A New Schedule - A New Season

Well, we have finally done it. We made the commitment to switch the babies from a 5 bottle/2 meal + 2 snack schedule to a 4 bottle/3 meal + 1 snack schedule. Now I know this may not be earth shattering news but it took me quite awhile to figure out how it was all going to work out. I had a feeling they were getting ready for a change - but I was nervous going from 3 naps to 2. And selfishly, mostly because I dug their long nap from 2:30-4pm every afternoon because it seemed it was the only time I could shut everything down and maybe nap a little while myself.

But after their mid day nap kept growing shorter and shorter, and Quinn was really only taking 3 out of her 5 bottles anyway, we decided to make the change.

So far, so good. I have been most concerned about Ryan and his naptimes - that boy can sleep! He goes from 7:30-6:45 almost every night and still enjoyed his 3 naps. The first or second night we made the change, he fell asleep right during his dinner solid feeding. I mean, flat out GONE.

Matt looked at me and was like "is he faking it?". And I looked over and he had a combo of drool and sweet potatoes running out of his mouth and no, I was pretty sure he was not "faking it".

Ever since then, he seems to have adjusted well. And I am loving the fact that I have 2 less bottles a day, even though it means a full solid meal added. Quinn really seems to be enjoying those - and in fact, I am pretty sure she is striking bottles just so she can eat the "good stuff". Oh, well. There is only so much I can stress about with her eating -- and I figure if she is eating 3 solid meals a day plus a full yogurt snack and crackers and at least 3 good bottles a day -- what else can we do?

(At least I am telling myself that as I write this. The true test will be at her weigh-in 3 weeks from now.)

So our schedule now:

6:45 - 7:00am: Babies 1st bottles

7:45am - Solid breakfast (cereal or oatmeal with butter, yogurt & fruit, plus as many cheerios as they can stuff in their mouths or hide in the pocket of their bibs)

7:45am - 8:45am: Playtime and mommy clean up time and mommy breakfast time

8:45-10:30am: 1st nap (and mommy shower)

10:30am: Babies 2nd bottles

11:30am: Solid lunch (cereal/oatmeal, fruit, veggie, fruit pieces and crackers)

11:45am - 1:00pm: Playtime, mommy lunchtime

1:00pm - 2:30pm: Babies' 2nd naptime

2:30-2:45pm: Babies 3rd bottle

3:15pm - Snacktime! (usually yogurt for Q and fruit for Ryan)

3:15-5:30pm - Playtime and praytime for Daddy's arrival home :)

5:30pm - Solid dinner (cereal/oatmeal, veggie, fruit, crackers -- we had started on meats but Q was doing so hot with them and seemed to have a fairly vicioius gag reflex to them so to maintain calories, we are stopping for a week and will reintroduce)

6:00pm - Daddy does bathtime & mommy starts dinner and has a cocktail (this has remained consistent, thank God)

7:15pm - Ryan bottle

7:30pm - Quinn bottle (hopefully - sometimes she fights it, so we eat dinner and come back to her at 8pm and try again)

8:15pm - Both babies in bed sleeping soundly and Mommy & Daddy RELAX.

So you can see, from just one short month ago - things have changed a lot. And when I say I poured over this schedule and prayed over and over again that it would work, that would not be an exaggeration. And the darn thing is, I know as soon as this is old hat, we will be changing again. :) Such is life with 9 1/2 month olds I suppose.

I am glad that it all seems to be going well, even with the unnecessary added excitement of my surgery- and a probably ill fated decision to venture down to the Rodeo on Saturday with kids in tow and an exhausted mom - but hey, it was free - and we all held up. Except for me, who promptly took a 3 hour nap upon our return to leave my husband to do the twin's dinner, bottles and order in dinner for us. I am WIFE OF THE YEAR. 

So if you made it through that terribly exciting post (which unless you are a hardcore Clanahan blog reader, you gave up a long time ago), I leave you with a few recent pics of the babes. Most of them in their pjs because I didn't have enough energy to change them last week and they seemed cozy. (Except for the rodeo outfits because you can't wear PJ's to the Rodeo - gasp!)

Road trip to Austin!

Heading out

The car packed for 1 day and night in Austin. Geez.

The paci stealer - now one isn't enough. We must steal two.

Must play with the same toy. This is the daily favorite.

Quinn just looks mad that I interrupted her playtime for picture time.

My crawling fools. There is no stopping them.

Quinn takes a rare moment to smile for the camera.

When I see pics like this, it's no wonder that the child can't eat more - look at those chub cheeks!

If you look closely, you can see remnants of the cold/runny noses that Ryan, Quinn, and I have been passing back and forth for the last 3 weeks.

Quinn pulls herself all the way up now on EVERYTHING. Ryan is not happy with this new trick.

Recovering after his brief meltdown. I think he was just tired.

Babyproofing at it's best.

What did I do, Mommy?

Yay, rodeo time!!! Ryan has a new thing where he cheers with his arms raised all the time. He also is starting to wave and clap his hands together. And now he understands to clap after we clap - precious!!

The only family pic from the rodeo. Mom was off her camera game on Saturday.

See? Same toy, all the time. But at least this day they were sharing the space and the toy instead of trying to shove the other away. Baby steps :)