and each other, sometimes laughing and blowing raspberries until the noises get quieter and more spaced apart. They drift off to sleep together, comforted by the sounds of their nearby siblings.

A lot has happened between then and now, and a lot of it has been downright hair-pulling hard. I don’t care, though. It was part of the growing process, something they needed to struggle through as babies and something we needed to struggle through as parents.

In the beginning, I slept an hour here or there.

Now, I (mostly) sleep 7-8 uninterrupted hours.

Thank God for the evolution of sleep.

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10 Responses to The evolution of sleep

  1. TheNextMartha says:

    Amen.

  2. Kallay says:

    Yes! It sounds exactly like our sleep schedule with the girls. So glad for full nights of sleep now.

  3. bet you never thought you’d see the day when the mom of a two-year-old singleton was jealous of your sleep. well that day is here. :)

  4. 😉 every night i pray it will be the night i get 7 hours of uninterupted sleep.

  5. Love this. Yay for 7+ hours ~ what a difference {almost} a year makes!

  6. Christine says:

    Definitely reading this with 3 hours of sleep under my belt. And it’s already 3 AM, so tonight’s not looking much better. I am very jealous of your 7 hours!

  7. Jackie says:

    ::sigh::
    The boys are doing better, but yeah…I remember at the beginning when they got home, it was like DON’T YOU EVER SLEEP?! lol Same schedule here on the pumpings and feedings, and then bam! The other twin was awake and repeat. If I can get 6 hours straight…heaven.
    I need to get that glow seahorse thingy. :) They love the twilight turtle that you posted before.

  8. Angel says:

    I’m so glad you’re getting that much sleep now!

  9. Tameka says:

    Yay for sleeping!<3

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