That's it folks. I turned in my last paper, attended my last class. I am finished with my second and LAST masters degree. Thank goodness! I find it incredible that I managed to finish this degree during my pregnancy with the girls, through giving birth and their first two and a half months. Phew!
So now that I won't have homework all the time, I should be able to keep up with the blog better. That means more posts and pics for YOU!
So anyway, the latest thing with the girls is getting them to sleep through the night. The girls are 10 weeks old now. At 8 weeks we were still doing more of a baby led schedule and feeding just whenever they were hungry although when we fed one we fed the other to keep them eating together.
But they were sleeping a lot during the day and NOT sleeping most of the night. 10pm-4am was hell.
So to make things easier for us we started waking them every 2-3 hours during the day to feed them. They ate less at a feeding, but ever since starting this they have been sleeping from their last bottle (around 1-2am) till after 7am! It's been awesome.
We still feed them if hungry, but we'll wake them up if they're going too long during the day. I know by 8 weeks they would sleep up to 5 hours at a time about twice a day, so a good 6 hours or more between feedings, but they were doing it during the day instead of at night.
I was just trying to write out a schedule the other day for us to follow. We're not exactly on with these times, but approximately there. We do aim for 8 bottles a day as they take about 100ml average per bottle.
7am feeding, then nap (drive mommy to work time around 8am)
10am feeding, then tummy time if they can stay awake
12pm feeding, then nap
3pm feeding, then nap (pick up mommy at work time around 5pm)
6pm feeding, then sit with us at dinner
8pm feeding, then bath
10pm feeding, then nap
12am feeding, then down for the night
What we have found really important is that from 6pm on they eat every 2 hours. It makes evenings kind of hard with our Nicky too, but it's worth it to get a night's sleep! We usually end up letting them sleep too long a few times and so their last bottle is sometimes at 1-2am, but this is the goal anyway.
I've been back at work since July 16th, when they were 8 weeks old. I'm still not getting a lot of sleep at night, I mean 2-7am is only 5 hours after all, but I'm managing. It helps that I've been working some from home and some from work so far. But soon I think I'll have to go back to working only from the office. The good thing about that: daily showers.
I'll work on getting photos ready and up soon. Maybe even tomorrow!
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
So close to being DONE
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!
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 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:
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