We are a pair of well-rested parents at the time of this writing, and we wanted to celebrate by sharing!
The kids started sleeping in 4-5 hour chunks two weeks ago. Last week, that turned into 6-8 hour chunks. After putting the kids to bed at 6:30 pm, it is quite possible they will not need us again until 4 or 5 am. After this early morning snack, they generally sleep until 6:45 or 7:30.
If they could eat doughnuts, I’d buy them each a dozen.
THIS.
Is so.
NICE.
We no longer feel a desperate need to fall asleep as soon as they are out. I get some writing done in the evenings. Josiah has time to unwind after work. We can watch something together, play a board game in our room, or have an adult conversation without each of us holding a twin.
I have to give credit where credit is due: The kids turned into fantastic sleepers work themselves. True, getting them to sleep for the night may take anywhere from 30 min to an hour, and there may be some protesting and kicking, but it’s not like we actually do anything during this hour. If Jayce gets too worked up, we hold his pacifier in for a while. The rest they do themselves.
Things are going well on non-sleep fronts, too. I took the kids to their 4 month (3 month adjusted age) developmental checkup at the hospital. They were seen by a team of specialists with almost top marks for everything.
According to the nutritionist, they are an acceptable weight for a regular baby their age. This means we can experiment with coming off the $$$$$ formula and try a regular $$ one. (Make that two boxes of doughnuts, kids.)
According to the therapist, Justine is moving and tracking objects to satisfaction for a three month old. The only concerns, of course, were for Jayce. His leg control is a little jerky. He does not focus on things well. He fixates on some things–spinning fans, the arms of a moving clock–and gives less focus to other things, such as the human face.
Personally, I am also concerned about his head. Neither of them love being on their stomachs but Justine will practice lifting her head. She can stand, sit up right with help, and ride around in a baby carrier while maintaining her own head control. Comparatively, Jayce is a rag doll. When I give him tummy time, he face plants into the carpet and cries.
The reasonable side of me knows he will not spend the rest of his life lacking neck control. The mom side is worried he’ll never do anything other than lay on the floor and stare at the ceiling fan.
We continue to work with him. I know this is enough. I feel this terrible sense of “HE’S BEHIND!!” because he has a sister the same age doing things he can’t do. This is how things are with twins, but it would be nice to seem him do something better than her for a change.
While nights have been a breeze, days have been a little harder. Monday was gray and rainy, which meant cranky attitudes all around. I also suspect Justine is starting to understand there is a world just beyond her grasp. As she learns to hold herself up, reach for objects, and occasionally roll onto her side, she is getting impatient with her life flat on the floor.
All of this leads to discovering independent mobility in the next few months, to which I can only say:
Oh dear.
