Christmas time

So we took some Christmas pictures this week. Does anyone have any tips for getting twins to both look at you and smile as well as a 6 year old? It took some serious effort, and the final choice for our Christmas cards did not contain 3 smiling children. No one was crying so I say close enough. We took pictures until we ended up with one of these

I really think it is my favorite out of the bunch, though. I was the mother that took pictures when my first son cried, and shared them with the world. I love them just as much as the happy ones. Speaking of which, my little momma's boy who rarely gives anyone a glimpse of his infectious smile gave me one of these.

I want to blow them both up and put them in gigantic frames on the wall. Too bad they are in Christmas outfits.

So we are working on the sleeping through the night thing, and I was fooled by my little twinsters. They did so awesome at the beginning, but the past couple nights (while I am battling a sinus infection, too) I have had to go in and give pacifiers at least 5 times or more. Good thing I am sleeping on the couch and not upstairs. I hate going up and down stairs in the middle of the night. I must share, though, we have a good soundtrack to sleep to. These awesome cds called Rockabye Baby! that turn popular rock music into lullabyes for babies, so mom and dad can enjoy them. Search Amazon.com for rock a bye baby I promise if you check these out you will not be disappointed. My favorites are the Beatles and Beach Boys, and Hubby's is the Guns N Roses album. I also bought one as a shower present for my sister in law who loves Greenday, so she was ecstatic.

Hope everyone sleeps well tonight, and I wish my son would. Off to pacify him once again....

Finally sleep!!!

So, I took my little  monsters to the doctor last Thursday for their 6 month checkup, and the doc said they should be sleeping through the night. I was a little skeptical at first, as most doctors just say that and don't give any other explanation as to why some children don't (at least in my experience) and just tell you "they should be"

Well, I must say, I am impressed with my doctor. She has boy/girl twin niece and nephew, so she does have an understanding of twins, and she also explains everything she recommends so that its a logical decision. She told us that nighttime feedings are usually empty calories and the babies only are eating because their body gets into a light sleep cycle and they don't know how to get back down into a deep sleep, so they cry. She recommended giving them their pacifier and if they didn't go back to sleep, nursing, but not giving them a full feeding. I liked these options better than the doctors words of advice with my son. "He should be sleeping through the night, you need to get him to sleep."

I started Thursday night with just giving Logan a pacifier at midnight when he started fussing. He went right back to sleep! Its like they heard the doctor say that they didn't need to eat and they listened! (I know that is ridiculous) They did awesome, and slept until 6 am when I fed them, and then they went back to sleep until 10. I didn't get a lot of sleep because I had to give pacifiers a few times, and I was concerned, but I was excited. Last night was night 3, and I got up twice to give a pacifier to Logan (Lily is my champion sleeper, most nights before I would wake her up to eat after feeding Logan to keep them on the same schedule) and they slept from 8:30 last night until 9:30 this morning!! I went to bed at quarter after twelve and got 9 hours of sleep!!

I kind of feel like a dope for getting up every night with Felix for a whole year. However, it seemed right at the time, and with one, it wasn't as exhausting.

My next step will be to let Logan cry for a few minutes before giving him his pacifier to see if he can learn to put himself to sleep. I'm not talking ignoring him for a half hour, but the past few nights, I have gone in immediately just to get them weaned off of the nighttime feeding. So, maybe after a few more days I will work on that.

All in all, I must say, Christmas came early for me!