Tender Mercies

Today as I look at my sleeping daughters I am extremely grateful. They fell asleep in their car seats in front of me without crying- just slowly put themselves to sleep. This isn't uncommon for them. They are wonderful babies. Not only are they wonderful babies my wonderful sister in law Heather gave me a book for Christmas called "Ready or Not Here We Come". I read and thought it was insightful and funny. One thing the book stressed was keeping a sense of humor. Another thing it did was talk about schedules and the need to keep multiples on the same schedule. I thought it was a good idea and hoped I would be able to do this... not knowing how to DO it. The day we got home from the hospital (I was feeding them one after another at this point in time) I took note of the time it was taking me to feed them and concluded that it was INSANE to not feed them at the same time. Tandem breastfeeding started at that point in time... only to last 10 days as I did not have enough milk supply. Thankfully I had read in the book all the greatest tips for bottle feeding- ie making enough formula and storing it in the fridge for a full 24 or 48hrs etc. The book saved the day yet again because I had knowledge to lean on.

Another great thing this book did was have a list of great books on sleep patterns, preparing your own baby food and other such things. I went to the local library and got some books that Ready or Not suggested. Reading these books set me out to help teach my girls how to self soothe- not become dependant on me, a swing, a bouncy seat etc in order to fall asleep. It also encouraged paying attention to them when they aren't crying to teach them they don't need to cry to get your attention... both of these things were taught in order that you can establish a routine and get them sleeping through the night by 3 months! A bold promise the book makes... we will just have to wait and see (the lady who wrote the book does sleep training and scheduling with twins and triplets and singletons all over the USA, has been doing it for 10 years with sucess AND had twins herself... I must say I have high hopes).
All in all I am grateful for wonderful people, those who write good books and those who give thoughtful gifts. Knowledge and others insights are an invaluable gift. Thanks Heather!

Abigail and Isabelle always eat together, if one is sleeping we wake the other up- and whoever is woken is always very gracious and eats no problem. Thursday and Friday night the girls went 7 hrs between feeds, Saturday night 8hrs between feeds- of course I would have fed them if one of them woke!
I took these pictures today of them as they were falling asleep. I think they are adorable (okay I took 36 photos but who needs to see all of them!)

She smiled for a photo!!

Can you tell the difference? I think they look so sweet in these photos.