Were-Carter and the Mummy—Sleeping and eating habits

Here we are coming up to week 7 and things are (as everyone said) getting a little easier. We still wake up in the morning groggy and sleep deprived, but we are surviving. For the last few days we’ve even started a “sleep routine” which involves changing and jammy-ing each boy, then swaddling them and laying them down. Our biggest sleep saver so far? --Laying them down drowsy instead of asleep. Boy I wish we would have figured that out sooner!! (Or at least read up on the subject, since every article on baby sleeping says to do that…DUH!)

Anyway, that method seems to work quite well. We have been using the little Fisher Price jungle light thingy when they are wide awake, and they love to look at that. They cry when the little timer turns it off…we usually give them a few cycles of it if they are really awake. Carter seems to like it more than Logan…sometimes Logan finds the corner of the crib (away from the light show) much more interesting. Who knows what he’s looking at, but at least he’s quiet while looking at it!

Both boys do pretty well being swaddled, though if they’re wide awake they do fuss a bit and need a little rocking and calming. Once Logan is settled, he usually sleeps without moving at all. When you unwrap him to wake him up, his arms and legs are straight as a little mummy’s, and sometimes he’ll even keep this position all the way to the changing table…It’s adorable!

As for feeding, the boys are still using the nipple shields (pain in the butt by the way) but Logan is starting to nurse for a little while without. Carter will latch on without it, but he’s not quite figured out that if he sucks, milk will come out. He gets very frustrated and aggressive when he’s hungry, growling and grunting and turning his head side to side really fast. He often fails to notice at first that the nipple is right in front of him. He’ll flail his little arms in front of his face as well. Evan calls him “Were-Carter” (since there is no wolf in him, we can’t call him a werewolf). He will actually chew on daddy’s shirt or the burp rag (or anything else in front of him) if we don’t get him to the nipple fast enough. Logan does it sometimes, but he doesn’t get nearly as growl-ly. Logan mostly just wails as loud as he can. And don’t be deceived by his size – that boy has a set of lungs. He beats his brother in decibels by far.

The doctor said that we should limit their nursing time to 30 minutes for Carter and 40 for Logan (since he likes to take his time and he's still pretty skinny). I was nursing them for an hour, and that takes up some time! I still give Logan a little more time if he's still sucking, but he's usually done at about the right time anyway. I just don't try for another 10 minutes to get him to drink another mL if he's been on for 40 minutes now. It's hard to cut Carter off when he's still willing to get back on the breast, but I happen to know (thanks to the lactation consultant and a great scale) that Carter gets a lot in the first 20 minutes and like to fake like he's drinking - sucking without actually consuming anything - for the rest of the time. I keep expecting them to wake up 45 minutes after they eat sceaming hungry, but so far that hasn't happened.

I think that they're doing well gaining weight, but we really haven't been to the dr. since last Monday. They were gaining more than an ounce a day on average, though, so they should be good. Also, the preemie clothes that were baggy on Logan at first are now too small, and he's not swimming in the newborns either. I take that as a good sign.