Freaky!

This morning I gathered up the twins and headed to walmart.

I left with them dressed in their fleece pj's as they prefer sleepers
best and their comfort ranks above "cuteness" for me.

I packed a diaper bag full of bottles, spare outfits, can of formula,
and blankies.

And, I took a cup of urine in a gladware container because I figured I
might need to go straight on to my OB's office pending results and
didn't want to have to unpack the twins several more times in testing
at home.

Twenty minutes later I sat in the car in the parking lot having just
shopped indoors and returned with two jars of baby food, two bottles
of "Kids N Pets" carpet deoderizer (awesome) and a package of Answer
Plus tests.

Dipped my test into the cup I took to Walmart, and before the urine
had completely passed over the window, I had two dark pink lines- time
elapsed- 5 seconds.

I then went to the OB's office and they tested a new urine sample
twice and came up with the same result. I am very pregnant. Seeing how
I have been having unprotected sex since 1992 without ever being late
or seeing pink lines (even with the twins I gave up at 12dp3dt because
my second pink line was only a tad darker than an evaporation line), I
am a bit shocked. That might be putting things *very* mildly.

I go in tomorrow to see an OB to start on lovenox and find out what
tests we need to do and what the game plan is.

EDD 9-16-2007
4 weeks pregnant
Lucas and Matilda 5m 1w

Teething woes

Babies are 5 months and 1 week old!

Last night these babies were up nearly every hour in teething pain. We
give them pacis, we put them in bed with us, we give them tylenol, and
we give them "teething tablets".

During the day, Lucas won't eat. He is down from his usual 25-30
ounces a day to closer to 20 now. He wants to chomp and teeth on the
bottle.

Here is what we have tried besides the above:
teething rings (hate them)
chewing on a clean knuckle of ours (briefly satisfies)
chewing a cloth (seems to make them more irritable)
baby orajel (seemed useless)

WHAT can we do? We are soooo exhausted and feeding the babies lately
has been hard for me because Lucas kicks and screams the entire time.
We reluctantly started him on baby food this week just so he would
take something. He will eat that well once a day.

Why no motrin until 6 months?

Tender Tilly

I have read that separation/stranger anxiety usually starts around 6-7
months. Well, our Tilly started this at 4 months.

She no longer allows anyone but Duane and I to old her. Whats strange
is shes NOT a clingy baby in general. She only wants to be held if she
is bounced at the same time on your knee, or for about 15 minutes
following her bottles. The rest of the time shes extremely
independent, unlike Lucas whose snuggley.

If anyone- even people she should somewhat know talks to her, she
laughs and coos and giggles. But, if they try and pick her up, she
screams something terrible, and cries huge crocodile tears until given
back to Duane or me.

Also, she startles easily. If Duane sneezes when he holds her, she
screams and cries. If we laugh loudly when holding her, she screams
and cries. Both of us have soft voices, so its not like we are ear
piercing.

Today, Duane was playing with her, and for the first time, started
speaking fluently in spanish to her. THIS made her scream and cry. She
didn't stop until Duane started speaking english again.

Will she grow out of this??? Is this normal??? My mom said both my
sister and I refused to let anyone else hold us... Lucas, on the other
hand, loves to be held by anyone with a set of arms and a warm smile.

And about cosleeping:

This is how I feel. I don't sleep well when not in the room with the
babies. I sleep better and more rested with them. Their little
inhalations, their sweet scent, the way they touch me (or kick me in
the back!)- really, I feel they are spoiling *me*. Its the best
feeling in the world.

cosleeping, etc

Lucas and Matilda have been in our
room for the past two months (Before we all three slept in the living
room), and they are about to transition out of their cradles and
either to their cribs or our bed. We've already been putting them into
our bed about 4 a.m. when they start wanting their pacifyers every
twenty minutes. Our babies have no problems getting themselves to sleep, or putting
themselves back to sleep. Its all the paci. If they don't have a paci
stuck in their mouths when they begin to rouse in the early a.m., they
start waking up, then they scream for it *which wakes up the other twin*. At this point we aren't willing to do CIO, so its
either climbing out of bed and to the crib every twenty minutes, or,
just letting them into our bed. The crib will also be put in our room.
Either we cosleep in the same room, or we will all share a bed. We use
sleep positioners when they are in the bed with protective bolsters at
their hips to prevent them or us from rolling over.

BTW, anyone who hears we want to cosleep, says "You are going to spoil
them". In what way? My sister coslept with her son until he was 15
months old, and my aunt co-slept with my grandma. Neither were
spoiled, but both confident, secure, independent and very loving
children and adults. I do not feel that meeting their needs spoils them.

I had been letting the twins swing and watch baby
einstein one half hour a day while I prepared dinner.Then I read the
AAP stuff. Now I only let them listen to music choice classical music
or holiday music. But, when *I* watch t.v., Lucas will turn and try to
see it, so I am wondering if I should just keep it on classical music
all day.

What about toys? Right now we have a lot of interactive battery toys,
and I am considering going against all battery toys. I really don't
buy all this "think up" crap. None of the toys I see for young
children seem geared toward imagination. Everything is push a button
and tell type stuff. What happened to lincoln logs and little
people??? Plus, I think if we rely on battery toys, it will mean less
interaction as right now I am down on the floor with them in play
whenever they are playing. I don't want them staring at a screen
playing alone... I want them to be active and outdoorsy like Duane and
I were as children.

My babies are NEVER still. They would NEVER sit and watch their
mobile. Ack! They won't even swing anymore unless they are exhausted.
They hate car seats, they hate strollers. The only way we can shop
with them is in snuglis. We bought an exersaucer, and they are too
small for it so we prop them in with pillows, and they do like this
for twenty minutes. Basically, they are with me all day long. Me
singing to them, showing them toys, etc. The only time I am not
playing with them is when they sleep! I can't even imagine putting
them in daycare, I am certain they would require two daycare workers
constant attention. Both also want to move constantly. Matilda won't
sit on my lap unless she is being bounced up and down constantly.
Lucas wants to snuggle, but he wants you to walk around while you do
it. My mom says I was the same way, that I exhausted her and my father
with movement and action. My twins hate rocking and won't sit on my
lap and be rocked to sleep. :-(

The upside is they are both good at going down for naps and sleep.
They are so exhausted- I lay them down wide awake, and they are out in
ten minutes tops.

I really don't think we created this situation- Duane and I are both
very active, too.

Back to baby einstein... from what I have heard/read, what the AAP
says is that the constant movement and action of childrens television
rewrites the childs brain pathways. Babies are meant to study things
slowly and observe slowly, but childrens television moves too quickly,
so their minds "speed up" to try and adapt to it. This results in less
attention spans.

Well, once I read this I started studying childrens television and I
noted that t.v. does move way too quickly (we need mr. rogers
neighborhood tapes!), and the only thing I have found that moves at a
snails pace *is* baby einstein. I do not feel its going to make me
babies braniacs (nor do I care about that aspect), but Julie does show
them things at a similar pace as I would.

Baby Shakespeare is my favorite. *I* would watch it. I love the poetry
in it, and she has a soothing voice. Plus, this is the ONLY time the
babies will just "swing" if its on. However, we are down to them only
watching t.v. one half an hour every other day- except that I do watch
Spike during the day, so Lucas will crane his head to watch Star Trek.
Atleast the pace is slow???

I swear, when Duane gets home from work on weekdays, I am ready to
collapse. I feel mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted. More
now than I did in the first three months.

Differences in personalities

My babies are 16 weeks old!

Here is the difference between Matilda and Lucas in a nutshell...

Last night I had Matilda, and Duane had Lucas. I was bouncing one
knee up and down rather violently, and singing equally loud. Matilda
was thrashing her arms up and down, and whenever I stopped, she
kicked and screamed.

Lucas was reclining on Duanes lap while Duane read a magazine. Lucas
was quietly studying the pages. I looked at him and said "Can we
swap babies yet?" :-P

Matilda and Lucas were lying on the floor together. Matilda stared
at the light fixture above her, squealing and "ooohing". Lucas had
his head turned watching CNN.

Sometimes I worry about how introspective Lucas is, but, he is very
engaging, too. Matilda will get on our laps, lock eyes and squeal.
But, Lucas will make very strong eye contact, wait for pauses in the
conversation and then "talk". He tries so hard and we sit and
say "Oh really? Is that so?" Etc. He also smiles at us more
frequently than Matilda. She would rather smile at things that
please her, and us when WE please her... but, Lucas will smile
everytime you make eye contact with him.

VERY different babies! (And my mom says I was just like her, and
Duanes mom says he was just like Lucas!)

My little sweethearts!

We're at my moms this week.

Lucas and Tilly are currently NOT camera shy at all, and we have been using the
digital camera to capture them smiling. I also have a couple of them
holding hands, which they do sometimes when they are laying together
on one of their play blankies (These were posted in the previous entry).

They have a wonderful routine now- they go to bed at 11:00 and get
up for their first bottles at 7 a.m. After their bottle we play for
45 minutes, then they nap in their swings. They take a longer nap
after their 11 a.m. feeding, and they go to bed at 8 p.m. but we
wake them up for their 11 p.m. bottle (actually we wake them around
10) and put them down for the night. They sleep in our room in
their "soothing motions gliders".

One question- what are opinions on the baby einstein videos? Matilda
sometimes gets bored and I keep thinking there is something we are
missing in the realm of entertainment. Songs, games, and toys seem
to only take her so far, and then shes ready for something new!

We hope to have some family pictures taken through the holidays. :-)

Now, Duane and I both believe in attachment parenting as much as you can do with
multiples and Lucas NEVER cries. If he starts to cry, he is picked up
an consoled instantly. I do not believe in Cry It Out. They are too young for
it anyhow. But, Matilda is allowed to sometimes "cry". I put it in
quotation marks because its really not a cry at all- its like this
weird whining "fake cry" and if you say something to her she cackles
and smiles. She does this really bad around 5 a.m. because she wakes
up bored and has trouble getting herself back to sleep. I am up every
5 minutes for about half an hour handing her a pacifyer which falls
out of her mouth as she drifts off then she wakes up again. I probably
would try and ignore her, but, it wakes up Lucas, who does cry when he
wakes up. (A true cry).

Which brings us to daytime. Basically anytime Matilda is bored, wants a new toy, or is fighting sleep she starts whining. My mom thinks its funny, and will go up to her and in a baby voice whine back, and Matilda will laugh at my mom. But, when she really needs to nap it IS annoying. She just whines until she falls asleep. Like I
said above, if it turns into a true cry, I get her and console her,
then put her back down. But, the little fakey cries when I KNOW she
just needs to nap we ignore. We touch her cheek, hand her a pacy,
but then we walk away. If I did pick her up every time she did the
fakey cries, Lucas would NEVER be held. The first day I was here my
mom actually lectured me that she hoped to goodness I did ignore some
of Matildas antics because she worried that Lucas was left out because
he is so good natured and peaceful.

So, here we are staying at my moms, and its been hard to keep them on their schedules, because my poor sister is very sensitive to Tilly's crying, and picks her up at every whine. And my mother is worried I am picking her up too much. Love "back seat" parents. Hee, hee.

Lucas HATES formula. We will be discussing this with the peditrician on the
5th. He will eat at first when he is hungry, but then he stops and
cries when his stomach makes any sort of gurgling sounds. He is on a
soy formula, and not sure where we go from here as I doubt its a
formula problem. You just feed him through the crying until he his
stomach stops making noises and then he eats well, or, he stops
altogether. Well, he will sip his juice (for his bowels) just fine
even when his stomach makes noises because Lucas loves sweeties. :-)
So, my mom decided Lucas should have juice at every bottle even though
it makes him poop and we only use it to move his bowels when he has
trouble. I let him have juice again to shut my mother up, and he had
a "blow out" and a belly ache afterwards. So, then she agreed that we
were right to limit it, but lamented how sad it was since he loves
juice.

13 weeks old!

These were from around 10 weeks of age:





The babies started sleeping longer stretches at 10 weeks. I cheated
and added rice to their bottles because they only woke up at 3 a.m.
to eat ONE OUNCE and it actually seemed to make them sleep deprived
and irritable until about noon the next day because that extra ounce
laid on their stomachs and they "pooped out" on their 7 a.m.
feedings! Once we added the rice (two tablespoons was all) they now
lay down after their 11 o'clock feeding until 6:30 in the morning.
After this we moved them back into our bedroom and Duane and I are
now sleeping together again. :-) My mom couldn't believe we waited
until they were ten weeks old to add it. She said it used to be
standard to add it at 6 weeks. Our peditrician doesn't recommend it,
but they had already prescribed it to Lucas for spit up issues, so it
was more a matter to just adding the same to Matilda.

They both have the same sleeping schedules and eating schedules, and
really are both easy going.

I feed them at 6:30 (at the same time- I prefer to feed them
individually, but for this meal they eat together)), then I use the
treadmill until around 8 a.m. and do yoga. I then do laundry and
clean- this is the only time of day that the twins are content to
just swing and daydream. After their 11 o'clock feeding we take turns
playing in the bouncy (I sit beside them and press buttons on their
toys and rattles) or under their playmat together (same, only we also
bicycle their legs and sing songs during this time). By about 6 I am
wore out and when Duane gets home I go to sleep about 8 and get up at
11 to help with the last feeding until the next day!

We still haven't mastered tummy time I am sorry to say. Matilda was
having horrible temper tantrums and wouldn't eat afterwards. Now I
wait until shes already having a tantrum over something and then use
it to do tummy time!

They are both happy babies and have good dispositions. She is still a
bit demanding, but, I have decided that if I wasn't comparing her to
Lucas (the most well tempered baby ever) I would probably say shes a
good natured patient baby, too!

I am an introvert and while I don't miss "me time" exactly, I
do get "sensory overload" from a lot of twin interaction. This is why
I still require the naps at night even though they now sleep in good
6-7 hour blocks at night. I just get exhausted after hours of
playtime. However, one good nap and I miss them terribly, and get up
all hours of the night to just look in on them.

I told my mom that God gave babies smiles
at 6 weeks of age so mommies kept feeding them. Ha! Up until that age
its pretty thankless. Once mine started smiling I felt as if I was
the most blessed person ever. :-)

We haven't started a nap schedule yet. I am not sure how one does
this, and won't get to see replies to this message since we don't
have internet and I am on Duanes uncles computer. If anyone wants to
chat, call me and give me nap secrets! As of yet, both babies at 13
weeks still like to sleep some after every feeding. I am guessing as
they are awake for longer and longer spells that I will be able to
find a good naptime schedule.

As of yet, they only bathe once a week and I get very
nervous getting them in and out of the tub, so bathing makes all of
us restless and anxious and we all three nap afterwards! I wash their
hands, feet, face and privates everyday.