How many schedules can one family try?

I said I would post about schedules today...and I am! Woo ME!! :) Now, it needs to be known that I can make this blog post in more than a half awake state due to the new, yet another, schedule we are on. Lets start from the beginning...back in those easy-peasy NICU days.

When the littles were in the NICU for their 23 day respite they ate like clockwork. Initially because the food was being poured into their stomachs via their nose and esophagus, then because the nurse nazi's we (mostly) loved were avid schedulers. 9-12-3-6-9-12-3-6. Their last night in schedule lockdown we went out to dinner, a nice dinner, a dinner we have not seen the likes of since that night...but I digress...after the great Simon's dinner we visited our trio. The nurses were feeding them and were very pleased that all were now taking enough formula to be placed on a four hour schedule. Wow! we thought - it's that easy? Hahaha, silly, naive us.

I can honestly say I believe we tried the four hour schedule at first, but quickly reverted back to what we knew, which was the three hour. The four hour schedule was nothing we experienced since we were released the next day. However, I could be completely wrong. I would have to consult the baby books to know for sure. I can tell you when mom and Kim were here we were enforcing a four hour schedule. Like my choice of words? Enforcing...because that is what we were doing. Nobody but them, John, Helayne, and myself can understand the pure agony it was dealing with little man at that time. He simply could NOT handle a four hour schedule. At about hour three, three and a half he would lose it. We were just placating as long as we could possibly stay sane doing so.

During Helayne's stay with us she saw what we were doing and said..."he's hungry, why not just feed him?" Don't ask me why at 5am it seemed the most logical thing in the world to realize this was just not working. So we changed it. Then and there. We fed him, fed the girls, and fed everyone again three hours later. That was mid-September. We have been doing the same ever since. Don't get me wrong, Zach didn't become the happy fun-loving boy he is now overnight. His fussiness stuck for a bit longer still...but was continually getting better. We were also seeing three littles who were sleeping during the day. Naps! Something we were not getting consistently on the four hour schedule. Helayne and I had a few moments to ourselves. That was a new experience. In late October we visited Anchorage. We arrived at 11pm believing our trio would never sleep that night. How wrong we were...to our amazement! They went to sleep by maybe 1am and slept and slept and slept. For the first time (I believe) we did not wake them like clockwork. During that visit we realized if left to sleep on their own they would sleep from midnight until 5am and then again until 9am. I truly hate to say this, but the parent of a single child cannot understand the pure and simple joy that is for the parent of multiples.

From that weekend on we would feed every three hours until midnight, let them sleep as long as they could, and generally start the three hour cycle again around 6-7 am. As the weeks passed we were noticing the littles getting tired a bit earlier in the evening. We eventually moved the last feeding up to 10pm, then 9pm, etc. We also began having to adjust our last feeding to be two hours after instead of three. We eventually got to the point that our last feeding was at 7-7:30 and off to bed we went. Well, the girls anywho. Zach oftentimes stayed up later with mommy and daddy for some alone time. He usually would need an extra bottle as well. Remember in yesterday's post where I said I was noticing he needed more...this was the more.

Then we called the dr. asking to add solids.
Then we added solids.
Then we talked to the dr. again at their well baby checkup about our adding of solids.
Then we got confused... the day after talking to the dr. and feeling completely confident in our adding of solids.
Then we consulted BabyWise again.
Then we started over. On the four hour schedule. Again. At almost 7 months. Our schedule now looks something like this...7am bottle, 9am nap, 11am bottle, 12/1 nap, 3pm bottle, 4pm nap, 5pm solids, 7pm bottle then straight to bed. It took a couple days to get into this groove, but we did. Little man kept us company the first few nights again, demanding his fifth bottle...not ready to give it up yet. I even commented to John that we are gluttons for punishment. We finally got everyone on a good schedule, Zach was going to bed at a reasonable time...and we change it up! However, I will now say, after 6 days of this schedule it is HEAVEN!! We are finally, for the first time ever, beginning to see something of a nap schedule that includes actual naps. Hour long naps, not 20 minute catnaps. Naps that actually involve cribs, not bouncy chairs. ALL THREE littles are going to bed straight after the last bottle, even Zach. And last night he didn't even wake for his extra! We poured it down the drain (because it cannot be kept for more than 24 hours).

Looking back it seems every day was a new schedule. We are finally on a schedule with little wiggle room. Yes, if someone is starving at the three hour forty-five minute mark, we will feed them (really, let's be honest here...we will feed him). Yes, if Addie wakes up 30 minutes into her nap and really cries I will go get her. Yes, I'm still somewhat flexible. I'm also very, very happy that we are finally in a groove. Many parents don't understand my need for such a strict schedule, or really, a schedule at all. If you visited us for anything longer than a day, you would. I don't schedule out of punishment or a strong need for order. I schedule out of a need to make it through the day sane. I need to know what the next hour or two holds. Three littles are exhausting enough; in this area, I like my consistency.

Now if we could just figure out why Zach wakes at 5am and is unable to get himself back to sleep....


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad