The most common piece of advice that I received while I was pregnant was some variation of a) get some sleep while you still can! or b) sleep when the baby sleeps. Unfortunately the way the human body is designed stockpiling sleep "while I still could" is not really a helpful option. I had gotten plenty of sleep for the past 30 years, so I was all good on that front. As far as those jokers that recommended sleeping while the baby sleeps - clearly none of them have twins. Nick and I have decided that we concur with the sentiment we heard on the Father's Day episode of This American Life. The word "twins" should be abolished from the dictionary and replaced with "two f-ing babies at the same time" because "twins" doesn't really adequately convey what is going on. "Twins" is adorable. "Two f-ing babies at the same time" is adorable yet terrifying. Anyway, in those early weeks when it is important/possible to catch up on sleep during the day while the baby naps our boys were on totally different schedules, rendering that advice useless. I think I remember one day time nap in the first six weeks, and that is just because Judah was still in the hospital. After 6 weeks I returned to work making weekday napping something that I look forward to doing on vacation. In like 10 years. Maybe.We read a book on sleep training, gleaned tips from other parents and blogs and such, and just used a series of real life experiments to find the sleeping routine that works for us. Over the past month Asher has slept through the night maybe 5 to 10 times. Judah slept through the night once, but it was sadly not on an Asher-sleep-through-the-night-night. Nick and I have worked out a shift system for night feedings, and I almost never end up stumbling around at 2am swearing and crying and looking for a bottle. We have "double trouble" about once a week when both babies wake up to eat simultaneously. Other than that, our sleep life is pretty descent. What I once considered to be a modern day miracle (both babies sleeping AT THE SAME TIME!) happens pretty regularly now for daytime napping and night sleeping. Just ask Nick - as a summertime stay-at-home dad he has taken full advantage of this routine.
