I would say it's flying, but it really does feel like it's floating by. That may just be because I haven't had more than 3 1/2 hours of sleep at a time since about July.
But it has been 8 full weeks since my babies were born.
It's amazing to watch them grow. Everyone else says they are still so small, but they are so much bigger than they were 8 weeks ago that they don't seem small to me anymore.
I'd bet Ryan is about 9 pounds by now. He's eating 3 1/2 to 5 oz of breastmilk at every feeding. Alyna is definitely over 7 pounds, probably 8. She eats 2 1/2 to 3 3/4 oz every feeding. They both like to eat a lot at one meal and then not as much at the next.
No, they're not sleeping through the night yet. Ryan is the culprit here. I think it's more his wet and messy diapers (full loads always) that wake him up. And if you wake him up to change him and it's been more than 2 1/2 hours since he ate, he won't go back to sleep until he eats. He cries, with tears, until you feed him.
Alyna would sleep for 5 hours if her brother would let her, but after he eats, I have to feed her or I'd be up again in another hour. The other night she went 4 1/2 hours and then I had to wake her to feed her when he was done eating. She only ate for 10 minutes before falling into another deep sleep and going for another 3 hours, when again I had to wake her up to feed.
Sometimes he goes 3 1/2 to 4 hours, but it's not consistent yet. If anyone has ideas (other than adding rice cereal to his nighttime feeding), I'd love to hear it.
4 comments:
When you pump, do you pump before or after feeding them?
If you pump after, you could save that fatty milk for nighttime feedings. It might help them stay fuller longer.
I am totally impressed and happy with your exclusive breastfeeding. I know it has to be a challenge – it's hard enough with one sometimes! Before he was sleeping through the night, I occasionally wondered if I should just give Ian a bottle of formula before bed, but I never did. I'm too cheap to buy any, for one, and I just didn't trust it.
Go you! And good luck! Soon they'll sleep through the night, and you'll wake up wondering how in the world it happened. :)
You also might try feeding Ryan after Alyna, so he gets more of the hind milk. (I went back to your post to read the order of the feedings – boys are notoriously hungrier, and it might do him more good to get the fattier feeding. Just a[nother] suggestion! :))
My advice is simply to hang in there and keep on nursing those babies! My two kiddos (though not twins) were very different in their needs for frequency of feedings as well as sleep. So much difference in boys and girls...so much different in personalities...may just take some time before they BOTH sleep for longer stretches at a time. I enjoy your blog updates!
One night you'll wake up and you'll have slept through the night and ask yourself "what just happened?" Or freak out and run into the nursery to check on them....(I did refrain from that.) Braedon slept through the night one time at 7 weeks, and didn't do it again until he was 4 months old. Make sure even at this age you are doing a consistent nighttime routine. That helped tons once we started letting him cry it out (at 4 months, oddly enough when he started sleeping through the night ;) ) And it helped again much later down the road when we transitioned to toddler bed.
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