Ugh, there are times that I really stink at this blogging thing! I have no defense, sometimes I really just stink at it.
Things have been the normal pace of busy around here lately. With my two never stopping toddlers, things never seem dull! So what have we been up to? Well...
At the girls' last doctor's appointment we had discussed the girls' development and where things are going for them. A hot topic was the nap issue: one nap or two? The girls are 15 months and they're in that spot between the 2 naps for a 1 year old and 1 nap for 18 month olds. My personal approach to all things developmental has been to follow the girls' lead and only use the million plus "guideline and recommendations" as a reference point. But my girls haven't been the best leaders to put it mildly... Most days they still go down for two naps, but sometimes one or both of them wouldn't sleep during that nap. Then we tried just one nap. Some days it was somewhat ok (somewhat is a strong word here, they're bewitching time from 4-6 was ROUGH) and other days it was definitely not ok. Now I'm at the point where I base it off of when they wake up and what our plans are for the day. The problem is really based on the fact that the girls are very schedule oriented. VERY schedule oriented and they do not like or adapt well to changes. Some days I really wish they had picked up a few more things from their father, because this is one of their momma's traits that is really biting me in the behind! And Scott is sure to let me know that this is all MY fault!
So here's how I'm working it these days: if the girls sleep in (that mean's they get up between 7:45 and 8:00) then we try not to do a morning nap and we bump up the afternoon nap. If they wake up before 7:30 then we do the normal morning nap by 9:30 and then do an afternoon nap generally around 2:00. I have found that when they do 2 naps I generally get 2 1/2 hours of nap time out of them but if they do only one nap then we barely get 2 hours if I am lucky. Two hours of nap time makes for some cranky babies in this house, these girls definitely love their sleep! That is definitely a Daddy trait, he takes good naps ;)
I don't like messing with the girls' sleep patterns, their moods are often determined by their sleep. My mom has noticed also that the girls still need both naps, or at least the amount of sleep time they get from two naps. They just aren't ready to go to one nap a day... Hopefully this works itself out soon!
I should also note my biggest mommy failure thus far in their lives: the bottle. Yep, at 15 months they are still taking one bottle a day, their nighttime bottle. I have prided myself in avoiding a lot of first time parent pitfalls- rocking your child to sleep (to the point they become dependent on it to fall asleep vs putting themselves to sleep), reliance on the paci, reliance on a swaddle to sleep, constant need to be held, etc. Basically all the things parents warn other first time parents about and how terrible it was to deal with these issues! The girls have made it through these things with ease and I credited our approach to everything. But this bottle issue may be my downfall as a parent.
I know that by 1 year old the bottles should be gone. For the most part they are, the girls use all different types of cups, sippy cups, straws, you name it, they can drink out of it! I think the nighttime bottle dependency is more of a parental dependency... Let me explain: 4-6 pm is a rough time for us, and by us I mainly mean me. The girls get cranky/needy and I am alone to handle it while I am trying to make dinner. Plus the normal busy events of the day (I don't stop moving a lot to be quite honest) tend to hit me about that time too so I am a little sluggish making it more difficult. By the time 6 pm hits the girls magically are better just in time for Scott to get home which happens between 6 and 6:45 every night. So that hour after he gets home is really his time with the girls to play and for us to be a family even though we're both pretty tired at that point. So when 7 pm hits and the girls are tired & cranky we don't really have a true bed time routine. It's change the diapers, put on pj's, kisses & hugs all around, and then into the crib with a bottle.
Yes, I broke my own rule and 3 months ago it started- we gave them their bottle in bed. It started out innocently enough; Scott was out of town for a week and Charlie wouldn't stay in the rock n play to drink her nighttime bottle. So I had to put her in her crib with it. And it was easy. And I was tired. Failure on my part. We could've righted the situation the next week when Scott was back in town but he saw how easy it was and did I mention how tired we are at night? Right, no excuse...
So here we are 15+ months and we are now starting a weaning process. We have lessened the amount of milk in the bottle and eventually it will be replaced with water so they just don't want it. We also know that we have to make a bed time routine. I had to explain the logic behind this to my husband who was a little resistant: eventually they will be out of the cribs and just "tossing" them into their rooms will not promote sleep, and 8 oz of milk before bed when you want to potty train children will just lead to bed wetting. For the record, we do not "toss" them into bed, but I'm sure you get my drift, hopefully...
So that's where we're at. I meant to include 7 other topics in this post but I guess I'll write a make up post tomorrow since I missed last week (I think I did at least... I know I missed a week at some point!)
Hope all is well :)
p.s. I will post pics soon!
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