Day 34

So 34 days ago (wow, time flies) we started our new sleep routine. Initially, we had tons of success and then things got kinda rough. It's hard to describe without going into a lot of boring details but during the last month, we've had lots of ups and downs. The girls have been troopers, as has Lisa.


During these last 5 weeks, the girls stopped using their "inclined to sleeps", they began rolling over back to front pretty efficiently, they have each cut their first tooth, and finally they moved to their own crib. That's a lot of firsts and a lot of progress in 5 weeks. No wonder it's so hard for them to go to sleep, their little brains are just churning!

Katy got her first tooth yesterday. We noticed with Alyssa that she started having a more and more difficult time staying asleep the days leading up to her tooth coming through. We noticed the same with Katy more than a week ago and when we went to our monthly checkup with our doctor, he told us that she was "weeks away" from cutting that first tooth and that Alyssa's second tooth would cut pretty soon. That kinda scared us since Katy had been having such a hard time sleeping...then yesterday we noticed her sticking her tongue out and feeling her gum. We got the flashlight out and there it was! Alyssa hasn't cut her second yet.

Another big step was putting them in separate cribs. It became obvious to us when we needed to make that change when Alyssa became pretty proficient at rolling. Katy would stay pretty still during the night but once they both could roll, there was no stopping them. They would bump into each other and wake each other up in the middle of the night. We had to separate them for our own sanity. The first night went great and while they still wake up in the middle of the night and we even catch them looking for each other, I think they've done far better this last week since we separated them.

Other monumental firsts are the girls getting better at getting themselves to sleep on their own...and back to sleep in the middle of the night without us going in to comfort them. Each girl has done that but today was the first day that Lisa just sat back during and didn't comfort either one and both were able to fall asleep for their nap on their own. Pretty amazing. One part of that is they started sleeping on their stomachs. When we put them down, they both immediately roll to their right so they can fall asleep on their side. Eventually, they'll finish rolling and end up on their stomachs. It made us so nervous the first couple of nights but they are pros now. Spending more time on their stomach will help them shape their heads and also help them ....uh...expel excess gas.

The next first? Tomorrow we start solids. Well, not solids solids...just rice cereal. We are going to introduce that during one feeding tomorrow and see how they tolerate it. We've been given pretty specific instructions on how to introduce something new, even something as benign as rice cereal. So tomorrow we will open a whole new can of worms.

Speaking of can of worms...I hear introducing new food can have a pretty powerful effect on what comes out the other end. I have to admit that I am not looking forward to that.

I'll leave you with our first moose of the new year. This young male found his way into our back yard on January 1st. We've been living here for almost 3 years and I'm still amazed every time I see a moose so close up. I can't believe we're so lucky to have these guys hanging around the neighborhood. Matter a fact...just tonight, I was walking Madison down on the trail that goes next to a creek. We came across a Mom and baby moose and the baby moose was actually walking on the frozen creek. It was the first time I'd seen that.