Baby Update

I feel as though I blinked and now the babies are seven weeks old.  We had a weigh-in at five weeks and Julia was 7 pounds 11 ounces and James was 9 pounds 7 ounces!  I really hate to jinx anything, but they are such good babies.  They truly sleep and eat, and only fuss when they need a meal, diaper change or a quick cuddle.  I don't take a minute for granted, and am keenly aware that it could change any time, but it's almost like they know that I need them to be easy-going in order to manage it all.

They are still sleeping in the pack-n-play in our room, and we seem to have gotten into a good groove.  During the day, I (do my best to) keep a baby gate up in the doorway so that Hannah doesn't meander in and strip them of their blankets as she likes to do.  Emmy is very proficient at taking the gate down, though, because she is adamant that she be the first to come to their rescue at the very first sound of their cries.  They nap well there, or propped up in their boppies on my bed.  I pump and feed them usually before I get Hannah up in the morning or while Hannah is eating her breakfast. (Jules takes about 2.5-3 ounces and James about 3-4 ounces each feeding.) Then again mid-morning while the big girls watch a show (with Hannah restrained in the second pack-n-play in our room.)  The girls go down for nap/quiet time around 1230, at which time I pump and feed again.  I squeeze one more pump and feed in at the tail end of naptime around 3:00.  I have been doing really simple meals, my favorite being in the crockpot, so that I can use part of my dinner prep time (where the girls are watching another show) at 530 to pump and feed again.  Afterwards, I put them in a wide infant seat on the kitchen table (because when they are on the floor, the big girls shower them with smothering love.)  After dinner is bathtime for the big girls (at 630-7ish,) and on the nights that Nick is home, he takes care of that along with the bedtime routine, while I clean the kitchen, pick up the house and bathe, pump and feed the babies again.  It gets quite a bit hairier when he's home late from work or flying at night, but, I have managed to get the job done despite the hungry and tired cries (and humping anxious dogs.)  For now, the babies' most wakeful and vocal time has been between 6 to 10ish.  After the big girls are in bed (particularly Hannah) it's easy to focus and calm them with cuddles, which Nick is eager to do (as well as help with the evening feedings.)  Their last feeding is between 11 and midnight, for which I try to stay up (it's hard to wake up for a feeding after having fallen asleep just an hour before.)  After that pump and feed, they'll usually be up between two and three, and then again between five and six.  Luckily, I've gotten the drill down, so after half an hour for a pump and feed, the babies are back in the pack n play and I can hunker down for another stretch of sleep.  Sometimes, when one of them takes a little while to settle back down (they both, but especially Jules, tend to be gassy) I can just pull them into bed with me and put the baby on my chest and we are both back to sleep fairly quickly.  If I am so inclined, I can usually transfer the previously unhappy and now sleeping baby back to the pack n play without incident; but most of the time I am too lazy and very much enjoy the warm baby snuggles until it's our next pump and feed time.  Moral of the story, I am really, really tired, but I know I could be functioning on no sleep at all, and with that in mind, I am so grateful for my particular degree of fatigue.

Jules has flashed her precious smile on a handful of occasions, and James is still warming up his smile muscles.  James does lock eyes with me, though, which absolutely melts my heart.  I am wondering if they might have blue eyes, because thy both have a bluish tint to their grey newborn eyes.  Time will tell.  It's amazing just how different they look, from each other, and from Emmy and Hannah.  It's so much fun to watch them grow.  James is a very handsome, solid little guy, that I now think of, affectionately, as my butterball turkey.  It's really amazing how different his little body is from the girls'. He has the kindest eyes, the cutest button nose and big lips; I can't get enough of staring at his face.  Jules is growing into her delicate features, and is such a beauty (in my very biased opinion.)  She is so attentive, which makes me wonder if she is going to be type-A like her biggest sis.  This is all so much fun...:)

Both babies came down with a bug last weekend, and have been really congested all week.  We have been using a good amount of sterile water and putting the suction bulbs to use.  Jules actually had a handful of episodes of projectile vomiting, decreased appetite and therefore decrease in wet diapers early in the week.  She's not 100% quite yet, but much, much improved.  I am doing my best to keep "sick bugs" away from the babies, but it is a huge challenge with the bigs, who are not big on personal space.  I definitely look forward to the babies' getting bigger and building more robust immune systems.  Being premies, they are prime candidates for RSV (the potentially fatal manifestation of an adult respiratory illness in babies.)  We were warned by multiple doctors to protect them from exposure, especially because insurance will not cover the very costly vaccination for it simply because they were born at 35 weeks and not 34 6/7 weeks.  My college microbiology course made me a germaphobe and being a mother of premies has confirmed it.

Nick took the big girls to see the Sacksteders in St. Louis for the weekend, so it's just me and the babies (hence the blog update.)  It's incredible how much my perspective has changed over the last four years and the thought of only being responsible for two infants is like a vacation!  I've already burned my mouth multiple times because I'm not used to eating my food while it's still hot (but yet I am conditioned to scarf it down-not a winning combination.)  I have a laundry list of things to get dome (figuratively and literally,) but I am also committed to catching up with cuddles while I can.  This phase is so fleeting...

Walking Birth Control

We got "boo-ed" by one of our neighbors with a surprise bag of Halloween goodies on our doorstep yesterday, and it was our turn to pay it forward.  Since Nick is flying the next two nights, and I wouldn't be able to sneak out after hours, I figured today was as good as any to take the whole crew on our collective maiden voyage to Target.  Between the feedings, pumpings, diaper changes, wardrobe negotiations/changes, and my partial bathing, we didn't actually leave the driveway until 11:00.  I knew better, it was dangerously close to lunch time and then naptime.  If I missed this window, though, I would be out of luck until the next day (I encourage Hannah to nap as long as humanly possible which usually leaves us a short window before dinner prep, dinner, bath and bedtime...)  Our routine makes the difference between enjoying the kids' pleasing personalities and their head-spinning, possessed, she-devil crazies.  Case and point:

Once we arrived, I luckily found a parking spot near to the shopping cart drop-off and pulled two carts over to the car.  Calm, cool and collected, I loaded the babies, side-by-side, into the back of one cart, and Sissy and Emmy in the second cart; and then pushed and pulled them both towards the store front.  I was off to a solid start.

I didn't realize that the slope up the curb before the front door would be so tricky to clear.  Lucky for me, there were several people entering and exiting the store at the time, and they all ran over to help me maneuver my two carts.  I was grateful for the help, but simultaneously beginning to realize that there was no chance that we would blend in with the other shoppers.   We stood out like a sore thumb, and thanks to Hannah, not only was it sore, but grossly infected, perhaps even gangrenous...

We had barely arrived at the dollar bins (the very first display in our Target store) before Hannah has set her sights on something shiny and decided to scream for it.  In the months that have passed since I last shopped with my big kids, I had forgotten that Target is Hannah's kryptonite.

It became very clear that every time Hannah got over screaming for one attractive piece of merchandise, we would come upon something new that would also catch her fancy.  She never stopped screaming.

I needed three things: diapers, shaving cream, and treats for two "Boo" bags for our neighbors.  Instead of making the arduous task of turning my caravan around and heading back to the car, I decided that I would attempt to break all records for quick shopping trips.  This all would have been fine and good, except I was handicapped by pushing and pulling two baskets, both of which were nearly impossible to maneuver into crowded aisles.

Sweating profusely, I would park the carts at the end of an aisle and take off running to grab what I needed, while also retrieving the snack and sippies that Hannah was now chucking from her seat.

I get sweet looks and comments when I'm out running errands with just the twins, but, today, there were looks of pity.  "You poor thing" and "I get stressed shopping with one kid," "the lady who lived in a shoe!" (very clever and very true,) uncomfortable smiles, or just dumbfounded stares thrown my way as I took the ultimate walk of shame through my favorite store.

I busy my thoughts with an impromptu action plan for making supplemental income as walking birth control.  Unleash me and my four children (particularly Hannah) on a high school campus and I'd have a 100% success rate in the crusade against teenage pregnancy.

I finally get us to the checkout.  While the teenage boy who was ringing me up just stared blankly at me, a neighboring cashier tries to help by offering Hannah a sticker.  She refuses, vehemently.  I grab my bags and receipt and run for the door (as best I can with the two carts filled with my precious cargo.)

After I got everyone secured in the car, I rummage feverishly through my Target bag, thanking my lucky stars that Halloween candy was on my shopping list.  I worked through the stress with a healthy dose of chocolate therapy.  We'd barely cleared the parking lot before my over-tired Hannah Banana was sound asleep.  Better luck next time; whenever that may be.

Grammy & Poppy Visit!

Over the last week, we have been the lucky recipients of Grammy & Poppy's love and attention.   They were absolutely thrown into the middle of the fray, and managed to not only come out alive, but smiling, too.  In addition to experiencing a healthy dose of the crazy at home, they also braved the park, the Nashville Zoo, Kids-N-Play and Chuck E. Cheese's with our big girls at the rest of the fall-breakers!  They both kept up with the bigs step-for-step, which, in my opinion, is advanced grand-parenting.  Before they left, we uploaded all of the photos that Grammy has diligently taken over the last year of visits...

October 2012

Christmas 2012 in California

June 2013

Woodloch Pines, June 2013

October 2013