At 22 Months......

How your toddler is growing: By now your child will begin to set goals for himself. He'll have particular ideas about what he wants to get done — like riding his tricycle down the path or fitting all the pieces of a puzzle together. He'll also care about the results — you'll see he's pleased when he's successful and frustrated when he's not. It's all part of his burgeoning independence.

How your life is changing: You'll want to think about switching your toddler to a big bed before he's able to climb out of the crib on his own. When you make the transition, it'll be rocky for a little while — you might find him popping out of bed just after you leave the room or making nocturnal visits to your bed. But give him time, and he'll settle in to his new sleep arrangements.


My 22-month-old still wakes up at night. What can I do?


Here's a new way to think about this problem: It's not that your child is waking up more often than other toddlers — or even adults — do. It's just that he doesn't know how to get back to sleep without your help.



We all wake up in the middle of the night. These nighttime awakenings are usually so brief that we don't remember them in the morning. But every once in a while, something will cause us to have trouble falling back to sleep — then we toss and turn, get a glass of water, or try reading or watching TV.


This is your toddler's situation, except that what he wants to help him fall asleep again is you. That's why you need to teach him how to do it on his own.


I've found that toddlers often have problems falling back to sleep because their normal bedtime routine consists of so many elements.. If you typically hold your child, rock him, feed him, pat his back, read him a few books, and then say "good night" to all his stuffed animals before he'll go to bed, you have a marathon bedtime routine on your hands!


But an even bigger problem is the way this routine sets your child up for difficulty with "self-soothing." If he's used to an elaborate ritual to help him fall asleep at bedtime, he'll learn to expect and even need that same amount of attention from you in order to fall back to sleep in the middle of the night.


Here are two steps to help remedy the situation:


Start putting him in his crib while he's sleepy but still awake. Don't soothe your toddler all the way to sleep with your bedtime ritual — keep the ritual relatively short and sweet, and put him in his crib drowsy. It'll probably mean a lot of crying and clinging at first, but if you check on him every 15 minutes, within a few nights he should start to fall asleep quickly at bedtime.


Give him a "transitional object" to sleep with. Also called a "lovey," this comforting object can be a pacifier, teddy bear, or blanket. It will help him transition from needing you at night to needing his teddy bear — until eventually he won't need anyone or anything to help him fall back to sleep.


At 22 months, your toddler is old enough to have you explain why you're giving him a lovey: "This is your new teddy. He's perfect for hugging and holding while you fall asleep."

The Things That Make Kids Laugh

Its funny how the littlest things can make a child laugh. My boys LOVE to watch Disney movies. One of their favorites is Finding Nemo. Have you ever watched it all the way through, even through the ending credits? When the credits are showing, you see all the fish playing. The Tank fish got out of the bags, and are swimming around, Nemo and his dad, Marlin are swimming around, you even see Mike Wazowski from Monsters INC swimming along with a snorkel on and then this is where they start laughing and want to see it again. The little frighten fish (the one that was a friend for the shark)  is nervous, and scared and when the ugly fish with the light comes, the little eats him and  makes a chomping sound. The boys LOVE that one litle part. They also laugh at the squirrel from Ice Age and dance with Alvin  and the Chipminks.


My husband and I were getting a kick out of the fact that this little part out of the WHOLE movie made them laugh. That is when you know, that it's the little things that matter the most.

Its AMAZING how mych we can function the next day after a night of tossing and turning because you have a little one sleeping next to you and practically glued to you all night and taking up the whole bed. Then they wake up laughing and playing with all this energy, while your struggling to remember time it is thinking you just went to bed just alittle bit ago.

Yesterday, my boys made me laugh, cause they were mimicing each other then started doing things that daddy does. Walking in his shoes, carring his lunch box around the house with his hat on and waving to me like they were leaving to go to work. Then after that Peyton took one of his nerf sports balls and laid down on his back on the floor and was throwing up in the air trying to catch it. My husband does that alot with a softball or baseball as a stress reliever. Peyton saw him one day and then layed down next to daddy and started doing it.


Then last night, both were sitting on their chairs sharing a book togther talking to each other like they were reading to each other. Everytime Jake got up, Peyton would tap the seat like he was telling Jake  to "come sit". To be hones, when they do things like this, I get tears in my eyes. I love to watch them interact with each other instead of fighting.

Going Places

OK, so I had a doctor's appointment today and my husband came with me, not only to be there for me but also to help with the boys. Going places with twins when they are this young is still tough. The doctor's office rooms are small, the stroller barely fits, and the boys are either trying to get out or grab everything in sight. I'm sure its even harder if you have triplets, quads or more, you would definitely need another set of helping hands. I remember when they were babies and I would go to the grocery store all by myself, I looked like a one person choo choo train. I would be pushing the double stroller and pulling the shopping cart behind me. And I would always have one start screaming cause he is all of a sudden hungry or needed to be changed and then once he would calm down, the other would start. As they get older is will get easier. They will be able to walk and listen when I tell them something. I won't have to either carry both of them, use the buddy leash or the stroller or just shop at a store that offers the two child carts. Its is funny and frustrating all together. That's why for right now I wait to shop or go any place when either my hubby wants go, or my daughter or when John wants to stay home with the boys.

It's funny, you go to bed at night and hope that you are going to have a good nights sleep. Then you wake up, with one of your kids in bed with you. He is sleeping sideways, he has an arm and leg draped over you some how with a foot in your face and you wonder why you couldn't get comfortable and your back hurts like hell. And then you look and see that he is cozy and sleeping like a log. But when you try and move to get up without disturbing him, BAM!!! they wake up and ready to wake up his brother. So you get both of them up, cause they are ready for the day with TONS of energy and you are still walking with your eyes half closed wishing the coffee was already made and you've already downed a few cups. It is worse when I have both of them sleeping with us. We have a queen size bed, so needless to say, John and I are somehow kicked out of our own bed at times and the boys are well in heaven in a HUGE bed (compared to their size) and we are either tryong to sleep on the edge or on the floor.

Peyton and Jake are 22 months now and definitely full of energy. So you would think that after running around all day that bed time would be a breeze. Our night time routine is the same. Dinner, bath, they play a little more, drink a cup of milk and then fall asleep. I have never put them to bed at night with a bottle or cup. I still have them on the same schedule but, the sleeping is the only issue we have. They fall asleep on us while watching TV and then we put them to bed in their cribs. Jacob is the good sleeper. He will stay in is own bed all night and not wake up once. Peyton on the other hand, wakes up ever night around the same time and cries. He will cry until I go get him. I have tried letting him cry himself back to sleep, but he will cry to an hour or two and start hyperventilating. So for now I get him and rock him, walk around the house with him or just put him back to bed with me just to get him back to sleep.

Some twins will sleep better if they are together in the same crib. Mine, well they wake each other up when they move around cause they end up hitting each other. They stopped sleeping next to each other around 5 months old.

Sports

We are HUGE sports fans. Our favorite teams are the Indianapolis colts and New York Giants in football. The San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees in baseball and We are fans of Tiger Woods. My husband played football and baseball all through school and plays golf whenever he gets the chance. Ever since I was pregnant with the boys we have started them into sports. I know that sounds funny, cause you wonder if they're not born yet, how they could be in to it already. Well, we watched alot of ESPN and NFL network. I would lay in front of the TV so my bell could hear it. I would read a book while my husband would talk football and baseball plays to the boys. After they were born, they started to watch the shows and games with us.

When they were 9 months, John coached our daughter's softball team. The boys watched everything he did from hitting grounders and to throwing pop flies to the girls. One day, I was playing catch with the boys and Peyton picked up his little toy bat and started to try and hit grounders, or throwing the ball towards me. That boy has an arm on him. He has gotten better and can now hit the ball, throw it across the room, he even will hit the drop the bat and run in circles like he is going from base to base. For their first birthday we took them to a San Francisco Giants game against the Nationals. We did record the game and when we watched it, we saw ourselves on TV. The boys were sleeping at the same time. At 13 months, we bought them real putters and wedges. We have on video (I will post it soon) Peyton and Jake hitting golf balls. Jake is the football Player though, he likes to tackle while Peyton will use anything from a remote to his bat to hit like he is playing golf or baseball. I even think he second or third word was golf ball.

I believe if you teach them young and make it fun for them they will enjoy it.

When we were purchasing the furniture and things for the nursery, I have to let everyone who does not know this, go to http://www.babiesrus.com or http://www.toysrrus.com. For all big Items, such as cribs, high chairs, car seats, strollers, etc. there is a multiple baby discount which is 10% off the item price even the sale price as well. I never knew that and BOY DID IT HELP TREMENDOUSLY. Our cribs were $499 cribs, on sale for $299 and then we got our additional 10% off. When you have multiples, you have to SAVE ANYWHERE YOU CAN. We also like http://www.onestepahead.com. they have alot of good things to help childproof your home.

With twins, or if you can with higher multiple babies, the BEST thing to do is have them on the same schedule for the start. Both the boys were on the same sleeping, eating, even diapering schedule. It made life so much easier. I nursed both of them, at the same time, and didn't feel like I was always feeding like most nursing moms do. They were on a 2 - 3 hour feeding time.They also sleep next to each other and slept better, they keep each other company and happy. They do fight as they get older. And you have to buy TWO OF EVERYTHING. Cause if you don't they fight, especially with toys. I'm sure when they get older and understand sharing alot better than one of each thing would do fine.

As they get older and they are reaching each milestone, some will be later than others and since they learn from each other then the milestone can come quickly. Both the boys started walking about 9 months. Running at 10 months as well Peyton has been hitting a golf and baseball. By the time they are a year old, they are running in two different direction and laughing cause they know that there is only one of you and you can only go one way at a time.

Pregnant and Delivery

We did invitro, which is another blog itself, and the day we found out that we were having twins, I cried and then hoped that they were both boys. I want to say the pregnancy was amazing. And then there was the uncomfortable times when I couldn't wait to deliver. Throughout the whole 9 months, I craved fruit and watched everything I did. Carrying twins, triplets or more is alot higher risk than just carrying one baby. Starting my 25 week along I had to do contraction counts three times a day and then I was NOT ALLOWED to do alot of things, like vacuuming, picking up stuff and had to rest as much as I could. So needless to say My teenage daughter and husband kept up on the housework. I did bug me quite a bit, but I was well worth it. Twins are usually born around the 32ND - 34Th week on average. I wanted to go as long as I could. I ended up in labor for a week and couldn't handle it anymore so my doctor induced me. The boys were born 7 hours shy of me turning 37 weeks. Most twins are born with the weight of about 4lbs. Mine, well, John Peyton was 6lbs 9 oz and Jacob Charles was 6lbs 11oz. and born 11 minutes apart. When delivering multiples, you are in the Operation rooms in case you need to do a c-section. Peyton was normal, head down and Jake was breech. We knew he would be from the beginning. The doctor was going to try and turn him and then put me in a c-section if not but neither happened. Right after Peyton came, well then Jake decided to start following on his own.

Now I have two handsome little boys and they are JUST like their daddy.