Second night of first Hanukkah (for the boys)

Last couple of days were a mix - some things going smoother, some less so.  The amount of eating going on at night is still unclear.  I am inclined to let Zev cry it out two nights and be done with it - he did go four days straight with no eating at night was none worse for the wear.  Alla is more inclined to indulge him, since she knows lots of cases when kids eat at night much later than six months.  How "normal" that I do not know.  Only what leads to more sleep.

While I usually post pictures in time sequence, these two should be posted tonight.

12/21/11 after lighting the candles

with mom now

...and one more

Another day

The day that followed the previous night was, as expected, crappy - the boys ate poorly and slept poorly.  by evening we were all bracing for another adventitious night.  Alla's mom, bless her courageous heart, insisted on spending the night against Alla's wishes, in order to take the early morning shift.  The surprise, however, was in how smoothly things went.  The boys slept through most of the night.  Zev was fed around 5, and then they both fell asleep.

Something very unusual happened to me this morning.  I was woken up at 7 am by my alarm clock, while in bed.  Which was a pleasant break from the recent routine.  The boys, actually, slept until 8.  It is now late on Tuesday (OK, early on Wednesday).  So far so good.

12/8/11 Zev

12/16/11 Zev again, happier this time

12/17/2011 Ben at the store

Surprised Ben

Angry Ben

Zev mesmerized by something outside our house.  Same day.

Zev with mom

Zev practicing sitting.

Two steps forward, one step back

Last week Alla went on a business trip.  For a day and a half, one night away from home.  That left me and aunt Olya with the boys for two days, two evenings, and one night in the middle.

The first day went well and the evening went as expected.  The 6 pm feeding went mostly OK - took a bit too long, as Zev was expecting boob and was resisting the bottle for a bit.  The feeding took longer than planed and by the end Ben was very sleepy and rather cranky.  Yet the routine was followed: reading, changing, singing - even if singing was accompanied by a crying Ben.  To beds they went and after a few minutes all was quiet for a while.

And quiet it remained until about 3:45 am.  Ben piped up, received the pacifier, and was asleep in two seconds - as planned, this time.  The next noise came from Zev, definitively, at 5:45.  Shrotly, Ben was up too and it was clear they were over the sleeping thing for the night.  The boys were changed and fed, and were playing downstairs under Shawna's supervision.  Off I went to bed to get my last half hour of sleep.

That night Alla returned and routine resumed.  The remarkable thing was - for once, no one ate from 7 pm to 6 am.  The same happened the following night and I became cautiously optimistic that the night feeding was done with.  Don't get me wrong, there was still getting up to do, and playing with / feeding around 6 am, but still - no feeding from 7 pm to 6 am was something.  I started thinking of visiting the gym again.

The "good life" lasted for two more days.  Last night Zev cried around 10:30 pm and in rushed Alla, to comfort him.  Which prompted Zev to cry harder and Alla to feed him.  I came in, hissing that feeding Zev was the wrong move, as was picking him up.  Alla relented, and the only-partly-fed Zev went back to bed.  Now, he was furious - the boob was given, then taken away.  Zev yelled indignantly and woke up Ben, who yelled about being woken up.  Alla wanted to rush back in, but I barked that she has done rather enough for one night; I patted each screaming baby on the head, and settled in the office, listening to the yelling.  Alla was crying while listening to the same duet in the bedroom.  About 7 minutes later both performers were asleep.  Naturally, at 3 am Zev woke up and was fed again.  The monitor remained on, so was treated to the pre-feeding yelling in full.  I walked into the room, hissed some more about the intelligence of feeding Zev twice in one night and setting us back in sleep training, and went back to bed.  I remember being woken up at least one more time after that.  Then it was 6:15, crying was coming from the monitor, and it was my turn to take care of the babies, so Alla could sleep in peace a little.

By 6:20 I was entering the babies' room.  With a headache, in a foul mood, pissed at myself for being in this situation and at Alla for setting us back from four straight nights of no night feeding.  The changing-playing-feeding Ben routine followed.  Some time after 7 aunt Olya arrived to take over the duties and Alla came down to feed Zev.  I went to clean up, computing work lateness with and without an assembled sandwich.  Just as I was leaving, I did one more thing to share my Monday morning cheer.  I freely shared with Alla that, on balance, I indeed A*B*S*O*L*U*T*E*L*Y L*O*V*E my life, every single day of it.

With this, here are some more cute pictures of babies.  Welcome to the Kaplan House.  

12/6/11 Zev catching a ride upstairs

12/6/11 sort of sitting on the couch

Ben, right after a walk

Ben practicing standing

pics from December 4th

Ben

This thing does what?

what, another interview?

OK, I'll smile.

Look, ma!  I found my foot!

more pictures from December 3rd

Happy Zev

Two surprised boys

And who are you?

Chill Zev

6 months

The boys are 6 months now.  The half year has gone by pretty fast.  Memorable, miserable, yet much better than it could have been.  Ben has met his half-year mark with a rather rough night (likely - teeth).  This evening he took some time falling asleep at 7 as well.  He was not amused, and not shy letting us know about it.  He does continue to eat and quiets pretty quickly if picked up.  The 10:30 feeding went well, with minimum fussing, and we hope for a better night.

In other news, mom has gone a bit nuts with a new camera.  All following pictures were taken on December 3rd.

Zev with Great-grandma

Ben with the signature anime eyes

Ben with Great-grandma

Zev with new technology

...and this is a good day

approaching 6 months

Thanksgiving came and went in a blur.  Parents came for a visit and after three days, much too soon, were gone. Can't wait to see you guys in December!  With my parents' visit, however, started the exposure to music.  The keyboard my father played for the boys stands in the corner now like a silent reminder of Alla's and mine lack of musical talent.  We do occasionally use the keyboard to play one of the stored melodies.

The boys continue to grow, get small amounts of solid food, and sleep a bit better after it.  Not much else beyond that.

November 28th.  Ben trying soup for the first time in New Seasons supermarket

This is food?  It can taste like this?? More!!!

December 1st. Very serious Zev resting

sleep training, night feeding, and (sorta) surviving

Well, the purely "falling asleep" part of it appears to have gone well - when placed into their cribs, the boys may complain for a few minutes, but mostly they fall asleep.  With or without a pacifier, right away on after talking to themselves - they mostly make no fuss.  Does this translate into better nights for parents?  Not necessarily.  Zev still wakes up at 3-4am and demands boob.  Or at least some food.  If not - he makes it to 5:30, wakes up, and then stays in his bed, awake, not necessarily crying - but talking loud enough to wake up his brother.  At which point the whole sleeping thing is over for whoever is on duty.

Speaking of food.  Recently the boys were offered a few samples of "solid" food - as much as pulverized fruit can be called solid.  Whatever.  Interestingly, Ben loved it, while Zev was lukewarm to it - this one knows exactly what he wants.  A good thing, too, since, as I was told, Ben would scream in rage any time a bit of this new delicious thing was wasted on his brother who did not appreciate it...

In recent weeks my time with the boys have been limited - what with the full time job and teaching preparation on weekends.  Alla takes the brunt of the care, while my duty is the 11pm feeding.  During the weekends I also help out at night and then prepare for my lecture, more or less bleary-eyed and coffee-soaked.  As you can imagine, it does tremendous favors to my analytical abilities and disposition.  I have been "lucky" - recently I got to draw some of the more interesting nights.  The time change, for example, has taken the boys well over a week to adjust to.  During that time we were treated to several pre-6am wake up yells.  Last weekend, between the shortened sleep, the lecture prep, and coffee withdrawal, I got as far as to pack a bag for a weekend somewhere else.  Anywhere else.  Only the realization that there was no one else to cover the night with Alla kept me at home.  Barely.

Just last night I had the distinct pleasure of having Zev scream into my ear for twenty minutes non-stop.  He was not in pain, poopy, sleepy, or hungry (I *was* trying to feed him).  Just felt like it.  He won, in a way - Alla woke up and comforted Zev in his favorite way, which allowed us to switch him to a bottle and finish feeding him.  Only for Alla to wake up again in a few hours, and for me have another several minutes of pure blazing white fury.  It took all of my self control not make a hole in a wall.  Where is my punching bag now, when I need it most?  How ironic.  Tonight I fed Ben with Alla's mom.  Alla herself was well asleep by the time I got home.  Zev was in a good mood this time and ate in Rita's arms like a little angel.  The screaming banshee of the night before was gone...but not for long - the role was taken up by Ben.  As I was saying to myself "son of a bitch, two for two?!", Ben (who usually eats 5-6 ounces with minimum fuss) proceeded to scream any time a bottle went anywhere near him.  If I held him up so he could look at the lights - Ben was OK.  If I offered food - the sirens came on.  Before Ben switched to a monotone yelling, he actually tried to communicate via various sounds in his crying.  Rita thought he was complaining to dad.  Sounded like telling off in 'baby' to me...  After about ten minutes of this I said some words in Russian I am mot proud of and plunked Ben into bed.  He took a pacifier and quieted down immediately.  Alla, freshly woken up, then told me that he had some cereal earlier and was probably just not hungry...

What can I say - Alla could have left a note, I should have woken her up anyway to pump - the whole communication thing still eludes us most of the time.  I honestly don't know how Alla does this.  I get a small portion, and between the rage and the reduced IQ the next day I hardly function - or do so through abundant coffee only to withdraw over the weekend with nausea, migraine, and extra-charming personality.  Alla, on the other hand, covers almost all night wake-ups, and then goes to work.  In the evenings, amazingly, she has enough in her to have kind words for her husband.

another picture and a few thoughts

Dad and Ben in blue, Nov 20th

The boys continue to show divergent interests, if not personalities.  Ben is mostly "left-brained" - less fussy about food or falling asleep, he is all about new information.  If held in front of a painting, Ben can stare at it for minutes, his open-mouthed attention never wavering.  Ben rarely misses a chance to stay awake outside, recording everything.  During the recent trip to the Children's museum, I was told, Ben could not get enough of the new impressions.  Zev, on the other hand, is all about experience of the senses - "right-brained".  He likes his boob, he likes physical closeness more than his brother.  While he is more prone to sleep during outings, Zev truly enjoys the newly discovered form of indoor entertainments: being tossed up by dad.  Airborne Zev had an awesome time, while Ben was a lot more skeptical about the whole experience.  Zev cries more often, Ben rarely, but when he does - boy, do the neighbors know...

November pictures

Ben sleeps, ever serious.  And yes, the big brother is *always* watching.  Nov 14th  

Zev sleeps and dreams of something wonderful.  I suspect it smells of milk and has a nipple attached to it.  Same night.

Even fully deprived of privacy, Ben keeps his spirits up.  No pasaran!

Great-grandma Lena with Ben.  Nov 15th

... and now with Zev