Day 1... no problem!

Well last night was our first Re.pronex injection and although we TOTALLY forgot until about 9pm (we planned to do it at 7pm when the girls went down), the shot was quick and painless (per M). She has the smallest mark around the injection site (unlike when J was using Rep.ronex) and was only a little sore when she was holding a baby. We'll see how that fairs as we use up more and more real estate on M's belly.

Getting ready to gear up for injection numero dos! Come on ovaries... let's get producing!

Happy Memorial Day everyone! The girls went to their first parade today! Then we took some pictures at the park near our house, went swimming in their little pool and had a family barbecue. Fun, relaxed, most enjoyable day!


Watching the parade! It was sooooo hot out.


A has some SERIOUS teething pain the last couple of days. R doesn't really know what to do since A wouldn't stop crying.


Interesting setting on the camera. Must explore further.

Buckle up...

here we go.... AGAIN.

M's AF finally showed up yesterday. Since our dr is closed tomorrow, they had us come in today on day 2, for bw and an u/s. Since the appointment was at 8am this morning, we had to bring the girls with us. Normally we'd rather not bring them but this was kind of a surprise appointment. They were surprisingly good for it being their naptime (yes, they go back down for a nap around 8am when most people are just getting up). They got lots of attention from all the nurses, technicians and our doctor, which they ate up of course. They, but especially A, are little hams at the ripe age of 10 months. They know how to work the crowd.

So, we start Re.pronex tomorrow. Hope M's belly is ready for all the pokes and prods that are about to come! We are extremely excited and can not believe the day has finally come for PROJECT BABY C to begin! We go back in on Wednesday for b/w to see if the dose needs to be increased or decreased.

As exciting as this all is, it's been a hard week leading up as we've had a house full of sick mommies & babies. We have realized he.ll on earth quite possibly is when both parents are sick as dogs and have 2 sick infants as well. It was a TOUGH few days! Thank goodness for our nanny watching the girls which allowed us to nap or at least rest for a bit. We all went to the dr this week, the girls AGAIN as their coughs got significantly worse, but luckily the fevers never got above 100 degrees. J ended up having bronchitis, while M and the girls have really bad colds and coughs. The girls were given an inhaler to help clear out their lungs. A took it pretty well, but R was a struggle at first. But after almost a week of aspirating, pushing fluids, using the inhaler, refilling the humidifier, cleaning up a few mucusy throw ups here and there, we think we are FINALLY seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. A seems much better and R is about a day behind A so she should be feeling much better tomorrow. M is about 90% while J is pushing 60%... she just can't kick whatever she's got.

Amongst the coughs and sneezes, R found time to learn a new trick - to climb stairs. And not just one way of climbing but 3 ways! She'll crawls/climbs up each step one by one, she'll hold the banister poles and literally walk up the stairs, but worst of all, she will try to walk up the stairs on the OUTSIDE of the banister where there is about 1 1/2 inch of stair. Someone is always there when she is trying out her adventure as the room with the stairs in it is pretty much gated off to them at all times, but she can really get to the top of the staircase in a hurry! Granted, she's also climbed 1/2 way up the gate as well. Yep, we sure have our hands full with this child! On the other hand, we can find A in the "library" (the corner with all their books) sitting flipping slowly through pages. How different they are.

And onto some pics of the littlest ladies.


Silly-faced R


A saying "Pretty please, Mommy!"


A reading a book.


R using the inhaler.


The girls LOVE animals!


R climbing the gate.

Cough cough cough...

Once again, thank you ladies for your advice! We are going to make a plan similar to all of yours to ween the girls off their bottles.

We took the girls to the dr on Friday where they checked out a-ok but our pediatrician said if they get worse to call him. Yesterday they developed terrible coughs (particularly A) so their dr wanted to see them again. Poor little babies! A was coughing a lot in her sleep but they both slept the night which was good. We head back to the dr this morning. Luckily they are both eating and drinking well, so aside from their cough and extra tiredness, they seem ok.

At the girls’ 9 month checkup, we asked the doctor about what other foods the girls could try and he gave us a whole list of wonderful suggestions. At that point he said, let’s not give them any whole milk yet because of their belly issues when they were newborns. We did however get the go ahead for yogurt and cheese so when we were at the dr on Friday we asked again about milk (whole milk) and mentioned that they have been eating yo.baby and American chee.se with no reactions or problems. He said go ahead and try the milk. I asked how much, thinking an ounce or two to introduce – but he said it can be up to 50% of their formula/milk intake. Great we thought as we are spending $120 a week on formula since they are on the Ca.dillac of formulas (Simil.ac Aliment.um). We tried giving the bottles in cups for a couple of days and they would both take a sip and then push the cup away. Yesterday J heated the milk up and put 3 oz in a bottle and A drank it right up! R is still not loving it but we think we have a good 2 months to move her in that direction before we completely ween them off formula so we’re not worried.

The girls were cast to be in the H.BO miniseries “Broadwa.y Empire” and were supposed to shoot yesterday in Brook.lyn but our agent didn’t get the message from the casting agency until late Sunday, when the casting agency of the show contacted him early Sunday. Since they hadn’t heard from back from my agent, they chose other babies to be in the show. It actually worked out for the best since the little ones are fighting this cold.

We are starting to think Project Baby C may never be underway! J’s AF has come and gone but M’s is nowhere in sight. :( Come out come out wherever you are!

Helpful advice!

We’d like to thank you ladies for your comments! You are all very helpful! We have started to put milk in a N.uby bottle that has a sipp.y cup nipple hoping the fact that they are still holding a bottle would be a good transition. So far, R will drink milk out of it but A still won’t have it. It’s weird because all day long they will drink water out of anything you give them- sippy cup, straw cup, real cup, water bottle, regular bottle, you name it, they’ll drink water from it. We hope if we keep offering the sippy cup or sippy cup nipple to them every day that someday they will both drink the milk out of it and we can be off of bottles at a year. For any of you with kids over 1, do you still give them a nighttime “bottle”? Our nighttime routine ends with both girls getting a nice full bottle. Do we have to ween them off that by/at a year as well?

We took Two Moms, Two Monkeys advice and started giving the girls one meal of rice or oatmeal cereal a day. We always add a fruit and/or vegetable and although the first time we offered it to them again, they pushed the spoon away, they are now welcoming it a little more. We might be taking A from A+K up on her offer to talk feedings. :)

Last night was a rough night for A. We didn’t put the air conditioning on last night because it was so cool out, but since the girls room is on the first floor along with ours, we don’t open their windows. A woke up around 2 and was REALLY hot. We took her out of her sleep sack and changed her diaper but she still felt hot. We took her temperature and it was 101.4. Could body temp go up from being really hot? We gave her generic tyl.enol and a bottle. She wouldn’t really fall back to sleep and was kind of whiny. J rocked her to sleep finally only for A to wake up 20 mins later. The AC was on at this point so it wasn’t because she was hot. At this point we offered her her bottle again as she hadn’t finished it before and them M rocked her to sleep. Finally at almost 5 she was back down only to wake at 7. She’s been kind of cranky all morning but we think it is because she had a poor night sleep. We are going to monitor her temp today before taking her to the pediatrician. As of this morning, she didn’t have one. We know you can get a fever with teething, and we KNOW she is teething. Guess we’ll see how the day pans out. R, thankfully, slept through the entire night.

The evening started out really great as we had a babysitter over and were able to go out on a date night. We try to go at least once a month if not more. This month, with such great family and friends, we’ve gone out a few times! We even went to the movies which we hadn’t done in almost 2 years! We’re already trying to line someone up in the next few weeks so we can go see SATC 2! Would be great if we could find a theater that allows you to sip Cosmos while watching the movie! ;)


R drinking from the N.uby bottle with sip.py cup nipple


A still loves her bottles


R loves to bang her cup up and down on her high chair tray.


We always new A loved puppies but this past weekend she actually got to play with a few and LOVE LOVE LOVED them. She had a little help from her cousin in this picture.

Steppin' it up!

Big news! R took her first few steps last night! It was awesome! She’s been on the verge of walking and won’t yet do it on her own but last night when we stood her up, backed up a little, and called her name she took 2 steps! Miraculously we ALSO got it on video which we promptly posted on face.book for our family and IRL friends to see. A still has super wobbly legs but can walk like a champ pushing her little car walker toy. Sooner than later we’ll have 2 tiny walkers which we always thought would be easier as we wouldn’t HAVE to carry them from point A to point B but we are sure it will have its new challenges. Probably something like we’ll never sit again.

As written in a previous post, our girls are completely off baby cereal and pureed meals and strictly on bite sized foods. R, who is the smaller of the twins, will some days eat like a champ but other days hardly eats anything. It's like she survives on air alone. We worry because she is so tiny (to us) and wondering if she is getting enough calories and nutrients on the days she just pushes her food around her high chair tray. She rarely finishes her bottles of formula but does drink a LOT of water as she loves her sippy cup with a straw. Maybe we should put her milk in the sippy cup too? Any advice out there? Should we go back to cereals and stuff? We initially stopped offering it because the girls wouldn’t eat it. We also find that there are times when A will eat some and then start screaming/crying to get out of her high chair. If we put on Barney or something for them to watch while eating they do great but we don’t want to get them in that habit.

You're never here when we want you to be but always come when you're unwanted.

Dear AF,

Where are you? We thought you were coming this week but there is no sign of you. We are very excited for your arrival so please step on it and get here as soon as you can.

Many thanks!

Love,
M, J, A & R

Smile baby... smile!

We’ve had a few of you ask how we got our daughters into the modeling/television business. Although J works in television she did not use any connections in getting the girls their agents or any of their gigs. Over Christmas break we mailed a bunch of pictures of the girls together and by themselves to NYC agencies we hand selected. This is an easy goo.gle search to find reputable agencies. A couple of weeks later, we got calls from a few of the agencies asking to meet our daughters. We met with three and immediately upon meeting the girls the agencies wanted to sign them (represent them). We chose 2 to work with (exclusivity is not a factor at this age as it will be when they get older) but we get most of the auditions through one of the agencies more than the other. A and R were offered a TV spot on “Damages” (which they couldn’t do because we were out of town) and the spot on “The Go.od Wife” without having to go to an audition. Our agent sent their pictures to the shows casting agents and our daughters were chosen. For the Ral.ph Lauren shoot, both daughters “auditioned” for a spot but only A was chosen. She had the “full figured Gerb.er baby” look that they wanted. The auditions usually consist of going to the casting agency (or in Ral.ph Laure.n’s case we went to their advertising office in NYC) and a few pictures are taken. The shoot is usually the next day or the day after. You need a very open and flexible schedule to get your children into this business. Since J works from home, her blackberry allows for mobility even during work hours. You are usually told about an audition the day or night before and are given a window of 4 to 6 hours of which the actual audition is held. Some auditions are packed while others known as “Go see’s” are quite manageable. With go-sees, the casting agency has already slimmed down the candidates via agent websites and only those babies are allowed to audition. That’s pretty much the gist of it! Good luck!


The girls are the Ral.ph Laur.en shoot. A is VERY excited as you can see!

10 months!

Our little girls turned 10 months on Monday! We can hardly believe it! Life just keeps getting busier and busier. We would always say “this stage” is the hardest and the next one HAS to be easier. Not really… each stage has its own ups and down, good times and hard times. Although we both agree nothing has been as hard as the first three months were. Phew! Glad that’s over! These days are spent with very very mobile babies. They are both all over the place and although we have them confined to one room where their toys WAY outnumber our furniture, they always seem to want to break out and explore the rest of the house. We get it girls… we do but we need some kind of order to the crazy days we live through. They are both on the verge of walking. R stands without any support for 30 or so seconds until she gets bored and plops down and crawls to what has caught her eye. She can stand while drinking from her sippy cup, playing with a toy, watching Bar.ney. She’s awesome at it! A, who literally just started crawling a month ago, is all over the place pulling up, cruising, standing for shorter periods of time. She had the fastest transition from crawling to cruising that I’ve ever seen… it was DAYS not weeks like R. A has learned to clap in the past 2 weeks. Specifically whenever she hears the song “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands” which it seems every one of our toys sings. She hears the first few beats and her eyes light up and she sits down and gets ready to clap. It’s adorable. R is not clapping yet but does say “Mom”… just not directed at either of us yet. We also think we hear A’s name which is so cute. Again, not directed at her sister. A says hi indiscriminately and that’s about it. They both talk up a storm and A “sings” to any song she hears.

One of the biggest changes has to be food. The girls no longer eat “baby cereal” or pureed foods. They want finger foods and they want them now! In the mornings we start with Cheer.ios while we make them either eggs (with or without Amer. cheese), or French toast along with grapes, bananas, or strawberries and if they are really hungry some toast on the side. They particularly like them in strips that they can hold and bite off of. A has 4 teeth (2 on top, 2 on the bottom) and B has only her 2 bottom teeth so far so most of their food is still gummed to death. Our dr said it looks like A’s got 2 teeth coming in on the bottom and 2 on the top as well! Per our pediatricians instructions we are only using the yolks of the eggs which means we need to use at least 2 every morning… we fly through eggs and bread these days. For lunch they love grilled cheese (just toasted bread with a slice of amer cheese, no butter, etc), any type of fruit cut up and yo.bab.y yogurt. Dinner comprises of pasta with sauce, chicken (boiled as of now) or hamburger. There is always a veggie with dinner – their current favorite is steamed fresh string beans but also enjoy bite sized sweet potato. We tend to end every dinner with blueberries but sometimes they have oranges. Their snacks throughout the day are mum.mu.ms, Cheer.ios, and yogu.rt melts. They still enjoy their bottle every three hours (approx 4-6 oz of watered down formula) and still get a nice big bottle before bed (10 oz, again watered down).

Sleeping has been an interesting feat. With multiples, the “cry it out” method gets a little tricky. A has been a great sleeper recently going down between 7 and 8 and waking up between 6 and 7. R has been the cause of the large bags under our eyes. They began sleeping through the night at 2.5 months and then stopped over Christmas time probably due to their teething and all of our traveling and/or guests. If there are guests in the house, they fight going to sleep. Lots of tears before they finally lay their heads down. For one reason or another (traveling, guests over, etc) we couldn’t diligently let R cry it out at nights lending to months of sleep interrupted nights. Not only does it effect R at night, it messes up her day as she is super tired and therefore crankier. A is pretty good at sleeping through R’s late night (3am) cries but if it lasts long enough, A joins in the fun and it is at least an hour or so until they both cry it out. We recently spoke to our pediatrician about this and if it is detrimental in anyway since we THINK R gets scared at night when she wakes up because when we go in to check on her and lay her back down/change her diaper, she CLINGS to us so hard you don’t even have to hold her on to her and she won’t fall. It is an amazing feeling but also sad. We feel bad but know she is ok and is better off sleeping. R has “stranger an.xiety” much worse than A does and our dr explained that this is why she is so clingy in the middle of the night. All she knows is that we aren’t there and she panics. It breaks our heart but we’ve been diligent the past 9 nights and FINALLY last night they both slept through the night. Not only did they go down without a hassle, but not a peep until 6am! We do get a full night here and there so we are not yet confident it has truly worked yet but we do know that since we are headed to Scran.ton this weekend, that our efforts will probably be for naught and we’ll have to try all over again when we get home. Fingers crossed the traveling doesn’t throw them too far out of wack.

J is still working from home and although we have a nanny that comes a few hours a day, J still finds it hard. We don’t love our nanny – she’s always late, we don’t see enough interaction with the girls in the areas they need now like talking ‘This is a ball” “Say hi to the bear” etc. We have also not been diligent in finding a replacement, as it is such a process. Last night we finally had time to make a few calls.

As for the girls working, A was in a Pol.o Ral.ph Laur.en photo shoot last week. She did GREAT! She is a pro at this. :) We believe the images will appear on their website at some point (it was a fall line the babies were showcasing).

Onto Project Baby C news: We were smart enough to fill our last prescription of R.epronex before J went on M’s insurance back in 12/08. We had always planned to start Project Baby C when the twins were around 3 months old. Yeah…. that didn’t happen. So we pulled out all the vials of Re.pronex that expired in 12/09 and brought them to our fertility dr. He said he would be able to tell by looking at the vials if they were still usable or if the hormones had started to deteriorate. ALL BUT ONE VIAL ARE USABLE!!!! That saves us $2000 in medicine that we would have had to fork over for this injectable cycle! Now it should only cost us $3000 (wau wau wau). We are just waiting for M to get her AF and then head in on day 3 for an ultrasound. We are soooo excited! Having twins already might make the process a little easier to bear but we must admit we are as excited as we were when we were trying to get pregnant with our first (errr and second) baby. In a week or so, we think that Project Baby C should finally commence!

Now for pictures of the ladies...


A with her first popsicle.


The girls first "swimming pool" experience


Happy R!


The girls playing in the grass
(R on left, A on right)