3:30pm: 2.5 hours to go!

The babies have obviously decided they don't need this whole "nursing" thing - an excellent substitute is big hugs for daddy.

2:20pm: Aren't you supposed to cry?

I opened the door to check on Juliette, and she was calmly standing there with a "What?" look on her face. Quinn is still a crankmonster.

11:40am

Both babies were tired by 11, despite having napped 5-20 minutes in the stroller on a walk (shocker!). Quinn was dumped in the exersaucer while Juliette was put down. It took 20 minutes, but she went down with minimal (ie a few minutes of screaming) fuss.

Quinn on the other hand, is horribly tired but refusing to go down, wailing upstairs as I take a break... fun fun fun...

6:20am

I ended up dumping Juliette into her crib to cry it out after an hour and a half to vry it out, but luckily (for me) Quinn slept through it all... you know they are both going to be up every hour on the hour tonight to make sure mommy's really home...

2:15am

If I hadn't started coughing...

If I hadn't gone downstairs for Buckley's...

If I hadn't stepped on a squeaky toy..

then maybe I wouldn't have a tantrum-ridden Juliette on my hands.

Good thing I've slept a lot in the past few days...

8:30pm, divide and conquer!

Quinn is staying with Grammy and Grampa overnight, and Juliette is home with me. Let's see if Quinn sleeps through the night just to be difficult.

Off to bed, woo party animal.

7:45am - better than the usual 2 hours earlier...

Both babies were unhappy to see me, despite releasing them from the horrible prisons that are their cribs, but bananas and waffles, plus plenty of water and milk through a straw, have made them a bit better.

I however feel like crap. Bad timing, summer cold.

Juliette cried it out until at least 4:20 - either that or I finally fell asleep.

3:40am

back... Quinn transferred, Juliette did not. Waiting to see if she falls asleep, but may have to go to her before her screams wake Quinn.

1:55am

Finally accepted water from me... only from a straw... attempting to bring him upstairs...

12:48am: yay

The sore throat I've had all day has turned into a head cold, and the peacefully sleeping boy-twin has turned into a screaming banshee who cannot be satisfied by water, rocking or singing.

TV is working.

8:19pm: The calm before the storm

The babies played well at grammies, and Juliette only managed to give Quinn one bloody fat lip. This was after I'd arrived and had dinner - the new fun game is crawling over daddy as he lies on the floor, and Juliette took it one step further, crawling over Quinn who was crawling over daddy, forcing him off and into a faceplant. Ice cubes were very tasty according to Quinn.

Kept them up way past their bedtime before heading home, causing them to fall into slumber as planned. The transferred with no fuss (and no weaning) and are currently still asleep in their cribs.

Next post: The chaotic storm of screaming babies...(?)

11:09am

Kiernan, feeling somewhat better, has been packed away to Gramma and Grandpapa's for three days.

The babies are with my parents until tonight.

What, you thought it was going to be crazy baby liveblogging all day? So sorry, I've got stuff to do. :)

Don't worry, the nighttime adventures may hold more drama...

6:45am: I suppose technically this is sleeping in.

I saw Lara to the door at 4am, after Quinn decided to wake up. He nursed, so perhaps this meant he would sleep in?

Kiernan, who even at 3 takes after his mother in the "let me sleep one more more minute" department, wandered into our room to announce it was time to get up at quarter to seven.

... woo...

In 12 hours, Lara will be boarding a plane to New York to attend Blogher.

At least at that time I will be awakened by one or more yelling babies. I will stumble downstairs to make coffee, turn on the computer, and begin...

The left-alone-for-three-days-with-unweaned-babies liveblog!

yayyyy...

Blessed be Rumina!

At 13 months old, both twins are still nursing.

Kiernan weaned himself at 11 months, and these extra two months obviously makes a difference.

For example, Juliette woke in the night, yelling and fussing. I stumbled in, grabbed her and brought her back to our room to lie in bed with us and feed. She was still so upset, really wanting to nurse but preventing herself by throwing a mini-tantrum.

Sleepily Lara said "Juliette! If you latch on there's fruit salad!"

It truly is neat how their mother's body will adapt to the needs of the babies.

Sleep deprived climbing...

2:50am: The drama queen wakes up, she's screaming, super starving; why isn't mommy feeding her already? I plod in and reswaddle her, Lara follows and sits in the chair to nurse Juliette.

3:20am: Juliette is done, Lara is asleep in the chair. I plod back and put her into bed, help Lara to her feet and out the door, where I pause to shut it behind us. Lara hangs a left into the bathroom. Not unremarkable, except that as she enters, she turns the light off. So I stop in the doorway to see her moving the step stool from in front of the sink- no, wait, she's picking it up, she's carrying it towards me... I decide it's better to stop this sort of thing before she tries to sleep-climb, so I take the step stool away. This angers her greatly, saying "I just want to go to bed!" "Okay, go ahead!" I let her pass.

3:35am: Quinn, from the playpen at the base of our bed, practices his new habit of screeching. Is he happy? Sad? Hungry? Hungry. Lara gets up out of bed and asks "Can you hand him to me?" and as I gather him up I see she's halfway out the bedroom door. "Where are you going?" She pauses, then returns to the glider to feed Quinn.

3:50am: Quinn is done, Lara is asleep in the glider. I pick him up, put him back into bed, and help Lara to her feet. She walks straight out the door and into the bathroom. This time I'm curious - I won't let her actually climb the steps, but I'll see where she wants to bring it. Unfortunately she immediately pulls an about-face, comes back in the door and literally falls into bed.

Outnumbered

When big brother Kiernan was a baby, I referred to him half-jokingly as my little chrono-vampire -- his sleeplessness (20 minute naps were a luxury!) and constant demand to be carried or bounced for approximately 27 hours a day sucked time out of our lives.



You would think that the twins, who allow themselves to occasionally be put down and who sleep hours at a time, would give us more spare time, yes?

Hells no. Quinn and Juliette are the ultimate tag-team yearn-for-attention-ers. In order to find time to do anything that doesn't require a baby on your arm, you need at least three adults in the house. If elder brother is home, the number of course is bumped up to four. This past weekend, my mother- and father-in-law came to hold babies, my wife took Kiernan to the park, and I was able to spend an hour assembling the new IKEA TROFAST organizer in the basement.

Actually putting the TROFAST into use and organizing the basement will require at least a small army of visitors.

Volunteers?

Brain, meet afternoon wall

The Multiple Birth Families Association needs to work out a partnership with Starbucks - I want to show our MBFA membership card and get a free espresso shot in my white mocha.

Thump

The light ahead turned yellow, but before my foot hit the brake there was a smack to my left. A small dark shape bounced off the driver's side window - did someone just throw something at me?

I looked around - no one was nearby, so at the light I looked in my side mirror to see the bird lying on the other side of the yellow line. Another bird swooped in to land next to it - do sparrows mate for life? No, wait, there's a third bird coming in for a landing. Maybe it's a Bill-Paxton-Big-Love sort of thing?

The bird stood up, and the other two birds fluttered away. As the light turned green it still stood there, hopefully aware that it's close to the path of oncoming tires and able to move away.

Random segue into twin news: Off-schedule twin wakings make me feel just like that bird.

Sleep deprived conversations continued...

Last night I woke up around one am to see Lara sitting in her glider holding a baby and exclaiming in wonderment, "How did she get so big?"
I glanced at the clock and said "Is it time to feed them?"
She ignored my question, instead deducing, one word coming out at a time, "She got bigger because she's older!"
"Juliette is younger than Quinn."
"She's grown bigger!"
I looked to my left to see Juliette still sleeping in the bassinet - Lara was holding Quinn, the bigger of the twins by at least a pound. I decided to just turn on the hall light to make our journey to the babies' room easier.

Upon my return, Lara looked up at me.
"What am I doing now?" she asked, then answered herself immediately: "Right. My dad is going to hold a baby so I can hold the strawberry."

"Do you want to go to the other chair and feed both of them?" I asked.
"Which ones?" she replied.
"Both of them."
"Which both of them?"
"Both babies."
"Oh right, there are only two."
I don't know, maybe the strawberry was hungry?

Later on, at the following feeding around 4am I came in to check on them.
"How are they doing?"
"Guhbluhbuhmruh" Lara stated matter-of-factly.
"Pardon me?"
"Nothing- it's- nevermind-" she backpedaled, assuming I was fishing for blog post material. (Not this time - I figured all the gold had been mined at this point.)
"I just didn't hear you. Is everything okay?"
"It's snowing."
"Okay, I'll be back in fifteen."