We were starting to get used to things. But of course babies like to shake things up.
The kids came home from the hospital on a 3 hour feeding schedule that had been established in the NICU. On discharge we were told that we should keep them to that because of their preemie status and since gaining weight is paramount for them. So, we've been pretty religious about it. When one would wake, we'd get the other up and feed them both. It seemed to be working out for us until last night.
Aparently, Aden and Hunter decided that they didn't really want to be fed every 3 hours. They'd rather get fed somewhere closer to every 2 1/2 hours. That is, unless they felt like waiting a little or being fed earlier than that. They'd also decided that sleeping at night is for losers and old people.
Oh, and that getting hungry at roughly the same time thing... Fuhgedaboutit.
Putting it another way, there was lots of fussing by the babies and guessing by the parents last night.
Hungry, not hungry. Hold, put down, move to co-sleeper, put in sling. Change outfit, check diaper. Swaddle, take blankets off, turn up the A/C, turn off the A/C, open the window. Bounce, dance, rock.
And the fussy babies go
Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo
Mark and I would get like 15 minutes of uninterrupted sleep at a shot before we had to deal with something new. I'd been up the entire day — I've never been able to nap so I haven't bothered to try — so I was basically feeding Aden in my sleep at 2 AM. (I did, in fact, try to give him Hunter's bottle.) I was beyond crabby and even thought I said something nasty to Mark. He assures me I didn't so I must have dreamt it. Or maybe he slept through it. Who knows at this point?
Today the babies are still at it with the schedule futzing so we're rolling the punches. I'm looking up bouncy seats online (so that Mark and I don't have to wake each other up for help feeding the babes) and researching stuff about breastfeeding. Between pumping, feeding and diapering, of course.
(No, I have not managed to successfully latch a baby on yet. Hopefully, we'll work that out real soon because I'm getting extremely discouraged by all this.)
Oh and before you think this blog is gonna be all about baby poo and spit up, let me assure you that it won't. (Although Mark is really into having a baby blog so I might set up an offshoot of House Arrest for him to post news about the kids to.) Knittingwise, I have to clean out the bathroom sink this weekend so there can FINALLY be some blocking done. The sink just has a few spots of dried toothpaste in it but I want to wash it out REALLY well before entrusting my knit goods to it. All of the baby clothes I've made won't fit these guys for another few months, but I want to make sure that they are DONE so that I can move on from the land of infant knits.
In the meantime, I've started knitting Hunter another Vine Lace hat. The one that I made for her wound up in the wash late one night after she spat up on it and, well... shrank and felted into a coaster. (Mark now knows that I made those hats out of wool so this won't be happening again.)
Otherwise, I've been knitting a row here and there when I haven't been reading child care books. Oh, and I've been mega-lusting after Wisp. That might be my next project... once everybody gets on board with a reasonable feeding / sleep schedule.
Hopefully that'll be before we send them off to college.
