Today, today was a very good day. I'm feeling better every day and today I felt almost like my old "exciting mommy" self. Ben took his lunch at home to surprise me, and it was great to have another adult in the house for a bit to remind me that I'm not just a zombie mommy. I can be human in the middle of the day! So after he left, I changed four extremely poopy diapers within about thirty minutes, one entire poopy outfit, fed both babies, played with them for a bit, noticed they were sleepy, put them down for a nap, and proceeded to watch them fall asleep super fast, and super hard. So, human mommy decided to take advantage!!! Instead of going to the pantry and grabbing some food, my pump, a gatorade and tissues...I got up, boiled some water and sterilized binkies, loaded up the dishwasher, ran a load of dishes, ran three loads of laundry (including the crib sheets which I've been needing to do), folded three loads of laundry, re-organized the nursery clothing system, packed up a bunch of clothes the littles don't fit anymore :(, cleaned out the guest bedroom, sanitized the kitchen counters, organized the play area, and cleaned up our bedroom. All the while stopping in to replace binkies every thirty seconds (not really, they napped really well), but mostly to make sure the babies hadn't somehow managed to learn how to roll over and escape from their bouncies/swing in the time I was cleaning.
It felt great. I was sweating by the end, so applauding myself for my double-duty cleaning/burning calories!!! I also stood back and marveled at my clean kitchen and felt good about it being me doing the cleaning instead of Ben :)
I think it makes such a big difference to actually do something during the day. Be it grocery shop, run an errand, go to lunch, window shop, or just clean the house. I needed to take that week of plague-like illness to just veg out in front of the tv...but that's over now, and it feels good to DO something!
I mentioned that today was a very good day...and it's not just because of my productivity in the cleaning area. No, no it got much better than that. Today, Caleb did not scream even once! NOT ONCE! Both babies fell asleep around 8:30, Grace woke up and needed to be held around 9:15. Caleb stayed in his swing. Grace woke up hungry at 10:00 so we fed her and then Caleb started stirring, so we dreamfed him (but he woke up anyway) and put them both in their cribs drowsy at 10:35pm. AND THEY FELL ASLEEP!
Oh my gosh, that was the most incredible night we've had in a long long time.
I think there are a few contributing factors:
1. Caleb did not nap after the 4:45 bottle very much. We laid him in a bouncy where he dozed off for about 30 minutes around 6:00. Then he woke up mad that he lost his binky. We didn't give it back to him right away, I wanted to see if he could fall asleep without it. Well, he couldn't. He did his tired cry for a good 45 minutes on and off, even after I gave him his binky and he dropped it over and over again. Finally, around 7:15 I had had enough, so we got the bottles ready and fed them at 7:30. After that bottle he didn't seem tired, but I knew he had to be so we put him in his swing at 8:15 and he fell asleep around 8:30!
2. We didn't do the usual "get really excited and play" time after the 4:45 bottle. We usually sit around and clap hands, sing, do lots of talking and trying to make them laugh...but tonight, I spent a good 10 minutes just staring at Caleb cuz he was being so cute. He just wanted to stare at me, so I let him. It was adorable. We did try to get Grace to laugh, but she wasn't really having it tonight for some reason. She gave me some good smiles earlier today, though.
3. They napped pretty well again earlier in the day, and I think that helps.
So, there you have it. I can pretty much guarantee that we can't replicate it and even if we did, it would have a different outcome...but I'm taking this wonderful evening as a big fat WIN!
Here they were at around 10:00pm (usually a whole lot of crazy going on during that timeframe)!
Amazing!!
Also, I got my new noise machine in the mail today!
Pretty,huh? I'm getting ready to start trying to transition them to cribs for their naps at some point, and I think this will come in real handy. It's AWESOME by the way, lots of good sounds, a night light, and an ipod doc.
Oh, I do have to mention that my husband is, of course, the most amazing person ever and was super appreciative of my cleaning today...but he couldn't let me get away with being the only rockstar. He did all of the bottle washing tonight even though it was my night. What a great man!
PS- he also made us steak for dinner :)
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