Note To Self

Just because other people have twins, doesn't mean we have anything in common.

I just hosted a twin mom get together and was thrilled to have two other moms coming who had twins 3 weeks older and 3 months younger than the girls. UGH! What a disaster. First we may all live in the same town but our financial situations couldn't have been more different. (well, they could have, but really now.....)

Secondly they had all the answers. "Oh no. You have to ignore them all day to get them to sleep at night. Don't pick them up ever and they'll sleep better." Um. Not gonna work for me.

You couldn't breastfeed because they both had trouble with milk protein? But they can eat that muffin full of milk, butter and yogurt, that I made for the adults, without any trouble?

And I made a mistake of giving my nanny the day off cause I thought I could handle this alone. Geesh!

But my girls can move about the room and steal your kids' toys at least. So take that!

I Take It All Back

The nights haven't improved. Finley still needs the pacifier 5 times a night. But I'm going to put 12 pacifiers in her crib tonight and hope that as she lifts and drops her head she might just land on one properly and go back to sleep. Meryl just needs to snuggle and have a pacifier put back in her mouth about 9 times a night. But she fights the pacifier. Once I get it in her mouth she settles and then falls to sleep in my arms.

So..... please pardon my lapses of any common sense, knowledge or awareness of the world while I struggle along for the next few years with severe sleep deprivation. I have given up hope.

Good thing they are cute in their cages.

Progress on the STTN Front

So now that we are heading into March, we are finally at the tail end of the sickness we started at the end of January. The babies are very gooey and calls of "waterfall, waterfall" mean come running with a tissue. Meryl and Avery cough all night long. Avery's really good about it though. I keep offering her some thickened honey to suck on, but she knows better than to accept that foul honey.

Anyway, the nights have been pretty bad and even Finley had been getting up for the day at 4 am, which stinks if you don't get to bed until 11 and are up 14 times in between. Meryl was spending very little time in that lovely new cage/crib. So no one has been STTN (or sleeping through the night for those of you with older/no children!)

But I kept trying. Making sure I put the babies down while they were still a little awake. Or if they fell asleep on my back without me noticing, I wasn't very quiet about moving them. And last night I saw some progress!

Meryl woke and fell back to sleep alone last night during the night! She talked and sang to her self for about 90 minutes and at one point she became unhappy and I helped her get a pacifier. But she fell asleep! She then woke again but wasn't so happy. I brought her into the hot lava (the mattress on my floor where Meryl and I sleep) and she took about 90 more minutes to get back to sleep but I kept leaving to help Avery deal with the coughing and give Finley a pacifier and she just laid there and kept working at it. So YEAH!! Meryl and Avery are still sleeping since they were up so much, but I think this is the two steps ahead. Tonight will be one step back, but still. Progress is progress, however small.

I'm happy and off to get my tea.

Forgiveness

Finley is the most forgiving person. She keeps amazing me with how easy going she is about things. I fed her food that was too hot the other day. (Another argument for child led weaning- a child who only feeds themselves won't have this problem.) She made the face that let me know and I quickly scooped it out of her mouth. But still..... I'd be so pissed and would holler my little head off. She just looked at me and opened her mouth to try again. I almost cried.

I think of all the times she has been done wrong. I'm zipping up her pj's and accidentally punch her in the chin. Avery picks her up and practically strangles her. Logan hugs and kisses her and then rushes away so quickly she gets knocked over. She seems to understand all of this as a weakness on our part and nothing to do with her. So she lets it go.

I want to take a page from her book.

A Formal Dining Room

Sometimes I really wish we had a formal dining room. Not for entertaining or for romantic meals, but so we'd have a place to work on and store our projects. This morning our table looks like this: Very important projects that need to be saved forever.
It makes it difficult to eat when the table is full of plastic and glue.

Camera Free Weekend

Cathy has taken the older kids to her parent's house for the weekend. (Chicken nuggets and lots of candy- yeehaw!) She took the camera since the cousins are also visiting. So I'm home with the girls trying to babyproof this place and make 900 sf of living space work for 6 bodies including two who like to eat every little speck off the floor, every scrap of paper, lego, k'nex, polly pocket shoe, etc.

Meryl has decided to make it a weekend of firsts. She is pulling up to standing now. But can't figure out how to clap and stand at the same time. She likes to clap when she is excited. (Well, really she is just flapping her arms and her hands bang into each other, but I call it clapping.) It is hysterical to watch. Off course each time she stands I start to clap just to see her little brain try to figure out how she can join in on the fun.

She is also crawling on hands and feet, instead of knees. More fun in the tub since her enormous behind in up the air and her face keeps going under water. She can't figure it out. And I'm just cracking up watching her.

They also played in the snow today. Finley was suspicious of the whole thing.

Off course I don't have a camera to document it, but I'm having fun just watching.

Finley is ticked off that she can't move and roars with frustration. She can't even get into sitting position on her own yet. I think she is also working on teeth (How many months can I use that as an excuse?). She will just hollar out and then go back to what she was doing.

Okay- back to work on our humble abode.

Looks like we've got some babyproofing to take care of.

Never say Never

If 3 years ago you had told me I would have a 7 month old who sleeps in a cage, is fed processed baby food from a jar, wore disposable diapers 30% of the time and that I would leave for 4 hours so I could see Disney Princesses on Ice, I would have laughed. It was so far from my reality.

And yet, here I am with not one, but two, 7 month olds with whom I have done just that. We have two cribs set up and in a month I hope to be able to say that I have slept for 2 hours at a stretch! Two hours Meryl, that’s all I’m asking for!

As for the food. They like it so much better than table food and it is soooooo easy. Same for disposable diapers. A kid can wear one for hours and hours. Try that with cloth and you'll end up with wet clothes and a sore tush.

Meryl in her new cage. I mean crib.

The Grass is always Greener

The best onion is always the one someone else is chewing on!

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And She is Off.......

Meryl has been crawling backwards for sometime now. Yesterday it all came together for her in the filthy waiting room at Logan's drumming and Avery's gymnastics place. She will move forward for manicured nails, jewelry (diamonds and white gold preferred) and hair bows. Her story hour at the library was a whole different ball game today. Not a little girl in the place was safe from her prying hands. And the moms need to keep a close eye on their jewels.

Now if I could just get the house safe for a crawler. This place is a serious disaster after the past week of snot and fevers. We had previously moved all legos to the basement playroom, but the older kids ae always using paper, little stickers, scissors to make more little paper, etc. The next year or so is going to be a whirlwind!

Couple of side notes- I did rejoin the local tri team for upcoming season. I've got a sprint tri in May. Then either an oly (1M swim/34 M bike/6M run) in August or maybe a trail mary in October. I'll see how I feel after Mother's Day. It is just a matter of time and if I can get some!

And we have a spot in the organic section of the community gardens again. It hurts everytime I pay $1.79 lb for butternut squash. Any fool (myself included) can grow squash and tomatillos, peppers and beans. Then we can turn the garden at home over to strawberries like I've been wanting. I'll order 50 plants to get us started. If all goes well we'll have a good crop in a few years. Our raspberries had a bumper crop last year so I'm feeling good about it.