8 weeks old!

We see the peditrician for their 2 month checkup on Wednesday, but, we
no longer have internet so I am doing my catch up now.

Both babies are now over 10 pounds. They are such good babies. All my
friends and relatives seem amazed that I hold phone conversations and
cook and clean the house. Partly, because Duane lets me sleep for 5
hours when he gets home from work everyday, and partially because the
babies don't have colic.

As soon as we went to powdered formula, Lucas stopped having gas. I
guess the extra water helps him make poopies. :-P I now recognise that
the first week at home with them was so hard because I didn't
understand what their cries meant. I would hold them when they needed
a diaper change, change their diaper when they were hungry, and feed
them when they wanted to be cuddled! But now I speak "grunt" (Lucas)
and "Squirm" (Matilda) and it has made life with newborns much easier.
They stay on a 4 hour schedule, they don't cry without reason, and
are easy to soothe. My only worry is the swings. They are both
addicted to them!

Also, they aren't having any developmental delays for 35 weeks. They
both smiled on schedule and do everything the babycenter updates say
is appropriate for each week. Both smile, both hold their heads up and
like to sit on our laps. They track and follow objects, and they like
to see where sound comes from. We hold their hands, sit them up and
let them study the world.

My main issue now is that they are now alert for long periods of time
and I am a dullard with baby games! I sing only three songs- Old
MacDonald Farm, Itsy Bitsy spider, and The Brady Bunch theme song. Ha!
I am improvising on fairy tales. We just don't get out much to buy
baby things. I sleep as soon as Duane gets home, and he comes straight
home from work. We haven't used a sitter yet because I don't
particularly trust anyone with them. :-P

I think the first couple weeks I was home I screwed up my thyroid. I
only took my medication once or twice a week, and now I feel a bit
rundown and lethargic.

I am at Duanes work with the twins, and then we are going out to dinner as a family.
His boss just came in here, she looked at us and said "I can't believe
how good those babies are. I can't believe it".

OK, maybe they aren't *that* good... maybe I just know what they want
and take care of it. We are implementing attachment parenting as much
as possible, so they never do cry for long. They are never more than 3
feet from one of us 24 hours a day. Whatever it is, screw all those
hateful women who would hear I was pregnant with twins and apologize
and say "Double Trouble". My TWO babies are better than their one
babies ever were apparently, because I actually think I could of
handled triplets as easy as these babies have been. HMPFH!!! Sorry if
I seem like a braggart, but I really got sick of everyone telling me
to anticipate my life being "hell" with twins. Its not been anything
like that at all. Watch if we have a third one- she/he will have colic
for 6 months, LOL.

Lucas and Matilda 8 weeks 1 day






Anyone here doing attachment parenting?

tummy time, smiles and shopping

As far as when to start tummy time, The issue was with Lucas "spit 'em ups" we didn't
know when to do tummy time. We decided to do it right after we diaper
them before they eat. That way they won't have spit 'em ups! We are
doing anywhere from 1-5 minutes after diapering for the 7 a.m., 11
a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. feeding. The others are their "sleep times" so
we don't want to wake them up.

They both do fairly well- Matilda is better at holding her head up and
is already able to turn it from one side to the other which I read
occurs a little later than now. Lucas has a larger head than Matilda,
and he can't hold his up as high. Plus, he can suck on his hand when
he is on his tummy, so we have to keep pulling his hand away. When he
discovered that he could suck on his hand, he decided tummy time
wasn't too bad! Matilda hates it and screams. :-(

Matilda really was smiling last week! She has smiled at me all
morning, and I was able to take two pictures of her grinning when she
was waking up waiting for her diaper change (the diaper abruptly ended
that happiness!).

I do all the shopping on weekends while Duane cares for the twins, and
when I got home yesterday he had cooked a pork tenderloin in a pepper
marinade, steamed broccoli with a southwest spice, and long grain and
wild rice. I think he is why I feel rested right now. He lets me catch
up on sleep on the weekends and gives me time to myself while he cares
for the twins... but, get this... the babies are wanting to sleep
through the night. They are behaving at night the same way they did at
3 weeks when I moved them from a three hour schedule to a four hour
one. They started this the past week. They no longer wake up for their
late ight feedings, and they don't finish their bottles when we do
wake them up. I am going to make them hold off until 8 weeks though.

Hard Day's Night

The other night at 3 a.m. I was stomping up and down the living room
singing Hard Days Night at the top of my lungs to get Matilda to sleep.

She has decided that she likes to be wide awake and HELD in the wee
hours.

Anyhoo, I am totally sleep deprived. I actually feel more rested
other than the wee nights with Matilda. Today I even did one of my 20
minute "Walk away the pounds" videos. Exercise is a good way for me to
freshen up when I feel tired midday. Especially since its hard to nap
when Duanes not home. I just keep checking on the twins!

They sleep in bouncy seats during the day, and their twin pack and
play at night. Duane and I take shifts at night- this is working for
me but not him. I can get by on interupted sleep, but he can't. He
needs a full 6 hour block to feel rested, and who has that? His mom
had been coming up a few days a week, but it doesn't help me rest. I
actually feel like my guard goes up and feel more tired when she
leaves than when she was not here. However, it makes it easier to feed
as it never fails, whoever I am feeding the other one will start
screaming! I can see why twins learn patience early. Eventually I will
stop trying to placate the screaming one and make them wait their turn!

Well, thats my update. Everything is wonderful here, just exhausted. :-
)

Weight gain

The babies gained 24 ounces in 14 days! Thats ten more ounces then
they needed to gain. :-) Lucas now weighs 7 pounds 1 ounce, and
Matilda weighs 7 pounds 9 ounces. Shes chunky. We sing "She's a
brick house" when we are burping her. My SIL heard this and
said "Glad you two are enjoying your toys". LOL

The twins are 5.5 weeks old and still treat us like we are
just "food receptacles" is that normal? Matilda might be grinning at
me now, but not even sure about that- could be sleep grins