Bedtime...

We are blessed with the fact that not one but BOTH of our babies have been sleeping through the night since about 2.5 month of age. We're not talking 5 hours, were talking 8 to 10 hours a night! The problem is getting them to bed. The routine is we feed them both around 8:30 or 9pm, rock them to sleep and then put them in their cribs. Sometime over the past month A started a bad habit of screaming hysterically until she falls asleep. It is not only annoying, it keeps R from falling asleep. No matter what we do, pacifier, no pacifier, rock over the shoulder, rock in arms, rock on rocking chair, walk around, she screams. Has anyone had any problems with this? Also, when is it still too early to let them cry it out in their cribs (Ferber type method)? They will be 4 months old in a few days and wondering if now is the time to try it. A cries anyway (for naps or bedtime), so why not let her cry in her crib and just do the "Ferber check" on her until she falls asleep. Does anyone have any options or techniques we could try?

Aside from the crying, we think that daylight savings has effected them. We used to be able to get them down by 10:30 but now it is running into 11:30 or 12am. They both sleep until about 8 or 8:30am, which is AWESOME, but I'd prefer them go down a bit earlier and wake up a bit earlier.

Other than that, the girls are awesome! The pediatrician told us they were both teething - well their teeth probably won't break through for another few months but their gums are swollen and getting ready. This has led to a lot of drooling (especially R) and constant chewing on their hands. They both seem to like gnawing on the thumb, pointer and "tall man" at the same time. Yesterday, they both also started bringing things, like rattles, to their mouth to chew on! We also held a teething toy to their mouths and they both went to town. J keeps saying she's not going to nurse them once teeth come in because they both (but mainly R) like to bit down on her nipple with their gums if too much milk is coming out or if they are done nursing. M always knows when it happens because J will jump and scream OW! Good times lie ahead on the nursing front ;)

No nablopomo for us

There is no way we would be able to do NaBloPoMo but we are trying to blog more often. Last Friday the girls had their 3.5 month well visit. They did great! They gained the same amount of weight and now A weighs 13.3lbs and is 26 inches long while R weighs 12.14lbs and is 25 inches long. They both got 3 shots and did wonderfully! Can’t say the same for M who cried at the sight of her daughters’ discomfort. Luckily the cries from the girls only lasted for a few moments, for as soon as they were picked up the crying stopped. PHEW!

They are eating 5oz of food at eat feeding (about every 3 hours when awake) and our pediatrician said no need to add rice cereal to their diet yet so we’ll continue the 50/50 mix of breastmilk and formula. Since the girls had all the gas issues the first few months they were put on the cadill.ac of formulas - Sim.ilac Alli.mentum - lucky for us and our wallets. We will basically have to take out a second mortgage to pay for a year supply but at least it’s working! ;)

A and R are so easy to entertain these days! They will spend ample time on their activity mat then can be moved to the rain.forest jumper, last week were introduced to the Bum.bo chair or of course, a little tummy time on the floor. The game they both love the most is when we lay them next to each other on the floor and “do the Hokey Pokey”. They laugh the entire time as we “put their right leg in or their left arm out.” It is a surefire way to get them to smile. Yesterday, J had the girls in the Bum.bo chairs with the tray on it and some rattles and rings on top. R, with much concentration, intentionally grabbed the rings on the tray! It was so cute! A did as well but R was really into it! They are learning and growing so much these days! Last week, (Oct 30^th) R grabbed her foot for the first time – we guess soon their little piggies will be in their mouth non stop ;) R also has a crazy trick – since she was about a month old, if you hold her in the walking position she will move one foot in front of the other like she is walking! It is soooo funny to watch because she will literally walk across an entire room! And of course, she is proud as punch when she does it. R seriously never stops moving. A is more the type to sit and listen to a story, or sit and smile on your lap, or apparently help write a blog as she just finished playing on her activity mat and is now sitting on my lap as I am typing this, just watching the letters appear on the screen. Needless to say, it is about naptime for her and so she is pretty delirious. Speaking of naptime, the girls are getting into somewhat of a routine. It starts with one waking up first, she is breastfed laying in bed with J then given formula and then off to the activity mat while the other wakes up, is breastfed, given formula and then playtime. Minutes after the 2^nd baby finished eating, the one who woke up first is ready for a nap. So right now, R is napping and A is about to be. They sleep anywhere from 30 mins to an upward of 3 hours for their naps. A, who wouldn’t nap the first 3 months of life, has become a great napper.

We spoke to our pediatrician on Friday about swaddling. We still swaddle the girls, (their arms but not their legs as they are too long for the swaddle) and he said as long as they aren’t busting out of the swaddles – as in the swaddle won’t end up around their necks or over their faces – we are fine to swaddle. They don’t sleep but 20 mins or so when they aren’t swaddled. Their flailing arms wake them up. We’d love to break the swaddling habit but don’t really know how to. We’ve read that you can swaddle with one arm out and slowly break the habit that way. Does anyone know any other ways? If you swaddle or know a child who was swaddled, how old did they swaddle until? We wanted to stop at 3 months, but we are also loving our full nights of sleep ;)

Remember us?

Has it really been almost 3 months since our last blog???

Life in the 2GirlsAndTheirFamily household has been wonderful. Lots of changes since our last “less than wonderful” posting. Our girls are now 3.5 months old – boy does time fly!! We are enjoying them sooo much these days! It is seriously like night and day the way the girls are now as opposed to even just a month ago. We had been told during that hard times that the 3 month mark will bring about lots of changes. We didn’t believe it at the time as we couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel but at about 2.5 months of age, the girls did a 180! Was it because they were a little “older”, was it because we had FINALLY figured out their gas issues, we don’t know but at 2.5 months old the girls started sleeping through the night (yes BOTH of them), they started playing independently (and together) on their activity mat and they only cry when they needed something. Life is fun again. J gets out of the house daily now with the girls whether to run errands or just go for a walk, which a couple of months ago wouldn’t have happened as one or both of the girls could cry for no reason at any moment and there was no stopping them. The only tough thing about getting out of the house these days is the 3 hour window we have. If the girls are up, they want to eat every 3 hours on the dot. They are getting 5 oz each – half of which is formula and the other half is breastmilk. J’s goal before the girls were born was 1 year of breastfeeding, then after they were born it dropped to 3 months. Since she’s hit the 3 month period, it has moved to 6 months. Breastfeeding has definitely gotten easier but still has its ups and downs. We are both proud of J for hanging in there.

In order to catch up from months of blogless days, here are a few things about each of our pumpkins: A first since she is a minute older. ;)

A is our cuddly baby. She loves to snuggle with us and be up hanging out with us. She isn’t a great napper so it seems she always gets an extra feeding or 2 a day which might be the cause of her cute cubby cheeks ;)
A is very chatty. She will have long conversations with you.
A is also very smiley – she smiles and laugh all day long. Her beautiful smile will melt anyone’s heart.
A is our calm baby. Whenever anyone meets her they can’t believe how chill she is. When on her activity mat, she generally doesn’t move around all too much but has been seen 180 degrees from the place where we put her down. She bats at her toys hanging above her and occasionally will grab something but isn’t at the stage where she will grab a toy because she wants it yet (R is the same way).
A's eyes are still blue but we think they might be changing to brown.
A loves the fishtank! We can put her in her Bumbo (sitting with her of course) and she'll sit and watch the fish forever!

R is very active, it is almost impossible to change her diaper or dress her these days as her legs and arms never stop moving! She basically beats her sister up when they are on the activity mat because she never stops moving. ;)
R is VERY ticklish! Rub her belly, her chest, her neck, her ears, her thighs – you will get an adorable giggle out of her. She recently almost curls up into a ball when she is laughing and brings her hands up to her mouth.
Speaking of mouth, R always has her hands in her mouth it seems. If she is holding your hand, it is your hand that will be brought to her mouth.
R has become very talkative the past month. Her personality is really coming out and it is adorable!
R has grown to tolerate her carseat. She no longer screams as soon as she is put in it and she actually has conversations with the warning label that is on the side of it. It’s really cute.
R still has blue eyes and now we are really starting to wonder if they will stay blue.

We often wondered when the girls would acknowledge each other. It finally happened about 2 weeks ago! We sit them looking at each other and A LAUGHS AND LAUGHS at R. We aren’t sure why she thinks R is so funny but we end up laughing as well. A has GREAT eye contact and will stare at R and talk to R. R, most of the time, isn’t interested but occasionally she will stare back at A and they have even had a conversation with each other! Where was the video camera when that happened!?!? ;) They grab each others hands and touch each others faces. When J is nursing them both, they look at each other the whole time. It’s very cute. And on the activity mat, they will both play longer when they are on the mat together as opposed to just one playing by herself. We think this is a GREAT sign for when they are a little older! We keep telling ourselves that twins are harder when they are infants (than a singleton) but once they get a little older, they will always have a playmate and so life will be easier than if we had one child that we had to entertain/play with all the time. We’ll see if this is true.

Some milestone the girls have hit so far:

A’s First Smile – Aug 24th
B’s First Smile – Aug 31st
First time sleeping through the night (and they BOTH did!)– Oct 1^st
A’s First Laugh – around Oct 14
B’s First Laugh – around Oct 14
R rolled over from front to back – Oct 16th
A rolled over from front to back – Oct 20th
They both seem to have the idea and desire to roll from their back to their front but neither have actually done it yet. They both roll onto their sides a lot.

Here are some pictures and videos to help catch you all up! Enjoy!

One of their Halloween costumes: Our Sweet Peas!
A on left, R on right



Smiling A while R eats her arm.

We think R's face in this picture is very funny.

M and R playing with each other.

Giggling A

Ramblings of 2 very exhausted mommies...

OK, we admit it. Parenting is hard. Really hard. There is a reason we have not posted a real blog in 3 weeks.

Today the girls turned 4 weeks old. Although we can't really believe it, we also can't remember them not in our lives. But a lot has changed in 4 weeks - both for better and worse. After what we call the "honeymoon phase" ended (when the girls were about 10 days old) life with twin newborns showed its true colors. The "sleep all the time until you wake me for my every 3 hour feeding and only cry a little cry when I want food" has ended. The girls have found their cries and holy cow - they are LOUD! Turtle's face turns bright red and she screams, no... SCREAMS so loud, most of the time, just to be held. She is the very affectionate one and likes human contact and attention. Birdie can also scream with the best of them.

We're tired. We've had a rough 48 hours where Birdie has slept only about 5 hours in total and lucky for us, when one baby cries, it now will cause the other baby to cry as well. UGH. We take turns caring for the two in the middle of the night. If M has Birdie, J has Turtle until one of us needs a break from an inconsolable baby. Like last night for example, there was nothing we could do to calm Birdie - she was fed, had a clean diaper, held, put in her swing, put in her vibrating chair, swaddled, and walked for miles around our living room in figure 8's strapped to M in the Baby B.jorn but to no avail. It wasn't until 5:30am as the sun was coming up that she finally closed her eyes only to wake to the same screaming inconsolable baby 2 hours later. We feel so bad for her and want to cry ourselves when we don't know what she needs or how to help her. Today Turtle joined in the fun of constant crying. We tried going for a walk with them and a car ride but only the b.jorns quieted them down. We had determined by late afternoon that Birdie's problem might be gas related as the past couple of days she had been spitting up more and had almost every diaper leak poop all over.... EVERYTHING. We called our pediatrician and she told us to take Birdie's temp - which we did, thankfully no temp, and then said try Mylico.n drops. We have given Birdie 2 doses so far and.... as you have probably figured out since we have time to write this blog, she is FINALLY SLEEPING!! They BOTH are finally sleeping! We were just joking that Birdie might sleep until tomorrow morning as she has a lot of sleep to catch up on. We totally just jinxed ourselves. We are literally staring at our video baby monitors with our breath held hoping that the little sleeping swaddled babies remain sleeping.

Another crazy thing that has happened in the past 48 hours is that Birdie now breastfeeds?! Since she was born she absolutely refused to take breastmilk from the boob - even with countles lactation consultants helping us in the hospital. She would only get her breastmilk from the bottle. So today J has been breastfeeding them both at the same time - GO DOUBLE BREASTFEEDING PILLOW! J had pretty much stopped breastfeeding Turtle over the past 3 weeks as it was just easier to give her expressed milk since she was pumping for Birdie anyway. Enter S-O-R-E nipples... all over again! Will it take another 2+ weeks for them to "buck up"? Since we never really breastfed Turtle solely (we always supplimented with a bottle of expressed as well) we aren't sure how much milk the two are getting or when to stop feeding them. When they "fall off the nipple" are they done? They seem to fall asleep right there on the pillow and if you try to move one, they wake up and start rooting again. How much is enough... or how long is enough? We feel like we are back at stage 1 with this breastfeeding thing but are trying to figure it out, all while completely exhausted and with very cranky babies. We also still have some latching on issues that we are trying to work through.

It is funny how we "nested" and cleaned the heck out of our place before the girls arrived. It didn't take long before everything was covered in either breastmilk, poop, pee or spit up. Paints a lovely picture of our house doesn't it ;) We have received a crash course in the tough lesson of "going with the flow."

Aside from the babies, J's incision seems pretty much healed. She still has very sore abdominal muscle from them being cut through and now healing. She also is still bleeding - 4 weeks later. We didn't even realize that she would bleed after her c section. We thought that was just a vaginal birth thing. How nieve of us - of course J's very large uterus will have to shed. After not having her period for 10 months, J is definitely ready for this month long period to end.

Now on the the BETTER part of life with twin newborns (Puffer - just pay attention to this part!). They are adorable. Simply adorable. No matter how little sleep we get, no matter how cranky they are, no matter how messy our place gets, we couldn't be more in love with these two little babies. They have really shown their different personalities over the past 4 weeks and we can't wait to learn more and more about them as the days, weeks, and months go on. In the past few days, Birdie has had amazing eye contact. It is like the newborn hazy has been lifted and she will just stare into your eyes with her big beautiful almond shaped blue ones. Turtle loves to hold our finger or our shirt or just have her hand on us in some way. It is so cute! We read that they will actually be able to smile within the next month and we can't wait to see Turtle's dimple and Birdie's eyes smile along with her mouth.

They both love to fall asleep on our stomach/chest but before they doze off, they will lift up their heads and look you in the face. We cheer them on as it is just another version of "tummy time" but also find it adorable that they look at us before laying their heads down.

Speaking of laying heads down, we should really be catching up on some much needed zzz's as they girls will probably be up shortly for their next breastfeeding adventure! To those that have breastfed/are breastfeeding - do you and your baby get covered in breastmilk during the process??? We definitely have some much needed practice coming our way ;)

We'll end with a couple of pictures of our little angels.

Turtle fell asleep during some light reading

Clean Birdie!

Birdie throwing her gang sign

Apparently Turtle is going to be a boxer

Exhausted, but Alive

Hello!

We know it's been a while, but as you can all probably guess, we have had our hands full with the twins! All is well here, J is healing nicely from her c-section, and the girls are doing awesome! There is no longer any problem with jaundice. In fact, the last time we went to the pediatrician he was pretty impressed with their weight gain. Birdie had gained enough weight to put her at 8lbs 4ozs. And Turtle had gained enough to put her at 7lbs 15ozs! Our pediatrician suggested that them gaining a pound a week is probably not the best thing, but he wasn't concerned at all. They are growing girls!!

We'd love to post more but are way too tired to write a long blog. We just wanted to check in :) The girls are asleep and we definitely need to take advantage of these precious few moments to catch some zzzz's of our own.

Here's some new pics of the little ones - can you believe they are 3 weeks and 1 day already?!?!

Sleeping sisters

Turtle Sunbathing

Birdie content after bath

Pretty girls

Turtle chillin'

Birdie snoozin'

The first week with our girls.

We can’t believe it’s been over a week since our daughters were born! Time flies when you are having fun!! They even have nicknames now – Baby A or A in the previous blog is Birdie. She got nicknamed that because when she is rooting for food her head turns to the side and she looks like a baby bird begging her mom for a worm. SO CUTE! Baby B or R in the previous blog is Turtle. She is very aware of her surroundings – she has BIG newborn blue eyes and her eyebrows raise while her forehead wrinkles making her look like a cartoon turtle. Equally as ADORABLE! We can’t remember life without our babies! But although it’s only been just over a week we’ve learned so much already and thought we’d share our top 10 list of what we’ve learned.

10. Projectile poop really does exist – just ask M.
9. You shouldn’t choose the bottle type/brand for your baby ahead of time. We bought a bunch of Avent bottles for the girls and only Birdie will drink from them. Turtle does not like the nipples and will not take milk from that bottle no matter what. Thanks to a friend mentioning the Nuby bottle to us months ago, we finally found one that Turtle likes and will feed from.
8. Don’t bother making a plan. We had it all set in our minds that J would breastfeed both babies at once (or at least work up to that). We bought the double breast feeding pillow which is still in its bag. Birdie will NOT breastfeed no matter what we do. We had multiple consultants and nurses at the hospital trying to help but to no avail. Turtle breastfeeds like a CHAMP! Since both girls have Jaundice (which stemmed from them bring premature – although full term for twins and the fact that their blood type is different than J’s) we’ve had to supplement their breast milk with formula as the formula is thicker and will help them pee/poop more. The more they pee and poop the faster the bilirubin will leave their body. So our feedings go like this: Turtle breastfeeds for a bit, M feeds Birdie breast milk from a bottle, Turtle has breast milk from a bottle, Birdie is changed, Turtle is changed, Birdie is given formula from a bottle, Turtle is given formula from a bottle then J pumps for the next feeding. We’ve slowly gotten this down to 1 ½ hour cycles which gives us 1 ½ hours in between feedings to do what we have to do whether it be sleep, laundry, clean the house, wash bottles, do laundry, play with the girls, make food for ourselves, go to the park… etc.
7. Birdie is a faster eater than Turtle.
6. Both babies love so sit in their Boppys and sleep, look out the window, or just hang out.
5. Putting both babies in the same crib has worked out great and they are so cute to watch from our monitors as they sleep.
4. A baby can sleep with her arm straight in the air.
3. We are surprised at how “easy” it is to take care of our girls. Yes, we are sleep deprived but all in all, they never cry unless they are hungry or have a poopy diaper. Our house has remained remarkably clean and we’ve been able to shower almost every day. We are also surprised at how easy it is to go out to dinner with newborns – feed them, change them and then they will sleep while you eat.
2. We were surprised at how quickly their nails grow!
1. How quick it was for both of us to fall completely in love with our daughters. We have always been told that there is nothing like being a parent but we never really understood the reality of this until our girls arrived. Words can not explain the feeling we have towards them. “Loving them” is not a strong enough descriptive. It is an unbelievable feeling which has also brought us even closer together if that was even possible.

The girls are amazing! We just stare at them, kiss them, cuddle them and love them all day long! J is healing nicely from the c section but is frustrated that she is not allowed to pick up anything heavier than 1 baby for 5 more weeks. M has been doing all the heavy lifting including carrying 2 baby filled carseats at once. M is going to mostly work from home for the next 5 weeks with an occasional trip to the office (which is 5 miles away) but that means J is housebond while she is gone. We are surprised at how quickly her enormous belly is going down. J weighed herself 1 week after the c section and she was 30lbs lighter! Only 15lbs to go to get back to her pre pregnancy weight! Look at the difference here! CRAZY!

Other things about the girls…
· The girls seem to change a little every day. Birdie’s face is filling out and they are looking more and more like each other.
· We’ve caught Birdie with her thumb in her mouth a few times and she is the only one who will take a pacifier. Neither the pacifier nor the thumb we are very fond of.
· Birdie has also “held” the bottle a couple of times! We know she isn’t intending too, but it is cute how interactive she is during feedings.
· Turtle loves to gaze up at J while she is breastfeeding. It is an amazing bonding experience that they share.
· Turtle LOVES music, especially Classical (and also a little Pink and Black Eyed Peas when we feel like getting a little saucy). Her eyes get really big and she perks up. Her arms move around slowly as if she is conducting the orchestra. It is absolutely adorable.
· Turtle doesn’t love her sponge baths but Birdie will just lay there and enjoy it.
· They both fall asleep in the car and the stroller.
· Turtle smiles a lot – we know it isn’t a REAL smile yet but we can tell she is going to have one beautiful smile once she can! She has 1 dimple on her right cheek. They both have little dimples by the top of their upper lip when they feed. It is so cute!
· They are both very photogenic which we only know because M takes about 1000 pictures of them a day. Over the span of a 1 minute “photoshoot,” the babies expressions will change a hundred times.
· Twins get a LOT of attention when we go out. A LOT.
· Our entire family could not love these girls anymore than they already do!

We are going to get ready to head to the park and sprawl out along the lake now. Too beautiful a day to stay cooped up inside.

Here are a few pictures of our little angels. Enjoy!

Bedtime for the Babies!


Chillin' in their Boppys


Milk drunk


Stop crying Birdie! You're hurting my ears!


ALL CLEAN!


Sisters

Our girls are finally here!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our twins were welcomed to the world Friday morning!!

A (ironically also Baby A) was born at 9:56am at 7lbs 5oz and 19 3/4 inches
R was born at 9:57am at 7lbs 2oz and 19 1/2 inches

They are not tiny girls!! Now I see why J couldn't move for the past month! LOL.

Now, we may be biased just a little bit, but we can't help but think they are absolutely perfect. We know it's only been 36 hours, but we can already see cute little personality traits coming out. We couldn't be more in love with them. We just sit and stare at them all day long! The babies are doing really well, they have a touch of jaundice which we are hoping doesn't require them to spend the day under the special light, but all in all they are perfectly healthy! The nurse actually just reported that the billi.rubin numbers are stabalizing - guess putting them near the windows today helped! J is doing great with her recovery from the c-section and the two of us could not be happier! There truly aren't words to describe what we are feeling. We know what a blessing (or two) has been given to us!

Here is a picture of our sweat peas ... plenty more to come!