We bit the bullet and got rid of SB and BW's pacis Sunday night. We planned to do it this coming weekend, when we didn't have big plans with anyone else and could sneak in naps if need be or put the girls to bed early. But circumstances presented themselves, so we jumped off the cliff. This was on my list of things to do before Nugget arrives, so I'm hoping it goes smoothly.
Like most of my parenting choices, this is one that changed pre- and post-baby. I had not wanted to introduce pacifiers, because i was concerned about nipple confusion with breastfeeding. That lasted until our second night home, when we caved and offered the girls pacis. It was a wonderful decision. It did not interfere with our BFing relationship and SB and BW could satisfy their need to suck without being attached to me at all times. By four months, we only gave the girls their pacis in the car and for sleeping time. We also invested in Wubbanubs. Best.paci.ever. We rarely had to go in to give them the wubbanub because if it fell out of their mouth while sleeping, they could find it. It was also nearly impossible for them to fall through the slats of the crib. At five months, we took away wubbas in the car, and they only got them for sleep time. Although I planned to take them away at a year, SB and BW were not ready. They had only recently started consistently sleeping through the night, were getting their first molars...and it just continued from there. There was always a disruption or reason to not take them away. SB chewed through hers about six months ago...and we panicked and gave her a spare we had laying around after she wouldn't settle at all.
About a month ago, SB's paci at daycare broke. She's been napping without one at daycare since.
However, Friday night SB's home paci cracked. The girls didn't take a nap Saturday, and I gave it to her Saturday night, but I didn't want to keep giving her a potential choking hazard. I also didn't want to introduce another new one, when we were so close to giving them up. So, we asked her if we should throw it away since it was broken, and explained this meant that there would be no more paci. She agreed she wanted to throw it away. BW doesn't like to be left out, so we asked if she would like to throw hers away too, and she said she did (she still has her wubbanub, so we cut the paci part off and she kept the animal part). So we had both girls throw theirs in the trash.
We put them to bed...and crying ensued. I think the problem here is SB and BW are pretty smart, and SB knew that her paci was still RIGHT THERE in the garbage and someone could retrieve it for her, as we expected SB to transition much better. It took them about an hour and a half to finally fall asleep. But, once asleep, they did phenomenal. Possibly because they were so worn out, but we didn't have to get up once to comfort/console during the night. Of course, I slept terrible because I was EXPECTING it to be a disastrous night, so I couldn't seem to get into a deep sleep. We heard a "paci broke" over the monitor, and a whimper here or there, but we didn't have to go soothe them once. Go SB and BW! Although they commented this morning about "paci broke" they did not ask for them. Hopefully the trend continues.
Showing posts with label twins sleep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label twins sleep. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Toddler Christmas times two
Christmas is tough as a toddler, but SB and BW handled it like champs. Mostly.
SB and BW have become much more scheduled than I ever intended. Pre-mom days, I was one of those people that believed I wouldn't schedule my life around my kid. They would be flexible, they would be exposed to new people and new things and new places to sleep so I wouldn't be the parent going home or unable to pass my kid off to someone else because they are clinging to my neck.
Oh, I was naive.
Here's the thing. My kids are depending on me to meet their needs, and that's my job as a parent. I need to make sure they aren't hungry, or thirsty, or exhausted. They are too little to get a drink or snack themselves, or put themselves in their crib. And even though they have quite the vocabulary for 18+ months at this point, they still can't formulate or articulate "I'm hungry" very well. It's just my job to decipher that this time they are a grouch because they are thirsty, or hungry, or have an annoying tooth, or whatever.
So, the hubs and I have *gasp* become those parents who keep our kids on a set bedtime, and plan things around naps. Because, my kids do.not.sleep away from their cribs during the day. They do not pass out in their stroller. They do not fall asleep in someone's arms at a party. They do not take nice long naps in the car (anymore). Trust me, we've tried. And, since I have now experienced sleep deprivation after having newborn twins, I make it a priority to make sure they get good, restful sleep. And we are all happy about it.
But I digress.
So, we aren't so regimented that we never deviate from our sleep schedule, and I've gotten a bit more lax as the girls are moving more into toddler-hood since their sleep needs are not as great. However, we had several things converge around Christmas that made things difficult.
First, we moved 5 days before Christmas. Don't do it. Just don't. Then, we had an unexpected death in the family the day after we moved, which resulted in a funeral December 23, then we hosted Christmas Eve at our house, and went to family's house for Christmas Day. Because of timing on Christmas Day, our girls got a nap in the car for about 20 minutes, which was probably only the result of almost nonexistent sleep the two previous days. By the time we opened gifts on Christmas Day, they were basically running on three days of no nap, and later bedtimes. They had several mini-crises during gift-giving, which was a chaotic affair with toy stealing by other kids and not enough space.
Our Christmas this year almost felt like an afterthought, a blip in a bunch of other stuff. But there are moments that I will still cherish. SB and BW being enamored with their Christmas ornaments from last year, which have their initial, their full name, and their birth stats on them. Daycare is big into their "letter" (the first initial of their first name) so the fact that we have that on their ornaments is huge. The hubs made them a play kitchen from an entertainment center, which BW especially was thrilled about - she starting banging pans around right away. SB loved the monkey floor pillow she got from grandma and later used it as a quiet spot to fill her diaper. Not really the intended use there, SB.
And our new home is such a home. Although we have been there a week, and our walls are bare, and there are still boxes stacked everywhere, and our window treatments just finally arrived today so I don't have to pee in the dark anymore, it feels like our home already. It is filled with laughter and books and little girls who slide down the stairs on their tummies.
SB and BW have become much more scheduled than I ever intended. Pre-mom days, I was one of those people that believed I wouldn't schedule my life around my kid. They would be flexible, they would be exposed to new people and new things and new places to sleep so I wouldn't be the parent going home or unable to pass my kid off to someone else because they are clinging to my neck.
Oh, I was naive.
Here's the thing. My kids are depending on me to meet their needs, and that's my job as a parent. I need to make sure they aren't hungry, or thirsty, or exhausted. They are too little to get a drink or snack themselves, or put themselves in their crib. And even though they have quite the vocabulary for 18+ months at this point, they still can't formulate or articulate "I'm hungry" very well. It's just my job to decipher that this time they are a grouch because they are thirsty, or hungry, or have an annoying tooth, or whatever.
So, the hubs and I have *gasp* become those parents who keep our kids on a set bedtime, and plan things around naps. Because, my kids do.not.sleep away from their cribs during the day. They do not pass out in their stroller. They do not fall asleep in someone's arms at a party. They do not take nice long naps in the car (anymore). Trust me, we've tried. And, since I have now experienced sleep deprivation after having newborn twins, I make it a priority to make sure they get good, restful sleep. And we are all happy about it.
But I digress.
So, we aren't so regimented that we never deviate from our sleep schedule, and I've gotten a bit more lax as the girls are moving more into toddler-hood since their sleep needs are not as great. However, we had several things converge around Christmas that made things difficult.
First, we moved 5 days before Christmas. Don't do it. Just don't. Then, we had an unexpected death in the family the day after we moved, which resulted in a funeral December 23, then we hosted Christmas Eve at our house, and went to family's house for Christmas Day. Because of timing on Christmas Day, our girls got a nap in the car for about 20 minutes, which was probably only the result of almost nonexistent sleep the two previous days. By the time we opened gifts on Christmas Day, they were basically running on three days of no nap, and later bedtimes. They had several mini-crises during gift-giving, which was a chaotic affair with toy stealing by other kids and not enough space.
Our Christmas this year almost felt like an afterthought, a blip in a bunch of other stuff. But there are moments that I will still cherish. SB and BW being enamored with their Christmas ornaments from last year, which have their initial, their full name, and their birth stats on them. Daycare is big into their "letter" (the first initial of their first name) so the fact that we have that on their ornaments is huge. The hubs made them a play kitchen from an entertainment center, which BW especially was thrilled about - she starting banging pans around right away. SB loved the monkey floor pillow she got from grandma and later used it as a quiet spot to fill her diaper. Not really the intended use there, SB.
And our new home is such a home. Although we have been there a week, and our walls are bare, and there are still boxes stacked everywhere, and our window treatments just finally arrived today so I don't have to pee in the dark anymore, it feels like our home already. It is filled with laughter and books and little girls who slide down the stairs on their tummies.
Friday, December 26, 2014
Battling the masses - babies are people, too.
So, I started writing this post in March. But then Google decided to hate on IE, and I drifted away from posting even more than I already had because I had to write posts in HTML, which I didn't want to bother with. However, I think this is still relevant. So, I'm working in Firefox now, read away if you want.
This post builds on my previous post. I have made an observation that I think may be easier to make with fraternal twins as opposed to a singleton - all babies are unique.
This post builds on my previous post. I have made an observation that I think may be easier to make with fraternal twins as opposed to a singleton - all babies are unique.
Duh, you say, right?
But as a first-time parent, it's easy to get caught up in the hype of "I must be doing it wrong". For example, comparing yourself to the people whose babies are sleeping through the night at six weeks, or those who can lay their "drowsy but awake" baby down and he/she drifts happily off to sleep, and you are still zombie-walking your way through multiple night wakings at 8 months.
Here's what I've discovered - it depends on the kid. Although parents of singletons may have already figured this out, I think it's more obvious with twins, because you're doing (almost) the same thing at the same time. Obviously, there are variables. But, we had a good sleeper and a bad sleeper. I followed the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins" - which was wonderful, since it says the first 4 months are all about survival, and you should put your twins to sleep any way you can. Which I did. Nursed them to sleep, rocked them to sleep, put them in a rocking swing a few desperate nights...However, we did start working on the whole drowsy but awake thing. SB? would totally crane her neck back at a funny angle and pass out almost immediately most of the time. BW? Not having it. I'll post more about sleep trials in a later post, but we did the same exact thing with their nighttime routine - and we had one good sleeper and one poor sleeper (of course, now that we are 18 months in, they have completely flip-flopped and BW is the better sleeper at the moment).
We had a similar experience with eating. We started solids at about 6.5 months. We skipped rice cereal because I was having a crunchy mom time period, and started with avocado. BW? Loved it. SB - hated it with the fire of a thousand suns, complete with coughing and whole-body shudders. We continued to offer both girls the same foods at the same meals - egg yolk, beans, veggies - with much the same result. BW will eat pretty much everything in sight as quickly as she possibly can, and SB eats likes a bird, refuses to taste foods randomly but will often like something if you can just get her to open her mouth and try it for a second...she also has a strong preference for complex flavors. Buttered noodles? Won't touch them. A boston sushi roll with some soy sauce? More, pease.
So, takeaway? Do what works for you, and what you believe is best for your kid. If it doesn't work like it worked for your friend, or your mom, or your mother-in-law - it's probably not because you failed, or your kid failed. It's because your kid is an individual, with an individual personality and quirks.
Here's what I've discovered - it depends on the kid. Although parents of singletons may have already figured this out, I think it's more obvious with twins, because you're doing (almost) the same thing at the same time. Obviously, there are variables. But, we had a good sleeper and a bad sleeper. I followed the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins" - which was wonderful, since it says the first 4 months are all about survival, and you should put your twins to sleep any way you can. Which I did. Nursed them to sleep, rocked them to sleep, put them in a rocking swing a few desperate nights...However, we did start working on the whole drowsy but awake thing. SB? would totally crane her neck back at a funny angle and pass out almost immediately most of the time. BW? Not having it. I'll post more about sleep trials in a later post, but we did the same exact thing with their nighttime routine - and we had one good sleeper and one poor sleeper (of course, now that we are 18 months in, they have completely flip-flopped and BW is the better sleeper at the moment).
We had a similar experience with eating. We started solids at about 6.5 months. We skipped rice cereal because I was having a crunchy mom time period, and started with avocado. BW? Loved it. SB - hated it with the fire of a thousand suns, complete with coughing and whole-body shudders. We continued to offer both girls the same foods at the same meals - egg yolk, beans, veggies - with much the same result. BW will eat pretty much everything in sight as quickly as she possibly can, and SB eats likes a bird, refuses to taste foods randomly but will often like something if you can just get her to open her mouth and try it for a second...she also has a strong preference for complex flavors. Buttered noodles? Won't touch them. A boston sushi roll with some soy sauce? More, pease.
So, takeaway? Do what works for you, and what you believe is best for your kid. If it doesn't work like it worked for your friend, or your mom, or your mother-in-law - it's probably not because you failed, or your kid failed. It's because your kid is an individual, with an individual personality and quirks.
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