Super-Daddy

I don't know how single parents do it. I think if I was raising the girls by myself I'd be a complete wreck. I'm always so happy to see W come home in the afternoon as he gives me relief. 

Yesterday was a rough day. Due to our awful night the girls didn't start their day by eating. Then Lucy skipped another meal despite my best attempts to get her to eat. She was miserable and her misery rubbed off on those around her. 

When W got home we made a plan. We decided I would feed Lucy once at night, but that Clara needed to go all night without eating. He would do most of the soothing because otherwise the girls would smell me and want to eat. We were going to let them fuss some before running in to soothe them, and try rocking before bringing them in our bed. We were also going to put the girls down earlier for the night and skip the dream feed. 

He did so well. Due to the timing of everything with feedings yesterday we didn't get them down as early as we liked, but it was a great start. The girls ate around 6:00 and then played for a bit. Around 7:00 they had some sweet potato and then hung out while we worked on dinner. Around 8:00 we headed upstairs for baths. They had baths, read some stories with daddy, nursed around 8:30 and were both asleep by 8:45. 

No one woke up until 1 am and it was Lucy. She had a stuffy nose so W tried soothing her. He even ran a hot steamy shower and sat in the bathroom in the steam with her for a bit. By 1:45 I could still hear her fussing/crying and she sounded hungry. I decided then to feed her. She ate and went back down in her crib. We didn't hear from her again until around 5:30. At that time she fussed and went back to sleep but then started to fuss again 5 minutes later. I tried her paci twice after giving her some time, but she kept waking up. At that point I brought her in bed where she snuggled up and fell right back asleep until 7:30. 

We didn't hear anything from Clara at all until around 5 am. W said she fussed one other time earlier but fell back asleep on her own. He said he tried soothing her but ultimately ended up bringing her in bed. The huge success is that she didn't eat at that time as that's what's been the routine lately. She fell asleep with W and slept until 7:30. 

So, all in all, last night was a success. I don't expect everything to be great overnight, but I think talking about things and making a plan really helped. I also appreciate the input from others. Hopefully soon we'll all be back to getting more consecutive hours of sleep. I know today started off much better than yesterday!