Not looking forward to next week

I'm sorry I just have to vent for a minute. I start back at work next week and I am NOT ready. I'm a teacher. I'm looking forward to the routine of school and the adult conversation (when I can get it) bit I'm not looking forward to the rest. The twins are still not sttn, waking several time fir pacifiers. DD still eats once every night and DS on some nights wants to eat (he has gone through the night a few times without eating, but still waking). I don't know how I'm going to do it. I have to be on my toes with third grade kids and i want to be the eat teacher I can be. But with this lack of sleep, I'm just to tired all the time and I'm scared I'm not going to be able to do it. How did you do it when you returned to work? And when do I let the twins start CIO I'm the middle of the night for pacifiers. How long will that take? They are five months old.

 

If they're 5 months I would probably do some form of CIO just so you can cope with the demands of going back to work. Set a time during the night where you go in to nurse/feed and let them fuss other times. Some will say 5 months is too early, but you need to be able to cope! Hang in there.. it does get so much easier :hug:

 

You can do this!! I went back to work as a teacher when the girls were 6 weeks. It was my internship year, so I was only allowed to take 6 weeks or I would not have enough teaching days. My husband and I rotated who got up with the girls and it worked really well. He took the night shift until about 2:00 am and I took from 2 am until I went to work. I exclusively pumped, so I feed the girls, then pumped before I went to work, then pumped again at my planning, then as soon as I got home, then again before I went to bed. In all honesty it was a blurr of a year, especially since the girls did not STTN until they were 5 months...so from Feb (when I returned) until May I was getting up throughout the night. My girls never took paci's, so I can't really help you there, but around 5 months is when I got signs that my girls were ready for CIO...it's really just trial and error and what you are comfortable with.

Anyway, we were able to get it done, and looking back, yes, I was tired, and yes, perhaps I wasn't the best I could be, but I survived and you will too. You just have to understand, some things will have to be put on the back burner, but it is just temporarily. Once August gets here, your babies will be older, in all likelihood sttn, and things will be much better and then you can give teaching the 110% that you normally can, but right now, just be patient and understand that maybe you won't be the best, but you got a lot on you right now and it's okay!

 

I went back as a lawyer when my kids were 8 weeks. You can do it. Only you know when your kids are ready for CIO. My daughter would have been at 5 months. My son was not until 7 months. We did it at 7. Before that, my son slept half the night in his swing every night, and that worked for us. We got to sleep, and he was happy. As for pacifiers, are you putting tons in their cribs? Like ten each? That helped mine be able to find one themselves.

ETA: When we did CIO, we did extinction CIO, and it was like 2 days. Not bad at all. I think there is a sweet spot in the 5-9 month range when babies do really well with it. It took longer for is when we had to do it again around two for new sleep issues.

 

I'm having a similar problem. My babies (6.5m old) more or less sttn except for their pacis falling out and waking them up. It makes me wish I had taught them to sleep without pacis at night from the beginning (at 2.5 months), but my pediatrician is a big fan of pacis and convinced me to let the babies use them at bedtime. My one paci baby was initially able to sleep without it, but I started letting her have it again, and now the other baby likes the paci too. There are nights when I have to run in 5-10 times to replace pacis, and often in the middle of the night. It's awful, because both babies cannot put pacis in their mouths by themselves yet.

They are allowed to nap with their pacis at daycare, so I was just totally confused about whether my protocol made sense to enforce. In hindsight, I would say that if you can get them to learn to fall asleep at night without their pacis, then do it. Don't let them have it at bedtime. Once they learn to fall asleep without it, they won't need it. If you were to sleep-train them at this age, it would be to teach them how to sleep at night without needing their pacis. It's a good thing for them to learn, so don't take the crying to heart. (I recommend Ferber as a resource.) And I would definitely begin thinking about extinguishing the nighttime feedings at this age. I had been wanting to stop the nighttime feedings at around 4m, but my husband took care of night duty, and I couldn't dictate how he did his infant care while I slept blissfully. Good luck!

 

I went back to work when mine were 8 weeks. We did a dreamfeed at 11 PM which would then get my daughter all the way through the night and have DS only wake up some of the time for a feed. We actually did CIO at 4 months for napping and bedtime because ours would take forever to fall asleep. I think you will find that once they learn to fall asleep on their own there is a lot less paci fussing in the middle of the night too. Good luck!

 

My first reaction to your post would be to do CIO cold turkey for the paci's. I would take a weekend, or whenver is good for you, and just do it. Sounds like if it weren't for the paci shuffle you may get some decent sleep. There is a recent post about just this issue! LOL!

In the end, it's all about what you are comfortable with! Good luck to you, hangin there! :10: I know this emoticon doesnt apply, but I thought it was cute!

 

Good luck! Have you tried putting in a handfull of pacifiers in the crib? That way no matter where they turn, they can find one. I waited until six months to do CIO, but I wasn't going back to work. I say, try it. If it gives you sleep-and them sleep-why not?!? Maybe it will work. Maybe it won't. You won't know unless you try. And if it doesn't, you can always revisit it again in a few weeks. We did CIO and it took one night. We were lucky. And my kids used pacifiers, but they were never dependent upon them while sleeping. What about a blanket/lovey of some sort?