Valentines Babies, 2013!

[Midnight_Fairy]

Ughh at mil. That would drive me barmy!! My mil still has young kids at home so shes not overly intrusive xx

 

[SierraJourney]

thanks ladies- glad I'm not the only one boiling because of mil.... I still haven't returned her call or texts because I'm trying to "prove " I'm in control and need my space childish, yes, but makes me feel better!

 

[Kellen]

Why does it seem like all MIL have the same control issues? Mine does the "My baby girl" thing and it really annoys me. She won't say it if she knows I'm listening, but she says it to DH all the time. And no, she is you GRANDDAUGHTER she is MY baby. Needless to say I am not really looking forward to our visit in May. Those will be a long four days. Has anyone done a flight with an infant? Any tips or advice. I will be flying while DH drives the moving truck.

Last night was a roaring success in terms of sleeping. Teagen went down at 11 after a bottle and a quick comfort nurse. She wasn't completely asleep when I laid her down, but she managed to find her fist and soothed herself to sleep. She did not wake up until 7 this morning when DH was leaving for work. Even then she had her diaper changed and a 5 minute nurse before she was out again until 9:30. Now she just gave me a wonderfully smelly diaper.

Here is a picture of us yesterday. We are squinting into the sun. She is in her Easter outfit.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Yey well done teagen! We had the name teigan in our top 5

 

[DragonflyWing]

wamommy- Max is gorgeous! What a handsome boy

helena- Kiara is adorable! Look at that expressive little face!

Sunday night, the twins both slept through the night! Yay! Of course, the last two nights they have been up a million times

 

[Kellen]

Wamommy - Max is a super handsome little fellow. He is going to grow up to be a heartbreaker.

Helena - I am glad I'm not the only one who thinks her little one sometimes looks like a frog.

Dragon - Your little ones are looking so grown up!

 

[wamommy]

LOL about the MIL songs

Yay Teagan and the Dragon Twins for sleeping through the night!!

Kellen, what a great pic! Teagan is so cute, and so chubby! I LOVE baby chub. I could just eat them up

 

[helena]

Oh Taegan is so big and lovely! You look really well too Kellen. Must be all that sleep..you lucky thing! Kiara hasn't gone beyond 5 hours of sleep but that is good enough for me for now, I know I must count my blessings! (I often think of you and adorable monkey Max Wamommy!...xx)

What time do you little ones go to bed? I had wanted K to go down at 7 with her brothers, but she seems to have decided that evenings are the best time to be active and wriggly and she tends to go to bed around 10 or 11, which actually works good because I can then go to end right after her last feed nd maximize my chances of a good rn of sleep. But I do look forward to her sleeping during the evening at se point...eating one handed is getting to be far too routine now!

 

[Kellen]

10 or 11 seems to be Teagen's preferred time sleep too. I'm actually looking forward to moving across the country because then she will be wanting to go to sleep at 8 pm.

Today she has been super fussy and is only happy if she is swinging or being walked around the house. Right now I have foisted her off on her daddy and am thinking about escaping to a shower. But I can't move right now because the cat has decided to take advantage of me sitting without a baby.

And thank you, Helena, for the complement. I too feel for everyone who has a little one that doesn't like sleep. I feel so blessed and slightly confused that she is so good. I had put myself in the mindset that I would never sleep again.

 

[SierraJourney]

Camden usually goes to sleep around 9 or 10. We try to make it earlier but it alwaya seems to fall between 9 & 10. Hopefully soon it will be earlier though.. but it's hard because Dh gets home at 530 and wouldn't get much time to spend with Cam if he goes to bed earlier.. so right now these times work for us. How long does your guys bedtime routine take? With feeding and everything, ours usually take an hour.

 

[helena]

We dont have a routine as such, just pjs and milk.. She doesn't bath every day. It was the same lack of routine for my second son too and he was the best sleeper ever, so I am happy to go this way again. With having 3 to get to bed things have to be short and or flexible. Eventually she will join her brothers routine - milk and a short tv programme in pjs followed by story in bedroom, clean teeth, cuddles with both mum and dad and bed. Maybe 40 minutes total, but including a 15 minute of childrens tv. So really only half an hour or less of hands on parenting routine. Both boys together, same story etc.
The only definite part of K's routine is her wake up time. We have to get up when the big brothers wake.. 6.30-7.
My second son had a regular bed time. He always went at 7.30 with his brother. I think that as long as there is one constant everything else will somehow fall into place.

My first baby had a full bath, milk, story, bed routine.Was a major job each evening. But it didnt help him to sleep...awkward little devil
Bedtime routine now is much shorter and I think it's just as effective. As soon as pjs are on and we are reading that story (5 or 10 mins long, a short picture book) they know bedtime is inevitable.
X

An not sure how or when to move K's bedtime earlier, didn't have this before... Maybe at 4 months and I will feel more safe to be a bit tougher on insisting on an earlier bedtime and letting her cry a bit.
It's all so good right now, her happy to drift off alone but at 10pm that I don't want to rock the boat yet!...

 

[SierraJourney]

Don't blame you Helena- it sounds perfect that she goes to sleep on her own!

The lactose free diet is helping Camden a bit but his tummy still hurts him a lot. I'm going to see the doctor for it next week. The lactose free diet is soooo hard for me though! Im a vegetarian already, so not being able to eat milk and cheese severely limits my food choices! I'm hoping maybe next week we'll find out it's not lactose and I can get back to eating again! but it's worth it if it helps Camden to nap and stop fussing so much!

 

[Kellen]

I am on a lactose and gluten-free diet due to my own allergies. So, I feel for you Sierra. I use almond or lactaid milk to supplement my diet. And goat cheese does not seem to affect me as badly as processed cow's cheese.

Our bedtime starts around 9. We get Teagen into her jammies and off to the bedroom we go. She takes about 4oz of breast milk from a bottle and them nurses. This generally takes until 10:30 when she will nod off. We will then put her in her bed. Sometimes she will fuss and then I will cuddle her and let her sleep with me until DH comes to bed. But the last two nights she has found her fist and soothed herself to sleep.

We don't do baths everyday either. At the moment we tend to do Thursday and Saturday nights unless we have a diaper accident and it necessitates a bath.

 

[DragonflyWing]

Do you all put your LOs in pajamas at night? I just leave them in whatever they wore during the day...it's usually a one piece sleeper, anyway. Sometimes it's a two piece outfit, but pretty much all baby clothes are comfy to sleep in, right? Sometimes they even wear the same clothes for two days in a row...unless they spit up/have a diaper blow out, we just change their onesie and keep the outfit. Is that bad?

Do any of you let your babies sleep on their tummy? I find that the twins fall asleep SO much faster and stay asleep longer if they're on their front. We never let them sleep on their tummies when we're sleeping, but if we're awake and checking them frequently, we do. I know this is discouraged because babies who sleep on their backs have a lower SIDS rate, but since they hit their due date (about 2 months old), they WILL NOT fall asleep if we put them down awake on their backs. If we put them down asleep, it's hit or miss, but they usually wake up within a few minutes. If we put them down awake on their tummies with their pacifiers in, they usually drift off to sleep on their own with no trouble. At night when we're going to bed, we turn them over on their backs and they usually stay asleep then. Anyone else?

 

[wamommy]

Yes, Dragon, I do both of those things!!

I let Max wear his clothes until he soils them, which is sometimes 2 days and sometimes 2 minutes!! He usually wears a sleeper, unless we're feeling fancy... then he'll wear a onesie and pants I figure he sleeps all day in it, isn't it comfy enough for night?

I also put Max on his tummy to nap sometimes, as long as I'm right next to the pack and play. I obsessively check on him, but haven't had a problem yet. At night I put him on his tummy for the first 15 minutes or so, until he's nice and deep asleep, then flip him to his back before I go to sleep. Each time he wakes in the night I put him straight on his back, though, since there's no way I'm waiting up an extra 15 minutes to flip him!

I should take notes on all of your bedtime routines. THat is something I've always felt a bit of a failure at with my kids. Even the girls don't have a strict or set bedtime, and it's often chaos here in the evenings as they get tired and crazy. I've tried routines before, and they are SO resistant to it that I have a bit of a phobia. It's easier (in the short run) to just let them stay up until they fall asleep on their own than to deal with the 50-times-out-of-bed nightmare. In the long run I'm setting them up for sleep issues, though, so I need to suck it up at some point. I'm just so incredibly tired all of the time from Max not sleeping that I avoid most conflict, even the beneficial kind.

 

[SierraJourney]

Thanks Kellen! Glad someone understands! . At least it will make me a healthier person!

I usually put Camden in a sleep gown each night. He spts up so much that he usually needs a change by then anyways. The bedtime routine works wonders for us! We always do diaper change, pjs, a few ounces of breast milk from a bottle while Dh either reads to him or sings and plays guitar, then the fan comes on and it's quiet time and I nurse him until he's asleep. Sometimes he wakes up when I put him in his crib but he always goes to sleep within a few minutes.

 

[SierraJourney]

Oh and Camden hates being on his tummy so I would never attempt to try to let him sleep on his tummy! We would have no sleeping and instant screaming

 

[helena]

I change Kiara into clean pjs each night but if she is still clean and dry in the morning she stays in that outfit until the evening. That makes the mad morning school rush much easier.
By evening she usually has some sick on her!...

Bt she has started a poo explosion each morning at 10ish for the last 3 days so her change of clothes has upped pace and my washing pile is expanding.

 

[helena]

Oh, and my paediatrician said she had her three kids sleeping on their tummies...

I know there is a risk, but there is a lot to be said for a well rested baby. They grow better, are healthier..
When I was born it was all sleeping on our tummies. Kiara would like to sleep on her tummy. I haven't let her yet, but I would be tempted if she really wouldn't sleep on her back. At the moment she sleeps in her cot on a bean bag. That sort of takes away the openness of being on her back, if you get what i mean. it kind of cradles her like arms. I guess this needs to go once she moves more.


In a month or so the babies could be rolling over into whatever position they want anyway..

 

[DragonflyWing]

That's true...pretty soon they'll be choosing their own sleep positions. We had the twins in two Boppy loungers to sleep for a long time, but when they started moving more, it wasn't safe anymore. I figured that out when I came in to find Lily laying between the two pillows in the crib, she had rolled right out of her Boppy! They're just too wiggly now to have any pillows or anything around them while they sleep.

We still put a blanket on them to sleep, but only up to their waist so it can't get up over their faces. We try to put them in wearable blankets instead, but a lot of the time they fall asleep and I'm not willing to wake them up to put it on. It will be better in the summer when they won't really need a blanket.