Crying it out in the cold - Mommy Rather than Mommy (after the journal title), I wanted to type Bad Mommy, but we all make mistakes. A member of my playgroup (one of many!) told me about a sleeping method she is using for one of her twin sons in which she has had a lot of success. A side story to the playgroups...I became the playgroup coordinator for my local multiples club and somehow have managed to invite myself into many groups and ask others to join the ones that I am in! Anyway, back to the purpose of this entry. Since November (see Ryan's journal entry about sleepless nights) the girls--mostly Marayla--have been up a lot in the middle of the night. Rather than her waking up and getting herself back to sleep I would quickly get her and put her in bed with us, mostly to avoid waking the other one. It is an easy and sweet way to get more sleep. It is always special to wake up with your sleeping angel. So based on The Ferber method used by my friend, we (well, me) decided that I would let the girls cry it out at night instead of grabbing them and bringing them into bed. Two nights ago it was tough, but they eventually went to sleep and we were babyless all night. Last night was a totally different experience. The crying (more like frustrated screaming) lasted over two and a half hours. Ryan made a few adjustments and told me that the girls room was cold and their hands were freezing. Their room is a bit colder than ours and I run very hot at night so I didn't think twice about how the thermostat was reading very low before we went to bed, even though the heat was set to 70. I just thought the was about to turn on when I turned the thermostat down for the night. Not so much--our furnace was broken and I didn't know that until this morning when our house was reading 60. So, my poor babies were probably freezing last night and I didn't know. WOW did I feel awful this morning, and last night I was on the verge of throwing up from all the stress of listening to them cry. I think that I am going to try a different method than crying it out as it just doesn't feel right to me.
I feel like I just went to confession here, and now I am forgiven. I will move on from this and learn to trust my gut and listen to Ryan's more clearly, as he was not a big fan of this idea and told me he was biting his tongue last night.
2008-01-28
two little crawlers - Mommy Marayla has been winding up (which looks like bouncing and rocking on hand and knees) for a few weeks now and has pulled both her legs forward with her hands, like she was sliding forward, but hasn't crawled any distance until this afternoon. She crawled forward at our Discovery Health shoot and we thought that was it, but she stopped after that glimpse and continued her army crawl the rest of the day.
This morning Marayla was doing her normal crawling then this afternoon she took off. She "wound up" for almost a minute then crawled over five feet to me and then turned around and went back. It was "look at me Mommy!" After that I pulled out ALL of our gates to try and install them.
I felt like I could manage just one crawler as Julia was the first baby I would pick up and the last I put down so she spent less time alone, since she is a master at going up a stair but doesn't understand that she can fall down them (we tried to see if she would stop and turn around but no she fell--into Ryan's arms). But now I need latched gates everywhere, not just parts of superyards wedged between walls. Ryan and I have some work to do tonight when the girls go to bed, as I can't figure out how to configure any of the three gates that I bought used at our consignment sale.
Congratulations Marayla!
2008-01-28
Sleep and Patience - Arianne Sleep and patience go hand in hand. A rested parent has lots of a patience and a tired one has a short fuse. Also, a Monday Mommy has more patience then a Friday one!
2008-01-27
What we did on Wednesday, January 23 - Arianne The alarm went off at 4:30am and we were out of bed and in the shower right away. While I was drying my hair and putting on makeup Ryan was waking the girls and getting them dressed in matching outfits. After a mad scramble we made it out the door right before 6am, although we intended to leave at 5:30am. This was the first night that the girls did not wake up in the middle of the night, which was great because they needed as much energy as their bodies could muster, as they were shedding off the last of their colds. In the car we had a suitcase full of matching baby outfits and back up outfits for Mom and Dad. We drove all the way down into the heart of DC to Howard University and like any celebrities we were given a special parking pass and sent to the green room for prep. We entered a large room filled with other multiples and excited parents, which is where we spent most of our day waiting. It was just a normal day of play, naps, eating, bubbles, music, relay races, head shots and of course baby basketball! Just a day in the life. To see the girls' film debut, tune into Discovery Health on April 5, and watch BABY MADNESS MULTIPLES. The show is running with March Madness and will be start at 3pm.
We are thrilled we had this opportunity and know that it will be a special memory to share with the girls when they get older.
