Kyler sleeps on the left side. (You can see his sock of beans laying in his sleep positioner. It is working having that under his left shoulder. His flat spot is starting to round out!!)
We have loved this Arms Reach co-sleeper. I am able to just look over and see the boys and in the beginning it made it very easy to put paci's back in when they fell out. I am able to pick them up right out of the sleeper and never have to get out of the bed. When I am by myself that is my goal. I want to feed them, change their diapers and put them back in bed without me ever having to get out of the bed. (Lazy I know......) I have it down to 25 minutes max. (If Kyler is not having reflux issues) Each night I have 6 clean bottles, formula premeasured for 6 bottles (they each have thier own canister because they take different amounts) and a thermos of hot water all in a basket. When I am by myself I have it on the bed on Greg's side along with the boppy and all of the diaper changing stuff.
When the boys start crying I move the boppy to my side right in front of me and I get them out of their bed and put them on it. I give them their paci's and I make the bottles. I feed both of them at the same time. Since the reflux I have to pick Kyler up and burp him half way through and then hold him to finish the second half of his bottle because he does not want it. I change his diaper, give him some Mylicon and prop him up so he doesn't throw up. I finish feeding Connor, burp him, change his diaper, swaddle him give him some Mylicon and then put him back in the bed. Then I swaddle Kyler and put him in the bed. 25 Minutes later (all things cooperating) we are back to sleep. When Greg is home we do things a little different. Greg likes to get up. (I don't know why.....) I still make the basket of bottles but he gets up to make them. While he is making bottles I change diapers. It takes the exact same time so it is perfect. I feed one and he feeds one. Greg likes to go to the living room and sit in his recliner while he is feeding but I choose to stay in the bed. Whether I am here alone or Greg is here we have gotten this routine down. Too bad it all about to change......
I have mentioned before that we are following the book Baby Wise. Our goal is to get our babies sleeping through the night by 12 weeks old. The boys were born 3 weeks early and were tiny so we knew that it could take a little longer for them. We feed them every 3 hours during the day and at night we let them sleep until they wake up hungry. In the beginning that was every 3 hours but gradually it has gotten longer. For about the past 2 weeks we have been feeding the boys at 10 and they have been sleeping until anywhere between 3 and 4:30. We were so happy with that. This week we changed their schedule a little and have started feeding them at 9 and they are sleeping until 4:45-5:30. Yeah!!! That makes Greg and me sooooo happy! We are only having to get up one time and we are getting about 6 hours of continuous sleep. We have been going to bed close to when they do too so that we can get as much sleep as possible. It makes such a difference. I feel so rested!
Our next goal is moving them to their own room. They are about to be too long for thier co-sleeper and it is time to make that change anyways. (Greg doesn't think so though....he wants them right there beside us) I keep telling him the longer we wait the harder it is going to be. Don't get me wrong, I love having them in there with us, for one it is easy but two it is comforting to know that I can look right over and see them. I can't tell you how many times Greg and I have just stared at them to make sure they are both still breathing, but I know it is for the best. Greg is about to be gone a lot in the next couple of months so I want to make the change while he is home. I don't want to do it by myself. We are going to try it tonight. That gives us 3 nights before Greg leaves. We will see. I think our 6 hours of continuous sleep may be over for awhile.......
The boys room is all ready for them. If you have followed my blog you know that Mom and I spent a day looking for fabric while I was pregnant. I had it all figured out no matter what we had. Of course after we had 2 boys I started thinking I wanted to do something different. Now let me go back almost 4 years. Every year Greg and I go to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Banquet. It is so fun. They have a raffle, silent auction and live auction. Greg and I were looking at all of the items to bid on that year and we came across a picture that I thought would be perfect in a little boys room. We were not married yet but we knew as soon as we were (Aug.26, 2006) that we wanted to have a baby right away. So it wasn't that crazy to be thinking about a nursery. I told Greg and he agreed. We bid on it in the live auction and won it. Little did we know that that picture would stay under the bed in the guest room for this long. The ironic thing about the picture is that it is a Mama Bear and her 2 cubs........(sound familiar??)
I had to design the room around this picture and having 2 boys made it very easy to do. I wanted to have a hunting lodge feel to the room without going completely overboard with a theme. I found the cutest striped bedding at Pottery Barn Teen that I thought we could make work. By "we" I mean Mom. I needed her to turn a queen size quilt into 2 baby quilts. They had curtains to match, and I got the pillow shams for when we turn the boys cribs into toddler beds. My goal to was to find something that I would be happy with now and not feel like they had outgrown later before we build our house. When we move the boys will have their own room so I don't want to buy new bedding before then. Greg's Uncle had given us a ceiling fan that we had stored in our attic and I thought it would be perfect in there.
This past year when we went to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation I has just had my embryo transfer 4 days prior. I put my raffle tickets in everything that we could use in a babies room. When we won this set of 2 hangers I just knew that it was a sign that we were pregnant......
I think the room turned out so cute!! I took Gregs hunting pictures and some of his hunting stuff and hung it on the wall and I love it!!!! It is perfect! Greg really likes it too even though he said he didn't want to share his stuff with them. Ha!!
The giraffe was a gift from Greg's friend Jeff. The boys are going to LOVE climbing on that one day.
Now, all that is missing is two little boys. I will keep y'all posted on how all of this goes. My fingers are crossed for a smooth transition and some sleep for Mommy and Daddy.......
