November 21, 2008

Well, we learned a valuable lesson tonight, or by now it would have been LAST night. It was a rough one. The boys BOTH screamed from about 4-10 pm.

TWO
crying
babies
is
enough
to
make
you
LOSE
YOUR
MARBLES.

SOMETHING was bugging them, because they were so unsettled. We *think* that it may have been the frozen milk that we have been mixing with the fresh. In the NICU both boys had trouble with cow's milk protein, both in the fortifier they tried to add to beef them up, and likely in my breastmilk as well. As you know, the neonatologist asked me to cut cow's milk out of my diet, and for the most part I've done so. We decided to start using up some of the older frozen milk, to cycle through it so it didn't go bad, so we've been mixing half fresh, half frozen in their bottles. The milk I took out of the freezer for the last several days was milk from BEFORE I cut out cow's milk from MY diet. We thought we'd just SEE how they would do on it. The first two days there was NO difference in them and I thought, "ahhh ha!", they're doing great! Secretly I dreamed about the tall glass of milk and the HUGE bowl of ice cream I was going to have in the very near future should they continue to do so well! Hahahaha!

Then yesterday they cried from about 4-10 pm. It was a fun night. We're not used to the constant, incessant crying, because it's not really their personalities, so I was extra looney. I happily handed them over to Curt to take a breather for 30 minutes or so, and then Curt was also committed to the looney bin as they continued to fuss. So, we can ONLY assume that it was the mixing of the old dairy rich milk with the new, and perhaps it had built up enough in their systems to cause some trouble. Really, we're not sure, but it's the ONLY change they've had, so why mess with it, ya know? We tossed out all the milk that I'd taken out of the freezer to mix with the fresh for tomorrow (whaaaaa), and gave them all fresh for tonight/tomorrow. They slept about 4 hours (wooo hooo) and are no longer screaming, and I am a much happier mom, and Curt, a much happier dad. Even at 3:56 am. Lesson learned. No messing with the cow's milk stuff for a while yet. They have sensitive tums, and I need my sanity Hahahaha.


7:37 am
So, apparently when babies cry and whine for hours on end, they get tired. They had their best night of sleep ever...They ate at 9:40 pm and went to sleep shortly thereafter, and Alec woke at 2:20, Evan at 3:00 am! Then Evan woke at 6, Alec at 6:45 am. WoWoW!

When I went into the bedroom to go to sleep last night, Evan was asleep in his swing that we often move to our room at night to help him get "drowsy" before putting him into his bed with Alec. Well, he had his nuk in and was asleep, and after our hellish night last night, I was not ABOUT to mess with him, and he slept in the swing. HE is usually the one that gets up first, so ONE theory is that they slept longer because Evan slept in the swing? It COULD be...Olivia used to LOVE LOVE LOVE sleeping in that darn swing, so perhaps her look-alike brother loves it too. Either way, it was nice to have to wake only ONCE at night! Woo hoo!