So, You’re Having Twins…. In This Case Triplets- Getting Sleep (Guest Post)
Angela is guest posting today in the So, You’re Having Twins…. Series.
All week long we are focusing on tips from mom’s of multiples and their helpful hints on getting sleep once the babies are born. Angela’s advice is from the eyes of a mom who has TRIPLETS!!!!
Make sure you check out her bio at the end where you can also view her precious blog about her little darling dears.
Enjoy~
John and I both agree, that if we had to do those first sleep-deprived months with triplets over again and we could only spend money on ONE thing, we would spend it on a night nanny. Before these guys were born I considered the idea of hiring a night nurse to be SO extravagant, such an unthinkably luxurious expense. Only the uber-rich with nothing better to spend their money on hired night nannies, right? Boy, did that misconception go out the window after that first ultrasound!
Everyone tells you when you are pregnant to make sure you sleep when the baby sleeps – take naps whenever they do. Well, that did not work for me at all! First, I’m a really bad napper, and second, I had three babies. By the time I had all three fed, burped, changed, and put down to sleep, there wasn’t a whole lot of time left for me to do anything.
For one week, we had Kate home alone, and that gave us a taste of how it would be to only have one! We thought we were prepared for the other two a week later, but those first hours, when we brought Willa and Oliver home, were chaos. Kate was on a four hour feeding schedule, and the other two were on a three hour schedule, so everyone was eating and sleeping at different times, and we needed to pay attention to our older son occasionally. Luckily we had arranged for our night nanny to come that first night.
When we came down the next morning, all was calm and peaceful. All three babies were now on a four hour feeding schedule, on a schedule that worked for us and let us get our then four year old off to school before babies had to eat, all of the baby laundry was washed and folded, AND our house had been reorganized.
Our nanny came four nights a week and stayed with us until the babies were three months old and sleeping through the night – yes, she had them sleeping 10-12 hours a night by three months!
I truly believe that you can do anything if only you have enough sleep! Those nights when we could go upstairs and shut our door and know we had eight uninterrupted hours to sleep and not worry about babies, were the best nights ever. And worth every penny.
So, my biggest piece of advice to anyone expecting multiples, is to get some help at least one or two nights a week. If you can’t hire someone, enlist a friend, neighbor, or your mom, to take over for a little while – and don’t feel guilty about it! You have a tough job, and you need your sleep!
Angela is mom to 22-month old triplets, Kate, Oliver & Willa, as well as to their six-year-old big brother, Evan. She and her family live in Austin, TX, and she has been blogging about life with triplets for the past two years. Make sure you check her out over at OMG You Poor Thing where she writes about her journey. (Shout out to Texas mom’s of multiples! )