Fall Festivities

I see so many blog with these wonderful pictures of trips to the pumpkin patch. I have no pictures like that. I just have had no desire to take all three kids, including the logistics of the twins, into a pumpkin patch when the weather is still 80-90 degrees. We got our pumpkins this year at the grocery store. We did spend last weekend doing lots of fun fall things though, and here are the pictures to prove it.

It was the BOO BLAST at Tyler's school. I helped with one of the games, and then we got to spend the rest of the time together. It was a lot of fun.



That evening, our friends invited us over for the second annual pumpkin carving contest. I have become the official carver for our family, and here is our entry:



Uh, yeah need to learn to take pictures in the dark. Well, Dan does. It's a skeleton. We love using those patterns you can buy. I think the pumpkins always turn out awesome.

Doctor's visit

Yesterday the boys had their four month well check, and here are their stats:

Brady: 13 pounds 12 ounces, 23 3/4 inches long
Carter: 14 pounds, 23 7/8 inches long

Going by their birthdate, that puts them in about the 20th percentile for weight. Going by their due date they are both around 70th percentile for height and 90th for weight. They are growing just as we would expect.

Brady is also doing well with his developmenalt markers. I really thought they wouldn't be two months behind. You know, they got out of the NICU after one month, surely that will be a good marker for milestones. Nope. Brady seems to be hitting things two months behind schedule: social smiles, turning his head to hear noises, head stability (not quite there) and so on.

Carter, of course, got sent home with a few things to watch. He seems to be a few weeks or so behind Brady. We are also watching the following:
-apnea (which is definitely getting better, but not perfect yet)
-his head (he is starting to get a flat spot, so everytime we put him down we have to turn his head to the right)
-his hearing (he doesn't respond to sounds the same way Brady does, so we are waiting to see if he catches up in the next few weeks. If not, then it will be time to visit the audiologist)

Overall, things look good. They got their immunizations and then slept the rest of the day. I'll take that as a side effect of shots.

Babies and Sleeping

My babies are sleeping through the night. For over two weeks now, we put them down about 10 and they get up about 6. I hesitated posting anything for fear that I would jinx whatever good thing we had going on, but it has been almost 3 weeks!

While most people say they leave the NICU on a feeding schedule, we left after they had moved to on demand, and they stayed there. We mostly fed on demand, occasionally aiming to get them on the same schedule. But it was getting hard. I borrowed the Baby Whisperer from the library, and skimmed through it. One line really stuck out: if your baby is sleeping 6 hours during the day, that is 6 hours not at night. Sure enough, our guys were having a 6 hour stretch almost every day. So I decided to go for the schedule. I have tried to be somewhat flexible, but stay as close as possible to the schedule. We have modified it a bit, and currently they eat every 4 hours. Within a few days of finding a schedule that worked for us, they started sleeping through the night.

It has been heaven, and quite necessary.

My problem is daytime sleeping. We don't do it well at all. They have stayed on a newborn pattern of just sleeping when and where they want between feedings. They don't go down well in their beds, in fact as time goes on the napping is getting worse, to the point where they only nap well if we are driving.

Any suggestions? Do you know any tricks for getting a 4 month old baby to nap well?


And a few people have asked about my little quiz below: Brady is on the top. Carter is on the bottom. Most people who played along got it right!

A Quiz

Okay, this is for people who have seen the babies somewhat regularly in person. Can you tell them apart in these pictures?


Leave a comment if you think you know. And do you like the way I made it tricky taking their pictures from this angle?

Four months

Four months ago yesterday these sweet boys were born.

Four months ago today we found out they were ours.

Four months ago tomorrow they became a part of our lives.



(I just want to know when they are going to learn to look at the camera. Maybe they need a lesson from big brother; he knows how to pose.)

Halloween Preview

It's apparently what all the cool kids are doing this year.

Twin Benefits

Holding twice the amount of sleeping baby.

Yes, I am typing this while holding two sleeping babies. Carter is in my lap in a boppy pillow. He fell asleep first. Daddy was holding a fussy Brady, so I offered to take a turn holding him. I must have that momma touch, because I got him to settle down in my arms. Now I get to stare at adorable baby faces until they need to be fed again. Ahh, this makes it so worth it.

Tyler

And last but not least, it's my big boy.

Tyler cracks me up.

See? He wanted to try on the oxygen, so I let him put the canula on, without letting any oxygen flow, and he thought it was hilarious. So did I.

He is doing so well at school. He was the student of the month, his handwriting is improving by leaps and bounds, and according to him, he and Hunter are the smartest in his class. Confidence? Check. Humility? Working on it.

He is a great big brother. He loves those babies so much, almost too much. We have had to limit his kissing spots to their feet and tops of heads, not faces, lips, hands, tummies, and so on.

Tyler is also a thoughtful kid. Last week, we drove up to our house, and someone's recycling bin had been turned over and the contents were spread across the end of our street. Tyler ran inside to find a garbage bag and grabbed me to go clean it up. He wanted to make the earth happy he said.

And this last picture is as much to show you how awesome my mom is as what a hoot Tyler is. She spent just over a week here with us. It was wonderful. I had a second adult to help out during the day, the babies were spoiled with loves (seriously, they cried for two days after she left, lucky me), and Tyler had someone to play all his games with. What other grandma do you know that will wear a cardboard circle on her head and play safari in the back AND front yard?

See? We love Grandma. And I love my sweet boy Tyler.

Brady

Of course, Mister Brady needs a turn too.

When Brady was just a few days old, the nurses in the NICU described him as feisty. It was true then and is true now. If Brady wants something, he will let you know. In fact, most of the time when he is fussy, it is just because he wants to be picked up. I have had to put him in a sling more than a few times to get some work done.

He seems to really love people. Not only does he want to be held, but he interacts with us--smiles and coos. And when he smiles, oh that dimple.

Another thing about him, he has the loudest suck I have ever heard. I almost worry about the loud clicking he makes, but he can still down a bottle in record time. He does love to eat.

Finally, I had no idea just how quickly and completely he would win over my heart. We all love Brady so much, and wouldn't want our lives to be any other way.

And, here are some Brady pictures.

Carter

I was thrilled when this book arrived in my mail last week.

See, I never win anything, and here was a book I had won from a Multiples and More blog giveaway. I have just started looking at it, and so far I like the message it is sending. Although my babies are twins, they are two unique people. I don't want them to be "the twins" but Brady and Carter, who just happen to be born at the same time. So while it is fun to dress them alike and take so many pictures of them together, I am going to try to always make sure they are also individuals.

Hence, this post on Carter.

Carter is such a sweet baby. He came into the world at 4 pounds, on the bigger side for a 32 weeker born to a smoking mother, but also at the same time as a quiet guy. In the hospital he hit his milestones pretty much as they would expect him to as he grew and learned to eat. He was and still is a pretty easy going baby. He has been a good sleeper, but we are still working on transitioning from just sleeping between feedings to actually taking naps. When he is fussy, it is because he is hungry, is sitting in a poopy diaper, or wants to be loved and cuddled.

Carter has had a few minor health issues, which I have documented here already. His need for oxygen, apnea of prematurity, and apparently a slightly weak immune system as we are in the middle of his third cold. At least it is a very mild one this time.

Carter looks like he is going to be a big boy. He has a round face, knobby chin, and long eyelashes.

I love my sweet Carter and can't imagine my life without him.

Our first picture

And this last picture is just for laughs. Carter got this rather large bald spot on the back of his head as all his fuzzy baby hair fell out. He did start growing the current fuzz he has now, but you can see the last bit of baby hair at the base of his neck. I just love it.

A big score

We have been having a fabulous week with Grandma here. Seriously, it has been wonderful. She cooks, she feeds babies, she plays games with Tyler, she even takes me out for lunch.

Today we hit the mall. My SIL Michelle gave me her gymbucks and we headed off to redeem them. Here is what I got:

And here is the part where I explain just what a bargain this is. Now remember, I bought two of everything. From left to right the after gymbucks/pretax amount:
one piece polo outfits: $7.99 each
red polo onesie: $4.32 each
plaid shorts: $2.16 each
light blue tees: $1.62 each
dark blue tees: $2.70 each
fishie pjs: $2.16 each

That is 12 gymboree items for about $40.

And this is how I scored. I went looking in the clearance section and noticed they had no doubles of anything. I thought it might be that they didn't have room on the floor, and so they kept one item out front, and the rest in the back. The clerk went back and brought out handfuls of clothes. Things that she said had been on the floor and not moving, so they had to move them to the back as they got new clearance stuff. I had no idea what they were going to ring up at, so we just started buying, and I got to keep adding more stuff to my tab as we realized how low everything was marked.

And so while I said that I wouldn't necessarily dress twins alike, they are sure going to be looking good in their new identical outfits next summer.

Random Posting

Whenever I hear the word "random" I want to say dancing, and then I want to curse myself for quoting tv shows off of Nick.

Anyway, isn't that a great way to start this totally random post? I know I haven't posted much lately, but it's because I feel like my life is so repetitive right now. Get up, feed babies, get Tyler to school, feed babies, shower (if I'm lucky) eat lunch, feed babies, pick up Tyler, play Clue (our new favorite game), feed babies, cook dinner, feed babies, (are you getting the picture yet?)

While our actions are pretty repetitive, I do grab the camera and snap away several times a day. So here are a few of those random pictures:


And here is my new haircut. You know your life is oh so exciting when the highlight is getting out of the house to get your hair done!


Let's hope this next week is a little more exciting. Grandma couldn't stay away from the babies and arrived last night to spend a week with us. I love getting to see my mom, and hopefully we can break out of my boring routine just a little.