Sleep...and the bedtime routine?

When the babies first came home, we just tried to find our footing and do whatever worked, and that would sometimes change from evening to evening.  But by the time they were 3 months old, we had settled into a bedtime routine.  We found that the more consistent it was, the calmer the babies were, and the more certain aspects of the routine acted as cues for them that it was time to sleep.  Here's how our routine evolved over time, and helpful products.

0 - 3 Months Old:
Routine:

- Change diapers.
- Put on pajamas (Gowns or zippered footed pajamas were easiest to deal with during the night.  Avoid buttons for nighttime!!)
- Nurse or have bottle of pumped milk or formula.
- Burping.
- Sometimes the babies took gripe water or gas drops.
- Swaddle.
- Sing a lullaby while holding/rocking.
- Lay in crib/pack-n-play/rocker/bouncy seat with pacifier (we tried out a lot of different sleeping positions in those first few months!)
- Turn off light and goodnight!

Products we liked:

Gripe water/gas drops:  Mommy's Bliss or Little Tummys
Swaddle:  Halo Microfleece Sleepsack Swaddle  (This seemed firmer than some of the other swaddles and stayed put better and was harder for the twins to escape than other brands/types.  But even in winter, we would only use a onesie underneath so they wouldn't overheat.)
Pacifier:  Wubbanub
Rocker:  Fisher Price Rock 'n' Play  (Ours was a hand-me-down from a neighbor.  This looks a little expensive, but there are probably cheaper ones out there.  The slight incline helped when the babies seemed so uncomfortable sleeping flat on their backs after being on an incline in the NICU).

(Bath was a daytime activity during this time because we were still getting used to everything and it seemed like such an undertaking to give the twins both a bath at the time.  So we usually didn't do it in the evenings when we were tired.  Of course, we were tired all the time anyway...)

D falls asleep in the bath.

 3 - 6 Months Old:
Routine:

- Turn on lullaby CD (we used the same exact music for over a year!)
- Close blinds and dim lights.
- Every other night we would give baths.  If my husband was home he would play with one baby on the bed while I gave the other a bath, then we would switch.  If he wasn't home, I would put one baby in the swing while bathing his brother.
- Overnight diapers.
- Lotion and baby massage.
- Pajamas.
- Bottles and burping.
- Brush gums/teeth.
- Sometimes we gave the baby version of acetaminophen for teething before they went to bed to head off any pain that might happen when they were going through a particularly rough patch.  We also would sometimes apply Orajel to their gums.
- Swaddle.
- Lay in crib with ocean sounds on crib soothers.
- Turn off light and goodnight!

Products we liked:

Crib soother:   This is the one we happened to have (one in each crib) but they aren't being made anymore.  However, there are a lot of similar ones on the market by both Baby Einstein and Fisher Price.
Gum treatment for teething:  Orajel Nighttime Formula
Baby gum/toothbrush:  Safety 1st Baby Toothbrush  (They really liked this one, it seemed to massage their gums.)
Overnight diapers:  Pampers Extra Protection (Couldn't wear these until they got over 15 pounds, but it was great once we could use them, because unless they had a BM in the night, we could cut down on the amount of middle-of-the-night changes.)

6 - 12 Months Old:
Routine:

- Bath.
- Overnight diapers.
- Lotion (massage became trickier as they became wigglier!)
- Pajamas.
- Close blinds and turn on lullaby CD.
- Bottles and burping.
- Brush gums/teeth.
- Lay in crib with pacifiers.
- Turn off light and goodnight!

Products we liked:

Pajamas:  Carter's.  I preferred the 100% cotton zip-up footed pajamas, or micro-fleece for chilly nights.

12 - 18 Months Old:
Routine:

- Close blinds.
- Bath.
- Overnight diapers.
- Lotion.
- Pajamas.
- Brush teeth.
- Read one picture book or board book.
- Put in crib with pacifiers.
- Turn on crib soother either for lullabies or ocean sounds.
- Turn off light and goodnight!

Products we liked:

Toothbrushes: Usually anything from Target with a fun character on it.  We've used a variety of toothpastes.

(At this point the twins had gotten ahold of and broken the CD player in their room, so we dispensed with that part of the routine.)

Okay, so this is a napping photo.  But same crib, same funny pose!

18 Months - 2 Years Old:
Routine:

- Clean up whatever toys we're playing with.
- Bath.
- Overnight diapers.
- Lotion.
- Pajamas.
- Brush teeth.
- Read a book.
- Pray.
- Get into cribs with 3 stuffed animal loveys and a blanket.
- Close the blinds, turn off the light.
- Turn on the crib soothers.
- Goodnight!

Products we liked:

Bubble bath: Anything that looked fun at Target.

Mixing Large Batches of Formula

Nursing is best, if you can.  We all know the health and emotional benefits of it.  Sadly, we had a lot of issues arise, and ended up having to supplement with formula, and later to use it exclusively.  That story is another post for another time.  But, if you also are using formula, for whatever reason, and especially if you're mixing it for multiple children, read on. 

At first, we used Similac Advantage powdered formula (though later found that the generic Target version is exactly the same and less expensive), and I would tediously mix each bottle by hand.  With the babies eating 8 times a day, that was 16 bottles.  (By the time they were 6 months old, we were down to just 4 bottle feedings a day, but with larger amounts in each bottle.)  To make the mixing easier and faster, I started making one batch of formula in the morning for all we would need in the next 24 hours, using a "recipe" on the Similac website to create the right ratio of powder to water for large batches.  Note that I used this ratio with Similac and Target brand formula, but it may vary from brand to brand.  (Please also check out this  BabyCenter article on mixing and storing formula safely.) 

1 cup formula to

23 ounces water

Later I doubled this so that I would only have to mix one time to yield enough for a whole day (8 bottles of about 7 ounces each):

2 cups formula to

46 ounces water

But if you are making less than 23 ounces, stick to using the little scoop that comes with the formula:

1 scoop to

2 ounces water

I washed my hands first, and used a large plastic pitcher, a plastic measuring cup, and a plastic spatula or whisk to mix my batches, making sure each implement had been run through the dishwasher or at least very well washed with soap and hot water.  Then I poured out the formula into bottles and stuck them all in the fridge, to be taken out two at a time throughout the day.  

I did run across a few sources that said there is greater risk for infection if you mix up formula too far in advance.  If you are worried about this, you can still make it easier on yourself by measuring out the water into bottles ahead of time, and pre-measuring formula for each bottle into divided containers such as these.

Sleep...and the daytime routine?

Doing a blog you can see how many people looked at your site, and how many views each page got.  One can deduce which posts are more interesting to people.  And it's quite clear from this blog, that people are more interested in getting their children to sleep than making homemade baby toys.  And of course I knew they would be, ha ha!  SO, here are some more thoughts on sleep.

I found with my twin boys that what we did during the day was just as important to night-time happenings (or lack of happenings) as what we did for a bedtime routine or during the night.

0 - 3 Months:

- During this time eating, sleeping, diapering, etc. just seemed to happen 'round the clock with not much awake time.  As preemies, ours were very sleepy.  They didn't sleep much at one time, but in general weren't awake for long stretches of time either.  So during this time you just have to roll with it and get through it, and do what must be done.  I don't really believe a lot of sleep training, per se, can happen during this time (for preemies.  Not sure on full-term singletons.)

- Even so, I did a few things to try and differentiate day and night for them.  I tried to change the babies in the morning out of pajamas and into clothes so they would feel different.

D, getting dressed for the day on the changing table!

- I kept the rooms very bright during the day, except when they "napped."

- For naps, I tried as much as possible to have them sleep in their cribs so that there would be a stronger association with that place and sleep.

- I had the TV on in the background, or music playing, or I would try to sing and talk to the babies a lot, so that they would know that the bright daytime was the time for noisemaking.

- We took a walk outside every day for fresh air.  Maybe it's my love of the 1950s, but I do feel even babies need "airing out."  In a humorous article on 1950s parenting, Louise Baty says about an old fashioned stroller:

"There’s plenty of room for her to stretch out – ideal in the 1950s when parents were urged to give their offspring daily doses of fresh air."

- We started doing tummy time as soon as possible, even just a few minutes at a time and building up to 20 minutes at a time by the time they were 3 months old.  This "exercise" helped tire them out for naps and later, for bedtime.  

3 - 6 Months:

- During this time we continued all of the daytime steps listed above.  The boys were slowly stretching out their nighttime feedings but we hadn't started any formal sleep training.

- We also tried to settle into a more predictable napping schedule in these months.  For awhile they took a 2 hour nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon.  But they couldn't quite make it from the last nap all the way until bedtime, and so they took a 30 minute to an hour nap in the early evening as well.  This was an awkward time; they would get so cranky and I never knew how long to let them sleep in the 3rd nap without having it interfere with bedtime.

- As they got older we were able to use more the baby contraptions that had been gifted to us, and which helped entertain and keep the boys awake in the evening, and thoroughly tire them out for bedtime, such as: the exersaucer, activity mat, doorway bouncers ("johnny-jump-up" style swings), and a jumperoo.

J enjoying his activity mat.  My husband liked to call it the "archipelago" because they'd kick it apart the pieces looked like little jungle islands surrounding the babies. 

- By the time the twins were 6 months old we had eliminated the 3rd nap.  I would have them do half an hour of tummy time, sometimes more, right before their morning nap, and the same right before their afternoon nap, and sometimes again in the late afternoon.  They would cry and be tired, but then fall asleep quickly after the exercise.

Baby Boot Camp!

- At the end of the two hour nap I would wake the boys up if they hadn't already.  People always say "never wake a sleeping baby," but I was so determined to have the boys sleep more at night that I wanted to keep to the schedule that we had worked.  It seems cruel now, thinking how I would open the door quickly, open the shades noisily and say "Good morning!!  Wake up babies!" and two little pairs of eyes would fly open as they startled in their swaddles.  But it really did pay off not to let them nap too much and to be awake, eating, and playing during the day.  (I know it's also true that overtired children won't sleep well at night, but by 6 months old, 16 hours a day of sleep is plenty.)  As they got older, I would sometimes let them sleep longer depending on what was going on.  But when I was in the phase of trying to form their sleep habits, I stuck more rigidly to the schedule.  Either way, it's okay to wake up your baby if you think they are sleeping too long and it will disrupt a later nap or bedtime, but I suggest being more gentle than I was ;)

6 - 12 Months:

-  6 months old is when we started sleep training.  It probably could have been done a little earlier.  In any case, we continued our daytime activities as before.

- With the introduction of solid foods and working up towards finger foods, we established daily feeding times for breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner.  This really helped fill them up and they slept the most soundly during this period of time.

J unimpressed by his first taste of real food: pureed peas.  

- Right before bath every night the boys spent almost half an hour jumping and laughing in their doorway swings.  This expended any last bits of energy they had, and then we calmed them down with the bath for the night.

J, proving that the jumpy swings before bed sometimes worked too well.  

1 Year to 18 Months:

- Sometime after they turned one we stopped giving the boys their bedtime bottle.  They switched to just cows milk at that time, and along with all the solid food, there was no need for it to keep them full at night.

- At some point I started shortening the morning nap from 2 hours to 1 hour (sometimes a little more if the boys were sick or we had been very busy).  The afternoon nap lengthened a bit then, and this was in preparation for dropping the morning nap later.

18 Months to 2 Years Old:

- This was the transition from two naps a day to one.  Basically, once I thought they were ready, I just cut the morning nap one day.  We did our usual morning things, and then went to the zoo.  The excitement kept them awake through their usual nap time.  Of course they fell asleep in the car on the way home for lunch, but I woke them up, fed them, and then tried to keep them awake for a little longer.  The one big afternoon nap was then started at 1 p.m.

- It took a few months, with the boys often falling asleep in the car before lunch on the way home from some activity, and then screaming unhappily when I woke them for lunch.  But eventually we settled into a one 3-hour afternoon nap.

- As they got older, the more physical energy the boys had and the more they needed to expend it.  But I found if I put in the time and exertion it took to wear them out in the morning, the longer and better they would sleep in the afternoon.

- However, I didn't let them sleep past 4 p.m. (bedtime was at 7) otherwise they wouldn't fall asleep easily at night.  During this time period fresh air also seemed to help the boys sleep better, along with eating well during the day.

Photo Books for Babies and Toddlers

Our children were born in California, and we moved (back) to Texas when they were 6 months old.  We have family in both states, and as a parting present, my sister-in-law in California made an ingenious gift.  She bought one of those plastic baby books that have an opening on each page for inserting photos, and made a scrapbook/photo album for the boys.  Each page had a picture of one of their 3 cousins, their aunt and their uncle.  Next to the picture was a little typed description of the person and their memories with the babies.

Enjoying their photo books a year after receiving them!

We would regularly flip through the book, and I would name the family members and read the descriptions to the boys.  I thought it was such a good idea, I used a similar book we had to insert other family photos.  Too lazy to actually develop pictures, I would just print some off on computer paper and cut them to size.

I think both albums were Sassy brand from Target, but I can no longer find them both online there.  The book I used can be found in a set of 4 baby books at Target here (the "Love Bug Photo Album), and the one my sister-in-law used, or at least a similar product, can be found at Toys R Us here.  (However, you wouldn't necessarily have to purchase these kinds of things, you could just get an inexpensive, yet sturdy pocket photo album meant for regular use and have the same end result.  We just happened to have these books as gifts anyway.)

Photo albums can be a great way to help your child remember people who are important in their lives but who they may not see on a regular basis.  I also added name labels to some of the pictures so that as they get older, they could even use them to start reading/spelling/writing family member's names.  It's also fun for them to see pictures of mommy, daddy, and themselves. :)

Now the twins are almost two years old and the photo albums are still among their favorite books to look through!  I need to make some more...

Parenting Book List

I'm a big reader.  Or at least, I was before I had twins!  But I still enjoyed reading up on things during the pregnancy, and catching a paragraph here and there when the babies arrived.  Once they started sleeping more, then I was able to indulge more often.  Here are the books I've read so far, and why I liked them.  Each title should link to Amazon if you care to read more reviews or info about any particular book.

Parents of Twins/Multiples:

Mothering Multiples: Breastfeeding and Caring for Twins or More!  by Karen Kerkhoff Gromada.  We had a lot of issues when it came to nursing, sadly.  But this book could be a great resource!

Ready or Not...Here We Come! by Elizabeth Lyons.  Another mother of twins gave me this book when I was pregnant, and you can expect many laughs AND great insight.

Twinspiration by Cheryl Lage.  Amazingly practical and funny advice for a twin pregnancy and logistics during the first year of life.

When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads by Dr. Barbara Luke and Tamara Ebelein.  This helped me figure out my nutritional needs as a mother carrying multiples, as well as going in depth to many medical issues that can arise and how to stay healthy!

Pregnancy:

What to Expect When You're Expecting by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel.  You know, the ubiquitous pregnancy book.  Great for just reading in sections by month.

What to Expect: Eating Well When You're Expecting by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel.  This book really helped me designate how much of everything I should eat each day (protein, magnesium, iron, calcium, what?!) and how to balance and plan my meals.  I wasn't eating that healthfully before I was pregnant, so I wanted to be extra careful once I was.  Over half the book is recipes, and the Chicken Enchiladas were a favorite!  But I do have to say that when it came to being pregnant with twins, following the advice in Dr. Luke's book (see above) would be even more helpful and specific.

Sleep:

The Baby Sleep Solution by Suzy Giordano.  A close friend loaned me this book, and it helped me shape my daytime AND nighttime routines to nudge the babies towards sleeping through the night.  It made very high claims, which weren't realistic for us, but it helped me shape the goals we eventually worked towards.  To follow the author's guidelines while nursing exclusively might not work too well for everyone, but like I said, her advice on routines was helpful.

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth, M.D.  I tried reading this book while sleep deprived on the Kindle version, and became thoroughly confused.  But once I realized I could just jump to the sections that pertained to me, I felt it had some sane advice.

Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber, M.D.  This book helped us help our twins sleep through the night at 6 months.  I realize the author's last name my cause knee-jerk reactions for some, but for our family it's been a good reference.  It is not about "leave the baby to cry forever," quite the opposite.  He gives several different tools based on what your specific family situation and preference may be.

Baby/Toddler Care and Health:

Complete Book of Baby and Child Care by Paul Reisser.  This is a publication of Focus on the Family, a Christian organization.  So the parenting advice it gives is faith-based, but it also has large sections on straight-forward care-taking and medical information for newborns to teenagers.  

Jo Frost's Confident Toddler Care.  I'm a big fan of Jo Frost, otherwise known as "Supernanny," on TV, so I couldn't help myself and bought her book.  It really could fall under every category in this list, because she gives no-nonsense/common sense advice on everything from napping and playing to potty training and eating.

My Child Is Sick! by Barton D. Schmitt, M.D.  My mom gave me this book and it's been a great book to just quickly look up a symptom and find out what it might be and what to do.

Keeping Your Child Engaged:

Things To Do with Toddlers and Twos by Karen Miller.  I think this was written as a resource for daycare facilitators.  However, it has a lot of ideas for activities to do with more than one child, and advice on structuring routines, establishing behavior expectations, etc.

The Toddler's Busy Book by Trish Kuffner.  This is basically a book chock full of activities to do at home with your 18 month to 3-year-olds.

Discipline and Parenting Styles:

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua.  I'm married to a Chinese-American guy, so I felt I really should read this, and I was equal parts looking for honest advice and morbidly curious.  I gasped and cringed with the best of them while reading, but I have to say that it was entertaining and educational at the same time.  My conclusion is that, while I do want my children to understand hard work and and self-discipline, and the success that can come from those virtues, I'd like to try and achieve it with a more moderate approach.

Bringing Up Bebe, by Pamela Druckerman.  This book was written by an American who gave birth and raised one singleton and one set of twins in Paris.  I adored it!  But then, I'm a francophile (and an anglophile, while we're at it).  It was fascinating to read about the French approach to various parenting aspects that we Americans obsess over.  The author (and Le Billon, author of a book you'll see below) seems to imply that a lot of things our parents would have done with us, or our grandparents, that at one time were common sense, have been flipped around and now many parents feel lost and don't know what to do.  Some French ways aren't superior (nursing is obviously a health benefit when possible, but not emphasized in France for some reason) but many of their tactics are just logical.

Bringing Up Boys, by Dr. James Dobson.  This is a Christian book on parenting, and the author is fond of lots of statistics and anecdotes.  It helped me gain some perspective (as a female who grew up an only child with no brothers) on what little boys might need.

The Duggars: 20 and Counting! by Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar.  Yes, I watch the show.  Say what you will about the Duggars, but I felt they did have good advice on raising children who are polite and kind, as well as advice on logistics for managing multiple children.

How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm by Mei-Ling Hopgood.  I'm still reading this, and while the cultural tidbits from around the world are interesting, the author's own personal thoughts don't seem to be quite as engaging as I'd hoped.

The James Dobson Parenting Collection.  I bought this particular volume because it held 3 different books in one handy place:  The New Dare to Discipline, The New Strong-Willed Child, and Parenting isn't for Cowards.  I'm only half-way through, but it's helped my husband and I to make some choices when it came to discipline, and it also was encouraging to me.  In The New Dare to Discipline, the most encouraging chapter was "A Moment for Mom."  It was a reminder that I need regular time to myself and that creating those times shouldn't be guilt-inducing.  When mom is healthy and whole, the whole family benefits.

A Love That Multiples by Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar.  This is really just an extension of the kind of things they wrote about in the book I read before, see above.

Food:

French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon.  I'm currently reading this book, about a Canadian mother's experience in France.  It's a fun read, and eye-opening.  I've used tips from this and from the book by Druckerman (see above) to make sure my sons like and eat veggies, are willing to try new things, and have a varied menu (when possible).

Cooking With Kids by Linda Collister.  This is a cookbook with recipes that can be made with and for children.  My mom gave it to me before I even became a mother (hmmm, was she hinting?) and I made some of the recipes for my husband and I.  The roasted Italian chicken is a favorite.  I look forward to using this book even more when the boys are older!

Please share your favorites with me in the comments below!  I'm always on the look out for a good book.

Sleep…are we getting any yet?

You're yawning, J?  Well then let's get some sleep...tonight.

It’s no wonder that sleep deprivation can be used as a form of torture.  This was by far the hardest part of parenting multiples for me (and probably would have been even if I’d had a singleton).  I remember mentally crying out to God for mercy!  I was depressed and unable to think clearly.  When your babies may need to eat every 2.5 to 3 hours, you’re trying to nurse, bottle-feed, burp and change the babies, pump, and clean it all up, and you’re really only getting an hour of uninterrupted sleep between each feeding, then it seems as though it will never pass.  And when more than 5 months had gone by and I told good friends that I still had to go in and check on the boys FIFTEEN times in a night, the looks on their faces was all I needed to know something was wrong! I was desperate for help and advice when it came to getting our sons to sleep through the night.

Might I add that if you live in an apartment like we did, and you’re paranoid your crying baby/babies will wake the neighbors, stop worrying!  People will understand that babies cry and life goes on.  It won’t kill either your baby or your neighbors to have a few minutes of crying going on.  This paranoia probably fed a lot of the habits we formed as a family early on that ended up making us all more, rather than less, sleep-deprived.

I read 3 different books on baby sleep, and pulled bits and pieces from each book to cobble together my own approach to sleep training.  Below are the key points of each that were most helpful to me.  (Please note, I only listed the positive points from each book, not the points I disagreed with.  If you read the books you’d have to make those conclusions yourself.)  It’s just what happened to work for our family. Use your own judgment and don’t feel like you and your babies need to fit into the mold of any one book’s claims and promises.  But I have a lot of friends who have recently had, or are about to have, babies soon, so I thought maybe I’d put it all together and it might be helpful to someone!

“The Baby Sleep Solution,” by Suzy Giordano

o   Feed your babies on a schedule, gradually emphasizing daytime nursing/eating/bottles.  They’ll be hungrier if you stretch out the time between daytime feedings, eat more during the day, and thus need to eat less at night (while also gradually increasing time between nighttime feeds until they’re eliminated).

o   Keep things bright, active, and engaging during the day to help them differentiate between night and day.  (Get outside!  Daily stroller walks, and even sitting outside on the patio with the babies, helped keep me sane.  Also we did a LOT of tummy time to tire them out.)

Hanging out on the patio!

o   Also schedule daytime activities and napping.  The more structured the day is, the more their bodies come to know when to expect sleep and when to expect active periods.  Try to put feeding after waking up, so children won’t associate needing to eat to fall asleep.

o   Have an established bedtime routine that will cue your babies it’s time to sleep.  (We loved and used the suggestions of having a favorite lullaby CD and/or a crib soother that played music or ocean sounds at bedtime.)

Baths eventually became a favorite part of our bedtime routine.

“Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems,” by Richard Ferber

o   Teach your child to fall asleep under whatever conditions will be present if they wake up in the middle of the night.  If they can fall asleep at bedtime alone, in their crib, in the dark, then if they wake in the night, they’re better equipped to self-soothe later.  If, however, they need a pacifier, a bottle, or you to fall asleep at bedtime, they will also need those things in the middle of the night when they awaken.  (Since ours did rely heavily on pacifiers, I had to stop the horrible habit of stumbling into their room several times a night to replace the pacifiers if they couldn’t find them.)

D and his beloved Wubbanub.  In defense of the Wubbanub, they're great once your babies get older and can grasp  the stuffed animal part during the night to more easily return the pacifier to their mouths. 

o   As they learn to fall asleep on their own, they will cry; go in and check on them and comfort them every few minutes, gradually allowing more time to pass between checks until they fall asleep.  (We started with pausing when they cried to see if they’d fall asleep on their own first.  If they cried we let 5 (excruciating) minutes go by before going in to comfort them.  And then every 5 minutes until they fell asleep.  The next night we would wait a couple more minutes, and so on.  I’d like to clarify that, contrary to popular belief, this author DOES NOT support hours and hours of crying with no parental comfort.)

“Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child,” by Marc Weissbluth

o   Sometimes an earlier bedtime, even 6 or 7 p.m., means more sleep than keeping your child up too late in an attempt to tire them out.  (Ours had been going to bed at 8 for months.  For some reason when we shifted it to 7, they slept more soundly and longer.)

I was very strict with all our routines and such once we finally decided to “sleep train” at 6 months.  But we could have implemented some of the principles above earlier than that, I imagine.  Once the boys were sleeping 12-hour nights, with two well-established naps totaling around 3 hours of daytime sleep, then we could make exceptions for things like travel, illness, etc., and the boys would more easily fall back into the routine again afterwards. 

Happy sleeping! (For a few hours, hopefully!)

Things To Do With One-Year Olds

Things To Do With One-Year Olds

We went through a tricky phase with our twins leading up to the one-year mark and even afterwards, when they were awake for longer periods of the day, but not yet old enough for certain activities.  This is a list I made of EVERY single thing I could think of, or of things I found online, to do with older babies and young toddlers.  Some are outings and some are easy, fun things to do at home.  Get busy!

-       Cup of water, paintbrush, go outside on a warm day and “paint” the driveway, garage, deck, yard, etc.

-       Sandbox in the yard

-       Stroller walks/go to the park

-       Zoo

-       Children’s Museum

-       Play with water: swimsuits in the bathtub with toys, bathtub paints and bathtub crayons, sit on counter with feet in sink and play with water, cups, plastic toys, etc.  Water table outside.

-       Play Pen Time

-       Bedroom Play Time

-       High Chair Play Time/Table Time before meals: toys, plastic kitchen things, etc.

-       Sidewalk chalk

-       Walkers/toys you push as you walk/toy or cheap umbrella strollers or play shopping carts to push around the house and fill with things

-       ABC magnets on the fridge

-       Baby musical instruments

-       Play music and dance

-       Sesame Street

-       Blow bubbles outside for them

-       Board books

-       Sign language for babies DVDS

-       Add food coloring to white pudding and let them paint with it (and eat a little), when done add sprinkles and let it dry.

-       Baby/Toddler Story Time at the Library

-       Grocery store trips

-       Build a fort and play peek-a-boo in it

-       Fill a purse or bag with things and let children explore and dump out: old wallets, plastic grocery store cards, pictures, play set of keys, pretend or old cell phone, picture books, little toys. 

-       Make a house out of cardboard boxes, cut doors in a large moving box and tape pieces together with packing or duct tape

-       Play in a load of laundry (use a basket and a bunch of old clothes or clothes that you don’t mind being messed up/wrinkly)

-       Play cars and trucks

-       Blocks

-       Stacking cups

-       Visit a pet store

-       Non-toxic finger paints; tape paper to table or highchair tray.

-       Use washed-out juice containers or plastic cups and a ball to play bowling

-       Video chat on computer with family

-       Make shakers by filling plastic Easter eggs with rice, tape or hot glue it shut

-       Tupperware containers with dried lentils of different colors from grocery bulk section to play with on a blanket on the floor

-       Build towers, roads, and cities with empty food boxes.

-       Make paper bag puppets: have them color it and put on stickers

-       Begin simplified version of hide-and-seek

-       Hide stuffed animals around the house and have a “safari,” using a flashlight to find the animals.

-       Sock puppets, use markers

-       Visit wading pools/kid splash pads

-       Indoor playgrounds

-       Basketball with a bucket