'Snot Funny

It’s been pretty quiet around here. I mean on this blog. Certainly not in our house which is rife with the heavy mouth-breathing of two 9 months old with total nasal blockage. We have been told we are lucky to have made it to the 9 month mark with nary a sniffle among us. But alas, those days are over. This past week, on the heels of a trip to Philadelphia, both babies came down with a cold. For more scream inducing fun, Leah got an ear infection. Yee haw. Anyway, I, for one, am looking forward to being done with this cold and to having our nose-breathing babies back. And I am pretty sure that they are looking forward to a break from constant nose wiping and sneak assaults with bulb aspirators (man, that is a satisfying piece of equipment when it works. Who knew?).  Other than the carpet bomb of snot dropped on our home, things are good. Let’s go through the standard categories, shall we?

Sleeping: I will cover Elliot first, because he’s easy. The process of getting there can take a while, but once asleep, he’s pretty much down until morning. We had a couple of crying wake ups with this cold, but that’s pretty much it. For the moment, he sleeps through the night (until now, because I have just utterly jinxed myself). Leah, on the other hand, is our cute little sleep depriver. She falls asleep quickly with little to do, but inevitably wakes up between midnight and 1:00am and will not go back to sleep anywhere except for in our bed. This is not what we had planned for our sleeping arrangements, but honestly, it doesn’t bother me that much to have her there. What bothers me is that she wakes up at 5:30am and starts poking us and pulling hair. That is annoying. We’re living with it, but we have discussed eliminating all night feedings and not allowing Leah back in our bed at the 10 month mark (May 11). That sounds oddly familiar. Didn’t we do something like that at 6 months? It’s a work in progress. Our other sleep issue is that right now, when Leah is not sleeping in our bed, she is in a pack and play in the guestroom. I don’t like this one bit. She has a crib in her bedroom right next door, but both babies sleep much better when separated. Leah likes to go to sleep immediately and Elliot’s playing and yelling in his crib for 15 minutes before nodding up makes her really angry. And Elliot likes to sleep all night, so Leah’s waking up in the middle of the night pisses him off. So they are not terribly sleep compatible. Nonetheless, we will be transitioning Leah back to their bedroom in the near future because a baby in the guestroom permanently is not tenable or desirable.

Napping: Pretty good, thank you very much. 9:30-10:15 and 1:00-3:00 pretty much daily. Until I jinx myself by publishing this post.

Eating: Also good. This cold has made both babies not particularly thrilled about solid foods (they didn’t really like mashed potatoes last night. That must be a fluke.), but in general, they are doing great with eating and are basically just huge babies. Current favorites are CHEERIOS (OMG!), bread, blueberries, all fruit, sweet potatoes. They did not enjoy black beans or spinach. Leah likes chicken and egg yolks, Elliot not so much. If anyone reads this and has suggestions for more finger foods, I’d love the ideas. This brings us to:

Enormousness (of mind and body): We have big babies! I don’t know why I take such pride in Leah and Elliot gaining on the growth charts (I know it doesn’t really matter), but I do. At their 9 month appointment a couple weeks ago, Elliot weighed in at 19lbs 15oz, which is almost at the 50th percentile. He was in the 5th percentile or so at 1 month. He is 28.25” long (also almost 50th %ile). Leah, our little Peah-potomus, weighs 17lbs 7oz, which is about the 20th percentile. She began life below the third percentile. She is 27” long now (also around 20th percentile). I just love how substantial they are. Like little people. It’s awesome. Elliot is built like a brick. Leah is like a thinner brick. I am amazing by their strength (especially Elliot – that kid is strong and frankly, sometimes it hurts) and their dexterity (okay, Leah’s dexterity). It’s just so cool watching them grow and learn to do things.

Etcetera:
- Leah can stand unassisted for 3-5 seconds or so now.
- Both babies can say “mama” and “dada”. I’m not positive they know what they are saying, but sometimes it sounds uncannily appropriate (like when left in their cribs against their will). It’s totally cool either way.
- Leah likes shoes. Including licking the soles thereof. Bad sign?
- Elliot loves books. And animal noises. And, most especially, books about animals and the noises they make.
- They both love other kids. It’s so great when friends bring over their kids (older or younger). Leah and Elliot are fascinated. And will try to tackle them.


Pictures to come at some point sooner than a long time from now…

Seven Months!

Today the wee chicken and the big bear turn seven months old!  And what feats have they undertaken?  A list:

• They can sit totally unsupported (still with pillows around them to break their occasional falls).
• They can get themselves into a sitting position from lying on an incline (like in a boppy).
• They have recently started babbling, a lot.  Elliot loves his "b" sounds "bwah, bwah, bwah".  They both have "p" sounds too.  We're working on "m".
• Leah is getting closer to crawling every day.  She can get up on her hands and knees whenever she wants and has begun to rock in an attempt to make forward progress.  Backwards progress generally results, but hey, progress nonetheless.  Elliot is close behind, but still does the swimming on dry land motion when he's trying to move. 
• They are focusing on individual toys and are really playing with them how they are meant to be played with (Leah has been doing this for some time). 
• They have some success with sippy cups (when the stars are perfectly aligned).

They have become quite the squirmy little babies.  I have to pin Elliot down to get him in his PJs at night.  I distract Leah by giving her a toy.  They really don't like being immobilized though and will contort themselves to roll under any circumstances. 

So we have two awesome little seven monthers now.  When I think about all the awesomeness that is to come as Leah and Elliot continue to grow and learn and gain new skills, my head hurts (in a good way).  It's almost too much to think about.  I can't wait.

Two Pump Chump

I'm down to two (full) pumping sessions a day!  (Wait, what did you think I meant?) That is two sessions (plus one mini session at work so I can keep access to the pumping room for reading purposes - shhh) from three to four recently, but over the past seven months I have pumped up to eight times per day, including waking up at least once in the night to pump in the beginning (I stopped that when the twins were around 4 months when Craig and I were away for a night at a wedding.  I passed out from, er, dancing so much, and did not wake up until morning.  Delightful morning engorgement followed, but that was the end of pumping overnight.).  I have mixed feelings about being finished with breastfeeding.  I am very happy to give up the pumping (hopefully entirely in the next month or so).  And I am very proud that I was able to provide Elliot and Leah with breastmilk for seven months of their lives (close to 100% of their consumption for the first months to about 25% now).  But it is bittersweet.  I never established a real nursing relationship with my babies.  That makes me a little sad.  When I could have been feeding the babies directly, I was hooked up to a pump (a slick hospital grade pump that I love like a triplet, but a pump just the same).  It is kind of a bummer, when all is said and done, but it is what it is and looking back on what I did wrong when the babies were little (not treating my thrush aggressively enough and nursing through the pain + accepting too much help feeding the babies, for example) is not particularly productive.  Now I am just excited to be done so I can (a) bleach my teeth (b) chemically straighten my hair (c) drink multiple greyhounds in one sitting.  

In other news, I now have a JWOWW-style paint job on my toes from letting my pedicure grow out for so long while trimming my nails.  I really miss grooming.  


This is totally the TMI-iest post in my short blogging life.  

Milestones and such

I don't spend a lot of time assessing whether Leah and Elliot are hitting their milestones according to the charts and books, but I actually think that they are right on schedule and doing really well, especially given that they were born three weeks early.  However, I do want to make a point of writing down what they are doing more often (since I suck at keeping up with their baby books), so I'll try to start making note of their current skills here.  At six months and two weeks they are:

• Sitting unassisted for long periods of time.  They both will topple if they try to reach for something out of range or if they look up quickly and lose balance, but they are really quite stable.  They cannot, however, get into a sitting position on their own yet.
• Reaching and dragging toys towards them.
• Laughing (they have been doing it for a while, but now we can reliably get them to giggle by tickling them or "squishing" them).
• Blowing rasperries and babbling a bit. 
• Staring at books being read to them (and grab and eat them, which is not as helpful).
• Rolling over both ways with ease.
• Trying desperately to crawl, especially when there is a cat within view.  It is hilarious to watch them frantically kicking their legs and waving their arms, but their bellies are stuck to the floor.  They get incredibly frustrated.  I predict Leah will crawl first because I have seen her get up on her knees momentarily and she has a lighter load to carry.
• Holding their own bottles.  Elliot is doing it pretty consistently.  He actually does it one-handed, which is one of the cutest things ever.  He's so chill about it.  Leah can do it, but isn't as interested in doing it all the time. 
• Pulling things off their faces if we cover them (like burp cloths and such).  The beginnings of peekaboo, I suppose.

That's what I can remember for the moment.  We are very close to having mobile babies, I believe, which is frightening in itself.  Craig doesn't think that the babies will go out of their way to destroy all of our possessions, but I'm pretty sure they will.  I hope he is right.  

They are eating their solids very well.  So far, they are fans of sweet potatoes, applesauce, banana, avocado (took a few tries), carrots and oatmeal.    Tonight we plan to try pears and then squash this weekend.  Thanks to Craig for making all of our baby food (with the exception of the cereals). 

Some More Twins!

If this photo had thought bubbles, I would be thinking "OMG, how do you hold a baby and smile at the same time." and Craig would be thinking "Don't drop the baby. Don't drop the baby." These twins are Beatrix and Winona, the daughters of our friends Maggie and Justin in Chicago. They've done a great job of raising those little babies into seriously adorable toddlers and provide us with some inspiration (twinspiration, if you will) that perhaps we also can keep two babies alive at once.

Week 12 Sonogram & NT Scan

Lemon and Lime looked perfect today at the 12 week scan.  Both babies are measuring exactly on target and look like wee lil' big-headed people.  Lime (aka Baby A) is "presenting" and is a bouncy little sucker.  He wouldn't stay still for a second for the doctor to take any measurements.  He's obviously going to be the bad one.  Lemon (Baby B) was also squirmy, but seemed to have a bit less space to move around.  Oh, and no new clues on genders, I just refer to them as boys because that's my hunch.  But I'm really not known for my intuition.

Here are some pictures of the kiddos.  They aren't great shots, and I think it's because sonogram techs don't really like Craig and me.  I don't know why, but it could be that we talk too much while they're trying to do their jobs.  First is Lime, then Lemon, then the whole murky gang.     

Memories...

Here I am thinking: "Two babies at once.  That's just crazy!".  Ha ha ha ha heh heh.  Yikes.  Those are our nieces back when they were teensy newborns in 2004.  Sasha is closest to me and Amanda is the one in front with the chicken legs (I'm pretty sure). 

Week 9 Ultrasound

Introducing Lemon and Lime (Lemon is on top, Lime on bottom).  Note Lemon's arm and leg buds (his head is on the right).   He appears to be orbiting his yolk sac.   Lime is just chilling, with his big head to the left. 

Houston, we have a blog.

Since we seem to be having two babies sometime in the next six months, we thought we should fulfill our blog-writing requirement.  The blog will serve to update our family and friends on our twins-in-progress, but if someone decides we need to be professional bloggers, so be it.   Check back soon for pictures (sonogram and otherwise) and updates.

Now we just sit back and wait for the advertising revenue to come in...