Roll Over...

Here's Ryan's new trick...

P.U.P.D ... day 3

We have done the P.U.P.D. method consistently with Alyna for 3 days now, and the progress is great.

{If you didn't read the original P.U.P.D. blog, it is below... you might need to catch up}

Going to church yesterday morning and then Life Group at 1 pm wore her out so nap time and bed time were both very easy to get her down to sleep. She woke again at 11 pm for a night time feed, so I fed her and she went to sleep without a fuss afterward.

Then she awoke crying at midnight becuase of a fully wet diaper. I changed her and spent 5 minutes with P.U.P.D. while she cried very loudly.

Again, I'm very thankful that the twins can sleep through each others screaming episodes most of the time.

She awoke again at 2 and 3 am and I did 5 minutes P.U.P.D. each time.

When she awoke at 5 am, the cry was different. It was a "good morning, I'm hungry" cry instead of a screaming "I can't go back to sleep" cry. So I fed her and she went back to sleep easily.

I just put her down for her morning nap with ease. I rocked her and sang a song to her in her darkened room. Then I held her very still for a couple minutes. Then I stood and walked to the crib to lay her down. She immediately turned her head to the side, found her thumb, and soothed herself to sleep.

Ahhhhh, it's bliss when you find something that works.

Update: She just woke up after 40 minutes, and I held her while she cried for 2 minutes. When she finally calmed down, I put her down and she went right back to sleep. Hopefully she will sleep at least another half hour.

P.U.P.D.

Our good little sleeper had a relapse and now fights it with all her might, and voice. So we've had some long crying sessions in the middle of the day and the middle of the night that leave us frustrated and tired. Her cry is a screaming cry that hurts your ears, not a whimpering sad cry.

I've never been a fan of letting infants cry it out. Their minds are not capable of abstract thinking, all they know is what's around them right then. That's why we play peek-a-boo with babies to teach them that even though they can't see you, you are still there. But until they learn that lesson, it seem a little odd that we would stay away while the baby cries for someone to come and soothe them.

I should add that as twins, there are many times when I'm feeding or changing one baby that the other has to cry for 5-15 minutes until I'm done. So I don't like not going to them when I could.

In her book The Baby Whisperer, Tracy Hogg explains her method of helping babies who are having trouble sleeping to learn to put themselves to sleep. It's the middle of the road between rocking them to sleep and letting them cry it out.

She calls it "Pick Up Put Down" or P.U.P.D for short. It is exactly what it sounds like. When they cry, you pick them up, and then when they calm down you immediately put them back down. She recommends this technique once babies are over 8 weeks old and not before.

We've been doing this with Alyna for 2 days and nights now and are already seeing dramatic improvement. The first night I did it we did P.U.P.D for 20 minutes. Every time she started crying I picked her up, held her to my chest, rythmically patted the middle of her back, and made long "sshhhh" sounds. (No rocking or bouncing.) She would start crying as soon as I laid her down. Eventually she'd go for 20-30 seconds after lying down before she'd cry. Then she whimpered herself to sleep on a final "put down".

She ate again that night at 3 am, and then woke at 4:30 am crying because she couldn't fall back asleep. So I did P.U.P.D for 10 minutes and she finally soothed herself to sleep on a "put down".

At nap time the next morning, I did P.U.P.D for 5 minutes, and then 10 minutes for the afternoon nap. 5 more minutes for the bedtime, and then 10 minutes at the 5 am feeding.

We're making progress, and I'm encouraged by the results. The night before I started this she had cried for an hour in our arms before finally calming down in the swing at 4 am. That was not fun.

After we have her sleep issues worked out, we're going to use the method to break Ryan of his pacifier.

4 month stats

We just returned home from the 4 month checkup and shots. Ryan and Alyna are both healthy and on schedule developmentally. They laugh out loud, reach for objects (Ryan is obsessed with the TV remote), and are starting to roll over.

Ryan: 12 lbs 5 oz and 24 1/2 inches

Alyna: 11 lbs 13 oz and 23 1/4 inches

My longest sleep in months

Last night I (the mommy) got 6 hours of sleep without interuption from anyone ... (except that my bladder woke me up at midnight).

Both Ryan and Alyna were fed and asleep at 9:15, and I was asleep at 9:30. Alyna woke at 3:45 wanting to eat. Then I woke Ryan up to eat as well. 6 hours felt so great. This was the first time they've both gone that long during the same block.

We'd had a rough week of nights so far, so it was nice to catch up on the sleep. Sunday night after I posted that Alyna had slept through the night for a week, she woke up every 3 hours screaming to be fed. That continued until last night. Every 3 hours. We assumed it was a growth spurt because nothing else seemed to be wrong. Sure enough, it lasted 4 days, and now she's a good little sleeper again.

My challenge for this weekend is that Barry has started working 12 hour shifts (with a 1/2 hour commute). 2 days of days and then 2 night shifts. So all weekend, I'm essentially a single parent because he'll be working Friday and Saturday from before the twins wake up to their bed time. Then Sunday night and Monday night he'll work and try to sleep during the days. It will be interesting to try to keep the noise level down with 2 babies. At least Sunday morning and Tuesday morning I can be out of the house all morning at church. But then Barry has Tuesday through Saturday off in a row. That will be the good part of the switch to shift work.

My sleeping beauty...

Every night except one over the past week... Alyna has slept all night long.

No, I haven't had that experience other parents have where I wake up worried something is wrong because my baby has not woken up earlier... because Ryan has woken me up every few hours. He's teething and keeps waking himself up with messy diapers or with pain in his gums. We don't have to feed him every time he wakes up, but sometimes it takes quite a bit of walking around or even putting him in the swing to calm him down again.

Alyna sleeps right through it. Last night we even changed her diaper in her crib at 1 am without waking her up. She slept from 9 pm to 6 am. I wish I could get that much sleep. Her progress is largely due to sucking her thumb. Most parents are not happy about that, but when you play the "pacifier retrieval" game with two babies all day long, you are happy for any thing they can do to sooth themselves.

We are not complaining. We are overjoyed that Alyna is a good sleeper. One waking baby is much easier to deal with than two.

Oh how they grow...

The ladies at Ladies Bible Class were astounded at how much Ryan and Alyna have grown since we last met in mid-December. They are now 16 weeks old.

They both learned new skills over the holidays. Their Aunt Krista and Uncle Adam gave them a play gym (shown in the pictures) that has lots of things to grab. There's an elephant rattle, bird with a spinning wheel, a leaf that rustles, and butterflies that light up. The first few days they played with it they would accidentally hit something and be astounded that it made a noise and moved. It didn't take long before they were actively and purposefully reaching for their favorite objects. Alyna spent lots of time mastering the open handed grab of the bird with the spinning wheel. After only a few days she could grab it and spin it at will. Ryan uses his legs and arms to hit and kick all at the same time and make lots of noise, but sometimes he just grabs the leaf and holds it.


Both are working on sitting up too. They don't want to be cradled in your arms anymore (except at bedtime). They want to sit up in your lap, and they do a good job of it except for a little help with balancing. Ryan likes to lean every which way like he's trying to get somewhere. We've turned his leaning into a stand up/sit down game.

Ryan especially is jabbering away at his toys and at us. He even "talks" more than Alyna now. "Neh" means feed me. And he makes a "hi" sound when he's happy to see you, and makes a "m-m-m" sound when he's sad and wants to be picked up.

Alyna smiles and does her sing-song cooing... except when she's demanding something, as always. She also says "Neh" when she wants to eat, and "Ee-yeh" means change me. A loud, sharp "Eh" means she wants some attention.

(Oh, and Alyna slept for 8 hours straight the other night through Ryan screaming every few hours to be fed or changed.)

People at church think they are perfect angel babies because they rarely seem fussy. It's mainly that they are very easily distracted by all the new things around them. As long as they don't get overtired, they are great babies to take out in public.

We love Ryan and Alyna so much for their different personalities. Though it might be easier to have just one baby at a time, we couldn't pick either one of them that we wouldn't want to have.

Our Happy Holidays

We had a very merry Christmas and a tiring new year's passing at our house.

Grandma and Grandpa Lee (my parents) drove here from Tennessee to visit for the week. I enjoyed having the help, and they enjoyed having their two newest grandchildren smile and laugh at them.

The twins first Christmas was fun even though they are only 3 months old. They got a couple toys they can play with now, and some that will wait a few months. Books, CDs, clothes, and DVDs were also found under the tree. It was a good time.

Barry surprised me with a Sony e-book reader of my own, so that I'd stop using his. I had been monopolizing his reader for the last month as I plowed through the entire Harry Potter series while I was nursing. It has become a staple electronic device in our household, and is a blessing since there's not a good bookstore in our small town. Plus, we don't have to store the books on a bookshelf when we're done. I just finished reading "Marley and Me" on my e-book reader this week.

I surprised Barry with a heavy duty toolbox for all his many house projects. He already made use of it this week finishing up our 1/2 bath remodel.









The New Year arrived with a small scare... Ryan took a tumble and got a big bump on his head from landing on our hard wood floors. But the doctor checked him out thoroughly, and today he seems fine. Last night, Alyna woke up to eat right at 11:45, so I was nursing my baby at midnight. It's not a bad way to spend it, but I will admit I would rather she had slept another couple hours before waking. I think the fireworks outside might have had something to do with it.

We are looking forward to all the growing that Ryan and Alyna will do this year. They will be walking by next Christmas which will bring new adventures and challenges I'm sure.