Following is copied and pasted directly from an email to a MOT friend of mine. She has been asking me sleep advice, and wants to do CIO with her nearly-6-month-olds but doesn’t have the time to read Ferber (you all know how I feel… read the book!).  I’m no guru, but I’m opinionated.  So, here’s my epic email to her (verbatim, just with added links), with my mish-mash, cliff’s-notes version of Weissbluth and Ferber.  All in what we deemed her “sleep plan.”  Maybe it’ll be useful for someone else out there in the blogosphere.

[Cross-posted at How Do You Do It?]

— — —

Alright, this might be the longest email I’ve ever written.  Sorry.  I just felt like I had to explain things.  Let me know if you have any questions.  And let me just say: this is what worked for me and my kids.  I’m no expert, I’m no doctor. Not all kids are the same, and there’s no one perfect solution that will have your kids sleeping until 8AM every day for the rest of their lives. (ha!) But, overall, this is what worked really well for us.

6:30am (or later, yeah right!): wake up
8:30-9:00: go down for morning nap, depending on how tired they seem or how early they woke up
12noon-1:30pm: go down for mid-day nap, depending on how late AM nap went
3:30-4:30pm: go down for late-afternoon nap, again depending on how mid-day nap went
6:30-7:00pm: start bedtime routine
7:00-7:30pm: lights out

Here’s my philosophy: well-rested kids with a predictable routine are going to sleep better (good sleep begets good sleep), wake up happier, and be generally easier and more receptive to their world than those who are over-tired or unpredictable.  Since that is my starting philosophy, I pretty much think that 95-99% of days should revolve around their sleep schedule.  Yes, sometimes you can play with it. But you won’t know how and when to take that risk until they’ve settled into it. So my advice is to stick like krazy glue to a schedule for at least a week or two and see how it goes before you try fudging things around. It can feel restrictive at first, and some people give you grief for it. But, honestly, I eventually found it sort of freeing, because I knew ahead of time what were good and bad times of day for my kids (more or less) and could plan accordingly.  If you don’t know when your kid is going to nap, how can you know whether or not to sign up for that 3pm class? And it does mean you need to be careful with outings, because you don’t want them falling asleep in the car when you’re on the way home for their nap, and things like that.  Not always super flexible, but it pays off.  And yes, I always did the same thing for both kids at the same time.  One may wake up earlier than the other, but I always put them down at the same time.

Now, for details…

(more…)

… and your little sister, too.

OK, enough mixing metaphors movie quotes. Seriously, my kids are lucky that we have out-of-town guests staying with us this weekend, or they’d be straight back on the Ferber bandwagon. For us, Ferberizing and good sleep are a question of sticking with good habits and avoiding bad ones. Just like when you’re on a diet and things are going well, at some point you start to slip up. Get a little lazy, inch back towards your old ways. This is what has happened to us. It started with our trip to California, where we were a little more willing to do whatever it took to get the kids to sleep, instead of just letting them cry it out. And while Daniel has largely continued to sleep quite well through the night, Rebecca has started waking more. She’s also gotten into the habit of only taking 2-3 ounces of her bedtime bottle, and then wakes up hungry some number of hours later.

The last two nights, she has woken at 3:30AM and more or less not gone back to sleep. With guests in the next room, I wasn’t going to let her cry it out, so I picked her up and rocked with her, but every time I tried to put her back in her crib, she woke up. I brought her into bed with us out of desperation, but even then she was unsettled. While she managed to doze on and off a bit, yours truly was awake. Lovely. Today, Daniel woke up too, and had no interest in returning to sleep. So, at 5AM, we came down and started the day (after trying to get them back to sleep for an hour). Needless to say, I am not a happy mommy right now. It’s dark, I’m tired, and I’m frustrated. The kids are kind of crabby, because though they don’t want to go to bed, they haven’t slept enough. And, WTF do I do about the morning nap? I’m trying to hold them off as close to “regular” nap time as I can so that the rest of my day isn’t completely shot, but it’s not even 6:30 and I don’t know how much longer they’ll last. Ugh.

Sleep and my kids appears to be a pretty slippery slope. They’re clever, and will notice and try to exploit variations in the routine pretty quickly. Cry-it-out really seems to be the right method for them (or me?), because otherwise, one attempt at intervention leads to another and another, until I’m doing some crazy one-legged dance in the hopes they’ll go back to sleep, and they’re wide awake, watching the nutty mommy show.

While I would usually advocate starting Ferberizing on a Friday night so you’ve got the whole weekend, I think I may insist that we go for it tonight, a Sunday. Because you know what? I’m not sleeping, anyways. Might as well be working towards a goal instead of another week of me spinning on my head, trying to get the kids back to sleep.

The sleep revolution continues in my house. I have to say, it is really going quite well. (And, may I say, FINALLY!)

Naps have a fairly regular pattern. Morning nap is somewhere in the vicinity of 9am (though it’s often closer to 8:30 when they wake up early). Rebecca usually sleeps about an hour to an hour and a half. Daniel has gone over two hours several times this week. Wohoo! Afternoon nap starts anywhere between 12 and 2, usually around 12:30. That one is usually not as long, but we are finally getting away from the automatic 45-minutes-and-done that I was seeing recently. Then, the general rule of thumb is that, if the afternoon nap ends before 3pm, there is most likely going to be a 3rd short nap between 4:30 and 5:00. If they make it all the way past 5pm in good spirits, I skip it and just keep them up until bedtime. Naps are un-swaddled (omg, hooray!). I generally give them a small bottle before I bring them upstairs to bed. It helps them slow/calm down, and helps ensure they won’t wake up hungry in 30 minutes. I’d like to try to shift my schedule so that their regular bottles just happen to be before naptime, but I’m not there yet. If they fuss at nap time, and Daniel often does, I do the same kind of progressive intervals of checking that I did during nighttime sleep. Most of the time, they’re both out like a light in under 10 minutes, usually under 5 minutes. But sometimes, not as much. I let them try to sort things out for about an hour before I declare that naptime officially done. They’re never crying that whole time. But sometimes they just kind of fuss off and on and refuse to go to sleep. Ah well, you can’t win ‘em all.

The overnight revolution is going quite well indeed. Bedtime usually starts (with bathtime) around 6:30 or 6:45. We do bath, then PJs and sleep sack. Upstairs to the nursery for a bedtime bottle, and when they’re done eating, they are put in bed, given a pacifier or a light knit blanket to snuggle with. We read a story, then lights out. All usually done by 7:15 or so. For the most part, they go down within minutes, no crying at all. Tonight was a bit of an exception, but they were exhausted from a bad nap day (my fault). And then, here’s the best part, they sleep until 5:45, even 6:15 in the morning!!! Holy cow, it’s awesome.

They aren’t necessarily totally silent the whole night. Sometimes one or the other will wake up and cry out a little for a few minutes. Rebecca was up and unhappy for a solid half hour the other night. But we generally wait a few minutes to see if they’re “really” awake and upset. Then we will go in and check periodically to make sure they aren’t stuck in a funny position or otherwise in some kind of distress. But otherwise, once we’ve made sure they’re OK, we just let them work it out. And you know what? They do!

I have also maintained my “rule” that we don’t start the morning until 6am or later. So if they wake up at 5am, I let them work it out in much the same manner. Admittedly, when they wake up at 5am, the likelihood is that they’re just plain awake and will not be going back to sleep. And yes, I know that they can’t tell time. But I think it’s important to be consistent as far as when we really start the day, and hopefully that will help train their internal clocks.

I definitely declare the revolution and project Ferber a success. With the good results, there’s a part of me that says “I should have done this ages ago!” But, in truth, I don’t know whether or not the kids would have been ready. I’m not sure I would have been ready, either. But last week? Oh, I was ready. I was frustrated and fed-up with the hoops I was having to jump through to get them to sleep, but I also realized I was perpetuating them. I had, in a very small way, “hit bottom” on that particular issue. I was ready to make the change, and I also believed in what I was doing and why I was doing it. It was not, by any stretch, the easiest thing I’ve ever done. Not for the faint of heart. But for us? So worth it.

That sound you heard at 5:45am Eastern Time? Yeah, that was a heavenly chorus. Well, it might also have been Rebecca, but mostly it was the heavenly chorus.

WAHOO! Both of my kids slept until 5:45am!! I did set my little timer for the 12-minute interval, and Rebecca actually quieted down. But she had woken Daniel up, who wasn’t super-upset, but definitely awake. When the timer went off at a few minutes before 6, I decided it was close enough (as my children are brilliant, but cannot yet tell time) and we started our day. Daniel was fussy, but Rebecca was calm and all smiles. We came downstairs, they polished off their bottles, and they are now playing happily on the mat.

One of these nights, maybe even I will sleep straight through! Daniel becoming a tummy sleeper has made me a little nervous, but he thankfully seems to have figured out how to turn his head to the side. He was in that position from when I checked on him around 9pm until I got him up this morning. I did wake up around 3am and had a bit of a hard time going back to sleep, I think because I was bracing for another 2-hour fuss fest from Daniel. But it never came! And all of this was just in time, since M sadly has to go back to work today after a long weekend. So no more handing them off to him after the morning nap while I crash.

I’ll be damned, this crazy Ferber thing seems to have worked. Everyone said, “3-4 nights and you’ll be all set.” Last night, I admit I wondered if maybe it wouldn’t work for Daniel. But there you go, Rebecca slept through on night 3, and Daniel on night 4. Let’s just hope they can repeat it and it isn’t just a fluke.

And maybe, just maybe, I can start posting about something other than sleep. Wouldn’t that be something?

We had a rough day yesterday as far as napping was concerned, so Rebecca in particular was hysterical by bedtime. While Daniel might have more endurance as far as fussing goes, Rebecca truly becomes inarticulate with rage. It’s almost scary to watch.

Anyways, we did our bedtime routine with a bath (didn’t put a dent in her hysteria, that’s how mental she was), bedtime bottle, and then down in the crib and a story. Turned off the light, went downstairs and… nothing. Not a peep. Wohoo!

Still, though, the initial bedtime is proving to be the easy part. It’s that 2-4am range when Daniel wakes up, he’s having a really hard time getting back to sleep. This time, he woke up at 3:30, kind of stuck in the corner of his crib. I moved him, and he seemed OK. And then he just… fussed off and on. Little bouts of real crying, but mostly varying levels of fussing. Then he’d be quiet for a couple of minutes, and then start again. Since my checks on him do not appear to have any kind of calming effect, I actually didn’t bother going in until he was really, as the book says, “crying vigorously.” Still very sad to listen to, but my presence didn’t seem to help, so I mostly just let him do his thing. Poor guy fussed on and off all the way until 6am.

Yes, I’m sorry to say, that’s a longer duration than last night. That said, the overall intensity was much lower, so I’m counting it as progress. I will admit, though, that I had higher hopes for this, our third night. But still, progress is being made. I’m a little concerned that, two nights in a row, he has pretty much fussed/cried until it was time to get up. I hope he isn’t learning that if he fusses long enough I’ll eventually come get him. I mean yes, that’s fundamentally true. I just want the poor kid to go back to sleep! You have to give it to him, he certainly is dedicated.

Oh, and with all of Daniel’s commotion, it’s easy to almost overlook the fact that Rebecca slept all night long! Barely so much as a peep from her until she woke up happy at nearly 6:30. Hip hip, hooray!

Now if I could get Daniel to do the same, then maybe mommy could finally sleep through the night.

Initial bedtime: Bath started closer to 6:30-6:45 tonight. Neither baby had napped particularly well (though better than I expected, actually), so bedtime was a touch earlier. As M was leaving the nursery after finishing Rebecca’s story, Daniel had again rolled onto his belly. He seemed OK with it, so M just left it as it was. Daniel cried a few minutes later and I checked on him, he had his face smooshed flat into the mattress. I turned him over, and he went to sleep within a couple of minutes.

Evening: Rebecca, in particular, seemed a bit unsettled and would sort of give a whine every now and then, but it didn’t seem to last more than a minute. Once or twice she even started to really cry, and we thought “oh boy, here we go.” We’d start the timer for the first interval (five minutes tonight, instead of three), and she’d be done before it went off.

Wee hours: M came to bed around 2. Checked on the kids, both seemed fine. At 4, I heard Daniel start to fuss. It wasn’t much, but I could tell from the sounds that he was stuck on his belly, so I took the calculated risk and went in and quickly flipped him over. He hardly made a peep. But he was awake, and 15 minutes later started crying. Sometimes hard, then he’d stop for a minute, then start up again. I could hear in the tone of the cry that he was obviously sleepy. Poor kiddo, just go back to sleep! I was also torn about going in when my timer went off… hard to tell if my check-in actually just made him cry harder! It certainly didn’t seem to quiet him. I wanted him to know I was still around and responding to him, but it sometimes felt counter-productive to the goal of getting back to sleep. So I tried to wait until he was really crying, instead of just going in by the clock. Alas, he cried from 4:15 until my pre-set “morning” time of 6am, so by then we just got up. Still, it was less than last night, so for that I’ll be grateful.
Rebecca, on the other hand, seems to be getting the hang of this. Despite her brother’s not-so-quiet crying, it took a full hour for her to wake up, too. And even then, she wasn’t crying hard. When I went in to check on Daniel, I gave her a pacifier and she slept until a little after six, when I got them both up. Yay!

I’m finding their newfound independence (finally unswaddled) is making me more paranoid than I had been in a while. You know when you bring that newborn home and you check like every 2 minutes to make sure they’re still breathing? I’ve been brought back to that. For as lovely as all of the non-crying was tonight, M and I both would look at each other and say “is it… too quiet?” We were torn between desperately wanting them to sleep, and desperately wanting to go check on them and make sure they were still breathing (therefore risking waking them up).

Daniel, in particular, is making me totally neurotic. He seems hell-bent on becoming a belly sleeper. Unfortunately, when he gets there, he has apparently forgotten how to turn his head to the side. So then his face is straight down in the mattress. After turning him over the first time (see above), he seemed OK. I checked on him later in the night and he was about 95% on his belly, with his shoulder kind of pressed into the crib rails (tonight, anyways, I’m glad there’s no bumper on his crib). But his head was at least turned and I could feel him breathing, so I didn’t move him. Looked pretty uncomfortable, but he stayed that way from probably 9pm until 4am!! After he woke up, though, he repeatedly rolled onto his tummy and got stuck. Yet cried much harder when I went back in to turn him over. I wouldn’t mind him being a tummy sleeper if he would just remember to turn his head! Any suggestions, all you parents out there? And hey, I suppose he could be figuring out that when he rolls over at night, I come in the room. But he sure doesn’t seem happy to see me…

Alas, this is just one step in the very long road of being worried for my kids as they start to do one thing or the other on their own. As M said tonight, “just think, in 17 1/2 years we’ll send them to college. Imagine how paranoid we’ll be, then.” Indeed. At least now I can walk upstairs and see that they’re OK.

Overall, night 2 was an improvement over night 1. Now if I could just help Daniel remember how to turn his head, I think we’d be in business.

Both babies were down in bed, lights out, around 7:30. We didn’t necessarily intend to move bedtime back, but they were both in pretty good moods until almost 7, so we rolled with it.

Daniel, shockingly, went right to sleep! It was not to last, but it was a good start. Rebecca talked to herself and blew raspberries for at least a half hour. She then slowly ramped up until she got good and mad, which lasted maybe 45 minutes or so, and of course woke up Daniel. Daniel woke up with Rebecca’s screaming around 8:30, and though she fell asleep not long after that, he kept on going for probably about an hour. M said, “wouldn’t you just get bored of crying?” Not our kids. They’ve got dedication.

And then… nothing more than maybe a grumble or two for hours! I had been sleeping for a while, and M had just come to bed, so I took over. Daniel was up around 2:30. That’s when it got interesting.

I waited a few minutes to see if he was serious, and went in for my first check. One whiff and I knew he had a poopy diaper. Poor guy. I quietly picked him up, brought him into the other room, got a fresh diaper and PJs as it had leaked through the diaper, and then back to bed. Of course, by now he was seriously ticked off, and rapidly woke Rebecca. This one was worse than earlier, I think because they’re used to having a bottle when they wake up. So they were both mad and hungry. I kept going in every 10 minutes as per the book’s instructions. Rebecca took an hour and 45 minutes to go back to sleep. Daniel, I kid you not, went three hours. He got perilously close to my 6am mark, and I found myself wondering: if it hits 6:00 and he’s still crying, do I go get him then? Is that just teaching him that if he cries long enough I’ll eventually pick him up? Thankfully he went to sleep around 5:45 (after waking his sister a second time, thank you, but she went back to sleep quickly). When he woke up 30 minutes later, I got him up and we started the day. I actually had to go wake Rebecca up at 7:15, lest our day get completely off-kilter.

Did I like listening to my kids cry? Of course not. It’s hard, and I felt bad. By 5am when I was exhausted myself, I was tempted to scoop Daniel up and cuddle with him. I doubt it would have actually stopped him crying, but I wanted to. And yet, there was something strangely liberating about doing this. Before, when they would wake up at night, I found I would feel the need to leap out of bed and intervene as quickly as possible. Hoping it wouldn’t escalate, hoping the 2nd baby wouldn’t wake up. Quick, get the pacifier! Not working? Crap! Pick up and rock, please be quiet. No? Dammit, run downstairs and make a bottle. Oh hell, now your sister’s up.

Tonight? Of course I was immediately awake when they started crying, and I have a nasty tension headache from clenching my jaw (I think more in anticipation than anything else). But there was something strangely freeing in the knowledge that I did not have to make them stop crying. Obviously I wanted them to stop crying. But I knew that was up to them, and my job was only to make sure they were alright and quietly remind them I hadn’t really gone anywhere.

A mixed, but overall kind of rough first night. But we’re committed to seeing this thing through, and I can only imagine it will get better. Daniel went down pretty easily for naps today, and though he didn’t stay asleep super long, it’s something. Let’s hope tonight is a bit better…

It’s time. Time for my kids to sleep through the night. Time for them to sleep un-frigging-swaddled. Time to stop making bottles between the hours of 7pm and 6am. Tonight, we Ferberize.

I had hoped I’d be able to make this happen gradually, that my kids would just start to sleep through on their own. Not so much. So I decided I’d go the Ferber route. Everyone I know who has done it says it’s a few rough nights but then all is well. Sounds good to me. But if I was going to do it, I wanted to really know what I was doing. I didn’t want to rely on my assumptions of what it was all about, or someone else’s re-telling of how it’s done. So, while I was in Florida, I actually read his book.

And you know what? I’m really glad I did. All I knew about Ferber before this was something about gradual crying-it-out, increasing intervals of time. And that, somehow was supposed to make the kids sleep better. After reading, now I get it. It’s not about the crying. It’s about sleep associations. What conditions am I putting in place for when my kids fall asleep, and will those conditions be the same when they wake up overnight (as all people do), so they can easily fall back asleep (as most people do). I realized I was perpetuating the overnight bottles, because our bedtime routine essentially includes feeding them to sleep. Shockingly, then, when they wake up at night, they want the bottle to fall back asleep.

I also had thought I needed to get them out of the swaddle before I could “Ferberize,” (not entirely knowing what that meant). Now, I realize that swaddling is just another sleep association that needs to change. And that, more fundamentally, is Ferberizing.

I realize that most people haven’t read his book. And I understand, most people don’t have a ton of time, and think they understand what it’s about. But there’s a lot of misconceptions out there. I told a friend I was planning on it this weekend, and she said “don’t go too hardcore. A friend of mine did that. She let the kid cry for like six hours, and he had pooped and vomited and was just lying there.” That’s not Ferber, though people assume it is, which is why lots of people balk when you say you’re Ferberizing. No, Ferber would have you go in and check if the kid is still crying. And if there’s poop or puke to deal with, you deal with it. You don’t have to let the poor kid stew in his juices all night. Anyways. If you’re interested in the idea, I highly recommend picking up the book. You can skip the chapters on sleep apnea and bedwetting (or save them for later). Just read the first parts.

We’re going kind of cold-turkey tonight on a number of things, which may seem a little harsh. But you know what? I could re-do this process with each condition that needs fixing, or just do it all at once. My kids will not be emotionally scarred. They’ll be just as upset with the change if I do it one thing at a time versus all at once. According to the book and nearly everyone I’ve talked to, this should all be over in three or four nights. Let’s hope that’s true.

The new bedtime routine, as of tonight:
- bathtime (same)
- PJs and sleep sack, maybe some songs while getting dried off and dressed (same)
- no swaddle
- upstairs, sit in the rocking chair for a last bottle (no longer while in bed, unlikely to fall asleep while eating)
- lie down in crib, read story (used to read while eating bottle in bed)
- smooch, good night, lights out.

For tonight, the cry-it-out intervals are 3, 5, and 10 minutes. If/when they wake up overnight (anytime before 6am), the intervals re-start. But no picking up and rocking, no bottles. A quick belly rub, a reminder that we haven’t really gone anywhere. But that’s it.

As for things specific to Ferberizing twins, I have decided to keep them in the same room, as always. M is not thrilled with this idea, and wants to separate them so they don’t wake each other up. I have three responses to that argument. The first is this: our house is not that big. If one is carrying on for an extended period of time at any real volume, the risk of waking the other is still present. The rooms just aren’t that far apart. Second: if they’re going to wake up and scream, I’d just as soon they did it at the same time in the same place. It’s incredibly frustrating to me when, as soon as one has calmed down, the other starts up. That means that mommy gets no sleep. And possibly even worse is when they cry at the same time but in different rooms. No thank you. My third response: I want our kids to share a room for the next couple of years. Part of that means learning to sleep through a certain amount of commotion. If you constantly separate them when one is disruptive, then you’ll always have to do so. Whereas if they learn to sleep through each other’s noise, then you can have some pretty sound sleepers on your hands, who aren’t easily woken when one gets sick, has a bad dream, or even when there’s noise from mom & dad’s dinner party downstairs.

I don’t mean for this to be one big commercial for Dr. Ferber’s theories. As with any of these books, there are things with which I disagree (including what he says about twins and his ideas about appropriate times for naps). And as with any of the millions of highly-touted methods for getting your baby to do this or that, everyone has to make the right choice for their family and situation. All I suggest is that any decision be an informed one. Whatever the theory/method may be, read the book.

Alright, this has become quite an epic post. Obviously this subject is taking up a lot of my emotional energy at the moment. But no more putting it off. The longer I wait, the worse my kids’ sleep seems to get. Project Ferber is a go.

Wish me luck.

So, there may be an upside to the fact that Rebecca can’t seem to fully kick this stomach bug.

Though she seems just fine during the day, twice in the last few nights she has woken up at 11pm or so and puked all over the place (read: all over M, as I was sleeping…). Not fun, feel badly for her. However…

Last night, M brought her downstairs to where he was, got her cleaned up and changed into new PJs, and placed her in the Pack & Play, presumably while he went to switch laundry or something. When he came back, she was asleep. Unswaddled. Hrm.

Lucky M, she woke up an hour or two later with an explosive poop incident. Again, clean up, change. M put her in new PJs and back in her sleep sack, and decided to put her back upstairs in her crib with her pacifier. And there she slept. Unswaddled.

Oh sure, she woke up needing a pacifier replacement once or twice. But she slept. Unswaddled. And today? Two naps. Unswaddled. Tonight? Unswaddled.

Seriously? After all that? I have so many posts about my trials and tribulations with swaddling I’m not even going to link them all. I was all geared up to Ferberize this weekend, a main aim being to get them out of the swaddle (and I think we still will for Daniel, who is not giving in so gently). And then Rebecca just decides she’s ready. Well, I’ll be damned. Can’t take a lick of credit for it. She was just ready. Hey, I’ll take it!

Well hello there! Long time no… see? Anyways, I’m here on my last morning in Florida, packed and very much ready to return home. I’ll miss the warmth, but I can’t wait to be back in my own space. Not to mention back with M, who went home on Monday while I stayed for the week. We all miss Daddy.

Anyways, a few notes from our trip for your reading enjoyment.

Sleep: Awful to almost awesome
Our first day here, I really wasn’t sure I’d make it. We had an early morning flight, which I thought would be good. And it probably was as good as anything, but it kicked off a day in which neither child seemed to nap AT ALL. By the end of the day, Rebecca was more hysterical than I’ve ever seen her, even in the tub, which usually works magic. They were restless all night long, and Daniel ended up in the swing for the majority of the night. The only thought that kept running through my head was: “this was a bad idea.”
It stayed mediocre at best for several more nights at my in-laws’. It was a new space, different cribs, a very echo-y room… not good times for anyone. Then M went home on Monday and I headed to my mom’s place a little further south. A little more fresh air and a clock radio set to static seemed to help. Rebecca had a hard time getting all the way to sleep, but there was slight improvement. I went to the bookstore and picked up Dr. Ferber. The time is rapidly approaching, but that’s another post.
Then they both went back down to one feeding, two nights in a row. And on Thursday night… Daniel slept from 6:30pm until 5:30am. Not so much as a pacifier replacement. Yes, that was a heavenly chorus that you just heard. Rebecca is still somewhat restless (I think needs to ditch the pacifier), but they are oh-so-ready. Awesome.

If you can’t take the heat…
Holy crap. My in-laws are delightful people. But living in Florida and getting older has totally thinned their blood. M’s grandmother graciously let us use her condo for ourselves and the babies. It was like a damn sauna. Hot, stuffy, muggy. It was nearly 80 degrees in there (only 72 outside!). And she kept offering us her electric blanket. I’m not kidding. We finally made the command decision to turn on the a/c the first night (maybe to 74?), and for the rest of the weekend she was freezing anytime she walked into her own place. In the meantime, I’m sweating bullets. And M’s parents’ place was no cooler. Yowza. I was glad to get to my mom’s place at the beach, just for the breeze.

Mr. Gross Motor
Daniel has had several big leaps in gross motor skills while we’ve been down here. Monday afternoon, after being painfully close for several days, he rolled right over from his back to his belly. So proud of himself! Also, while on his tummy, he’s started pushing up with his arms (used to rely mostly on neck and back strength to lift up), and even reaching out to manipulate toys! I sense forward motion is not far away. He has also finally started grabbing his own feet. Again, he’s been close for a while. But now he figured it out, and he just can’t stop. Too much fun.
And, in late-breaking news, Rebecca decided not to let him have all the fun. After being in the same “I could roll over at any moment” position since THANKSGIVING, she unceremoniously rolled from her back to belly just this morning.

Nice trade
Monday or Tuesday, Daniel was kind enough to give Rebecca his cough, which she’d avoided for over a week. And after finishing her antibiotics on Wednesday, she returned the favor and Daniel woke up with two goopy, crusty eyes on Thursday morning. How nice. Good thing the pediatrician made sure to prescribe me extra medicine.

The Pool!
Every day at my mom’s place, we took the kids in the pool. Too much fun! I’ll post pictures of them in adorable swimsuits and hats (and other pics) when I get home. Rebecca, like many things, was uncertain at first. Eventually she decided it was, at best, acceptable. Daniel, on the other hand, was splashing around within five minutes. He loved going back and forth across the pool with my mom, chasing after a ball. It was really great just to get all of that fresh air.

Help, I need somebody
I must admit, any complicated family relationships aside, it was delightful to have all of the extra hands. Especially once M had to go home (so sad!). M’s parents were great, had a wonderful time with the kids, and we even got to go out to lunch on our own. And then, while at the beach, my mom and stepdad came over every morning around 7 or 7:30 and took the kids and the strollers. They went visiting great-grandmothers, went for walks along the beach, and had a delightful time. And I got to NAP! Wahoo!
And now, back at M’s parents’ place, my mother-in-law is being kind enough to fly back to Boston with me. Certainly, she also gets some extra baby time out of the deal, but she’s flying back after only one night. A wonderful thing for her to do, just so I don’t have to fly with two babies on my own.

Anywho, that’s most of the updates from down south. In the end, a good trip (as all you parents know, once there are kids in the picture, it’s not a vacation anymore, it’s a trip). Grandparents and great-grandparents got to visit with the babies, who were of course a huge hit. We all got a break from the cold and snow, into the fresh air and sun. It wasn’t easy, but eventually things settled down. Hopefully today’s plane ride will be uneventful and the kids will have an easier time re-adjusting to being home.

Coming up…
-Introducing Dr. Ferber
-Six month birthday and pediatrician visit
-Pictures, pictures, and more pictures!