Nim is what we call the pacifier. I don't know why, I think my brother made it up when we were kids. I also call Andes candies "childworlds". I have many issues.
The secret of nim is that is just doesn't taste as good as thumb. Perhaps a better title for the post is "The Great Thumb War" as I now spend all my free time (hahahah!) pulling little thumbs out of mouths and sticking in nims. I feel like sisyphus but i'm pushing two boulders. Life is grand.
I think that I might be winning the nap wars, however. I decided that I wouldn't want to take a nap if my pants were wet, so today I tried changing them about a half hour before I wanted the nap to start (or thought it should. I am the nap nazi apparently) and then put them in the crib to watch the mobile. The crazy shapes mobile plays for 15-20 minutes and both times they fell asleep for a solid hour. This made me do the dance of joy. and then I fell asleep. well, I feel asleep for 10 minutes during the afternoon nap until the phone rang and Petey realized I was napping on the bed. Then he came over and yawned big fish breath yawns in my face and proceded to lick the skin off my inner wrist. So, yeah, no more napping for me.
And you may be wondering how it is that I am posting at 9pm. Have I run away? Am I hiding inthe basement? No, I am sitting on the couch and I'm home alone. well, I'm never alone. I have twins and a mental cat. But H is still out at his company holiday bash and I got the girls bathed, fed and in bed by 8:15. And they went right to sleep. Chloe fell asleep while I nursed Zoe and then she fell asleep on the boob. I stuffed them both in sleep sacks and snuck out of the room.
We are still swaddling them, which I now is probably weird, but they like it and have a hard time falling asleep if their arms aren't in. This could be due to the fact that they like to sleep like sardines and flailing arms could lead to a rousing round of "Slap your Sister"
We went for our 6 month check up yesterday and of course, here are my questions that I was too dumb to ask the doctor. Not that I would trust his answer. What with my high view of the medical establishment...
1. Which is more evil; thumb sucking or pacifyer?
2. Is it ok that they only gained 2 lbs but grew 3 inches in the past 2 months? Did I unwitingly give birth to giraffes?
3. How much should I be feeding them? They are nursing 5-6 times a day and eating ~2T of rice cereal and a serving or two of bananas a day.
4. I realize that they were premies, but they really haven't rolled over with any consistancy. I know they can roll from front to back and from side to side, I've seen them do it. They just don't care to do it regularly. Should I make them roll more?
5. Why am I mental? Have I been hanging with Petey too much?
Any thoughts would be appreciated. And anyone who reads this before 2pm tomorrow, send some good vibes to Susan who is going to have a baby at the above mentioned time. (Should I ever be foolish enough to have more children, I am absolutely planning my c-section. What a wonderful thing to not have to listen to crashing heart rates while an anesthesiologist takes his sweet time numbing your nether parts) Based on her persistant heartburn and her last u/s that estimated a good solid 10lb of baby, we are all excited to meet the tiny sasquatch! Plus I'm sure she'd be thrilled to know I just blogged her, but she'll be incommunicado and quite sleep deprived very shortly, so I think I'm safe. :)
4 comments:
Congrats on the nap front, that sounds great!
I have a friend who swaddled until like 8 months. I think whatever works, you do. Mine started sleeping better unswaddled when we switched to stomach sleeping. they're so much less flailly that way. With Dr's permission, we did that before 12 months, though I can't remember exactly when.
And my answers, for what they're worth:
1. I've heard both. Advantage of pacifier, you can take it away. Advantage of thumb, they can do it themselves, no reinserting. If they love their thumbs, I'd say, go for it.
2. Growth comes in spurts. More important that they stay in a similar place on the charts each visit than worrying about exact gains.
3. If they eat when they're hungry, are sleeping well, and are growing, it's probably good. Plus now you can start to introduce more varied tastes for solids if you want.
4. Mine were late rollers, crawlers, now walkers. I say, if they stay in one place, so much the better! Eventually you'll be chasing them everywhere and wishing they stayed put. Enjoy it while you can. How do you make a baby roll, anyway? We actually used to sing "ten in the bed" and roll them around, maybe that's what you mean.
5. You're the mother of twin infants. Enough said.
It seems like you're doing great. From my perspective, months 6 to 12 were so much more fun, and went so much faster, than 0 to 6. Hope you'll agree!
I woudn't let mine have a paci until breastfeeding was established by which point they couldn't care. Once she could find her thumb, however, F was all over it. I didn't worry about it because I am lazy and am thus in favor of self-soothing. I think (and the pediatrician agreed) that her thumb sucking helped her sleep through the night before her brother because she would suck herself back to sleep if she got up rather than yell for me.
I was about to say she isn't thumb sucking as much but I looked over and she has her thumb in her mouth. She'll stop when she's ready. Every kid seems to need braces these days anyway.
They are pretty much in the same track on the growth charts, but they had been gaining centiles, so maybe they are just leveling off to their own curve.
As for the thumb sucking, I agree that everyone needs braces now anyway. H and I both had orthodontic work, so they were screwed either way :)
Oh, and the "making them roll" is exactly what you said, eva. I pick up their feet and say "roolll the baby over" and roll them to the side. It's the source of much hilarity. They find odd things funny. Sometimes they find the wall funny.
That was an entertaining post. Made me laugh.
I don't think there is any reason to stop swaddling if they enjoy it.
My kids are binky kids! Neither have found their thumbs at all which I'm surprised by.
We went to their 9 month checkup last week and MIL came with me. Doc asked when I planned on weaning the pacifier. I had this look of horor on my face and I said "I hadn't thought about it!" Then I asked when she thought I should and she said 18 months. Now MIL has already told Chris that the kids need to get off the pacifiers. I said, "yeah, NINE MONTHS from now!" UGH!
and for some reason she asks me EVERY DAY if they had cereal that day. I don't know what her obsession with cereal is but it's driving me crazy!!
Sounds like we have the same cat! Girl Kitty is crazy AND literally doesn't stop meowing. It wouldn't bother me but Chris HATES her :-( so i'm constantly yelling at her to get her to stop before he gets pissed off.
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