Asa + Oliver: Month 5

Happy 5 Month Birthday Asa and Oliver! Man they have learned so much this month, it’s crazy! It was a pretty big month for us, and unlike the other months, this one didn’t go by quite as fast thankfully! I’ve heard that the first 4 months with twins (any baby really) are the hardest, so I’m hoping the next few months get a little easier sleep wise.

A real struggle in the past month has been the dreaded 4 month sleep regression. When the boys were newborns, Oliver was our trouble sleeper. Asa slept beautifully and hardly ever fussed. I don’t remember exactly when this changed (2-3 months?) but Oliver became our excellent sleeper and Asa started having trouble. This translated into Asa hitting the 4 month sleep regression HARD. For a little over two weeks, most nights he would wake up 5+ times. It was worse than when I was triple feeding him as a newborn. Not only would he wake up, he would wake up screaming at the top of his lungs. It wasn’t fun. Oliver regressed some, but he still didn’t wake up quite as many times as Asa. Thankfully in the last week and a half Asa has come out of the regression. However, I think we are going to have to do some more purposeful sleep training.

It was hard for me mentally, emotionally, and physically. I was so exhausted. I also felt like a failure. I mean, I had worked SO HARD to set up the best routine and sleep habits for the boys from day 1. I learned though, that you can do everything “by the book,” but each child is still individual and has their own needs that "experts" can’t account for. I’m just thankful we are out of it and hope the next regression isn’t so hard. Oliver has gone down to only waking only once a night to eat, so that’s great! Asa still wakes up 2 times (3 on a bad night) but we are gently working on that. The way I see it is that I wake up hungry and thirsty in the middle of the night, so it makes sense that they do too. I'm fine with them waking once to eat as long as they need, (though they say a baby who is 14 lbs can go 12 hours without eating. Sure, they can go 12 hours without eating and it not be detrimental, but that doesn't mean it's comfortable) but I think we need to start cutting the 2nd and 3rd feed for Asa.

We had two big appointments in April. The first was to check on the hole in Asa’s heart. This one gave me a lot of anxiety. Thank God, who answered our prayers, the hole closed on its own. I dreaded the thought of having to have Asa in the hospital and away from me once again to have it closed. 18 days in the NICU was enough for all of us. The cardiologist talked to Josh (who went with Asa while I stayed with Oliver) and the hole in his heart actually caused all of his oxygen issues at birth. We are so thankful God healed him right up. My suspicion is that when Asa was able to go off of oxygen on January 20th, the hole closed at the same time.

Oliver, on the same day, (that was a somewhat stressful juggling act!) had an appointment for his tongue tie. He had a severe tongue tie (level 4, the dentist said it was the most severe it could be). The reason we had waited so long to get it revised was because he had no issues eating. The dentist was SHOCKED when she found out he had absolutely no issues breastfeeding, and no issues with weight gain. God is good! The revision was super simple and I’m glad we got it over with (but I don’t want to remember his screams when it happened, he wasn’t in pain but man he didn’t enjoy it).

All in all, month 4 was rough but they learned so much!