Yesterday, I told my cousin that mothering feels like a science experiment. I keep tampering with the variables in an effort to produce the desired result. Right now, my desired result is a good night’s sleep, interrupted only for feedings every three hours. I’m trying to figure out how to encourage the girls to sleep between feedings and not vociferously and adamantly declare that they are on the brink of starvation merely one hour after a feeding. I am currently working on altering the variable of how much time the girls are awake during the day. I figure if they’re exhausted by the time I want to go to bed, maybe they will want to go to bed as well. So today, I poked and prodded the girls awake after their feedings and tried to entertain them during their alert times with books, photo sessions, tummy time on a blanket, and impromptu, rambling monologues where I listed everyone in their family who loved them (quite a lengthy list, I’m happy to say!). Unfortunately, their alert times often deteriorated into screams of protest that I would dare interrupt their precious sleep. I was reminded of the wisdom of the adage to let sleeping babes lie! We’ll see how successful this newest installment of my science experiment will be. If several days of forced interaction during the daytime doesn’t produce longer stretches of sleep at night, I’ll have to come up with a new variable to attack. I’m certainly open to suggestions!
I had a wonderful visit with my aunt Maureen and my cousin Sarah the past few days. They were in New York on business, and I was so pleased that they made the effort to meet Rebecca and Susanna. I have to say that the girls were quite content to be held and cuddled by these new family members. And I was quite content to let others ooh and ahh over our precious bundles of joy! Oh, and I have to share the beautiful gift that Sarah made for the girls. She is a very talented knitter, and she created two beautiful sweaters for them. Can you see the detail that went into these works of art? I’m very impressed, and very flattered that she put so much effort into them. Thank you, Sarah!
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