O wow this week is consumed by broken sleep, due to us deciding that it is a good time to take the dummies away! And I am doing a free course on mental resilience, every bit helps right. I love a bit of bringing in positivity into your life! Hence the silence on the posting front, but I am here!
Back to the dummies; I have been following my instincts a lot with Austin and Aria and listening to their needs. The same in this situation, I feel that they are understanding more and need the dummies less yet seemed more addicted than ever. They could now ask for them, look for them, point at them and I even thought they could smell them. I have removed them from the room now and they had some radar that said where there are. We only offer them at nap and bedtime, but they were creeping into the rest of the day.
Wednesday, day 3 of no dummies: At the weekend we took them away but gave them back at 3am mostly because I couldn’t deal with being awake but that didn’t work, as Aria knew that they existed so went ballistic when they were not given. Now we are forming a different bad habit, cuddling to sleep. In hindsight I see why they went down so well without lots of cuddles, DUMMIES! Hay do what works for you in the moment parents.
It is a little shame that we were basically at the sleeping through stage and now we are back to the start again. I am finding that you need mental strength such as you have never known during this process. Challenges all over the place; what are we doing you may think to attempt this during lockdown? Never one to stand down, I am holding firm but not alone, my husband is my rock in times when I am feeling like I want to falter or cave. I look to him to be our strength, do not forget that you are team. Always, but even more now that we are all staying home, do not be shy to lean on each other.
On the third night dummy free, after holding Aria a little before bed she drifted off, with no crying and they slept through. Me on the other hand found it so hard to switch off for fear of Aria waking that I feel like I was up all night. I think everyone needs to wean off the comfort of a dummy, even the parents. I believe that is where the battle is fought and won, it is us that want to grab for it when the babies can’t settle or at 3am when they wake.
Positively it is like we are growing closer to the twins in the way that we now get to cuddle them a bit longer to get them to go down and even seeing their little personalities blossom without the old friend we call ‘D’ in the house now in fear of the babies understanding and asking for them again. It’s a process, we not magicians it has been hard, and I am sure there will be a few more days of work in it. I remind myself that this is not permanent and the same can be said for anything challenging or difficult with children.
Create You Coaching 