Joke of the Day

Q: When do kids adjust to the time change?

A: HA. Never. They wait another 6 months for it to change back to their schedule.

4am came very early this morning. And, yes, I did manage to not return the huge smile the baby was using to provoke me out of bed. All he got was a grumble from me and a snore from his dad before I whisked him upstairs to play. I finally got him back to sleep at 5:20am, got myself to sleep, when I heard the pitter patter of little feet and the yell of, "Daddy, Mooooom," at 5:40am.

My husband thought I was still up with the baby, so he told the twins to go upstairs. Resulting in the baby once again sitting up and giving a huge grin, as if to say, "Finally, it's time to wake up. Enough of this sleep thing. Lets play." This time the grin was received by a groan from me.

Twin2 is showing a few signs of his asthma emerging once again. It has been over a year from our last attack. We have got him totally drugged on all his puffers. So far the cough has not turned in to a wheeze. We are hoping to keep it that way. He is so like me. If he misses out on a little sleep, as he has done with this wicked time change, then he immediately gets sick.

I told my husband about this night lite I found on line. He told me to buy it right now. So I did. I hope it works.

We are off to the cuz's today for dinner and to pick up our new (old) couch. My brother and parents are also going to join us. Should be fun. I also plan to hit the sale at the Fabric Store and see what gems I can come away with. My husband wants to pick the twins up some hockey gloves. I am not too sure how this is going to go, since they still refuse to even venture onto the ice for more than 3 minutes. (Snicker, snicker) I am still hoping they take to skiing before hockey!!! My husband of course is trying to push the hockey - hence the gloves. Perhaps the gloves will remain dress-up attire. I'd be okay with that.

Joke of the Day

Q: How do you get 3 kids to shift their routine 1 hour?

A: HA. You don't. Or, it certainly doesn't happen over night.

Exhaustion - Part 3

The baby

In the beginning, the baby was a baby. He ate often, but usually gave me a 3-4 hour stretch at night. With 2 other children to care for, naps never happened unless my wonderful mother was watching the twins and then only when the timing was right. He did the usual late evenings and a little party session somewhere in the middle of the night, but this was to be expected.

When the baby was 4 months old, he slept through the night 3 times, not consecutively. I thought I had the best baby ever. He even slept in his own crib. I had not introduced co-sleeping for fear of loosing more sleep. Then teething began.

At 6 months old, the baby started teething. He got 7 teeth in 3 weeks. He was in pain and wanted to suck all the time. The good little sleeper ended. He started getting about between 3 - 6 times a night to eat. Nothing put him back to sleep except eating. So, the co-sleeping began. I was not going to get up out of bed 6 times a night. At least I could doze while co-sleeping and nursing.

The baby is now 10 months old. He gets up 4-6 times a night to eat. And, yes, he is still co-sleeping. We are in the midst of finishing the nursery. I think he will get to sleep in there when he is no longer a baby, but at least he will have his own room. Lets see if it gets used or not!

Exhaustion - Part 2

The Twins cont'd
The twins were not good sleepers. For their first year, they were each up about 4 times a night. I never did manage to sleep through my Husband's feeding turn. Which meant I was up 8 times a night the entire first year. In their second year, we were up once or twice a night for each twin. I can count on one hand how many times they did sleep through the night.

Prior to my returning to work part-time, when they were 14 months old, we tried to sleep train. We had several nights of crying it out. Which really means that they cry so hard they never get to sleep and the lack of sleep eventually turns into a full blown cold. And a cold for us meant the possibility of a viral induced asthma attack, a trip to the hospital, ride in an ambulance and a few days of disgusting hospital food, no sleep, and a dent in the credit card. Needless to say, this method did not go over well with us. So we tried watering down their bottles - Nope. Putting water in their bottles - Nope. Using sippy cups, instead of bottles - Nope. It was easier for us to get up and get them a bottle a couple times a night, than to get no sleep.

At 18 months, both twins started climbing out of their cribs. We put a child lock on the inside of the door handle so they couldn't get out. This was the end of nap time for a few days as they discovered all the great things they could get into in the bedroom. Dresser drawers were emptied, closets were ransacked, and pictures were knocked off walls. Eventually, the closet doors were toddler proofed, top and bottom, and every piece of furniture removed except their beds. We installed a high shelf so that we could still have a fan and air purifier in their room. On that shelf, I stored some of the creams they needed for eczema, butt paste... One of these afternoons when they were supposed to be napping and I was ignoring the noises because I needed an afternoon break, they discovered they could throw their socks at the lotion on the shelf and knock it down. I opened the door after an hour to discover two completely white children covered in butt paste, every rung on their crib, the carpet, everything was covered.

Soon, we transitioned to a toddler bed because we were afraid they would figure out how to get out their window. They did manage to open it on several occasions, but did not get the screen removed. Once in toddler beds, the evening bed time got pushed back farther and farther. We started sleeping in their beds to get them to sleep at a reasonable time, which often resulted in my husband falling asleep too. We thought we would slowly move out of their beds, closer to the door, so that they would fall asleep on their own - Nope. We tried just leaving and letting them scream - Nope. This resulted in endless screaming, lack of sleep, colds, viral induced asthma, hospital stays.... Soon we just put a twin mattress on the floor of their room and my husband slept their, or one of the twins would be brought into our bed to sleep. At some point, with my mother's help we weaned night time bottles and allowed only water. At least we no longer had to go get bottles in the middle of the night.

Somehow in the middle of all of this and with neither my husband or I sleeping together in the same bed together, we managed to conceive another child. With the birth of our third boy, my husband was now the one to take care of the twin's sleep, or lack of it. He pretty much slept on the twin mattress in their room for 6 months. With the arrival of summer, we decided to move our bedrooms downstairs to keep cool and have quieter sleeps. Now at 3 years old, one twin would sleep through the night about twice a week, but never on the same night. So, my husband continued to sleep in their room on a mattress on the floor. He wasn't too upset about this because at this time, our new baby began to never sleep. The twins were still having an afternoon nap each day, which meant they didn't go to bed at night until 9:30pm. I really didn't want the naps to end because I needed that time in the middle of the day to rest. One day, half way through August, my husband asked the twins if they would like their milk in a cup or bottle - yes, there were still drinking from bottles - they said, "Cup." We gave them their milk in a cup and quickly removed all bottles from the house that instant. They asked for a bottle a few times, but they were gone, so their was little protest. That day, they stopped napping in the middle of the day and bed time moved to 7pm. My husband still continued to put them to sleep at night by lying on the mattress in the room. My husband then had to work late a few nights, resulting in my having to put them to sleep. I was not able to lie with them because the baby was still awake, so they put themselves to sleep. A few nights later, we removed the mattress for good

At 3 years and 3 months, they regularly sleep through the night. Who new. No sleep training at all. Sometimes, they just know when they are ready. I wish potty training was that easy, but perhaps that is the problem - training. Maybe I should just let them do it on their own........

Exhaustion

I always thought I was tired and so busy before I had kids. Little did I know. I have not slept through the night in 4 years. I am not even sure that I could if I was given the opportunity. Thankfully, my parents have taken the twins overnight and given us that chance. Now that I am nursing, however, I can't ask my husband or my parents to take a night. It's all up to me. There are certainly aspects of nursing that I enjoy. Mainly the convenience of whipping out a boob any where that I am when the little man gets cranky. I don't have to find somewhere to warm a bottle, or bother with keeping it cold while out and about. But that is all for another time.

Sleep - yes, as a parent, sleep is a luxury. And don't tell me about how your child slept through the night at 3 weeks, or 5 days old. People who have kids who don't sleep do not want to hear stories about how other children slept through the night. I really don't want to hear it. What I want to hear is that I am not alone. I want to hear that you child was up multiple times a night until he was 4. That's what I want to hear.

The Twins
I don't care what parents of other twins say about the glorious days of having two babies simultaneously. It just isn't true. Sure there were definitely moments, although I can't remember them now because my brain has been fried from ammonia fumes from all the diapers, but mostly twin babies are plain work. The joy of parenting doesn't really begin for about 18 months to 2 years. Then the fun begins. Endless cleaning and guilt. Guilt that I am not able to hold both babies when they are crying. I remember one day that I sat and bawled, while my twins screamed at me. I was trying to feed both babies at the same time, but one kept falling off the pillow. Then when I got him on, the other would fall off the other side. Ahh. It sounds funny now, but the memory of it still makes me want to pull my hair out.

I haven't even mentioned the sleep. And my time is now up - the baby is now awake and the twins are starting to roam. I guess there will be a part 2 of this blog.