Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Thinking Out Loud

We finally have a really good schedule of eating and sleeping going. We’ve been working on implementation for a couple months, and have finally settled into a groove. A typical day goes like this:

6:30 Wake up
8:30 1st Bottle (8oz)
9:15 Nap
10:15 Wake and play
11:00 Solids
12:30 2nd Bottle (7-8oz)
1:00 Nap
3:00 Wake and play
3:30 3rd Bottle (6-7oz)
5:20 Mon-Thurs: Pick up mommy at the train
6:00 Solids
6:30 Bath, 4th Bottle (8-9oz), Bed

This has been working out really well for us and I am reluctant to mess with it, but I'm a glutton for punishment, and so am about to screw with it. There has been talk on my MOTs board recently about the daily schedules of twins around Leah and Elliot’s age and the schedules posted have been decidedly different than our schedule. I don’t mind being different, but there are some issues arising from our schedule.  First, Leah is resisting eating enough from her bottles (as she has been doing since the beginning of her time) and that, in turn, makes it nearly impossible for her to sleep through the night of a regular basis. I think if we can get her to eat more (liquids) during the day, we’d have more nights without wake-ups. Second, it's about time to add more solids into the schedule and I don’t want the added meal to cause them to decrease their liquid intake too much further. I don't want to try to move their naps, so it’s just a matter of finagling the feeding schedule. So here is what I am thinking of trying out beginning this Friday when they hit the big 8 months(!):

6:30 Wake up (we don’t seem to have a choice on this)
7:30 1st Bottle (8oz)
8:30 Breakfast (cereal + fruit)
9:15 Nap
10:15 Wake and play
11:30 2nd Bottle
12:30 Lunch (Veggie + Protein + Dessert)
1:30 Nap
3:00 Wake and play
3:30 3rd Bottle
6:00 Dinner (Veggie + Protein + Fruit)
6:30 Bath, 4th Bottle, Bed

This will be a more difficult transition for Leah than for Elliot because she needs a bottle to fall asleep at all times and doesn’t eat well unless she is half asleep in her bedroom. Because of this, I’m not sure how this is going to work. One MOT mentioned that she feeds her babies their bottles while they are eating their solids and that they eat really well that way. Definitely worth a shot. We might need to continue feeding Leah in her room before sleep-times, but this is the final goal.

If anyone that reads this excruciatingly exciting post has any tips or comments, let me know! Gotta love fixing what ain’t broke.

Also, daylight savings time is next weekend (isn’t it?). Just tell me now, are we screwed? I don’t want to change their sleeping times from 7-6:30 to 8-7:30. How can we prevent this? Do we try to put them down a little early and wake them up at (the new) 6:30am (which will feel like 5:30am to Craig and me)? My head hurts even thinking about it. 

4 comments:

  1. Would it be possible to feed them a bottle closer to their wake up time? Maybe they would drink/eat more later in the day if they eat that bottle earlier. Just a thought...

    As for DLS, I got nuthin' - we are not planning on telling them. Hopefully, they will wake up at what they think is 630 but it will really be 730. Since its Sunday, that makes things a bit easier. In my experience, they just needed that Sunday to get back on track. Maybe they went to bed a half an hour off schedule but by Monday morning, things were normal again. Hope that's your experience, too!

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  2. My kids did fine with the transition of time in the fall and they were 7 months then. We just pretended it never happened and kept with the same schedule. We didn't notice a thing and neither did they. So before you try to change anything around in preparation, just see how it goes!

    As far as the schedule, it looks pretty good to me. This might be a good time to try and change the whole routine 100% to break the bottle-bed habit. It may be tough at first, but it may be worth it in the long run depending when you are planning on weaning bottles in the future. It might even make sense to put the bed time bottle before the bath to remove that associating with bottle-bed completely. Maybe bring in a "new" thing before sleep time that is special and a clear transition, like a sippy cup of water that they get to keep with them, or a new song or story book. Babes at this point are still pretty flexible and can adapt after only a few days.

    Good luck! Can't wait to hear how it goes!!!

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  3. Alexis, I agree with Nicole, maybe feed them a bottle closer to the time they wake up. My boys are the same age as yours (as you know!), and we're getting ready to incorporate a 3rd solid meal, so I have to tweak my schedule as well.

    I've always given a "wake up" bottle very close to the time they wake in the morning, it just gives more time in the day to fit in the other meals and naps.

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  4. Thanks for all the feedback! The reason we don't give a bottle before 7:30 is because on weekday mornings, Craig and I are getting ready to go to work and playing with the babies a bit before the nanny takes over at 7:30 (and gives the first bottle). Maybe we can start that bottle a little earlier, though it already feels crazy on the 4 days/week I go to the office.

    In any case, I will be reporting back on Operation F-Everything-Up after this weekend...

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