Big Girl Bed

Last week, Amelia asked if she could sleep in the big girl bed in her room. Yes, she's fast approaching three and still in the crib. It's a good place for a little girl who doesn't sleep through the night very well yet. I've threatened to leave her there until she hits her teens and learns to sleep all the time.

There has always been a daybed in Amelia's room, and we've napped on it from time to time or laid down with her on it when she's struggling to fall asleep. But one night last week she asked to sleep there for the night. Since she was interested and it's probably about time, I said yes. I did tell her she had to stay in it, and she did pretty well. She got up once, and scared the tar out of Jeff when she padded into the kitched in her footed jammies. She's slept there every night since, and seems to be sleeping better at night, too!

Amelia in the big girl bed

As Jeff says, why should it be a surprise the she's moved herself to the big girl bed? She did exactly the same thing with the potty. We had a potty chair, but weren't pushing the issue and then one day Amelia decided she wanted to use it and within a month she was fully trained. She also started to insist on not wearing a diaper to bed at night, too, and rarely had an accident after she made that decision.

Exactly who is raising this child? Her or us?

Feeding Frenzy

For the past four days, these boys have been eating every two to two and a half hours. And, they've started waking up at night again! Saturday night they were up at 4 a.m., and all of them drained a 5-oz. bottle and went back to sleep in 20 minutes. It was a new record, but they shouldn't be waking up at night that hungry!

I gave them a couple days to get the growth spurt out of their systems, but clearly, they need more to eat. So, starting today we are adding a little rice cereal to their bedtime bottles. If they still need to eat voraciously during the day, I'll add some to their daytime bottles, too.

There's hardly time between feedings on a three-hour schedule, and this schedule means we're practically doing feedings back-to-back. And they aren't sleeping enough, so they get fussy. Enough already! Mommy likes her happy boys and her nighttime sleep.

Here are the latest weights:

Sam: 12 lb. 5 oz.
Isaac: 10 lb. 12 oz.
Alex: 12 lb. 12 oz.

At the rate they are going, Alex will crack 15 lbs. by the time they are four months old. And Sam is gaining fast on Alex. He might just catch up! As for little Isaac, watch out. He's been draining those 5 oz. bottles, so he might just surprise us all one of these days!

Sam's Gold Star

Sam is not our best sleeper. In fact, he sometimes reminds me too much of Amelia in that regard. But after a rough afternoon yesterday where he never really slept -- and certainly not in his crib for any real stretch -- he got the gold star for his sleeping efforts last night.

Because he was fussy and I was afraid he'd exhaust himself before the 9:30 p.m. feeding, we fed Sam at 8:30 p.m. He was so exhausted and went down hard and fast. At 1:30 a.m. when Isaac started squawking, Jeff and I decided that we wouldn't wake the other two if they didn't wake up. Jeff did the 1:30 feeding and I was on call for the next round, whenever that happened.

When Jeff got up with Isaac, Alex woke up too, so he fed them both. Sam slept and slept and slept. Finally at 6:30 a.m. Sam joined his brothers in waking up and hollering for food. That's 10 hours between feedings. Of course, if the trade off is not sleeping from 12:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and being fussy that whole time, I think I'd rather get up with him in the middle of the night! Still, it's exciting to think that they just might sleep through the night some time soon.

Baby Boot Camp -- The Night Shift

Well, our day campers were better than our night campers. The boys really gave Jeff and I the business from about 9:30 until 2 a.m. Sometimes one, sometimes two, and too often all three were have a good fuss. There simply aren't enough hands, bouncy seats and swings for that.

Jeff, my loving husband, took on the midnight feeding by himself to try to give me and Grandma a little extra sleep. It was a crazy idea, but he got most of the way through it before I realized (from the depths of sweet sleep) that more than just the one crying baby I had left him was crying and came out to rescue him from dealing single-handed with three babies who needed to burp or just fuss.

That time all the commotion woke Amelia, who wanted to get up and help. She and I sang a lullaby to baby Sam, and then I told her it was time for bed and to go ask Daddy to take her. Fortunately his crowd had calmed down by then. Amelia was up a second time about 1:30 and wanted to hold a baby. Have you ever said "No," to a very tired two-year-old in the wee hours of the morning? MELTDOWN!

We woke Grandma up then and Jeff took Amelia back to her room for rockabye and some milk. He got up with her this morning and persuaded her to snuggle up with him for an extra hour of sleep, which they both needed!

I hit the sack about 2:30 a.m., but forgot to set the alarm for the next feeding. The boys went until 6:15 before their feeding though, so I got almost four full hours of sleep.

Now their first two feeding of the day have gone beautifully, Jeff and Amelia are at the zoo, and Grandma and I both took a shower. (Insert Wonder Woman theme music here.) Time for lunch and another 20-minute nap after I prepare bottles.