Disneyland Paris

This post is months late, but a friend asked me for feedback and it brought back lots of fun memories as well as things I wish I had known before our trip! CeCe and JP- I dedicate this post to y'all- Europe would have been much less lovely without you!

Before we left Germany, we took two and a half year old Layla and seven month old Joey to Disneyland Paris for a last trip with our good friends, the Perry family (who have two boys, ages three and a half and two). *Tip* We LOVED traveling with our friends, and I really feel like our time was made more fun and full because of being together. If you have a family you know you travel well with (this was I think our 4th family vacation together), consider inviting them along. HOWEVER, if you don't yet know if your travel styles mix well with another family, this is not the place to find that out!
We went in early April which turned out to really be a fabulous time to go. It wasn't particularly cold or hot; we were comfortable in jeans and short sleeves during the day and sweatshirts at night. It was also far from crowded, as it was between school breaks for Europeans  schools and DoD schools.
The French train drops off no kidding at the front gate of Disney, but we elected to stay on Disney property for a number of reasons. First of all, since we knew we would need to take at least one break for naps in the middle of the day, we didn't want to worry about getting our group of 8 with two large double strollers on a train multiple times a day. Also, since we were driving down from different German bases, it was ideal to have close, gated parking where I didn't have to worry about if our American sized van would fit. Finally, price-wise it made the most sense. The price of the hotel included the rooms of course(American style hotel rooms with 2 big beds, room for a pack and play AND a tub for bathing kids is a huge luxury in Europe), tickets to the park for the day you arrive at the hotel, any days you stay in the hotel, as well as the day you leave, parking, and breakfast in the dining room every day. Having a good breakfast before taking on the parks is too important to pass up! Overall, the whole Disney hotel experience (friendly, English speaking staff, Disney themed rooms, and the ability to walk from our room to the gate of Magic Kingdom in less than 10 minutes) was great! *Tip* if you are trying to book a room at Disneyland Paris, be sure to check the Disney.uk site, Disney.us and Disney.fr site. Usually, the US site is most expensive, followed by the UK, and the French site offers the best prices and offers. You can use Google Chrome to translate, and while it's slightly annoying because all communications will come in French (all staff WILL speak English so don't worry about that) the hassle was worth the price savings. 
Now, on to DISNEYLAND! It's important to note, if you plan to visit, and you've visited other Disney parks before- this is NOT the real Disneyland in California, nor Disney World in Florida. It's smaller, almost like a Disney Express. It has the big time characters, the big time rides, and the big time attractions, but if you are a fanatic or expecting it to have all the bells and whistles like the US parks, you will be disappointed. Be realistic. For our group with small children, the smaller park actually made it more manageable in my opinion! *TIP* before arriving, amp up the Disney magic with some movies! I really didn't do enough of this, and wish I had. Use the time in the car to play some Disney shows that are maybe outside of your kids favorites- I wish I had put on Toy Story, Peter Pan, and maybe Beauty and the Beast. We don't normally watch a ton of movies, but it would have helped to have a little more for Layla to connect with than Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, which is just a show and not featured at all on rides. We arrived to the the Disney New York Hotel in the late afternoon, and after quickly checking in, we walked down Main Street Disney into the Magic Kingdom, just in time for the evening parade. All kids were EXHAUSTED from missed naps and long car rides, but the parade was the very best chance to see all of the princesses and characters so we pushed those extra wide double B.O.B.s right up to the curb and cheered as Elsa, Rapunzel, and Mickey (along with probably 30 other characters) paraded by. The floats were awesome, the music was fun, the characters were all smiling and engaging. As the parade wrapped up, we all decided it was dinner time so we headed back out to Main Street to pick a restaurant. I don't remember all the choices, I know there was a McD's which we book marked for later (judge away, but after being all over Europe, we have learned that sometimes you need a reliable meal for a reasonable price. Boring? Maybe, but so necessary) but we ate at the Earl of Sandwich before wandering back to the hotel for a 10 minute splash in the pool, baths and bed so that we were ready for a L.O.N.G. Disney day the next day. We started out by grabbing breakfast in the 50's style diner downstairs- eat up kids, this food is included!- and then made our way into the Magic Kingdom. One of the perks of staying at the hotel is that you have access parks before everyone else. It was super cool to be one of the very few people walking around, and because of it we were able to take pictures in front of the castle without dodging 100,000 tourists!

We made a quick beeline to one of the big rides- Space Mountain- only to find that it was closed for renovations (boo) and then regrouped and headed to rides that we thought the kids would get the biggest kick out of. It's Disney, after all, they're known for lines, so we wanted to make sure the kids were able to get on a ride so they got the idea of why they would have to wait later on in the day. The teacups were such fun for the kids (so I hear because I was sidelined with Joey), then It's a Small World which we all got to ride on together.
 

We did a variety of other rides after that, grabbed lunch somewhere in the park, saw Minnie's Parade, and then rode some more! I think the highlights for rides were Pirates of the Caribbean- all the kids did AWESOME (Joey included!) and it was so fun to go on a ride that I loved as a kid- and the Circus Train, which we didn't know was a roller coaster until we were all- yes, including my seven month old- going down a big hill. It wasn't exactly the way that I imagined my kids taking their first roller coaster, but it ended up being a heck of a memory and we all laughed like crazy when it was done.
 
 Every night at Disney there is a big fireworks and laser display on the castle front once the sun goes down. We knew it was going to take a lot of work to get all the kids there, so we walked back to the hotel mid afternoon for naps. They didn't go quite as planned, sometimes in Europe even if you have a "Do Not Disturb" sign on your door, housekeeping will call your room before they leave for the day just to make sure that you don't need anything. Of course this happened about 10 minutes after the kids fell asleep, so after a complaint at the front desk, I scored free balloons at the park, and we made our peace for running on fumes for the rest of the day. We had a few restaurants in the park in mind for dinner, but unfortunately we found out once arriving that they were all already closed for the day (seriously, I think it was 6 pm so be sure to check this out if you plan to eat at a park restaurant) so we found a less-than-delicious hot dog before riding a few more rides.
 
It was interesting to be ushered out of areas as they closed, it happened as Layla (who has just finished potty training) HAD to go potty and we were sprinting from closed area to closed area trying to find any toilet still open. After successfully taking care of business, we made our way to the already crowded area in front of the castle to get ready for the show.
 
*TIP* They sell all sorts of glow in the dark toys and necklaces, but I brought our own along so the kids had fun light up gear, but we didn't have to drop a dime there. The show was scheduled for 10, but I think it was really around 11 pm before the show started. It really was an impeccably coordinated show, piecing together clips of so many Disney movies with voices in both English and French. After a stunning grand finale, we walked the 10 minutes back to our hotel (this is another time staying on property really paid off) and collapsed into bed. We knew our last Disney day would be shorter since we needed to get on the road for the 5 (or what turned into 8) hour drive back to Germany, so we again grabbed breakfast as soon as we could get in to the diner, loaded the cars so we could check out of our rooms, and walked over to the park gates. Since we had already visited the Magic Kingdom, we decided to check out Disney Studios. Truthfully, this area was geared toward either adults or at least kids that were older than ours, so we rode only a few things, the dads rode Tower of Terror (they offered to return the favor, ummm PASS) and then started walking back out Main Street. Here we are pictured in our full Disney glory- Four adults clad in shoes appropriate for chasing down run away monsters, 4 children aged 3 and under, 3 big-ass Disney balloon, 2 double jogging strollers, and a parrrrtridge in a pear tree!!!! I love this family!
 
Both families planned to buy a few souvenirs, so we stopped into the main store there. I was surprised that their prices weren't higher (don't get me wrong, it wasn't the dollar store, but I thought they could have been much steeper) so we picked up a Mickey Mouse and Mike Wazowski (the green one eyed monster from  Monsters Inc). I actually purchased Layla's Minnie Mouse before we started the trip, and surprised her with it sitting in her car seat the morning we left- she loved it, took it with her through the whole park, and still sleeps with it! I think we really would have been fine not getting any plush toys at the park, but it made a nice cuddly reminder for Joey. If you want to get something to take home, I think they Perry family made a better purchase by getting Toy Story's Woody and marking the bottom of his foot like Andy does in the movie! Anyway, we had a final meal together at McD's and then walked back to our hotel for the last time. This vacation left us all with such happy memories, the park was fun, accommodations were comfortable and easy, and, of course, the company just could not be beat.

Greece!

Sadly, I have zero pictures to accompany this post. Nada. They were all on my camera that was lost. Annnnnyhoo, I will include the link to the farm that we visited so you can get an idea of the beauty.

Monday 11 May-
We grabbed a very quick bite to eat at the buffet before grabbing our bus number and disembarking the ship. A quick intro to our tour guide, have you seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding? Ok, so our tour guide was eerily similar to the father in that movie, only female! Ginny told us how pretty much every word could trace it's roots back to the Greek language- gymna, gymnas, gymnasium and there you go! Anyway, she was very nice, smoked like a chimney while walking between sites and spoke fluent English, Italian, Greek, and probably another 2 languages. It's just how Europeans do things.
We drove through the a couple of little towns on the the 30 minute drive to the Olympic grounds, and while the little homes were cute and the scenery was nice, there were huge piles of garbage on the sides of the road from all the sanitation workers being on strike after not being paid for 4 months. It was really sad to see. We pulled into an parking lot and walked into the Olympic grounds to begin our tour. Ginny was kind enough to park us under a tree while she told stories of how the ancient Greek Olympics took place- a completely different game than it is now. They were games displaying friendship, goodwill, and a reminder that they were all brothers. We walked around the area, and I truthfully got very little information other then finding where the original olympic torch was lit. We took a walk to the top of where the stadium was, B carrying J and me wearing L in an Ergo carrier, then took a quick look at the Temple of Zeus before hiking back out to the bus. At this point in the tour, I thought the tour was nice but slightly disappointing. However, the tour became a complete success after we arrived at Magna Grecia Estates, a beautiful little farm nestled into the side of the hills outside Olympia. A farm started by a Greek man and his Italian wife over 30 years ago, it's a charming place where the wife and her two sons still run an olive farm, vineyards, and a variety of other fields. From the time we pulled up, we were welcomed with open arms; the youngest son (28 years old) lifted Layla off the bus, we were poured a glass of white wine, and handed snacks. Then, we were quickly led into the dining room where our plaates were already laid out. Fresh olives, bruschetta made with kalamata olives instead of onions on fresh bread, feta cheese, baklava, and, the most spectacular olive oil I've ever tasted. Let me say, I like to dip my bread in olive oil just as much as the next girl in the chain restaurants around the country, but nothing-NOTHING- tastes like good, fresh, real, Greek olive oil. If you have the chance to try some, buy it. Midway through our meal, the staff started performing traditional Greek dances. Before I knew it, Layla had been swept up from the table and was clinging to the neck of one of the waitresses, swinging around the restaurant. She was fairly quickly returned to me, but before I could shout OPA! Joey was in the center of the dancing circle, being held high as everyone danced around him. For a little bit he was ok with it, but then the bottom lip started to quiver and he was back in my arms again. It was such a fun experience, one we won't easily forget. After we finished eating, the owner took Layla to look at the bunnies they have, and then we shopped through all the unique items they offer- besides olive oil, they had jewelery, art work, wine, ouzo, aprons... a variety of little things. We grabbed a last glass of wine, and then sat in the courtyard until it was time to get on the bus. Joey played in the grass, Layla danced around under the olive tree, and we took the most beautiful family photo that I will never see again (sob,sob). It was truly a sad time when we had to load on the bus and go back to the ship. By the time we were back on the ship, it was time for the kids to nap (AMEN), followed by another dinner spent walking Joey around the lounge, and bedtime.

We took a CRUISE!

I can't believe that we're finally within the last 90 days of our time here. To put a nice bow on the end of our time here, we took a sea cruise to check off a few more boxes on our "countries to see" list! It was such a big adventure for our little family, and we were able to see some unforgettable locations. This post might be a little short on pictures because, tragically, I lost my camera on the bus on the last night of our trip. I screamed. I cried. I threw myself on the bed. I scared my children with my wails. And it didn't help at all. Anyway. Here's the trip breakdown, day by day.

Thursday, 7 May-
We took off from Ramstein for a 6 hour drive over to Garmish, Germany, our first stop on our drive to Venice (where our cruise took off from). Well, 6 hours turned into 8 due to crazy traffic, so we made an unexpected stop at an Austrian grocery store where we were able to pick up some candied ginger which is supposed to help with any seasickness. All things considered, the kids did really well. We hit a local gasthaus (German restaurant/hotel) for dinner, where Joe gave us a sneak peak of the dinner behavior we could expect for the rest of the trip-which was screaming from the very second we stepped foot in a dining room. At this point, we called it a day.

Friday 8 May-
We woke up expecting to visiting Neuschwanstein Castle (the castle Sleeping Beauty's castle was modeled after) before finishing our drive to Venice. Then, we punched the coordinates into our GPS and discovered that visiting the castle added 2 hours to our 4.5 hour drive.... so we decided to visit on our way home when it added only 45 minutes to the drive. So, off we went to Venice! The drive through Austria was beautiful, and then it gave way to Northern Italy which was just downright gorgeous. I grew up in Colorado, so I'm sort of unphased by mountains in general- but the Dolomite mountains are just crazy! Around every corner was a monastery built into the side of a cliff, or a castle looking over a valley. I would have been unable to peel my eyes off the scenery were it not for Joey SCREAMING in my face 90% of the time. Kid hates his car seat. And, as an added bonus, he also hate tunnels, of which there were about 30 between Garmish and Venice. We stopped at McDonald's, let the kids burn off steam, walked around the attached grocery store, and then finished our drive. Our cruise left Saturday midday so we had Friday night to hang around the Italian town where our hotel was. We walked into the main street, grabbed some pasta, gelato, attempted to come home twice ("At what point are we willing to admit that this sidewalk goes nowhere other than to an underpass?"), and scrubbed the kids down for what I knew would be their last bath for a week as the cruise ship only had showers. I'm so fortunate that Layla is a good sleeper, she loves being in a crib and once her music is playing, she chats a few bossy little phrases at us and is out. Joey sleeps with me, wakes up to nurse multiple times every night, and then wakes up at 5:30 to take a poop that forces me to get up and change him. The infant phase passes so slowly. And too quickly. Anyway. On we go.

Saturday 9 May-
The day we set sail! Layla woke up pumped to go to the hotel of sea cruise, Joey was cooing, it was time to go! I had heard so many stories of waiting for hours to board the ship that we got to the ship early to avoid the crowds. We were on the ship within 45 minutes of arriving at the dock thanks to them giving us priority boarding with our little ones. After dropping our hand luggage in our still uncleaned room, we grabbed lunch at the buffet. The food was good, though I have a new appreciation for GMO's. It was a big fat pain to try to fillet the seeds out of oranges, grapes, and watermelon while holding a squirming Joey so Layla could eat. I prefer my fruit seedless, thank you, Science. By the time we finished lunch, the room was cleaned so we unpacked and then headed to the top deck to watch Venice slip by as we headed out to sea. The view was breathtaking- Venice at sunset. We decided to go to the seated dinner and see how the kids did as it was about an hour after our normal dinner time, and ended about the time we are normally putting them to bed. It didn't go exactly well... Layla hadn't napped and was whiny, and Joey cried and arched his back from the instant we entered the dining room. Still, we found our our tablemates were also American military stationed in Germany with a 6 month old son (who, by the way, slept peacefully in his carrier through dinner every night while my children acted like urchins) and met our waiter- an incredibly patient man who would hold my meal back until Beau could take Joey out every night so it would stay warm. We ate as quickly as possible, then called it a night.

Sunday 10 May-
Mother's Day! The kids got up early, we hit the breakfast buffet before things got too crowded, then found the outdoor kids play area on the top deck. Layla had a ball crawling through the tunnels and slides all be herself. The ship docked in Bari, Italy, but as neither Beau nor I had much interest in the offered excursions, we decided to stay aboard the ship and hit the pool instead. The pool area was a little different than we had expected- the water was either 2 inches deep, or a straight drop to 6 ft. with made it  really hard for Layla to play. She did a good job staying in the shallow area, but I still couldn't turn away for a second for fear that she'd slip. Joey wasn't allowed in even in a swim diaper, so our pool day was pretty short. Instead we hung out in the ship's theater, not watching shows but letting Layla run up and down the steps, put her toys on the fold down seats, and letting Joey crawl to his heart's content. Whatever works, right? Dinner that night was a repeat of the night before: walk in, scan the menu while holding a thrashing J, shout my order as I run out the door, sit in the lounge while B eats, swap, eat as fast as possible and run out with L in hand. I think I had ice cream? Maybe? It's all a blur....

More to come on our cruise later!

Weighty issues.

It's a lifelong battle, this weight of mine. I've lost the battle most of the time, gotten the upper hand I think exactly 4 times since turning 12, and here I am, again. Aaaaaagain. I was fit my senior year in high school, at least the first half of it-softball and swimming are fantastic workouts. In college, I did alright after freshman year, but man was a hefty freshman year. Then after college.... ehhhh. Not great shape. My wedding day I was maybe just chubby, but our first year of marriage I was f-a-t, fat fat fat. We ate out often, cooked fatty stuff, drank a LOT of wine and beer and the weight really got out of control. July of 2010 I finally got a grip- I either needed to buy an entire new plus sized wardrobe because literally nothing fit me, or I needed to make some serious life changes. So, I joined Weight Watchers Online program. Loved.It. Their points system was easy for me to easy to work with, I lost weight at a healthy, steady, reasonable speed, I could still eat things I loved within reason.... before I knew it, I was down forty pounds. FORTY. 4-0. Between July of 2010 and February of 2011, I walked 2 miles a day, ran some, but mostly just used WW to get in the best shape of my life. And, I kept it off- easily, even! In November of 2011, I ran a half marathon in a time I could be proud of, fit into a gorgeous dress for a winter ball, and ... got pregnant! I kept active while pregnant with L, and was sensible with eating, and felt fit when she was born. The weight came off quickly at first, but breastfeeding, for me, makes my hormones absolutely rage and I cannot eat enough sweets. It's always been a problem for me, but something about nursing- I could eat an entire frosted cake in a day. Yep, I did that. And chocolate bars... pshh I could keep Cadbury in business. Eventually, the hormones leveled out around 6 months, B deployed, and I cut out the last 15 pounds I wanted to lose. Not down to prebaby weight, but I knew that wasn't a reasonable expectation. A pound or two crept back, but mostly I kept at a comfortable size until I got pregnant again. My pregnancy weight didn't get crazy, but it wasn't as low as L, either. But now. Oh no. Not a pound lost since two weeks after J was born. Well, that's not true, it's gone down five, then up five, then down, then uppp. It's painful. I've been back on WW, though not actually sticking to it at all, which is as good as not being on it. The sweet cravings from nursing are killing me, I just want sugaaaaaaaar! Anyway, all this to say, this journey I'm on is a long, long one. I actually tried to cut added and processed sugar out of my diet totally for three days. I dropped five pounds, felt better, and, I feel ridiculous saying this, but the skin on my face looked more refreshed than it has in a year. You'd think that would be motivation, eh? Not for this girl. Cutting out sugar totally just isn't something I can do for the long term. Those three days of structure and regiment turned into 2 days of full sweet binging afterward, and that's not a healthy cycle to get back into. So now, with J six months old, vacations looming on the horizon, and the weather finally warming (I'm talking into the low 40's, nothing extra special), it's time to get my (big) butt in gear! The war wages on....

Marry someone who will do the potty dance with you

Right now, B and I are in one of the most exciting, special, boring, mundane, frustrating, happy, rewarding times of our lives- kids:the baby years. Every day is both everything new, and nothing new at the same time. We both love these kids more than life itself, and being their parents bring us so much joy. But man, it is exhausting. Ex.Haus.Ting. I know that's not news to anyone. At the end of so many days, it's all we can do to make sure that we have hugged at least one, kissed at least twice, and said I love you probably a time or two. It's always nice to hear "I love you" of course, but do you know what's nicer? Hearing my husband sing the "pee pee on the potty" song and dance while cleaning out the training toilet after L successfully takes another step in the potty training journey. Sitting on the couch, holding my nursing/sleeping/nursing baby, nothing is sweeter to my ears. So, if I ever am asked to fill in one of those "What advice do you have for the bride?" cards as a game at a bridal shower, my advice will be simple: "Marry someone who will do the potty dance with you". Sure, there are a lot of other criteria that are important but.... this one thing really ranks up there, too.

6 Months left! Counting down...

I can hardly believe that we are in the homestretch of our assignment to Ramstein Air Base, Germany. April 4 will mark three years since we landed here as a family of two, and sometime in early August we will return to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH as a family of four! We will be in Dayton for seven years while B completes his PhD and then stays on staff as an instructor at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). It will be so nice to purchase a home and really get to know the community we're living in. We loved living in Dayton before moving to Germany, and I have a number of friends still in the area that I'm looking forward to reconnecting with. I just can't wait (realistically, I just can't wait to get back to the States, the fact that we're going to Dayton is just the cherry on top). Now, with a light at the end of the tunnel, we are planning the last of our trips. Last year, right after finding out we were expecting J, we booked a few very memorable trips. I hope to blog about them at some point, but until then,...we spent five days in Rome, eleven days in London and the English countryside, and four days in Normandy with our good friends, the Perry's (the 12 hour drive when I was 36 weeks pregnant might have been a little long in retrospect, but the memories made there are just priceless). Baby J joined us in September, and once his passport came in, the first stamp (figuratively, of course, they don't actually do that) was to Belgium where we spent the three days after Christmas visiting Brussels and Brugge. Now, we have scheduled a trip to Holland to visit the famed Keufenhof tulip garden (B's mom, Brenda, will join us for this trip as she'll be here visiting), Disneyland Paris as a last hurrah with the Perry's before they leave Germany at the end of April, and finally, a road trip to Venice, where we will hop a seven day Mediterranean cruise hitting Greece, Turkey, and Croatia. That will take us to mid-May, with a whole two months left to fill! Both of us created a "must visit" list when we arrived, and I think most of it has been checked off, with the exception of Poland for me. It's within driving distance, I just have to decide if there is anything there in particular I care to see. So, we will see where the last of our travels take us! Prague? Barcelona?  Ireland? Tic-toc, the clock is finally winding down...

My second child is the worst sleeper ever

For those who read my blog, I'm fairly certain it's not news that we now have two children. I don't think anybody reads this thing who doesn't know me in real life, certainly not now that I've been absent from blogging for about a year and two months. But, just in case you didn't know, L is now 2 and a half, and her little brother, J, is coming up on 5 months old. L wasn't a great sleeper, she woke up 2-3 times a night until she was 9 months old or so, and then at least once a night until she was about a year. That being said, from the time she was 5 WEEKS old, I would swaddle her, nurse her, and then put her in her crib in her room where she slept for the entire night. I'd stumble across the house in the middle of the night, feed her, and put her back into her bed. And I thought that was less than ideal. But then, she started being a super sleeper, going to bed easily at 8:30 when she'd sing herself to sleep and sleeping until 6. She is still that cheery little sleeper. Cut to my life now- I have a son who has insistently coslept since day 1, nursing constantly throughout the night when he was newborn *and I do mean constantly* until he was around 2.5 months old, when it switched to nursing every 2 hours but still wanting to be in my bed because that's where he was comfortable. He never liked being swaddled as L did, never would stay asleep after being put down, as L did, and truthfully, I didn't have the energy to fight it in the early months like I would have with L. And so now, here we are, with an almost 5 month old who is incapable of sleeping alone. As I write this, it is night 4 of attempting sleep training, and he has been screaming in his crib for almost two straight hours (with us going in to soothe at intervals). Things are, in fact, getting worse, as the first couple of nights he settled down after an hour or so, and slept in his crib for an hour before waking up for me to retrieve him (at which point I just brought him to bed with me like the weakling I am). I sought help from some breastfeeding resource groups in our area early on, and was immediately vilified for being "unwilling to just do what the baby clearly needed" and continue cosleeping. I let them shame me into continuing what I knew wasn't sustainable. I hear that cosleeping wotks for some people- I am not one of them. "You'll look back on this time and just be glad that you were able to cuddle with him every night" "If he's crying it's because he has a legitimate need to be held and soothed" "You're doing emotional damage by letting him cry at all" .... these were some of the kinder comments my requests for help solicited on a facebook group. One person actually begged me to let him cosleep because she had been orphaned at 18 months and couldn't bear the thought of any other child crying for their parents like she knew she must have... dramatic. I knew better then to let him stay in my bed, but I didn't do better. I guess this is my word of warning to anybody out there reading this who might be about to have a baby- first, second, seventh, whatever- unless you can see yourself sharing a bed with this child until he's ready to head out the door to middle school (where teasing should take care of him still wanting to sleep with Mommy and Daddy) don't put the kid in your bed. Don't don't don't don't. Sleep on the couch with them if you must. Insist on swaddling even if they don't seem to care for it. But don't put them in a bed that you share with them or they will fight gum and nail to stay there. Unless you need a kick in your pants to start your blog back up while waiting for them to go to sleep (SERIOUSLY KID????)