daddy time

on nights when bill walks through the door and the kids are still awake there is a lot of excitement. charlie insists on “hiding” so bill can find him. problem is he always hides in the same spot and it is always easy to spot him behind 1 pillow. the girls have been watching charlie hide for a long time and now want to join in. so my job when bill is coming through the door is putting pillows on top of the kids for “hiding”. bill is a champ and plays along each time – even when I don’t want to.

I see ellie.

yeah! bill found them!

bill is almost always gone in the morning when the girls get up. but this morning he got to get a quick hug before he left. they didn’t want to let go.

when bill is home for the girl’s bedtime he does a little video before he does their bedtime routine. charlie helps bill get their sleep sacks on and turns on the fan and then charlie gets to watch one video with them before he leaves and bill finishes putting the girls to bed.

 

then they all wave goodnight to me and I get 3 minutes of quiet to clean the kitchen.

what a great dad bill is!

I have been waiting…

8 months to have a household that sleeps consistently through the night and takes long afternoon naps together. I hope I don’t mess it up now that I post this on the blog though. I am sooo happy to report that everyone is sleeping through the night (girls 7-7 and charlie 8-7) and in the afternoon the girls sleep from about 1:30-3:30/4 and charlie from about 2-4. love my consistent break time. I am also able to get up some early mornings (4:45am) to go workout before bill leaves for work (I can’t do it every morning because he often has to go in before 6:30 so then doesn’t work). all of these things = one happy, rested mom. best Christmas gift ever!

big changes

within the last week charlie has stopped using his bapoo and sleeps in the big bed and ellie and claire sleep unswaddled. these are big changes for babies who were wearing the miracle swaddle blankets to fall asleep (think baby straight jackets).

charlie decided to jump out of his crib and so his decision to move to the big bed meant no bapoo. it is funny how you can expect these changes to be dramatic and then they suddenly surprise you. bill just told charlie that big boys don’t have bapoos and babies do and that was the end of it. he has basically forgot about it since then and has not asked for it this whole trip. he is doing ok sleeping in the big boy bed. it was a quick change at home and then we were traveling to green bay so he has basically learned how to sleep on a bed here. after one nap in the car seat again he has been doing much better. who knows how things will go when we get back to rochester, but I am sure glad his bedroom door locks from the outside .

classic

this morning the girls both slept until almost 7 am (6:45) and charlie jumped out of his crib. classic.

ellie and claire both have been sleeping better and better. we put them down around 6:30 and then at 10:15-30ish we do a “dream feed”. basically we stick a bottle in their sleeping mouths and they suck down about 4 ounces each! they have been sleeping later and later but today was the first time to both make it to almost 7. I should feel well-rested, but I was up way to late (midnight) and then did have to calm claire down at 2 am for a bit. poor bill was working on a project until 2 am so he didn’t get a full night either.

then c-little decided to jump out of his crib this morning. I knew this was coming because he started jumping out of his crib while on vacation, but it is so fitting that it would happen just when the girls start sleeping better. no way are we going to get good sleep around here for awhile. for nap today I put him in his crib with his bapoo and said goodnight. after dealing with the girls for about 30 minutes I heard some action on the train set. sure enough – he actually jumped out to get out of nap time. time to give him choices. he can 1. sleep in the big bed without his bapoo or 2. sleep in his crib with his bapoo. under no circumstance can he leave his bedroom. if he does the door will be locked and he will not come out of his room until he has napped. today he decided to sleep in the big bed with no bapoo. this is when having a video monitor is the best thing ever…seriously, if you don’t have one get one for these situations. I was able to watch him upstairs and see him flail around in the bed, play with trains and then get out of the bed. so I went down there and reiterated the rules. he ended up choosing the crib with bapoo this time. if he does it again I will choose for him. I am actually hoping he will start sleeping in the big bed with no bapoo soon. I am determined to kick the bapoo habit at the same time I am dealing with the transition to a big bed. we will see if I can keep this plan. it will probably depend on how sleep deprived I am getting. 

anyone want to come be our night nanny???

a record

E&C set a record last night. they both slept from 7 pm (with a little wake up at 8:30pm) until 3:45 am! I think claire drank about 10 ounces! the best part about that was that they BOTH slept the entire time. yeah girls! I am doubtful that they will continue to repeat this, but it helped me recoup a bit from the long week.

and incase you were wondering…

here is what a honey badger looks like.

updates on the honey badgers

**to say the girls don’t like solids is an understatement. they hate them! I have tried everything to get them interested. I started with water and rice cereal, then quickly tried bananas alone and with cereal. I also tried to mix the cereal with formula, which they really rejected and makes me nervous for when I want to start using bottles in a month. today I tried to mix a little breast milk with the cereal and they didn’t instantly gag so that was a good thing. since I actually like starting my kids on solids I am bummed they didn’t take to them as quickly as c little did. hopefully they will pick it up over the next couple weeks.

**a little less than a week ago, we started putting the girls to bed earlier and more abruptly (ie – not bouncing, etc). again I am reminded that most of the changes/transitions you experience with parenting (crying it out, taking away things, moving rooms, etc) are never as big of a deal as you think they are going to be.  the first couple nights we put them down around 8/8:30, which is when I thought they were tired. a friend really encouraged me to put them to bed earlier than later because they go to bed easier when they are not over tired. she really suggested 6:30/7. I knew when we did it with charlie we were putting him to bed around that time, but it seemed super early for the girls (especially since it is summer it is so light out!). anyway – I started watching the girls after their naps and saw them getting tired around 6 so I started trying to do baths around 6:15/30 and trying to get them down by 7/730. so far it is has worked! they are going to bed easily and it is so nice to have them asleep by 7:30! the only downside is that our evenings are INSANE! after naps (around 4:15/30) things are just go go go to get dinner on the table, keep babies happy, get everyone fed (or in the process of) before we start baths. It is pretty smooth if another adult is around. without that things start falling apart. not sure how I am going to fix this, but most nights will hopefully be smooth (until bill goes back to real life in october). I now need to figure out how to keep them content during the day so I don’t have a mental break from hearing so much fussing!

sweet ellie.

charlie wanted to pose with claire the other morning.

story of my life

this is me bouncing the girls to get them to fall asleep during one of their cat naps in the mornings (more to come on their routine in their 4 month post coming up next week). they love being smothered with blankets and fuzzy lovies. we cover their eyes and it helps them crash. charlie is usually running around pushing his dump truck or playing cars or I am reading him books.

swoopin

on the weekends if the girls get up early (6:30ish) to eat. I will feed one and then put them with bill so I can feed the next one and we can both try to get a bit more sleep. this morning it worked for bill and ellie, but not for me and claire. at least I was able to snap this sweet picture of the bill and ellie swoopin.

sleepy heads

the girls are AWESOME sleepers. i know this is probably because of their early arrival, but either way we are grateful. charlie NEVER slept as a newborn so bill and i are cherishing this sleepy time and are finally able to see what people mean when they say "sleeping like a baby".

crashed out together. claire on the left. ellie on the right.

i am still waking the girls to eat every 3 hours during the day (occasionally they wake up on their own, but not very often). at night they go between 4 & 5 hours, which is incredible. it is most likely due to the fact that we are feeding them bottles at their late evening feeding (8-9pm) and early early feeding (1-2am). it speeds up our time spent feeding and they probably eat more than if they were nursing because they get kind of sleepy and lazy at night when nursing. bill bottle feeds and changes the girls and i just pump and pump. then we both settle them back down and we are back in bed. sounds speedy, but it still probably takes us a total of 45 min to 1 hour. either way i am getting more sleep than i did with charlie, but since i can't really nap during the day it is the only way i can stay sane. i am SO thankful for bill who is willing to get up and help out at night. he can somehow feed and change the girls while he is 95% asleep. i will look over at him while he is bottle feeding one of them and he is totally asleep. i only yell at him when the bottle has come out of their mouth and is in their eye.

peaceful ellie.

sweet claire.

bill spends quite a bit of time at night like this. sometimes they just want to be held. thankfully, bill sleeps just as well with them...i however do not.

out cold

thanks to bill who has been crashing with the girls in his arms so i can get an hour or two of straight sleep.

amazing

that is how i feel now that charlie has discovered that being laid in his crib does not mean the end of his life is coming. i am not sure what happened around 9 months, but a flip just switched. it took a bit of time and crying, but nighttime and naps are no big deal. the crazy thing is naps now happen when i want them to!!! i just walk into his dark room, give him a pacifier, sing him his favorite lullaby (st judy's comet), lay him down, close the door and walk away. amazing!
i did read some sleep books (i was desperate) and i would not give any credit to the book suggestions. i think a lot of it was he was ready and i let him cry it out alone for a few days. i had let him cry it out before, but this month he was ok with it. no more back arching, standing and screaming at the top of his lungs "moamomamooo", nothing. his naps are still not long (about 1 hour), but 2 breaks a day are what this mom needs. thanks charlie!

finally...

charlie is sleeping through the night...consistently! i guess it has been over 9 months since i have spent my entire night in my bed. last night he went to sleep about 7 pm and woke up at 6:20ish talking away in his crib until around 6:45 when i got up to feed him. i think it helps that since we got home from christmas vacation i have been more at ease about letting him cry it out and he is definitely understanding more about what it means to be in his crib - alone - in the dark....sleep! i also put a space heater in his room so the temperature does not get below 70 degrees - maybe he likes that? either way, i love that i am getting more consistent sleep.

learning to fall asleep alone...

charlie is continuing to learn how to fall asleep alone and put himself back to sleep alone (we have honestly been working on it since he was born!). yesterday during his morning nap, he had been crying for awhile and was sitting in his crib obviously getting tired but trying to fight it. when i checked him out on our monitor (yes we have a video monitor which i love!) he had fallen asleep folded in half! too funny.

then again last night, he went to sleep peacefully, but woke up after about 1 hour tossing and turning. bill and i were laughing so hard because he was trying to curl up next to the bumper and use it for a pillow. he would be happy as can be if he had a nice down pillow to bury his head into. too bad dr. lynch would not approve!

improvement...

well i think setting "rules" for myself at night has helped a bit. charlie's waking up stints are getting shorter and he is dealing with it better. last night he went to sleep at 7 and slept soundly until around 3, i fed him and then he was down again until 5:30 when i fed him again and we slept in the chair until 6:30 together. sleeping in a chair might sound pretty rough for a lot of you, but we have this amazing recliner and it is so comfortable (if you are having a baby - you must get one)!

i guess letting him cry it out this past time must have really helped him. we had let him cry it out before, but never saw much of an improvement. maybe he was just ready for it now. either way - i think we are moving towards better sleep habits.

while charlie doesn't sleep perfectly at night, he still is taking at least 2 naps for me - usually between 1-1.5 hours long. not bad. i think i would rather have those nice breaks during the day then have a perfect night and no naps!

sleep - where are you????

charlie is almost 8 months. i thought we would definitely have a baby that would be sleeping like a rock by now. i mean bill and i used to race each other to sleep before we had kids - we both fall asleep in seconds and sleep the whole way through. that does not happen for us (mostly me) anymore.

for awhile charlie was sleeping until around 4, eating and then going back to sleep until around 6:30-7ish (pre-daylight savings!). now - not so much. currently, he goes to sleep around 7ish and then ends up needing a few comfort pats before 11pm. he wakes up/gets restless at 11:30, 2-3, 4-5 and then wants to be up for the day at 5:50am! what?? it used to only takes a pat on the back and he was back to sleep, but lately it is requiring more effort. the issue i have is that i am a zombie at 2-3 am and cannot figure out if he is hungry, etc so i usually feed him because it is my easiest option and means i can go back to sleep earlier. however, last night he did his freak out at 11:30 (an hour after i had finally gotten into bed) and i was still somewhat with it. so i let him cry it out. i knew he wasn't hungry or sick (as the case has been the last few weeks). he cried until 1 am and then was out until 4:30 when he ate and went back to sleep. i think charlie is now dealing with more separation anxiety at night than before so once he wakes up and realizes he would rather have us with him he works himself into a frenzy.

as i was laying in bed trying to sleep through the crys i made some sleeping ground rules for myself so when i am delirious i can follow them. 1. once i hear him up i can go in and give him a "you're ok" back rub and pacifier. if he doesn't fall back asleep - i leave and let him go to town. 2. after i leave i can't go back in. easy to say hard to do.

one thing that happened last night is that he learned how to pull himself to standing in his crib (good thing bill and my dad put it to the lowest setting this past weekend). i had to go in and lay him back down and put the railing up. he really didn't like that, but at least i know he can't flip himself out of the crib!