Adventures in Sleeplessness

Yes, I have been MIA–for a long time. I apologize. I get behind and it suddenly becomes an overwhelming task to post a blog because I feel like there is SO much that has happened. I could never possibly catch up and relay it all. So instead, I just shy away from it. Needless to say, the family is not happy about this.

My bad.

Really these kids keep me hopping, too. Strangers say this to me all the time–and it kind of annoys me… but, yes.. I do “have my hands full.”

I’ll just give you a quick synopsis.

Lidia:

The girl is doing really well. When she first started going to preschool (she goes 2 afternoons per week), we would ask her if she had fun and, though she seemed like she was having fun on observation, she would put on this dramatic flair, proclaiming that she did NOT have fun. (Insert 4 year old eye roll here.) Now, however, after a few months, she loves it and cannot wait to go. She speaks of her friends constantly and incorporates them into her pretend play even though they aren’t here.

Suddenly she is blooming! I know she is learning a couple things here and there at school, but they are mostly play based. Even without our trying, she is learning to write a ton of letters, her name, she’s drawing very coherent pictures now. Her people drawings are adoreable, to say the least.

Gavin:

My little Peanut Butter is

running EVERYwhere. He discovered how to climb onto the kitchen table almost before he could walk and has been doing it ever since. It has lost some of its thrill now (thankfully) but I still have to remove him a few times a day. He still has just a handful of words, but he does a great job communicating with body language. He nods yes if he sees something he wants, points etc. He will bring things to me when he needs help and goes to the fridge and to me and back to the fridge when he’s trying to tell me he is hungry or thirsty. Over all, he is doing fabulously!

Liam:

My Jelly is as sweet as ever. He is a super affectionate kid and is always good for a tight, cheek-to-cheek squeeze. I LOVE it! He pretty much started walking right before Gavin and, though he’s still a little less steady than Gavin, he keeps up just fine. He only has a couple words, but also communicates well with his body. He nods appropriately, signs more and all done. He gets his point across and we haven’t really had too much issue figuring out what he wants. He is doing great, too.

Family:

Over all we have been happy and healthy. We’ve only been sick twice. Thanksgiving was a HORRIBLE stomach virus that started with the boys and trickled its way through the whole family. Liam and Gavin, then me, then Adam, then Lidia. Not fun. That was the first time the boys had ever been sick. Also really the first time Lidia had been sick since we’ve had her home. Yes, last Thanksgiving was not one to be remembered.

About 3 weeks ago, Adam came down with a yucky cold virus–stuff, cough, lingered for a week etc. Well, Lidia ended up getting it less than a week later. Next Gavin fell and then Liam. Lidia was pretty sick, I felt so bad for her. It’s the first time she’s had a REAL cold virus. She was just miserable. Gavin and Liam were pathetic, too. I have never seen 2 such miserable babies. They got all of it and then fever on top. Then Liam started croup coughing really bad. We ended up taking the boys in to the doc where she decided he was bad enough to give him a steroid shot for it. He breathed so much better that night. What a relief. She looked in their ears and they were clear. It was a cold virus, as I knew. The next day it seemed they were getting better, but then the day after that they started fevering again. The 3rd day after the doctor visit their fevers spiked back up to 104, almost 105. So, we packed them back up and off to the doctor again. This time, it had settled in their ears. Gavin had double ear infection, one of which was about to “rupture”. Liam had one, and a fluid filled ear that would have probably ended up in the same state. SO. A round of antibiotics later, we are FINALLY started to act half normal again, and I am sleeping again. Was a rough 2 weeks!

To boot, Adam was sent to the Philippines again. He has been gone for about a week now. One of my sisters came and stayed with us for the first week, which was nice!! We enjoyed her visit and it made some things a lot easier (like getting the girl to school). This week we are on our own, however. We’re not doing too bad–but we are ready for Daddy to come back home. I’ve had to get creative to shovel, shower and get the girl to swim lessons and school. But we are managing, so it’s all good. He’ll be back Saturday.

I know I’ve been slacking on pictures, too. I will get some up this week. I’m having issues with finding batteries at the moment, so haven’t been taking enough. The rechargeables aren’t holding a charge anymore and I don’t have any others at the moment. I promise, soon there will be pictures!!

Anyway, as I have 2 small people crying at my feet, I will have to wrap this up for now. I will try not to slack anymore!!!

Just thought I’d throw out a quick note about what the guys are doing these days–you know, all their cute little tricks.

Gavin is:

-standing and cruising on furniture
-walking behind the little push toys
-clapping his hands (MIGHT be saying yay, not sure yet)
-saying: all done, more-more, Uh oh and boo (complete with hiding and peeking motions)
-still has 2 teeth, but seems another is thinking about joining the party soon
-signs: more (sometimes) and all done
-standing up without holding on to things (no real steps yet, but he’s thinking about it)
-drinking out of straw and sippy cups just fine
-feeding himself exclusively (well except yogurt and applesauce–Mom’s not ready for that morning mess)
-sleeps through the night ONCE in a while (only nights that his brother is up a lot)

Liam is:
-standing and cruising on furniture
-walking behind push toys
-clapping his hands
-saying: uh oh (and maybe boo, not sure if it was him or brother)
-still has 6 teeth, no signs of more yet
-signs: more
-drinking out of straw and sippy cups without issue
-stands up without holding on–will even tip his cup back and drink, while standing there. No steps yet.
-feeding self completely (see yogurt and applesauce rule above)
-sleeping through the night ONCE in a while (only on nights his brother is up a lot–I sense a conspiracy here)

Not long and my babies will be toddlers… crazy…

We now begin a new category… Things I never wanted to hear my preschooler say:

“I got the beer, Mom!”

A Belly Lament
by Me

On my post-twin body, I’ll be blunt.
It’s my belly that suffered the brunt
For it stretched out so wide with 2 babies inside
now it looks like a butt on the front.

Feel free to join in my limerick game– let me know if you write one, so I don’t miss it :D

This weekend we journeyed to the pumpkin patch for a little fall fun. The Grents went with us, as did 3/4’s of the Tanck family. A great time was had by all–so much that Lidia just couldn’t handle it anymore. By the time we got home, Lidia was a total mess. This year we went to Schuster’s Playtime Farm, different than the place we had gone to the previous 2 years. They had this little barnyard area with some animals, a fort, some little sheds turned into themed play houses, slides, tires to climb on, a giant roller slide… Plenty or things to wear out the mini-people. They even have a little animal “train” (the engine looked a bit like an ATV ;) ) the kids could take a spin on. Of course, there was the traditional hayride to the pumpkin patch and the picking of the pumpkins. I genuinely enjoyed myself and I think everyone else did, too.

I’ll post a few pictures to be enjoyed here, but the rest can be found in the gallery.

I finally got our vacation pictures up! They can be found in the gallery. Enjoy!

I had wondered earlier in the week if he were saying it and today my suspicions were confirmed. As Gavin finished his lunch this afternoon, I looked at him and said “Are you all done?” (while also signing all done). He looks back at me and says, clear as day, “All done.”

Way to go, Peanut Butter!

Fair warning–this will be a whine/rant/complainy post.

Here is a snapshot of my night.

7:30pm– The boys start getting cranky and rubbing their eyes. Looks like time for bed. They’re wanting to nurse, so we did that and once they were done, I put them down for bed. This was about 7:45. Both boys disliked this option and began screaming. Meanwhile, I’m trying to get Lidia to brush her teeth so she can go to bed, too.

7:45-8:00– I wear a path in the carpet going back and forth. Lay Liam down, say goodnight again. Lay Gavin down, say goodnight again. Back out to the bathroom to see that Lidia is doing what she’s supposed to be doing to get ready for bed.

8:00–Get Lidia in bed.

8:15–Finally it’s quiet.

I did some cleaning and such, but then my sister called and so I spent some time talking to her.

at 10pm I decide I better bathe tonight, since I’m sure I won’t be allowed to do so int he AM (good call). Called Adam to say goodnight and I was asleep by 11pm. Not too terrible.

12:30am- Lidia starts crying. This is odd, as she doesn’t wake up very often. I went to check on her and she had quieted by the time I got to her room. I asked her if she was okay and she said yes. She didn’t seem to need anything, so back to bed I went. Took me a long time to fall back to sleep.

1:30am- Liam wakes up. At this point I was thinking I just want him to go back to sleep. Decided to nurse him. Before I was even done nursing him, Gavin woke up. Put Liam to bed, grabbed Gavin to nurse him. He starts messing around and not really nursing anymore (falling asleep?) so I put him back in bed. This was just after 2am.
About 10 minutes later (just as I was dozing off again, of course) Gavin is back up again, screaming. Over the next 2 hours, I was in and out of their room, trying to settle Gavin back down. I am not sure what his problem was. I gave him ibuprofen, I held him for a little bit (and he’d cry the nanosecond I made a move to put him down). Nothing was working.

Finally at 4am, I decided to try nursing him again. At this point he was agitated and cranky and, while he was wanting to nurse, he wasn’t wanting to do it right. He bit me 3 times. OUCH. Finally, he settled in and nursed again and I was able to put him down when he was done.

At around 4:30, I climb back into bed. At this point I’m so riled up I am having a hard time falling back asleep. I finally started dozing when, at 5:15am, Liam was back up. I tried to put him back down twice, but he was having none of that, so in my delirium I just decided to nurse him again. I put him back to bed around 5:30. Took me a while, again, to go back to sleep. Last I looked at the clock, it was 6:30am. At 7am, Liam was up again. He woke up Gavin. Guess I’m getting up now.

I’m so exhausted and the worst thing is, there isn’t a thing I can do about it.

*sigh*

So, yah, I feel like crud and Adam is off getting actual sleep in California. Bah.

So soon after returning from vacation, we took a ride to the local airport yesterday and dropped the hubby off. Work has called him to California, much to my dislike. Though things probably won’t be as difficult as they were while he was in the Philippines back in May, single parenting infants and a preschooler and keeping the house somewhat livable is no walk in the park. I’m already exhausted. Well, the problem really is that I started out in the exhausted state. The night that both our of boys actually sleeps all the way through… Well, let’s just say you’ll know. I’ll be bouncing off the walls because my body is not accustomed to such extravagant amounts of rest!

Since returning from vacation, I have seen a lot of Liam–in the middle of the night. On most nights, he goes through these 2 hour bouts of up and down. He’ll calm for a few minutes, and just as I start to doze, he’s up again. Gavin, on average, is up once a night, usually around 3:30am, wanting to nurse. At this point, I’ve been letting him, more because he won’t settle back down otherwise. Soon we may have to be a bit more insistent that he goes back to sleep without it.

At any rate, last night wasn’t *too* bad. Lids had swim lessons, so I put one boy in a sling and the other in the umbrella stroller and we managed it alright. They were just a big cranky as we didn’t get home until bedtime and the screaming began as soon as we got into the house. I was smart and put the boys in their jammies before swim lessons, so I just had to change diapers, put Lidia to bed and nurse and lay down the boys. Of course there was some screaming, but finally by 8:45 everyone was sleeping. Gavin woke once not long after I put him down to sleep, screaming as though he was in pain. He did not seem completely coherent, though. He wouldn’t even take the plug at first. Eventually, after I held and bounced him for a few minutes, he took it and sighed, then opened his eyes a teensy bit for the first time since I’d been in there. He went back to sleep, then, until his usual 3:30am (Hey, it’s better than the 11:30am we used to be able to set our watches by). Liam, then, was up at around 4, then back up at 6:30 at which point I groggily brought him into bed with me, where he finally fell asleep just in time for his brother to wake up at 7am. Bah. Oh well. (Did I mention, I am not a morning person??)

So today was Lidia’s day to bring snack for preschool. No problem, we planned ahead and I had something ready. Only, I forgot to purchase the beverage to go with it. Okay, well, we’ll be adventurous and run to the store on the way to preschool, I thought. We arrived at the store. I got all the kids out. I realized I forgot the diaper bag. Not the end of the world, except my wallet was in it. GRR.

Load everyone back in. Head back home. Get the diaper bag. Back to the store. Unload everyone. Run in, grab said beverage. Pay. Load everyone back in. To preschool. (By this time, we are already 10 minutes late). Finally, we deliver the girl to school. Not the worst morning we could have had, but a pain in my butt, none the less.

Got home and put the boys down for a nap, except now I’m going to have to wake them up as it’s almost time to go get their sister. (Did I mention the myriad of construction that is blocking the route from her to preschool? I have to take quite the creative route that adds a good 5 or 10 minutes to the trip)

Oh well.

Adam will be back Saturday night. Hopefully I can stay on top of everything.

In the past 3 or 4 years, we have neglected to go on any big vacations. We have 3 wonderful little reasons to blame for this. The first year, we spent all of our vacation time (and money) on 2 trips to the Far East - our mission to bring home our Russian Princess. While this was a unique and once (twice?) in a lifetime opportunity (with a fabulous reward at the end), it wasn’t exactly vacation. This little excursion also ate into 2 weeks of the following year’s vacation time. Then, the year after that—well, let’s just say I didn’t feel like going anywhere with a belly full of squirmy boys.

This year, however, we conspired with the Wisconsin Grents and came up with the plan to spend a week in the Orlando area. Papa found a good deal on some time shares which made the whole thing much more affordable and plans were locked in place. While we weren’t too keen on trying such an adventure with just the 5 of us, 2 extra sets of hands would make it all much more enjoyable and relaxing.

Thus, Saturday the 15th of September, we packed the 7 of us and our load of luggage into the van and headed off to the airport. We received a few looks as we marched through the airport with 2 infants, a preschooler and 3 car seats. Boy, they should have seen us before we dropped off our luggage. On that note, Adam and I did manage to keep our luggage down to 2 large suitcases and one small one. That’s decent for 5 people, right? We did have some extra baby stuff that had to come with.

Anyhow, the flight was not bad at all. I really feel that having the kids strapped into their car seats made it much more familiar and comfortable for them. I nursed each of the boys once during the flight, Lidia was well behaved and we had minimal squawking and screaming. At one point, Liam was asleep and we began descending. He did some half asleep fussing on and off for about 5 minutes and then was out again. I have a feeling his ears were paining him, as mine were popping at about that time.

The hardest part came when it was time to un-buckle Lidia’s seat from the plane seat. The buckle was positioned such that it was in the middle of seat with the latch plate up against the back of her seat. I could not get the thing to let me lift it and release the buckle because there wasn’t space to lift it. I looked like a total dope. Even the pilot was like, “How’d you get it in there?” Well, you don’t have to LIFT the buckle release to buckle it, you just put it in. Finally, Adam suggested we try reclining the seat and that gave me enough room to unlatch the thing. I had bruised up/sore hand to show for it, though.

At any rate, we eventually made it here to the resort. Our “room” was essentially a small apartment with plenty of room for our family. Next door we the Grents in a identical (but mirror image) suite. Adam’s aunt joined us on Monday and it proved to be a lovely vacation.

Sunday and Monday we spent getting settled and just doing some pool lounging. Even the boys were digging the swimming. It was pretty hot, so I can’t blame them! We may have another fish on our hands in Gavin. Liam is a bit more timid, especially about water touching his face, but he still enjoyed himself.

Tuesday was spent at Magic Kingdom. Having grown up with Disney, I can’t help but have a special place in my heart for many of their stories and characters. Lidia had a fabulous time. She was in princess heaven and loved all the little rides. Even the boys enjoyed some rides. The Small World ride was like baby eye candy. They were both totally amazed, watching everything and looking everywhere. Occasionally you’d hear an amazed “Ohhh” come out of their mouths. It was quite funny. While the song was crammed into my head for the rest of the day, seeing the looks on their faces made it well worth the ride. For Lidia, I think the biggest highlight was meeting one of her favorite princesses.

Wednesday was to be spent at a water park, however, it rained for most of that day, therefore we chose not to go. Instead we bummed around the apartment for the day and went to Arabian Nights for dinner. My review on that? The food was alright–edible, but nothing fantastic. The show was a bit cheesy at times, however I still enjoyed myself and it kept me entertained. Lidia, however, had a blast! Watching how excited she was made my night. Every time there was a break in the store she would shout excitedly “What’s gonna happen next, Mama??” It was quite cute. So was so into it that she showed not the least bit of sleepiness during the show, even though we had the girl out a good 2 hours past her usual bed time. Gavin fell asleep early in the show, Liam stayed awake for most of it. He, too, seemed quite interested in watching. Over all, a good time was had by all and it was worth the trip (especially as we had discounted tickets into the show).

Thursday was another day at Magic Kingdom. We chose to do 1 park in 2 days, so as not to feel rushed or overwhelmed and I must say that turned out to be a great decision. We were able to see everything we wanted to see, and it didn’t even matter that we had to leave a tiny bit early due to a storm on Thursday. Lidia was even able to go on Splash Mountain, which my little thrill seeker loved. I would have taken her on it again had the line not been so long. I think we are going to have a roller coaster girl in her.

Friday we went to Typhoon Lagoon, one of Disney’s water parks. It was a nice, hot day for it. Lidia thoroughly enjoyed the kiddie area and even the boys did some splashing before they passed out for their afternoon nap. Adam and I were able to break off for a little while and spend some time together in the wave pool and on a few slides. They had quite the wave pool! This is the first of this type I have encountered. All the sudden there is a loud “BOOM” and a huge wall of water is coming at you. It knocked me back a good 20+ feet and that was even while holding on to Adam’s hand! We had fun, though. It’s been a long time since just he and I played together. Eventually we went back for Lidia and took her with us on one of those family raft slides. It was a pretty tame slide that 3 or 4 people could fit in one raft. There were water falls and such that pummel you on the way down. Lidia loved it so much that we took her on it 5 or 6 times. She would have went again if it weren’t almost time for the park to close.

Alas, Saturday came and we did a little bit of souvenir shopping before it was time to head off to the airport. The evening flight was slightly delayed due to a bit of a storm front that arrived in the area, but we eventually settled in for the trip home. Gavin fell asleep before we even boarded the plane. He stayed asleep most of the flight, but woke for a while toward the end. He was fussing a bit, just as our own ears started popping so we assume he was probably having a bit of ear pain. Liam fell asleep after take off and slept until we took him out of the seat after landing. Lidia fell asleep after the much anticipated warm chocolate chip cookie were handed out (supposedly something Midwest is “famous” for now?) I won’t complain, they were yummy cookies. After loading everyone back into the van, and making the drive back to Madison (we had flown out of Milwaukee), we arrived home just before Midnight.

So that’s vacation in a nutshell. We enjoyed ourselves and are glad we went. However, Adam could have done without the cold virus he brought home as a souvenir…and then shared with me. Liam is sleeping horribly again (while Gavin is only getting up once a night, yay!) so the combination of my being up much of the night and the cold is making vacation recovery a bit slow.

Seeing as how we had our hands full of kids or were directly involved in activities much of the time, we came home with very few pictures to show for our vacation. However, we are going to nab the Grents pictures so as soon as I get those, I will be posting some pictures in the gallery.