Sleep Issues

The most difficult thing is to put babies to sleep in the night. Yesterday night Bhav n Gats woke up at 1AM and dint sleep till 2:30 AM. I and MIL tried every possible trick to put them back to sleep but they dint budge.
Bhavs got up crying, I tried to sooth her by nursing her...but she go back to sleep...she started crying and howling...I sang some songs but she dint want them. I took her out in other rooms , MIL got milk for her .Seeing the bottle she was again screaming..I tried to sooth her but she would not take the milk & not fall asleep. I tried to scare her ( which I hate to do) but even the doggie, catie, Chiaya, Koo Koo could help. She cried so loudly that Gats woke up.Gats smiled at me and looked at Bhavs...Mil called her...she dint go and crawled towards me. Bhav n Gats were delighted to see each other...they squealed in delight and hugged each other...and stared playing with each other.
I & MIL were sitting on the bed watching them ,feeling helpless, drowsy, and frustrated. Then we slowly tried to straighten our backs by lying down. Seeing us lying ...the Girls started fussing again...they both wanted to come in my lap at the same time. I tried to accommodate them ...but they were pushing each other out.Some how I managed to get them comfy and patted them , stared sing a song...they were quite..I thought that I 'll be able to sleep after 5 mins.Then, Gats stirred and sat, started crying....I again threatened them ( Catie will come, doggie will come) but she wont stop. Then I lost it ..I made her sit and told her that if she will not sleep Mummy will go to office( I hate my self for doing this).
She sobbed ...then I hugged her and told her that Mummy will not go to office , mummy loves her, and reluctantly nursed her....she hugged me and cling ed to me for an hour...mean while Bhavs was being patted by MIL and put to sleep.
Round 4 again both of them got up...to save my life I nursed them and they slept again.
In the morning both of them woke up fresh as a flower, cheerful and happy. I & MIL woke up half dead and exchange smiles looking at our bundle of Joy.
MIL Co sleeps with us when Ro is traveling. Babies have started circulating/ exploring the bed in the night. So two people are a must, else they would fall down.
Can some one hear my scream.
Help! need to know how to cope up with tough baby nights. I m planning to make them sleep on their own just need the ammunition to know how to do it.
Pls let me know what u think I should do.

Mum Quotes

• Mummy Quotes
  As the saying goes, mothers know best!
• “If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?”- Milton Berle
• 
  “I know how to do anything - I'm a Mom.” - Roseanne Barr
• 
  “To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power.”- Maya Angelou
• 
  
• “It's not easy being a mother. If it were easy, fathers would do it.”- The Golden Girls
• 
  “God could not be everywhere, so he created mothers.”- Jewish Proverb
• 
  “The phrase ‘working mother’ is redundant.- Jane Sellman
• 
  “That best academy, a mother's knee.”- James Russell Lowell
• 
  “With what price we pay for the glory of motherhood.”- Isadora Duncan
• 
  “To a child's ear, 'mother' is magic in any language.”- Arlene Benedict
• “The mother of three notoriously unruly youngsters was asked whether or not she'd have children if she had it to do over again. ‘Yes’, she replied ‘but not the same ones.’”- David Finkelstein
• 
  “Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease.”- Lisa Alther
  
• “A mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.”- Emily Dickinson
• 
  “She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn't take them along.” - Margaret Culkin Banning
• 
  “A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.” - Sophia Loren
• 
  "The hand that rocks the cradle usually is attached to someone who isn't getting enough sleep."- John Fiebig
• 
  "I'd like to be the ideal mother, but I'm too busy raising my kids."- Unknown
• 
  "Child rearing myth #1: Labour ends when the baby is born."- Unknown
• 
  "Children are a great comfort in your old age. And they help you reach it faster, too."- Lionel Kaufman
• 
  
• "It is amazing how quickly the kids learn the operation of the DVD, yet are unable to understand the vacuum cleaner."- Etienne Marchal
• 
  "Any child can tell you that the sole purpose of a middle name is so he can tell when he's really in trouble."- Dennis Fakes
• 
  "Raising a kid is part joy and part guerilla warfare."- Ed Asner
• 
  "Poverty is hereditary - you get it from your children."- Phyllis Diller
• 
  "Children are gleeful barbarians."- Joseph Morgenstern
• 
  "By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class."- Anne Morrow Lindbergh
• 
  "We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up."- Phyllis Diller
• 
  “The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.”- Rajneesh
• 
  “Mother - that was the bank where we deposited all our hurts and worries.”- T. DeWitt Talmage
• 
  “A little girl, asked where her home was, replied, "where mother is."- Keith L. Brooks
• 
  “A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest.”- Irish Proverb
• 
  “A mother understands what a child does not say.”- Proverb
• 
  “Making the decision to have a child - It's momentous। It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.”- Elizabeth Stone
• 
  “A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take।”- Cardinal Mermillod
• 
  “All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother.”- Abraham लिंकोलं
• 
  “Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother.”- Lin Yutang

In hope of some sleep

I have not slept since October 2005.
In Oct 05 I was 7 Months Pregnant and could not sleep the whole night. I read maximum books during those sleepless nights. Ro bought me lots of latest bestsellers, got World space connection and painting board, paints, canvas etc to keep me company during the nights.
Carrying Twins, I had become like a giant Panda. I used to walk like a Donald Duck, had feet swollen like a baby elephant and my fair skin had become multi colored (Iron Tablets, Swellings, Stretch marks, varicose veins),
The whole night the babies used to play in my Tummy. I know now who used to kick (Bhavs’s who else), and Gats used to hide in the round corners of my body. She has a habit of hiding in corners, cramped spaces. That how she stuck her head down …with the result Doc asked me to have bed rest with feet up. Phew.Its not as scary…it’s was scarier.
Ro used to go off to sleep and used to feel guilty that he is unable to chat with me every night till morning.
I used to think that when babies will come I would sleep. But I was so unaware of what is in store.
Then came my lil wonders. First few days vanished in my initial recovery, plus so many people around me to take care of my fairies and me.
For the first three months my MIL (Mother In Law) slept with me. One of my Mausi (My Moms Sis) also stayed with us for around a month. So there were 3 adult ladies to tend to their every need for the initial months.
Those days I used to get up 6-8 times in the night to feed them. As they were on my milk, I used to drink 6 glasses of milk to keep the flow going along with some powder that my doc had recommended. (Now I am back to 2-3 glasses per day plus curd).
As I have Twins I used to feed them both together, using the Football Technique that I had learnt in my Lamaze Classes.
People say that Babies sleep a lot…but my springboards never slept more than 1 hour in the day and 5-6 hour of disturbed sleep during the night.
So… MIL said that might be they will sleep after 3 months…
From 4th month onwards Ro took over Mils Place. And since then he has been a part of the sleepless nights too (thanks to kids now he wakes up in the night…as, earlier once he doses off it was impossible to wake him up…. thank you fairies ).

Months passed and Alas., till now… (They are 15 months old)…it’s still the same.
Bhav and Gats sleep in the center of the bed, both of them have to be separated by pillows/quilt (depending upon their position) as they kick each other, climb over each other (they always kicked and climbed on us) and when one wakes up she makes sure to wake up the other one also. In order to put the child, who has woken up, back to sleep, we quickly change places, and I quickly feed the baby and put her to sleep. Then after 15-30 minutes the other one stirs and we quickly change places and I quickly feed the other baby. This continues till morning. These days they wake up around 5-6 times each ….so you can count the total time we spend awake.
The good thing about these sleepless nights is that we are always alert. So if there were a mouse in some far away room we would know. If a dry leaf falls on the ground out side my window I know.

Now, Mil and I think that hopefully when the babies are 2 years old they will sleep properly.

Disclaimer:

Before I close this piece, pls note that post the 3rd month of their birth I have been working full time from 9Am-7 Pm. Ro took Paternity leave for some weeks and post that he too follows the working person routine. And Mil is taking care of the double bubble for the whole day with out any rest/ sleep. She gets some rest when I reach home and take over.

TERRORIST ATTACK

My Twins are a wonderful gang. They have teemed up against us at this lil age. We were expecting teeming up behavior in teenage, which is many years far from now. Both of them have learnt ways to make us all feel helpless, plead, sit on our knees, and feel totally out of control. They are dominating every minutes of our life and they decide what we will do. Our life revolves around their whims and fancies.
I have made a checklist of their latest codes, commands and threats.

Actions/ Words Meaning
Uooo…Uooo…=Pointing in different directions,demanding us to tell the name of things that are pointed out.

POM = Wants us 2 switch on all the Fans of the house. Has a special facination for the Kitchen Exhaust Fan

Cockocooo = Cockroach, Baby Cockroach,Mama Cockroach, Papa Cockroach. Opens ans closes a cabinate that has a family of cockroaches. Inspects them every half an hour.( Pls don’t think my home is unclean)

Bataah…Bataah = One word that has many uses- is used to threaten the maid when she puts on the shoes, is used to threaten the Cockroaches, is used to tell us that she is not in mood to follow any requests (forget orders)

Nahee..nahee = No no..- is used to tell us that she does not want to come in ( when she runs out of the door).

Pangs of a MOM

Pangs of a Mom...

so very true

Not all can understand.

At work when I think of my sugar dolly lolly Lil miss pollies

When my heart craves to be with them

When I want to sleep with them around me, on ,me, beneath me

When I want to feel their soft hands on my face, my hair, my stomach

When I miss them so much while I am at work

Pangs of a MOM

Knots in my stomach

Butterflies too

Strain in my heart

its all very true

Pangs of a Mom

so many , so different

so very true

Where is my Ma

Looking at the world through those inqusitive eyes...

searching for their MAA...

Balancing Act

Get up in the Morning...
Watch ur baby by your side...sleeping peacefuly ..clinging to your breast..
you smile..your heart warms up and you feel proud to be a mom.

Stir and try to come out of bed...
the baby stirs with you...
you sneek to the toilet and hear the baby wailing for you.
You rush..forget to flush..pick and sooth you lil one...
Her in one arm and with the other you wash your face, brush teeth,pull your payjamas and talk to her at stretch
You rush to the kitchen, warm her milk put lil sugar..shake it a bit and pour in the bottle spilling a lot here and there...strugging in between with your love...talking, humming singing in between trying to distract her from the things she wants to hold and put in her mouth...
You feed the baby and sing to her
Take out the Diaper and make her sit on the Pink Potty
You talk to her in various languages...encourage her to clear her bowls.
Some times when she obliges you feel at the top of the world.
.....This is the morning routine of a mama.
Now Mama has to go to Office and get ready.
she gives tha baby to Dad and makes tea, and tries to quickly make a healthy breakfast...