Help!!!

How do I get them out of my bed?! They all go to sleep in their own rooms. (Well, Ben in one room, Will and Ellie in the other.) They all have the same bedtime routine:

Bath(or shower)
Teeth brushed
Potty
Drink
Story
Song
Prayer
Then Mommy or Daddy leave the room and they fall asleep on their owns. Everything is great until about 2 in the morning. They are like ninja's. Some nights we have no idea when they come in our room until the inevitable happens - they get too hot and want to sleep in between us on TOP of the blankets, meaning we dont get any blankets. or they start squirming and kicking and wanting to sleep on top of mommy.

We have a queen sized bed which is WAY to small for two overweight (but working on it!! :) ) adults, a 6 year old who hates covers, a 4 year old who loves sleeping at the middle of the bed - usually in between my knees with his head on my thigh, and a 4 year old who has to sleep on the edge of the bed but you have to hold her so she doesn't feel like she's falling off.

I'm tired People!!! I don't get enough sleep because of the circus in my bed and neither does Jim which makes him grumpy. That in turn puts me in a bad mood.

They have always slept in their own rooms. (Well Ben shared our room when the twins were born but he had his own area). Come to think of it that's around the time he started coming into our bed. He was about 2. The twins didn't start coming to our bed until they were about 3. Its not because of nightmares or bad dreams or anything like that, they just wake up and waltz on into our room.

Help!!! Any ideas, suggestions, therapy, etc, would be greatly appreciated!!! I want my bed back!!

(Disclaimer - I have no issue with people who choose to cosleep. It can be a wonderful thing and if it is what works for your family - more power to you. This is not working for our family.)

Lost track

I decided right before the twins turned one to quit tracking everything they do. It has been so nice. The spreadsheet has been retired.

That doesn't mean I've stopped tracking completely. We have a little white board on their door and I write down when they go to bed and when they wake up.

I have almost a year's worth of spreadsheets. Thankfully I haven't had to print them all out lol!!

The nicest part is I haven't had to write down a night waking in weeks!! They are sleeping through the night!!! They sleep from 6:30ish through roughly 4:30 -5:00 they nurse then go back to bed until about 6:30 - 7:00. It is so wonderful!! Now if I could just get myself to bed at a decent hour...

Catch up

It's been way too long since I've updated. Things are going well.

My baby turned 3 and had a great birthday. He had a really fun birthday party. Basically we just had family there but we still had at least 25 people there. It was a Lightening McQueen party (surprise, surprise) Amanda made his cake. This isn't a great picture of it but you get the picture:

This is Ben eating his cake. He wanted the tire

We bought him the Leapster2 for his birthday and he spent quite some time hanging out in the hallway playing his game.

He had tons of fun and got lots of wonderful presents.

Other news and pictures:
Ellie is able to sit up for about a minute on her own!

Will has two teeth!

I got them all dressed in their christmas outfits and wanted to take a picture. I couldn't get one where they were all smiling. These are the two best ones..

(this one cracks me up with Ellie's face.)

I took these pictures of Ellie last night and they cracked me up.

I promise to try to be better at posting. I really need to post about sleep issues (AGAIN! We are back to being up every 2 hours all night long. Which makes them so tired and they are so cranky during the day.) Have I mentioned Twins are HARD?

To move or not to move

Jim and I have been looking at houses lately. Not completely seriously looking but still looking. We've found a couple houses that we're interested in that are in our price range. We even went to look at one yesterday. We didn't see the inside but we did get to see the neighborhood and the outside. The house looked good. I really would love to get into a house but I am scared to death to move.

Will and Ellie are doing alot better but from 5 - 6:30 is HORRIBLE still. I usually go up to my parents house during this time so someone else can hold a SCREAMING baby. This isn't just crying this is SCREAMING. It's like nails on a chalk board. It's awful. I can handle the rest of the day by myself. I can handle getting up 3 times a night (yep, some nights it's still 3 times) to feed them. I can handle doing preschool with Ben and keeping the house clean. I can handle bath night for all three kids alone. I can handle all of that by myself but from 5 - 6:30 I have to have help. Most nights Jim is there to help but he just wants to rock them which means they will fall asleep. Because that's what they want to do. They want to go to bed but I can't let them until 7:00. I used to keep them up until 7:30 decided they needed to go to bed earlier. I'm afraid if I put them to bed any earlier that they will wake up way to early in the morning.

I'm not sure what to do about this. I would love to get into a house. I want to have a backyard and more room for all our stuff. I want Ben to have his own room. But I just don't think I can handle from 5-6:30 with out Grandma and Branka.

Just a warning to those of you in Utah that we are going to see next week - BE PREPARED FOR AN HOUR AND A HALF OF OFF AND ON SCREAMING! I will try to keep them calm and I am going to try to just go with the flow and let them go to bed a little earlier but I'm not sure what I can promise. Any extra hands are greatly appreciated :) (and you might want to stock up on ear plugs)

Our new schedule

Things have been going really well lately. We've finally gotten the babies on some semblance of a schedule. They get up at 7 (or somewhere around there.) and I've learned that no matter who wakes up first I have to wake the other up at this time. If I don't the whole schedule gets thrown off. Sometimes Ben gets up before the babies and sometimes he gets up while I'm nursing. If I'm nursing the babies then Ben will crawl up next to me and watch TV until I'm done.

 They are up for roughly two hours and then they go down for a nap. Naps are still unpredictible. Sometimes they go down for 30 minutes and sometimes 2 hours. There's no rhyme or reason to how long they will sleep at nap times. (I don't wake the second one when the first wakes up)

After they wake up I feed them and change them then they "play" for about two hours. "Play" consists of the swing, the exersaucer, or a mat on the floor. We usually rotate through all of these at least once.

Then they go down for a second nap around noon. Again it could be 30 minutes or it could be 2 hours. I don't wake the second up this time either. It does make the "schedule" off sometimes but that's ok.

We do another round of eating, changing, playing and if it's before 4:30 I let them go down for a third nap. If it's after 4:30 then they don't get the third one. At about 5:30 or 6:00 we go up to Grandma and Branka's house to kill time waiting for bedtime. We usually play out side (by play this time I mean sit in a chair and watch Ben run wild. Sometimes I will hand the babies off to Grandma and Branka and jump on the trampoline with Ben)

At 7:00 we come back home and get ready for bed. Every other night they get a bath. Then I nurse them and lay them in bed whether or not they are sleeping. Sometimes it takes a little while for them to fall asleep and sometimes they just go right to bed.

Ben gets to stay up until 8:00 and then he goes down too. Tonight I had all three babies in bed asleep by 8:10!!

I've started something new. During the first nap, I do preschool with Ben. On Friday I created a lesson plan for the week. This week we are practicing the letter A and learning about Bats. I've found some awesome worksheets on the Internet*. We do a letter worksheet every day and then do either a worksheet or a craft on whatever the theme is. Tomorrow we are making bats out of egg cartons. We also made cookies today during the second nap. We made Cake Mix cookies. (so easy!! 1 box of cake mix, 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, 2 eggs. Mix and bake at 350 for 11 minutes) He loves to make cookies.

It seems to working really well. Fingers crossed it's getting a little easier.

*Internet Websites that are awesome for preschool worksheets*
Enchanted Learning (This is a members only site but I believe there is a free side)
Coloring Pages
The Toy Maker

I'll post more as I come across them. If you have any great websites please feel free to leave them in the comments and I will add them here.

Live and Learn

I think we actually did find the key! CIO seems to have worked. Tonight I laid the twins down at 7:50 and they were both asleep by 8:00!!! I no longer wake Ellie up to nurse if Will wakes up in the middle of the night.

I really wish we had done this with Ben. He fell asleep in the car at 5:00 and slept for 30 minutes. He didn't go to sleep until 9:40pm. Oh well such is life. At least they are all asleep now.

I spilled Rasberry Lemonade on my wireless keyboard yesterday :( Do you have any idea how hard it is to use a computer without a keyboard?. Thankfully I got a new one today. It's awesome!! It's a Logitech Wave

It has buttons that I can program so I can just push them and go to my pictures or the internet or the calculator. or whatever. I ♥ it.

To Sleep, Perchance to dream

I'm really just trying to figure out the whole sleep thing with the babies. On Monday night I nursed the babies then put them down at 7:20. Will woke up at 7:50. I decided that I wasn't going to get him out of bed. I put the pacifier back in (repeatedly) and he finally went back to sleep at 9:20. This was not a quiet hour and a half. He cried/screamed for most of that time. I repeatedly went in and rubbed his back, put the pacifier back in, etc. But I knew if I picked him up he'd be awake until 10:30.

He woke up at 1:00 and I nursed him back to sleep. I didn't wake Ellie up then (I usually wake her up when he wakes up because I'm afraid she's going to want to nurse right when I go back to bed) because I figured Will would be up at 3:00 and I'd nurse her then. Well Will didn't wake up until 6:00. I didn't wake Ellie up then either because I figured at this point she'd wake up whenever she was hungry. I put Will back down at 6:30 and Ellie woke up at 7:40! She slept from 7:20pm - 7:40am!! Will woke up at 9:30.

Last night I nursed them and put them to bed at 7:54. Will woke up at 8:00 and cried/fussed until 8:44. I did the same thing as the night before. I went in and just kept replacing the pacifier and rubbing his back. The amazing thing is Ellie doesn't wake up during this whole time. (It works the same way with Will. He doesn't usually wake up during her screaming. He will wake up right when she stops crying and falls asleep but that's another story) Will woke up at 11:20 but I just replaced the pacifier (3 times) and he went back to sleep. He didn't wake up again until 5:20. Ellie woke up with him at that time so I nursed them both. Then I put them back to bed and they slept until (Will) 7:30 and (Ellie) 8:20.

Tonight I nursed them and put them down at 7:30. Ellie was awake and Will was asleep. She fussed/cried until 8:00. Right when she fell asleep Will woke up. He cried/fussed until 8:40.  I just replaced pacifiers and rubbed backs until they fell asleep. Let's hope tonight goes well.


**Naptimes**
During the day on Tuesday neither one napped very well. They took three naps each and only one of those was for even an hour. I was reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" It said "We consider a sleep period to be a restorative nap if it is about an hour or longer. Forty to forty-five minutes is sometimes enough, but most babies in this age range sleep at least a sold hour. Certainly sleep periods shorter than thrity minutes should not count as naps." I knew they weren't sleeping long enough because they wake up so cranky sometimes. So I'm now (as of today) putting them down for a nap and not going in to get them for an hour. Even if they wake up before that.

Today Ellie took two naps that were both 2 hours. She woke up during each nap after about 30 minutes but I didn't go get her and she fell back asleep both times. Will on the other hand went down for three naps. The first time he slept for 40 minutes and then just talked to himself for another 30 minutes. Totally happy to be in his crib. The second nap, he slept for 30 minutes and cried for the other 30. I went in and replaced the pacifier and rubbed his back during the second half but I didn't get him up. The third nap he slept for two hours.

I know Crying It Out is really controversal. I'm not a huge fan of it. I got to the point where I have tried everything to get them to sleep better and nothing worked. I don't just leave them in there to cry by themselves. I go in and comfort them. I let them know I am there for them but I won't pick them up. It's so hard to try to deal with all three of them at bedtimes and I just pray that this is the key. They know I love them and I will take care of them. They need to sleep. Everyone is happier when they do. The world is a better place when they get enough sleep.

Dem Bones, Dem Bones (and Directv)

So today was actually a pretty good day. Babies slept through the night last night! WooHoo!! They woke up at 5:40 am nursed for twenty minutes and I put them back to bed. They were still awake but happy so I let them talk to themselves for awhile. I went back to bed and they fell back asleep. Ben woke up at 6:45 I pacified him with Dora (he never gets to watch Dora because she annoys the crap out of me) I got to semi sleep until 7:15. He told me Dora was over and it was time to get up. So we go out to the living room and I turned the tv on. (great parenting I know.) Dora was still on, that little liarpants. I got him some breakfast and cuddled with him for a little while. The babies woke up at 8:00. It was really nice.

The babies went down for a nap at 10:30. While the babies were asleep Ben and I did some "preschool time" He was wearing a shirt with bones on it. So we talked about bones and skeletons. I printed up a skeleton for him to color and put together. He was so funny. He loves to color with the black crayon but he was a little concerned because skeletons are white. He didn't want to color it with any color because it was supposed to be white. I explained to him that he could color it any color he wanted. He now knows where his rib cage, his humorus and his femur are. We talked about how bones can break  and how Branka broke his rib. He said "That is sad Momma, because now he can't jump on the trampoline" Here is Ben and his skeleton.

(The face really isn't as scary as it looks in the second picture)

Will woke up at 11:12. So I got him up and he watched us do preschool. Ellie slept until 12:30 (2 hours!! WooHoo!). Both babies woke up really happy. Then Will went down at 1:00 and slept until 3:00 (2 hours!!) Woke up thrilled. Ellie went down at 3:00 and woke up at 4:00 (I'll still take one hour over 30 minutes) Will went back down at 5:30 until 6:15 but that's ok because it was getting to late for naps anyway. Ellie didn't go back down so she began to get really grumpy. They were on complete different schedules but that was ok because they weren't grumpy. I'm still not sure how to get them on the same schedule.

Tonight was a completely different story. I nursed both babies at 7:30. Will wouldn't settle down but Ellie fell asleep. I went to put her in bed and she woke right up. I laid her down anyway but took Will out to give him a bottle. Over the monitor I hear Ellie poop. So Jim goes and gets her up. I change her diaper and put her back in bed. She falls asleep.

While I am feeding Will the phone rings (at 8:45pm) It's Directv calling me to "thank me for my payment" Will woke up when the phone rang. I got so pissed at the guy. I said "do you realize what time you are calling? You  just woke my baby up" He hung up on me! So I called Directv back and complained to customer service. She said "we are allowed to call up until 9:00 at night." I said "Not at my house you aren't. If you EVER call my house that late again I will cancel my service right then. I have 5 month old twins you just woke up" She gave me 3 months of showtime for free. (Not that I care about Showtime but it was nice that they gave me something) Will finally went back to sleep at 10:00. (except he's fussed twice since then. I'm praying he stays asleep all night)

So that was my day/night. No time to myself but it was still nice. Now it's 11:00 and I'm going to go take a shower.

Calgon take me away

Let me preface this by saying I love my children with all of my heart. I would do anything for them. I am so grateful that I have all three of them but holy crap it is hard.

Having twins is HARD. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Especially having twins and a toddler. I try really hard not to complain. I know this is what I asked for (and if one more person tells me that I'm going to punch them in the face. Ok maybe not really but I hate hearing that) Bedtime is killing me. It's not getting easier. Will's screams are like nails on a chalkboard to me right now. The problem is both babies want to be held individually but there is only one of me. Jim puts Ben to bed every night except Monday and Thursday when he has school. Those nights my parents help out by taking one of the babies. (I don't know what I'd do without my parents right now)

Let me give you an idea of my night (perfect example was last night) I took all three kids to my parents house. My mom rocked Will (who was fighting it really hard) and I rocked Ellie. Ellie fell asleep pretty quickly so I took Ellie and Ben home to put them to bed. On the way home (all 125 feet) Ellie woke up. Great. I put her in her bouncy chair and get Ben ready for bed. I bring Ellie into our room while I'm putting Ben to bed. Ellie starts fussing in the bouncy chair so I have to pick her up. I'm trying to put her to sleep and Ben to sleep at the same time, when my mom brings Will back because he's now asleep. She puts Will into his bed and goes home. Ben is finally asleep. Ellie is still awake and of course now Will starts fussing. I put Ellie down to go take care of Will. Get Will pacified sorta and go back to deal with crying Ellie. Will starts fussing again. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Ellie finally falls asleep close to 10:00. Will goes to sleep but then fusses a couple times because that damn pacifier, that he has to have to sleep, keeps falling out. About 10:30 everyone is finally asleep.

Nap times during the day suck too. Will was beginning to sleep better. (one day he took two 2 1/2 hour naps.) But it hasn't lasted. Today Will didn't sleep for longer than an hour at a time. Which is still better than Ellie who didn't sleep longer than a half hour today. I don't know what to do. I have no idea how to get them to sleep better.

Everyone is finally asleep now. Once they fully get to sleep they do great. They normally wake up only once. I can't complain about that. I just wish I could figure how to get them to do better at going to bed and napping.

This, That and the Other

Wow I am slacking on my blogging. There really isn't anything especially exciting going on in our lives so this will be just a hodgepodge of stuff :)

Sleep

The other night Will and Ellie went to sleep at 8:30 (and 9:30 - Ellie is my night owl) and didn't wake up until 5:17am!! After they nursed they went back to sleep until Will woke up at 8:00 and Ellie woke up at 9:00  The only problem was Jim and I had stayed up until midnight watching a movie but it was still AWESOME.
___________________________________________________________

Messy Boy

I have such a problem just letting Ben be a boy and get dirty but I am working on that. The other day I let him go out and play in the mud. This is the results

This is Ben when you give him stickers

And this is Ben when you give him a pudding cup

___________________________________________________________

The Twins

This is what happens when your mom is obessed with coordinating your outfits...

____________________________________________________

Monkey Toes

I guess Monkey Toes really do run in our family

________________________________________________

So Big

My babies are so big now. We put them in the exersaucer friday and they LOVED it! (Well Will loved it. Ellie was ok in it) I can't believe they are so big.

They hate tummy time so they don't roll over yet. They are almost 4 months old so I think this is a little behind but I'm not sure. (adjusted age is 3 months)I'm going to have to work on tummy time more often.

________________________________________________________

Update on Mommy

I'm having some horrible neck pain on my left side. I think it's because my computer sits on the left side of the couch so I have to turn my head to use the computer. It's killing me right now. I've been putting heat on it hoping it will help.

I'm also constantly STARVING. I just want to snack ALL THE TIME. I've been craving sweets litke you can't believe. I hate it. I'm not sure if the constant hunger is because of the constant breastfeeding but I'm going to have to make a severe effort to only snack on healthy foods so I don't put on a million pounds.

I'm going to talk to my PCP about getting back on Metformin for my PCOS. I'm hoping it will help me to lose the weight again.

I think that's everything for now. I'm exhausted and my neck hurts

Looking Back

I was going through pictures today and looking back at how little Will and Ellie really were. Here's a comparison.

1.

1. April 26, 2008

Ellie - 4lbs 5oz

Will - 4lbs 14oz

2.

2. May 8, 2008

Ellie - 4lbs8oz

Will - 4lbs15oz

3.

3.June 19, 2008

Ellie -  7 lbs 14oz

Will - 9 lbs 8.5oz

4.

4.July 10, 2008

Exact weights not known

5.

5. August 1, 2008

Ellie - 9lbs 1oz

Will - 12lbs 1oz

They really have filled out. In the picture from May those are PREEMIE outfits that are baggy on them. They have both doubled their birth weight and are completely healthy. It's just amazing to me.

We had another night of AWESOME sleep last night. Both babies were in bed by 9:30 and didn't wake up until 3:00 then they slept until 8:00am! I'm getting spoiled.

Tomorrow I get to go see Wicked!!! (and the book Breaking Dawn comes out!!! I can't wait)



(I can't get the damn pictures to line up correctly so I numbered them to correspond with the dates/info. Hope that works)

The rumor, the myth, the urban legend

So I've always heard rumors about this. I thought it was an urban legend or just a myth but it's really true....

A three month old baby can sleep from 8pm to 6:30am with only waking up once. In fact two of them can (well the second one slept from 9 - 6:30) I am shocked! I didn't really believe that babies did this. Even at 6 months Ben was waking up at least twice sometimes three times a night.

For the last two nights Will has gone to bed at 8:30, woken up at 2:30 then went back to bed and slept until 6:30. Ellie has gone to bed at 9ish, I woke her up to nurse with Will at 2:30 and then didn't wake up until 6:30. It was amazing. Not that they were sleeping bad before that. They would wake up once at 2:30 and then again at 4:30. I could get used to this. Now if only I could get them to sleep during the day.

I guess you can't have everything :) But if I had to chose I would definately chose what I have. Sleep at night as opposed to naps during the day since I most likely wouldn't take a nap then too (especially since there's no guarantee that Ben will nap).

NIght Terrors

I think Ben is having night terrors. Poor little guy. In the past three nights he's woken up a total of 5 times screaming. It takes at least 10 minutes to calm him down each time. He's so scared and doesn't know what he wants. It's so hard to watch your child so afraid and not able to take away the scary things. We just hug and cuddle him, sing to him, reassure him that everything is ok, rock him, put him in our bed, etc. If you ask him what Jesus does he will tell you "Jesus takes the scary stuff away"

Last night we were up watching TV and I barely heard screaming coming from our bedroom. (our door was slosed so I could just barely hear it.) I dropped my keyboard and mouse and ran into the bedroom. I didn't even say anything to Jim. I just picked him up and held him. Jim came in right after me wondering what the heck was wrong with his wife. We put him in our bed and both sang to him for 10 minutes. He finally calmed down so I went and took a shower while Jim laid with him then we switched places.

I just wish I knew how to help him. I wish I could take the scary stuff away.

ETA - He had two more tonight :(

My birthday and other stuff

My birthday was very nice. Thank you for the birthday wishes.

For my birthday I got a print from my brother Travis. It is an original piece from Travis. (You can see his artwork here: beanleaf) I've been wanting this one since the first time I saw it.

From Jim I got a basketball hoop, a soccer game, a solar powered fan hat, a squirt gun and a candy dispenser. (I have to explain all of this. Last week Jim called and said "I haven't bought you anything for your birthday yet." I said (totally joking) "You're kidding me.You are at gas stations everyday and you haven't bought me anything?!" He said "You are so dead! This is going to be AWESOME!" He had so much fun and Ben is enjoying all of his presents lol)

He also got me tickets to Wicked. He gave me tickets for Mother's day and I got to go with my sister Amanda and my Mom. It was AWESOME!! I highly reccomend it if you have the chance. I've always loved the Wicked Witch. She was my favorite character in the Wizard of Oz. This time I get to go with Jim. My Mom and Dad are watching all the babies and we get to go by ourselves!!I'm going to have to nurse them right before we leave then pump on the way and on the way home (The drive there is about an hour and a half. Since they nurse every two hours I have to pump on the way there and home so I don't explode lol)

I got a wrap today! This is the one I got: The Ultimate Baby Wrap Will loves it. He snuggles in and goes right to sleep. The best part is I can use it  as a forward facing (like the picture), facing out, sling, on the side and on the back. So far we've tried forward facing - Loved it, facing out - Didn't care for as much but I think as he gets better head control he'll like it better, and sling - Loved it. Ellie didn't care for forward facing as much but she doesn't like to be swaddled either. She's more willing to just lay on the floor and play than Will is also. I think as I get better with it she will like it more too. I even put Ben in it today. He got a kick out of it. I will have to post pictures when I can get them off my Dad's camera.

Will is doing alot better with the reflux. There are still times that I can tell he is hurting but overall he is much better. They are sleeping better too. He fell asleep tonight (in the sling) at 7:10 and he hasn't woken up yet (it's 10:00) Ellie went to sleep at 9:00. (I'm still working on getting her down earlier but it's not very successful. Will will usually wake up once around 12:30 - 2:00 and then again between 4:00 - 5:00 I can handle that. I should probably go to bed before they wake up so I get a little sleep.

Hard Day

Today was a really hard day. Will was up a ton last night and then didn't sleep worth crap today. He napped for a total of about 3 hours for the whole day. I broke down and gave him a bottle at 9:00. He nursed at 7:17 - 7:25am and then at 9:00 he was SCREAMING so I just tried the bottle. He downed it and then he was a totally different child. Happy and smiling. So I figured maybe the problem is he's starving. But I can't get him to nurse for longer than about 10 minutes at each feeding. He wants to eat every two hours and acts like I've never fed him before if he goes any longer than that. Today he ate 9 times. (plus two 4 ounce bottles) The longest was 15 minutes every other time was under 10 minutes. He spent quite a bit of time just screaming today. I can't put him down but even when I'm holding him he will scream. I felt horrible today I just wanted to shake him. I really do understand how people can cross that line shake their babies. Thankfully I have that support system and I know what damage shaking a baby can cause and I would never do it. But there are times that I just want him to. shut. up. When he has been screaming for 20 minutes and Ellie starts crying and Ben wants to be held I just about lose it. I hate that feeling. I don't want to feel that ovewhelmed with my children. I adore them and would never ever hurt them.

I am going to a La Leche League meeting tomorrow night to hopefully get some help with dealing with Will. I just have no ideas on what to do. On top of everything I have a blocked Milk duct which is SO PAINFUL! (I think it's because they don't nurse for very long) I definately don't want to give up nursing them and I don't want Will to get too used to the bottle. If he gets a significant amount of bottles he gets lazy with nursing and only wants a bottle. I just wish I had the answers as to how to help Will. I hate that he's so unhappy. I hate that I don't know how to fix it. Hopefully they will have some answers tomorrow night. I really do need some help.

I think it would have been easier to deal with if I had gotten some sleep or if my house wasn't a complete disaster. I really wanted to clean the living room today and go through Ben's toys(He has so many and I need to put some in storage) but I couldn't do anything because Will needed all my attention. When he didn't need me it was Ellie or Ben. I'm really trying to be a good mom I just feel like I'm failing. I feel so overwhelmed sometimes. There is so much that I want to do and don't feel like I can get to anything. I would love to have one day that I could just be childless and clean/organize my whole house and take a really long nap (except it would take more than a day and I'd have to stop every two hours to nurse because I don't want them to not nurse) Sigh

Please pray that tonight will be better. I need some sleep if I'm going to deal with this again tomorrow. Good night all :)

Eating and Sleeping

Things are going really well . Most nights are pretty good with sleeping. The babies go to bed about 9:30 -10:00 and don't wake up until 1:30 -2:00. The second half of the night is a little rougher. Actually they sleep until 4:30 or so then they are up at least every hour until 7:30 or 8:00 when they go down for a nap. (I say "they" but I really mean Will) Ellie will sleep almost all night. I wake her up at the one o'clock feeding and the 4:30 one but let her sleep for the rest. She barely nurses at the 4:30 one but I'm still too nervous to not wake her up. I'm not nervous about her starving (I know she won't) I'm nervous that as soon as I put Will back in the crib Ellie will wake up and want to nurse or even worse she will wake up a half hour after I put Will down. I'm contemplating trying to let her sleep through the 4:30 one tonight. Wish me luck.

During the day is kinda hit and miss. If I can get them to sleep in their beds they will usually sleep for a little longer than they do in the living room but not always. Will still prefers to be held even while sleeping which is so sweet but so hard to accomplish anything. So we're still working on daytime sleep.

Nursing is going well. We have pretty much cut out all formula. Some days they get 2 ounces but not usually. They are beginning to nurse longer but still have quite a few times where they nurse for 10 minutes or less. I am no longer stressing over it and I figure if they are still having a ton of diaper changes and growing we are doing good.

Ellie Smiling

Will Smiling (this is the first picture I've ever gotten of him smiling)

And Ben Sleeping (He was watching TV and I looked over to find him sleeping like this)

Loving Life

I am loving life. It really is hard having twins and a toddler. It's really exhausting and overwhelming at times. But the rewards are AMAZING.





How can you resist this?







As you can see the babies are talking and smiling now. I didn't get video of Will yet because he slept most of the day! Let's hope that tonight goes as well with him :)



We had so much fun with Ben tonight. He was playing outside in the sandbox and was COVERED in sand. So I took him over to the hose to wash him off. I rinsed his hands and feet and then I noticed his shirt was had sand all over it so instead of just brushing him off I squirted his shirt. Then I chased him around the lawn with the hose. After a little while of chasing him I gave him the hose and let him chase me. He kept yelling "Run, Momma, Run!!" He chased me for about 10 minutes when Jim came out and let Ben chase both of us. Ben and I were soaked. It was so much fun.

My cousins came over this weekend and she showed me the Mei Tai Wrap. I want one of these so bad!! I've seen woman carrying two babies using the wraps - one on the front and one on the back. I don't know how comfortable I'd be carrrying both of them. I guess when they get bigger it would be more doable. I found a website that has a pattern for one. WooHoo!!

I am off to bed. Everyone else in the house is asleep. I just need to set things out for the nighttime wakeups (diapers, wipes, etc) and then I am headed to bed as well. I promise to update on how the sleeping is going soon.

Sleep

The babies slept GREAT on Friday and Saturday. Sadly today was not so great. I think I've figured out the problem (haha) They can't sleep when too many people are around or too much is going on. Friday and Saturday we were out and about a lot but they were in their infant carriers. I had the sun covers closed so they couldn't see out and no one could bug them. On Friday they slept from 9:30 - noon. Then Ellie didn't sleep well until that night. She only took3 naps for a total of about an hour and a half. (Not enough sleep for a two month old) but she did go down at 9:30pm. Will however slept for over 2 and a half hours. Then went to bed at 9:30pm.
Then yesterday Ellie slept from 10:30 to 1:00 then 2:00 to 4:40 again from 6:00 to 7:00 and was down for the night at 9:00. Will slept from 10:30 to 12:50 then 1:20 to 4:40 and again from 6:00 to 7:00 and was down at 9:00. They both slept until 1:00! It was glorious!
Today sucked. They slept off and on all day in about 20 minute incriments. It was awful. They were so grumpy and tired but they just would. not. sleep. They are finally asleep and I am heading to bed to hopefully get a couple of hours before they are up again.
I am going to try an experiment tomorrow. Instead of letting them sleep in the living room I am going to start putting them down for naps in their bed in their room. I am hoping that it will help them sleep longer. I am guessing that the problem is there is too much going on in the living room.

Wish me luck :)

Swim Lessons and Colic (and advice wanted)

Ben is taking swim lessons now. He is doing great! He is learning how to float on his back and hold his breath under water. If you ask him about them he will tell you he hates them. He never wants to go and protests all the way to the pool unless you are talking about what he does during the lessons. He will tell you about all the games he plays and what he does. He loves the "Froggy" game and the "Humpty Dumpty" game. I think that one involves falling into the water. He cries when I leave but has a blast the whole time.

On a less happy note - both Will and Ellie have colic. Oh the Joy! 5 pm to 10pm is quite noisy in our house. Most nights we go through our whole bag of tricks, which include - bouncy chair, swing, bath, walks, nursing, bottles, mylicon, laying on the floor, outside, and swaddling. Each thing only lasts for a few minutes which makes for a very tired Mommy. The hardest part is one is usually calm while the other one is fussy so there isn't a break. Or at least there isn't much of a break. Ellie loves to lay on the floor but Will doesn't. Will likes the swing and if he's wrapped in his fuzzy blanket with his pacifier he will usually sleep for a little while (until the pacifier falls out) Hopefully it won't last too much longer. I think colic only lasts for about 4 months give or take and they are just about 3 which means only a month left unless you go by adjusted age which means 2 months left.

Here is where the advice is needed - Quite often they want to nurse every two hours but a lot of the time they won't nurse longer than 10 minutes (sometimes they will go longer but a lot time it's 7-9 minutes) I would love to lengthen how long they go between feedings and how much they eat but I don't know how. They tend to FREAK out at the 2 hour mark and not much calms them down except nursing. Sometimes they won't even go two hours they want to nurse every hour. It's hard to get anything done. They also don't nap for very long. They will take one long nap in the am (roughly 1 - 2 hours) and from then on they sleep in 1/2 hour to 45 minute increments. Then they barely sleep at all from 4 - 10. Will sometimes falls asleep at 9 and will sleep through until 1am but Ellie won't go to bed before 10:30. HELP! Any advice would be great.

Lack of sleep

So either I don't pay attention to what I am wearing (no big surprise) or I'm running on a lot less sleep than I thought I was but I just now noticed at 3:50 in the afternoon that I - are you ready for it?

I put my pants on BACKWARDS. Yes you read that right. I put my pants on backwards....

To my credit they are maternity pants that have elastic all the way around the waist band so I didn't actually zip and button up my backwards pants today but still...

Thankfully I didn't leave the house...

Tell me your favorite lack of sleep moments