A New Year-Sleep...I hope!

I'm hoping that 2012 is filled with many sleep filled nights for me! I'm embarrassed to admit that it's been over two months now that the girls have been waking up in the middle of the night. Naps have only been okay too, about an hour every day. I feel like a failure as a mom. How is it that I'm not able to figure this out? I've tried everything, cry it out, gates at their door and, yes, physical violence! Okay, nothing too serious...just a spank here and there, but even that's not working.

I had the pleasure of talking to a friend on Sunday who had similar problems with her son and had a ton of insight for me. The solution: splitting them up, using night lights as a cue for when it is/isn't okay to get out of bed, and continually walking them back to bed without saying anything other than, "it's not okay to get out of bed while the night light is still on." I have resisted separating them, well, their entire lives. I have a beautiful fantasy (hmmmm...noticing a lot of fantasizing going on lately) that my girls are in elementary school and have a very civilized discussion about wanting some privacy and space and we split them up then. Not at two because they are being total sh#$*ts and waking up four plus times per night. Oh well, time to let go of that. Is it weird that my fantasies revolve around Pottery Barn and my kids???

It's day three of the "new plan" at nap time. Batting about 500 here: day 1, success, day 2, fail, day three, one is awake and one is asleep. I haven't factored in any points for the fact that I am not sitting in their room in order for them to fall asleep and that they are both in their beds. I guess I could up that batting average a bit. Night time has been better too. We still have A LOT of room for improvement, but Ava, my sleep problem child, actually only woke up once last night, and only because she heard Sophie up. Sophie is a hot mess, sick as a dog, running a fever now for a week straight so I'm not surprised that she has been waking at night, last night at 2:45, 3:15, 5:00 and 6:00. I'm going to continue what I've been doing, as it does seem to be improving things, and once Sophie is back to her old self I'll be a little bit tougher on her. In theory, once the girls prove their ability to sleep through the night and get in a decent nap/quiet time I will be able to bring Ava back into the room with Sophie. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

I guess it goes without saying, I'm tired. Probably the primary reason I'm feeling so overwhelmed right now. I'm just trying to remember that this, too, shall pass.