Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Last Daycare Trial Before the Real Thing...

This was it.  Last trial before the boys will go full day on Friday, June 1.

Today was a mixed bag.  Both boys napped 40 solid minutes there!  That made me hugely happy!!  They told me Adrian was very very good.  Sebastian was "cranky."  That was probably putting it mildly.  He's been a huuuuuge crankypants lately.  It's him teething I think.  It was like one day someone flipped a switch and he became a completely different baby.  I hope his teeth start to come in soon and put him out of some of his misery.  Because he's making us all miserable!

All of a sudden, right on time, the boys starting showing signs that they may be ready to be unswaddled to sleep.  So I eased back into it again.  By last night they were sleeping through the night well with one arm out and the rest of their body loosely swaddled.  Tonight we left both arms out and swaddled their chest tightly.  I'll see how it goes....and I'll wrap their chest progressively looser every night until they aren't in the swaddler anymore.  At that point, I'll just use a sleep sack that doesn't have wings.  I hope that tonight isn't rough.  Last time I tried, they were able to sleep most of the night with both arms out but there was NO WAY to get them back to sleep in the middle of the night when they woke themselves.  I'm hoping that problem no longer exists.  We'll see.  Fingers crossed.

I can't believe I only have one more day with them.  Tomorrow we have an appointment with the new pediatrician.  Hopefully we'll like her.  Then again, the old pediatrician didn't set the bar very high so we're bound to at least like her more than we liked him.

The boys are doing well with their solids.  They've now had bananas, pears, rice cereal, and oat cereal.  They like the bananas the best it seems...They don't like the cereals much at all.  More of it ends up on the bib than in their mouths.  Next up: peas.  Ewww.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Day 3 Daycare Trial

Friday the boys went back for their third (short) day at daycare.  Once again, it went pretty well.  I watched on the camera, and they played almost the whole time.  They didn't nap any significant length of time, but I still think that that is to be expected until they are going every day and settle into a routine.

I was actually pissed after I picked the boys up on Thursday.  I had written a positive entry in the blog about the day because I was happy with what I saw on the cameras.  However, when I went to pick the boys up, the teachers were really harping on the fact that I had not yet introduced solid foods to the boys.  They acted really surprised and really weren't that nice about it.  They judged instead of trying to understand WHY I hadn't done it yet.  And, frankly, I was taken aback.  I didn't EXPECT to have to justify a decision that I had made as the mother (with doctors and early intervention) to the daycare providers.  Especially after they'd only spent a total of about 8 hours with my boys!  So I didn't really defend myself or my decision the way I should have.  I left feeling terrible and like a bad mother.

But, my friend Michelle once again came to my rescue and made me feel better.  Honestly, all the current research seems to show that waiting until 6 months to start solids is better.  It helps prevent allergies and obesity.  And even if you don't buy into it, it can't hurt to wait if there MIGHT be negative consequences, right?  Also, early intervention was on board with my decision to wait.  The boys cannot sit up unassisted yet.  Lastly, the GI doctors that we are working with were also ok with my not having introduced solids yet.  In fact, I have in writing from one of the GI doctors that I might want to wait until 5 months corrected, which would be 7 months actual.  Friday when I went in, I talked to the teacher who had made me feel badly. I said I wanted to let her know why I'd held off (and explained the above reasons) and also reminded her that they are PREEMIES and were born 2 months early.  She seemed not to have known (or remembered) that, and was apologetic.

I did start giving them some rice cereal on Friday, and I gave them bananas yesterday.  They do ok.  Not great, but they do manage to actually get some of it in their mouths.  Ironically, Adrian is the better eater/swallower!  Those 2 months in the NICU "maturing" must have served their purpose!  ;)

Yesterday, Carlos, the boys, and I went to see Nana at her house.  My mom and my two aunts and cousin Christian also went.  We had a very nice day--it was so nice to spend time with everyone.  Nana made a feast for us....I will miss my weekday trips up to her house when I go back to work, but I guess I'll have to do them on the weekend and include Carlos too from now on!





I can't believe I go back to work Friday...I still can't really get my head around it.  It will be nice to have an income again!  But it just feels like it's been so long since I had somewhere to go everyday!  I do have to admit that I think it will be nice to have some of my old life back again.  I miss adult company, and it really is HARD being alone with the boys at this age!  I run out of things to do with them!  But I will miss them like crazy when I'm NOT with them...

We are 6 months today!!! 
















Look at my biceps!





Priceless.  Yes, that IS his middle finger!







Thursday, May 24, 2012

A few little videos

Nothing special, but a few little videos of the boys.

Here they are telling me a story...


And this is Adrian jumping in the bouncy seat like a possessed baby...



And Sebastian with Carlos...


Day 2 of Daycare trial

If you're just at the blog for the pictures, there's a ton at the end of the post.  Scroll down now to avoid my play-by-play of daycare.

Well, I dropped the boys off at the daycare again at 9am.  It's a beautiful day, so we walked there.  It actually went pretty well.  Sebastian went off happily with the teacher, and Adrian fussed a bit as they took him, but I was strong and left without making a big deal out of it.  I don't want them to pick up on my anxiety.  But actually, I wasn't anxious.  I like the teachers, and I am eager to just get them there and get this whole process of adjustment started.  The sooner we begin, the sooner they will adapt and we can get into a new routine again.  It will be good for all of us when we settle down into one again.

I'm watching them on the daycare camera right now.  The two of them are doing face-to-face tummy time with some sort of cool toy between them.  Michelle, one of the teachers, is lying right there with them as they play.  I can see her and Sebastian "talking" to each other.  She actually just moved Sebastian to an exersaucer and is sitting in front of it with Adrian in her lap now.  They get moved around quite a bit, which I like.  It's such a tough age...I struggle with it!!!  They aren't self sufficient (can't sit on their own), can't really do much, and can't entertain themselves.  I have a hard time entertaining them all day!  I'm sort of glad they will be playing a lot at daycare because they have space and the toys that I don't...and hopefully more patience than I do!  ;)  So, so far so good.  Hopefully they will nap at least a little!!?  I pick them up at 1:30 unless they have a meltdown and they call for me to get them sooner.

The owner asked me how the unswaddling was going.  I had to be honest and tell her I just gave up a few nights ago.  My boys were monsters!!  I didn't even recognize them!  They were so overtired and sleeping so little, that I just couldn't deal with it.  They actually had learned to fall asleep at night and during the day with both arms out in a sleep sack.  But they couldn't seem to stay asleep.  They had great difficulty going back to sleep once they woke up.  So I finally decided to wait to try again until they are actually ready and let me know.  Or at least until they are settled into daycare.  If they don't nap at daycare I at least want them to be able to sleep well at home.  And anyway, I know they CAN sleep unswaddled and it's going to be a completely different process for them to learn to sleep at daycare anyway.  So I'll let Sonia and her staff deal with it for now.  I felt so much better once I gave up and stopped forcing the issue.

I did decide to drop the last nighttime feed, though.  The boys go to bed at 7:30/8:00 and then wake up for 4oz at 11pm.  I decided that they don't need those 4 oz and started decreasing the feed by an oz a night once Carlos left for Argentina on Monday.  Last night I decided that doing a dream feed to give them 1oz would be more of a disruption to them than it was worth and just let them sleep.  Sebastian slept through until 6am (they usually wake at 6:30) and Adrian woke at 3:30am...he was actually pretty quiet and talking to himself for an hour and a half!!!  But then he started to get fussy and I was pretty sure he wasn't going to go back to sleep on his own at around 5am.  I put him in my bed with me for a while and rubbed his belly but he still didn't sleep.  So finally I stuck him in the swing and he slept from 6-6:30.  Weird.  Hopefully they will sleep through the night tonight--they will be exhausted from daycare so as long as they are not too overtired to fall asleep, I think they'll be ok.  Fingers crossed.

I'm also thinking I'll start solids this weekend once Carlos is back.  I think they are ready, and while I hate to make so many change at once, I don't want to delay too long either.  I'm at least going to give rice cereal a try.  Sebastian in particular seems ready to go...why am I not surprised??

And yeah, Carlos has been gone this whole week to Buenos Aires for work.  Luckily my dad came every night from around 3-7 to help me with the witching hour and bath/bedtime.  It was so nice to have his company and his help.  I COULD do it alone, but it's easier to have help when they are fussy at that time of day and my patience is wearing thin.

Finally, some pictures...


Sebastian admiring his beauty in the mirror






I couldn't choose between these pictures of Adrian because I love his facial expressions in ALL of them!!!
















Adrian with his bunny from Auntie Carol and Christian.  He loves it!




Sebastian loves his bunny too!



Adrian has learned to roll over to avoid belly time


LOOK AT MY CURL!



He'd put all of Sophie in his mouth if he could.  He'd swallow her whole.