Okay mamas, here's a callout for some help.
Just when I thought we had reached a nice stride and things were relatively "easy," things change. That seems to be the way with twins. You can never get comfortable for too long.
We are in the process of dropping the third catnap, moving to two naps a day AND starting solids three times a day. The boys are still nursing/bottle feeding at LEAST 5x per day (more like 7 most days). Nursing/pumping/bottle feeding can take 30-45 minutes. Feeding solids can take 30-60 minutes, depending on how long I let them sitting there feeding themselves. I haven't done the actual math, but that is a LOT of time spent feeding babies!
From the friends I have spoken to, they tend to only nurse 4-5x a day since switching over to solids. Has that been your experience? I'm excited for this new transition, but nervous too. There are always hiccups with transitions. Does anyone have any advice? What kind of schedule did you have for your babies around 8 months?
As for sleeping, it is going great!!! I do think we are ready to drop the third nap, since the boys have lately been sleeping so well for the first two naps (on most days - I don't want to say so and jinx it). The first nap is usually an hour and a half around 9:00. The second nap is 1 1/2-2 hours, though we have often had to wake them up from this nap to keep them on "schedule" for a third nap. It may take them a while to adjust and lengthen out these naps even more as we drop the third nap. On days they don't nap well we can throw that third nap in there, or if we need to be out later into the evening. The downside is that for a while this will mean early bedtimes (probably 6/6:30). I remember seeing other moms go through this stage and it sucks (especially in the summer), but eventually it will lengthen out to later. And once the schedule is established, we should be able to tweak it here and there for special events.
All in all, we have great sleepers and eaters, and the work we have done has paid off! Now, I just need to figure out how to adjust myself to this new routine (more on that later).
Unfortunately I have no experience with breastfeeding at this stage, but I can tell you that Seamus was still having about 4 bottles at 8 months, along with three meals. Once I started adding in snack times, he naturally started dropping bottle feeds.
ReplyDeleteSeamus always goes to bed early. It's hard to get him to stay up past 7 pm. One thing that I've found essential for the summer months is a blackout blind. If you find that your guys have trouble adjusting to a bedtime while the sun is shining, I can't recommend a blackout blind enough (if you don't already have one).
It's an exciting transition. Good luck! :)
Ha ha! You don't want my advice. We have no schedule. We float with the wind. You're doing AWESOME mamma!
ReplyDeleteI have experience with 2 very different girls (with many years between) and they did opposite things. One took eating solids to mean she was less thirsty and cut down on nursing right away by about a feed a day, the other started to want to nurse more often. I have no idea why. I think it was probably the timing of a growth spurt and adjusting to changes in childcare as well (the one who was with me almost all the time or was with my spouse nursed less with solids). I'd go with it unless it becomes impossible and then see about changing things up (soggier foods, little bits of water to drink with meals, whatever).
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