I was talking to a friend of mine this week who went through infertility treatments (she did IVF, I did IUI) and she said that her and husband sometimes talk about which egg was which baby (they had twins) and it got me thinking about the same thing... I'll explain what I mean...
I know you all know about the ins and outs of baby making so I won't go through all that! What you may not know is that before a woman produces an egg, she produces follicles. These follicles need to be a certain size in order to produce an egg. A woman typically only has one dominant follicle per cycle per ovary and that is the follicle that will produce a viable egg. These follicles need to be at least 18mm to be able to ovulate. When you go through fertility treatments (at least for what we did which is called IUI or intrauterine insemination), you are given a drug to help you ovulate, which means you produce more dominant follicles. In Canada, the fertility treatments are strictly controlled and won't go forward with the insemination if there are three or more mature follicles (18 mm or more) produced. When I went in for my check up after I had the drugs, they told me that I had many follicles (as a woman normally does). I had many small ones which weren't going to produce any eggs and I had a 15mm one, an 18mm one and a 21mm one. They told me that there was a small chance that I may have twins given the two follicles at 18mm and 21mm. For this to happen, both mature follicles had to actually rupture and release a viable egg AND get fertilized. What happened with me was that not only did this happen with the two mature follicles, but the 15mm one decided to grow to 18mm or bigger in only TWO DAYS and do the same. So all three produced a viable egg, ruptured, AND got fertilized! That's what I call crazy!!! Anyways, Gabe and I were talking and we are pretty confident that Jacob was our 15mm one who just said "WAIT FOR ME GUYS!!!!! I'LL GET THERE!!!!!!!!" He's our smallest but our mightiest little guy!! Since Zach was always the biggest and Sam was behind just by a little bit, I just assume that Zach was our biggest follicle and Sam was the medium one. I just thought it would be an interesting story to share :) Sorry for all the technical stuff! I just like to clear things up because some of the people I talk to seem to think that "That's just what happens when you go through fertility treatments" and I get a little upset because our boys are truly miracles!
Anyways... this week...
Our poor little Zachary is still struggling with his supper time bottle. It seems like he just really doesn't want it, but then he acts as if he's super hungry! The moment I put the nipple in his mouth, he screeches! I was at such a loss and I felt so helpless that there was nothing I could do to soothe him. It took sometimes up to one hour just to get him to stop crying. The wonderful nurse who came over on Tuesday reassured me when we talked about it. She said that since he's taking all his other bottles no problem and he sleeps well and he doesn't spit up, she wasn't concerned. It's just his fussy time and he'll get through it in a few weeks. It's probably just a small case of colic. Am I glad that there is only ONE baby with colic! He did a little better by the end of the week. Tonight, he didn't even cry when I tried to feed him! HURRAY!!
I read the book called "12 hours by 12 weeks" written by a self called "baby sleep coach" who says that's she worked with over 100 families with all sorts of babies and her method worked 100% of the time. A lot of her philosophies fall in line with my beliefs so I was happy when I read it that I had finally found a book that spoke to me. The way she coaches families to eliminated middle of the night feedings is exactly the way we did it (which was the way our paediatrician told us to do it). Gabe and I sat down and we set out a plan to start changing their schedules and start sleep training them, naps and all. We decided to start the plan on Thursday night by not waking up the babies for their 10pm feeding. I went to bed at 9, confident that I would wake up again within 2-3 hours to feed the babies. Gabe was going to feed the first one that would wake up and I would feed the other two. He stayed up thinking they would start waking up at around 11. At 10:30, he heard them start to fuss. He thought I was sleeping so he didn't know what he should do (I would have let them fuss as they sometimes soothe themselves back to sleep). He decided to feed Sam and then he came to bed (this took literally like 15 minutes max, go Sam!!). I was awake and wondering why he had decided to feed a baby. I thought he had done it so that he would get it over with and could come to bed... this made me a little upset because we had decided to let them go as far as they could. He told me the next morning that he wasn't clear what was expected of him and he was sorry if he messed up. He didn't mess up, more formula won't kill our kids! I didn't get the other kids up, I just let them go and what do you know, they didn't wake up until 5:30 the next morning! They slept through!!!! I was awake all night always waiting for them to start crying, so I didn't sleep but they did!! I thought for sure that it was a fluke and it wasn't going to happen again but they did it again on Friday where I got a full 7 hours of continuous sleep! I don't think I've slept more than 3 hours in a row since I was 4 months pregnant so we're talking about 10 months here!!! Last night was the same thing... GLORY DAYS!!!! You would think that I would be well rested but I sometimes feel more tired than I did when I slept worse. That was the good parts of the week! I also decided to try to start them on a nap routine. Now we normally put the babies back to bed right after their morning feed but with this new schedule, I'm supposed to keep them up until 9 so they nap from 9 to 10. Then for their afternoon nap, I'm supposed to keep them awake until 1 so they sleep from 1 to 3. This has NOT happened yet, and I've been at it for 4 days but I gotta keep trucking! The morning nap seems to be much better, but trying to entertain three babies for 1.5 hours when all they can do is lay down on the play mats is HARD! I gave up trying to keep them awake after an hour when they would fall asleep even if I danced like a maniac with one of them in my arms. This weekend, Gabe was here to help and we played musical instruments, danced and sang and we still had a hard time keeping them awake. The lady in the book suggests to go for a walk or something to keep them up but the moment they go in their car seats, they fall asleep! The afternoon naps have been a nightmare... I tried to do exactly what she suggested to do. They need to be in their cribs for 1 hour in the morning, no matter what and 2 hours in the afternoon. Even if they're awake, they should learn to stay in there for the full two hours even just to rest if they don't sleep. On Thursday, I must have spent 1 straight hour soothing one after the other after they had decided they were done sleeping after 1 hour of being in their cribs. I'm such a rule follower and I know that consistency is key so I didn't want to give up. The method says to let them try to self soothe and only let them cry for a maximum of 5 minutes. So there was a lot of 5 minutes of crying during that afternoon. It was the first time since they've been home that I wanted to leave them in their cribs, go outside to sit in my van and cry. It was sooooo hard. I tried again on Friday and it was just as bad... Gabe and I tried again on Saturday and he just found it too hard. I really didn't want to give in because I thought that if I stopped, I'd be taking two steps back. Reluctantly, I agreed to talk to some people who tried to establish a nap routine and see what worked for them. Most of them told me that they found that when they tried when the book suggested, they found their kids were just too young and just needed to sleep when they needed to sleep. I know that my babies still need a lot of sleep and dictating when they should sleep may not be the right thing to do right now. One of the women I talked to said that she just let them take the naps they wanted and it didn't affect their night sleep. So today we decided to stick with the morning nap, which went really well, and let them take their naps as they wanted the rest of the day and see what would happen tonight. I really hope that they still make it through the full night as I'm alone again tomorrow!
The boys weren't really in their best state today, I think they may have a bit of a cold. Samuel definitely has caught a bit of a cough from yours truly. I have no idea where I caught it but I know I gave it to my little buddy. He coughs and then sighs really loudly... it's so sad but so cute at the same time. He's not stuffy, he just has a cough so I'm not too worried. He also doesn't seem to cough when he's sleeping and his breathing seems to be fine. The other two aren't coughing but I don't think they were feeling the very best. Zachary took an almost three hour nap on his feeding pillow after his mid-morning bottle. They all slept a lot this afternoon so I'm really hoping that this didn't set them up to NOT sleep through tonight. We'll see I guess...
They have found their thumbs! I know some of you may think that my method was a little crude but I do believe it has started to teach them how to self soothe. Sometimes Samuel even wants his thumb more than his bottle! He pushes at his bottle at about half way through with his tongue (which he has also found a use for) and finds his thumb. When he realizes that there's no milk coming out of his tongue and he's still hungry, he starts crying! So funny!
We got babysitters on Saturday night so we could go spend some adult time with our friends for our friend Chris's 40th birthday. The children were invited but after last week's debacle, we decided that we weren't going to bring the kids to parties until they were older and we didn't have to have them in our arms or expect other people to hold them for us. Also, it'll be much easier when they're able to play on their own a little. So anyways, we went to spend some time with friends and it felt really good. I laughed because we "partied" from 4:30 to 6:30...lol. Not like the old days!! A few of them were going downtown but that's even a word in our vocabulary anymore! We also wanted to be back in time for the boys' last feed before they went to bed just in case Zachary gave my in-laws a hard time. We got home and Zachary had almost finished his bottle, Jacob was done and Samuel was getting his bottle from Gabe's great uncle! Talk about easy babies for babysitters!!! lol I laughed because when we left, I left some instructions that the babies go in their PJs, we dim the lights and have quiet time and get all ready for bed before their bottle. We got in the house and they almost start apologizing right away as the TV was on, not all PJs were on... etc. It really didn't bother me, they were nice enough to come give us a few hours off, as long as the boys were fed and loved, I was ok. They said they had to rush because they started to warm the bottles too late and there was a full on break down of all three babies because they were sooo hungry! haha... We had a really good time at the party and coming home to babies happy and fed made my night that much better. Maybe it was also due to the two Coronas I had... trust me, when you drink as often as I do, two Coronas is all it takes to make you quite happy... just look at the picture below:
I read the book called "12 hours by 12 weeks" written by a self called "baby sleep coach" who says that's she worked with over 100 families with all sorts of babies and her method worked 100% of the time. A lot of her philosophies fall in line with my beliefs so I was happy when I read it that I had finally found a book that spoke to me. The way she coaches families to eliminated middle of the night feedings is exactly the way we did it (which was the way our paediatrician told us to do it). Gabe and I sat down and we set out a plan to start changing their schedules and start sleep training them, naps and all. We decided to start the plan on Thursday night by not waking up the babies for their 10pm feeding. I went to bed at 9, confident that I would wake up again within 2-3 hours to feed the babies. Gabe was going to feed the first one that would wake up and I would feed the other two. He stayed up thinking they would start waking up at around 11. At 10:30, he heard them start to fuss. He thought I was sleeping so he didn't know what he should do (I would have let them fuss as they sometimes soothe themselves back to sleep). He decided to feed Sam and then he came to bed (this took literally like 15 minutes max, go Sam!!). I was awake and wondering why he had decided to feed a baby. I thought he had done it so that he would get it over with and could come to bed... this made me a little upset because we had decided to let them go as far as they could. He told me the next morning that he wasn't clear what was expected of him and he was sorry if he messed up. He didn't mess up, more formula won't kill our kids! I didn't get the other kids up, I just let them go and what do you know, they didn't wake up until 5:30 the next morning! They slept through!!!! I was awake all night always waiting for them to start crying, so I didn't sleep but they did!! I thought for sure that it was a fluke and it wasn't going to happen again but they did it again on Friday where I got a full 7 hours of continuous sleep! I don't think I've slept more than 3 hours in a row since I was 4 months pregnant so we're talking about 10 months here!!! Last night was the same thing... GLORY DAYS!!!! You would think that I would be well rested but I sometimes feel more tired than I did when I slept worse. That was the good parts of the week! I also decided to try to start them on a nap routine. Now we normally put the babies back to bed right after their morning feed but with this new schedule, I'm supposed to keep them up until 9 so they nap from 9 to 10. Then for their afternoon nap, I'm supposed to keep them awake until 1 so they sleep from 1 to 3. This has NOT happened yet, and I've been at it for 4 days but I gotta keep trucking! The morning nap seems to be much better, but trying to entertain three babies for 1.5 hours when all they can do is lay down on the play mats is HARD! I gave up trying to keep them awake after an hour when they would fall asleep even if I danced like a maniac with one of them in my arms. This weekend, Gabe was here to help and we played musical instruments, danced and sang and we still had a hard time keeping them awake. The lady in the book suggests to go for a walk or something to keep them up but the moment they go in their car seats, they fall asleep! The afternoon naps have been a nightmare... I tried to do exactly what she suggested to do. They need to be in their cribs for 1 hour in the morning, no matter what and 2 hours in the afternoon. Even if they're awake, they should learn to stay in there for the full two hours even just to rest if they don't sleep. On Thursday, I must have spent 1 straight hour soothing one after the other after they had decided they were done sleeping after 1 hour of being in their cribs. I'm such a rule follower and I know that consistency is key so I didn't want to give up. The method says to let them try to self soothe and only let them cry for a maximum of 5 minutes. So there was a lot of 5 minutes of crying during that afternoon. It was the first time since they've been home that I wanted to leave them in their cribs, go outside to sit in my van and cry. It was sooooo hard. I tried again on Friday and it was just as bad... Gabe and I tried again on Saturday and he just found it too hard. I really didn't want to give in because I thought that if I stopped, I'd be taking two steps back. Reluctantly, I agreed to talk to some people who tried to establish a nap routine and see what worked for them. Most of them told me that they found that when they tried when the book suggested, they found their kids were just too young and just needed to sleep when they needed to sleep. I know that my babies still need a lot of sleep and dictating when they should sleep may not be the right thing to do right now. One of the women I talked to said that she just let them take the naps they wanted and it didn't affect their night sleep. So today we decided to stick with the morning nap, which went really well, and let them take their naps as they wanted the rest of the day and see what would happen tonight. I really hope that they still make it through the full night as I'm alone again tomorrow!
The boys weren't really in their best state today, I think they may have a bit of a cold. Samuel definitely has caught a bit of a cough from yours truly. I have no idea where I caught it but I know I gave it to my little buddy. He coughs and then sighs really loudly... it's so sad but so cute at the same time. He's not stuffy, he just has a cough so I'm not too worried. He also doesn't seem to cough when he's sleeping and his breathing seems to be fine. The other two aren't coughing but I don't think they were feeling the very best. Zachary took an almost three hour nap on his feeding pillow after his mid-morning bottle. They all slept a lot this afternoon so I'm really hoping that this didn't set them up to NOT sleep through tonight. We'll see I guess...
They have found their thumbs! I know some of you may think that my method was a little crude but I do believe it has started to teach them how to self soothe. Sometimes Samuel even wants his thumb more than his bottle! He pushes at his bottle at about half way through with his tongue (which he has also found a use for) and finds his thumb. When he realizes that there's no milk coming out of his tongue and he's still hungry, he starts crying! So funny!
We got babysitters on Saturday night so we could go spend some adult time with our friends for our friend Chris's 40th birthday. The children were invited but after last week's debacle, we decided that we weren't going to bring the kids to parties until they were older and we didn't have to have them in our arms or expect other people to hold them for us. Also, it'll be much easier when they're able to play on their own a little. So anyways, we went to spend some time with friends and it felt really good. I laughed because we "partied" from 4:30 to 6:30...lol. Not like the old days!! A few of them were going downtown but that's even a word in our vocabulary anymore! We also wanted to be back in time for the boys' last feed before they went to bed just in case Zachary gave my in-laws a hard time. We got home and Zachary had almost finished his bottle, Jacob was done and Samuel was getting his bottle from Gabe's great uncle! Talk about easy babies for babysitters!!! lol I laughed because when we left, I left some instructions that the babies go in their PJs, we dim the lights and have quiet time and get all ready for bed before their bottle. We got in the house and they almost start apologizing right away as the TV was on, not all PJs were on... etc. It really didn't bother me, they were nice enough to come give us a few hours off, as long as the boys were fed and loved, I was ok. They said they had to rush because they started to warm the bottles too late and there was a full on break down of all three babies because they were sooo hungry! haha... We had a really good time at the party and coming home to babies happy and fed made my night that much better. Maybe it was also due to the two Coronas I had... trust me, when you drink as often as I do, two Coronas is all it takes to make you quite happy... just look at the picture below:
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| Good times! Dan and I laughing at the "old" people in the room... |
All in all, it was a good week! I got another afternoon "off" on Monday when my mother in law and her sister came back to babysit. I spent it at the mall :) On Tuesday, the public health nurse came over. She is impressed with where the babies are at as far as their development. She did a 2 month (as that's where they are developmentally) survey with me to see where they were at and we figured that they are lagging behind a bit in problem solving which is following objects with their eyes and reaching for them. I worked on that all week and they're already much improved! I read up online on ways to improve this skill and they suggested using a bright image on a cell phone or something of the sort. I tried showing them the screen of my phone and they were mesmerized! All three of them followed that screen from left to right and top to bottom like they were pros but the moment I showed them one of their toys, all they were interested in looking at was me! I tried again and again and finally today, Samuel and Zachary followed one of their toys no problem! I'm still working on Jacob but he must find me so pretty that he just can't stop looking at me! haha...
My sister and her family left for Mexico on Saturday, I'm glad they beat the storm! My mother is coming home on Friday!!!! I'm so excited to see her! We've been Facetiming but she will be shocked at how big the boys have gotten and how much more they can do! They'll be able to go into their bumbos and exercausers soon! Jacob is the best at holding his head straight so I'll try him first. He's also the closest to being able to flip over. I give him a few weeks and he'll be flipping from his back to his tummy in no time! I'm excited to see progress as I'm getting a little weary of the baby baby phase...lol. Tomorrow the boys go in for what is hopefully their last RSV shot of the season! I hate seeing them in pain!!
Until next week my friends!!
My sister and her family left for Mexico on Saturday, I'm glad they beat the storm! My mother is coming home on Friday!!!! I'm so excited to see her! We've been Facetiming but she will be shocked at how big the boys have gotten and how much more they can do! They'll be able to go into their bumbos and exercausers soon! Jacob is the best at holding his head straight so I'll try him first. He's also the closest to being able to flip over. I give him a few weeks and he'll be flipping from his back to his tummy in no time! I'm excited to see progress as I'm getting a little weary of the baby baby phase...lol. Tomorrow the boys go in for what is hopefully their last RSV shot of the season! I hate seeing them in pain!!
Until next week my friends!!
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| Getting ready for our Monday walk... Our only walk of the week due to the storm and the cold!! |
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| Stupid storm! Poor birds who came back for Spring!! |
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| A confused looking Samuel on the left and my ever serious Zachary on the right |
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| Selfie with mommy and Zach |
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| Selfie with mommy and Jacob |
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| Samuel and his thumb... he LOVES his thumb! |
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| Zachary's favorite position... it's about the only way he stops crying during his fussy time! |
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| New mobile |
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| The boys loving the mobile! |
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| Mémère Arsenault and Sam |
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| Matante Camilla cuddling with Zach |
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| One crib, three boys... They still don't know that one another exists! All they do is slap, punch, lick, and suck on each other... haha |
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| This is when I was supposed to keep him awake... |
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| He didn't want to stay awake... |
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| Zachary found his thumb too! |
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| Daddy is tired too! |
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| See! I can almost roll over mommy!! |
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| Just cute! |
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| Tummy time! |
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| This is how they all wanted to sleep today... see Zachary in the background? That's where he slept for almost three hours!!! My little buddies were zonked! |
As always...
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xox
Hi ,
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned about follicule sizes 15mm,18mm and 21mm. On which day you had these. Did you take any injections for follicule rupture?
Regards
JR