Lots happening around here. We are leaving on Wednesday and we are still packing. Our house seems like a tornado ripped through... with all the stuff laying all around... I wonder when we will finish packing. I have already shipped 3 bags full stuff for babies and we will be taking 6 more bags with us!
Half - is where I am as far as pumping is concerned. I was pumping 4 times a day and producing 60+ oz of milk for all these months. In the last 3 weeks or so, I have come down to around 34 oz and approximately 2 pump sessions. It has not been easy... but it has not been as rough as I had imagined. I am definitely not going to be weaning myself off of the pump before we leave... it just isn't happening in the next 4 days! I will be pumping in the PLANE! Yes... exciting... my mom is flying with the babies and I... so I have to some how sneak in to the "toilets" and pump around half a litre of milk and hope that the babies sleep while I am gone! And I hope there are no delays and our bags arrive on time... I hope I am not speaking too soon! Because, if not... I really would not like to pump more than once in the whole journey! We shall see. As far as reducing the volume is concerned... increasing the time between pump sessions from 6 hrs to 8 hrs and then to 10 hrs is what has helped. Yes, I am engorged at times... but it has been manageable. I try not to empty myself out completely... but I am not keeping completely full either... because then I have to pump sooner and that has not helped in reducing the volume. Some how this whole thing seems to be working. On a hindsight this seems to be good, because I didn't really want to get the babes off of breastmilk so soon. This way they will continue to get at least 50% breastmilk for few more months.
Sleep Monster - Has been going around our house! Is it the 7 month sleep regression or separation anxiety or teething or reflux?!? I am lost! RT has always been a poor sleeper. She barely naps (30 min napper) and I have come to terms with it... but for the past 1 week she has been getting up very very frequently! Like every hour! Like every time you put her down in her crib! There have been time when she has ended up in our bed, because she just wouldn't settle down at all and would wake her brother up! I have not wanted to do CIO... but I feel like we are inching towards that. She needs the sleep - waking up every hour crying is not healthy for her! Though, I am scared to try anything new now. With the whole travel situation, jet lag and moving places... whatever "training" we try... it is going to get blown off every time a new parameter kicks in! So I am just hoping we reach some equilibrium again soon, and if not CIO will be our option when we settle back in after our 2 month long trip! Besides CIO, I have also considered co-sleeping, but then why should she co-sleep and not her brother. And, can you imagine how hard it will be to co-sleep with twins. I mean forget our personal space (DH and I)... but they will probably fall asleep only when we will... will get up when we will. If dealing with a single baby is tough, how hard will twins be? When, oh when will I take care of all the stuff that needs to be taken care of... not household chores, but all that has to be done for the babes too!
Half - is where I am as far as pumping is concerned. I was pumping 4 times a day and producing 60+ oz of milk for all these months. In the last 3 weeks or so, I have come down to around 34 oz and approximately 2 pump sessions. It has not been easy... but it has not been as rough as I had imagined. I am definitely not going to be weaning myself off of the pump before we leave... it just isn't happening in the next 4 days! I will be pumping in the PLANE! Yes... exciting... my mom is flying with the babies and I... so I have to some how sneak in to the "toilets" and pump around half a litre of milk and hope that the babies sleep while I am gone! And I hope there are no delays and our bags arrive on time... I hope I am not speaking too soon! Because, if not... I really would not like to pump more than once in the whole journey! We shall see. As far as reducing the volume is concerned... increasing the time between pump sessions from 6 hrs to 8 hrs and then to 10 hrs is what has helped. Yes, I am engorged at times... but it has been manageable. I try not to empty myself out completely... but I am not keeping completely full either... because then I have to pump sooner and that has not helped in reducing the volume. Some how this whole thing seems to be working. On a hindsight this seems to be good, because I didn't really want to get the babes off of breastmilk so soon. This way they will continue to get at least 50% breastmilk for few more months.
Sleep Monster - Has been going around our house! Is it the 7 month sleep regression or separation anxiety or teething or reflux?!? I am lost! RT has always been a poor sleeper. She barely naps (30 min napper) and I have come to terms with it... but for the past 1 week she has been getting up very very frequently! Like every hour! Like every time you put her down in her crib! There have been time when she has ended up in our bed, because she just wouldn't settle down at all and would wake her brother up! I have not wanted to do CIO... but I feel like we are inching towards that. She needs the sleep - waking up every hour crying is not healthy for her! Though, I am scared to try anything new now. With the whole travel situation, jet lag and moving places... whatever "training" we try... it is going to get blown off every time a new parameter kicks in! So I am just hoping we reach some equilibrium again soon, and if not CIO will be our option when we settle back in after our 2 month long trip! Besides CIO, I have also considered co-sleeping, but then why should she co-sleep and not her brother. And, can you imagine how hard it will be to co-sleep with twins. I mean forget our personal space (DH and I)... but they will probably fall asleep only when we will... will get up when we will. If dealing with a single baby is tough, how hard will twins be? When, oh when will I take care of all the stuff that needs to be taken care of... not household chores, but all that has to be done for the babes too!
Hey, thanks for stopping by! As for the CIO... it sounds like something you are definitely inching toward. Once the horrifying sleep goes on for awhile and keeps getting worse and you've tried everything you possibly can, CIO becomes something you seriously do for their own good, not so that YOU can sleep at night (or at least it did for me). Noah had gotten so that he couldn't sleep unless he was in my arms. Not healthy!
ReplyDeleteCIO worked really quickly for Noah. The first time he cried 30 minutes, the next 15-20, and since then he's cried no longer than 7 minutes at a time, usually less, IF he even cries, which is rare. Most nights he doesn't cry at all. Last night he slept 11.5 hours straight. Amazing. The key is that I CANNOT go in there, because when he sees me he gets false hope that I will rescue him and put him to sleep FOR him.
You obviously have to do what's comfortable for you, but knowing what I know now, I would definitely have started CIO before going on a trip, even if it was in a few days. I know they don't necessarily recommend sleep training right before a trip, but knowing what I know now I would do it anyway. Babies this age learn quickly, and a trip would only make bad sleeping habits worse. But if we started with good sleeping habits before we left on the trip (ie. Noah remembering that it is possible the he can fall asleep on his own) then I think maybe we'd have to do CIO on the trip a couple of times, but the CIO wouldn't last for long and he'd get far more sleep and be far happier.
THAT being said, the only reason I used CIO in the first place - because I was ADAMANTLY opposed to the idea - is because Noah's sleep had gotten so incredibly bad and I realized there was literally nothing left that I could do except let him CIO. So I did. And as much as it SUCKED, I am SO glad I did because it took no time at all and he learned how to sleep.
BTW - previous to doing CIO without entering his room I didn't think Noah's temperment could handle CIO. I had tried watered down versions like Ferberizing and Sleep Sense where I stayed with him or went in every 5 or 10 or 20 minutes and they all caused him to scream for hours and hours. They were like a tease for him, because he could SEE me but I wouldn't give him what he wanted - rocking/nursing him to sleep. I always ended up caving after a couple of hours because it would become clear that he would not stop crying. The only thing that worked was not entering his room at all. I didn't think it would work, but it did.