Lesson #29 Daily Lessons

Lesson 29: In the end, this is a "live and learn", "learn as you go", "baby steps", "day-to-day" process. 

I'm so glad that I took this month to write out some of the lessons I've been learning as a new mom to two amazing little lives.  That's really what this is all about.  I'm learning something new everyday; learning the best ways (or just ways) to help my babies grow, be happy, and stay healthy.  I'm learning how to be a mom, and I don't think these lessons will ever stop.  I can see myself with two 18 year old young adults, and still learning new ways to be their mother.

I'm happy to live each day as a new lesson.  I get frustrated sometimes, as those who know me can attest, in not knowing the right way immediately.  But it's so true that there really isn't much of a "right way" to do this.  It's just loving on these kids, that's what matters.

So my lesson today is to never stop learning. Be open to change (x100!!!), be open to new ideas, and be flexible. Each day is a new adventure and a new opportunity!  (As cheesey as that sounds...)

So we're on to a new month!  I'm so excited to keep this going, and I'm feeling really lucky that I've had the chance to stay home with our littles for this long, learn as much as I have, and be able to record their first months in such detail.  I've already taken a lot of time (during those few sweet, sweet naps!!) to go back and read through what I've written in days past and revel at the amount that the twins, and I, have grown. 

March is my last month home with the babies; I'll be starting back at work in April. So I want to make sure to take advantage of having that extra time to continue recording our life in this space.  As soon as I'm back at work and having to add the showering/getting ready and commuting aspect to my day, as well as not getting nearly as much time to spend with my babies, I'm not sure how the blogging will go.  I'd like to say that I'll keep it up nightly, but I'm not sure.  So next month will be important to me!

And my theme for March:  Daily Giggles!  I want to capture the funniest and happiest moments of each day.  Even if it's just a silver lining, I want to make sure to take time and think about how truly blessed each day is, and record it here for you all to see, but also for myself to look back on (and maybe even the littles to read one day). 

So get ready for our daily giggles- we have a lot of them around here! :)

She's just too adorable...don't tell, but Ben and I joke that she sorta looks like a Who from Who-ville! ;)

I love that she is really starting to play with toys now!

He's such a happy little dude, as long as it's before 6pm...

I wonder what he's thinking about when he smiles at his toys!

Grace is mastering the double-hand grab now!

 

She grabs her rings or hanging toys and brings them to her mouth with both hands!



Caleb is really starting to get better at grabbing things. He is actually using his thumbs now to grab!

Intense focus. :)

Lesson #28 Savor It

Lesson 28: Savor every cuddle!

Today, I realized (again) just how quickly our littles are growing up already.  I remember when little Gracie Mae would just lay in my arms and fall asleep immediately.  She'd do the same on Daddy's chest.  She was so peaceful and so comfortable lying there in the warmth of our snuggles. 

As I sat on the couch with my Gracie, smiling back and forth with her and just loving every minute of it, I realized that we haven't really had much of a cuddle-fest recently unless she's already asleep or really, really tired.  See, G Money wants to PARTY!  She looooves sitting up and checking things out, standing on our laps, rolling from side to side, and bouncing up and down.  If I were to lay her in my arms when she's not about to doze off, she would just do her adorable little baby crunches working her hardest to sit up on her own.  And she's getting there way too fast!

Mr. Caleb is a bit more laid back most of the time still.  Most boys develop a little slower than girls at this age (and well into toddler ages and beyond), so he's still working on putting weight on his legs and hasn't really breached the "rolling" phase yet.  He usually will sit and gaze at me for longer periods, but he isn't too keen on lying down either, cuz that means "sleep time" and he HATES sleep time. ;)

So we're already moving out of the constant cuddles phase and into play, play, play (which is super fun). I'm gonna miss that time.  I'm lucky that I still have some cuddles left before they're really moving around, though.  I'm gonna savor every last one of them.



The Grace Face:

Little Dude:

Caleb smiled at his reflection in the mirror for the first time today! SO CUTE OH MY GOSH!

Play time with Daddy!

Caleb's favorite game!

Ok, enough of the paparazzi

Caleb's hands are so much bigger than Grace's already...but still tiny :)

Lesson #27 Can a miracle smile?

Lesson 27: Yes!!  In fact, two miracles can smile at EACHOTHER!

Today, our twins smiled at eachother.  It was absolutely precious and I never want to forget it.  I'm sure there will be millions of smiles flashed back and forth for our littles, and I'll love each and every one (yes, even the ones when they're up to some mischief together...).

I had Caleb on the couch next to me in a boppy and Grace in my arms practicing standing on my legs.  I looked over at Caleb and he was looking at Miss Grace, so I decided to see if they'd look at eachother.  I held Grace right over Caleb and she was sort of looking around above him.  Then all of a sudden, Caleb started smiling at her.  I don't know if he just realized that she's another baby like him, or if he recognized her face or what.  But it was so sweet.  And THEN, she happened to look down at him right when he was smiling, and she smiled right back!  They didn't hold their gaze for long...they rarely do with all of the exciting things to look at in our living room (??), but it was too sweet. 

Our two miracles, smiling together.

I also saw Grace roll from back to tummy for the first time today as well.  I've gone into her room and she was lying on her tummy, so I knew she could do it (but we had their cribs slightly elevated so I thought that was the reason she could roll), but she did it today on her playmat.  She got really mad though because she doesn't particularly enjoy being on her tummy, so that was sort of funny. Sad, I'm a horrible person. ;)

We're having a LOT of trouble with sleep right now.  I'm hoping that this is the "4 Month Wakeful" period that I've read about.  If it's not, and we still have that to look forward to, I don't know what I'm gonna do. They won't nap for longer than 30 minutes, they are fighting bedtime like it's the end of the world, and they are waking up every 30-45 minutes from about 3am until I finally cave and feed them around 5:30.

They seem SO tired, really pretty fussy...but they just won't sleep.  From what I've read, at around 4 months, they are learning so much and going through growth spurts at the same time, that they just can't sleep.  Ugh, mama's tired.

Any tips or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Well hello there, blue elephant. We meet again.

Oh, and you too, Mr. Lion face. Thanks for joining the party!

So...I'm gettin real good at this rolling thing...does this mean I get to bust out of the playmat jail anytime soon?

Lesson #26 FFF! (Forced Family Fun, of course!)

Lesson 26: Get out as a family!

For the past four months, we haven't exactly gone crazy with the outings.  Rightfully so, I think, with twin infants.  But there's something to be said for getting out as a four-some from time to time, building even the silliest of memories.
Today, Ben and I took the babies out grocery shopping as a family for the first time.  We'd been to restaurants before (a few times) and clothes shopping (maybe twice), but this was our first grocery trip and it went really well.  Ben carried Grace in the bjorn and Caleb slept in his carseat in a cart.  Ben had to push a second cart cuz there just isn't enough room for our grocery trips in that cart-full-o-little-man. 

It was really fun to show Grace the different colors of Gatorades (ah yes, a learning opportunity at four months! ;)  and to show off our littles to complete strangers. One woman stopped to ask if they were twins and let us know she's got 11 year old twin boys at home. 

I think there's just something in being all together in a new environment.  We spend most of our time in our living room on the weekends because Ben doesn't get to spend a ton of time with the babies during the week and it's hard to feel like "quality time" is being out and about.  But every once in a while, I think it's a different kind of quality to do something new, or at least different than the usual sleep, eat, playmat routine that we've grown accustomed to.

Anyway, just get out.  The more you do it, the easier it becomes!

Daddy play time with Grace

Daddy play time with Caleb

So handsome.  He for SURE has Daddy's eyes.

She is looking more grown up by the day.  No more sleepy newborn eyes, look at those beautiful blues!

I heart Gracie feet.

Lesson #25 "Okay campers, rise and shine..."

(Blog props to anyone who can guess the movie from the beginning of that quote!)

Lesson 25:  Routine and proper naps is SOOO important for little ones.

I'm starting to see this more and more for our little ones! Oh my goodness.  We had to forego a large part of our routine and some good naps today for the all-important photo shoot (c'mon, mama needs a professional every now and then!).  I'm really glad we got some pro-pics of the babies at this stage, but man oh man did we pay for it.

When I say that, I do have to preface by saying that today wasn't NEARLY as bad as the colic meltdowns of the months past.  I'm thinking Mr. Caleb is really on the better end of that (gut-wrenching) phase, thank the Lord.

The babies slept until 6:15 this morning which was glorious, but it made for an awkward switch in the routine from our usual 5am wake-up call (not that I minded that, it just wasn't a good day for it).  So I have been working on getting them up by 8:30 or so when they wake up at 5, but they didn't actually get back to sleep until around 7:15 and they weren't too keen on eating again until 9:30.  So we fed them then, but had we had to be at the photo shoot by 12:30.  Can't very well feed them at 12:30, so I tried super hard to get them down for their nap a little early so we could feed them at 11:45 instead.  Of course, trying to get them down before they were tired (usually it's about an hour or an hour and 15 minutes after they wake up) was torture.  And it backfired.  They actually hardly slept at all.  Caleb was angry at being in his crib too awake and Grace couldn't sleep through his sqwaking.  So we fed Grace at 11:40 but Caleb fell asleep finally at 11:30 and I wanted him to get a little rest.  So I fed him at 12:00 and then tried to rush out the door.  He didn't fully finish his bottle, which never makes him happy, and I had to wake him from his nap which is just the double-whammy from hell.

He was fussing in his car seat on the way there but perked up when we got to the fun new place. Lots of things to see! Yay!  ...15 minutes later and it wasn't fun anymore for little dude.  Too much stimulation trying to get him to smile (which neither of them did, of course) and we had a meltdown at the studio.  Grace only fussed a bit but Caleb wasn't having it. 

It was a short shoot anyway (it was a free 30 min session, we just have to pay for whatever shots we want) so we got them into their carseats and they fell asleep by about 1:15.  We should have driven around with them for a good hour or more to get them some sleep, but we went home and they promptly woke up.  They couldn't fall back asleep, so they only got about 30 minutes tops.  Fed them again at 2:45 and then they fell asleep for another way-too-short nap, woke up, and fell back asleep at 5:15.  I took a nap and Ben didn't want to wake them up, so Grace slept about 30 minutes and Caleb about 40.  He fed them at 6:30 and then they played a bit (we should have put them to bed here, lesson learned) and planned to do a cluster feed (feed them twice in two hours) at 8:30 right before bed.  Cue massive meltdown from a very tired Caleb at 7:45. 

I tried to start the bedtime routine then but it was too late. He wasn't having any of it and I had to try and calm him down through his screaming for about 30 minutes.  Luckily he was able to fall asleep through his foggy anger and I held him for about an hour to let him calm down for real.  I dreamfed him around 9:15 and put him in his crib.  Thank goodness, he didn't get mad and he's still asleep!  But it was touch and go there for a bit.

So as much as I want the little ones to be flexible and able to adjust based on our schedule or plans, it's just not gonna happen.  Babies are creatures of habit and they NEED SLEEP in order to function sans meltdowns (at least our babies do).  Grace was really just as tired but she doesn't freak out like Caleb does. He just can't handle being overtired or over stimulated. We know that now, so we'll try to help him out. 

I don't know what this means for next weekend's plans of taking the babies to a party at night...we'll see how it goes.  We'll just have to make sure they're only out in the party for a little bit.  :(  I wish it was less "dramatic", but I'd rather have happy babies than have fun showing them off.

So here are some pictures RIGHT before meltdown:

Look how sleepy.  I had a feeling we should have put them to bed earlier even without their last bottle.  I need to listen to the mommy instincts!

She just fussed more than usual and wouldn't take her binky- a sure sign she's way.too.tired.

Lesson #24 Take The Win

Lesson 24: You'll have some not-as-good days, but when it's good...take it as a WIN!

Today was great! We had a lot of wake-ups last night. I honestly can't remember who and when, but I'm pretty sure Grace woke up twice and Caleb once...is that bad that I don't know? I'm tired!! Anyway, they were up at 5:40 for their first bottle and then went down easily afterward.  Then Caleb was up at 8:15 and Grace slept in until 9.  They napped pretty well on and off, but stayed in their cribs without fussing (just needed binkies here and there to fall back to sleep) all the way until the next bottle at 12.  Then I took them to the pharmacy and the grocery store, I filled up my truck with gas and stopped at In & Out burger...and Caleb slept the ENTIRE time.  Grace was awake for the first hour or so, but didn't fuss, just watched me shop (so cute).  I used these new car seat covers that block out some of the sun and it was phenomenal.

So they ate again and then napped AGAIN for about an hour and a half!

Here's the thing.  It's because of their vaccines yesterday.  They did this with their 2 month shots, except they were super cranky the night of the shots and they really weren't cranky last night.  They ended up being cranky for about four days after the initial sleepiness wore off the last time, but I'm taking it as a win and not thinking about the possible fussing that may be coming.  I had time to run errands and clean the house, and still had time to spare for pumping without rushing and sitting down to relax for a few minutes!!!

:)

I forgot to put in the babies' stats from their 4 month check yesterday!  So drumroll...

4 Months (unadjusted ages percentiles)
Caleb:  Ht- 25 3/4in (80%), Wt- 17lbs 9.6oz (92%), Head- 39 3/4cm (4%)
Grace: Ht- 24 1/4in (51%), Wt- 12lbs 6.4oz (23%), Head- 39 3/4cm (17%)

2 Months (unadjusted ages percentiles)
Caleb: 22 1/2in (33%), Wt- 12lbs (59%), Head- 36cm (1%)
Grace: 21 1/2in (18%), Wt- 9lbs 9.6oz (20%), Head 351/2 cm (1%)

So basically, they both have TINY heads! But they're growing at the right rate, just on the very small end.  Strange.  But the big news of the day was that Caleb's weight was in the 92%ile for unadjusted age (babies born at 40 weeks).  For his adjusted age of 35weeks, he is completely off the charts.  Basically, he's a fatty. :)  But he's really tall, too.  80% for height unadjusted. I think it was something like 98% adjusted.

Grace is our little peanut for sure...but they have the same size heads. That's so funny to me.  When I look at Caleb, he doesn't look like he has a tiny head, even for his big body, but when I see other babies his age it's a bit more obvious (ie, Caleb's thigh is almost the same size as his head...I don't think that's "normal" per say, haha!).

On to the fun stuff!


I took this video today and it cracks me up everytime!

http://youtu.be/S_yr8qEwKVQ

Love it.

Here are some pics from today:

I think yellow is her color...and pink...and orange...and green... ;)

He even KEPT sleeping once we got home for a good thirty minutes!

Grace Face:

This one makes his head look REALLY big. ;)

The quest to suck on the fingers continues...

Happy baby!

Lesson #23 Look out!

Lesson 23:  Keep your eyes peeled, you never know what they're going to do next! 

I put Grace down on her playmat after her morning bottle so I could feed Caleb who was waiting.  I kept peering over the couch to make sure she was ok. I had her on her tummy and she was just checking things out, looking in the mirror.  I looked over one time and she was sort of rocking a little more than normal. So, I decided to stand up with Caleb and go watch her play.  About five seconds after I stood up to watch her, she just rolled right over!

We have a roller, people.

Grace Irene rolled over for the first time today! It was amazing to watch, I'm so glad I got to see it and that I decided to stand up and watch her as I fed Caleb.  I wish Ben could have been there, but I got a video of her second roll ever and he got to see that :)

http://youtu.be/dy_u9HL50ZE


Go check it out! I apologize for the poor videographer skills.  I had another baby in my arms...


Today was a rough day on the littles, they had their four month shots.  Honestly, they did awesome.  They cried for maybe fifteen seconds each (Grace might have been fifteen seconds, Caleb about five seconds).  Caleb smiled about a minute later when I was tickling him, so he seemed to be good to go.  Grace had the tears rolling for a little while, but she handled it fine. 

They got uber sleepy because we had some bad naps today, so we let them sleep it off in the living room. Grace woke up around 8pm (after a 6pm bottle) crying and crying, she was obviously in pain.  So we numbed it with some more milk and she fell back asleep in her crib swaddled. She didn't even need a binky.  Caleb had a bottle at 6:30, gave some intense tired cries, and passed out in his swing.  He's still there now.  I'm not waking him up.

Ben also let me take a nap from 6-7 which was awesome, so he took care of their bedtime bottles.  Grace was up screaming at 2:30am last night, and I'm still not sure why.  I had to actually get her out of her crib and rock her with her binky so she would calm down.  I changed her diaper, but it wasn't dirty.  She didn't seem hungry, it was a different cry.  Maybe gas?  Got back to sleep around 3:15 for a 5am wake up call by little man for a bottle.  Grace woke up around 5:30 and Ben fed her.

I got Caleb to give me some good chuckles today which are so cute!  He went from being a squeaker to having a pretty low laugh, it's adorable.  He loves it when I hold him over my head and bounce him up and down!

No pics today, I thought the video was better! :)

Lesson #22 Slow Down

Lesson 22: It goes so, so fast.

Today, I stopped and looked at our babies.  They were both in their jumperoos looking around, batting at the toys in front of them, and actually bouncing.  These were the little ones who couldn't keep their eyes open long enough to eat.  The little ones who were barely big enough to fit in their car seats for the ride home from the hospital.  My tiny babies are growing up, and it's going so, so fast.

Our littles are four months old today, and it was such a great day!  We had awesome naps in their cribs, we had playing and giggling, we had all kinds of smiles, and we had cuddles.  What an amazing day...I'm going to miss my little babies when they're no longer little...

As I watch them learning something new everyday, showing more and more of their personalities, and interacting with us in their own special ways, I'm filled with such pride and excitement.  I can't believe how utterly intoxicated I am by them.  They're so wonderful.

I wish I could slow down time.  I know that it's hard, that the lack of sleep and the difficulties with naps, binkies, and feedings aren't my favorite parts of the day...but there are SO many truly perfect moments with them.  I want to savor every piece of it, to make it last.  This is my last baby phase, I want to cherish it.

So, lesson of the day, take time to watch. To really stop and smell them, breathe them in, truly look at them.  It goes too fast.

Happy 4 months babies!

And of course, the out-takes!

And lots of cute ones from today:

They are both totally obsessed with sucking on their hands!

Probably my favorite picture of Grace so far... haha!

Please excuse the gash in my son's face...he likes to attack his skin with his fingernails...

Loving the top of the playmat...it's just a piece of yellow plastic, buddy!

The sleeveless men!

BIG BUBBA! (From Ben's Mom!)

LITTLE LADY!  (And just look at that big toe! Seriously?)

Ps- Both babies napped in their cribs all day and were down for bed in their cribs by 7:30.  Caleb woke up crying about an hour later twice and I had to give him his binky...but that's WICKED progress! :) Win win win.