More sleeping stuff; Increasing cuteness

Sis demanded new baby pictures, so here's one. I took this the other day because he looked so cute and peaceful, snoozing away. That's about it for pictures this week, other than Daddy trying to assemble the new swing. I'll have to take some more over the weekend. They keep getting cuter, so we sometimes find ourselves incapable of doing anything but sitting and watching them even when they are sleeping. Doesn't do much for household productivity, but it sure is fun.

On Tuesday we had an appointment -- hopefully our last! -- with the GI specialist for Kathryn. Her reflux has improved and she'll be off the medication (Zantac) completely in another few weeks if all continues to go well. The other news there was the weighings: 8 lbs 5 oz. for Kathryn and NINE POUNDS for James.

I'm not sure where the week went. I have spent most of my time in a sleep-deprived daze. The house isn't falling apart yet, but it's teetering on the brink. If you don't hear from me in a week, send in a search party. Have them look under the collapsed mountain of laundry first.

This week both babies started sleeping through the night, just not at night. They've gone 6 hours between feedings, but from 6pm to midnight or from 4am to 10am. This is despite keeping things dark and quiet at night, even during feedings, and having them out in the light & noise pretty much all day, even for naps. Friday night they ate at 7pm, midnight, and 5am, which was wonderful. I wish I knew how to stop the dial right there and have it stick for a while.

Of course, 5 hours between feedings doesn't mean that we get 5 hours of sleep, but it's better than the 3-hour schedule they were on for a while. Preparing bottles, feeding, changing diapers, and clean-up takes at least an hour, even feeding both at once, and usually closer to 90 minutes. By the time both get rocked., pacifier'ed, and otherwise settled back to sleep, it can be two hours or more. Sometimes one or the other of them -- occasionally both at once -- will just need to be held while they sleep. Sometimes for an hour or two. Sometimes without moving at all. By the time I unwind and get sleepy again, my brain is eyeing the clock and telling me no sense in sleeping now, they'll be awake again in an hour (And that's the time they'll go ahead and sleep for another 3 hours :-).

We've got our schedule working pretty well. I take the "late shift" while Russ goes to bed around 9 or 10 pm. I take care of feeding and anything else needed from then until 4 or 5 am, though I sometimes wake him a little earlier if they're ready to eat and I can't keep my eyes open any longer. Then I sleep until 7 or 8am, depending on when he leaves for the office and when my internal clock wakes me (I have a lot of trouble sleeping late, or sleeping at all during the day, and once I'm awake past around 3 or 4 am, I might as well make a pot of coffee because I'm up for the morning). After several days of this, I'm a basket case, because sleeping in one or two hour naps just doesn't do it, even if it adds up to 6 hours a day.

Fortunately, a couple of nights a week, we switch and he takes the late shift while I sleep. On those nights I get in bed as early as I can and read or watch TV. Even if I don't actually fall asleep until 11:00, I can be up at 4 am feeling (relatively) awake and refreshed. An hour or two of quiet time and five or six hours of uninterrupted sleep during normal sleeping hours does the trick, as long as something doesn't awaken me in the middle of it. That hapens sometimes, and it makes me very cranky. I'm still pretty zombie-like even with the good sleep, but it gets me through the next several days of up-all-night.

Yesterday they suddenly spent much more time awake and wanting to play & be entertained during the day -- James in the morning and Kathryn in the afternoon. I think they planned that out during the night to make sure we'd have no time to get other things done. I am hoping this is a sign that they are starting to get night & day figured out, and that we might be on our way to sleeping at night and being awake in the daytime. Stay tuned...