Hang in there. I've got one more paper due and then I'm DONE with my second masters degree. Thank goodness! I can't wait to cross school off my to-do list.
More posts will surely come when I'm not trying to do work, school and family.
In the meantime, we did the girls' two month pediatric visit. They are doing great. Lily was exactly 10lbs and Gabi was 10lbs 5oz. We did the shots. Not fun, but we had two nurses come in so they could both be done at one time. Three shots each. Poor babies. They quieted down well though. I had Gabi and Tom had Lily. They both first went beet red before the screaming started.
We talked with the doctor about our idea for getting their sleeping at night working better. She agreed with the plan of waking them to feed every 2 hours during the day. She said they should get about 32oz of formula a day, so we're trying to do most of that in the day and only one feeding in the middle of the night. If we really stick to the schedule (which is freaking hard) then it kind of works.
We were able to get a glider from a friend at work last week, and the next day Nana bought the girls a travel swing, and then two days after that another friend from work brought us another swing. This last one is the exact model we already had, and it's really working well! Lily likes the glider ok sometimes, and for awake time the travel swing works, but for sleeping the two matching swings are pretty hard to beat.
Nicky is off on an adventure at Nana's house. They just left today and will be gone about a week. They're going to the museum, the aquarium, the beach, etc. He's going to have an absolute blast. So I don't feel too guilty telling you that although we miss Nicky already we're feeling like we're on vacation with only having two babies at home right now!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Need sleep
Finally. Ok, stomach flu is NOT the way I recommended getting more sleep. I had it from Saturday through Monday. Tom got it Tuesday and Wednesday. Now if we can just end it there that'd be good. I do not relish the thought of having sick babies with stomach flu.
Tomorrow is the girls' 2 month pediatric appointment. This is the biggie. They get their first shots. Double the needles, double the screams, double the tears. Not really looking forward to that. But Tom and I will both be there and so can both hold a baby immediately afterward at least.
We're guessing the girls weigh at least 10 lbs each, possibly 11. They'll be exactly 9 weeks old.
Our big question for the pediatrician is how we can get these girls sleeping at night! They were up to eat last night at 10:10, 12:10, 2:10 and 4:10. And since a feeding takes at least an hour, often two hours, that was a night of NO SLEEPING. Even once I got Gabi to sleep at 5:30, Lily still wouldn't settle down. I grabbed maybe an hour of sleep after that before getting up for work. Maybe.
That's right. Work. As in, paid work. I've gone back to work full time as of last Friday. I'm still finishing up my last two grad school classes too. Yeah, glutton for punishment right here. But I'll be done in about two weeks with my master's in library science degree. And then I'll just have work and family to contend with. No problem right?
Mostly I'm looking forward to having some time to do some fun reading for a change. Not a lot of course, but all the time I have to spend on homework now will be freed up. Of course some of that might be extra sleep time if I'm lucky.
In the meantime though, the mission is to get these babies sleeping at night. We're looking for a second swing too. Hopefully a free hand-me-down swing. We don't have the room for it, so it will totally be in the way, but I DO NOT CARE! Anything to get some sleep.
Tomorrow is the girls' 2 month pediatric appointment. This is the biggie. They get their first shots. Double the needles, double the screams, double the tears. Not really looking forward to that. But Tom and I will both be there and so can both hold a baby immediately afterward at least.
We're guessing the girls weigh at least 10 lbs each, possibly 11. They'll be exactly 9 weeks old.
Our big question for the pediatrician is how we can get these girls sleeping at night! They were up to eat last night at 10:10, 12:10, 2:10 and 4:10. And since a feeding takes at least an hour, often two hours, that was a night of NO SLEEPING. Even once I got Gabi to sleep at 5:30, Lily still wouldn't settle down. I grabbed maybe an hour of sleep after that before getting up for work. Maybe.
That's right. Work. As in, paid work. I've gone back to work full time as of last Friday. I'm still finishing up my last two grad school classes too. Yeah, glutton for punishment right here. But I'll be done in about two weeks with my master's in library science degree. And then I'll just have work and family to contend with. No problem right?
Mostly I'm looking forward to having some time to do some fun reading for a change. Not a lot of course, but all the time I have to spend on homework now will be freed up. Of course some of that might be extra sleep time if I'm lucky.
In the meantime though, the mission is to get these babies sleeping at night. We're looking for a second swing too. Hopefully a free hand-me-down swing. We don't have the room for it, so it will totally be in the way, but I DO NOT CARE! Anything to get some sleep.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Update in two words
Stomach flu.
Just me. Tom, Nicky and the girls are fine. I'm almost over it now, but it was horrible.
Just me. Tom, Nicky and the girls are fine. I'm almost over it now, but it was horrible.
Friday, July 09, 2010
Another quick update and a movie
Things are getting better and better. We have the girls on Zantac now for their reflux. They still spit up, but it doesn't hurt them so much now. This is helping at night especially.
Nicky's doing great. He really loves the girls and likes to hug, kiss and hold them. (With supervision of course.) He had some trouble at school lately with not following directions, but we took him off sugar and tightened up on his bedtime and he's done much better this week. He also just finished his swimming lessons for the summer. He's still not quite a swimmer, but he did really well in his class. We'll put him in lessons again next summer.
I'm trying to keep my head above water with my coursework and I have to go back to work this coming Friday. Ack! Not sure how we're going to manage that. We might take Nicky out of school for a while and have him go back for VPK (Voluntary Pre-K) in August when it starts to give him a little break. That might make it easier to work out transportation since we only have one car. We'll see.
A movie for you! The girls were chilling in the pack and play between bottles while Tom gave Nicky a bath.
Lily is on the left here:
Nicky's doing great. He really loves the girls and likes to hug, kiss and hold them. (With supervision of course.) He had some trouble at school lately with not following directions, but we took him off sugar and tightened up on his bedtime and he's done much better this week. He also just finished his swimming lessons for the summer. He's still not quite a swimmer, but he did really well in his class. We'll put him in lessons again next summer.
I'm trying to keep my head above water with my coursework and I have to go back to work this coming Friday. Ack! Not sure how we're going to manage that. We might take Nicky out of school for a while and have him go back for VPK (Voluntary Pre-K) in August when it starts to give him a little break. That might make it easier to work out transportation since we only have one car. We'll see.
A movie for you! The girls were chilling in the pack and play between bottles while Tom gave Nicky a bath.
Lily is on the left here:
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Wherein I discuss swimming and sleeping
What's been going on here?
Well Nicky has started swimming lessons. We've been wanting to do this since last summer and we finally signed him up. He had his first lesson Monday and loved it! I'm hoping that this gives him some good practice following directions. He's been having trouble focusing and following directions at school. Well, really everywhere.
It's the same issue we've always had, but now that he's four he's expected to be able to focus and follow instructions better. I don't think he's being willfully disobedient, I think he really just gets uber-distracted. It might be ADD as that does seem to run in my family, but I'm reluctant to have him tested and diagnosed this young. I don't think diagnosis would be appropriate yet and a label at this age wouldn't help him anyway. We'll just watch it and see if we can work on it.
Anyway, at swimming lessons Monday he had a good example of why we follow directions...he fell into the pool when he shouldn't have been. Luckily the teacher got to him quickly. His near-drowning didn't seem to make him fear the water which is good, but hopefully it brought home how important it is to be safe near the water and to listen to the teacher.
I'll send the camera with Tom tomorrow so he can take some photos. I wish I could be there too, but taking the girls and I along would be really hard and I'm not feeling up to driving him myself.
In fact, as an example of my sleep deprived state, Monday morning about 6am I finished feeding the girls, changed them and put Gabi in the crib and Lily in the swing. Nana is visiting us, and she was awake so I went into the kitchen to grab a bite and work on my homework. At the next feeding, Gabi woke up first and so I was breastfeeding her. I sent Nana in to get Lily and start waking her up for her turn. Well guess what Nana found? Lily was soaking wet...so was the swing. Odd. Hm, her onesie is un-snapped. And oh look...no diaper!
Yep. Somehow I'd managed to take off the old diaper, wipe her off, and then totally skip that important step of putting on the new diaper. Lovely.
Well that was a hint that maybe I needed to get a little more sleep. So after Tom returned from taking Nicky to swim lessons and school I took a nap. A 5.2 hour nap! It was great. I woke up for dinner. Did my homework. Fed a baby. Put Nicky to bed. And then took another nap! A 3.3 hour nap. That's 8.5 hours of sleep. It was awesome.
So now I just fed the babies their 1:30 feeding and put them down to sleep at 3am. And I was awake enough to post.
Now we'll see if I can grab another hour or so of sleep and maybe I can make it to the postpartum luncheon tomorrow. Tom's got to take Nicky to swim lessons and school, but I'm hoping Nana can take the girls and I to the luncheon. It would be nice to get out. I haven't left the house since the 18th.
Hey, I have a few photos for you:
Cuddles abound. Nicky has Gabi and Tom has Lily:
Nicky is such a good big brother. Here he's feeding Gabi:
It's hard to tell them apart, but we can finally do it!
The trick seems to be that their ears are slightly different. Each has a little bump on the upper outside of one ear. Nicky and I have this same bump. I actually have it on both ears, but the girls have them on opposite ears. Lily's is on the right, Gabi's is on the left. It seems to be a reliable way to tell them apart right now. But really, other than that...it's a total crapshoot.
Well Nicky has started swimming lessons. We've been wanting to do this since last summer and we finally signed him up. He had his first lesson Monday and loved it! I'm hoping that this gives him some good practice following directions. He's been having trouble focusing and following directions at school. Well, really everywhere.
It's the same issue we've always had, but now that he's four he's expected to be able to focus and follow instructions better. I don't think he's being willfully disobedient, I think he really just gets uber-distracted. It might be ADD as that does seem to run in my family, but I'm reluctant to have him tested and diagnosed this young. I don't think diagnosis would be appropriate yet and a label at this age wouldn't help him anyway. We'll just watch it and see if we can work on it.
Anyway, at swimming lessons Monday he had a good example of why we follow directions...he fell into the pool when he shouldn't have been. Luckily the teacher got to him quickly. His near-drowning didn't seem to make him fear the water which is good, but hopefully it brought home how important it is to be safe near the water and to listen to the teacher.
I'll send the camera with Tom tomorrow so he can take some photos. I wish I could be there too, but taking the girls and I along would be really hard and I'm not feeling up to driving him myself.
In fact, as an example of my sleep deprived state, Monday morning about 6am I finished feeding the girls, changed them and put Gabi in the crib and Lily in the swing. Nana is visiting us, and she was awake so I went into the kitchen to grab a bite and work on my homework. At the next feeding, Gabi woke up first and so I was breastfeeding her. I sent Nana in to get Lily and start waking her up for her turn. Well guess what Nana found? Lily was soaking wet...so was the swing. Odd. Hm, her onesie is un-snapped. And oh look...no diaper!
Yep. Somehow I'd managed to take off the old diaper, wipe her off, and then totally skip that important step of putting on the new diaper. Lovely.
Well that was a hint that maybe I needed to get a little more sleep. So after Tom returned from taking Nicky to swim lessons and school I took a nap. A 5.2 hour nap! It was great. I woke up for dinner. Did my homework. Fed a baby. Put Nicky to bed. And then took another nap! A 3.3 hour nap. That's 8.5 hours of sleep. It was awesome.
So now I just fed the babies their 1:30 feeding and put them down to sleep at 3am. And I was awake enough to post.
Now we'll see if I can grab another hour or so of sleep and maybe I can make it to the postpartum luncheon tomorrow. Tom's got to take Nicky to swim lessons and school, but I'm hoping Nana can take the girls and I to the luncheon. It would be nice to get out. I haven't left the house since the 18th.
Hey, I have a few photos for you:
Cuddles abound. Nicky has Gabi and Tom has Lily:
Nicky is such a good big brother. Here he's feeding Gabi:
It's hard to tell them apart, but we can finally do it!
The trick seems to be that their ears are slightly different. Each has a little bump on the upper outside of one ear. Nicky and I have this same bump. I actually have it on both ears, but the girls have them on opposite ears. Lily's is on the right, Gabi's is on the left. It seems to be a reliable way to tell them apart right now. But really, other than that...it's a total crapshoot.
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