Ahhh, Sleep!

It's been a long time since I talked about bedtime with the boys. I am beyond thrilled to tell you that we have FINALLY reached the point where the three of them (mostly) stay in their beds at bedtime and all night.

When we first moved them to big boy beds in May, it was sixteen kinds of crazy. CRAZY! That room was like a frat party out of control for two hours or more every night. We had to sit on top of them to get them to settle down, and even with us right there, they'd goof around until they earned a time out or were sent to the pack and play in our room for exile.

When we hit their third birthday, four months into this everlasting "transition," and were still dealing with shenanigans every night I thought I'd never be able to get rid of the pack and play in our room, even though they were almost too big for it.

Long about Thanksgiving, a full six months after we first moved them out of the cribs (which they were climbing out of anyway), they finally got the hang of bedtime.

At Christmas time, I took down the pack and play so we could move a chair and side table to our room to make way for the Christmas tree.

And I haven't had to put it back up. Yay!

We were pretty settled by Thanksgiving, but Isaac was still struggling to fall asleep at night. He was mostly good about hanging out quietly, but as soon as his brothers were asleep he'd start coming out of the room. Or worse, he'd go take his brothers' blankies or move their beds around and create his own brand of quiet chaos.

Then the miracle of melatonin came into our lives. It has made a world of difference for Isaac, and also for Amelia. Amelia falls asleep pretty well now, but when she was Isaac's age she followed the same pattern of spending up to two hours in bed awake. It was frustrating for the kids and for us!

Our pediatrician told us to try melatonin, and wow! What a difference! I think it helps them settle down enough to realize they are tired. We give it about 20-30 minutes before bedtime most nights. But we never give it at naptime, and the boys have gotten pretty good about laying down with a minimum of chaos and going to sleep. So maybe they really have learned?

Isaac still comes to our bed some nights to snuggle. But now it's more the exception than the rule, and it mostly happens when he's not feeling well. Since it's the exception, I can snuggle up with him and enjoy it. That was not the case when he was interrupting my sleep every night!

Of course, now that I've written this I've probably jinxed myself. But if you are struggling with kids who have trouble falling asleep, I highly recommend the miracle of melatonin!

© Trippin' Mama 2012

Wordful Wednesday: Isaac the Sleepless

This is what happens when you refuse to stay in your big boy bed and end up getting a very short nap.

I got Isaac up at the end of naptime today, after he'd slept about 45 minutes. (And in the pack and play, again!) I sat him at the kitchen table for his snack and when I came back with his milk, I found him asleep on his chair.

Boy, just give it up already and stay in the big boy bed. Trust your mama. We'll ALL be happier! (And better rested.)

Play along with Wordful Wednesday at:

© Trippin' Mama 2011

Big Boy Beds = Crazy Town

Amelia never got out of her bed. Not her crib, and certainly not her "big girl bed."

The boys, on the other hand, will get out and bang their bedroom door closed. They will shove the beds around the room in a modified version of bumper cars. They will push the beds together and then leap over the bed rails from one to the other. They will visit a nearby bed to poke a sleeping or nearly-sleeping brother in the face.

And the whole time they scream and giggle wildly like a pack of mad apes.

It's yet another way that Amelia did not prepare us to parent these hooligans.

I honestly believe that the boys are ready for big boy beds. I also believe that the majority of the problems we are having come from the issue of multiple kids. If we take the boys individually, we have one who is a master staller, one who is an escapee, and one who is pretty complacent about bedtime. The last one in particular, I am sure would go down with no problems were it not for the other two.

Even our staller and our escapee would be more easily dealt with were it not for the rest of the tribe. 

I used to look forward to bedtime. Now? Not so much. We're on Day 10 of the transition, and at times I think we're making progress. Then we have a night like tonight and I'm pretty convinced they will never learn to lay quietly in their beds and go to sleep.

Oh I know they will, some day. The question is: Will they learn before their mother gets carted off to the loony bin or after?

© Trippin' Mama 2011

The Eyes Have Had It!

Amelia had two rough nights with nightmares and "eyeballs" in her room. So she and Daddy had a little talk about the eyeballs on the way home from preschool yesterday.

When Daddy asked where the eyeballs went during the day, Amelia told him they went into the forest and slept. Good to know someone's getting some sleep.

"Oh," Daddy said. "They are nocturnal."

After an explanation about what nocturnal meant, Amelia agreed that the eyeballs were nocturnal.

"Well, then we'll just tell them to go to Jerry's house," said Daddy. "Jerry's pretty nocturnal too, so they can visit with him."

Jerry is one of our neighbors. He used to work nights at the post office, so he is a bit nocturnal even in retirement.

"You would do that for me, Dad?" Amelia asked hopefully.

Yes, honey, Daddy would do that for you...and just about anything else that would buy us some sleep around here!

Last night things were better. Amelia still woke up a couple of times, but the eyeballs were no longer a problem. Score one for Daddy, and good luck to Jerry!

© Trippin' Mama 2010

I Am NOT Nostalgic for This!

My kids are not the worlds' best sleepers. Far from it. But last night the boys decided to show us just how good we've had it lately.

Everyone was up multiple times, and when we'd go in to help one of the boys another would wake and cry to be held. Finally we had all three standing in their cribs SCREAMING at the top of their lungs.

Hmm. This is not going well.

Amelia, thank heavens, slept through everything. Which is nothing short of a miracle since the other night she woke up during a light rain because, "someone was tapping on my window."

There was no vaccination to blame, so I don't know WHAT the problem was. Perhaps the moon was full? Or they were revisiting their youth? Or they are, as I have suspected all along, conspiring against us?

No matter the cause, we were faced with the typical triplet problem of not enough hands for all the kids. So we patted and soothed and then finally gave up and left them to tough it out. After about 10 minutes Sam and Alex settled down. Then Isaac started to scream intermittently. And the other guys would start to cry. Finally after a half hour of that nonsense I'd had enough and went in to yank Isaac out.

Everyone started to scream and cry again.

So we pulled an old trick out of our hats. We separated everyone so those who were ready to settle down didn't have to listen to someone cry in close quarters. Then Jeff and I headed for the futon in the basement.

We laid there for a few minutes, struggling to get comfortable. And all I could think of was those early days when we'd put everyone somewhere and escape to the basement. Or I'd get to sneak off down there on a Saturday for a morning nap while Jeff took care of the kids. Then later that day he'd do the same.

We both thought that futon was the most comfortable place in the world.

I guess it just goes to show how exhausted we really were!

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Got A Kid Who Sleeps? You Owe Me.

So it's 9:30 p.m. and all the little people in my house STILL are not asleep. In fact, half are still awake

Yes, we're battling colds, but the battles with sleep around here seem to go on without end.

It is a rare night that we don't get up at least twice with the boys. Usually, it's the same boy.

Yes, the boys are almost 16 months old.

No, I don't want to hear about how your two-year-old has slept 11 hours a night since he was three weeks old. Or how you taught your babies to sleep using Ferber, Pantley, Sears or anyone else's methods. I have all the books. I've read all the books.

And you know what?

For some kids, it doesn't make any difference.

How do I know this?

Simple.

I have my own little experiment going on right now. I have three boys who all have the same diet, sleeping conditions and routine.

Two of them sleep all night about 95 percent of the time.

One sleeps all night about once a month.

Amelia was not a sleeper. Alex is not a sleeper.

I am no longer a sleeper, and neither is Jeff. We haven't had a full night's sleep since 2006.

Both Amelia and Alex had reflux and other issues that led to their sleep troubles, but I also think part of it is personality. The reflux is long gone for both of them, and still neither one sleeps great.

Amelia finally learned to sleep all night about the time she turned three. Now if we could just help her learn how to fall asleep, we'd be in business. The girl will often lie in her bed for two hours or more before she falls asleep. She's tired. She'll even tell us that, but she can't fall asleep. I'm not sure which of us finds that more upsetting and frustrating.

And now we've entered the phase of fighting going to bed at all. UGH. I don't blame her. I wouldn't want to go lay there in the dark for two hours either.

We've tried it all for our kids. Earlier bedtime. Later bedtime. Calm routine to settle them. Major playtime to wear them out. Loveys and pacis. Noise machines. Lullabies. Night lights. Room darkening shades. Lying down with Amelia. Even flannel sheets to help keep them warm.
Two sleep no matter what. And two don't.

So if you're out there feeling incompetent as a parent because your baby or toddler doesn't sleep, join the club.

And for all those "helpful" souls who can't wait to tell us how your kids started sleeping through the night while they were still in utero, and how your great parenting helped them: Stuff it.

Not only do we not want to hear it, we are tired and we could snap at any minute. You are taking a serious risk waving your well-rested, superior attitude at me, no matter how much caffeine I've had.

Besides, you should be thanking me. Because the Law of Averages dictates that your 11-hour-straight-through-the-night sleeper be averaged out. And I and my 7-interrupted-hours-if-you're-lucky child are doing just that.

You are welcome.

Feel free to use your energy to send gifts.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

The Bedtime Blues

I hate a bad bedtime.

You know the kind. Where there's lots of whining, negotiating, dragging of feet (the three year old) and crying and screaming (the 15 month olds, and sometimes the three year old, too!).

I have to work very hard not to let it ruin my whole day.

But it is so frustrating to me that four children who go down like champs for the naps can fight bedtime so hard.

Fortunately this is not an every day occurrence, but tonight was one of those nights.

It's not too bad when one child has trouble going down, but when two or more have trouble, it's a real struggle for all of us.

And when everyone is FINALLY in bed and quiet, there are still dishes to be done, laundry to fold, and picking up to do--the things that usually get done in the extra hour plus we spent getting kids to sleep tonight. And I just don't want to face it.

By 8:30 p.m. I am ready to be done for the day. After 14-hour days, plus getting up some at night, I am ready for the chores to be done and to have some time to catch up with my husband or do something for myself for a change.

Three babies plus a preschooler all day is physically and mentally demanding and by 8:30 my patience is limited and I'm reaching the end of my physical capacity, too.

Seems I need to learn how to do a quick recharge for nights like tonight. And I need to not let it ruin what was a pretty good day. The boys were lots of laughs, and Amelia and I got to bake together. As I just pointed out, it was a 14-hour day, so I guess letting the last hour and a half cancel out all the good is really silly.

Just gotta shake off these bedtime blues!

Ah, sleep!

I am too old to be pulling all nighters. And my kids are too young. Nevertheless, we've all been awake WAAAY too many hours in the middle of the night in the last couple weeks.

Now that the boys are on the mend, we were finally able to get a good night's sleep last night. The days of 8+ hours and sleeping in are long gone of course, but we'll settle for a shot at six hours, especially if we can get about four hours in a good stretch. Amazing how your standards change with a baby or three in the house!

I know that someday I'll be able to sleep as much as I want, and I will look back fondly on these days when we had babies in the house. By then I'll probably be an insomniac with the world's weakest bladder, so I won't be sleeping then either. Good thing I banked lots of extra hours when I was a teenager. (Though not nearly enough to compensate for triplets!)

Speaking of sleep, I should be off to bed in case tonight isn't as good as last night. Hang in there with me. Now that we're starting to sleep again I promise posts will get better and pictures will return as soon as the main laptop gets fixed.

Enjoy a good night's rest for us, won't you?

Snot and The Sound of Music

That title got your attention, didn't it? Well, good, because that's pretty much my excuse for not posting much in the past two weeks.

We have entered week three of sickness in this house, and I think we're finally winding up the fun. Fevers are all gone, and we're left with just two snotty noses -- Alex's and mine. I finally succumbed to the cold after surviving two weeks on four hours of sleep a night. It was really just a matter of time.

And that's where The Sound of Music comes in, oddly enough. I did note earlier that I was headed to my sister's for a girls' weekend. Of course, as soon as I got there, I relaxed a little and that's when I got sick. Thankfully I wasn't too bad, so I still enjoyed the break. And thankfully everyone was on the mend here, so the nights weren't too rough for Jeff either.

My mom, my sisters (Minus Cathy. We missed you!), and I did a little shopping, toured the state capitol, enjoyed The Sound of Music at a local dinner theater, and then took a class in bird identification at the arboretum. The bird watching class was proof of what we always say: We can have fun doing anything! We learned a little something, and then took a walk through the arboretum.

We saw a few birds on our walk -- wild turkey, cedar waxwings, robins, blue jays -- but the birds were upstaged dramatically by the scenery. The maple woods, especially, were gorgeous! I took tons of photos, and I'm sure none of them will do justice to the yellow light that filtered through the canopy of trees. Some things you just have to enjoy in the moment, don't you?

All in all, it was a very nice break, and the opportunity to sleep all night long came at just the right time. I came home ready to tackle the last round of sickness and to get my boys all back on track sleeping at night!

I'll try to post some photos later this evening, but we are having some technical problems with our main laptop, too, so no guarantees I can get that job done.

So, my apologies for the unscheduled interruption. Thanks for hanging in there and waiting on me to resurface!

Amelia and Her Kitty

Amelia has an imaginary kitty. Simply named "Kitty," the creature showed up sometime late last summer. Kitty is pretty small, fitting conveniently in my purse and in her doll carriage.

Amelia shows off her kitty.

At first, Kitty's appearance was cute. But somewhere along the line, Kitty became a real troublemaker. Soon I was forever hearing, "Mom! Kitty's messing with my stuff!" "Mom! Kitty's throwing food on the floor!" "Mom! Kitty's not listening!"

Apparently Kitty is here to test all the rules. And Mom's patience.

I need one more thing to manage and discipline in this house like a hole in the head.

For a while, we tolerated Kitty. We'd tell her "No," when she misbehaved and even put her in time out or send her to Amelia's room. Then we started to tell Amelia that it was her job to take care of Kitty and give her time outs if she wasn't behaving nicely. That worked for a while.

But now, Kitty has started to be a problem at night. And nights are hard enough around here without imaginary problems!

Kitty will "wear costumes" and scare Amelia. She'll take her blankie or paci or hog the pillow so Amelia can't sleep. Often this ends in Amelia crying for Daddy or me to come. UGH.

Last night I was looking forward to finally, after a week of walking the floors or driving all night with Alex, a night's sleep. Allie and Jeff were on duty, and I was in bed at 9:30 p.m.

Then Amelia started to cry. Daddy was already up with Alex, so I got up to see what Amelia needed. I don't remember the details, but I removed Kitty from the room. (Remember, this cat is imaginary. And I know that's great developmentally, but I still hate this cat.)

Pretty soon Amelia was yelling again. Kitty had snuck back in and was keeping Amelia awake. I told Amelia that Kitty probably wanted to sleep with her and she and Kitty should just snuggle up together and close their eyes.

The third time I got up, I'd really had it with Kitty. So when Amelia said that Kitty was scaring her, I snapped.

"Amelia," I said. "If Kitty can't learn to behave, then I'm going to put her in a box and mail her to Grandma."

Amelia looked at me wide-eyed. Perhaps she was worried this "be good or get mailed" gig could apply to her, too? Regardless of the trauma that was evident on my child's face, I plowed ahead. In my defense, I'm working on minimal sleep here.

"We keep trying to teach Kitty to behave, but she never does and if she can't be good, then she can't stay here anymore. If she does anything else tonight, I'm going to send her to Grandma in the morning."

Amelia told me she would help Kitty be good, and that was the end of it for now.

But I'm getting a box ready for mailing, just in case.

Sometimes Hope Wears Toe Socks

We had a good session with the physical therapist today. Her assessment showed that Alex has the muscle tone of about a 4-month-old, but of course, he has the body of an 8-month-old. That means that it can be uncomfortable or even painful for him to do all the things he wants to do, like crawl, stand, sit up etc... Basically, he's uncomfortable all the time, and the problem is getting worse as he gets bigger and his gross motor skills develop and he does more physically.

It explains why Alex is having trouble sleeping. He simply can't find a comfortable position. And it explains why he's flopping around in our arms at night. (It's like trying to hold a tornado.) Think about having a weak leg and trying to make it work like in rehab -- instead of having good control over your muscles, you would fling it forward to take a step.

In addition to the general physical therapy findings, the therapist also did a lot of craniosacral work on Alex. His lack of muscle tone has led to a lot of muscle tension that may be causing some of his digestive issues as well.

We will continue Alex's reflux meds, but I'm not going to worry about changing his formula and taking him gluten free right now. I want to give this a chance to work first, and then we'll see where we are. We have another appointment next Friday.

The therapist was very pleased with how well Alex responded. She was confident that she could help him (and already had in the first session), and that we could postpone a GI scope.

I share her confidence. As she assessed Alex she was able to tell me things about his behaviors, like the fact that he bangs his head in the crib and tends to sleep with his head turned to the left, that amazed me. How would she know those things? Because it creates certain tensions and tight muscles and she could feel all that.

I left the appointment with a wiped out baby. And while Alex may not sleep well yet tonight, a load of worry has been lifted off my shoulders.

I feel like we've got another soldier on our side in this battle to find and fix Alex's problem.

She just happens to wear toe socks.

This Is Torture

8 p.m. - all boys in bed

9 p.m. - Amelia finally in bed. Resettle Sam and Alex.

9:30 p.m. - eat supper

10:30 p.m. - to bed after cleaning kitchen, making bottles, picking up toys, starting dishwasher and another load of laundry, and updating the blog.

11:30 p.m. - up for 10 minutes to resettle Isaac

12:30 a.m. - up for 2 minutes to resettle Sam

1:30 a.m. - Alex cries. Pick him up and walk. Sit down with him. Alex cries. Repeat for an entire hour.

3:30 a.m. - Isaac starts to wail. Grab him before he can wake Alex. Spend 30 minutes getting him resettled.

5:45 a.m. - up with Alex. He finally takes a decent bottle -- his first in about 3 days.

6 a.m. - everyone's up for the day.

I've got to go get some work done while boys are up so I can nap later today. Keep praying for Alex and for all of us.

Hey, Could We Get A Little Sleep Around Here?

Sleep issues are interfering with my ability and opportunity to blog these days. The boys are struggling mightily to go to sleep at night...but, lucky me, they still get up at the crack of dawn.

Two night ago two of the three fought until almost 11. Then the third was up at 12:30 a.m. Ouch. Last night it was 11 again before we had them all down for the night. Not that they slept all night, mind you. Tonight everyone was asleep by 7:30 p.m., so Jeff and I went out to play with Amelia. By 8:30 p.m., all the babies were up and UNHAPPY. We finally got them all back down by 10 p.m. tonight, but it may not stick, and I'm not expecting any long stretches of sleep tonight.

I used to hope and pray for 5 hours in a row (for me!). Now I've lowered my expectations and I hope and pray for 3 hours at a stretch. At least that's a goal we can achieve most nights. It's partly the reality of three babies and a toddler and partly Alex's reflux issues.

Good thing they are so gosh darned cute!

Sam

Isaac

Alex

Night Owl

Amelia is a bit of a night owl, and while she comes by it honestly (from me), I wish she would fall asleep faster. It's not unusual for her to lie in bed for an hour or even two before she finally falls asleep. Generally she's very good about staying in bed and being quiet while she tries to go to sleep. I just hate the fact that it takes her so long! Especially because I know she needs her sleep. But, you can't force a child to sleep, so I've learned to accept it...more or less.

While Amelia moved herself to the big girl bed a while back, she's been going back and forth between the bed and the crib for the last months or so. Then the other day, she climbed into the crib by herself. We had suspected she could do this, but for whatever reason, she doesn't think she can climb out. So, I made a big deal out of it and told her that means she's too big for the crib now and on her birthday we can take it out of her room.

I gave Jeff the heads up, and he made an equally big deal out of it when he came home. Amelia was all smiles, talking about what a big girl she is and how she doesn't need the crib anymore. She's been very, very good about sleeping in the bed ever since.

From the time Amelia was a little baby, we've played an ocean sounds CD in her room all night long. (Hey, when your child doesn't sleep, you'll try almost anything!) We joke that she's going to think she grew up on the coast. In the last week, she's asked for the "Mama bird song," that is on another sleepytime CD we sometimes play as we get ready for bed. The song is "Hush Little Baby," and the lyrics are, "... mama's gonna buy you a mocking bird." I chuckle every time she says "mama bird" instead of "mocking bird."

I did have to go in the other night and turn the sound down a couple notches. I was slowly going crazy hearing the occasional snatch of that song over and over and over. When I'm old and senile and shuffling around the nursing home in my slippers you'll all know why I keep singing the "Mama bird song" endlessly.

Zzzzzzzz...

There's nothing in this world sweeter than a sleeping baby, unless it's three sleeping babies. All of the boys sleep pretty well these days, including all night most nights, but Isaac is the real sleeper of the group.

Isaac sacked out on Daddy's shoulder.

Isaac is often the first guy down and the one I have to wake up in the morning. He's the best about going down for naps, and if we get up with a baby at night, we're always surprised if it's Isaac.

In the early days, many a person walked Isaac for miles to help him fall asleep. These days, he fusses and squirms in our arms to tell us he's ready to lay down. Once he hits the mattress, he generally gives a couple more wiggles, and then he puts his little bottom in the air and goes to sleep.

When he's awake, Isaac is a very busy little boy. But when he's ready to sleep, he's ready right now! It's not unusual for us to pick Isaac up and have him fall asleep on our shoulders while we're carrying him to the nursery.

That is one of my favorite parts of any day. I love to feel Isaac's downy head lolling on my shoulder and to listen to his soft snores in those few moments before I lay him down.

Sweet dreams, little one. Sweet dreams.

Reflux Rears Its Head

Today I started Alex on his acid reflux medicine (Zantac). I have been almost paranoid about the boys having reflux because of our horrible experience with Amelia. I have tried really hard to make sure that I am not overreacting to possible symptoms the boys have, because I did not want to put them on any medicine unnecessarily. But, it is pretty clear that Alex has reflux.

Amelia was a "silent refluxer," meaning she didn't exhibit the classic reflux sign -- spitting up. We did get her diagnosed and on Prilosec relatively early, but as it turned out, the medicine wasn't strong enough and the pain she was having led to problems sleeping. We endured months of walking the floors with her at night and frequent nursing (which, we now know, soothed her throat), eating issues that led the doctor to tell me she was under-nourished, and the doctor telling me that some babies are "just difficult."

In the end, we took Amelia to a specialist when she was nearly a year old. She was ulcerated all the way up the back of her throat. I felt like the worst mom in the world! Especially when I thought about all the nights she would cry instead of sleeping, and I realized she was crying because she was in pain.

Alex spits up at every feeding, but not usually a lot. But, he has started to not sleep well. He usually takes 30- to 45-minute cat naps, while his brothers are sleeping an hour and a half to two hours. At night, his brothers are sleeping straight through, but Alex is waking up about three hours before them. And Alex looks tired, poor kid! He started waking up screaming and it would take me 5-10 minutes to get him to calm down. Often he'd go back to sleep on my shoulder, because being upright helped keep the acid down. Then I heard him gulping when he swallowed. That was Amelia's primary sign of reflux, so I immediately called the doctor.

Alex is still a much better sleeper than Amelia, but he doesn't sleep nearly as well as his brothers. Yes, some of that can be personality, but we also know from past experience just how badly reflux can interfere with sleep. In Amelia's case, she didn't sleep through the night until she was almost a year old, and she still struggles to sleep through the night at almost three years old. She just never really learned how to sleep long stretches.

The amazing thing about Alex is that, just like Amelia, he is the happiest baby, even though he has every right to be miserable. Hopefully the Zantac will work its magic and we'll be back to three children who sleep well at night -- even if Amelia still doesn't!

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

Last night everyone in my house slept. They slept all night. ALL NIGHT!

Amelia was asleep in her big girl bed by 9 p.m., and the boys were down by 10 p.m. Jeff and I were asleep by 10:30. And no one even made a peep until 6:15 this morning.

Alex fussed a little just after 6 and Jeff grabbed him and brought him to bed with us where he slept another hour.

First I was in shock.

Then I was so happy I could have cried.

I slept almost an entire nine hours. Uninterrupted.

NINE!

Pure bliss.

Now here's hoping (and praying!) that they can all do it again.

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?

Three Months Old

Today the boys are three months old. The time has passed so quickly -- largely in a sleep-deprived haze. No, honestly, it hasn't been that bad. Thanks to all the family, friends and neighbors we've had pitch in to help, the first three months were not nearly as difficult as I was prepared for them to be.

It's hard to believe how much the boys have grown already. All of them have doubled or nearly doubled their birth weights. They are all smiling, cooing, and flirting like crazy. Isaac has laughed out loud, and Sam and Alex are getting close. Everyone's kicking up a storm, and it's a real race to see who will turn over first. Most importantly, the boys -- ALL of them -- are starting to sleep nice long stretches at night. Whether you have one baby or three, the impact of a full night's sleep on moms and dads is amazing! We never really experienced that with Amelia when she was a baby because of the reflux, so I'm in total awe of having three babies do it all at the same time, even once, let alone more than once.

Sam, Isaac and Alex are still sharing a crib, but it won't be long now and we'll have to split them up. They have grown so much they now take up the whole crib.

Alex, Isaac and Sam - 01/08/09 - 3 months old

Alex, Isaac and Sam (from top) - 10/14/08 - 6 days old

When people learn that the boys are sharing a crib, they almost always ask the question: "Don't they wake each other up crying?" As this little video shows, they've learned to sleep through each other's noises. They almost never wake each other up. In fact, I'm a little afraid they won't sleep as well once we separate them.

Zzzzzzz

Guess who slept ALL night last night. THEIR names are Samuel, Isaac and Alexander. And all three of them slept from their 9:30 feeding (asleep by 11:30) until 6:00 this morning. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it's not an approaching train.

Thanks to our marvelous volunteers who do the 9:30 p.m. feeding and put the boys down for us, this schedule -- when it gets consistent -- means full nights of sleep for us. Of course, last night, we didn't hit the sack when our helpers came, but folded laundry, took the decorations off the Christmas tree, wrote out the last few Christmas cards, cleaned the kitchen, and generally tried to get the rest of life outside of the boys taken care of in those could precious hours.

I was up twice last night, getting ready to feed. First, it was Isaac at 2:30 a.m., but I snuggled him up with his warm pack while I went to warm bottles and when I came back he was snoring, so I went back to bed. At 3:30 a.m. it was Alex who was bellering, but I picked him up before I went to warm bottles and he went right back to sleep on my shoulder, so I laid him back down and went back to my warm bed. At 5:30 a.m. I woke with a start, thinking I'd missed a feeding, but everyone was still sleeping peacefully.

Bliss

Pure bliss.

Let's hope it lasts!