Bath Time Photos

Alright, so I just devoted all those words to sleeping and eating, and not a letter about bath time!! Well, I decided to just post some of the bath time photos instead, since they are so dang cute! We've varied their bath routine, everything from their little tub to the big bathtub with mommy to the shower with daddy, so the pics are the same as well. Logan definitely likes bath time more than his brother, but Carter's getting the hang of it too.
Here are the boys at their first bath at home. It was still a sponge bath, since their little cords weren't off yet...they weren't really big fans.

Here is Carter chillin in his baby bathtub...and Logan recovering from it!


Here is the big boy bath they took with mommy...


And Carter in the big boy shower he took with daddy...Logan was a little camera shy.

Were-Carter and the Mummy—Sleeping and eating habits

Here we are coming up to week 7 and things are (as everyone said) getting a little easier. We still wake up in the morning groggy and sleep deprived, but we are surviving. For the last few days we’ve even started a “sleep routine” which involves changing and jammy-ing each boy, then swaddling them and laying them down. Our biggest sleep saver so far? --Laying them down drowsy instead of asleep. Boy I wish we would have figured that out sooner!! (Or at least read up on the subject, since every article on baby sleeping says to do that…DUH!)

Anyway, that method seems to work quite well. We have been using the little Fisher Price jungle light thingy when they are wide awake, and they love to look at that. They cry when the little timer turns it off…we usually give them a few cycles of it if they are really awake. Carter seems to like it more than Logan…sometimes Logan finds the corner of the crib (away from the light show) much more interesting. Who knows what he’s looking at, but at least he’s quiet while looking at it!

Both boys do pretty well being swaddled, though if they’re wide awake they do fuss a bit and need a little rocking and calming. Once Logan is settled, he usually sleeps without moving at all. When you unwrap him to wake him up, his arms and legs are straight as a little mummy’s, and sometimes he’ll even keep this position all the way to the changing table…It’s adorable!

As for feeding, the boys are still using the nipple shields (pain in the butt by the way) but Logan is starting to nurse for a little while without. Carter will latch on without it, but he’s not quite figured out that if he sucks, milk will come out. He gets very frustrated and aggressive when he’s hungry, growling and grunting and turning his head side to side really fast. He often fails to notice at first that the nipple is right in front of him. He’ll flail his little arms in front of his face as well. Evan calls him “Were-Carter” (since there is no wolf in him, we can’t call him a werewolf). He will actually chew on daddy’s shirt or the burp rag (or anything else in front of him) if we don’t get him to the nipple fast enough. Logan does it sometimes, but he doesn’t get nearly as growl-ly. Logan mostly just wails as loud as he can. And don’t be deceived by his size – that boy has a set of lungs. He beats his brother in decibels by far.

The doctor said that we should limit their nursing time to 30 minutes for Carter and 40 for Logan (since he likes to take his time and he's still pretty skinny). I was nursing them for an hour, and that takes up some time! I still give Logan a little more time if he's still sucking, but he's usually done at about the right time anyway. I just don't try for another 10 minutes to get him to drink another mL if he's been on for 40 minutes now. It's hard to cut Carter off when he's still willing to get back on the breast, but I happen to know (thanks to the lactation consultant and a great scale) that Carter gets a lot in the first 20 minutes and like to fake like he's drinking - sucking without actually consuming anything - for the rest of the time. I keep expecting them to wake up 45 minutes after they eat sceaming hungry, but so far that hasn't happened.

I think that they're doing well gaining weight, but we really haven't been to the dr. since last Monday. They were gaining more than an ounce a day on average, though, so they should be good. Also, the preemie clothes that were baggy on Logan at first are now too small, and he's not swimming in the newborns either. I take that as a good sign.

The magic of the six weeks

The boys are almost to the magic “six week” date, when everything is supposed to get much easier, so I thought I’d take a minute to think back on what it was like in the beginning compared to now. Is it really easier?? I’d like to think that they will go to sleep tonight and wake up easier, but since getting them to sleep at night is still a tough one, I’m not going to bet on that.

Carter started life at 5 lbs 2 oz and was 7 lbs 8 oz at the doctor's on Monday. He was fed by a tube for the first few days of his life since the nurses didn't want him to waste the calories drinking out of a bottle (before my milk came in of course). Now he my better nurser and will put down at least an ounce or two more than his brother at their nightly bottle feeding. He got a very strong neck and for a few weeks now has been able to lift his head off of your chest and look around at things. It even looks like he's starting to focus in on objects. He still crosses his eyes if he looks too hard at something, but hey, it's a step, right? He has started standing up a little on dad's chest, and is very good at scooting himself up farther if he's not comfortable. He smiles (with gas mostly), but he does it with his tongue sticking partly out. We found out a few doctor's visits ago that he has reflux, with is why he would grunt like a little warthog all night long. (Since we've found out, we sit him up after feeding and he's a much quieter sleeper). He still spits up a lot, though.

Logan started life at 4 lbs 8 oz (and was only 4 lb 1 oz when we took him home), but he is now 6 lb 4 oz last Monday and has officially gained more than an ounce per day for the last few weeks before. Looking at him compared to his brother he still looks very tiny and skinny, but he's starting to really chunk up. I think that he's even getting a double chin! (Though compared to his brothers 3 chins, it's hard to tell.) Looking at pictures from the hospital compared to now is a drastic difference. He smile more than his brother (and mostly keeps his tongue in his mouth), but that may be because he has more gas than his brother. He has a little strawberry hemangioma on his nose that we have to put cortizone cream on morning and night in an attempt to shrink it down or inhibit its growth (since it's growing into his miniature nostril). It doesn't seem to be working but we'll go in to the dermatologist next week to see for sure. He is still fitting in to some preemie clothes, and is much too small still for most newborn sizes. He's sort of a tweener right now...though his grandma loves to put him in outfits that are much too big.

I suppose that was more a summary of each boy more than a comparison, but I'm ok with that. Eventually I'll even write in their baby book and get this all down, but for now this is all I've got. Now off to feed...again... :)

How am I doing?? Why??

Over the course of my children’s short lives, after people ask how the boys are doing, it still strikes me as funny that they then ask how I am doing?... Aside from the sleep deprivation thing, I think, ok...wonder why they’re asking. Then, as my husband loves to remind me, the words Major Surgery float from somewhere in the back of my mind. As most of you know, I did have a caesarean section with the birth of the boys due to the positioning of little Carter, aka “Baby A” since they do not try and reposition the babies if there are 2 or more. Not enough room I guess.

Thinking back, it seems like a hundred years ago that I had that surgery, and I have since been recovering very well. It’s been weeks since I’ve worried about how much weight I’ve been carrying around, and I’ve gone for a few very long and pain free walks. I’d heard stories of people not “taking it easy” right after surgery and then their recovery took much longer. I didn’t think that I took it particularly easy, so I was surprised when people talked of such a long time to heal.

Yesterday, I realized why. I just wasn’t pushing myself in the right way to test my recovery yet! With the boys packed up in their car seats, waiting to be taken to the car to go to grandma’s house, I jogged the short distance to the mailbox to send off some bills. I discreetly held an arm over my chest, since everyone wearing a “sleeping bra” (since the pain of a clogged duct was too much for me to risk wearing an underwire or anything remotely tight fitting) knows that those things are not a great replacement for a sports bra. What I should have been concerned about, however, was the stabbing pain in my abdomen. OOWWW!! It’s a day later and I still feel tender and bruised! How lame is that??

So next time someone asks how I’m doing, I suppose I’ll have to say, Alright. But I’ll be better in time. Just as soon as I get a full nights sleep…ten years from now.

Happy "newborn" birthday boys!

We've made it to June 2, the official due date of the boys, the day when the boys are supposed to miraculously "wake up" and act like newborns. No miracles, but I would say that since we brought them home more than 3 weeks ago they have changed quite a bit. I don't notice the daily changes in their appearance (and size) like others do, since I'm with them all the time, but when I think about their little personalities then and now, and there are noticable differences.

They sleep less during the day, and seem to spend more time with their eyes wide looking around. All they used to do was sleep and eat, then sleep again (they went to the bathroom in their sleep). Currently, they eat for about 40 minutes to an hour each feeding, eat every 3-4 hours (from the start of one feeding to the next) and still sleep about an hour or two of that in between time. Unless mommy wants to take a nap while they snooze in their bouncers of course - then they're both wide awake.

Carter loves to be held, and demands it more than his brother when he has to chill in between feedings. Logan is more content to sit and look around with his eyes wide. We're not sure what they look at, since I'm not sure how well they focus yet, but what ever it is they both become very enthralled with things. Both of them now seem to be looking up at the little toys that are attached to their bouncy seats more, though again, who knows how much of it they really see. They don't seem interested in the actual toys yet (since they are detachable), but they're getting there.

Breastfeeding is going well...much easier than when we first came home. Three weeks ago I was terrified at the idea of not having someone here to help me feed them. Even bottle feeding them takes two. I still need an extra set of hands to help with burping and such, since they nurse at the same time and tie my hands up a bit, but I have fed them alone before and it can be done. Thank goodness the boys are good nursers! Logan takes forever, but he gets the job done eventually.

Speaking of that, we are still going in weekly to weigh him, but at the last two appts. he's gained an ounce a day consistently so I'm not worried too much about that. At the weigh in last Wed, Carter was 6 lb 6.6 oz and Logan was 5 lb 4.4 oz.

We went last weekend to get the boys' pictures taken by a professional photographer and they turned out great. The photographer met my mom in the dressing room of some dept store and after finding out that she was having twin grandbabies (since my mom told every person she came across during my pregnancy) offered to do the session for free to have them for her portfolio. Turns out having twins comes with some advantages! Here is a link to her blog where she posted a few of the pictures (look under the June 1 entry): http://www.angelasmithphotography.blogspot.com/

She was absolutely awesome - and so patient! The boys were fussy after a while, and there was no end to the pee and poop that Evan and I got covered in (since all of the shots were done diaperless). Carter actually pooped in my hand at one point when he was sitting in it for a pose, and then got some pretty good distance peeing from the same spot. She said it was to be expected. She works in her garage turned studio in Sherwood, and I would definitely recommend her to do any babies pictures. I'm just bummed I didn't get her to do pictures of me while I was still pregnant.