Operation Bedtime - Night 2

Apparently, I declared success a little prematurely last night.

At 1:00 am, Kendall woke up crying.   She said she had poo poo but there was nothing there.  I changed her Pull Up anyway and put her back in bed.

She woke up again at 2:45 am.  This time she said her ear hurt and she was putting her finger in her right ear.  I brought her downstairs and tried to get her settled back down.  She had a runny nose last week and she NEVER complains about her ears.   Actually, she hardly ever wakes up at night at all.

She seemed a little congested so I gave her some Children's Claritin (ok'd by my pediatrician) and some Tylenol.  I finally got her settled back in bed at 4:00 am. 

I kept her home today but she seemed fine all day.  No fever and when I asked, she said her ear felt better.  And, let's face it.  We were both exhausted from being up all night.

Alright, now for tonight's bedtime saga.

We started baths a little later tonight (7:45 pm) and followed the same routine as last night, tucking the kids in at 8:15 pm.

I decided it was Daddy's turn to watch the monitor tonight so I'm sitting downstairs in the family room, directly beneath the kids' room.

It's now 8:33 pm and I hear laughing, drawers slamming and possibly some jumping on the bed(s).  I have not heard Daddy get up to go in their room at all.

We clearly have different styles when it comes to bedtime and our tolerance levels.  I'm sitting down here literally biting my tongue.

8:38 pm - things seem like they are quieting down up there.  I can still hear them talking but the rambunctious behavior seems to be settling down.

8:44 pm - it sounds pretty darn quiet up there.  It might be time to make my move upstairs to check the monitor get ready for bed.

Here's to hoping that we all get 8 consecutive hours of sleep tonight!

Operation Bedtime - Night 1

It's Night One of the new bedtime routine.   Here's how things went down via my view on the baby monitor:

6:00 -6:30 pm         
Finish up dinner
6:30 - 7:00 pm       
Kids watched Barney video
7:00 - 7:15 pm       
Baths
7:15 - 7:30 pm       
PJs and bedtime books in their room
7:30 pm               
Tucked kids in and said good night
7:35 pm               
Chris started crying that he wanted his baby
7:40 pm                 
Chris took off his PJ bottoms
7:41 pm                
Chris put the PJ bottoms on head
7:41 pm                
Kendall is standing on her head in her bed
7:45 pm               
I went in and tucked them both back in again.  No words, just said "Good night" again.
7:55 pm                
The kids are having a conversation about something
7:56 pm                 
Chris comes to the door and announces he has "poo poo"
7:57 pm                
Sent Chris downstairs to Daddy to get his Pull Up changed (he really did have poo poo)
8:00 pm                
Put both kids back in bed, tucked them in and said, "Good night"  (again).
8:01 pm                
Chris is standing at the door crying that his blanket fell off.  "Moooooomy.  Ut ohhhhhh".
8:03 pm                
Kendall is crawling around on the floor beside her bed.  Nope wait, she just got back in bed.
8:05 pm                
Chris is still standing at the door saying, "Mommy.  Ut ohhhhhhh.   My binket"
8:06 pm                
I walk him back to bed, place the blanket on him and walk out without saying anything.
8:14 pm
It's quiet but I still see a little movement
8:23 pm
It's still quiet and the kids are both still.   Oops, nope.  Wait.  Chris just sat up in bed.  What the heck is he doing?  He's staring at the wall.  Now, he's hugging his bear.   And, down he goes.  Laying back down again.
8:32 pm
Still quiet and it looks like Kendall is asleep and Chris is close. 


One hour from start to finish.   Success?!

We'll give it a whirl tomorrow night and see if we can improve our time!

Is it time?

From the time the twins were born, they were separated. 

In the NICU, they were in seperate bassinets for 3 weeks until they came home for the first time.
At 6 weeks old, Kendall got meningitis and was in the hospital for 2 weeks and Christopher was at home. 
At 9 weeks old, she went back in the hospital with a blood infection (same bacteria as meningitis) for 3 weeks and Christopher was at home.

I always wondered if being seperated from each other affected their bonding and I always felt horrible that they were apart so many times. 

They have always shared a room and I remember telling myself that I wanted to keep them together as long as I could.

We might be close.

For the last 2-3 months, bedtime has been a struggle.  Our routine at night has pretty much stayed the same.

Home from school/work (5:30 pm)
Start dinner (6:00 pm)
Baths (7:00 pm)
Education TV (7:30-8:00)
Bedtime books
Brush teeth
Head up to bed (8:00-8:30)

Once we get upstairs, it's like they get a second wind and they start playing, laughing, running around.   It has been taking an hour to get them down.  At that point, it's 9:00 (or later) which is WAY too late for them.

And, that's not even including the time it takes away from my evening to spend time with my husband, clean up the dinner dishes, relax, etc.  because I'm constantly going back upstairs or into their room to get them settled down and back in bed.

I've tried playing with the time for taking them upstairs.  We've let them stay up until 9:00 before taking them up to bed, thinking they'd be tired and would just fall into bed.

Nope.  Completely backfired.   It didn't take an hour for them to fall to sleep but it was still after 9:30 pm.

I did some on-line research last night and I think I'm going to try it.  After their baths, it said not to bring them back downstairs to the main family area (where the TV and toys are).  Instead, take them right into their room, dim the lights and do the bedtime book in their room.   From there, they get right into bed. 

It also recommended keeping a log of when they fall to sleep.  In my case, it would be somewhere around 9:00 - 9:15.   Start the bedtime routine 45 minutes earlier.  It said the entire bedtime "routine" should last no more than 20 minutes.  After one week, back up the schedule 15 minutes and keep doing that every week until their bedtime is 7:30-8:00.   It also recommended taking away or limiting their afternoon nap.  For us, that's just not an option because the daycare is required to let them nap.  They do take pretty good naps (usually 2 hours).

If none of that works, I think we're at the point of putting them in seperate rooms.  I know we're probably another year or so away from that anyway but I always wanted it to be their decision for when they were ready. 

Is anyone else having this issue?  What worked?   Are your twins or siblings still sharing a room?

Sleep Myo.... What?!

So, yesterday we had a bit of a scare with Kendall.   I got a call from the daycare around 2:00 saying she had an "incident" while she was sleeping during her nap. 

The teacher was in the room and noticed Kendall twitching slightly.  After a few minutes, she said it turned into a full body shake.  She immediately got up and saw that Kendall's eyes were open but rolled back.  They thought she might have had a seizure.  The whole episode lasted about 10 seconds.  

The teacher tried to get the Assistant Principal to come in but by the time she got to the room, Kendall had stopped.  Kendall never woke up and was still sleeping soundly.  They did check her temperature to make sure it wasn't a febrile seizure.   No fever.

I started to ask 10 million questions.

Did she appear to be having a dream or night terror?
Did her breathing remain normal?
Did she start drooling?
Did she appear to bite her tongue?
Did anything unusual happen in the morning?

Thank goodness we switched daycares because I just happened to be working from home yesterday and I got there within 10 minutes of the call.  I asked them to wake her up and to have her in the front lobby area so Christopher wouldn't see me if I walked into the classroom to get her.

When I arrived, they had her sitting in the office.  The teacher said she didn't have a problem waking Kendall.  

I was still really unsure about what to think.  Kendall has NEVER had a seizure.  The teacher was the only one to see it and she's only been their teacher since they started 3 weeks ago.   And, because she was sleeping, I was tempted to think it was just some sort of dream or involuntary movement.   The teacher told me it was just very unusual because both of my kids sleep like rocks and never move during their naps. 

I had some limited knowledge of seizures through my co-worker.  Her son has autism and has had 2 grand mal seizures in the last year.   She has talked to me about his doctor's visits and conversations with the neurologist.  I knew seizures by themselves are not usually dangerous.  It's the falling from the seizure that is dangerous.  I also knew that doctors are relatively nonchalent about seizures in general.  I believe her neurologist said that everyone is prone to them and it's just the brain's way of setting the reset button.  Doctors usually don't get concerned unless a 2nd seizure occurs.

I brought Kendall home and tried to find some information on-line.  Everything that I found referenced seizures while the person is awake.  Of course, epilepsy immediately popped into my head.  But, the description from the teacher just didn't seem to match any thing.

The one thing sticking in my mind was the meningitis when she was 6 weeks old.  All of the doctors told me they thought we stayed ahead of the infection and that she shouldn't have any brain damage but we wouldn't know until after she turns 2.  The immediate issues were hearing loss and developmental learning disabilities.  She had 3 hearing tests done and all came back fine.  And, she certainly doesn't seem to have any developmental issues.  If anything, I think she's probably a little ahead. 

But, still.  She had a really, really bad infection and we almost lost her.

I decided to call my pediatrician to ask their advice and to get their opinion on whether it sounded like a seizure or something else.  The nurse said she would give the doctor the message and have him call me as soon as he got the chance.

In the meantime, I pestered the hell out of Kendall.

Do you feel yucky?
Does your head hurt?

Everytime she moved, I watched her.   Is she just shaking her foot or is something happening again?

The doctor called me back about an hour later and I retold the teacher's description of what happened.  Right after I finished, he immediately said, "It sounds exactly like Sleep Myoclonus".

Huh?!

He said it's common in small chidren because their nervous systems are still underdeveloped and that she should outgrow it after 5 years of age.  He said it typically happens when the child is either entering or leaving REM sleep.  He was not concerned at all.

He did say to keep an eye on her and if the frequency increases while she is sleeping or if something happens while she is awake that I should bring her in for evaluation.  He also said it can be a pre-cursor to epilepsy but he didn't seem to think it was.

BIG sigh of relief!

I'm still a little uneasy because I didn't see it happen so I just don't know what it was.  I sat beside her bed for 45 minutes last night and just watched her. 

Today, she seemed fine.  A little cranky but she also has a runny nose.

At least things are never boring, right?!

Summer Kick-Off Party

We've had a good start to the summer so far. 

Memorial Day weekend, we had a block party to kick things off.

LOVE my neighbors!

Testing the water

My niece on the Slip 'n Slide. 

Yum!  Watermelon!

It's a little cold, Mommy!

Last weekend, we had a "Power Washing" party (thanks to our Homeowners' Association).  One of my neighbors knew someone that had a commercial-grade washer so we all took turns using it.  The guys picked it up at 9:00 am and shortly afterwards, my neighbor knocked on my door with a mimosa. 

We set up the tailgating tent and had an impromptu block party again.  We spent ALL DAY outside.

Summer Lovin'

Stealing a kiss

LOVE this special guy!

My sweet Kendall

This is my favorite!  I'm going to have this one framed!

Nudist Camp

Last Saturday, as the sun was barely above the trees, I woke up drowsily and thought I might have heard one of the kids awake.

I laid there, secretly hoping it was a dream so I could go back to sleep.  I looked at the clock and it read 6:20 am.  UGH.

A few minutes later, I heard laughter coming from down the hall. 

"Damn", I thought.  "They are awake".  

I arrived at the kids' bedroom and slowly cracked open the door.  I could see both kids sitting on the floor between their beds, gigging.

All of the blankets, pillows and stuffed animals were also on the floor and they were sitting on top of them.

Completely naked.

Oh yes.  My darling children have learned how to undress themselves.  Down to their bare little bottoms.

Since then, I have found my son in the buff 3 more times.  He can strip down faster than a greased pig.

So far, it has only occurred within the privacy of our house.  Let's hope he doesn't feel the need for his "freedom" when we're standing in line at the grocery store. 

Toddler Fashion Trend

Who knew?  Apparently Elmo underwear can also function as a do-rag.  I think it will be all the rave this summer.