more sleep blogging

You are probably all so sick of hearing me gripe and complain about the twins' sleeping situation, so if you've had enough, go read someone else's blog today. I'll recommend Jane over at Baby Squared.

I know I'll catch heat for saying this, but Gavin is a Momma's Boy. He's happiest when I'm holding him and kissing him and generally just loving him up. Which is nice. Most of the time. But not at 4 am.

I'm lucky in that my babies go to sleep at around 7 pm with little intervention on my part. Charlotte, as I may have already mentioned, will usually sleep through until about 7 am, barring any stuffy noses or messy diapers. And Gavin wants to sleep until 7 am, I'm sure of it. (Perhaps it's a bit of wishful thinking on my part, because I want to sleep until 10 am, er, 7am, but I really do think he needs that sleep). For the past few weeks he's been forcing himself to wake up early just so I'll come in, pick him up, and snuggle/rock him back to sleep. He chatters and grumbles and whines (but never really cries) until I come in and pick him up. This goes on for HOURS. This morning, he started chattering around 4am, stopped for about a half hour, and then continued until I finally went and got him at about 6:15 am. I know, I should have just kept him awake at that point, but as soon as I picked him up, he laid his head on my shoulder and went right to sleep. So I did what was probably the worst possible thing I could do: I brought him into bed with me and let him sleep until 7am when Charlotte woke up.

Dr. Weissbluth claims that if I ignore Gavin for a few nights, he'll stop. As I see it, there are two problems with this approach: (1) I've tried ignoring him for several nights. Not only has he not stopped, but now he is waking up even earlier. And he doesn't go back to sleep. Honestly, the kid will chatter and whine for hours. (2) Charlotte and Gavin share a room. It isn't fair to her to have Gavin keeping her awake. For the most part, she seems to sleep through it, or at the very least she doesn't cry. I can just picture her in her crib, wide awake, a look of total annoyance on her face as she rolls her eyes in Gavin's direction, thinking, "I need my beauty sleep, for Pete's Sake!"

I think we might have to stick Gavin in the pack-and-play in another room for the time being, turn off the monitor (can I admit that?), and just let him chatter and whine for as long as it takes. If he was hungry or something, that would be one thing...but he just wants to cuddle! Am I being mean?