Toddling Twins & Trips Chat Thread Winter '12-3 - Page 2

[~Adorkable~]

i just tstarted a medication that makes it so i cant nurse for 12 hours a day. in preparation for it is had cut out the random late afternoon, early evening nursing a few weeks ago and then stopped nursing for naptime a few days ago. so not its just to bed at night and a few times in the wee hours of the morning. (had mostly night weened over the last few months)

they are taking it amazingly well, i guess waiting till they are 2 probably helped a lot. the basically have not asked to nurse anytime that i couldn't do it, they kinda "mention" it (signing "milk") but not really right to me, so i just went on what what i was talking about to see if they would ask again and they never did. im so relieved, i was tearing myself up over having to tell them no nursing.  an added benefit is that i am really loving my first thing i nth morning nursing, we get super cuddly and i spend a lot of time kissing their head and being thankful that i can still nurse at all and that they are being so sweet about it.

my two had pretty delayed speech, just now have a handful of words, at 20m they each had 1 mayyyybe 2 (and no mom or dad at that point either) so i could not have seen how to do any weening back then, i know they got a lot of what i said, but it was hard to tell how much so i would have felt unsure they understood what was happening.  i never was one of those ladies that knew or planned to nurse for a long time, i never really thought about it. i knew i would go a year of course and i knew i would delay solids. but now looking back on it am so so glad i waited on solids till they were 9-10m, it just bypassed so much frustration and unneeded effort and im so glad i waiting till i could talk to my kids about nursing and boobs needing sleep too before i starting any sort of night or day weening.

there is a lot i feel like im bumble thru with parenting, its really nice when i look back and feel like i got something clearly right, specially after the 6 month  struggle to learn to nurse the pair

[rinap]

Night routine now is potty and diapers and toothbrushing, then stories with daddy and snuggle up to nurse in their bed. They nurse to sleep together, then we tiptoe out. They sometimes sleep until 1, sometimes sleep only an hour, and need to be nursed back to sleep. Around 1 I go to bed with them and they nurse every couple of hours until around 5, at which point they nurse a lot until they get up around 7. On a good night, they nurse separately.  On bad nights, they wake together and constantly. Also having trouble getting them to unlatch, even when they're asleep. Nursing alone is side-lying. Nursing together is with me on my back, and painful, especially while they're teething, which they have been for a while. I haven't had much luck talking to them about either sleeping through or nursing one at a time (they're pretty incoherent when they wake up).

[~Adorkable~]

hi folks, just got back from a busy week of twin b-days and visiting families. i still cant believe i have 2 years olds 

so just wanted to share the best mommy fail of my whole two years:

last week i went to get my son after he woke from nap and as i was carrying him downstairs, i felt he was surprisingly warm against my body.

then i realized his clothes were wet, strange cause his diapers seriously never leak, so i went to change him.....

guessed the fail yet?

when i took of the PJ's off, yep, butt as bare as the minute he was born, no diaper! i somehow changed him for his nap and never put a clean diaper back on!

the most amazing part frankly was that this was the first time in 2 years X two kids that this has happened!

[lesliesara63]

Last night was one of those nights. Two of my girls when they get a cold will stay up crying all night. One was crying from 11-1 and the other 1-330. My dh and I took turns but I still only got 3-4 hrs sleep. Going to be a long day at work. The crazy thing is that in the middle of the night I didn't think to put Vicks on their feet or turn on the vaporizer. Only thought of those things this morning. Fortunately the third baby slept all night except for a few minutes.

[~Adorkable~]

yeah my girl is getting her last two canines right now and it gives her so much grief when she is trying ot sleep, but since they dont really seem to bother her during the day, i keep forgetting that this is probably the reason that on a given night she needs to come to bed with me and then thrashes around and cant fall back asleep once she is there.

 she responds great to a half dose of advil, but i have to remember at 3am all sleepy that this is even an option. sadly twice this last week i completely failed to think of that and spent hours failing to calm a thrashing sad kid.  i felt like shit in the morning when i figured it out, poor girl.

on a related note about teething, wow my boy took the fast and furious route and at times was getting 7 teeth at a time, i used to think i wished for him to slow down a bit and take it one at a time, but he also got all his 16 main teeth basically in 2 batches and was teething for a total of maybe only 5 months (split up over two different times)

in contrast my girl got hers one at a time and each tooth was so slow to come in, she is cutting the last two right now and has basically been teething nearly non stop for 18month and probably has at least 1 more to go.  

in hindsight i would vastly prefer my sons method, it was easier for me to address his pain and spend the extra time comforting him and then he was thru it, i feel so bad for her. i certainly cant give her pain killers for 18 months and since it is seemingly endless, its hard to know what is related to the teeth and what is just her or due to something else. 

im really looking forward to re-meeting my daughter who is not teething, i dont even know that person, last time i saw her she was 6 month old!

it is yet another interesting thing that having twins gives you insight in, there is so much little details i might never really notice or pay that much attention too, except that my two are soo different so in comparison i get to see a wonderful  array of what growing up is like. I'm sure in part it is like this with any siblings, but i dont even have to think back and try to remember what an older sibling did at what age and such, the comparison is standing right there, right now. i find it really interesting.

[Emaya]

Adorkable, that is just hilarious about the missed diaper! I wonder what he was thinking in his little toddling mind -- "Hmm, it's a whole lot warmer and wetter than usual. And now it's kind of cooler and wetter...ah well ... zzz"

Rinap, that sounds challenging, all that nursing in the night. When they nurse separately, are you able to sleep through that? I never could. But then again, I couldn't nurse lying down, I think I'm just too flat-chested for that.

leslieandsara, I hope you made it through your work day ok. I just CAN'T work on 4 hours of sleep. But then again, I'm a junior-high teacher, so maybe that's just not possible. Or maybe I'm a big wimp. Are the two that have a hard time with colds identical? My id boys react the exact same way to sickness (whine all day, but sleep well at night) and their fraternal sister is stoic all day, but can have a difficult time at night when hit with a virus.

I'm getting ready, emotionally, to put these bubs in daycare for 2 days a week so I can get back to work a little bit - something I miss a lot. In Sweden, you have something called "inskolning," translated as "schooling-in," where you get your child or children slowly used to the daycare. It can take 3 days or 3 weeks depending on the needs of the child. You hang out with them at the daycare, trying not to be involved, just being close. Then you start to take short trips away, and finally you leave them there on their own. My daughter never cried once when I left her at daycare when she was 1, and hasn't cried since (she's 4) -- though sometimes she'll cry when I need to pick her up early (that's embarrassing) because she loves it there. Hopefully I can have a repeat this time with 4 happy daycare kids. Oh, and guess what full-time daycare -- up to 45 hours a week -- for four kids, each with two healthy meals and two snacks will cost us? About $300 a month. So I tell all my American girlfriends, if you're gonna have triplets, or just a boat-full of kids, do what I did and marry Swedish!

[~Adorkable~]

yeah my two went to a early "preschool" program that they have in some areas called a "Transitional Twos" here. it is a short morning two days a week that the parents all go to for the first half of the year and then just co-op the second half of the year (one of us in the room each day to help the teacher and her assistant out)  their are 10 kids and this coming tues is the first non parent day for us. I think it was a great way to ease into the daily flow of school. they know each other and the room so well now and for the last month or so the smarter parents have stepped backed and just watched and been available for their kid but let them do it solo. its been fun to watch my two find their own favorite things and make friends and learn skills.  

i say "smarter parents" because a handful have never left their kids sides and really never interacted with the other kids either, and frankly i think they missed the point. their kids have never gone off and explored, never learned to ask the teacher or another parent for help and i swear have gotten clingier over the few months that i have known them. this is not attachment parenting, it is smothering and sad to watch happening. i dread those kids come next week. a few im sure will blossom and their parent will probably sulk when they figure out they are not needed every second of the kids day, while others will flip out because their parents have really not only not taken this great chance to ease them into school, but in contrast have taught them to NEED them for literally everything.

and as its a Co-op and relies on parents helping all the students in the class on their days, i get irritated thinking that those parents will hover over their own kids and not do what the very easy going teacher would prefer they do to help out with everyone.

ok sorry off my soapbox now

[~Adorkable~]

oh to round off my no diaper nap fiasco, i bring you the 2 diaper dance!

we were driving to family about 5 hours away over new years and stopped and changed diapers at a rest stop. DH was running out with each kid as i changed the other. i changed my girl first.  so when i was done changing my boy and went to toss the diaper, i noticed there was not a trash within reach of the table so i had to figure out where to put it as i got him down, as i was doing this the thought crossed my mind "well what the heck did i do with his sisters diaper that didn't cause this same dilemma?

left it on would be the answer to that one ladies, left it on.

i have this habit of taking of a diaper, but leaving it under them till i get a new one nearly on, it gives me a place to put used wet wipes and keeps their butt of the surface or clothing i'm working on, but many times i have goofed  when i slide a new diaper on and then grab the tabs from back side of the old one already laying there and attach them to the front side of the new one. i of course always catch what happened as i then try to pull out the old one to toss. always a good giggle.

apparently doing this all quick and out of my normal space at a rest stop i just slid her legs back into the jumper and away we went. cause when we got in to our families house i could see right away that she had a particularly shocking low hanging diaper bulge and went to change it asap. of curse to find that the low hang was from a whole extra diaper that was folded in half hanging there off the fresh diaper which had thankfully stayed n place despite not being properly attached.  i felt pretty lame, Dh got a good chuckle and said in the end i can add the two incidence together and say that at least i have the right number of diapers to changes ratio over the long run!

[mylilmonkeys]

Hi Ladies!  I need to add our info.  My girls will be 2 in March.  How did that happen!!  I don't know how well I'll keep up, since I just started school full-time, but I'll pop in when I can.  To answer the questions from the front, I am dreading both potty training and weaning.  We've made tiny little forays into both these phases, but we have a long, long way to go.  I don't think there has been a single thing that has gone easier than I had envisioned for these twins.  Still not sleeping through the night, even.  But we're surviving and hanging in there.

[rinap]

Whoops! I swore I answered that. :)

Night routine is potty/diapers/brush teeth, go upstairs to a dim room for reading, singing, nurse to sleep.

During the day they nurse frequently (though less so when we're out and about) at night they generally both nurse at the same time with me lying on my back, which is painful. But they won't nurse if they're touching. I much prefer nights when they wake separately and I can nurse one at a time on my side.

I get up after putting them down (except when I fall asleep), then go to bed in my bed. Sometimes they sleep from 8-midnight, more often one or the other wakes multiple times. Around midnight I go in and sleep with them to keep them asleep. They wake up a lot. Every couple of hours, sometimes more often. Sometimes only one, sometimes both. Around six they start waking up, but I can often keep them dozing until 7.