I decided to change my layout- the pink one wasnt doing it for me anymore.
I have been in hiding the past few days. My girls have been keeping me up at night. There are good days and bad days. Tuesday night was a bad one. My husband had to wake up for work the following morning, so I took care of them by myself. It seems that the nights that I have to take care of them alone- one of them, or both- are very fussy. That particular night, Neve vomited twice, Soleil once.. they were fussy, crying.... I did not get one moments rest. I could not stop crying. I called my mother at 7am and begged her to come over so that I could sleep. She did. I just needed to sleep. The multiples part isnt what's hard for me- its the lack of sleep. A person cannot function without it. I have NO IDEA what we're going to do when I go back to work in two weeks. How will we manage when we both have to work?
I need some suggestion pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee!
Here are our schedules:
My husband wakes up for work at 4:45am and is usually home by 3:30pm.
I wake up at 6am am out of the house by 7am, and return home by 6:30pm-7:00pm. Any ideas how we could work their feedings? What are your suggestions ladies... I dont want us to be frazzled.
My husband is taking this upcoming school semester off. We figure that he will not be able to study with the lack of sleep and his grades will suffer. When the fall semester rolls around the girls will be a lot older, and HOPEFULLY sleeping better.
I cant wait to return to work. I know it wont be easy, but I want to getup in the mornings and have some sort of routine. I want to get dressed and interact with others. I also want to start dieting. Well, it's not really dieting as a lifestyle. I was heavy for most of my life and lost a lot of weight 6 years ago. I had been maninting my weight beautifully until this pregnancy- now I am back to my previous weight and of course, the weight is dispersed in many places that were not previously heavy (like my stomach and behind). Its been hard for me to get into a good and healthy food routine since my days and nights all mesh into one another and I hardl have time to go grocery shopping. I know myself, I need structure in my day in order to stick to a healthy lifestyle. My mom has been kind enough to offer to cook for me when she is watching the girls. That will be a lot easier for me. I hate the body shape that is staring me in the mirror as of late. I dont know who she is and I dont like her. Dont get me wrong- I love the fact that this body produced my two beautiful girls. I just dont like looking like a mack truck.
I am just physically and mentally exhausted. Everyone says the first 3 months are the hardest. In my case it will be longer than that seeing as though the girls were in the NICU for so long and should have been born two days ago.
Right now it's about 1am and my husband has been asleep since 6pm. I want him to sleep well so that I can sleep for a good 6 or 7 hours when I wake him up for his shift. My girls received their first immunization shots today and they have been very sleep and lathargic ever since. My house is quiet and still for once which is why I have had the time to write a post. I hope everyone is doing well- and please keep your advice coming!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Same Place- Different Look
Posted by Gemini Girl at 12:42 AM
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11 comments:
Let's see. I didn't go back to work until the kids were 6 months, so by then, they were fully sleeping through. Prior to that though, I was on full duty at night. The best I can suggest is that you don't sleep together, and take shifts sleeping. It's better for both of you to get 4-5 straight hours of sleep than both of you getting woken up constantly. I'm not sure how you would work it with you husband getting up so early. You may have to play around with times so you both get some good uninterrupted sleep. It's really tough at the beginning, but for us around 3-4 months they switched to sleeping through the night. It's not that far away. But you are right, there is nothing like sleep deprivation. I think I spent the majority of the first 3 months crying because I was just so damn tired.
And I know what you mean about the weight. I only gained about 16lbs during my entire pregnancy (but I'm not a small person to begin with.) So once they were born, I was thinner than when I got pregnant. But fast forward 9 months, and all of that Mcdonalds and chinese food and pizza that we got because we were WAY too tired to cook, has added up. So I just joined Weight Watchers to try and lose some of it.
Oh, and the onesies on my blog? Got 'em at Babies R Us. They had a couple of cute different twin ones.
I went back to work when Lila was 4 months old. I thought it would be terribly difficult to coordinate everything, but you figure out the details very fast. I don't really have any advice as far as the feedings. Your mom or husband will feed them when they're there and you will when you're there. Hopefully, they'll stop waking up to be fed at night very soon.
It sounds like your mom is being very helpful right now, which is a really great thing to hear!
Well I don't have much in the line of advice (sorry) but I will send thoughts that your little ones start sleeping more and that you will soon be able to get the rest you need.
I'm not sure if you said how long your babies are sleeping at night but it should get better soon. Mine woke up to eat every 3 hours until they were 2 months old and then started going 4-5 hours from 2-3 months. Once they hit 3 months they started sleeping 6-7 hours for the most part and that's where they're at now. Mine were 4 weeks early so not as early as yours... so you might have to wait a little longer to have them sleep through the night. I have found that a nighttime routine is essential. We still swaddle and only at night so they know it's bedtime. We also use a white noise machine at night and only put them in their crib at night... this distinguishes it for them as bedtime. It also helps to keep it as dark as possible and as quiet as possible when you get up at night with them.
I am very lucky and have a husband that helps me at night. We considered trading off but it doesn't work for us. Instead I warm up the bottles when they wake to eat at night and then he feeds one as I feed the other. Then we change them as quickly as possible and put them back down. When we do it together we can have them both fed, changed and burped in 45 mins and be back in bed. Whereas it takes me 90 mins to do it by myself. My husband is the first to admit that staying at home with the twins is a much harder job then his day at work and I need sleep as much as he does in order to handle the day ahead. I would not be able to cope all day if I handled nighttime all by my self on a regular basis. I was 100% alone w/ the twins a few weeks ago 24/7 (for an entire week) and I almost had a nervous breakdown.
Oh and I learned pretty quickly that babies will learn to soothe themselves back to sleep. So we stopped giving them the pacifier in the middle of the night (for the most part) and let them make a few grunts and sounds before getting up to check on them. And the white noise machine helps cover some of their noisy sleeping so you don't wake up at every little thing. I highly recommend it.
Hang in there.
-Faith
I hope you find the schedule that works. Sometimes it's just time.
One thing about your new layout...it leaves an overlay on your text and pictures. It makes it hard to see your beautiful girls :)
Heeelllppp I don't know you can manage to feed two at once on your own. I'm at my parent's house now and just want to stay here forever because my mom is a huge help and I cannot imagine being alone with my two babies- J helps out but it's not the same... Especially because I am breastfeeding, it's me that has to get up all the time. I am getting no sleep.
Please tell me it gets easier.
I’m trying to remember how we did it when I first went back to work…seems like a lifetime ago and I can barely remember what we did yesterday!!! Are you still having middle-of-the-night feedings? I think we stopped those right before I went back to work. They would still sometimes wake in the middle of the night but we did the last feeding at 9:00 p.m. and didn’t feed again until around 6 a.m. They still sometimes woke in the middle of the night but usually just wanted to be held for a bit, not fed. There were a few times we broke out the bottle but not much. I didn’t want them to get used to eating all day and all night long. The best advice I can give right now is to get into a good night routine…it will help the morning so much. My main thing was helping them figure out what nighttime meant and that it was different from daytime. After being back to work for a couple of weeks, we decided we had to change their bedtime because I was getting absolutely nothing done since it’s be so late. So, now we start the bedtime process around 7:00 each night. We give them their baths, dim all the lights and take them upstairs to their room for the last bottle of the day. It’s pretty cool…as soon as we hit the recliners in their nursery, their little eyes start drooping; they know it’s bedtime and are usually asleep by 7:45 or so.
It is definitely nice to get into a routine when you are back to work. As hard as it is to leave them in the mornings, it does feel so good to get up & dressed and go to work. And, it’s nice to have that interaction, too. Plus, the absolute best part of my day is going to pick them up and the time we spend together as a family every evening. I look forward to it all day long.
Sorry I don’t have more advice for your morning schedule…you just gotta give it some time for trial & error. Most mornings, my husband is there to help…granted, I do most of it but he does some things that really, really help me along, like putting the girls in their car seats and changing them while I finished getting dressed. There have been mornings when I’ve had to do it alone and it’s a little chaotic but it gets done. Oh, and a little more advice…get as much done the night before as you can. Again, it’s all about the nights. I get all of the bottles and formula for the next day ready the night before. I have their bag packed for daycare the night before and their car seats ready to go. I also get their clothes laid out for the next day the night before so I don’t have to stumble around in their room the next morning. Every morning, we have the same routine…even down to my dog getting a Beggin’ Strip right before I walk out the door!
Don’t be discouraged if it takes a little bit of time…and just know that there will be some mornings where you are totally frazzled. It just happens!! But, you're a twin mommy, you can do anything!! :)
Love the new look. The pictures of the girls are great, too.
I'm no help with the sleep thing yet. I'll definitely be checking the comments here for suggestions, though!
I don't have any ideas for you on schedules, but I do have one re: the body image thing. Slow and steady - that's my message.
You have a lot to contend with at the moment, and lots of changes to make to your routine. Try not to stress if something falls through the "perfect mommy" cracks. :) You will do fine getting your bod back if you go slow and easy on all the changes you want to make.
BTW - I don't have any belly pics. :O I thought I did, from our recent shower, but my belly is covered up in all the shots. LOL I'll try to post one soon. :)
The girls are looking great. I'm sorry about the sleep deprivation. I'm past the worst of it (and of course, I only have one). It's great that you and hubby are taking shifts. That's what B and I do, too. I hope you find something that works for you when you go back to work. It will be nice for you to get back to regular life for a bit.
I'm in a different phase of parenting - my kids are ages 4, 5, and 8 - but I remember the sleep deprivation well...
My suggestion for making your morning routine easier is to do as much as you possibly can the night before. Your clothes, and your daughters' clothes, should be laid out; bottles should be made, and diaper bag packed. I even sometimes leave myself a list of what I need to do in the morning so I don't forget something. It makes the mornings much easier.
Best of luck to you as you move into your new routine.
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