Adventures in Parenting

[mabfan]

So last week was interesting. But they're all interesting now, at least to us.

On Sunday of last week, the weather was so nice that Nomi and I decided to take Muffin and Squeaker out for a walk in their stroller. We walked them all the way to Coolidge Corner and back, using the need to return books to the library as an excuse to take the walk. It also gave us a chance to show them off to people, as we had dressed them in the NASA jumpsuits given to us by my co-workers.

The rest of the week was a rather full one for us. Nomi and I both had a lot to do at work, and Tuesday evening I had a Library Trustee Meeting at the soon-to-be-reopened Putterham Library. So the stage was set for some midweek exhaustion.

Because Squeaker, you see, still hadn't gotten the hang of this going to sleep at night thing. Muffin tends to do okay. Nomi can nurse her to sleep with minutes, and then she'll sleep through the night in her crib, sometimes as long as eleven hours. (It's adorable when she wakes up; she's generally happy, but the instant she sees breakfast – that is, her bottle – she starts to whine until she gets it. And then she drinks 12 ounces all at once, sometimes. But I digress.)

Squeaker, on the other hand, takes a long time to get to sleep, and then she'll often wake up in half an hour wailing up a storm. On Tuesday night (also know as Wednesday morning), Nomi and I split the night, and we each got only about three or four hours of sleep. I spent 2 am through 5 am trying to coax Squeaker to sleep, when all she wanted to do was scream, laugh, and play with her toys.

So last Wednesday both of us felt like crap. And then my pants zipper broke, and Nomi had to make an emergency pants delivery to my office.

We decided to go with a new plan Wednesday night. For some reason, Squeaker isn't liking her crib, so after Nomi got her to go to sleep on Wednesday night, Nomi put her in the pack-and-play in the living room. And wouldn't you know it, Squeaker slept for about eight hours straight. On Thursday night, Muffin was still awake when Nomi put her in the crib, but she was calm and she soon faded off to sleep. And again, Nomi placed Squeaker in the pack-and-play, and she slept much better. (Although she did need a bottle at about 4 am.)

So last week was a full week, one with midweek exhaustion, as I noted already. With luck, though, Squeaker will sleep better this week.

In the meantime, we've got to go frame Guilder.

Comments

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

as we had dressed them in the NASA jumpsuits given to us by my co-workers. OMG that sounds like the cutest thing ever.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I can email you a photo if you want; let me know. (I have your gmail address.)

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

Oh, please do! I'd love to see it!

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

I want one too.

[cathshaffer.livejournal.com]

It's families like yours that I point to when people blame parenting styles for infant sleep problems. It really has a lot to do with temperament. I'm glad you seem to have found a solution. A lot of times a cozier sleeping spot, or an extra blanket is the missing link. But really whatever helps everyone get the most sleep is a fine solution. My son slept in bed with us for years, and he is now a normal, well-adjusted ten-year-old who sleeps through the night in his own bed.

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

I am very sorry I no longer work with you. Had I been there, I would have pulled out my sewing kit and fixed your pants, while making slightly off-color jokes.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I don't think a sewing kit would have worked, as the zipper fell off the track. I'm getting a new zipper installed.

Fortunately, there was enough pants fabric behind the zipper such that no one would have noticed a problem even if I had had to wear the pants all day.

[jamietr.livejournal.com]

It is the cutest thing when they wake up happy and cooing. You walk into the room and they see you and flash a smile brighter than the rising sun. It makes up--mostly--for those frustrating nights.

[saladinahmed.livejournal.com]

As I'd mentioned to you, my wife and I are expecting twins -- their ETA right now is April 6th!

One thing we get lots of different advice on is sleep scheduling. Parents of single babies tend to make horrified faces and talk about how cruel and unnatural such a thing is, whereas parents of twins tend to consider it totally necessary for preserving sanity. Is this something you guys tried early on? Did your twins exhibit distinct 'sleep personalities' right away, or did these develop? What was your first month or so like in general re: sleep?

Any advice is appreciated!

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Saladin,

A while back, Toby Buckell, Ken Scholes, and I were emailing about taking care of twins. I'll try to dig out those emails and see what other advice was being offered.

That said, the key to getting the kids on any sort of schedule is to start with a feeding schedule. If one kid expressed huger, we fed both of them.

The truth is, there is no way to schedule the kids to sleep in the first few months. You just hope for the best and sleep when they do. And with twins, the doctors told us to set an alarm in the middle of the night and wake them to be fed if they didn't wake up on their own, as newborns need to eat very frequently. Now that the kids are 8 months old, they can sleep through the night without eating with no danger, assuming they actually do sleep. :-)

[zanzjan.livejournal.com]

Having just moved my own bugs from cribs to toddler beds -- not voluntarily, but due to the increased acrobatic capabilities of Twin B -- we have essentially reverted to that same up-randomly-through-the-night stage, except with less crying and more mayhem. I hope your trend to better sleep continues, and when you can spare some of that sleeping-kid energy, send it my way?

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

Dude, do you realize how awesome it is to have someone who loves you enough to assist in a zipper emergency and how fortunate that she was able to do so?

Silver lining in the cloud my friend.

*HUG*

[rymrytr.livejournal.com]

And the next step is to keep a complete outfit, at work, to avoid delays and the stress on the other partner! :o)

I did this the last 12 of my 22 years with the County...

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Glad you found a solution that worked!