Thursday Threes: Sleep Training Triplets

  We never really sleep trained the triplets; we just used the babywise schedule method and the kids would drift to sleep for their naps and bedtime while I worked on my computer or read in their room.  During the night, every once and awhile, one of the babies would wake up, I would go in and give them a pacey and they would go back to sleep.  When the kids started getting older, I started to become more and more aware of how many times I had to go in and comfort them and this started to feel wrong considering that they just turned 18 months.  Adrik was the biggest problem and on a good night I would rush to the room as soon as he made one little sound (in fear that the other two would wake up) to comfort him three or four times a night.  Some nights, I would lose count on how many times I went in.  After the kids were sick, it got worse.  I slowly begin to realize that something had to be done.  On one particular night, the kids started waking up at 11:30pm.  In two and a half hours, Adrik had waken up twice, Tali had waken up three times, and Charli Kate only woke up once, but she refused to go back to sleep and was now sleeping in bed with me.  With only three and a half more hour to sleep and maybe one hour of rest under my belt, I finally just turned off the monitor to let them work it out.  The next day I was so tired, I couldn't function and I felt ill.  I realized that I if I was feeling this way, they had to be feeling terrible, too.  So for the next two nights, we slept without the monitor.  After the second night I couldn't stand hearing my kids crying and not taking care of them, so I decided to Ferberize them.  Here was the plan:

Step One: Put the kids to bed, turn off the light and leave them by themselves (this was the key for us...They had to learn to go to sleep without me in the room)

Step Two: Let them cry for three minutes and then go in and comfort them

Step Three: When they wake up again, let them cry for five minutes and then comfort them

Step Four: Next time they wake up, wait 10 minutes to check on them.  Ten minutes was our max

There are other steps, but my kids adjusted very well so we haven't needed to use them.  They were completely fine with me leaving the room after I told them good night (I can't believe the hours I wasted).  We've been doing this now for three nights and I've only had to go in the room once.  All other times, the kids fell back to sleep by the end of the three minutes.  In fact, last night, Tali was the only one to wake up and she only woke up once.  So far, its been a success!