Help, what do you do with your 4 month olds?

Tammy06

They are 2.5 months adjusted and 4.5 actual age. This past week I am pulling my hair out! They want to be held all the time and I find myself walking with one around the house then alternating them and the one who I am not hold screams! They don't like to sit in their bouncers for too long anymore, grow tired of playmat and swing, and tummy time they scream after 10 minutes. I don't know what to do, I am so tired and stressed out hearing crying almost all day. When I pick them up they laugh. They also have not been napping much lately, I am assuming b/c they are just now starting to sleep all night. I am thinking about hiring a cleaning lady b/c I don't have time to do ANYTHING. Please share some advice!

MNheidi

Do they have good head control?  I could get flamed for this but we propped our guys up in the exersaucer at 4 mos - they were too small for it but had good head control.  They didn't really play w/ the stuff THAT much but they loved sitting upright.  AND, again have to have head control, but we have a cheap singleton umbrella stroller and they loved to sit in that thing.  I'd just push them wherever I needed to go - kitchen, bathroom, etc. Also, can you put new toys in the playmat?  We just rotated hanging toys and it usually kept them pretty quiet.  My boys never really took to the swing so that wasn't really an option for us but they did love their bouncy seats.

 good luck - it was tough b/f they could sit b/c I felt like I was either carrying one around all day or rotating them around their toys.  It was rough on my back.

lajolla09.30.06

This might sound kind of weird... but I pretty much just feed them and put them back to sleep.

 I read "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" and it said that whenever they look tired (yawning or rubbing eyes) to try to put them down for a nap... so basically they wake up, I feed them (takes about an hour to do both) they play on their playmat or I read them a book (maybe 30 minutes max) then they start looking tired, I put them down, they sleep... and repeat.

Some days I think I'm in the movie groundhog day... where the same thing happens over and over and over... but since I started putting them down for naps they have been a lot happier when they're up and I have a lot more time to clean bottles and do a little work.

Hope things get better for you soon!

lajolla09.30.06

Oh... and I forgot to mention... they eat every 3 hours, we do 7, 10, 1, 4, 7 and bedtime is after their 7pm bottle.

crazy4u624

My babies are starting to get bored really fast of their playmat, bouncy seats, exersaucer/jumperoo....and they are awake sooo much  more now! It used to be that they would take some sort of nap (at least a half hour) after every bottle, but now they sometimes will go from one feeding to the next without a nap (we feed every 4 hours). The one thing that NEVER fails (for me anyway) is taking them for a walk. Even that used to put them right to sleep, but now they love staying awake and looking around. I don't know how the weather is right now where you are....but if it isn't nice enough to walk outside, maybe you could walk around the mall or something?