Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Transitioning To One Nap! (And Breastfeeding Update)

Our babies are growing up! The last month or so the triplets have been showing signs of dropping a nap and going to just one. I have been excited about this because I am ready to do some longer fun outings and so are they! 2 naps also limit the amount of activities they can do, like music, library reading etc. But I have been hesitant to start because every time I think it's time they have a day where the two naps are very necessary!

Anyways, it's finally time and we have started the process. They have been fighting both naps and sleeping for less time totaling at most 3 hours. So if we aim for one 3 hour nap they won't lose any sleep! The way we have started is we are pushing their morning nap back later from what it was before at 9 or 9:30. They have actually been able to make it to about 11. That isn't an ideal time because they wake up starving and I think that is really what is preventing a longer stretch. Then they have taken another cat nap but I don't let it go longer than an hour because it's closer to dinner. I think in another week they should adjust a bit more and make it another hour in the morning. Then I can give them lunch before they go down and hopefully that will fix it! I am aiming for a nap from about 12:30 to 3:30 or so. We really aren't too far off and they have adjusted well!

After we get this routine down, we are going to do some breastfeeding training. My supply has dropped a bit with the pregnancy so the babies have been asking to nurse more often that before. I had no problem nursing on-demand before but now I am a bit more tender (and emotional!) and I want to get a set routine for then established well before the new baby arrives. I'm hoping that if we practice limiting and waiting now, they won't get upset when I am feeding the new baby and make them wait. There is going to be a lot of changes for them and hopefully this will help with jealousy issues from me nursing the new baby. I still want to nurse them, but I want them to have set times so I dont have 4 babies screaming for food!

I want to get to just nursing them in the morning, before naps, in the late afternoon/before dinner, and before bed. I am going to start the process by telling them to wait a few minutes when they ask and slowly increase the time to making them wait all the way to the next session. We have been doing a lot of talking about the new baby and I think they are starting to notice something is different and they can say baby and point to my belly. But they have no idea what is really coming and what is going to change!

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Pregnancy Brain is Back

...and in full force! A few years ago, I always laughed when pregnant friends and family told me about their pregnancy brain. I wasn't sold on it being an actual thing. Well, once I was pregnant, I changed my mind! It definitely happens. It wasn't terrible with the triplets, but I did tend to forget things.

But this time, i'm in for it. I have already started forgetting things and it's worse. I don't know if it's because I have a much busier life so there are more things to forget or what, but i'm only 13 weeks! Anyways, I thought I would write down a few of my mishaps from this week so that I will remember them and just cause they are hilarious.

1. On Thursday, I packed up the kids and we were going to bring Patrick lunch at work and then head to the park to meet a few friends for a picnic. I've driven to his office hundreds of times, but this time I forgot where it was and made a wrong turn! Thankfully I realized pretty quickly and figured out how to get back to where I needed to go.

2. Friday morning, I was going to take the trips with me to go grocery shopping, and we had a big list. I got them dressed and loaded up and we headed out. We got to the store, I parked got them all out of the car, put Evie in the Ergo, walked to get a cart (about 6 parking spots away), loaded the boys in, and then finally realized that I wasn't wearing shoes!! Thankfully, Patrick had left a pair of flip flops in the trunk, so I put those on and continued on (now wearing shoes like 3 sizes too big!).

3. Friday I also went to get gas and drove up on the wrong side! I went looking for it on the passenger side and was very confused until I realized. Worse yet, I have never had a car with the gas on that side, it's always been on the driver's side!

4. And then we can't forget how terrible my vocabulary is now. I am always forgetting what things are called and forget mid sentence what I am saying. Today I forgot what a "laptop" was called and asked Patrick to bring me the "mini desktop thingy." Like what? Seriously. It's a problem. Patrick just laughed.

And those are just from the last couple of days! 27 more weeks of this!