Thursday Threes: What to Expect When Raising Triplets- Bedtime

 

  People have always been amazed about how I put my kids to sleep and all of the credit goes to a nice little invention called WOOMBIES.  Shortly after Charli Kate came home from the hospital, I ordered my first Woombie and we've owned many since.  For the first two months of their lives, my babies lived in an incubator and then they were swaddled in a small crib.  When I got them home, their cribs were so big and they would move around so much that they would come out of their swaddles.  When I didn't swaddle them, they would jerk themselves awake.  My solution was the Woombie and bedtime and naps have been fabulous ever since!  I simply tuck them into their little cocoons and either get on my computer or read until they fall asleep.  They hardly make a peep and it takes about 15 minutes for them to fall asleep for their nap and about 45 minutes for them to fall asleep for the night.
  I actually still put them in Woombies.  I've tried to leave them out, but they will just play in their cribs and play with each other.  If I try to leave the room so that they can play until they are tired, they start screaming.  I decided, why should I fix something that isn't broken?  Sure, the pediatricians recommend babies to only be swaddled by three or four months of age, and I understand that my trio may have been behind developmentally because of it, but sometimes I think that not all things apply to triplets.
  My theory was confirmed after a dentist appointment last week.  Everyday, the kids and I walk to the grocery store and to get to the store we pass by my dentist office.  On my recent visit, my dentist asked me how bedtime was at my house and I recited our Woombie routine.  She then described to me the routine she had for triplets that she would occasionally babysit.  To put them to bed, she would put them all in their cribs, pull down the side of the crib so that they could get out. She would then run out of the room, lock the door, and put a fan in front of the door to drown out the babies' screams.  Then for about an hour or so, they would scream at the door, jamming their little fingers under the door crack, until they finally fell asleep on top of each other.  She would then, quietly sneak into the room and carry them back to their cribs. How exhausting!!  And this was the pediatrician recommended bedtime routine.  After hearing this, I have no guilty feelings about putting them in their Woombies.  I've got to say, its way better than the alternative.  I would rather keep them in a sleeping bag until they are six then to have to go through what my dentist described.