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.