Seems like the nights are getting worse, not better.

Thursday night (aug 16) Jack woke up from peeing in his bed by 11pm at night.

The twins, who used to sleep a long stretch, are now both waking up earlier and earlier for their first feed. Thursday night is was 1:30am. Both fed at the same time, which I was hoping meant more uninterrupted sleep for me.

Then Ben cried at 2am for me. Adam covered him, getting him back to bed. He heard me up in the kitchen and text me to check Jack’s temperature when I was done feeding.

Grab sleep when you can at our house!

I put the twins back in their cribs and checked Jack’s temperature. He was in our bed. 100.9°. I was so tired I confused my text messages and sent the reply to my friend Jenny. Then I had to explain to her how ridiculous our life has become, that at 2am I have to text my husband in order to communicate with him, even though he was in the next room. What are we doing wrong that 5 out of 6 of us are up at such a late hour?

It didn’t end there, another wake up for the twins at 3:00am for me.

Jack woke Adam up at 4am, then Ben work Adam up at 5am. I know because I heard it while I was once again breast feeding the twins at that time.

Final wake up time, 6am.

I had reached my limit. I pulled out my Ferber book, Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems.

Seems the problem I have with the twins is that Sam doesn’t know how to settle himself. Aaron can be put down drowsy but awake and go to sleep. He wakes up now because he sleeps on his tummy and scoots into a corner of the crib and cries. I think he also wakes up when Sam cries, hence the reason they are both feeding at the same time at night. So, I assume the problem is Sam. He needs to be put down drowsy but awake.

Accidental Nap on the Couch

And Ben? Not sure, but Adam said not to worry, he would get him to sleep through the night. Ben would break before he would. I know when Adam is resolved to something, he completes it entirely. I stopped worrying about Ben for now.

I knew I had to do it but it still took me two more nights past my limit before I manned up.

Friday night Ben was the only one who slept the entire night. Jack was up all night with his fever, and the twins, between the two of them, woke me 6 times.

Saturday night, as I mentioned before, another bad night. Sam was up every two hours and woke for good at 5am. Jack threw up around 2, waking Ben up. At one point Adam was in Jack’s bed and I was in Ben’s putting them back to sleep. Then just as I was falling back to sleep, another twin crying.

Sunday night Sam drank a huge bottle of formula and passed out, but woke 45 minutes later. I shoved a boob in him, an automatic response. He sucked half heartedly two or three times and was out again. I put him in the crib. He waited another 15 minutes to cry. I left him there. Give him 10 minutes, I thought. By eight minutes everyone was on edge.

“Maybe I should eat those leftover cookies to distract myself from the crying?” I thought.

“No, my 40th birthday is just around the corner. I don’t want pictures of myself all tubby, forever preserved in the Calisoff history books.” I silently replied to myself.

“Maybe he has a fever?” Adam asked.

I went in and checked his temperature. No fever.

I put him down again, this time on his tummy. An excruciating, long 3 minutes later he was asleep.

I put myself to sleep by 9:30pm. I braced for the worst. But instead I woke up at 4am, my boobs about to burst. The first kid to wake up in our house was Aaron at 4:30am for a feed. SAM SLEPT UNTIL 5AM! Ben woke around the same time, but Adam got him back to sleep. And Jack? Slept all night and woke happily in a pee soaked bed.

Today we went back to Ravinia to see Justin Roberts.

It was a gorgeous weather and the grounds were not over crowded, which made for a very pleasant morning.

We felt very lucky that Kelly decided to spend her birthday with us…

Gouss’ with honorary member (Aaron)

Calisoffs, Kaplans and a Devensky

Would love to write more, but I’m on my way out to dinner with my husband. I just heard the sitter ring. Yeah!!!

Jack watching a show with Sam

Both Jack and Ben love the twins. In fact, sometimes it’s completely annoying that they want to dote on them constantly, especially when they can be so rough at times.

Ben is the worst. He wants to share a toy with Sam, so he shoves it in his face, smothering him. Or he wants to give them a hug until he squeezes them purple. I remember Jack was like that when he was Ben’s age too. At that time, Ben was the same age as the twins. I once came downstairs to find Jack had put a pillow over Ben’s face. Lucky for Ben, one of the perks of being a second child is your parents know it’s all a phase. I hope Ben will grow into a better big brother, like Jack has.

Jack Holding Aaron

Jack still can be annoying, but at times he is actually helpful. When a baby cries he will pick them up or try to sooth them. He can still be too rough, but I’m trying hard to let him interact with supervision. He can actually carry the babies. It’s scary to watch. I try to keep my mouth closed except for helpful hints.

“Hold the baby under the bottom.” I say as cheerfully as possible.

In the beginning I was more protective, afraid that any interaction between the older kids and the twins would result in disaster. I’m trying to change. Trying to encourage and show good interaction instead of just not dealing with it.

I’m reading a new book, How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm. It’s an insightful look at how other cultures raise kids differently. I don’t agree with all the ideas, like the Argentines who keep their babies up all hours of the night. But I like that the French show their kids how to enjoy their food. I’m very far away from their method of sit down, four course dining. But maybe one day?

Jack entertaining Aaron

I’m also reading how some cultures let the older kids help more with the younger kids. In America we feel we are denying them their youth by asking them to lift a finger for anything other than play, but in fact most kids love to help. Not just with child care, but with everything in the house. I don’t want to raise a man who can’t do laundry, cook or clean. I certainly don’t want to raise a man (or four for that matter) who will become someone husband who can’t do laundry, cook or clean.

So Jack has started the training process. He cooks, he helps with the babies. Even Ben can help with little things like throwing away a dirty diaper.

The kids enjoyed the hot dogs, ice cream in little Cubs hats, licorice and cracker jacks.

Jack’s local, community run baseball association, the Oz Park Baseball Association, along with some other baseball programs has an annual “run the bases at Wrigley” game. You get discounted tickets to the game and, most importantly, the kids get to actually go onto the field after the game and run the bases.

I was just happy to sit out in the warm, sunny day with a mai tai while my husband bore most of the child care responsibilities of the older kids who were with us. My father bore the full responsibility for the twins who were at home with him.

I finally understood why, on a Wednesday afternoon, over 30,000 people were willing to clear their afternoons schedules to watch the second lowest ranked team in the nation. (The only team ranked lower than our beloved Cubs were the team were happen to be playing, the Houston Astros.)

When it came time to run the bases, it started out well…

Then Ben decided to stop and play in the sand, no parents were allowed on the field, so Jack tried to help move him along…

Finally, an official let Adam run onto the field to get Ben…

And they ran all the way home… together…

In the area of baby gifts, we have seen more than our fare share. For the twins alone I ordered 40 thank you cards with their picture on it. I’ve long since run out. In fact, I’ve gone through another 10 pack of store bought thank you cards and still the gifts are coming in. I have another two thank you’s I need to write right now.

Some of my favorite stuff was the monogrammed stuff.

I loved it when the twins got cute little onsies with their names or the first letter of their name on it. Especially before people could tell them apart.

With Jack, the cutest monogrammed thing I got was a fancy baby burp cloth from our friend Andy Weil. I thought it was such a great idea I gave them out for years to other people having babies.

And Ben got the cutest cloth backpack with his name on it and an embroidered dump truck from our friends the Lafayettes.

Some people, like my friend Jessica sent up four beach towels with all the kids names on them. We use them every time we go to the beach. A fitting gift from my Florida friend.

Today I received a monogrammed gift that completely made my day. So cute and so original! Among other things in our gift bag, there was this…

Monogrammed Kippahs from Heather

One of the many perks of having a family member living in your basement are the last minute dates with your husband.

A few times a week we try to get out after the kids have gone to bed. Even if it’s just a walk around the block holding hands, or an errand long over due, it’s still nice to be out just the two of us. Mostly we’ll sidle up to a bar for a quick drink, maybe an appetizer, and then head back in so we are in bed before 10pm.

We’d never higher a sitter to do this. Firstly, we never know when all 4 kids will be asleep. Secondly, we never know how tired we’ll be from the night before. Thirdly, what sitter would be willing to come over for less than the 2 hours it takes us to wander the streets?

Beef Carpaccio from Gemini Bistro, a non pregnancy treat!

We’ve checked out quite a bit of local outdoor seating areas like Gemini Bistro for dinner, Four Farthings for a quick drink, and Zella‘s patio area, where we were surprised to see you can still smoke at.

I also made it to the grocery store without any kids at all. Having the luxury to leisurely wander around the aisles is something I really took for granted before I had kids.

Later on this month we plan to dine at Charlie Trotter’s before it closes. There is also talk about checking out some of the new restaurants that popped up in the Near North neighborhood.

Last night with a little bit of trepidation I agreed to go see The Dark Knight Rises at the IMAX theatre at Navy Pier. The movie was 2 hours and 45 minutes long. We would definitely pay for it in next day.

It turned out the kids were in bed so early we even had time for a drink and oysters at Riva beforehand.

In the end I was glad we saw it on the big screen. It was just that kind of movie. I did feel very old, though. I found the volume too loud, the scenes too violent and the plot hard to follow (it’s possible that was from from the martini and sleep deprivation, not age). Still it was amazing to watch, explosions, beautiful people and show stopping scenes like the opening one where one plane overtakes another.

When we got home at midnight, we found Grandpa Devensky sitting in the kitchen with Jack and Ben! Five minutes later Aaron woke up to feed. Since we wouldn’t have gotten any sleep before midnight last night (or after for that matter), I’m even more glad we forged ahead and went to see the movie.

For months we have been throwing toys in whatever bin is closest. The chaos was getting to me. The kids as well, how many times a day did they ask where this toy or that toy was? We were unable to play with half the toys because of all the missing pieces.

For a few weeks I’ve been selling the idea of ‘The Great Toy Clean Up’. How fun and exciting would it be to sort through all the toys and find all the missing stuff?!!!

I kept telling Grandpa Devensky how good Jack was at sorting things with wheels. In front of Jack.

I was hoping all this talk would psych them up to help clean up this huge mess.

Before

So Jack and I dumped all the bins. Ben, surprisingly spent quite a long time sorting things. He wasn’t very accurate, which led Jack to police him, which led me to yell at Jack, which led to Jack not helping anymore.

In the end it was Adam and I walking the basement a thousand times over, dropping things in different bins. Besides the joy Ben got every time we found another miniature toy for him, it was not fun. Neither was cleaning up the three times Ben peed on the carpet this morning. Adam jokingly asked me who the idiot was who bought the kids all these toys.

But I’m pleased to show this picture, after FOUR HOURS of sorting…

After