Of Sleep and Solid Food

The focus of the last couple of weeks since I last blogged has been sleep. Both ours and the twins. A few weeks ago, we had 4 really good nights in a row with them both nearly sleeping through the night, then presto, whamo, two really bad weeks in a row with them both being up half the night, or up every other hour. We tried changing bedtime routines, changing who was putting them to bed, when they were eating, what they were eating, who picked them up during the night. Nothing was working.

Then Thursday night, as I was putting Lorelai down for the 3rd time before midnight, she slipped a little in my hands and twisted, so she was face down over the co-sleeper. But she stayed asleep. I couldn't roll her back over without waking her up, so I gently set her down in the bed on her tummy, tilted her head to the side, and she still slept. I watched here for a few minutes, just to make sure she was still breathing, and everything was fine. Reece woke up a couple of minutes later, and started to kick the side of the co-sleeper, but Lorelai slept right through it. I had to wake Lisa up to feed Reece, and we were both very nervous about letting Lorelai sleep on her stomach, as we have been relentlessly informed about the dangers of SIDS from everyone, and every publication we read. They basically say: "If you let your baby sleep on their stomach even once, they will DIE!". Yikes. What kind of a parent would do that? The answer: the sleep deprived ones.

Well, for the last three nights now, if Lorelai wakes up before midnight, I walk her back to sleep, and then put her down on her tummy. The first night it worked for 3 hours. The second night for 4 hours, and last night for 5 hours. She is a little grumpier when she does wake up because she can't see what's going on and won't wait there patiently, but we had some luck last night, and between the two of them, we only had to get up once before 3:30 AM, and then again around 6:00AM. It's like we've achieved peace on Earth or something. The angels are singing, birds are chirping, and Joe is blogging (since they're still asleep as I write this).

The other big news for the week is the introduction of food beyond Rice Cereal. They got their first taste of CARROTS! The reaction was a little subdued to the first dose (which we just added some water to), but they seemed to like it a little better yesterday when we mixed in the rice cereal with water and carrots. They'll get another couple of meals of carrots and rice today, and then we'll try sweet potatoes Monday and Tuesday, then Squash, and then Peas. we try to give them a couple of days on each one by itself so that if they have a reaction to something, it's easy to figure out what it is. If it were up to the babies, they'd be eating off our plates now. Adult dinner time is an exercise in eating one handed and watching for baby hands reaching for your plate. And if they can't get the plate, they'll try for the placemat. They're very quick.

I'm uploading more videos today, so get the popcorn ready.