Marlo and Sabine haven't been taking their naps so easily as Hugo did. As soon as I shut their bedroom door and walk a few steps away... They bound out of bed and begin to play! It's awful. Marlo hops into Sabine's bed and they talk and sing and show each other their babies. Sound cute right?! But they don't sleep! Some days they sleep and then some days they don't.
As of late, if they don't sleep, the above is what I find, in various stages of destruction. I pop in their room to settle them back down to sleep over, and over, and over, and over again. Some afternoons I stand sentry outside their bedroom door for what feels like forever. I hate it. I want to be their Momma again, not their prison guard. The level of mess made by the girls in the afternoons has worsened to such a degree that I just don't want to see what is behind their bedroom door. It doesn't take long to make it right, but golly gee, every darn day?! And it's not just toys. They pull out all the spare blankets and sheets, pull all the board books off the shelves, dump the changing pad, pull out every last wipe from the box and hide them all over the room. The other night as I tucked Sabine in for sleep, I discovered her sheet and comforter were soaking wet. There was a lump under her comforter which I has assumed to be her blankie. It was not. The lump was a pile of diaper wipes.
Hugo was such a sleeping champ, I miss those predictable afternoons. When I think on the situation at hand, I want to lock everything in the girls room away in their closet each afternoon. But I really think the problem is how I'm handling the beginning of their nap time routine. First of all, there isn't much to it. With Hugo, I read two or three books to him while he sat on my lap with his blanket. We rocked and sang a song or two and then I tucked him into his bed, backed out of the room and it was smooth sailing for hours. I need a love seat in the girls room. While I was nursing I had the glider in there. As nursing came to an end I removed the glider due to the fact that I couldn't hold both girls on my lap and turn the pages of a book. Also, the girls were beginning to use the glider as a piece of playground equipment. Two have so many more ideas and a great deal more amount of bravery than one. All I do at nap time for the two of them is to make sure their diapers are clean, hand each a shoosha and then I chuck them one, two buckle my shoe into each of their beds. Who would like that routine? Not me! And obviously, not my girls. To be continued I guess.
