Ahhhh - Sleep!

Hannah has had her days and nights mixed up since long before she was born. As with all of my children, when I was pregnant, her party time started at 11 pm. Contrary to the rest of the family, it still is. All the boys very quickly settled into a correct day/night routine. The triplets we even had to wake up, because they were so tiny, to make sure they ate every 1.5 hours, 24 hours a day, for the first while. As soon as we were given the go ahead to let them sleep, they did. And at night. Aidan was up every 3 hours at night by the time he was about a month old. Prior to that, he was up every hour and a half 24 hours a day. Austin was a fantastic sleeper, all the time. I had to wake him up and by a month old, he was sleeping through the night.

Hannah has decided to be difficult. She does not like to be awake so much during the day. She does like to be awake in the morning for a little while. She wakes up at 1:00 to be up for a few hours (conveniently when her brothers are napping and at school). She then sleeps until right about 6:15 - perfect for when we're trying to eat supper. Then she's up. She catnaps, but generally she's awake. Until at least 12:30 am. Ahh!! Then she sleeps for about an hour and a half and is ready to go again. That's right - around 2 am. She will then go back to sleep right around 6:30 am. Just in time for everyone else to be up.

She has gradually gotten a tiny bit better, but not a lot. She's started to stretch her 12:30 time to about 3:30. It felt like hours of sleep. Plus, by about 4, Steve is pretty much OK with getting up with her and taking her downstairs. He's not thrilled, but he does it. He's so loving and knows how much I value my sleep.

Then, last night, she did it. She slept!!! Sweet, blissful sleep. She slept from 11 p.m. until 4:30 this morning!!!! It was awesome. And then, she went back to sleep! And slept from 5:30 until 8:30! And the triplets slept until 9!! Everyone slept!!! It was so wonderful. Granted, the triplets are pretty sick (nasty noses/some coughing), so that is why they slept, but at least they slept.

Now I can just pray she does it again...and soon!

I Love Nursing!

Can I just say that I love nursing? Apart from all the benefits for baby, I have already lost 28 pounds!! Yay! I cannot wait to get back to the gym, but I was told I have to wait until after my six week appointment for that. And, the middle of my incision still has a little opening, so it probably wouldn't be wise to push it anyway.

Hannah nurses like a champ. She has had no problems and is on a great "schedule" already. She eats pretty much every three hours during the day, then ramps it up in the evening and eats every hour and a half. Then, by ten, she's tuckered out. She sleeps a good four hours, then eats. This is our problem hour, though. She likes to be awake then for a few hours and wants someone, anyone, to stay awake with her. This doesn't make for a happy mama. Daddy has been staying awake with her the last several nights after she eats. This is especially difficult when the triplets get up around 7 these days and my day has to start then. She will usually go another four hour stretch once she's back to sleep, but it never seems like it because she is so wide awake at 3 am. She also has a bad habit of being wide awake during the triplets nap time, so I don't get naps during the day. It is nice, though, because three days a week, we get Hannah and Mommy alone time.

I don't know why I always worry prior to a baby being born if I will be able to nurse or not. I always fret that maybe it isn't wise to not have any bottles in the house or maybe I should stock up on formula "just in case." I think this is exactly what formula companies want moms to think. Thankfully, I have never had any supply issues and every baby, with some work, has nursed well. The triplets had a preemie suck, but eventually got over that. The second day Hannah was a little lazy, but she has really done well since then. I am thrilled it is working for us because I fear she would not get a whole lot of mommy time any other way. The triplets are not jealous of it, either. Ethan likes to sit right next to me while I'm nursing and just lean in to me. Kind of like my sniff-tester - Aidan - when I was pumping for the triplets! Aidan has had me read books while she's eating. We find ways to work with everyone. It is so much less stressful to not have to worry about preparing, washing, warming, bottles.

I know not everyone is able to nurse and I am so thankful that I am able to.

Up All Night

Ethan kept waking up during the night. It did not make for a very happy mommy. I gave him Tylenol every time he woke up, but it still took him a good 2 hours to get back to sleep each time. Then he'd sleep two hours, and be awake again.

Halfway through the night, I realized how far we have come in a year. Two solid hours of sleep in a row five months ago would have been heaven!!

He's starting to get a little better today...hopefully it keeps up!

Scrapbooking

I finally got a night out scrapbooking last night! The new pastor put together a craft night at church and I got to go. It was awesome. I didn't get a whole lot done, I was rather in awe of having a Friday night alone, but I did get some things done. Steve looked a little frazzled when I left him. The babies were needing to eat supper and they were all really torked. He was trying to make at least one happy by continuing to just feed him, when he looked at me and asked when the other two got a turn. I told him he needed to haul ass and whip as fast as possible from one to the next to the next. Then he looked at the amount of food I had prepared and couldn't quite believe they would eat all of it. He seriously underestimates the power of three. They didn't even have that much, in my humble opinion. They had two jars (yes, jars...I can't do meat) of chicken and vegetables and a bowl of pears. That's not a lot for them. I also told him that if he put stars or sippy cups on their trays, they get enthralled with that and after the initial starvation wears off (ie, a few bites), they are less fussy and mess with those. It doesn't hurt that they LOVE stars and haven't figured the sippy cup out yet! He ended up doing just fine, got them fed supper and bottles, into pajamas and in bed by 7:oo. Yay!!

I got home around 11:30 and much to my surprise, Steve waited up for me! It was very nice to come home to a bright house (I usually come home to pitch black when I've been out scrapping that late) and be able to talk. We didn't get to bed until 1:00. Amazing, for a man who loves to be in bed by 9 every night if possible (hasn't been since before we had the triplets), and was planning to "catch up" on sleep that night by going to bed as soon as Austin and Aidan were in bed.

Up All Night

Ethan seems to have discovered after the weekend that if he gets up in the middle of the night, it's party time alone with Mommy and Daddy. We stayed at my sister's on Sunday night and Ethan and Nathanial had a hard time getting to sleep. More because they didn't feel good than anything else, I think. Ethan was starting to settle down, but decided it was much more fun to just stay awake, so he took forever to get down. Every single night since then, he has decided that he needs to wake up any time between 10 - 12 and he tries to stay up! Monday night, Nathanial had a very rough night because he couldn't breath through his nose and the only way he could figure out how to breath through his mouth was to cry. So he ended up sleeping with me all night, while Steve slept on the couch. He would exhaust himself from crying, sleep for an hour, then be back up. It was a very long night, especially since I was also sick. Steve was up with Ethan from 12 -2, but not because he wasn't feeling well, just because he wanted to party. He finally just put him down in his crib and Ethan went to sleep. Imagine that! Tuesday night, he got up around 9:00, so I stupidly took him downstairs since it was still "early." Big mistake, he was back up at 12:30, so Steve got up with him, he was up 30 minutes, then he put him down and out he went. Last night, he woke up at 10:30 and I took him into our room for a little while (Fred Thompson was on Leno, I didn't want to miss it!) then took him back to his room. He got upset very quickly when I laid him down, so I went back in after about 30 seconds and rocked him for a little bit. He tried smiling at me, talking to me, touching my face, anything to get my attention. It was very difficult to not interact with him, but I knew I couldn't. We rocked for about five minutes, then I laid him down and he went back to sleep. Now I know, we shouldn't even give in to these little midnight visits, but it is very difficult not to and I cannot listen to my kids cry...it breaks my heart. So I guess if he wants to be up for a few minutes, I'll keep letting him. At least now I know to limit our visit to the rocking chair and try to ignore him!

What is going on around here???

Something is up with Nathanial, Ethan, and Noah. I don’t know what, but they are plotting something. All of the sudden, NONE of them want to take a nap anymore and they are getting up sooo early all. This makes for VERY unhappy babies and a VERY unhappy mommy. They have been doing it for over a week now. Ugh! They are all rocking on all fours and scooting around, so I am thinking that maybe they are getting super close to crawling and that might be it.

Ohhh, I am soooo not ready for this!!