Shopping to help the leukemia and lymphoma society!

My friend Heidi's little boy Ian was just diagnosed with leukemia last month. We've been praying for him, but now there's more we can do. This weekend only, shop at Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy and enjoy 30% off your purchase while giving 5% of those proceeds to the leukemia and lymphoma society! What could be better? Print your coupon (to be used multiple times at all the stores) here. Happy shopping!!!

A few stats while I remember them.

Blogging is like the ultimate baby book. Only problem is, I have to actually remember to go back and write down all the stuff they did once I haul out their baby books! But I had Madelyn in at the dr on Friday for a nasty diaper rash. Turns out it was a reaction to the POS cheap Wal-Mart diapers. Figures that she would have a reaction to something less than Cadillac worthy! So we got that all figured out and I wanted to see what they weighed. My guess was around 12-13 lbs each, with Macey weighing less than Madelyn.

Madelyn was 12lbs9oz, Macey 12lbs3oz. Spot on! They are doing really well. Sleeping is going well. They are swaddled, flat on their backs in their crib, side by side the short way in the crib, sleeping usually from 10pm-4am, bottles, then back to sleep until 7. The 3hr. schedule I've implemented is going very well, and it's nice to know what to expect and when to expect it as far as eating goes. They are still only taking 4oz at a time and Macey is handling medium flow nipples. Madelyn hates those, but she is such an aggressive sucker (lol) that it comes too fast for her!

Your support means so much!

Thank you to all of you for the phone calls, emails, notes on facebook, all of it!! It means so much. I think I am pretty foggy, and I am just not seeing things as clearly as I'd like to. The twins are still very young to be sleeping huge amounts, but I'm comparing to Declan, who slept 10+ straight hours by 7 weeks!

Last night was better. WAY better. We fed them for the last time around 9:30 or so and had them asleep and in their crib just before 10. They didn't wake to feed until 4:30!! That was absolutely wonderful. And then they made it again until 7am. I think I am going to start a 3 hour schedule during the day and allow a 6 hour time frame overnight, so feed at: 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10pm...4am. They are still only taking 4oz at a time and they still seem to need the slow flow nipples (Macey accepted a medium flow one today without issue but Madelyn got MADDDDDD!) so feedings still take SO LONG, but this schedule would work well for our family and I don't think it's ridiculous to expect them to be on SOME sort of schedule by now. They will be 4 months on Sunday. So we'll go with that. I had to sort of force the 10am bottle this morning but I don't think it will take long for them to get used to it.

Any experience with schedules like that? I can honestly say that I have never regimented myself with any of my other kids but then I've never had twins before either. I'm sure undecided what to do about overnights - like if they ate last at 10pm but are screaming by 2:30 should I just feed them and screw up the schedule? We'll see how it goes.

Thanks again for the support. I do promise pics soon - I even have a new video of them and they are not screaming this time!

I kicked James out of bed again last night.

No worries about our relationship, but honestly we might have issues if these twins keep waking up at all hours of the night. It's driving us insane. I know babies are supposed to be unpredictable and all of that but dear lord, they are so inconsistent we might as well call them politicians.

So I kicked James upstairs to the bedroom to sleep in peace. Apparently I am able to snore through them screaming in stereo, so we deemed it most appropriate for me to remain in the same room with them. Things started off ok. We put them down around 7:00 and they were both asleep! And then it happened. It always does with them. They woke up. And they fussed and fretted, so finally at 8:30 we fed them again and put them down again. Macey fell asleep. Madelyn fussed until 9:30 when she finally fell asleep. And they were out for good. Which leads me to my first question - would you just let them cry at that earlier point until they fell asleep? They will be 4 months on Sunday.

And the night continues. At 2:30 they started crying. I'm not sure who woke up first, but they were both crying before I knew it. And I ignored it. And was able to sleep off and on for another hour. I know, you might think it's horrible but they were right next to me and no one was hurt. At 3:30 I got up and gave them pacifiers, which worked...for about 15 minutes. I finally succumbed and fed them at 4am. Success? Or failure? Again, what would you have done? They had already cried for over an hour at this point....

So yeah, they ate at 4 and I got Madelyn up to change her diaper as she was poopy. I know they were both wide awake at 4:30 when I went back to bed but I turned the light off and I did not hear from them, so I'm assuming they didn't cry too hard to go back to sleep after that. James fed Macey around 6:30 and Madelyn got a bottle around 7am. Not too bad but I'm just unsure of how to go about all of this. I'm serious, if you have advice (even if it's "you did this ALL wrong!") please let me have it. I've never done sleep training with a baby, let alone twins so I don't know how to do it best. I just can't decide if they are young enough that they need to be eating during the night like that or if I should let them cry it out (which I used to be totally against, now I just need my sanity) at various points during the night. Help!!!

Oooohh pictures...

They were not good. Not at all. The short version? Declan was COMPLETELY uncooperative and Madelyn wouldn't stop crying. It was terrible and hilarious all at the same time. Enjoy these pictures, they are doozies.

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/ThumbAccess.aspx?e=5477817

password: kids

Wow, just...wow.

Things are a tad crazy here. And by that I mean right now. Madelyn is SCREAMING in the crib next to a wide-awake Macey who is just looking around. We've resorted to letting Madelyn cry for the time being (tonight) because she is fed, changed, dry, burped, everything. I feel like I am somewhat losing it with this lack of schedule thing. If you know me at all you know I am not a highly scheduled person, but I do love knowing what to expect with my kids and when naps will happen and how many times I'm going to be up at night, and with these little girls it's all a crap shoot. NOTHING is the same from day to day and it's really HARD. The first few weeks/months I would swaddle them and put them down to sleep (in their carseats, which we don't do anymore, hmmmm) at around 1pn and they would sleep until 5pm, sometimes until 6. It was glorious. I thought I had wonder-babies who regulated themselves into a schedule. Ummmm, no. That has gone away and now it's anyone's guess who will sleep and for how long and how crabby they might be on the other side of it. I'm honestly tired (hahahaha) of it and it's hard of all of us. I am short with my older kids and all of that.

I'll try not to whine from here on out....some updates on our lives.

Caden. My big boy will be SEVEN years old tomorrow, Oct 24! I just cannot believe it. I am so proud of him and all he has accomplished. He is excited about his birthday and says "happy song" a lot...I think that's what he wants to have sung but still won't let any of us actually sing it.

Avery is still really enjoying preschool and doing very well. She's also having a blast with ballet once a week and it's so cute to watch her do that!

Declan is walking. I'm sure I've mentioned that before but it begs repeating. He's such a precious boy toddling around and taking in everything around him. James took him tonight for a haircut because tomorrow we are finally taking all 5 kids to have their pics taken together in their Big Brother Big Sister Little Sister shirts. It's about time, no? I'll share those when we have a link.

It's 11pm

and I am sitting up with a still fussy Macey. This baby girl has decided that you must replace her pacifier every 10 minutes at bedtime and you must attend to her needs for several hours after her twin sister has already been asleep at night. It is getting QUITE frustrating. Madelyn has been asleep for 3 hours now and Macey is finally having another bottle which I hope will send her into sleep as well. She has also decided that she HATES to be swaddled so she wakes herself up during the night as well, again requiring that you replace the pacifier. James has been kind enough to take the 4-4:30 feeding while we are on vacation which I am so thankful for.

Speaking of thankful, I adore my husband. He let me sleep in until 11am this morning. I know some of you just spit out your coffee that a grown woman can sleep that long and others of you are all kinds of envious but yes, I slept in until 11am and enjoyed every second of it! I always say the best sleep happens after 5am. And I got a ton of it today!

Today has been pretty quiet. Caden and Declan have both been napping every day with grandma or grandpa. I think Caden is coming down with something and not feeling 100%. During naptime today I took all 3 of my girls and we drove around for a few hours while James, my dad and brother went to a casino. I found some neat shops that sell primitives that I must get back to before we leave as I couldn't go in anywhere, just drove and found out where they were. Did I mention that we forgot to bring any strollers whatsoever along with us? Brilliant move, for sure. Ugh. But I was able to go into Wal-Mart with the 3 girls. Do you even KNOW how many people say, "Oh, twins?" and I say, "yes", and they say (with 2 pink carseat covers), "boy and girl?" and I say, "no, girls" and they say, "are they identical?" and I say, "yes!" (sooooo thrilled that I know for sure!) and they say, "I always wanted twins."? And I honestly reply, "I never truly wanted twins, but now that I have them I couldn't imagine life without them!"