Nanny to the Rescue!

Carlos and I could have been on one of those reality TV shows where they send in the nanny to whip the stupid family into shape.  We were that stupid family...I'm embarrassed to admit it.  We felt like we had things under control when it was just Sebastian, but when Adrian came home, the S*&% hit the fan and the routines we had established and our self confidence crumbled to pieces.  The boys weren't sleeping at the same time, and we weren't sleeping at all.

Enter Michelle LaRowe.  Super nanny.  For real.  She has BOOKS published on babies.  And we were lucky enough to have her come up Wednesday afternoon and again yesterday--all day--to help us set up feeding and sleeping schedules and get these babies (but really us) whipped into shape.

Michelle walked in, and within 5 minutes had both of my boys asleep in the bouncy chairs.  We'd NEVER been able to get them to sleep in the bouncy chairs.  Once she got them down, they napped for like 3 hours...and we actually ate lunch in peace together.  It was a miracle.  Ignore the mess in the background of the picture.

Fast asleep...

Then she showed us a more efficient way of bathing them than we'd been doing.  We need to bathe them EVERY night as part of the bedtime routine.  They used to scream bloody murder when we'd bathe them.  Now they don't fuss that much!  It only took one night of practice to completely change their attitudes about bedtime baths...

Sebastian being scrubbed down.

Showing us different positions to feed both babies at once.

Proof is in the date stamp--we successfully duplicated the bouncy seat siesta the following morning.

Michelle being the saint that she is actually came back to visit us on Saturday and stayed ALL day to help work out any kinks after we'd had a day on our own to try things out.  Thursday night and Friday the boys were much better than before, but we were still having a hell of a time getting then to sleep at night, and we were still incredibly inefficient in out nighttime feedings.  So, yesterday we worked on putting the boys down in the co-sleeper without actually rocking them to sleep.  We put them down just as they were getting drowsy and nodding off.  Then you help them figure out how to self-soothe.  Once they are down, we put in the pacifier or patted them.  Only if they were really crying did we take them out and start the whole process all over again.  Sebastian caught on fast, and he is now sleeping on his own if you put him down pretty much wide awake.  Adrian, on the other hand, the so-called easier of the two boys, is proving to be much more spirited.  Although, the problem is he's uncomfortable nearly all the time.  He's gassy and the reflux bothers him from time to time.  He doesn't seem to want to sleep in the co-sleeper, but we can get him to go down in the nap nanny because of the way it's designed.  At least we can get him to settle in that now.  Adrian was too cute for his own good, too, because he likes to be held...the NICU nurses spoiled him!  :)

All-in-all I feel 100% much better prepared for being on my own with the boys in a few days (Carlos goes back to work on Thursday) than I did before.  I am so grateful to Michelle!  Once again, check out her website here: http://michellelarowe.com/  Her services or her books are excellent and would be invaluable to a new mom.

Practicing my new skills...