SUPERDADDY!

He has become a superhero in my eyes....

why?

Daddy has been taking over the "goodnight" detail....and when he does it they go to bed super easy! Am I jealous? Nope......very thankful!

Prior to his taking over we had been trying a few different things to see what might work. Since we had been home it had been a bit of an ordeal. In China it was much quicker. Put them in the crib and a few minutes later they were down for the night....the whole night.

But we got home and the time change and the new adjustment to...everything put a kink in our boys sleep habits.

So we changed from putting them to bed at the time they went in China to trying putting them in 1/2 hour earlier hoping their fooling around (throwing bottles at each other and out of the crib, bouncing on the mattress, doing the free fall backwards onto the mattress- quite a few of their games made us wonder if we should have gone for one of the harder mattresses instead) would be out of their system by the time they should be sleeping.

Then we tried the dimming of the light in their room bringing them up when it was almost at full brightness and then gradually dimming it and putting them in the crib when we had it on the lowest setting.

Then we got a window tint for the window that is right next to the cribs. In our state it stays light till pretty late and the room darkening shade wasn't quite cutting it. And the boys liked to play w/ the shade....made me fear it falling on one of their heads! We still have the shade up, but now with the window tint the desire to flip the shade all around seems to have dissipated.

But we were still having issues getting them down for the night.

I would leave the room and a few minutes later we would hear bang! One of the bottles being thrown out ( they go to bed w/ an almost empty bottle...they usually drink the little bit of water we put in their when they first lay down. Prior to us....they had their nightly bottle of formula in the crib and we've moved the formula to earlier but have been unable to change the bottle habit). Then the wailing would begin. And this would go on for quite a while. I would leave then, bang- again!. some nights it could go on for an hour or more if I didn't pick the offender up and cuddle him till he fell asleep. And its a hard line you are walking when you are working on attachment with your children. You need to differentiate yourself from the type of "care" they received at the orphanage. The kids need to start trusting that you'll be there for their needs. In the orphanage cries can't be answered for all the kids....there just aren't enough hands.
So when they cry you need to be there. So the kind advice people recommended of just letting them cry isn't really appropriate one month after adoption.

anyway.....we were having a rough time but Daddy decided to give it a go on putting them to sleep. And lo and behold.....

just maybe one bottle throw and then they are out!!!!!!

Not for the night yet.....but it's a start!