Sleeping and Napping

Last week the babies slept 5-6 hours every night in their longest stretch and it was amazing.

This week they are only sleeping 4 hours in their longest stretch. Also, they wake up at 7am every day, it doesn’t seem to matter what time the middle of the night feeding was or how much sleep they have had.

I don’t know what was different about last week vs this week. My only thought is that Sunday night was bath night but the bath was badly timed so they didn’t get to have their bath right before bed and therefore sleep the extra hour or two (bath night is the best). What happened was Noa peed ALL OVER HERSELF, like even somehow got it on her head, so we had to have bath time early and we didn’t get to benefit from the extra relaxation that happens after they have their bath (even if they scream through it). And then their schedule was off yesterday because of it.

Here is their schedule from yesterday:

7am – wake up

7:30am – feeding begins (breastfeeding – I end up doing this feeding because it’s too late for Ilan to do it before work, I eat breakfast while nursing)

8am – feeding ends, awake time

8:30 – Eitan gets sleepy so I swaddle and put him down for a nap, but Noa is still wide awake, so we continue to play

9:30 – Eitan wakes up hungry, I give him a small bottle and try to get Noa to have a small bottle, too, but she is falling asleep.

10 – swaddles, nap time begins (finally shower, have a snack)

11:30 – Eitan wakes up again, presumably hungry, though instead I distract and play with him to let Noa have a little more sleep (snack some more)

noon – wake up Noa, feeding time again

12:15 – feeding

1:00 – both fall asleep at the boob

1:30 – go for a walk, this requires me to wake them up just a little to get them into the car seats and out into the stroller. Noa falls back to sleep and stays mostly asleep for the walk, Eitan fusses a bit throughout the walk (ate a snack while walking)

3:00 – come home, babies still asleep

3:30 – Eitan wakes up, again presumably hungry, again I hold him off

4:00 – wake up Noa

4:15 – feeding

5:00 – awake! play in the activity gym while I have a snack (guess what, didn’t write where I ate my lunch in there, because I basically didn’t!)

6:00 – hungry again, feeding again

6:30 – feeding, Noa starts screaming, ends up with a bottle

7:00 – swaddled up again and napping (scarf down dinner)

8:00 – Eitan wakes up hungry, hold him off a little

8:30 – wake up Noa

8:45 – feeding… feeding… feeding… this one takes forever, it is a double feeding and Noa is refusing the breast again

11:00 – finally the feeding ends, they are swaddled and drifting off

11:15 – in the crib for the night

3:30am – AWAKE AGAIN.

I know, that was riveting.

The point is, I think I am badly timing the naps. Like maybe I should be trying to get them to nap longer in the afternoon?  Except I have tried that so hard. I was trying last week to get them to nap from 3-5 but they would not stay asleep.  I felt like I was fighting a battle uphill, totally pointless and futile.

I don’t care if they sleep except that they get really rotten in the evening if they haven’t slept. Sunday evening was the worst one I can think of, with constant screaming and flat-out refusing to go to bed.

For many things, the babies are following closer to regular full-term 3 month olds.  They are smiling, laughing, making eye contact, reaching for things, etc.  Yesterday, Noa found herself in the mirror!  She was transfixed.  Noa also straightens her legs and wants to bounce all day.  She is holding up her head, and Eitan is almost there, too.

Also, since they are waking up pretty reliably at 7am every morning (it seems), Ilan is going to start setting an alarm for 6:30 so he can get ready for work before the feeding.  That way he can still do the feeding and I can get an extra hour of sleep.  He used to do the second morning feeding but Monday morning was too late for him, so I ended up doing all the feedings and it was so exhausting.

But in terms of sleep, we are really following closer to their adjusted age of 6 weeks.  I guess also because of their size.  They are around 10/11lb, so they aren’t big enough yet for longer than 5-6 hours at a time. Other parents of 3 month olds I’ve talked to have mentioned 8-9 hour stretches (with 12-14lb babies), which just sounds so far away from where we are now.  But we are making progress, we really are.