4 Months with the Twins

The girls are now just over four months old! Everyone told me "It gets easier after the first three months." False! This has by far been the most challenging month. For the first three months, my babies were textbook schedule babies. They thrived on their eat/play/sleep every 3 hours routine and slept throught the night. I wouldn't neccesarily say it was easy, but it was predictable. I knew when they would be hungry, I knew what time they would need a nap, I knew when to expect some fussiness, and by knowing I was able to feel prepared and in control. I thought, wow if it's supposed to get easier, this month will be a walk in the park! Well, this month has been chaos and unpredictability resulting in cranky babies and momma. This month, I have felt such despair that I am inadequate when both babies are crying and need me and I just can't help them both. And many days I feel like I can't help either of them because nothing I do seems to help. I am so grateful when Nate is home and can help. He is such a great dad! Despite the craziness, there are moments every day when the girls make me laugh and moments when my heart feels like it will burst because I'm so proud of them and love them so much. Those moments make it all worth it!

It seems impossible to get them both to smile for the camera. At least they are both looking.

Thanks Aunt Libby for sewing these adorable outfits!

Eden: Our Little Peanut is no longer a little peanut! At her check up she weighed 11 lbs 14 oz. She's still only in the  5th percentile but I can't believe how much she has grown. I think she is going to be a rock singer. She has discovered her voice and likes to scream when she plays. It is so funny, albeit a bit annoying, to see her smiling and screaming at her toys.

Lydia: Whenever I pick Lydia up, I feel like I'm holding a little girl, not a baby. She is growing like crazy and weighs 13 lbs 1 oz putting her in the 20th percentile. Our Suggle Bug still lets me cuddle her occasionally, but she has become super active and just wants to be on the floor playing, kicking, and rolling around.

New Things: I swear these girls are changing and learning new things everyday. They are continuing to become more interactive which is so fun for me. I read to them everyday and I can tell they are listening to me. They seriously love Where the Wild Things Are. Whenever I "roar my terrible roar and nash my terrible teeth" they just smile and giggle away. I always thought it was a bizarre book, but hey, whatever makes them happy. Speaking of giggling, both babies have become ticklish, especially Lydia. I look forward to changing her clothes and putting her pajamas on every night because she is so ticklish and laughs when I do it. They are starting to notice things more also. For instance, they've discovered they have hands. Eden sucks on hers all day long and Lydia loves to interlace her fingers and fold her hands like a lady. We also put each of them in front of a mirror for the first time and it was hilarious! Eden stared at herself and looked so confused. It was like she was expecting to see Lydia and couldn't figure out who she was seeing instead. Meanwhile, Lydia thought she found a new friend. She smiled and laughed at the baby in the mirror that was smiling back at her. The biggest milestone they've reached this month is rolling over! They both hated tummy time and would just scream and spit up and rub their faces in their spit up and scream some more so I didn't make them do it very often. But I was diligent this month, and they can now hold themselves up really well and have even started rolling over from front to back! (Smart girls, figured out how to get out of tummy time!) Lydia also started rolling back to front last week. Life with immobile babies is over. Oh dear! Mobility has led to another sad change. The girls now sleep in seperate cribs. The other day, Lydia rolled right on top of Eden! The funny thing is neither one seemed to even notice.

Sleep: I don't know what has happened with our sleep schedule. December was awesome. They were sleeping throught the night and taking solid naps. Along came Jauary, and that all went to pieces! Nighttime sleep has been off and on this month. Occasionally, they sleep the whole night through until 8:00 AM, most nights they wake up once to eat which still isn't bad. But some nights they are up multiple times. Now that they are more mobile, we are done swaddling and they will get a leg stuck in the bars or roll over and squish there face into the bars and then cry for help. I actually don't really mind getting up because they are usually pretty quick to fall back asleep at night, but the real probelm is naptime. I've started putting them in separate rooms for naps. The "45 Minute Intruder" has reared it's ugly head and one or both of them have been waking up 30-45 minutes into their naps. It's almost like clockwork. Even in separate rooms, there are some days that they wake up at the exact same time. I have tried just about everything to get them back to sleep and I've found it's easier when they are in separate rooms. If one wakes up and hears the other one awake, neither will go back to sleep. I feel like parenting is just a big experiment and what works one day doesn't work another day. Sometimes the swing helps, sometimes a binkie, sometimes pat/shush, sometimes shorter periods of awake time, sometimes longer periods of awake time and sometimes nothing helps and nap time is short resulting in a tired and fussy baby the rest of the day. However, the last couple of days I have seen some real progress in naptime and am hoping and praying that we are leaving the 45 Minute Intruder behind!

Yay! I'm Smiling! -Lydia
I'll just eat my hand, thank you very much -Eden

Ok, I'll smile too. -Eden
Hey, this hand sure tastes good. -Lydia

Finally, both are smiling!

Babies' First Christmas

Family photo on Christmas Morning

 Happy New Year! Hope you all (or shall I say y'all) had a wonderful holiday season. I know we did. While the babies won't actually remember how awesome their first Christmas was, at least I will. We flew to Seattle to visit Nate's family for two weeks.

Taking a nap on the flight. Luckily, the flight wasn't full and we were able to sit by each other with an empty seat in between!

The whole family was able to be together! Nate's mom had lots of fun activities planned for us. We went downtown and rode the carousel, went bowling, and played at the fun center doing laser tag, go carts, mini golf, and arcade games.

Babies first carousel ride. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've ever ridden one either...

Eden and Daddy exploring downtown Seattle

Lydia got to hang out with her Uncle Brady

They loved all the lights at the arcade

The babies were champs being toted around to all the activities. I think they were more flexible than I was. I consider myself a pretty laid back momma, but I've discovered that's only when we're on my timetable and in my element. It was great to be able to get out and do fun things with the babies and it built my confidence, but inside I was harboring secret anxiety: oh no, the babies are supposed to be asleep right now, we're not going to be home in time for them to eat, where am I going to feed them, what if their schedule is completely ruined and for the rest of their lives they live in chaos!?!?! Despite my fears, the babies did get some sleep and didn't starve and since coming home, have resumed a normal schedul just fine.

Call us terrible parents, but we didn't get the girls any Christmas presents. I think they will most likely forgive us down the road or perhaps never even know about it. Actually, we did get them a double jogging stroller. Maybe that was a gift to myself, but they get to ride in it! But trust me, these girls were anything but lacking gifts on Christmas day. Santa, aka Grandma, made sure they were sufficiently spoiled. Speaking of spoiled, I surprised Nathan with a smoker for Christmas. He is super excited to start using it, so if you live in the area, we are now taking reservations. 

Lydia had a blowout right before sitting on Santa's lap! Impeccable timing! That meant outfit changes for both girls since they needed to match for their picture with Santa.

Eden in her rocking chair

Lydia wants a turn too

Eden loves Grandpa

It is hard to live so far away from family, so we are grateful every time we get to visit. Eden and Lydia already love their grandparents and aunts and uncles. Spending time with family was a great way to end the year and start a new one. This past year has been more than eventful for us and we are eager to see what 2014 brings our family!

Thanks Grandma for my new dolly

I love my dolly too!