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)

April showers bring May pregnancies?

The appointment with our fertility doctor went great! We talked through all our options and he is open to jumping to a more aggressive plan. We think we decided to do a cycle or 2 of injectables before jumping to IVF. Although the average rate of pregnancy is 18% with injectables, our doctor said those numbers don't tell the real story as we aren't "infertile" per say and M's a great age at 31 to conceive and carry a child. We asked which medications we would use and he said Repron.ex or Folli.stim. If anyone has or knows someone who has any of these medications and no longer need them, we'd love to take them off your hands! We will pay any copay or shipping fees! We got an estimate of $5K per injectible cycle or $12K for IVF since we don't have insurance. One large factor in choosing an injectable cycle over IVF is the risk of having frozen embryos left over like we do from J's IVF cycle. We can't distroy them but we don't want to become the lesbian oct.omoms either.

Since M just finished her AF, we'll begin with her next cycle - YAY FOR MAY!

Aside from Project Baby C - our two little angels are getting so big! A is 22lbs and 28.5 in and R is 18.7lbs and 27.5 in. A has 2 bottom teeth halfway in and 2 top teeth that just finished breaking through. R has 2 bottom teeth halfway in and a top tooth that looks like it will break through in a few days. We think R is going to walk sooner rather than later. She now stands for 5 to 15 seconds at a time not holding onto anything and will sloppily walk when holding one of my hands. A is pulling herself up on more and more things and crawling a little more as well. They both have blond hair growing in more and more and A's eyes have turned a beautiful light brown while R's eyes are still TBD. Sometimes they look blue, sometimes slate, sometimes brown and sometimes green. R is REALLY into giving kisses and hugs these days. A has been giving kisses for quite some time but R will actually crawl over to you kiss and hold on to you sooooo tight! It melts our heart whenever she does this as we know it is her way of telling us she loves us. Tonight M was trying to get R down (who was fussing) and M heard R say "Mom" clearly and then kissed her twice! Life is AWESOME!

And we're back in the game again.

Yes, it’s true... We are gearing up to make a little brother or sister for the twins. Project Baby C is now underway! We might be crazy but we are actually 3 months off when we thought we’d start trying again. Life was just too hectic when the girls were 6 months old as we were also reno-ing a house and then moved in where renovations continue. Now that the girls are 9 months old we are ready to begin this TTC process all over again – this time with M in the drivers seat!

We have our first appointment with our fertility doctor TODAY! We are very excited! We are NOT excited about the punch in the pocket this will cost as M’s insurance (as with most NJ insurances) does not cover infertility like J’s did. Our winning IVF cycle ended up being a couple thousand in the end at most but depending on the path we choose, this cycle could costs an upward of $10K. Our plan is to skip all the IUIs and jump right to an injectable cycle or IVF. This is what we will talk with our doctor about today.

We couldn’t write a post without a little update on how our beautiful angels are doing. B is and has been for a couple of months, pulling up, getting down and crawling ALL OVER THE PLACE! The gates and child proofing has been up and running for quite some time now. A, our more mellow baby knows how to crawl but doesn’t as much as she could. She’s very happy sitting and playing and then crying if she wants to be moved. ;) We did have a big morning with A – when we went into her nursery to get her this morning, she was standing in her crib! This is the first time she has pulled herself up without our help! YAY BABY A!

Neither baby is really saying any words yet – “dada” is repeated over and over again by A but not because she knows what it means just because it is easy to say. B is really into “blah blah blah”. It’s really funny! I think they are both waiting for May 9th to say “Mama”.... That would be the best Mother’s Day gift EVER!!

At 9 months, J has finally stopped breastfeeding. Not because she wanted to, in fact, she was pretty upset that her breastfeeding days were over. The girls just naturally stopped. A was done breastfeeding about a month ago, and B just recently stopped. The girls still have their bottles of formula throughout the day. But now they are also having 3 square meals, which we try to make family meals whenever possible! In the mornings they have oatmeal, Cheer.ios, and bananas(or some other fruit)- which they LOVE. They literally shake and squeal with excitement when we pull the big yellow Cheer.ios box out of the cabinet. There is a little song and dance that we do with it, which may add to their excitement, but either way, they love their Cheer.ios. At lunch they have been having some grapes, toast, cheese and another fruit or vegetable like apples, carrots, peaches, etc. We have to really limit their cheese intake since they had such issues with dairy as babies, but we'll slowly increase it as we go. For dinner they have rice cereal along with a vegetable and some apple sauce. Dinner is always followed by blueberries which again brings on the shaking and squealing. The girls make it pretty obvious which foods are their absolute favorites. They are eating so many new things these days: apples, bananas, peaches, blueberries, watermellon, grapes, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, string beans, toast and egg yolks. We are going to try chicken, avocado, blackberries and a few other things soon. We just try to do about 1 new food every couple of days so we can make sure they aren't having any bad reactions to them. At the end of the day they get their baths and a nice big bottle which almost always puts them right into a sweet, peaceful sleep....

As for The G.ood Wife - the episode the girls were in is "HEART". You can watch it online. A is the baby in the carseat shot at the beginning and then they are both in the conference room scene right after the first commercial break.

To end - here are a couple of pictures of the girls.

R rehearsing on the set of "The G.ood Wife"


The girls playing together


R being silly


A's Easte.r picture