Sleep and feeding schedule help

My girls will be 21 weeks tomorrow and I need some help/suggestions with their daily schedule.  We moved from Charleston, SC to Milwaukee, WI about a month ago and the girls were sleeping through the night before we moved and now they are not.  We got them back to one bottle at 7p and then 11 or 11:30 and then they get up around 7am.  They do cry sometimes in between the night and morning but we are trying to let them self soothe, which is easier some nights than others.  
 
I am struggling to get them on a good schedule during the day and night.  Basically I am just struggling to get anything done, with still trying to unpack from the move and take care of them and get ready for the holidays.  It has been a real struggle since I do not know anyone here in Milwaukee so I have no relief.  
 
Also any suggestions on how to keep little arms, legs from getting through the slats in their cribs?  Faces have also been smashed up against the side of the cribs.  My little ones like to wiggle around.  A lot.   

 

 
Wow!  I think you are doing great!  You packed up everything and two 4 month olds and moved 1000 miles!  that had to have been a feat! My hat is off to you!
Okay so not everything is unpacked, but the cribs are up and here you are thinking about schedules.  Good job mama!
 
I think it was about 5 months (did i figure their age correctly?) that i became really frustrated with what i was NOT accomplishing.  
everything i did took one 'unit of measure' longer than i expected.
For example-
if i thought something should be accomplished in 1 HOUR it took 1 DAY.
a job that should have been done in 1 DAY took 1 WEEK.
1 WEEK, adjust to 1 MONTH!!
 
Really, it was everything i could do to feed, change and put the kids down to sleep.
So my first suggestion is lower your expectations and stop for a minute to be amazed at what you have accomplished.
2nd suggestion - have your SO buy a small pre-decorated Christmas tree (if that is your holiday of choice) and call it good enough!  You have many years to do all the holiday stuff.  Your kids will not remember this holiday.  Spend your time enjoying them and give yourself a free pass on holiday responsibilities this year.
3rd suggestion - find out if any grocery stores near you do an express lane.  Ordering on-line an picking up groceries was life saver for me.  with my DH's job (worked overtime) it meant i had to take the kids everywhere i went.  What heaven to not have to haul them into the store!
 

Have you seen these Breathable Mesh Crib Liners?
 
Schedules:
At 5 months they should be starting to establish an early afternoon nap.  All sleep transitions, make sleep rough for a while. The good news is that after each transition sleep schedules get easier..
 Is their morning nap consistent yet?  What does their typical day look like?  bed, nap and wake times?  when they sleep how long do they stay asleep?  are they on the same schedule?

 

PS - wanted to add.  For us disturbed sleep always meant they had gotten over tired. whether the initial cause was teeth, or growth spurt,  or changes, or just fluke, the 'fix' was to get them caught up on sleep.  Happy to look at their schedule and make some guesses what might be the best way to 'catch them up'. 
 
ETA-  Hope they had a good night.

 

They will be 5 months on the 17th and were born at 36w4d, so I don't know if their ages need to be adjusted.  Never totally understood that.  
 
 I have the house decorated for Christmas, that was fun and one of my favorite things to do.  I pretty much unpacked (as best as I could) and then decorated for Christmas.  So I have no idea where my "normal" stuff will go but that will be an issue sometime in January.  Ha.
 
As for grocery shopping I normally do that on the weekend while my husband stays with the girls.  Since we moved the only place the girls have been is the Dr's office.  It is way too cold to take them out and they hate the cold.  Not to mention it takes forever to get out of the house and we don't have anywhere to go, don't know anyone here.  
 
As for their schedule I get them up around 7, well sometimes. Who am I kidding, most of the time they wake up before 7 and I turn the light on and talk to them while they are in their cribs until 7, then I get them up and change and dress them then feed them.  I will play/read with them for a bit then put them down for a nap at 9. They usually will get up around 11 and then I change and feed them, play/read to them and then around 1ish they take another nap in their cribs.  They get up around 3ish and then I feed them and then play for a bit.  I don't have a scheduled afternoon nap in their cribs, they normally fall in and out of sleep in their swings.  then we start the night routine at 7pm.  We keep them on the same schedule, and if they cry during their nap time I will check on them and then let them fall back asleep.  
 
Sadie has colic so that has been a challenge and Sophie has laryngomalacia and had surgery at 6 weeks.  Thankfully Sophie can sleep through anything, including Sadie loosing her mind.  
 
I am open to any thoughts or suggestions.  I am the first to admit I have no idea what I'm doing.  
 
Thanks!

 

uuugg.. i just lost everything i wrote! and i am long winded!
 
in a nut shell:
 
try putting them to bed earlier.   the night waking indicates being tired.  their naps are great (2 hours)!  the only place to catch up is night.  you can't make them sleep later so try putting them to bed earlier.
 
a sleep log will help you find patterns.  for example:   for us, 15 minutes later to sleep = 30 minutes earlier wake time!  All the sleep experts say - sleep begets sleep.  sounds crazy, but it's true.  putting them to bed earlier works!
 
don't go in or turn on the light in the morning until wake up time.  they are getting to an age where they will wake just so they can hang out with you.
 
I am not sure what i would do about the night feeding.  if they were STTN before they should be able to do it.  I think i would try putting them to bed earlier so they catch up on sleep and see if they eliminate it on their own.
 
oh and Sadie's colic, could it be acid reflux?
 
sorry that was all so blunt and short. I wanted to respond tonight and just running out of time.  hope it makes sense... 

 

Thank you!  I thought I had responded last night, don't know what happened.  Oh well here goes again.
 
They both have reflux and are on medication.  Yippee.
 
We will definitely try getting them to bed earlier.  I guess right now we start the get to bed routine at 7, so they are in bed around 7:45ish or so.  Maybe we should start it at 6:30 and go from there.  
 
Last night we fed them 6oz with some rice cereal at 11 and they were back in bed by 11:20. Sadie woke up crying at 3am and cried for about an hour or so.  Sophie joined in towards the end and then they went back to sleep.  I went in to check on them (in the dark and they were fine).  I didn't pick them up but they didn't have a dirty diaper so I didn't touch them.  This morning I had to wake them up at 7.  They were both still sleeping.  
 
My concern is are they eating enough?  Each bottle is 6oz (sometimes 6.5 oz) and a half tablespoon of rice cereal.  Are they eating enough?  How much should they be eating?  Should I up the bottles during the day to drop the one at 11ish?

 

I don't know about the amounts.  I always fed what they would eat and since they were gaining well I only monitored that it was normal for them..  Is your Dr okay with their weight gain?  check with your ped.  Also, maybe someone here will have some for advice on that.
 
I always went with.. they need x amount of calories for the day.  I let them eat as much as they wanted to during the day in the hopes that they wouldn't need to eat at night.  It worked that way for us but maybe it was dumb luck.
 
Acid reflux:  what are they on?  if it is Zantac BE AWARE that the dose is VERY sensitive to weight.  Almost 2 years later and i am still ticked off at my Dr for not telling me that!  Hey surprise! babies grow! fast! :headbang:  
 
My DS, Nicholas has acid reflux. It was diagnosed because he wouldn't finish his bottles and would cry with pain. He never threw up so it took us a while to figure it out. Now, his ONLY symptom is night waking with pain.  I can tell the cause is acid reflux (and not something else) because when i go in he is sitting up and when i hold him up right he will go back to sleep but if i hold him laying down he cries again.  I am a firm believer in letting them go back to sleep and not going in at night.. this is my only exception.
something to think about for Sadie, could her acid reflux be acting up?  Maybe her meds need to be adjusted?  Also, do you have their beds at an angle?  even a blanket under the mattress to lift the head end is helpful.
 
I hope the earlier bed time helps them.  It might take a little while to see a difference.

 

We just switched her meds from Prilosec back to Zantac (I do know about the weight thing, what a pain!).  The prilosec was working like a dream but the pharmacy up here was going to charge us $120/month for one of the girls where down in SC we paid $4/month.  Yes $4 a month for the medicine.  I called our insurance company (same one) and asked what was going on and they didn't know, so we 3 way called the pharmacy and they said they couldn't do what our old pharmacy was doing for us. So we had to change them back to Zantac.  
 
Sadie weighs about 3 lbs more than Sophie.  Sophie was 6lb 13oz when she was born and Sadie was 6lb 12oz. Sophie lost those first 6 weeks to laryngomalacia when she wasn't eating much because she was having such a hard time breathing.  At their 4 month check up Sadie was just under 15 lbs and Sophie was just under 12 and has been eating more and more since then.  Makes me so happy to have her eating more!  
 
I just worry about everything with them and want them to eat as much as they need to.  So many things to worry about!  
 
Maybe she is just trying to roll over.  Maybe she just wants some more attention.  Who knows.  

 

Ask your Dr to prescribe Omeprizole (the generic Prilosec).  We had a mix up like that too and i think that was the problem.  Ha - and my friend went to pick up the med for me.. I gave her $10 to cover it.  when it was more she up it on her card!! :woah:  and brought it home!  luckily the pharmacy worked with me about the money.    If not call around pharmacies and see if you can find it cheap.
 
 
I can't imagine how scary that was with Sophie.  Glad she is doing better.  I understand the worry about everything.  Trust your gut.. if you think something is not right keep digging.  You will figure it out.  And don't forget to take time to enjoy them.. they grow so fast.
 
.

 

That was the cost of the Omeprizole!  Where did you get yours filled?  I tried Walgreens.  I can't seem to find a compounding pharmacy around here at all. Did your pharmacy make it into a syrup for you? 

 

I use a local mom and pop pharmacy.  they do some minor compounding like for this kind of thing.  
it is not really a syrup, more liquidy (i don't think that is a word ).  a cloudy liquid.. like maybe the pills are just crushed and floating in it (?). it requires shaking as everything settles to the bottom but works great. it tastes terrible but he drinks it fine.  for a little while i had to hide it in apple sauce but then he went back to drinking it happily. 
 
looking for compounding pharmacies - if your doc doesn't know of any, try calling local veterinarians and ask if they know of any in your area.  many vets use compounding pharmacies because of the variable size of the animals. most drugs for animals are just human meds with adjusted doses.

 

Thank you!  I will call around to see what I can find.  I asked the Dr's office and they didn't know any other than the pharmacy at the children's hospital, went there and it was the same cost.  I find it hard to believe that nobody knows how/will do this.  So frustrating.  I even called our old pharmacy in Charleston to see if they could mail it to us and they can't mail it to Wisconsin.  Argh.

 

The earlier bed time has made a WORLD of difference.  Since we started that we have had only one crying outbreak that lasted about 5 min.  TOTAL.  Amazing!!
 
I can't thank you enough!!!!!

 

Ha, Great!  glad it helped!  
 
My LOs are almost 2.. early bed time is still our 'reset button'.  And i still have to talk my self into doing it!!.. It really makes NO sense that 'early to sleep' means 'happy sleepers' and 'late to rise'..  but it works!
Everything Weissbluth wrote about sleep worked for my kiddos.  (Health Sleep Habits, Happy Child)  I have no doubt that book changed my parenting experience for the better.
 
Glad they are sleeping better.

 

I'm glad you're finding your rhythm! I second the compounded reflux meds. We did compounded Prevacid and it was phenomenal. We had to do solutabs a time or two (traveling) and it didn't compare.