Lesson 25: Routine and proper naps is SOOO important for little ones.
I'm starting to see this more and more for our little ones! Oh my goodness. We had to forego a large part of our routine and some good naps today for the all-important photo shoot (c'mon, mama needs a professional every now and then!). I'm really glad we got some pro-pics of the babies at this stage, but man oh man did we pay for it.
When I say that, I do have to preface by saying that today wasn't NEARLY as bad as the colic meltdowns of the months past. I'm thinking Mr. Caleb is really on the better end of that (gut-wrenching) phase, thank the Lord.
The babies slept until 6:15 this morning which was glorious, but it made for an awkward switch in the routine from our usual 5am wake-up call (not that I minded that, it just wasn't a good day for it). So I have been working on getting them up by 8:30 or so when they wake up at 5, but they didn't actually get back to sleep until around 7:15 and they weren't too keen on eating again until 9:30. So we fed them then, but had we had to be at the photo shoot by 12:30. Can't very well feed them at 12:30, so I tried super hard to get them down for their nap a little early so we could feed them at 11:45 instead. Of course, trying to get them down before they were tired (usually it's about an hour or an hour and 15 minutes after they wake up) was torture. And it backfired. They actually hardly slept at all. Caleb was angry at being in his crib too awake and Grace couldn't sleep through his sqwaking. So we fed Grace at 11:40 but Caleb fell asleep finally at 11:30 and I wanted him to get a little rest. So I fed him at 12:00 and then tried to rush out the door. He didn't fully finish his bottle, which never makes him happy, and I had to wake him from his nap which is just the double-whammy from hell.
He was fussing in his car seat on the way there but perked up when we got to the fun new place. Lots of things to see! Yay! ...15 minutes later and it wasn't fun anymore for little dude. Too much stimulation trying to get him to smile (which neither of them did, of course) and we had a meltdown at the studio. Grace only fussed a bit but Caleb wasn't having it.
It was a short shoot anyway (it was a free 30 min session, we just have to pay for whatever shots we want) so we got them into their carseats and they fell asleep by about 1:15. We should have driven around with them for a good hour or more to get them some sleep, but we went home and they promptly woke up. They couldn't fall back asleep, so they only got about 30 minutes tops. Fed them again at 2:45 and then they fell asleep for another way-too-short nap, woke up, and fell back asleep at 5:15. I took a nap and Ben didn't want to wake them up, so Grace slept about 30 minutes and Caleb about 40. He fed them at 6:30 and then they played a bit (we should have put them to bed here, lesson learned) and planned to do a cluster feed (feed them twice in two hours) at 8:30 right before bed. Cue massive meltdown from a very tired Caleb at 7:45.
I tried to start the bedtime routine then but it was too late. He wasn't having any of it and I had to try and calm him down through his screaming for about 30 minutes. Luckily he was able to fall asleep through his foggy anger and I held him for about an hour to let him calm down for real. I dreamfed him around 9:15 and put him in his crib. Thank goodness, he didn't get mad and he's still asleep! But it was touch and go there for a bit.
So as much as I want the little ones to be flexible and able to adjust based on our schedule or plans, it's just not gonna happen. Babies are creatures of habit and they NEED SLEEP in order to function sans meltdowns (at least our babies do). Grace was really just as tired but she doesn't freak out like Caleb does. He just can't handle being overtired or over stimulated. We know that now, so we'll try to help him out.
I don't know what this means for next weekend's plans of taking the babies to a party at night...we'll see how it goes. We'll just have to make sure they're only out in the party for a little bit. :( I wish it was less "dramatic", but I'd rather have happy babies than have fun showing them off.
So here are some pictures RIGHT before meltdown:
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| Look how sleepy. I had a feeling we should have put them to bed earlier even without their last bottle. I need to listen to the mommy instincts! |
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| She just fussed more than usual and wouldn't take her binky- a sure sign she's way.too.tired. |
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