TV show

More Tummy Time

Oprah

Swinging

There are currently seven places where the babies spend their time. We rotate them through these like stations on an exercise circuit.

They are:

In the crib.
On the play mat.
In the exersaucers.
In the bouncy chairs.
In our arms.
On my lap nursing.
And...in the swings.

We are adding the bumbo (a contraption that allows them to sit up...but that isn't a regular yet.)

It is hard...an update.

Well...without taking back all I said in the "it is hard" post a week or so ago, I must say everything is a whole lot easier when you are well rested. After several weeks of getting up every couple hours to nurse during the night, Michael and I finally decided that was not an acceptable situation. So, 5 days ago, on Tuesday night, we started some sleep training. Some think 4 months is too young for that, but others (including the pediatrician) think it is just right.

The first night I slept in the same room with them, comforted them when they cried, but only did one nursing around 3:30. It was rough, but they made it and were happy kids the next. Their naps were better too! The next night, Michael slept upstairs with them and although they woke him up a couple times, they made it from 6:30 to 4 and then slept until 7. The third night, we both slept downstairs and they woke a few times, but before we could get up there to comfort them, they were back asleep. They slept 13 hours!

And when they sleep well, mom and dad sleep well. (Well, at least if Parker sleeps well, which he has been.)

Things like back pain, endless poopy diapers, and Parker's tantrums are so much easier to handle when you are rested. Things are so much more manageable.

It is still hard, but Michael and I no longer dread bedtime. In fact, we are looking forward to it tonight!

Month 4 check up

Took the ladies into their 4-month check up yesterday. Here are the latest stats for those of you keeping track...

Elizabeth 15 pounds 8 ounces 90th percentile
Miranda 15 pounds 4 ounces just under 90th percentile.

Elizabeth gained two ounces on Miss Miranda

Elizabeth is 25 inches and Miranda is 24 3/4 inches. About the 75th percentile.

Elizabeth head is 42 centimeters and Mirandas is 41 cm for the 75th and 50th percentiles respectively.

All is well otherwise and the doctor was very impressed with their development and my continued nursing.

The hardest part wasn't actually the 4 vaccinations that they each got; it was sitting in the doctors office with two, all but naked babies waiting to be seen. It was at that moment that Miranda decided it would be good to learn how to turn over. Yikes!

Fashion accessories, part two

A friend gave us a set of foam tiles that assemble into a play mat, and each tile has a letter dye-cut into it, and we set them up in Parker's room. Parker very much enjoys playing with them because 1) he enjoys saying all of the letters, 2) he enjoys taking them out and putting them back, like a puzzle, and 3) he's taken to wearing the C and the U around the house like a necklace. And yes, it's pretty cute the way he says necklace.





These are from the last pics I was able to get off of our poor, dead camera.

Dead Camera

Our digital camera died the other day. With a few pictures of Parker and the gals locked in it. I bought a new one, but it is crap and is being returned.

So until we can start taking photos again, here is what has been going on:

We did some "crying it out" last night. At some point, all three kids were crying. It was unpleasant, but this morning the gals are doing very well and had a great first nap. For the first time in weeks, Elizabeth doesn't look tired.

I'm thinking of making cookies today. I made banana bread the other day, but apparently didn't mix it well enough and we had tiny disgusting flour morsels as a treat. Yuck.

Heading to a doctor's appt today with the gals. We'll see how big they are now.

Both gals are using their exersaucers now. They seem to enjoy them as does Parker who calls it the "Play Thing."

Michael and I are both going on trips soon. He is heading to a conference in Chicago in February for a week. Mom is coming up to help out while he is away. Although I had to get it on her calendar in December. She appears to be a very busy retired lady.

And I may be going to speak at a conference in the summer for the rescue group I am volunteering with. Trip to Florida for a couple days. Fun, fun! That one will depend on whether I am still nursing or not. Super Dad said he can handle all three on his own. Amazing!

Parker is doing well at day care, but still having some troubles with the drop off. Not sure when that will improve.

Oh, and last but not least, my hair is falling out. It did this last time with Parker, so I should have expected it. But I forgot until I saw it all in the shower this morning. More fun.

This is hard.

Everyone always asked me "how I am doing" with the twins. As if having twins requires some unattainable skills and is more impossible than anyone could ever imagine.

Well...they are kinda right. Let me see if I explain this without pissing off all the singleton moms out there.

When I was pregnant, I went to the twin support group. All these twin moms sat around patting themselves on the back for just getting by, complaining about the singletom moms who "had it so easy" and wondered what they "did with all their extra time". I, frankly, thought they were all snobs. Having a baby IS hard. Even just one. You don't sleep, you can't go out much, there are toys and baby stuff everywhere. It is hard.

But unless you have had twins (or more, but I don't pretend to understand a triplet or quad mom at all), you have NO understanding of what it is like. Even if you have had many kids. Even if you had them close together. You just don't get it.

You don't understand putting one baby down to sleep and have the other one wake up minutes later. You don't understand tandem nursing. You don't understand not being able to pop into your local coffee shop without a major to do. You don't understand being woken up in the middle of the night not once or twice, but three or four times as the normal course of things. You don't understand the amount of diapers you go through in one day. You don't understand what it is like to eat dinner with your husband, each of you with a baby on your lap. You don't understand trying to regulate naps, only to succeed with one and fail with the other. You don't understand the pain your back is in from nursing, carrying, and holding them.

And if you have twins and you think you understand all this, throw a toddler into the mix. Then you really won't understand.

This is hard stuff. Really hard. And we have good kids. The girls are easy (in comparison to what I hear from others) and Parker is just being a 2 year old, poor kid. He doesn't understand why mommy can't read him a book when she is feeding the gals. His requests to "put Miranda in the chair" are so sincere and sweet, you want to cry.

And I do end up crying a lot these days. Out of sheer frustration. Out of exhaustion. Out of guilt that I feel bad when I asked for all this and SHOULD be enjoying every minute of it, not counting the minutes before Michael gets home.

Anyway...just some perspective for all you moms out there. Yes, having a baby is hard. Having a few in a few years is hard too. But until you buy diapers in bulk on a regular basis, you just don't understand.

Fashion Accessories

Parker tried a new look today. He must have been pleased because he wore it throughout lunch.

Exhaustion

It's been rough going around here lately, with none of the kids sleeping well at all. Between growth spurts, colds, inability to self-sooth, nightmares, and sleepy but quite loud and insistent 3am requests for a glass of milk and a round of Itsy Bitsy Spider, the adults have had their hands full. I'm bone-tired, so I can only imagine how Rachel feels. Nothing lasts forever, of course, and this too shall pass, but that's small comfort when you're climbing out of bed for the fifth or eighth time in a night.

And on an unrelated note, here's Elizabeth looking extremely Elizabethan, which around here just means cute.

Farmers Market

Michael, Parker, the gals and I went to the Farmers Market today. Although it was freezing, we enjoyed the coffee, pastries, strawberries, and almonds. While Parker and Michael were visiting the toy store, I waited with the girls outside. Two, count them, two sets of twins girls approached us within 10 minutes. The second set had two small toy strollers with bunnies inside each of them. We chatted for a bit about twins and all that and then I asked the gals what the names of the bunnies were. They said:

Peter and Oliver.

Serioulsy.

Food

They say you are not supposed to feed babies until they're four months old, which in the case of our girls isn't until next week. But at dinnertime Miranda has been giving us such doleful looks, closely following our forks as they move from plate to mouth, that we figured that she must be ready to take the leap.



Oddly, Miranda seemed sort of confused by the whole thing. I remember Parker taking to food almost immediately, and I expected the same from his sister. But no go. Miranda managed to swallow a couple of bites, but she wasn't particularly interested, and she never got the hang of things.



Her sister, on the other hand, acted like she's been eating for years. A blind man could have gotten the spoon into her mouth, it was opened so wide. And she giggled and cooed and ate so much I had to make more. She finished with as much food on her face as in her stomach, naturally.



Of course, we can usually say the same about Parker.

Growing up fast...

The girls have advanced to the one arm swaddle. A bit tougher to wrap, but so much more enjoyable for them.

Brotherly Love

Parker has taken a liking to Elizabeth. It is all terribly cute until you realize he could crush her like a bug.

A bit more difficult...

Who is who?



A little hint...



A bigger hint...

Party girl

(Miranda)

Better Homes and Gardens

Antique sideboards are out. This season's must-have dining room accoutrement is the classic american crib, shown here in sturdy elm with a quilted bumper and optional sticky-faced toddler.

Cuteness alert!

The gals ended up wearing the same jammies on this day. They looked so cute and were so happy after eating, I asked Michael to come snap a few shots... Elizabeth was quite taken with the camera on this occasion.

Cookie

I went to pick up Parker's Bday cake from an old school bakery the other day. They had all sorts of delicious treats. I picked up a cream puff for me, two mini lemon meringue pies, and a cookie for Parker. At first, he was a bit upset it wasn't an elephant cookie (pink and white animal cookie that we had a few days ago). But then he got over it when he tasted how good it was.

Bath Time

Need I Say More?

Haircut

Parker got his second haircut today. It was 17 minutes of concentrated awfulness for both of us, but it worked out ok in the end.

A visit from Christina and Shayna

My good friends Christina and Shayna came over the other day. Just to hang out. (God love them.) Parker was at first wary of yet another bunch of strangers, but their charms won him over. Christina used the Marble Game and Shayna used a book about getting a dog from a shelter, that she gave us a while back. Christina seemed to have more fun with the Marble Game than Parker did. Parker wasn't sure who was who, since he asked Shayna to read him a book and then this happened: