Schedule woes

Well, I am sitting watching the Titans game (GO TITANS!) and the munchkins are sleeping soundly. We moved to a four hour schedule, completely by accident, we got off the day they went to the doctor and they seemed to like going a little longer so we kept it that way. It is working out alright, but they have started waking at strange hours - midnight and 5:00 AM last night. We are going to start solids on Sunday and hopefully that will make a difference. 5:00 AM just messes with the whole schedule because then they don't really want to eat at 7:00 and then we are off the whole day. This isn't a problem really on weekends but Nana Pam can't feed them between 11:00 and 1:00 when it needs to be if they wake so early if we intend to still make bedtime around 7:30. We are implementing a dream feed for a little while and are hopeful that will get them to a little longer. A dream feed is given after they have already gone down for the night (around 11:00 or 12:00 for us) and it is just feeding them while they are basically asleep just to kind of "top them off." It is really a babywise method that we are adopting, but Babywise suggests stopping it at about this time! From everything I have read four months is a difficult sleep age because they are just becoming aware of you leaving them, they are starting to be more active which hurts their little limbs, they are about to make huge developmental leaps, and they are starting the teething process. So, I don't think this odd (and tiring) schedule is ALL because we screwed them up so bad, but we definitely have to take some of the blame!

I have to admit that I am having a bit of a hard time right now feeling like we are in "baby jail." This is beginning to be such a fun age and we are loving getting to know their little personalities and see them grow and learn, but especially with the new earlier bedtime things are a bit difficult at the moment. With the later bedtime (they seem to do a lot better with the earlier one or we would change it back) that means that we can't just pack them up and go get dinner anywhere, can't fix our dinner until after they go down really which means not until 8:00, and can't get a babysitter (although I personally think it might be worth it) because the most difficult thing is getting these little boogers down and we would probably put them down first with a sitter and then leave and that seems silly to pay so much to someone to just watch them sleep. We had talked about trying to get out of the house every two weeks or so, but so far that doesn't seem like it will be happening. We want to try to go to a baby shower for a friend next weekend but it is from 6:30 until 10:30 and if we put them down and then left we wouldn't get there until 8:30 or so and then would need to be home to relieve a sitter fairly early moneywise and just so someone doesn't have to stay at our house too late and that doesn't really seem worth it. I know it will change soon and once they are Sleeping through the Night we will better be able to get a sitter - I guess I am just going a little stir crazy, probably doesn't help that Lance is at the game and I am not (not a horrible thing though since the weather is rough).

I am starting tennis again on the 19th (which means Lance has to put them both to bed by himself a few nights a month), so that will probably help me feel reconnected and like I am actually leaving the house occasionally!