Beautiful Babies Due in 2011 (Combined Group)

[karin1]

Ryann.......you have to school me on your feedings. My babies are still eating every 2 hours and it's killing me. They eat every 2 hours night or day. They are only eating 3- 3 half ounces at each feeding. The pediatrician said that when they start eating more that they would sleep longer, but I can't seem to get there. I get nothing done around the house and can hardly get a shower or eat....never mind sleep. Can you give me some advice....please!

[BlissfulCS]

Blair- thanks for checking in. Hang in there mama!!!

I'm on the iPhone again so I wil save personals for tomorrow when I'm stationary.

Two quick and WONDERFUL updates...

1) I hit the "send" button last night on the GSRBM (graduate school of retail bank mgt) paper that I have spent over 3 months and countless brain cells to complete. Such a relief! Now my attention is all on baby, baby, baby in my time off from work. Starting tonight with the big reveal.

2) Our baby... Whatever the gender may be...is perfect! Final risk of downs came in at 1 in 22,000! He or she was active and beautiful. I can't wait for tonight!

Thanks everyone for the well wishes. I will post a quick update tonight with more to come tomorrow.

Alisa

[rypell1985]

WARNING....I'm about to type a long post, referring much to what I learned in the book On Becoming Baby Wise. I know a lot of people don't agree with it, but know that I have ADAPTED what I read. I DO NOT let my children cry and cry and cry and withhold feedings, nor do I think the book EVER said to do that.. My babies are gaining weight beautifully and are not undernourished! I do NOT let my babies cry it out, rather I try to soothe with something other than a paci. And yes, I have let my babies cry in their crib for about 3 minutes. Sorry, I've see a lot of backlash on another board at the mere mention of Baby Wise!

Karin...I feel your pain. This is all just recent! I am certainly no expert, but I can tell you what I've learned/tried. Like I said before, I read On Becoming Baby Wise. One thing I realized that I was doing wrong is I was trying to stretch their day time feedings, thinking that it would in turn stretch their night time feedings. What I learned is that you DON'T stretch day time feedings out until AFTER they sleep through the night. So the twins are still eating every 2-3 hours during the day.

I also learned about active vs. restful sleep. Babies transistion between the 2 many times during a nap. When they transition they often start to cry and I was the mom that went right in and picked them up thinking they were done. The author encouraged waiting just a few minutes and seeing if the baby would settle back into sleep, which 99% of the time mine are doing now.

I also started implementing eat/play/sleep. The order of the activities during the day helps them distinguish day from night. The author said how you don't want your baby to think that a bottle means falling asleep, otherwise they will always need that bottle to fall asleep. So as hard as it is, even with them being 2 month, I try, try, try to keep them up after a day time bottle, even if it's for 10 minutes. Then I put them in their crip AWAKE and let them put themselves to sleep. This was hard because I hate to hear them cry, but I found that it really only goes on for about 3 minutes and then they are asleep. I soothe and offer a paci, but without picking up. Even Dylan, my "high needs" baby puts himself to sleep. This helped greatly inthe middle of the night because I used to be up for 1.5 hours and now I'm done with BOTH in 20 minutes. Already they don't cry anymore, just look around a little and then fall asleep.

I always thought then when the twins cried I should offer a bottle. Then I learned to actually look for more hunger cues, rather than just stick a bottle in their mouth. I've really picked up on DYlan and he eats his fist when he's hungry. Isabella will try to eat my finger if I rub her lips when she's hungry. If they aren't displaying those and they are crying I try other things. Paci, snuggles, change of scenary...in the first few days of trying this I resorted to car rides sometimes too!

And finally, what I think made a huge difference almost instantly, was switching to a faster flow nipple! It is amazing how much quicker they are eating and finally taking more per feeding. They were always taking 2-4oz eacvh feeding, which is now 4-6 oz each feeding. I wake them at the 3 hour mark to feed again if they haven't woken already. This means they are getting more ounces in during the day and need less at night. My twins take between 28-30oz every day. So if before bedtime they have already take 25oz or so, I know I'm in for a good night! I try to get MOST the ounces in between 6am-8pm, setting myself up for them to sleep through the night. OH...and I always feed them at 6am, whether they are sleeping or not. I want this to routinely be their fisrt feeding.

I hope this helps even a little. I finished the book a week ago and already my life seems so much easier. I decided I needed to do SOMETHING because I go back to work on Monday. I definately feel more rested at night and more comfortable with some sort of a day time routine to tell my mother in law to follow (loosely) during the day. Sorry for the rambling! I am just really excited with the results I've seen using these changes I've made. Good luck!

[karin1]

Ryann.....so after i read your post last night, I went on Amazon and ordered BabyWise. I think that i got the Giving your infant the gift of a good nights sleep..... or something like that....I was tired and wasn't sure which one. Now if I can only get time to read it when it gets here. Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it. They did sleep last night from 9pm-1am, which was a long stretch for them. They sometimes do make it to 3 hours, but not usually. Then they woke up at 3:30 and I tried the paci. They went back to sleep and awake again at 4:20. The paci didn't work, they were hungry. I fed them and they woke up again at 6:30. I do only do bottles at night because breastfeeding takes forever. I bf during the day and supplement with an ounce of formula. I switched to the medium flow nipples a while ago and that seemed to help alot. It does only take me about 20-30 minutes to feed them and put them back down. During the day, they eat every 2-3 hours. I do put them to bed awake, but drowsy. They're able to soothe themselves to sleep most of the time. I was actually surprised they took the paci. I can't get them to take it during the day. They will sometimes take it for DD. They won't take it for me. They did early on, but the past couple of weeks, they don't want it. They're actually pretty good babies. They don't really cry alot. Usually once you find out what's wrong, they stop.

I will try your advice again tonight. You are my inspiration. I had thought that it was because my babies were early that they were waking every 2 hours and thought that they would start to stretch out feedings by 3 months. Now that I know your babies are sleeping longer.....maybe mine will too. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

To everyone else......as soon as I can get my boys to sleep longer at night I will be able to keep up with personals. The only time I even get to read is when I pump. I pump at night before bed and in the morning.

I hope all of you ladies have a wonderful day!


OH......and I LOVE LOVE LOVE all of the baby pics! They are all so cute!

[Sweetpea614]

Margi- So sorry hon to hear of your preterm labor. I'm so glad you went in though. Keep us posted on how your MFM appointment goes today. I'm sure many weeks from now when those babies do come you can make it up to DH.

Kjm1824- You definitely need to make the trip up to Maine. Camden ME is my favorite though. The place is just breathtaking and theres lots of shops and restaurants and if you climb or drive Mt Battie the views are breathtaking fromt he top. I'll try and post a picture of Angela on top of it the other day.

Lou- You look absolutely amazing!! You are all belly and your belly is beautiful.

Blair- I thought of you and decided to take it easy this week. I feel for you having to be in a hospital and on bed rest. There is a few positives about being in the hopsital(wish they outweighed the bad though). You always have the nurses and docs to chat with rather than being home alone with no one to talk to and having to worry about who will feed you. I always try to look at the positive.

Ashley- So sorry that your dealign with the sickness still. Glad to hear DH stepped up and helped you out too. MEN!!

Happy Bunny- I read that about the bumpers too. I'm quite surprised they still seel them if they are not safe.

Blissful- Yay on the good news. You will have to post US pics soon and can't wait too hear the flavor of your bean. You must be super excited for the reveal tonight.

Ryann- That's awesome news on the feeding and the baby's waking less. Good to hear they are giving you a break so you can get rested before school.

Karin1- Hopefully you will be able to get them to sleep a little longer at night.

Kat

[HopeIsAllIHave]

Ryann - you truly touched my heart with the candle lighting comment. Thank you so much! That's so sweet of you!! I will definitely let you know as we get closer to her surgery. Thanks again!! And wow, you've known DH for 21 years? Aww, you grew up together as babies! How cute!!

Bliss - congrats on turning that paper in and more importantly, on an awesome baby report! Have fun with the gender revealing today!! I want to hear all about it!

Kat - I can't believe I had to cry a river for him to realize what this means to me! Of course he truly can't wait for her arrival either and buys her the best of things (he's a true everything-organic believer), but what's the point of purchasing it all, if you're not going to prepare those things for her arrival. Now on to the next step.. instead of buying the video monitor, he wants to create his own surveillance system so we can have access to it from our phones, tv, computers, etc. Engineer's mind at work! He's taking his time on that, but at least he's working on it.

[rypell1985]

Ashley....yup, we grew up together we were middle school sweethearts! It sound like you're married to my husband...he's an engineer and bought a 4 camera video surveillance system from Costco so we can check from phones and computers too!!!

[BlissfulCS]

[rypell1985]

Congrats Alisa! Yay team pink!

[HopeIsAllIHave]

Ryann - that's too funny! Our hubbies do sound a lot alike!

Bliss - a girl!? Welcome to team pink! Yay, congrats!!!!! Btw, love the cake with the pink filling! super cute idea!!! You look great!!

[lou71]

Congrats on TEAM PINK Alisa!

[baby_blu73]

CONGRATS ALISA!!! You and DH look so happy! Do you have any names in mind for your lovely little lady???

[Sdtryingagain]

congrats Bliss!!!! Yeah for a girl!!!

Karin- I just wanted to reassure you that all babes are different and not to get too caught up in whether or not you are doing something right/wrong, some babies early on do need to feed very frequently and as Ryann mentioned it is very important to learn your babies hungry cues. Also as Ryann mentioned in her post Babywise is very controversial. More specifically, the recommendations conflict with current guidelines from the AAP (american academy of pediatricians) regarding demand feeding. If you purchase the book, you might consider also using some resources recommended by your pediatrician in addition so that you can be fully aware of both sides of the debate.

Ryann, please no offense meant here. It sounds to me that you are being an awesome mommy and I think there are good things to be taken from the majority of parenting resources. I just wanted to make sure that Karin is fully aware of the extent of the controversy that you mentioned in your post. In no way am I intending this to start a giant forum war for/against babywise. From my experience on this board, this has been a group of open-minded, critical thinkers who can respect each other's perspective.

[blairwh58]

Alisa- Just wanted to pop and in say Congrats!!!!!!!!! Soooo exciting that you will be joining team pink. And you look adorable with that tiny belly in your pic!! Love the gender reveal cake too.

Karin- Wishing you all the luck getting those little ones to sleep and eat on a schedule that works for everyone.

Kat- I guess you are right about seeing the perks. I can get food when I want or need it (even though the hospital food is disgusting). Since Im just in Antepartum on bedrest the nurses dont come in very often but when they do I definitely try to chat them up.

AFM- apparently I need to dramatically increase my food intake. After being up to 22 lbs of weight gain last wed....yesterday I had lost 5 so now Im up 17 lbs. I knew i had to have lost some since they didnt feed me for 2 days so now Im trying to catch back up.

[Sweetpea614]

Alisa- Congrats on TEAM PINK!! And I love how creative you were with revealing the baby sex. Kind wish I had did something like that. You look amazing too!!

Ashley- I agree it got me pretty mad that I had to go all physcho on mine to get him moving. But he's such a Libra and procrastinator and I'm a Cancer and big time planner so this is where we but heads.

Ryann-That is so sweet that you and DH grew up together.

Blair- Eat up girl;) That sucks about the hospital food. You'll have to have DH bring you in some food from the outside or the cafeteria which has better food normally.

AFM: Picked the paint colors for Lucas's room. Going a little daring and praying it works out. I'm doing a very dark midnight blue with a tan on bottom(which I'm having come up pretty high so not like the blue will make it too dark in there). It makes the boarder and bedding I chose pop a little more. Plus I noticed so many doing the light blue and I just want something differant since that room is a light blue now and it's too bright in there since it gets the sun so much in there all day. Our friend/painter is coming over tomorrow night Ive attached the picture of what I plan on doing.

Kat