I have a bit of time so I'm here on Minti... I should be eating or napping or doing some housework but here I am instead.

I've read several questions on Q&A about young babies (weeks old, or a couple of months old) and routines. Some people ask what they should do when all of a sudden the baby wakes up sooner than expected, or wants to eat sooner than expected. Well, here's my answer.... routines should be baby-led. This means that you do not have to be down to the minute or down to the hour. If you let your baby (or babies in my case) be the leader, you'll find yourself happier, less worried and less anxious. If you force your baby into YOUR routine, or a routine that has previously been established, you'll find yourself dealing with crying spells throughout the day.

Remember, new moms, babies change their routines daily! If you think you've figured out the routine and is pretty happy with it, expect your baby to change suddenly! So you have to be on your toes and don't get too comfortable.

Also, one of the many reasons why babies change routines is that they are growing. If they go through a growth spurt, they may sleep longer one day, or wake up more often or want to eat more often (as much as every hour!).

My son's norm was to feed every 1 1/2 hour when he was an infant so you can imagine how exhausted I was. And he was feeding as much as 4-5 times at 5 months old!

Anyway... please, please, remember... routines is not like a school schedule where classes begin on the dot. It may shift an hour or two from day to day or from week to week.

Relax and enjoy your baby.

OK, I don't mean for the title to sound controversial. I just meant that my girls are not liking it lately. I've been supplementing with formula, especially at night so that I can get more sleep and so far so good. After breastfeeding, they take about 1-2 ounces. And then I supplement a couple of times a day when my milk supply has obviously dwindled down to nothing.

Well, this past couple of days when I give them formula, they push it out with their tongue. Of course, the fool that I am, I keep trying until I get frustrated and stop. Well, last night they didn't even take formula at all. With the breastfeeding, they last 3 hours so that affords me 2 hours of sleep at a time since the whole feeding/changing diaper takes about an hour. I do hope they take formula in the afternoon before I pick up my son from preschool so they stay asleep while I spend some with my son.

So how much sleep did I get last night? Well, I got 3 2hr block of sleep so it's not bad.

The week is almost over and let me start off on a good note and mention that my son has been really good. He and his dad wake up at 6am and leave for preschool at 7am. In that hour, my husband takes care of everything and when I am not feeding the twins, I go down and help out. At about 3pm we begin to get ready to pick up big brother and I breastfeed the babies and top off with formula and we leave at 4 pm. Because of the formula supplement, the babies stay asleep until 6:30 - 7pm and that's about when my husband comes home. While the girls are asleep, I get to spend time with my son and get him to eat dinner and play a little bit with him. So far so good too, he hasn't been giving me any grief.

I've also been able to work out an arrangement with the school. I call them as I am pulling in and park out front and someone gets my son and walk him out to me. This way I don't need to get the girls down.

What's been hard are the girls. It seems that my milk is pretty much gone after their morning feeding. So instead of being happy and going to sleep after each feeding, they instead lie awake for about 15 minutes and they start crying. They won't stop until I breastfeed again... and of course, since they are not getting enough quiet time is very short. I keep breastfeeding through out the morning (every 1 hr to 1 1/2 hour) until I can't take the crying anymore (or until I have to go get something to eat) and give them formula to top off. This usually gets me a couple of hours of quiet time on a good day. So as you can imagine, I am tired... no wonder my breasts never refill with milk throughout the day.

At night, I breastfeed and again top off with formula when they want to take it. Sometimes they absolutely refuse..and on those nights, I have to be up more often. I'm going crazy!!! And when I'm running on empty like this, I'm a little short on patience and short on the tender loving touches a mom naturally gives her baby. I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about.

And now the weekend is here and I get to have all 3 children all day long. Yipee. Thank goodness my husband is also home and he has been very very helpful.

Fairy godmother, where are you? I need to be whisk away from my life, if only for a couple of hours in order to recharge....OK, make that 4 hours and I'll be good for another month or so.

Thank you all for your kind words on my previous posts. I'm just sorry I can't manage to comment on everyone's replies and be a bit more social like I used to. But, rest assured that I come here and read your comments. It helps a lot to see that people sympathize with me and offer kind and encouraging words. Keep them coming! Thanks again.

oh, I am also feeling a little dissapointment with myself about resorting to formula. I have nothing against it so don't anyone start defending formula feeding. I breastfed my son for 12 months without formula and I was hoping to do the same with my twins. Enter guilt. Anyway, that's another blog altogether for another day.

One of the toughest thing about having twins is the fact that one (or sometimes both) must be left to cry. It's a sad fact, but there's no way around it. When I'm on my own and one is fussy, of course I pick her up and hold her/rock her. But then the other one starts to cry too and I'm left sometimes to weigh who I should hold or who will be able to settle herself alone. So there's almost always one who is left out.

Though I have figured out how to get them both on me so I can rock both of them. It's hard to set up, and it's even harder to stand up (let's say I have to go to the bathroom or answer the phone) but it's doable. But then there's also times when I am exhausted and I just can't handle either one.  

When my son was born, I am there for him all the time when he cries. He even naps on me... but those days are gone for my twins. Even with a baby carrier, I can only carry one at a time!

As a mother, it's the most difficult thing to feel that though you want to help/comfort your baby, circumstances won't allow it sometimes.

My son is doing well though. But starting next week when my husband goes to work, I will be picking him up from preschool (Daddy drives him). So that would be a challenge to get the 2 girls fed and packed up and ready to pick big brother up. And even more challenging would be the 1 1/2 - 2 hours before daddy gets home when I have to breastfeed the girls and big brother needs attention as well.

By the way, it's MonkeyDad's birthday today. Happy birthday! We love you!

My mother has left on Saturday after beeing here for 4 weeks. The first week she was here, she just sat in the livingroom and watched TV and held the babies when they cried. She also played with Matthew and let him do whatever she wanted. She probably didn't know what to allow him to do and what not, so though it annoyed me, I just let it go. After a week, it was clear that she's assigned herself to tend to the babies and to Matthew and cooking, and that's it. Oh, and once my husband came home from work at night, she pretty much stopped doing things and sometimes just disappeared to her room. This was a bit annoying as well because my husband has been busy at work that he gets home late at night and just want to eat. But once he walks in the door, Matthew has other ideas and want to get daddy to do this, do that, get this, get that. We were spoiled by my mother in law while she was here because she pretty much did everything.

Anyway, after that first week, my husband and I just accepted the fact that my mother was just helping a little and just accepted the fact that at least we're getting some help which is better than none at all. The afternoon after my mother left, the girls decided to be very very fussy and Mathtew decided to be very very difficult. Having 2 parents and 3 children, we were definitely out-manned and it was tough.

This week my husband is off, finally taking his paternity leave. Though I love him being here, I can't wait to get into our normal schedule (me at home, him at work) so that we can all figure out how we will handle things and what kind of new routine we have to establish.

The girls got their first shots yesterday. Their fever got a bit high last night so we had to call the doctor, but they are fine now. Katelyn is now 9 lbs and Jordan is 7 1/2 lbs.

I brought the girls to the pediatrician and they were seen by the nurse practitioner. She said that with everything I've described, and along with the check up she did, that it is indeed a reflux. They were prescribed Zantac. We will wait and see for 3-4 days if things improved and if not, the formula (they are on high calorie preemie formula, though only at night) would have to be thickened with rice cereal. And if things still do not improved, a stonger medicine would be prescribed.

By the way, they were weighed today and Katelyn is now 7 lbs 1 oz and Jordan is 6 lbs 4 oz. This is a gain of about a pound in just 1 week and a few days.

I called the pediatrician today to ask what could be wrong with the twins. I spoke to the nurse who suggested that it could be my diet; it could be my dairy intake (which I consume a lot of). I told her that my search online leads me to believe that it could be reflux. She said it could very well be, and there are tests they could do to see if it is indeed reflux but she wants to see them to make sure everything else is fine, being that they're preemies, before we decide on the course of action.

So we're off to the doctor in a couple of hours. Will post more later.

I have been functioning with about 6 hours of broken sleep these past couple of weeks and it hasn't been that bad. But these past few days, I'm only getting about 4-5 hours because the girls are taking turns being extremely hungry. One day it's Jordan who wakes up hungry first and often, and the next it's Katelyn. And then last night, an hour and a half after feeding, Jordan was fussing. I checked on her and found that she had milk coming out of her mouth and nose and coudn't breathe. I suctioned her nose and held her upright for a while and she was fine. After this scare, I made sure to burp them several times when feeding and then laid her on her side in case this happens again.

This morning, I heard Katelyn breathe as if she has something in her nose and sure enough, she had milk coming out of her nose too. I heard of other moms say their babies have acid reflux and so maybe this is what they have. But I'm only guessing, since my son never experienced anything like this as a baby.

I will phone the pediatrician Monday morning and see what he says. In the meantime, anyone has any ideas? I posted this question in the Q&A too.