April/May 2008 MOMS (all others are welcomed too)

[kipatte]

Hi Vlada:

She will usually eat between 6:00 to 8:00 and she stays downstairs with us while we eat dinner and clean up. She will get a bath and is in her cot sometime between 9:00 and 10:00. She wakes up for a feed around 11-12 and then we get a good stretch until 5:00 or 6:00. She then goes back to sleep usually until 8 or 9:00, but if she doesn't we put her in the bed with us and she just coo's and looks at us, I go back to sleep.

It get's light at 4:00 am here. I am needing to sleep until 8 or 9 just to catch up. I need a good 8 hours of sleep so I am getting it in bits. Sometimes both Stephie and I take a nap sometime between 3 and 6 in the afternoon for a couple of hours. That is helpful also.

Vlada, are you getting enough sleep?

Kipatte

[woodcliff]

Hi Ladies!
Vlada, I think at 11.5 weeks Tessa sounds like she's doing great!
Mine are 3 months, or 13 weeks (I think it's 13...er, lemme check)...

I finally moved their feedings to later than 7:30 pm (It took awhile to do, for some reason)...

Now, the last feeding is at around 9:00 (can be 9:15, or 8:40 or 8:30, depending how the day has gone)...they are normally asleep by 9:15 to 9:45 (daughter might take longer, she is confusing her binky with her thumb and vice versa, so pops the binky out of her month, regardless of my swaddling!)...

Then they sleep 8 hours until 5:45, or 6:15, or, alas, they slept 10 the other night until 7:30 am...

I've seen the progress from 10:00 pm feedings to 2:00 am feedings...then suddenly they slept from 7:30 pm feedings till 3 or 4 am (ha, as long as now, just took me awhile to get them to sleep to my schedule!...
My babies are 13 pounds and around 12 and a half pounds...
HOpe this helps...
LOVE TO ALL
Kipatte, where are you living that it gets light so early?
I'm with you, I miss my sleep so much...and get it in dribs and drabs...
I unfortunately go to bed at 11:30 or 1:00 am...so need to change my life there to sleep when the babes do.
We spent all day in bed with the babies...feeding, sleeping, playing..it was so much fun...perfect Sunday.
Ha glad we have a king bed now !!!

[robinsonpr]

Regarding IVF in the UK...I enquired about getting a "free" first try, but found out that you have to have been trying to conceive for years and had to have a definite fertility problem. As I still have one tube left after my ectopic there was still a chance I could have conceived naturally so I couldn't get a free go.

Night schedules..... wow Woodcliff you are so lucky having night sleepers!!! I can't imagine my little ones sleeping 8 hour stretches! My 2 are almost 12 weeks now and they sound similar to Vlada and Kipatte's in that they'll only go about 4 hours at a time. My schedule is now:

6am wake up, 6oz feed
8am nap for an hour or so downstairs
10am 6oz feed
12pm nap in cot, 1-2 hours
2pm 6oz feed
3pm nap for an hour or so downstairs
6.30pm 6oz feed
tend to wake up 10-11pm but I settle them either with a dummy or by taking into bed with us
1am 6oz feed
tend to wake up 4.30am, sometimes settle themselves or if they can't be settled take into bed with us
6am wake up and start all over again!

Woodcliff what's your full schedule, and how much are your 2 eating? How do you find naps during the day...random or do you have set times? Do you have things you do to tire them out?

And how does everybody put their little ones to bed? I've read that you should always put them down when they are awake so they can get used to falling asleep on their own, but in reality this would be very difficult with my 2. After I feed them at night we let them doze off on us and then transfer to their cots. Is this a bad idea?

Love to everybody,

Hayley xx

[kipatte]

robinsonpr, what works for us is we feed, then bathe, then put down in cot. The bath really gets her sleepy. Plus she likes her cot, she looks at the butterflys above her, and we have a few things tied to the cot she can look at. She also likes her bumper which is a lot of pink, orange, and blue circles. Sometimes she just stares at things for awhile.

Tummy time will usually tire her out. She likes to move and she is practicing crawling (but not getting anywhere unless we let her push against our hands with her feet.) We also play her music which sometimes puts her to sleep (during the day). If I put her outside in the garden with her pram that sometimes puts her to sleep after a long look at the sky. Especially if the windchimes are chimming. She had a long sleep last night.

We put her to bed at 9:00, she ate at 11:30, then right back to sleep, then ate at 4:30, back to sleep, ate at 8:00, back to sleep and she is just now waking up at 11:00! Love these mornings when I get a long bathtime for myself!

WC... we moved to the UK in January from CT. We live on the coast about 2 1/2 h ours from London. It's light from 4:00 am to 10:00 pm here. At least for the summer.

Has anyone heard from Cocoa?

K

[Aliann09]

Hi girls thought I would share my sleep schedule Peyton is now 9 weeks old and has been sleeping through the night about 3 weeks I am now up to 9-11 hrs. My schedule doesn't allow me to watch for her sleepy cues all the time so I just try to do the same activities every night before bed time usually a bath or sponge bath on the off night then she gets a bottle and I will read her a book or hum a lullaby or put her in her crib and turn on her mobile for 1 round I put her down awake and she will usually fuss a bit but I have learned that she is not really fussing she is getting comfy and settling in for the night this all occures sometime between 8 and 9 I have found that when she goes down earlier she actually sleeps longer.

[Cocoa]

Hi Girls!

Sorry for the long absence... I have just been basking in the glow of being a mom full time and having fun with the babies! They have grown so big I cannot believe I no longer have little babies... they are both over 12 pounds. I just sorted out clothes that don't fit anymore for good will! Baby girl is so much longer than baby boy... by two inches! They are both absolutely gorgeous (so I am told)... We do get A LOT of attention when we are out. People love to gauck (sp?) at twins and I am sure they look to see how much they look alike but these two look NOTHING alike AT ALL!!! Not even in just the boy/girl difference.

At this point they take tiny cat naps during the day (no more than half an hour) and they eat like fiends. They go to bed at 9 or 9:30 and baby girl will sleep to 5 or 6 BUT baby boy wakes up at 4 screaming... He is a BIG screamer now. When he even starts to feel a tiny hunger pang he lets out a BIG ONE and doesn't stop until you put food in his mouth. They have been on cereal since June 16th because I just couldn't keep their bellies full with the formula so they eat cereal two times a day. Second and last meal of the day - they eat 5 times a day. I also give them water in between so they begin to like it and stay hydrated without overfeeding.

My return date to work is August 25th... They will be 20 weeks and 3 days old. I am so scared after reading a horror story on another board about shaken baby syndrome at a day care center. This baby was 8 months old and with the way my baby boy fusses it scares me that some neophite who doesn't have patience might get a hold of him and get annoyed. I am praying everyday that my girlfriend's day care opens before I have to go back to work. Sorry, I don't mean to freak you out but its been on my mind.

I haven't really read the board to date - any of you back at work?

My life is SO much better now. I met someone and like him a lot and it seems to be reciprocated. My DH and I get along well but I don't see me forgiving/forgetting the way he was to me during my pregnancy so we will be divorced friends soon. (That's another thing that I have been dealing with during my absence - being sure about it all).

I have some of your email addresses but those of you who I don't please PM me with your email and I will send you a pic of the babies when I send updated pics to you whose email I do have... THEN you can return the favor and I will see your babies right?!?

xxxCocoa

[Vlada]

Thank you guys so much for sharing your night schedule!!!
The last two night were terrible for me, Tesa slept from 7 30 pm to almost midnight and she was waking up every hour after that , may be she is going through a growth spurt, i am not sure.
I don't really get enough sleep because she doesn't sleep well during the day at all, may be little half hour or 20 min stretches. My Mom is helping out a lot, but she is leaving on Jul16th
I wanted to get a nany twice a week , but after talking to her today in person, i realized that i just can't do it, i can not give my daughter to any nany. I see a lot of you are doing it without help with twins, i am sure i can do it with singleton. Sleep will be my issue, but i will have to deal with it somehow
Vlada

[woodcliff]

Vlada, why not hire the nanny to come in for a few hours while you sleep?
Not for 8 hours, or even 6, just hire her for a 3 or 4 hour stretch...

I am here while the baby sitter is here every day. I only go out to grocery shop or go to the gym...or the occassional trip to a store or to get my hair cut or something stupid like that.

I find that when I have a nap I am a happier mom!

That said...I'll be out of the house tomorrow from noon to after dinner..we are closing on a home (moving next summer after we fix it up) and then going to dinner to celebrate...

I have 2 sitters I trust with the babies while I am gone...it helps tremendously.

g'luck

[Vlada]

WC,
I know it would be much easier to have a sitter to help out for a couple of hours, but i just can not imagine giving her to sitter right now, may be it will change after days of no sleep.
Vlada

[woodcliff]

Vlada that is lovely...I understand.
I so wish I could've cared for my babies alone...but alas, I hit a wall at a point in the day. And the c-section recovery hit me hard...
Enjoy every single moment with your little one...
xooxx

[Vlada]

Thank you! We will see how long i will last...

[robinsonpr]

Ok all you twin mummys out there...are your 2 still sleeping in the same room?

I'm finding now that one of my little ones is a much better sleeper than the other and would possibly go longer through the night given half the chance. The problem is that his brother seems to be waking him up quite a bit. And also when first putting them down to sleep at night if one is making noises it stops the other one settling.

My DH has said from the start that we should have them in seperate rooms but I said no way because they've always been together and it might freak them out if we split them up. But after a few bad nights of them waking each other up during periods of light sleep I'm starting to think he might be right. To be honest they don't seem to be very aware of each other anyway. They don't really interact or look at each other yet so splitting them up might be an issue.

Is anyone else finding that twins wake each other up? Anyone got them in seperate rooms?

Hayley xx

[woodcliff]

Hayley
So far mine do not interfere with one another's sleep...one can be wailing and it won't wake the other...they are JUST beginning to look at one another..my son smiles like crazy when he sees his sister (probably thinks he's looking in the mirror, his favorite 'toy')

Do what you need for a decent night's sleep...

why don't you post the question on a TWINS forum and find out what other moms do?

http://www.twinsmagazine.com/vbulletin/ ... .php?f=142

love to all of you
xxoo

[kipatte]

Hi All:

I see everyone is really busy with their babies. Is anyone going to a baby group?

Who is going back to work and who is staying at home. I never in a million years thought I would be able to stay at home but our move to England will let me stay home with the baby at least her first two years. I am loving every minute of it but it is a shock. I had a very demanding high stress job that required travel every week. Wow what a difference. Part of me misses it and part of me doesn't. Adjusting to staying at home has been a challenge. The mix of emotions are interesting.

Hope everyone is well,

kipatte

[woodcliff]

Kipatte, so happy to see action on the board...
very busy...now that the twins are 3.5 months, I'm in the mood to get out and about more. Problem is DC is in the mid-90s and 'code orange' for babies and old folks (I am feeling like the latter cattegory).

But we'll go to a huge concert--outdoor, Norman Rockwell-ish...Friday night, our friend is the conductor ... it'll be great...I'm going without a sitter back up and it's far away...should be funny.

Then off to see my family for possibly the entire month of August...can't wait...lots of loving going on with the babies...

Kipatte...so great you can stay home...I don't miss the work world one iota...can't think of any 'business' type deal worth my time...I'm so happy I'm in my 40s and feel I've done it all (feel I have, but of course I have not!)...But it would be nice to read a fiction book soon
Great book: The first 12 months of life...it is so excellent...very intelligently written, not a 'quick' read but worth every minute of reading.

LOVE TO ALL