Hide Away Bed for Two

I don't know why I haven't written about this before. Maybe it's just because I'm lazy or busy but probably lazy. Anyway, it's been going on for probably six months now. What am I talking about you ask? Well let me tell you.

For about 6 months both boys have been coming into our room almost every night and wanting to sleep with us. For a month or so we would let them climb in bed with us. I tried putting them back into their own beds, but with two of them getting up at different times no one was getting much sleep. So we let them get into bed with us just so we could sleep, but that didn't work either. Kolton is a kicker and he turns sideways in the bed pushing everyone else out. Karter is a pillow hog.

So I racked my brain trying to figure out what to do. Then I remembered something I read a couple of years ago. I don't remember if it was online or in a magazine, but it was about the same thing. A child coming into the parents bed in the middle of the night. The person made a bed on the floor with a sleeping bag for the child and had them sleep on that. Another parent put toddler beds into their room for the kiddos. I didn't want to do that. The boys have their rooms and we have our room.

Then it hit me! I still had their crib mattresses. I could make those up with the crib sheets and some blankets, put it in the floor beside our bed at night and during the day push it under the bed. It worked!!!!

I told each boy that if they came into the bedroom at night that was fine but they needed to get in their "little bed" quietly and sleep there. I told them if they whined or threw a fit, I would send them to their own rooms. We've not had a problem since. Most morning we awake to a little boy in the floor beside us, and sometimes during the night they wake us to help cover them up, but it has worked for everyone. We have all slept better.

My sister tried it with her daughter who was hogging their bed and it worked for her as well. So to all you moms out there with kiddos who keep coming into your room at night and waking everyone up. Try this!

Let me know how it goes for you.

I Was Gonna

So, I was gonna post tonight, but Karter has been up out of bed 9,623 times since I put him in there an hour ago. That included 15 mins on the couch and twice for Jimmy and I to lay down with him. So this is what you get tonight maybe tomorrow.

Christmas Card 2008

After I made my header for December I decided that I would make our Christmas cards this year as well.

Everyone's in the mail if I've forgotten anyone let me know and I'll send you one. And yes it does look very similar to my blog header.

We've all been sick this past week and today. First it was Karter with cold symptoms with a fever, then daddy got it then I got it and now Kolton has it. He has been running a low grade fever for two days now. I've been doing a lot of waking up at night taking temps and giving meds and comforting little boys that don't feel well. I've also been waking up trying to breath myself. I'll be glad when it's over.

Oh, and big boy beds are still going good. No one has tried to get out of them, not even when they were sick. I hope it stays that way and we are able to just move into them with no issues. So far so good.

Big Boy Beds

Last night while I was in Kolton's room with the boys playing I asked him if he was ready to sleep in a big boy bed. Usually he says no, but this time he said yes and went to the rail of his crib and said take it off. Karter also said he was ready too and joined his brother in the chant of "take this rail off".

Kolton's bed

So daddy go the tools off and converted the cribs to toddler beds. Karter sleep like he always does and didn't wake or fall out of the bed. Kolton however woke every two hours and called out for me. Neither one of us got much sleep. Karter took his nap today in his bed and did great. They don't realize that they can get out of the bed yet. I hope they continue to think that you can't get out of it because when they do there's going to be trouble for me.

Karter's bed

Hopefully tonight will go better for Kolton. So far so good, he was so tired he fell asleep on me before bedtime and I've yet to hear a peep.

As a weird side note, I let one of the dogs out at 6:30 this morning to go to the bathroom, by that point I had moved to the couch because I was up so much it was disturbing Jimmy. Anyway, I let him out at 6:30 and let him back in 10 mins later. I laid back down on the couch and woke up at 7:15. From the couch I could see a dog sitting on our back porch. I check and all our dogs were in their beds. Some strange dog jumped the fence or something and was huddled on the back porch. It appeared to be someones well cared for pet. Jimmy opened the gate and the dog left, hopefully he/she finds their way home.

Nightly Routine

The boys go to bed nightly anywhere from 7:30 to 8:00pm. We do the whole bath, brush teeth, put on pj's, fill water cups, get B's(binkies) and lovies and then the boys sit on daddy for about 15 mins and chill and watch T.V. We then take the boys to their separate bedrooms while daddy is in one room I'm in the other. I hug each boy, tell them I love them and I'm so proud of them, give them a kiss and sing them a song. Kolton has taken to telling me to sing before I leave. On the rare occasion he wakes up at night, if it requires me to go into his room he tells me to sing, with his eyes still closed. I sing a short verse and he's out.

Karter likes me to hold him as I sing and then will say night, night and kiss. I tell him I love him, I'm proud of him and give him a kiss. We close the boys doors while we are still up and moving around the house. We have been doing this since as long as I can remember and as long as I can remember I have been going into their rooms several times and lightly touching their chest or back, making sure they are still breathing. If I wake in the middle of the night I go and check on them doing my little routine. I suspect I will be doing this their whole lives.

What is your nightly routine and do you check to see if your kids are still breathing? Or am I just a freak?

I think the TERRIBLE TWO's are offically here.

OH MY GOODNESS!! What have we done, Jimmy and I, having kids and all, you know kids that just turned two and have discovered that indeed they do have an opinion and they do want to assert it. Sometimes they want to assert it at 1, 2 or 3 in the morning and loudly waking each other up.

I was reading on Lesley's site how her kiddos are giving her a hard time. I think she wished the bug away and it landed in my home. Both boys have been super crabby at times and each at separate times have had trouble sleeping. On Tuesday night Kolton evidently laid awake in his bed for an hour and thirty mins, listening to daddy mow. I didn't know he was awake and when I went in to check on him he stood up stated "daddy mow, neighbors, I get out". At that point I didn't quite know what to do. I felt sorry for him laying awake that long all by himself in his room, but on the other hand he was not crying. I recently read a post on Eva's blog about not knowing what to do sometimes. I felt like on the one hand I should get him out but on the other if I did he might think this is going to be a routine thing. So of course I got him out and he waited up until daddy came in and went to bed shortly after. The next night they both threw a fit at 1:00am and it took us an hour to get them back to sleep, one at a time. This whole week someone has woken up at least once a night. That someone last night was Kolton and then the dog wanting out. It's been a very busy week to say the least.

Just a side note. I started this post 4 days ago and am just now getting it finished, that's how busy it's been.

A Story with Pictures.

For the past week or so there has been a lot of this going on. Mostly by Karter.

I think it's because of a lack of this, but I'm not possitively sure.

I think Karter's lack of sleep is becasue of my homeboy Kolton, who has not been wanting to nap very long and waking at night, which in turn is waking Karter. Which once again causes this.

So for the first time since they were 6 days old there were seperated last night. We moved Karter to his own room. while this made mama a little teary eyed Karter didn't seem to mind at all. I of course found myself sitting in the hall floor listening at both doors. Karter was silent within 2 mins, while Kolton who sings himself to sleep, broke my heart by humming and saying Karter every few seconds. I sat there for five more mins. and everything become silent. Both slept through the night and we will see how naptime goes as they are sleeping now.

I had always inteneded for each boy to have their own room when they wanted it but I just didn't think it would happen this soon. I think I'm the one that is feeling sad about it as the boys really don't seem to mind that much. So we will be decorating Karters room very soon.

So hopefully we will see more of this by both boy.

Night waking and birthday stuff

For three nights in a row Karter or Kolton have woken up screaming or crying. Last night I got up with Karter 3 times, two of which he lost his binkie in his blanket and the third for who knows why. I don't know if it's just that I hear it more now that I have the monitor hooked up again or that I feel I have to check on them because they are all the way across the house, either way it's making me tired. Naps have also not been going as well. I used to be guaranteed at least a two hour nap usually from 12 to 2 now it's anyone's guess if they will fall asleep. Unless they are screaming to get out, I usually just leave them in there for some quiet time, for both them and me. It's a switch off who will sleep and who won't.

I'm fixing to start working on breaking the binkie habit and then on to potty training. I don't know if I'm abnormal or what, but I don't really look forward to either one of those. I know with both it's going to be exhausting. I don't really like exhausting, but I don't want to clean poop diapers for the rest of my life and I'm also tired of dealing with the problems that are arising from the binkies. So that's what's ahead for us.

As far as their birthday party goes, I've mailed the invitations and am now trying to organize in my head all the things I'm going to need and the stuff I want to do.

On the house front. All but a few boxes are unpacked. I would like to paint some of the rooms as they are all beige. Beige is ok in small doses but all beige is a bit much for me. I also need to get some pictures and curtains hung. I really need curtains in the breakfast area, which is the area we use to eat all our meals, as that area is like and echo chamber and the kids high pitch screams sound as if they just might kill you while in there.

A few small stresses remain that have been on my mind that hopefully we can get rid of soon. Our house in Shawnee has not sold yet, and neither has the rent house and two we still don't have a fence here. Hubby is working on it the best he can for now, but we are waiting for the neighbors to get their part done. I've stated this before but having no fence has been no fun and resulted in a really nasty rope burn on my leg, while trying to avoid the long line our 150lb great dane is hooked up to. Not to mention the terrible two's have come to visit and with it I think my son's hearing has been affected. No amount of calling their name or even yelling their name stops them from running from the back to the front of the house.

So this was a pretty random, post with several rants, but that's what came out when I sat down to type so that's what ya get.

*I'll have to add pictures later. The server I have them on is currently not working right now.

How did that happen?

Karter had not taken a nap all day when he finally fell asleep in his swing I was relieved, but shortly after he began to cry and he kind of sounded scared this is what i found when I went into the room.

After this he would not go back to sleep. He has been up since 5:45am with only about a 30 min nap this AM when Jimmy was feeding him.

I was actually reading another blog where her son fell out of his swing and he was strapped in I can only assume this is how it happened.

Also I am starting something new I have seen on other websites, it's basically a picture a day thing. To see it click on the link to the right titled A Picture A Day For You. We will see how long I can keep this up. I thought it was a neat idea.

Watchin TV

The boys like to watch TV. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, however it allows me to have time to take a shower somedays so I go with it. They are doing really well. The number of alarms Kolton has been having has gone down. He still has a Brady(bradicardia) about every other day now at night or when he is in a deep sleep. Karter has begun to have them too when he is in a deep sleep. The back of the monitors has a read out of the heart rates and when Karter has had one his heart rate is in the eights and stays there for several minutes. The alarm is set to go off if it drops to 80. I have read and the doctors have said that as they age their heart rate drops to a lower rate naturally, closer to what an adults is, when they sleep it drops even more. Adults do this too, we just aren't hooked up to alarms. Anyway the point is it's not a problem as long as they look fine and recover on their own, which they always do, the alarms only go off for a second or two, which is good and shorter than when we first brought them home.

Now for some pictures.

Milestones

Just these past few days the boys have began to do some neat stuff. Kolton is starting to coo and will "talk" to his daddy and me. He is also kicking his legs and arms and will even push up some on his legs when holding him. He is getting better with his head control, holding it up minutes at a time now. He has also picked his eating up sometimes wanting a couple more ounces an hour after he eats. He's bright eyed and staying up much later, too late sometimes but is better at going to bed than he used to be. He no longer(knock on wood) throws fits the minute you lay him down. Most times he is content to lay there and drift off to sleep.

Karter is also starting to coo, he started a few days later then Kolton. He has excellent head control and has had for some time. I forgot to mention they both can hold it up for a few on their tummies. Karter can also push up with his legs and is getting spoiled to sleeping in the bed with mommy and daddy. He has gotten this habit of waking up an hour before feeding time. He's not hungry or does not seem to be but just keeps crying and spitting out his binky. I put him in his Boppy and put him between Jimmy and I, he drifted right off to sleep and I think he really enjoyed that because he seems to be making it a habit. I hope on the other hand not to, I will let him do it for an hour or two and then he gets back into his own bed.

They are becoming even more of a handful because they are both getting more active and wanting to play. I actually figured out how to feed them both at the same time, which I had to do because they both wanted to eat NOW. I sat in the middle of the bed and put one on my left thigh and the other on my right, so far it has worked ok. I just have to stop feeding both to burp them.
I really look forward to the next couple of months when they began to do a lot more neat stuff. I think they are doing quite well considering how early they came into the world. On the 17th they will be 4 months and on the 26th they will be corrected age 2 months.

October 14 2006

Things have been going fine with the boys, well as good as to be expected. They both are getting spoiled and don't want to sleep in their bed at times. It's Kolton mostly. He will be sound asleep and you put him in his bed, his eyes shoot open and then his mouth does. He will cry for an hour if you let him. I don't and that why he does it. I try the binky first, then talking to him or singing, then touching him. He will stay asleep but as soon as I walk off he starts to cry.

Something funny. The other day I was changing him before I fed him and he had a string on his sock, so I pulled it off and went on about my business. As I am feeding him I look down and I see his little toes sticking out of his sock. This cracked me up. Evidently the string was holding his sock together.














Kolton's toes.

They have been more interactive her lately as well. Sometimes they will stay up the 3 hours between feedings. They are starting to smile more often. Karter is a pro at holding his head up, Kolton is working on it more and more every day. They have begun to reach for things at times. Karter reached up and touched daddies face the other day, wish I would have had the camera handy. They are good babies and have not given us many problems. The only thing I wonder about it Karter grunting so much. At times he will grunt until his face turns red. He is not pooping or anything like that so I don't know. He doesn't seem to be in pain when he does this though.

Here are a few pictures we took of them in the laundry basket.














Karter














Kolton was a little unsure about it at first.

But after a some food and a clothes change he was happy again.
(ok I've tried 4 times to get the picture I want here to install and it won't I will have to try later as it is time to feed them.)

I'm so glad Karter's oxygen is off, it makes it so much easier to move around the house, I was getting stir crazy staying in one room all the time. And it you can see his cute little face now.

October 11th, 2006 No Sleep

Well, our little guys have discovered that mommy and daddy have a life when they're asleep and they want to stay and participate in it. It's amazing, they can be sound asleep in your arms, the minute you lay them down, one or both of them will get going and try to coax you into picking them up (which we resist as much as we can...sometimes :> ).

Karter not sleeping.... Kolton not sleeping...

Resistance is Futile...

I refuse to stay awake...



I refuse to go to sleep...