Happy Mother's Day

We had a rough night leading into Mother's day. The girls lately have been more unhappy and restless at night, but last night was probably one of the hardest. Lately we keep all three of them in the crib in our bedroom, because it allows us to share a bed and still keep track of the girls. We weren't up all night but their cycle seemed to arrive just when I was in the middle of a dream-sequence, and I find it very hard to recover from repeatedly waking from that level of sleep. Evelyn in particular needed to be held, jiggled, cuddled or patted almost all night -- I can tuck her under my arm and pat her mechanically on the back in my sleep now, which really seems to help.

We've been reading about night-time problems. Tonight we're going to try to bring in my whooshing white-noise machine from my psychotherapy office and run that at night to see if it helps. Supposedly they need MORE stimulation at night, not less, in order to sleep soundly. So swaddling them tightly, running a sound machine or a fan, and keeping the room humidified is our plan for the night.

Meanwhile it was a beautiful day. I worked in the garden in the morning, and set up a new dog pen for Julie (we are reclaiming the old area for family use) and tore down some of the old fencing. Joe and Fernando came over for Mother's Day lunch - they had shrimp and I stuck with my vegan diet.

Smiles are beginning to happen

Last night when I got home from seeing clients Luciana was all smiles because Cecilia had been giving her a big smile. But she was sleepy now and not really up for giving me a smile. Her mommy tried for ten minutes to coax one out of her, which was about the sweetest sight imaginable. Working long hours, I don't see the girls as much as Luciana and Dona Elsa, but I get my times in. I particularly like cuddling with Evelyn, who is the neediest and pulls at my heart.

Mini-van, of course

Finally we broke down and gave into the necessity and bought a mini-van.

I'm supposed to go pick it up today, provided I can find the title to the Jeep.

Loved the Jeep since we got it and sad to see it go, but we must.

Bought a red Dodge GrandCaravan, 2006, 16,000 miles, fully loaded with leather seats, six-CD changer, DVD player in the back (ugh!) and those very handy stow-and-go seats.

Back to work

The big change this week is that Luciana has gone back to work full-time.

This has forced major changes in our little system of arrangements. Sleeping arrangements and staying-up or getting-up to feed arrangements particularly.

Also, Dona Elza has decided to live with us, at least five days a week, starting this week. Another shift in arrangements. Apparently her in-laws are fighting a lot and she finds it more peaceful here. !! More peaceful being with three infants!

Learning to soothe

An ongoing low-intensity debate in the family: is it good to hold the girls as much as possible, swaddling, holding, shushing and swinging, to soothe them and keep them calm? or is this spoiling them?

We are benefiting from two trends: they are getting bigger and more mature and more able to hold themselves together, and we are learning from the Early Intervention Lady and from a book ("The Happiest Baby on the Block") how to soothe effectively and how to massage newborns so that we can help them move their bowels.

The soothing technique from the book is remarkably effective when done correctly and has cut down on the amount of crying in our house - by babies and by adults - a great deal in the last week.