Update on Schedule, naps and life.

So much has happened since my last post. I wasn't slacking but working my bottom off. The babies' grandpoppie was ill so Roger flew to be with him while he was still lucid. He was away for a week and I worked late every night plus all day Saturday, so that Sara could make it through the week.

Roger made it home and settled in. Just about the time things were getting back to normal the call came that grandpoppie had passed. Now the debate, should Sara go with Roger for the funeral? Roger would stay a week but Sara could come home early. Debate, debate. can Noragh and I help, debate. Then reality struck. Sara didn't have her passport. She couldn't fly internationally and know she'd be allowed back home. Debate ended, Sara stays home.

Roger left on Saturday and thank heavens other grandpoppie calls and offers to help for the weekend. I'm off the hook! That was last weekend. It was my first break in two weeks and I really enjoyed it. No babies, no blogging, no diapers and the only naps I had to worry about were my own. It was lovely. There were kids though, the high schoolers from church put on their yearly pancake breakfast and Norah and I were the adults in charge. It went very well, we were all exhausted after three hours in the kitchen. But we plugged through and supervised Sunday School as well. It was a very long morning followed by a trip to the park for Basel. Ahhh the fall. Basel swam, he's getting better but still learning and still unbelievably funny every time, and we brought him homejust as exhausted as we were. We all went to bed, seperate beds, no furry Basel-butt on my pillow!, and slept for three hours! It was the best.

Of course during that lovely restful weekend I decided to give up coffee and caffiene. [Norah is pushing for this winter pregnancy really hard and I'm yeilding.] So Monday, what a day, I head to work caffiene-free and ready, oh boy, for an extra long day and the start of our new schedule! Oh joy!!

Side note,
Tabitha can now sleep through the night and is doing so regularly. Jackson has been doing this for weeks now. Both go to bed around 7pm and wake around 6am for a bottle. And they do this each night. Good news, wonderful. But about the time this became predictable, they started having issues with our daytime routine.
Now, side note within the side note;
coming home from the NICU both babies were on a three hour schedule. Of course that was thrown out the window as soon as they were home. Roger and Sara had been listening to NICU nurses for long enough and now they got to choose, or more precisely Jackson and Tabitha chose. They ate whenever they wanted and slept on who ever was closest. And this worked well because their [young] auntie was visiting for three weeks, I was there, both Roger, Sara and my Norah, not to mention visiting nurses, lactation consultants and when auntie left grandmommie arrived, also for three weeks. You try telling the grandmommie that lives a twelve hour flight away she can't rock them to sleep every-single-time. I will cheer for you. I made it through 2/3 of her visit before I had to step up. This is when we instituted the routine they had up until last week, about three weeks total. Eating every three hours, they can do it, they were doing it six weeks ago when they came home from the NIC, and sleeping by themselves within every three hour cycle. There was patting and soothing and touching and talking and it was a small step but a step nonetheless.

So, every three hours easily merged into a suggested daytime feeding schedule, spaced of course, three hours apart. Some days this was very tough for Tabitha. She likes the bottle to go to sleep. But I persisted, the routne prevailed and we were on our way. They started to become more aware and more social. No longer were they just sleeping when the opportunity arose. Then last week they missed a nap. They dozed while we were out but they were miserable later and took two days to get back to normal. [We'd been at Children's Hospital having some blood work done as a follow up from the NICU] We kept close to the schedule but stretched their awake times to see what they could handle, let them know there is time for socializing and seperate sleeptime from awake time.

We found that 1:15hr is about all they can handle. At an hour and a half they get overtired and have trouble going to sleep. We also found that for them this is total awake time - including the diaper/bottle/feeding/burping time. Since this last part takes 45 minutes max, 35-40 on average, we added 30 minutes awake time before each bottle because if they play after a bottle we're always worried about bringing the bottle back up.

Figuring out wht they need and getting them the sleep they need is crucial. 25 weeks is way too early to start a life. But they are thriving and I believe it is because they sleep. Children and babies release growth hormones during deep sleep, if they never get into that deep sleep or only get their irregularly they will never reach their potential. Starting life so early we need to give them every opprtunity possible to reach their potential. We've also seen that being tired affects the way Jackson eats. He has reflux and when he doesn't get enough sleep he spits up more, both in frequency and volume. He also has a really hard time connecting to the bottle when he's overtired, his latch is off, he can't get started and he gets really, really frustrated.

Taking what we found into account we looked to Sara's favorite sleep book, Healthy Sleep Habitsetc. He suggested, for a 4-6 months old baby, bed between 6-7pm, check, early wake up [with or without bottle, ours is with] around 5-6am, check, wake up around 7am, um no, nap #1 at 9am, nap #2 at 1pm and nap #3 at some point in the evening. Of course we modified this to fit our needs, more specifically the babies needs. 7am wake up is too early for them. They get up around 8:45am, bottle at 9:15am, nap #1 at 10am. Good. Wake up 12:45pm, bottle 1:15pm, nap at 2pm, okay. Wwake up at 4pm, bottle 4:30pm, nap #3 at 5:15pm. Tough but we can do it. Finally, wake up at 6pm, bottle by 7pm and bed.

Monday, without any caffiene, we embarked on our schedule-changing journey. I am pleased to report - it was perfect! I told Sara the plan, she liked it and agreed, then headed off to work. We had a tough first feed and were 15 minutes off all day, but that is AWESOME!! Tuesday I headed in bright and early and mom headed off to work [this is a new thing, she's been home with me on maternity leave until this week] morning went well and then during nap #2 Tabitha exploded! She refused. She was mad and not having it. 45 minutes and she was toast. No sleep. No. I'm not doing it she said in babyspeak - waaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! [only much, much louder] Of course I finally get her to stop and BOOM!! Jackson has to put his thoughts in. I give in, I have a caffiene headache and I can't take anymore crying, we're only 30 minutes early at this point so we just go for a walk. Today, same deal. 45 minutes and she's done, mad, telling the world. Of course I know, ten years of doing this has taught me, if I keep giving in, it will keep happening. So I wait. And wait. And wait. She settles down and is quietly going to sleep. Of course this is the point at which the housekeepers show up [4hrs late and right at 45 minutes] to clean, vacuum and mainly, be really, really noisey. So cry, cry, cry. Calm, snooze, cry. And so it went, but today Jackson didn't sleep through it, he joined her. And as a baby chorus sang on and on I held strong - much to the housekeepers chagrin. You know this means that today I didn't have a headache. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Today was better then yesterday and tomorrow will be better than today, I can only hope. I'm also going to try tweaking the schedule just a little even though it worked o well on Monday. Maybe the morning nap is so refreshing after that nice long overnight sleep that Tabitha isn't getting sleepy enough in between the two naps. Jackson definitely likes this schedule and only cried out of frustration today because his sister was keeping him up.

In other news, today Jackson and Tabitha are five months old!! Technically they are more like two month olds but literally they have been here for five months. Very exciting. They are getting big and are unbelievably social. Today I saw the beginnings of their sennses of humor. Completely different from each other, of course. It is very exciting to see them changing and growing each day. Jackson's nose is changing and Tabitha's forehead is changing. They are both getting stronger, eating faster and making new sounds. Jackson tries to say hi, not really but it sounds lie he does. Tabitha can mimic almost any face you throw at her, tongue out, curled tongue, crinkled nose, she's a pro!

All in all life is pretty good right now. I'm exhausted and I know that once the caffiene headaches are completely gone I'll dip into a low. Norah and I have each given up caffiene before and seen it happen, it sucks, but if I am to get pregnant at the beginning of December then it's better now then later. And I can do it! I'm also losing weight. The idea was that I'd work really hard to look good for our ten year reunion in April, just before I turn 30, but now that's out of the window if I'm pregnant, right? I'll be just as chubby as I am now. Oh well, I'll keep working on it, I'm doing pretty well and I feel good so either way it is good for me.

Sorry for all the detail but I thought having it written down might help me later or someone else, having twins can be challenging but the benefits far outweigh the extra work at times. Two babies, together to share the good, the bad and the naps - it's all worth it!