Bye-bye Feeding Fort

The "feeding fort" was officially dissassembled yesterday. For those of you who don't know, the feeding fort was a compilation of pillows and blankets piled in the floor of the nursery used exclusively for nursing the twins once they outgrew their gigantic nursing pillow. I knew they had outgrown their nursing pillow when Elizabeth rolled off into the floor. That was when I made the decision to nurse them while sitting in the floor, and the feeding fort was created. It reminded me of my sister Jo who is very crafty at "building" things like the feeding fort. Thomas and Elizabeth have been completely weaned from the breast for a couple of weeks now, but I was just unable to clean up the feeding fort. Yesterday, while changing their crib sheets I knew it was time. David seemed quite surprised when I told him the feeding fort was gone. I do still have two blankets down for getting the twins dressed and for a play area.

Elizabeth is starting to try to pull up on things. She will raise one arm to grab onto something (usually me but has also tried the exersaucers, her crib, and the couch) but seems unsure of what to do next. Thomas has started moving around more both in his crib and on the floor -- rolling that is. Thomas has always slept on his back but recently has been on his side when David and I go in for our bed time peeks. Elizabeth sleeps ALL OVER THE PLACE. It is funny how the personalities they had while in the NICU are still pretty much the same. Thomas is the quieter, laid back baby, and Elizabeth is still a firecracker whose cry can shatter glass (and eardrums).

Oh, how we love our babies!

Happy to report....

I am very happy to report that my blogging friend's twins are doing better and getting stronger everyday. Ben is off the ventilator, and Liam is currently being weaned from the ventilator. She got to hold both babies at the same time yesterday and has a beautiful picture on her blog. Go to http://ingliseast.typepad.com/ to view her blog and recent pics.

My twins are doing great! Elizabeth will crawl anywhere except on the hardwood floors. She just slides whenever she tries to crawl there. Thomas is really watching his sister move and starting to act a little sad that he can't....poor little guy. I'm not worried. He will move when he is ready. They may be twins, but they are different babies and will develop on their own timetables.

DAdadada

Thomas started saying dadadada today. He said it tonight until he fell asleep. David is away but could hear him when I put the phone up to the monitor. Sweet, sweet boy....

10 months old and so thankful!

T and E are ten months old now and are so healthy and strong. I am so thankful for this and so many other things. I have recently found an acquaintence/friend in the "blogging world" who gave birth to her identical twin boys at 28 weeks due to acute twin to twin transfusion. They are both in the NICU and having lots of problems as would be expected at such an early gestational age. I can't get her and her babies out of my head. I read her blog ferociously, but at the same time I can't/don't want to read it. I know what we went through with T and E at 36 weeks gestation and know it could have been so much worse. I sympathize with my new friend and wish I could console her. Now I want to look at T and E longer during our "night time peek" before David and I go to sleep. They are beautiful, amazing creatures.

At ten months we have had lots of changes. E is pretty much crawling though it is still a little awkward for her. She talks all the time and has started screaming as loud as she can when she wants a response from me ( I remember my niece MaryJo doing this at about the same age). She is testing her mom's resolve in that she thinks No is funny and will look at me when she is knowingly doing something she is not supposed to....the fun begins.

T is sitting up all by himself and loves to clap his hands. He still hates his tummy and doesn't role much. He has started talking/babbling more in the last couple of days. T remains the "quiet baby" for the most part except for when E is taking a toy away from him. He responds more appropriately to No than E does at this point. No teeth for T yet.

T and E have started fighting already....They scream at each other and take things away from each other. It is quite funny to watch them interacting from a distance. T is starting to take up for himself rather than letting E have whatever she wants. I know all siblings fight, but I do hope T and E are close.

T and E are completely weaned from the breast as of this past Saturday night. I had gotten down to only nursing them at bed time and was finally able to let go of that feeding. They didn't seem to miss it at all. I was sad of course and would have cried, but we were at a Karli's birthday party (Brett and Amy's baby girl). I think I chose their house subconsciously so that I wouldn't be able to get upset. I have found a sippy cup that is to T and E's liking -- Nuby is the brand. I have only given them juice out of it at this point but will start putting formula in it soon. I'm trying not to change too many things at once.

I have started giving the twins "self play time" in their pack and plays. This is when I put them in their pack and plays with a few toys and then leave the room -- they can't hear me or see me. This is to help them learn to play alone and to focus on one toy/task at a time. I started at ten minutes and have worked up to twenty minutes of self play time. They have done really well with this new concept and seem excited whenever I put them in their pack and plays. I want them to be able to play without Mommy or Daddy being right next to them. T and E both love their exersaucers and love it when I take them out on the porch to play. They love to have their bottles out on the back porch as well.

T and E are growing so fast. We are so blessed to have these beautiful creatures in our lives. I thank God for them everyday and pray he will guide David and I on our journey into parenthood.

More teeth...

E's second tooth is emerging...

9 month check-up

T and E's nine month check-up was a little late but went well. E weighs 15 lbs., 6 oz, and is 26 inches long. T weighs 17 lbs and is 27 inches long. I would have thought there was a bigger difference in their measurements by the way each one feels when holding them. They are only in the fifth percentile in terms of height and weight. However, they are in the 25th percentile in head circumference -- brains are growing :) They each had a rough morning because their appointment was during nap time. Thank goodness they only had to have two shots each -- hep B and polio. They are a little grumpy today which is to be expected. They have colds on top of today's vaccinations.

David's mom and stepdad are heading in to see us some time today. I hope T and E aren't too grumpy for their visit.

Back from Arkansas

We got back from Arkansas around 10:30 last night. We had a blast! The twins enjoyed seeing their cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, great grandparents, and friends. E got her first tooth while we were there!

We are all tired. Will write more later.

Rocking...

E has been rocking on her hands and knees this morning.....baby gates here we come!

More changes...

Two big changes for T and E today. They both got a bottle this morning when they woke up instead of Mama's Milk. They didn't miss a beat -- sucked those bottles right down. T has been waking up REALLY early lately, and I think it is because he is not getting enough to eat during the day. Neither he nor E have been nursing well on a consistent basis -- maybe this is why he is hungry? I don't know. Anyway, I decided to take away their morning Mama's Milk, and will eventually take away their bedtime Mama's Milk. Their second big change was eating in their booster seats rather than their bouncey seats. They both looked SO big in their booster seats! They seemed to enjoy them -- who doesn't enjoy something new? However, it was much harder for them to hold their own bottles in the booster seats. They will get the hang of it I'm sure.

Tonight, during bedtime feeding E said mama! I know she was just babbling, but it sure sounded sweet!

Off to bed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Thomas and Elizabeth are nine months old today, and what a big day they have had already! T was hungry extra early this am -- guess he knew he was about to have a busy day. After their morning nap the photographer came to the house and took the twins' pictures. All of the pics were taken outside in the yard. E was very chatty and happy, but T was sort of grumpy. He had spurts of happiness but was mostly grumpy. As David would say, he was "the grump from frump." Anyway, the photographer was very good with them and extremely patient. I can't wait to see the prints!

Let's see.... at nine months E is ALL OVER THE PLACE! She is rolling everywhere, touching everything, and is SO close to crawling. Last night she rolled almost out of the nursery door from across the room. It is definitely time to get baby gates. We have lowered her mattress one notch because she could put her foot above the crib rail when turning over. What else has she learned....? She has learned to rip off her bib and open the bottom dresser drawer in the nursery -- learned that yesterday. She has also decided that the word "no" is very funny. Poor David is about to pay for my raising. E is also doing better at sitting up though she would rather be rolling around. E is really an independent baby and entertains herself unless she is sleepy. When sleepy she wants me in the room and/or holding her.

T has finally started moving around just in the past week during Auntie's visit. He is rolling onto his stomach when enticed by a toy. He does get tired pretty quickly, and boy, does he milk it :) He is talking more as well. He absolutely LOVES his exersaucer (thanks Brett and Amy)! He is happiest when standing, and he looks so big when standing up. He is better at sitting up than his sister, but I guess it is because he is not that interested in rolling. T has gotten better with entertaining himself, thanks to the saucer, but he does require more attention than E. T also loves his jumpy (hangs from the door facing). He and E love to jump and twirl around in these. They both continue to enjoy books. They love being read to and love to play with the books by themselves.

I am down to nursing only twice a day now once when they wake up in the morning and once at bedtime. T and E are both doing well with their lunch and supper time bottles though E rarely drinks 6 ounces. She is just so busy. Most days she drinks 3 to 4 ounces at lunchtime and won't take anymore. On the other hand, T would drink a gallon if I would let him. T is better at holding his own bottle. E is not as interested in holding her own. She has to be encourged to drink her bottle-- she would rather play with it. Right now they get their bottles in their bouncey seats, but I think it is time to try their booster seats since they are both sitting up better. Maybe this weekend we will give their booster seats a try.

I can't believe the twins are nine months old. I know I am repeating myself, but time is flying by so fast! They are eating well and were sleeping well until recently. Their naps are a little messed up right now, but after talking with another mom with twins, I think I need to stretch their awake time in the am so as to push their naps later in the day. This would allow me to drop their late evening cat nap. They are usually cranky when I wake them from the cat nap. Just another step -- moving from three naps a day to two. I plan on doing this slowly -- in thirty minute increments and will start tomorrow. It is always so hard to move to a "different schedule," but keeping them on the same schedule is definitely necessary for my sanity. Look out, Jennifer! I will probably be emailing you again for scheduling advice! It's all an experiment...

Next week I will be taking the twins to Arkansas for a week. Jo is going to fly here and drive to Arkansas with me. We will stay a week and drive back, and then Jo will fly home. I am really looking forward to seeing everybody, and I know they are all so excited about seeing T and E. My family won't believe how big the twins have gotten. I am wondering how the drive will go......we will see. Twelve hours is a long trip but will be well worth it.

I am so glad the weather is warming up. I am ready to get the twins into the water. All my nieces and nephew are little fish and love the water. T and E love bath time so I figure they will like to play in the water outside as well. We will give it a try when it gets a little warmer.

That is all for now.

Great visit with Auntie Amy!

Auntie -- David's sister -- just left this morning after visiting for a week. We had a great time! T and E just loved her. They laughed and laughed at her. I enjoyed her as well. I went to the dentist, shopped for baby clothes and shopped a tiny bit for myself while she was here. She is also a wonderful cook and cooked just about every night she was here. The company was good, and I know David enjoyed getting to see her. Such visits are always too short.

Come back soon, Auntie!

Gramps is coming!

Gramps is coming for a visit today! Yay!

Update

I have been meaning to post for a couple of days now but have not had the time. There are so many things to talk about that I don't know where to begin! Last week I started weaning Thomas and Elizabeth from the breast. Just when I had decided I would nurse until they turn one they -- once again -- showed me things don't/won't always go as planned. My decision to start weaning was based on several things. E has become so busy that she is not interested in the breast. She might nurse for 10 minutes and then wants to talk or get on the floor and play. Also, the size of the twins has become an issue. They are getting so big that they seem uncomfortable after nursing for awhile and begin to fuss rather than eat. I suppose I could nurse them separately, but that would take ALL DAY. Besides E being so busy, and the twins getting so big, T and E have learned to aggravate each other -- not sure if it is intentional yet but the end result is the same. T likes to "play" with his sister's head by scratching it or pulling her hair. Needless to say it is not so much fun for E. On the other hand, E likes to try to put her hands in T's mouth while he is nursing. His usual response is a yell. Obviously, nursing has become quite an ordeal, and it is not as pleasant for the twins or mom as it should be. So, last week I took away their supper time feeding and gave them a bottle instead. I wasn't sure how it would go since E has been refusing to take the bottle. It went surprisingly well. After fighting me for a short time E took her bottle. I did this for five days and then this past Monday I took away their lunch time feeding and substituted a bottle. They seem to be adjusting fine -- probably better than I am. E is still pretty busy and not completely interested in the bottle, but at least now I know how much she is getting, which is comforting to me.

Besides weaning we have been working on "acceptable meal time behaviors". Both T and E have started throwing the BIGGEST fits during meal time. David and I have endured several of these episodes and have decided there is nothing wrong with them -- not in pain, not wet/dirty, etc. We both think the fits are behavioral issues. Anyway, I have tried using some sign (the sign for stop) along with my words to stop the fit. I also do not give them a bite while they are screaming. That is actually impossible -- they won't swallow it but just keep right on screaming. We will see how it goes. A wise man recently told me, "There is no right way to be a parent. What works for one child might not work for another. Some decisions you make will be right and some will be wrong. As long as your heart is in the right place at the time of the decision is all that matters."

On a lighter note, Thomas rolled over from his back to his stomach for the first time on Saturday! We were giving T and E some naked time, and they were loving it. In the heat of the moment, T rolled over but was immediately unhappy about it (he hates being on his stomach). I was so happy to see him finally roll to his belly!

I met with a photographer today to discuss having some professional pictures taken of the twins. She will come to the house for the session which will make it so much easier for me and the twins. We discussed some possible places in the yard and what times of the day will be best for the babies. She will come twice in one day if she needs to -- so flexible! I am really excited about it! I have seen her work on her website, and her pictures are phenomenal. She is young and seems to have a lot of experience with babies.

That is all for now. Nap time is almost over.

Dadada!

Happy Birthday!

Elizabeth and Thomas are 8 months old today! I can't believe it....really can't believe it. We had a good birthday...good play time, good naps. I took their swings to the back porch and gave them each a sippy cup of juice without the stoppers in them. I want to let them play with their cups so they can learn how to hold them and use them. Thomas did pretty well with his cup. He did eventually hold it after some hand over hand help. I'm not sure how much juice he drank vs. how much he spilled, but he enjoyed it. Elizabeth did much better than I thought she would. At first she did not want the spout in her mouth, but by the end she was putting it in her mouth by herself. I think most of her juice ended up on the front of her dress. It was lots of fun! We also had a nice late afternoon walk. It was in the low 80's here today....beautiful!

Our babies are growing so fast. Wow, how time flies!

Daddy's Day

Today I will be leaving the twins with their daddy for most of the day. I will be helping at a consignment sale that is put on by the area Moms of Twins Club. I will feed them breakfast (soon) and will come home to feed them lunch and should be home to stay late this afternoon. I am looking forward to being out of the house but already miss them. I do hate leaving them even if it is only for a little while. I never thought I would be "one of those moms", but it turns out that I am. I guess it is because I rarely leave them. I know it is good for me to have some mommy time, but I still hate leaving them.

Today will be good for David because since he has been sick he really has not gotten to see T and E much. He has kept his distance in hopes of not making them sick. I think they have missed him and will happy to have some Daddy time.

It is time for some morning "mama's milk."

Sick at our house

Elizabeth has her first cold since leaving daycare. Her nose is both stuffy and runny, and she is sneezing quite a bit. Yesterday she felt really bad and wanted to be held or at least have me in her sight. Whenever I left the room she would turn her bottom lip upside down and cry big tears. It is so heartbreaking to see her little face with such a big frown. Elizabeth didn't nap much either. In fact, she cried for about one hour while lying on my stomach. I thought about taking her to the ER, but she wasn't running a fever. It could have been her ears, I guess. I will see how she feels today and call the pediatrician Monday if I need to. My pediatrician seems hesitant about prescribing cold meds and has told me to just buy over the counter meds. I personally don't agree and feel prescription meds are safer when taken properly. That is where Poppy and Aunt JoJo come in (thank the Lord!). I have some good cold medicine for both Thomas and Elizabeth that seems to be working well on Elizabeth's nose. She was much happier this morning so maybe today will be a better day for her.

David has the flu, poor thing. It has to be impossible to rest in our house -- especially yesterday. When Elizabeth cries you can hear it throughout the entire house. Closed doors don't keep the sound out. I'm trying to be a nazi nurse and make him stay in bed. I've already told him no work tomorrow. Let's see if he listens.

RIght now Thomas and I are healthy. I hope it lasts!

A milestone for mommy

I have been meaning to write about my milestone for a little while but either I haven't had the time or haven't thought about it while on the computer. When the twins first came home we had their crib in our bedroom. Who knew newborns could be so loud while sleeping? Next we decided to take "sleeping shifts" where one of us stayed in our bedroom with the babies while the other slept on a mattress upstairs in the nursery. That went on for a week or so ( I think). Then we decided to move the twins into the nursery, and we moved our bed into the guest room upstairs and moved the guest bed downstairs into the master bedroom (make sense?) This worked out the best because I was just a few footsteps away from the twins when they needed me, but we were far enough away so as not to hear every single baby noise. David and I both slept better when the twins were sleeping. In December, David decided it was time for us to move back into our bedroom downstairs. However, I was not ready to make the move. The twins were still waking around 4 am for their first feeding of the day, and honestly, I wasn't ready to be that far away from them. Anyway, last week David asked if I was ready to move downstairs, and I decided I was. Last Friday night we moved our bed back into our room and moved the guest bed back into the guest room. That night was the first night we slept in our own room for months. It felt really strange, but I slept fine. Of course, we do have a baby monitor so we can hear the twins if they need us. Otherwise I would not have made the move back downstairs. Unfortunately, when we have guests they will have the pleasure of hearing E sing around 5 am. Starting around 5 (though it was 4 this morning) she will sing for 15 minutes or longer and then sleep for awhile. She goes back and forth between singing and sleeping until around 6:30 or 7:00 when I go in to feed her and T their morning "Mama's milk." Grandmother Jane was the first guest to hear E's sweet early morning voice last weekend.

Anyway, that has been my most recent milestone as a mother.

E is mobile!

Elizabeth is officially mobile! I put her and her brother on their quilt in the living room after lunch and walked into the kitchen to fix a sandwich. When I walked back into the living room E was on the opposite end of the quilt. I moved her back and watched as she rolled all the way to the end of the rug. I can't believe it! Hopefully, this will motivate T to start moving.

Best Birthday Present!

Sunday was my birthday, and all I have asked for was a grown-up dinner requiring we dress up. David delivered! Gramps and Grandmother Jane drove up Saturday and babysat while David took me out to dinner. We went to a cozy Italian restaurant on the river with a great view of the skyline. Our dinner was out of this world and the wine was good too...until I ruined it with dessert. Both were good but not together. We had a wonderful time! It is only the second time we have been out to dinner since T and E were born. David also got me Everyday Italian by Giada De Lerentis (spelling?) which is a cook book I have wanted for awhile.

T and E had a good time with Gramps and Grandmother Jane. However, E would not take her bedtime bottle. She was screaming when we got home. Poor Gramps, who was amazingly calm, had been walking her around the house and trying to feed her. She was so mad. I nursed her and put her to bed. She is such a stinker about the bottle...always has been. I gave her a bottle using the same nipple (Gerber newborn is the most recent I have tried) a few days before our date and she took it, although it did have juice rather than formula in it. I know I need to keep working with her using different nipples --- but when?

Anyway, I had a wonderful birthday.