SLEEP!!!!

Daylight savings time was really freaking us out but then we thought, Hey! maybe the kids will sleep "later"... That did NOT happen!  It was quite a tough night on Sunday night, the boys woke up early, not later, in the middle of the night, which caused them to wake up earlier on Monday morning... It was quite a rough morning.  A friend of mine, MJ, asked to come visit with her little girl.  I wasn't sure I was up for it, with the morning I was having but then I realized that it may just be the pick me up I needed.  It was funny to see them all on the floor!  It seemed like there were a ton of babies when there were only four.  It's still a lot of babies!!   I'm glad I told her she could come as we had a good talk and she was a great help! 

We had help from my in-laws on Monday & Tuesday night which is always welcome!  Monday night, I decided to test my babies... I decided to see if they were ready to sleep longer.  Some people told me that they thought the boys were still too young, but I thought they might be ready.  So instead of giving Samuel and Zachary their middle of the night dream feed bottles, I decided to just try to soothe them back to sleep.  I wasn't sure that Jacob was ready yet so I gave him his bottle.  Anyways.... SUCCESS!!!!!  I gave Jacob his bottle and when Zachary and Samuel started fussing a little, I turned them over on their tummies, gave them a nice back rub and a few bum pats and back to sleep they went!   I was awake from the time I fed Jacob until the boys woke up at around 5:30 because I kept expecting them to cry bloody murder!  When I saw 5 o'clock roll around, I knew we had made it!  I was so proud of them!!  I thought it was just a fluke but they've done it all week!  They start fussing at around 2 or 3 in the morning and all we have to do is flip them over on their tummies and back to dreamland they go. I used to wait until they started to fuss but now when one fusses, I flip them all over so I don't have to get up three different times! I decided to try Jacob on Tuesday night and what do you know, he almost made it, he woke up at 4:30!  He's been doing better and better all week.  However, there is always one that wakes up at around 4:45 or 5.  What I've been doing seems to be working... so yeah me and sleep!!  It's funny though, you'd think I would be more rested but now that I've been giving my body more sleep, all it wants is more and more!  I had to take a cat nap today as I was falling asleep on the couch!  I knew I really needed it when I woke up and my pillow was full of drool (haha... gross right?).  

I'm going to try something different this week to try to teach them that their wake up time should be around 7 or later.  I will give them their dream feed when they wake up at 5 and let them sleep a little longer after (letting me sleep a little longer too).  Eventually, they will hopefully sleep from 7 to 7 or 8 to 8, so this will start preparing them for that.  I know this is a long way off, but I believe it's consistency, patience and preparing them little by little that worked for the first "sleeping through the night" phase, so hopefully it'll work for phase 2. 

Monday night, I get a call from my mother in law who informs me that she wants to give me the afternoon off to myself on Tuesday and that she and her sister would come watch the kids.  The moment I hung up, I called the Spa and booked a massage.  It felt soooooo good!  I felt guilty for leaving my kids, but I knew they'd be well taken care of and mommy needed me time.  I was so grateful!  After the massage, I went over to McGinnis Landing, a restaurant I worked at for almost 4 years to get a gift my ex co-workers said they had for me.  I wasn't expecting what was awaiting me!  There were three HUGE bags of year 3 & 4 clothes.  The clothes are gorgeous too, lots of quality items!  One of those co-workers gave birth to her beautiful daughter Daphné not two days later! 

On Wednesday, the weather was really nice out and I figured I'd try to take the boys out for a walk around the neighbourhood.  We had a really nice walk!  That same afternoon, the boys decided to give me their worst crying fest yet.  It started at 2:30pm and all three got in on it :(.  I put on awesome 90s music (mainly because I know all the words) and I proceeded to have a dance party in the middle of my living room.  At first, I had them all on the couch and I was singing to them and that seemed to work.  After they realized that I wasn't that great of a singer, they started crying again so I decided to try dancing with them.  I alternated them one song at a time dancing with them in my arms.  It was a long hour until daddy came home!  Some people keep telling me that they must be hungry, but I know that they weren't hungry, they couldn't be hungry 2 hours after they ate!!  I think they just want to cry.  I'm going to try to take them for a walk around that time as they seem to like being outside in the fresh air.  That's what we did yesterday and they did really well.  They seem to eat three hours after their afternoon feeding though.  I hope the new schedule changes the fact that they eat at 5pm.  

Gabe and I decided to swap roles on Friday night.  He had the monitor by his head and I didn't wake up until he woke me me, at 4:40am, asking me what he should do...lol.  We fed them and then went back to bed for a while until Samuel decided he was tired of sleeping and wanted to come snuggle with us in bed.  I even brought the van for an oil change on Saturday morning while Gabe took care of the boys.  I got home and all seemed great, he had them all eating around him and they all seemed content.  He looks at me and told me that the scene hadn't been the same one hour prior!  I was wondering why they were eating so late... he then said: oops! I forgot that they ate so early!  He thought for sure that they were due to eat at 10 and was confused when they started being fussy at 9.  Poor little buddies were hungry... no wonder they were fussy!  Poor Gabe was all confused!  

We switched the babies to powder formula on Saturday night and changing things around has never been my sons' favorite thing, least of all Zachary's.  They have a hard time drinking it, maybe it's thicker?  Anyways, I had to switch their nipples to faster flowing ones.  Jacob and Samuel seem to be doing ok-ish, but this is the second night in a row that Zachary just won't go down to sleep.  As I write this, my poor little buddy is crying in his crib... I'm giving him a 10 minute cry it out session to see what happens.  It's his tired cry so I know he wants to sleep and he'll even take a crying break every once in a while... I'll have to take an intermission break to go rock him I think.  I hate it because I don't want him to get used to this as he has been going to sleep SOOOO well for the last month and I would hate for this change to affect his beautiful night routine.  I'm not cruel, so I won't let him cry for an hour, don't worry, but normally he falls asleep within 6 to 7 minutes.  It has now been 8 and he's still pretty upset so it's almost time for me to go to him... 

Here I go... help my little guy through his tears... :(  Oh no!  Now Jacob's awake!! Great time to go get us supper daddy!!! 

Gabe came home, took over for me as he still hadn't settled.  He had finally fallen asleep in my arms after my version of various Elton John, Pink, The Tragically Hip, Backstreet Boys and lullaby songs.  (Don't judge, I don't know many songs by heart!)  The moment I put him down, it was as if the world was ending... We decided to try to give him a bit of his regular formula with his regular nipple.  He drank 2oz right away and he's currently sound asleep.  So yes, the powder may be cheaper but I don't want my little man to suffer because I want to save a few bucks!  Anyways, we'll try him again tomorrow and see... maybe he just needs a few days to adjust?!?  

We went to visit our friends Alicia and Neil on Saturday since Alicia's parents were up and Linda, Alicia's mom, was super excited to meet the boys.  It was nice to take them out to their first visit out.  They finally got to meet their future best friend, Alfie.  Alfie is going to be a big brother in less than a year to upcoming twins and it was cute to see how he reacted to the babies.  For the most part, he was really good around them, but I think he felt a little like "Ummm... why am I not the center of mom's attention anymore?"  He was all over her... it was super cute because I guess I'll have three little 1 and 1/2 year old boys all over me one day! haha... Linda taught him to touch the babies' toes and he was reluctant at first but when he saw Alicia with a baby, he came over and gently touched Samuel's feet.  It was adorable.  I can't wait to see him around his future siblings!  He will be an amazing big brother! 

On Sunday, we went to see my nieces' last ringuette game while my in-laws watched after the kids.  They had been asking me since the beginning of the season to go to a game.  They were quite happy to see Gabe and I there after the game.  We were going to bring the boys but we thought it might be too much and they will get to see them plenty next season.  We also decided to go grocery shopping as a family.  It may not have been the best day to do this since it was SUPER windy but we made a plan and went for it.  We decided that the best way to be the most inconspicuous and less in the way with our HUGE stroller was to each wear a baby and push another.  It was a really good idea as we only had ONE person comment and that was because we had to let people by and she had time to count! haha... I think people may have realized once we went past them, but it was too late to say anything.  Jacob was on me and he was awake the whole time and just staring at everything while licking the crap out of the baby Bjorn.  Zachary was on Gabe and he passed out right away.  Samuel was the one in the baby seat and we didn't hear a peep the whole time.  It was so silent on his end that I checked when we got back in the car to make sure he was still in there/alive! haha...  It was nice to just go out as a family without having to avoid eye contact all all cost!!  It was a good first experience and it will be the best way for us to go to public places if we want to avoid stares and constant questions.  It would have been much better had it not been so windy!!

I read an article this week about how singleton mothers (that's what we multiple moms call moms with one child) are sometimes reluctant to complain to us about how hard they find their lives to be.  This got me thinking about how I think I feel when my singleton mom friends do this with me.  I certainly don't roll my eyes and think "oh, you think you have it bad?".  I do think that my life would be easier with one child, but I DO NOT think that someone with one child finds it easy.  Everyone has their own reality and if Sally's little Tom isn't sleeping at night and crying for hours on end, that's freakin HARD on the mom.  If Nikki's little Lucy isn't eating well, that's HARD.  If my husband tells me he's got a headache, it doesn't matter if my headache is bigger or happens more often, having a headache sucks and he should me able to tell me about it without me rolling my eyes at him. It's like every skinny girl I would trade my right arm to look like still thinks that she is imperfect.  It's like telling a little 12 year old that she's not really in love, she doesn't know what being in love is.  To her she knows.  That is THEIR reality and no one should tell them that their reality isn't justified, even if sometimes it might just be different than your own.  No one should be able to tell someone how to feel.  So that being said, I hope my mom friends don't hesitate to tell me their mom issues just because they think that I have it worse, it's just my reality and their reality, to them, is just as bad.  

My reality, as those of you who know me, includes my intense need to lose weight so I've told myself, yet again, that today is my last "fat woman" day.  I will put my before picture on here so that I'm accountable to all of you.  You may not care but it's more for me anyway :) 

Yep... still look about 7 months pregnant!! :(

Don't mind the flash... 

Here are pics of the week that you'll actually care about...haha :

Ophelia visiting

Doesn't it look like there are a tonne of babies?!?

Getting ready with our first walk alone with mommy

Zachary

Samuel

Jacob not liking the fact that he's not moving in his car seat

Chilling on the couch listening to mom sing some 90s tunes... Jacob is the only one enjoying this! 

Jacob smiling at himself in the mirror

Zachary smiling at himself in the mirror

Samuel thinking he's looking pretty good

Isn't this the cutest picture of Sam ever?!?

This is the witch hour face of Zachary

of Samuel....

and of Jacob...

This baby Bjorn saves me from going insane during their fussy time!! 

We don't often dress them the same but this was pretty cute! 

Momma!!! Don't take our picture!!!! 

Found my thumb Mom!!!!  Hurray!!! 

Visiting Alicia, Neil and Alfie

At my nieces' ringuette game

So you may have noticed that the ads are gone from my blog... I hope this is temporary.  I have been de-activated... I think it's because I've been soliciting clicks so I won't be doing that anymore and I have appealed the de-activation so hopefully you'll see them return in the upcoming weeks.  I want to thank those of you who supported me but unfortunately I think I lost all the money I had made so far... sad face...  oh well, that's life!  

As always my friends, 

xox