christmas eve

I'll begin with Christmas Eve (aka. The Night of Our Tiny Miracle).

Kara and I had originally planned to stay-in on Christmas Eve and just relax with our little family.  My parents (and older brother) would be going to spend Christmas Eve with my twin brother and his family.  They would then spend Christmas Day at our home.  But then a couple of weeks before Christmas I got a text message from my sister-in-law inviting us over on Christmas Eve.  And by "us" I mean Kara was also invited to their home.  A first.  Needless to say I nearly fell off my chair.  Of course Kara and I could not decline the invitation (for many many reasons) but we were a bit worried as everyone was not getting together until 7:00pm.  And that is when the boys go to bed.  I was really nervous that the boys would be super fussy.  Kara and I decided to leave the house around 5:30pm and drive around town to look at the Christmas lights.  Because the boys always fall asleep in the car this would give them a decent nap before the events started for the evening.  I was a nervous wreck.  But then I decided to just let things be.  There should be no grand expectations for the night.  And once I relaxed things seemed to go just fine.  Things were a bit "awkward" but thankfully little kids can ease the tension in any room.  I know my mother was beyond thrilled to finally have all her grandchildren in the same room at the same time.  It only took 7 months.  My brother and sister-in-law went above and beyond to make a wonderful meal which we all enjoyed a great deal. The boys did just great!  We even managed to get lots of good pictures.  I wish I could share those pictures with you all but for privacy reasons I obviously cannot do that.  Just know that each picture made my heart very happy.  It was neat to watch my nephew zoom all around the room during the evening.  He is a little spitfire.  And super smart.  And then I realized ... I will have two spitfires at the same time.  Oh Lord!!  I'm going to be exhausted!!  The boys hung tough for a couple of hours.  My favorite part of the evening came as we were leaving for the night.  I was sitting on the stairs putting on my shoes when my nephew came down from upstairs.  I asked my nephew if I could have a hug.  I knew this would be a stretch for any two-year old.  But this is a two-year old who does not really know who I am.  And without a second thought my nephew wrapped his arms around me.  And I did my best to squeeze tight for just a few extra seconds.  I hope it's not the last hug.  But I just don't know what is going to happen with the relationship with my twin brother.  I know this was a good first step.  And I just hope it continues in the right direction.  But for at least one evening I felt like my family was complete.  And it was rather perfect.

Mary 

i promise to write soon

But in the meantime here are some pictures from Christmas ...

Reindeer Jakob

Reindeer Alex

Of course staying true to their personalities.

Our Family

Again ... both boys are staying true to their personalities.

Of course we have some spoiled little boys ...

And this little gem.  I'm playing with my nephew ... (I will let that sink in for all my long time readers) .... !!! (I will be back to dedicate an entire post to this topic.)

Indeed it was truly a magical Christmas.  I feel blessed. 

Mary

our favorite things (3 - 6 months)

Better late than never!!  What are we still using all the time from our previous list?  You can view that list here.

Rock 'n Play Sleeper
Boppy
Medela Pump in Style Advanced Breast Pump
Dr. Brown's Bottles
Boon Grass Countertop Drying Rack

What are we still using on occasion?

Bumbo Baby Seat
Fisher Price Rainforest Swing
Infantino Swift Classic Carrier

What are we not using at all?

Gerber Side Snap T-Shirts
You Tube
Miracle Blanket

Here is a list of our favorite things from 3 months - 6 months.

Joovy Nook Highchair - This highchair is wonderful.  It is great if you have a small space because it folds up to a very compact size.  It is super easy to keep clean because it is made of leather.  And you can unlatch the tray with only one hand.  This is great for when you are holding a squirmy baby.  The only drawback ... There is a big gap between the tray and where the baby sits.  This has made it difficult for the boys to learn to pick-up food because it is quite a reach. 

Fisher-Price Rainforest Jumperoo - This has been a lifesaver!  Our boys absolutely love the jumperoo.  A fussy baby is automatically calmed down when placed in the jumperoo.  This is an absolute must for a twin momma.  It allows me to play one-on-one with one baby while the other baby entertains himself in the jumperoo.  The boys would jump all day long if we let them.  The only drawback ... It is an eyesore that is impossible to hide or put-away.  I'm not exactly sure where we are going to store it once the boys are done using it.

Fisher Price Precious Planet Happy Giraffe Bouncer - This bouncer was a lifesaver when we will still letting the boys take naps down in the living room.  It also helped teach them to reach for objects.  We don't use the bouncer seat all that much these days but we are not ready to put it away.  It is great for sticking a kid when you need to make a quick bathroom break!

Bumkins Waterproof Starter Bib - These bibs are AMAZING.  They come in all different sizes.  We were using Gerber cloth bibs when the boys first started eating solid foods.  And cleaning those bibs got real old very fast.  The Gerber cloth bibs are great for "drooling" purposes but not for "eating" purposes.  These Bumkins bibs clean off in seconds and then we just hang them to dry in the kitchen.  These are a must!!

Vulli Sophie the Giraffe Teether - I will admit that I jumped on the bandwagon on these items.  We got them at our baby shower.  I probably would have never paid for them myself.  However, the boys really do love these teething toys.  They are actually a bit obsessed with them.  The giraffe is easy for them to hold and the squeaking noise is an added bonus.  These are also really easy to throw in the diaper bag.  If you don't have the money to buy a Sophie the Giraffe I promise your kid will survive.  But if you are gifted one it will definitely get some use. 

FuzziBunz One Size Elite Diapers - I disliked these diapers tremendously when the boys were newborns.  These diapers are unique in the fact that they have an internal elastic system that you adjust to your desired size.  It means you aren't fumbling with sizing each time you put on the diaper.  The problem ... it is not all that easy to re-size the diapers as your baby grows.  BUT these diapers are wonderful once you take the time to size them to your baby.  We change the boys one time during the night.  We put these diapers on in the middle of the night and then first thing in the morning because that tends to be "poopy" diaper time!  And let me tell you ... these diapers can hold in the "poops".  So I would definitely recommend a handful of these diapers if you decide to go with cloth diapers.

LeapFrog My Pal Scout - This is the favorite toy.  This dog can be programmed to sing songs with your kids name included in the song.  The boys get so excited whenever we pull out My Pal Scout.  Both Jakob and Alex have their own Scout dog.  Jakob even does this surprised face whenever we pull out his Scout dog.  He gets so excited!!  The dog is also easy for them to hold and has a heart on his chest that lights up. 

Contours Optima Tandem Stoller - It took us a long time to decide on a stroller.  We could not afford a top of the line stroller.  It is just not in our budget.  Plus we really are not a huge "stroller" family.  Our criteria for choosing a stroller included the requirements of being easy to maneuver and being lightweight.  This stroller is the lightest of its kind in the mid-price range.  It is also very easy to maneuver.  I can direct it with one hand.  The seats also move around so we can let the boys face one another as they get older.  We are still working out all the kinks but for the time being this stroller meets our needs.  The company is also great.  We had a broken seat bar when we got the stroller and they sent us a new one in only a few days. 

Mary

12.14.12

I was at work yesterday and I got this picture from Kara. 

It was a perfect picture.  I promptly sent the picture to Grandma and Grandpa with the words, "How does this not make the world seem perfect in the morning?"  It was 8:00 am.

But the world was not perfect.  There was a monster man in Connecticut who was preparing to ruin the lives of innocent children.  A man with so much evil running through his body that he did not hesitate to take the life of a helpless child.  To take the lives of a room full of helpless children.  What caused the evil?  I don't know.  And at the moment I will be honest and say that I do not care.  We can debate the facts later.  Today I only speak as a mother.   

I received a text message from Kara at 11:17 am "What the hell is wrong with people?  There was another school shooting at an elementary school."

I will be honest.  I did not respond to the text message.  I've become numb to such news.    

I NEVER in a million years thought that there was a room full of dead children somewhere in an elementary school in the United States.  I thought domestic violence.  Another dead teacher.  Let's move on with the day.    

But then I went home for lunch.  And the newscasters were getting very nervous.  And then it happened ... The world stopped spinning and for a moment I heard nothing but "20 children dead".

I held the boys tighter.  I cried.  Kara cried.  I was scared out of my mind.  How do I raise my boys in an evil world?  How do I one day but a book bag over their shoulders and send them off into the world?  How do I promise them that there is safety in the classroom?  How do I get up in the morning and not expect another tragedy to occur?  

I cannot imagine the pain of the parents who lost a child (or children) yesterday.  I do not think I would be able to live.  I told Kara that yesterday.  Her response, "I know."  

I pray for the children.  I pray for the families.  I pray for their souls.  I pray that the fear they experienced and the pain that they felt is long forgotten.  I pray that yesterday God welcomed a classroom of precious children into the kingdom of heaven with open arms.  I envision these children running free today.  They are free from a world of hate.

Mary  

7 months

Age: The boys are 7 months old!

Weight / Length: No idea.  We better not go back to the pediatrician until 9 months (outside of their booster flu shot next week).  Fingers crossed for healthy winter months.

Clothes:  We are still rocking 6 months in Carters, 3-6 months in Old Navy, and 4-6 months in H&M.  But things are definitely starting to get a bit tight!  We got some good deals on 9 month clothes after Thanksgiving so at least we have some outfits to put the boys in when the day comes that we can't button any of the 6 month clothes.

What are we eating?:  The boys are on a somewhat consistent schedule.  The day is some variation of the below ...

7:30 am - 5 oz of breast milk
8:00 am - 1 oz - 2 oz fruit or vegetable
10:30 am - 2 oz formula / 4 oz breast milk
Noon - 1 oz - 2 oz fruit or vegetable
1:30 pm - 5 oz breast milk
4:30 pm - 2 oz formula / 3 oz breast milk
5:00 pm - 1 oz - 2 oz fruit or vegetable
7:00 pm - 6 oz of breast milk
3:30 am - 6 oz of breast milk

They eat about 4 oz of formula per day and 28 oz of breast milk per day.  We are still on Stage 1 foods.  They have tried sweet potatoes, squash, peas, green beans, apples, peaches, and bananas.  They are definitely fans of the fruit.  Both boys are really getting good at eating solids.  Alex has even tried on occasion to grab the spoon.  We have also given the boys Baby Mum-Mum's.  They love these little biscuits.

I am down to pumping 4x per day.  I pump at 2:30 am, 8:30 am, 2:30 pm, and 8:30 pm.  I also have stopped recording how much breast milk I am getting at each session.  And it has reduced my stress level tremendously.  I am no longer putting a time frame on how long I will continue to pump.  I'm just going to keep doing it until I feel the time is right.  At this moment the boys are still getting mostly breast milk and for that I am grateful.  But I won't lie ... I am tired.  

How are we sleeping?  We did it.  We moved the boys to the nursery.  It was a rough transition ... for me!!  I was lost the first night.  I really just wanted to go rock myself in the corner.  But the boys are definitely sleeping much better without the distractions during the night.  We have not transitioned them to the crib.  The boys spend time in their crib each day.  And we have noticed that because they are rolling all over the place they often get limbs stuck in the slats of the crib.  This results in an immediate cry fest.  So we decided to invest in breathable bumpers.  They have been ordered and once they arrive we will begin the transition to the cribs.  I think the hardest part for me during this transition is that I get to "see" the boys even less now.  I get home from work at 4:30 pm and the boys go to bed at 7:00 pm.  And now because the boys are in the nursery I don't get to say "good-bye" before I leave for work in the morning.  That means I only see the boys about 3.5 hours each day (includes coming home for lunch).  This can be rough.  The boys are still getting up to eat once during the night.  Let me rephrase that ... Jakob is still getting up to eat once during the night!  But by default Alex must wake-up too.  All the books say that a baby should be able to go 12 hours without eating by the age of 6 months.  But to be honest I'm just not ready to transition Jakob off the middle of the night feeding.  Again.  I think we will know when the time is right.

Naps - The boys are taking anywhere between 3 - 4 naps per day for a total of 1.5 - 2 hours total.  We do not have big nappers.  But at the same time they are sleeping for 12 hours at night so it would explain why they only sleep for 1.5 - 2 hours during the day.

What are we doing?

Alex - The turtle has come out of his shell!!  We have gotten lots of smiles and (silent) laughs from Alex in recent days.  Alex is a rolling machine.  But he still prefers to spend time on his back.  Alex still whimpers for attention. It's not typically a full on cry.  Just a whimper to let you know that he is around.  He has also started to reach out his arms to us to let us know that he wants to be held.  Alex is working really hard to sit all by himself.  It kind of came out of nowhere.  And today Alex actually sat unassisted for about 2 minutes!  Go little man!!!  Alex still LOVES the jumperoo.  He would spend all day bouncing up and down if we let him.  Alex does a great job sleeping at night but he tends to fight naps during the day.  It is the only time he breaks out in a full on cry.  And a cry it is.  It is a slobbering, drooling, I can't catch my breath cry.  And just when we think he is going to choke to death and we bust in the nursery to save him you get ... a big smile.  Silly little man.  Alex also really loves Sophie the Giraffe.  Alex loves to chew on his toes.  I wish I could get my toes in my mouth.  Oh to be that flexible.  But let me just say .. our boys have some super stinky feet.  Kara has started to keep socks off of them during the day because their feet stink so bad.  I can't wait for the teenage years!!!

Jakob - Jakob is still a giggle monster.  He also still feels everything much more intensely than his brother Alex.  But at the same time Jakob has started to relax just a bit.  He is getting better and better at entertaining himself.  He is a world professional napper and only on rare occasion does Jakob fight a nap.  He is obsessed with his Scout dog.  He will get the most excited look on his face when you pull Scout out from hiding.  Jakob also loves the jumperoo.  There is always competition in the house for time in the jumperoo.  Jakob loves to interact with Alex.  But his interactions include climbing and/or kicking Alex.  And our sensitive little boy often gets annoyed very fast with his brother Jakob.  So there are times we have to keep them apart.  Jakob is doing a great job putting weigh on his legs.  It is amazing.  He is also working on sitting unassisted but hasn't quite mastered it as fast as Alex.  I think it's cause Jakob has my big head.  It's a lot of weight to carry around.  Both boys have started to become fascinated with our cat Ohana.  Any time Ohana walks by both boys reach out to pet grab Ohana.  Jakob also loves to grab Ohana's ears and tail.  We are working on teaching the boys to be nice to the animals.  We will see how long that takes.  We keep the dogs in the kitchen during the day and often times our mealtimes get a bit chaotic as the boys are more interested in the dogs than they are the food.  Jakob has found his voice.  Actually he has found his screaming voice.  Both boys have also mastered the "fake cough" and being stellar parents we do our fair share of encouraging the behavior.  Jakob is also becoming quite the wiggle worm and diaper changes are getting a bit challenging.  It is difficult to put a diaper on a wiggling kid.      

I am sure I am forgetting some important facts.  But I do know one thing ... I have never loved anyone quite like I love Jakob and Alex.  They are my world.  I simply cannot imagine a life without my little men.  I never knew it was possible to feel this type of love.  It's a love so deep that it hurts.  I feel so very blessed to have them with me each and every day.  You are amazing my sweet little boys.  We love you to the moon and back.  

Mary

santa

We took the boys to see Santa today!

Kara and I both had the day off of work and because we knew that we would be crazy to take the boys to see Santa on a weekend we decided that today would be the day!

Of course as we pull up to the mall I casually mention to Kara, "Just make sure Alex doesn't have a stinky diaper" .... Yep! ... So that leads to a diaper change in the parking lot.  But its not any stinky diaper.  It is a complete blowout.  Now being "that mom" I absolutely must have the boys in coordinating outfits for these pictures.  So Kara gets all MacGyver on us and manages to salvage the outfit Alex was wearing.  I just hope Santa didn't get too close.  The only casualty of the entire incident was a dirty pair of socks.  Yeah.  Don't ask.  But I didn't get too torn up over non-matching socks.

It was a perfect time to go to the mall.  There was absolutely no line!  But don't worry.  Even if there had been a line we wouldn't have slowed down the line.  Nope.  The boys lasted all of 3 seconds on Santa's lap.  Well.  I take that back.  I think Alex could have sat on Santa's lap all day long.  But Jakob had other ideas.  He started screaming as soon as I stepped away.  But the photographer was amazing.  She had actually snapped a picture as soon as we put the boys on Santa's lap.  So while Jakob is screaming his head off and the photographer is doing her best to get Jakob to stop screaming I say ...

"Didn't I see you snap a picture before he started screaming?"
"Yes.  But they weren't smiling."
"Um?  I don't care.  We are done."

So this is what we got ...

I think they look very handsome!!

I also didn't know that I would have to dip into the boys' college fund in order to purchase this picture.  Jeepers!  What happened to free pictures with Santa?

Mary

our thanksgiving

We made it!  We survived our first road trip with the boys!!

We went to Erie, PA, as we do every year, to celebrate Thanksgiving with Kara's side of the family.  But unlike all the previous years we had two extra special little boys on board.  And the boys did absolutely amazing!!

We packed up the car and headed out of town on Wednesday morning.  We dropped the dogs off at the kennel and hit the road.  The boys slept the first two hours of the trip.  We were experiencing exceptionally warm weather so we were able to stop at a rest stop and sit outside and feed the boys their 11 am bottle.  The boys loved to look at all the trees.  The boys then entertained themselves in the car for the next hour of the trip.  Of course we brought all our toys from home.  I was trying to decide which toys to bring when we were packing up the car that morning but I finally gave up and just handed the whole basket to Kara with the words, "You just never know!"  So it shouldn't have come as a surprise to me when I had a difficult time determining whether or not the boys were awake or asleep during different points of the trip.  I couldn't see them through all the toys we had hanging from their car seats.   Anyhow ... once the boys played for about an hour they slept the remaining hour of the trip.  We decided to stay in a hotel during the trip.  We just knew it would be much easy to have our "own space" to come back to at the end of each day.  But before we headed to the hotel we stopped by for a quick visit with the grandparents.  The boys did great in their new surroundings and soaked up every minute visiting with Grandma and Grandpa Russell.

We visited for a couple of hours before we headed to the hotel to check-in.  The boys took a quick nap in the car.  We got all checked-in at the hotel and Kara lugged all our luggage to our room without any problems.  Did you know that you need just as much luggage for six month old twins for three days as you do for two weeks?  The hotel staff put us at the very end of the hallway.  That probably happens when you make a reservation online for 2 adults and 2 children but only request 1 king bed.  Once we got all settled into our room we decided to head off to visit the boys Great Grandma Mimi.  But because things never go as planned the boys decided to have a major meltdown in the car.  I climbed into the backseat and gave them a bottle which seemed to help for all of 10 minutes.  By the time we got to Great Grandma's condo we were in full meltdown mode.  I thought for sure our visit we be all of 5 minutes long.  But then this magical thing happened ... Great Grandma Mimi appeared in the doorway and the boys were mesmerized by everything Mimi had to say to them.  This visit would end up being the highlight of our trip.  Kara and I are so thrilled that the boys were able to spend some time with their only living Great Grandparent.  I loved to sit back and watch the joy etched on Kara's face.  It was truly a magical visit.  We think Mimi was very proud to show off her great grandsons too.

We headed back to the hotel after the visit and we called it a night.  The boys were very tired and for the most part did an excellent job sleeping that night.  I actually think Kara and I had more problems sleeping.  We are not used to a king size bed and we are not accustomed to sleeping without our little dog Leo.  The lack of body heat in the bed made for some chilly sleeping!

There was a Cracker Barrel located right behind our hotel so we ordered carryout on Thanksgiving morning.   Kara and I have made it a tradition to eat Cracker Barrel each Thanksgiving morning and the only deviation from that tradition this year was getting our food to go.  It is much easier than bringing the boys to eat in the restaurant.  The food was a hit as always and next year the boys will be chowing down on eggs right along with us.  When I got back to the hotel I walked into the room and saw this ...

I think the boys like this whole hotel gig!!

We had picked out "cute" Thanksgiving day outfits for the boys.  But during a mini meltdown Kara and I decided to see if we could put the Dr. Brown nipples on the bottle of pre-made formula.  Guess what?  You can't do that!  The boys were covered in formula and thus required an outfit change before we even got out of the hotel.  I learned my lesson.  I'm new to this whole formula thing.  We finished our breakfast and headed off to Grandma and Grandpa Russell's to meet Uncle Bryan (Kara's brother) and Aunt Katie for the first time.  We were very excited for this meeting!!!  It was actually last year at Thanksgiving that we announced our pregnancy to Bryan and Katie (you can catch that video here).  Oh the memories!  We were so nervous.  You can tell that my hand was shaking as I was secretly recording the whole thing with my crummy camera phone.  The boys started to meltdown in the hotel room before we headed out but that was our fault as we kept them awake past their morning nap.  We wanted them to sleep in the car on the way Grandma and Grandpa Russell's.  And sleep they did.  So needless to say they were a bit cranky when we woke them up from their nap.  But within minutes the boys had taken a great interest in their Aunt and Uncle.  Uncle Bryan was a HIT!

   

And so was Aunt Katie ...

We celebrate Christmas with Kara's side of the family each year at Thanksgiving.  The boys were rolling in all sorts of new stuff.  They received several new outfits and several new toys.  You can see Alex testing out some of the new toys in the above picture.  They loved them!!  And Grandma and Grandpa did a great job picking out toys to fit the boys unique personalities.  Perfection.

We went to Thanksgiving dinner around 1:00 pm at Aunt Nancy and Uncle Ray's house.  The boys got the chance to meet their Great Aunt and Great Uncle along with some cousins for the first time.  They did wonderful!  I was worried that a lack of a nap would cause some problems.  We let the boys sit with us during Thanksgiving dinner.  It was hard to eat but it was worth it to be able to eat with the family.  Alex decided that he wanted some of what we were all eating so he took a big handful of coleslaw off of Kara's plate.  It was too cute.  The family once again spoiled the boys with a lot of new clothes!  We are so grateful for a loving and supportive family.  We stuffed ourselves silly with a lot of good food.  The boys started to get very tired and both of them took about a 30 minute nap ...

Can you say too much turkey?

We headed back to town about 4:30 pm.  We decided to drive down to the lake while the boys took a nap in the car.  The city didn't have a lot of traffic so it was a nice drive.  By the time we arrived back to the hotel the boys had slept for another hour.  We got them into their pajamas and then we all hung out on the bed and watched football together.  It was a great time!  They boys are now at an age where they just love to play with their toys.  I love when you put a toy next to them and their entire face lights up.  They just get so excited about everything.  They love it even more when we play with them.  

We headed back to Columbus the next day.  The weather had turned a bit crappy but we still survived the trip home.  The boys did a great job entertaining themselves in the car.    

The trip was short but we managed to pack away many memories!  

Mary  

6 month stats

Jakob

Weight: 14 lbs 6 oz (less than 3rd percentile)
Height: 24.75 inches (less than 3rd percentile)

Alex

Weight: 14 lbs 0 oz (less than 3rd percentile)
Height: 25 inches (3rd percentile)

Mary

things that go bump in the night

Let's set the scene ...

It is 2:15am.  I have just stumbled back up the stairs after a super exciting middle of the night pumping session.  It is my job to give Jakob a "dream feed" at 2:30am in order to guarantee that Kara can sleep until at least 6:30am.  I enter the dark bedroom and all is quiet.  I walk over to the dresser and pick-up Jakob's bottle.  It is empty.  Crap.  That means Jakob woke-up while I was downstairs pumping and Kara had to feed him.  That means less sleep for Kara.  So I crawl back to bed and Kara stirs ...

Me: "Sorry."
Kara: "That's okay."
Me: "Was he really hungry?"
Kara: "Yes."
Me: "Weird."

We both promptly fall back to sleep.

It is now 4:00am and Jakob is starting to fuss.  Or as we like to say in our household, "The beast is stirring."  I kind of ignore his noises for a few minutes.  And then I just get plain frustrated.  Jakob just ate.  How in the world is he hungry? The following conversation takes place ...

Me (to Kara): "Are his eyes open?"
Kara: "Yeah.  He's probably hungry."
Me: "He just ate."
Kara: "You fed him?"
Me: "Um? No.  You told me you fed him."
Kara: "No I didn't.  When did I tell you that?"
Me: "An hour ago.  And the bottle is empty. Who did you feed?"
Kara: "I didn't feed anyone.  That was the bottle you gave Jakob before you went to bed."
Me: "Crap.  Why do we have a baby that eats so much?"

So it is back downstairs I go to make another bottle for Jakob.  And how did I forget to bring the two bottles upstairs before bed?  What makes the story even funnier is that as I was climbing the stairs to go to bed that night I had even thought to myself, "I'm missing something" ... yep ...  I was missing Jakob's other bottle.

But again the most important question ... Why do I go upstairs each night with 2 bottles for Jakob and 0 bottles for Alex??

Mary

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

Age: The boys are 6 months old.

Weight / Length: The boys have their 6 month appointment a week from today.  So stay tuned ...

Clothes: The boys are in 3-6 months at Old Navy, 4-6 months at H&M and 6 month at Carters.  And some of the 6 month Carters are starting to get a bit snug.  I just bought a cute outfit at Carters for Alex and the pants are a bit tight so Alex officially has his first pair of "skinny jeans" ... my little boy is so trendy!

What are we eating?:  Our boys can EAT, EAT, EAT!!! The boys take between 6 oz - 7 oz at 7:00 am, 10:00 am, 1:00 pm, 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm.  And then Jakob usually takes an extra 4 oz at 2:30 am.  This means the boys eat anywhere between 30 oz - 38 oz per day.  We have officially started weaning the boys from breast milk.  It will be a slow process.  I hope to be done pumping by the time the boys are 8 or 9 months old.  They currently get 2 oz of formula at the 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm bottle.  I am only pumping about 58 oz per day so this helps keep up with the demand for milk that can reach 70 oz per day!!  I'm not sure what happened as I was averaging about 60 oz per day until a week ago when my supply suddenly took a nose dive.  It is almost like my body knows that we are transitioning the boys to formula.  The boys are also eating solids 2x per day.  We are sticking to the fruit and vegetable purees at the moment.  The boys have tried sweet potatoes, peas, squash, bananas, and apples.  We have green beans and peaches in the line-up to try in the next couple of weeks.  Jakob suddenly got the whole "eating off of a spoon" thing last week.  He now opens his mouth really wide whenever he sees the spoon.  My favorite is to see his face after the first bite of each meal.  You can tell that he is anticipating a certain food and then when he gets a different taste he lets you automatically know how he feels about it.  We are still waiting for Alex to get on the "solids train" but we do try to get him to take at least a few bites at each meal.  The favorites at the moment are sweet potatoes and bananas.

How are we sleeping?:  Alex is a world champion sleeper!!!  The boys go to bed around 7:30 pm each night.  Alex will always sleep straight through the night until about 7:00 am the next morning.  Not only that but Alex will fall asleep without any problems.  You just give good night kisses and off to sleep he will go.  But Jakob?  Oh my handsome little boy!  Jakob needs his nightlight and lullabies to go to sleep each night.  It's like a disco party on Jakob's side of the room!  And Jakob is always up at least one time during the night (or two times or three times).  He has such a convincing cry.  And when we finally get up and go over to his Rock N Play all we see is .... A smiling Jakob.  Oye!!  Such a little squirt!

What's going on?: The boys are doing so much!

Jakob is a rolling machine.  He can roll back to belly and belly to back with no problems.  We put Jakob on the playmat and within minutes he has managed to roll himself over to the other playmat.  Jakob still has the most contagious laugh.  His entire face can light up a room.  Jakob loves to play with toys.  Well actually Jakob loves to chew on toys.  They are both becoming fans of Sophie the Giraffe.  Jakob also loves to blow bubbles and make as many noises as possible.  Jakob is doing better with sitting up unassisted.  He has almost mastered the tripod sit and he can usually remain upright for about 15 seconds.  Jakob is also starting to try to pull himself up to a sitting position.  Jakob can get super crazy when you try to give him his bottle.  He is so interested in everything that is going on around him that giving him a bottle can become a sport in itself.  Often times Jakob will end up with more milk on his face than milk in his belly.  I think Jakob will be a snuggle bug as he gets older.  He loves to bury his face into your shoulder.  There is no greater joy in life than snuggling with my little boy.  Both boys love to grab at their feet.  It's even better when they get to wear socks.  They pull on their socks so much that the get stretched to three times their original size!

My little Alex.  He is still a very serious little boy.  He has recently discovered the joy of being held and as such most of the evenings are spent with Alex in my arms.  Alex will very rarely cry.  But he can whimper with the best of them.  If you put Alex down in the evening you will hear a little whimper until you pick him up again.  Alex can roll from his belly to his back.  He is just content with life and therefore I think he is a bit slower to accomplish his milestones.  There just really isn't a reason.  Alex does not laugh a whole lot.  And mostly it is a silent laugh.  But I treasure each laugh I get as they are a rarity in our house.  Alex still loves his Jumperoo.  He could sit in that thing all day.  We have named his jumping pattern to "The Alex" as he often crosses his arms and moves his legs in the same pattern each time you put him in the Jumperoo.  I know Alex is always thinking.  You can just tell.  Alex is still working on sitting unassisted.  We do get a few seconds of tripod sitting.  Alex loves his Scout doll.  I think it must be the lights.  Alex also loves to grab at his feet.
   
How are the mommies doing?:  We are doing good.  We still find ourselves exhausted at the end of the day.  But it is a good exhausted.  We are actually beginning the home buying process!  This is very exciting and very overwhelming all at the same time.  We are excited to think that in just a few short months we will hopefully have a home for the boys to grow-up in.  We hope to move to the town where I grew-up.  It will still be centrally located to both of our jobs.  We like the school district and we would be close to the grandparents.  I am extremely nervous about the move but I know it will be a wonderful thing in the long run.  I also recently started in a new position at work.  It is a good move career wise and it has been a long time coming.  It will also help our family financially.  At the same time my workload will also increase and so will the stress.  I'm trying to remain optimistic!!  Kara is doing a wonderful job with the boys during the day.  She is truly amazing!!!!  I'm not sure how she manages to remain sane.  But each day I get home from work she has a smile on her face.  And more often than not so do the boys!

Mary

election day

Today was election day.  And being a lifelong resident of Ohio I have grown-up to know the importance of our state.  We have been looking forward to taking the boys to vote for the first time.  We got to our polling location at 11:00 am and finally walked out the door at 12:15 pm and 12:35 pm.  I got to stand in a shorter line because of my last name.  The boys were wonderful!!  They loved watching all the people.  But my arm was about to fall off from holding Alex for over an hour.  Of course Alex wanted nothing to do with being in the carrier so that meant I got to hold him.  It was amazing to vote with my boys today.  I know they won't remember this day.  But I want to be able to tell them about it some day.  We are so blessed to live in a country where everyone has the right to vote.  I hope as they grow up they remember to "Be the change you want to see in the world."

Mary

they didn't spontaneously combust

I gave the boys formula last night.  And there was no spontaneous combustion.  Now granted each boy only got an ounce of formula.  But still.  It was hard.  But it has to happen.  I just cannot keep up with the demand.  We can go through 70 oz of breast milk a day.  Thanks Jakob!  And on a really good day I can only pump 62 oz.  Needless to say that is not going to cover our needs.  Our freezer supply is slowly being depleted and so it was time to rip off the band-aid.  The boys definitely noticed the change in taste.  We got a couple of funny faces.  But because I gave the formula to the boys before the breast milk it seemed to be no problem.  We shall see what happens today.  I have also suddenly got this irrational fear that something is going to happen to me and the boys will be forced to suddenly drink a lot of formula.  And that worries me.  So again it was time.  The boys will still get a bulk of their milk from breast milk.  So there is that at least.  My fears are SO irrational.  Before I was pregnant I had zero expectation of providing them with breast milk.  I thought for sure they would both be formula fed.  But then this amazing thing happened.  I was able to meet all their nutritional needs.  My body actually did something right!  And then I just got plain stinking competitive.  What can I say?  I'm a Heitzman.  We are a competitive group by nature!!!  But last night I threw in the towel.  I realized that my stubbornness is a bit ridiculous.  What is important is meeting the needs of my boys.  My very, very hungry boys!!!

And now a picture for Grandpa Park ...

 
And not to be outdone by Mr. Jakob.  Here is Alex ... SMILING!!

I will be back in the next few days for a proper post.  The boys are changing so much!  It needs to be documented.

Mary

Happy Halloween

Our little Pork and Beans!

Happy Halloween.

Mary

same picture different view

This is what we saw on October 28, 2011 ...

And this is what we saw today on October 28, 2012 ...

A bit of a difference!

Mary

my fear

I have a fear.  It haunts me quite a bit.  My fear - It's that this won't always be true ...

I still don't understand where things went wrong.  And most days I can sweep the thoughts from my mind.  But other days something reminds me of what should be.  There is not a day that goes by that I don't look at Jakob and Alex and silently beg them to always be there for each other.  I know I can't control the extent of their relationship in the future.  I know as a parent I have to let go of control over so many different things.  I've watched my parents let go of so much.  I guess I can only pray that they understand the power of their bond.  And hope that their love for one another is unconditional.  I have added this prayer to my list.  Another prayer on my list ... That one day my twin brother will reach over and grab my hand once again.

Mary

our weekend

I think we are past our sleep issues with Jakob.  We determined that Jakob is definitely waking-up in the middle of the night because he is hungry.  So we tried giving Jakob a couple of extra bottles at night (2.5 oz at 10 pm and 2.5 oz at 2:30 am).  It seemed to work for the most part.  It at least stopped us from having to hold him in the middle of the night.  Then about two nights ago it appeared that Jakob might not need the extra 10pm bottle so I started to just give him 3 oz at 2:30 am.  And it seems to be working just fine.  And in fact today is Day #1 of trying to switch the boys to five 6 oz bottles during the day (7:30 am, 10:30 am, 1:30 pm, 4:30 pm, 7:30 pm).  We started this today because both boys slept until 7:30 am.  And for those keeping track at home this means Mr. Alex went from 7:30 pm until 7:30 am without a bottle!!  He is such a "professional baby"!!!  So cross your fingers ...

The boys have been eating vegetables for over a week.  We feed them a vegetable around 8:30 am (after their morning bottle).  They seem to be getting the hang of it.  We can already tell that we might have some picky eaters on our hands.  We started with sweet potatoes.  We tried sweet potatoes exclusively for one week.  The verdict.  Mr. Alex - "Mmm.  I love sweet potatoes." and Mr. Jakob "Where is my bottle?"  This weekend we introduced peas.  The verdict.  Mr. Alex - "Help!  Someone stole my sweet potatoes and replaced them with some nastiness." and Mr. Jakob - "It's about time you gave me something good to eat!"  So needless to say our current favorite food choices are Jakob - Peas and Alex - Sweet Potatoes.  Just don't remind Alex that he has to eat peas for a few more days before we can throw the book at them.

And the biggest news of the weekend ... Alex rolled over (belly to back) for the first time on October 19th.  I am so proud!!!

We had a really nice weekend.  I had the boys dressed for Halloween this weekend.  Of course it only lasted for two hours because Jakob decided to gag himself after finishing his 11:00 am bottle and proceeded to vomit all over the Jumperoo and his cute Halloween outfit.  It might be a while before Jakob learns that sticking all four fingers down your throat will result in an unfavorable reaction.  I did manage to snap a picture.

The boys are wiggling all over the place.  We often put them on the floor side by side when we are changing diapers.  It allows for a quick diaper change and plus we can interact with them both during the diaper change.  But now they are scooting everywhere so of course they are not always in the same position when you return from doing something.  This is not how we left them ...

And of course that picture was taken after Mr. Jakob's wardrobe change!!!

So we have very few family pictures.  It was a beautiful fall day on Sunday so we went to Creekside Gahanna with the grandparents and we managed to snap a few (or a few hundred) pictures of the boys.  The boys personalities shined through in each of the pictures.  Alex was serious in almost every picture.  And only on occasion would he start looking at something else.  Jakob on the otherhand giggled through most of the pictures.  But that was only after you made a bunch of noise and jumped up and down for 60 seconds to get his attention.  Are you familiar with the movie UP?  Squirrel! That would be about the attention span of Jakob.  We got a lot of good pictures.  This is one of my favorites.

I feel blessed each and every day.

Mary

new adventures

Alex found his foot this weekend.  But only his left foot.  The poor boy doesn't know that he has a right foot too!!  He spent most of the weekend perfectly content sitting on the couch and grabbing for his foot.  He even has scratches on his leg as proof of his determination.  I think he was excited when we put him in pants yesterday because he could grab onto his pant leg and pull his foot to his hand with even more ease.  I did manage to get a quick picture.

And not to leave Mr. Jakob out of the weekend of new adventures.  Jakob learned that he could make noises while blowing bubbles with his mouth.  We are so proud.  So while Alex was sitting on the couch investigating his foot and quite possibly doing math problems in his head we had Jakob on the other end of the couch making a mess with his spit!!  The best part ... Jakob would make a bunch of noises and slobber all over himself and then just suddenly bust out in laughter.  He cracks himself up!!  Could they be any different?

The boys are also discovering one another.  I think because they can grab now they like to reach out for each other.  There was a time yesterday when Alex spent a good 30 minutes just staring at Jakob.  He had this look of confusion on his face the entire time.  I'm sure he was thinking many different things about his brother such as ...

"Hey!  You look like me."
"Geez.  Don't you ever shut-up?"
"Buddy!  You don't have to cry all the time."
"Will you play with me?"
"We just ate 20 minutes ago.  You cannot possibly be hungry again."
"If you spent more time reading a good book and less time making so much noise you probably wouldn't be in that predicament." (in response to Jakob getting his foot stuck in his toy for the hundredth time)

We are three days into the grand adventure of sweet potatoes.  And the boys seem to be tolerating them for the most part.  Our best day was yesterday when there was some actual eating of the sweet potatoes as opposed to spitting them out all over the place and taking our hand and rubbing them all over our face.  Dare I say Jakob even seemed to enjoy them yesterday??

Speaking of Jakob ... we are in the middle of some serious sleep regression and unfortunately I think we are creating some bad habits.  And we need to break them as soon as possible or we are going to be in some serious trouble.  I'm not sure if Jakob is waking up because he is hungry or because he knows that we will pick him up and let him sleep with us until it is bottle time.  I'm starting to think he just wants to be held.  Because if he was truly hungry he would not fall back to sleep.  But as soon as you pick him up and let him sleep on your chest he falls back to sleep.  And he loves it.  And I have a problem because I do not sleep at all when Jakob is sleeping on Kara's chest (which is were he always is).  I am terrified of something happening so of course I wake-up every 15 minutes to check if he is still breathing.  And then in order for it to be somewhat "safer" we kick all the covers off the bed if Jakob is in bed with us.  So then I lay in bed full of anxiety because I think Jakob is going to smoother himself and I am freezing because we have no blankets on the bed.  It is not a good situation.  But at the same time I know that Kara absolutely loves to cuddle with Jakob.  She has mentioned it more than once.  We just need to figure out another way to get cuddle time!!

Mary

see we do tummy time!

We struggle with tummy time.  The boys just do not like it one bit.  I keep telling them they need to do tummy time or else they are going to go to college and not know how to roll over!!

But here is some proof from yesterday that tummy time does happen (on occasion) in our house.  And we love to do tummy time on our pink mat.  Thank You Uncle Matt!! (sorry we weren't girls like you were hoping)

Jakob

Alex

Mary

ready, set, go ??? (and other ramblings)

We made the decision to give cereal a try just over a week ago.  The first time around the boys did wonderful!  And we go some super cute video!  We gave them each about five spoonfuls of cereal and for the most part they seemed to enjoy it.  They would both make a "yucky" face when you put the spoon in their mouth but then they would swallow the cereal and get the look of "this isn't too bad" on their face.  But then the next few days did not go all that great.  The boys were spitting out most of the cereal.  And with everything I read that is a big sign that they aren't ready for solid foods.  So we decided to take a temporary break from the solid foods.  There is really no reason at this point that we need to be feeding them cereal.  They take their bottles like champs.  They are sleeping through the night for the most part.  And the pediatrician indicated that it would be perfectly acceptable for them to come back at their six month appointment still on breast milk only.  I have to remember that they are still only a bit over 3 months old adjusted age.  So I think for now we are just going to play it by ear.  I really want to do some reading on baby led weaning.  I think for the moment I might be more inclined to start (at minimum) with vegetables around six months old and actually skip the cereal altogether.  But I'm also inclined to learn more about skipping purees altogether.  But if I have learned anything over the last several months its that Kara and I will eventually know what is right for the boys.  I have to stop over analyzing things so much and just go with the flow.  And for the moment that means we are skipping the introduction of solid foods.

I have dropped another pumping session.  And let me tell you ... I feel like I got a part of my life back!!!  I now pump at 1:30 am, 5:30 am, 10:30 am, 3:30 pm, and 8:30 pm.  It has been a week and I only noticed a slight drop in my supply.  I averaged about 1/2 ounce less per day last week then I did the week before when I was still pumping six times per day.  I still average over 60 oz per day so I am able to keep up with the boys demand.  There are days when the boys get an extra bottle and thus consume about 64 oz for the day.  But we have been turning to our freezer supply for those days.  I feel as if I could go for an indefinite period of time at five pumps per day.  Obviously my first goal is still to keep the boys only on breast milk until six months but in the end I really want to get them to their first birthday.  I am blessed to have a decent supply and I don't want to take that for granted for a second.  I know there are a lot of women who would give their left leg for such a supply so the last thing I want to do is stop pumping simply because I am "tired" of doing it.  I was born a math nerd so of course I have been documenting my daily numbers for some time now.  However, I didn't start recording my numbers until the boys were two months old because it never dawned on me to do such a thing.  Plus I was in the newborn twin fog!  But since July 13, 2012 I have pumped 523 times for a total of 5,127 oz of milk or an average of 9.8 oz per session. Did you let that sink in?

And finally in other news (before I conclude this blog of very random topics) I got the nerve to call the sperm bank last week to ask about the number of vials that remain available for purchase from our donor.  And the good news ... No one knows that CB*** makes adorable little kids!!!  I purchased our vials from this donor between January 2011 and April 2011 and no additional vials have been bought since my last purchase in April 2011!!!  And because our donor has 121 vials available for purchase (our donor had 127 vials available when I first called the sperm bank in late 2010) Kara and I can take a breather and not be forced to make any decisions about a future sibling for a long time!!!  We decided to just give the sperm bank a call every six months until we make a final decision about what we want to do.  I am glad to be able to move this worry off of the table for a bit and just to be able to concentrate on enjoying Jakob and Alex.        

Mary

a year of Jakob and Alex

We were busy this weekend so I didn't get to properly document September 29, 2012!  We officially reached the end of the year of Jakob and Alex.  It was one year ago that I had the IUI that resulted in my pregnancy with Jakob and Alex.  So I like to think of the boys as officially being part of our lives for one year.  I have spent the last several days going "One year ago today ..."  all while trying not to spontaneously break into tears.  There are many things I remember about September 29, 2011 that I probably would have pushed out of my mind should I not have gotten pregnant.  I took the day off of work.  I would like to pretend I took the day off of work to sit at home and relax after my  IUI but really I took the day off to work on a backlog of homework assignments.  I did stop at the office prior to my appointment because our office was participating in health screenings in order to secure a lower premium on our health insurance for 2012.  I of course was super nervous because of my appointment.  So my blood pressure was a bit high.  The nurse doing the health screening thought I was nervous because of the blood draw at the screening.  Not really!  But I humored her and admitted to a deathly fear of needles.  I also remember during the actual IUI my cell phone rang.  I must have forgotten to turn it off.  The RE made some off the cuff comment about whether or not she needed to answer the phone for me since I was currently indisposed!  I checked my phone after the IUI and it was a picture of my good friend's twin girls who were just newborns at the time.  My friend had sent me the picture to wish me good luck at the IUI.  It worked!  I would not know it at the time but hours later I would be pregnant with Jakob and Alex!!  It has been a very good year!  I feel so blessed.  

A couple of pictures from last week.

Jakob

Mr. Jakob laughs ALL THE TIME!!  His laughter is super contagious.  He loves to bounce.  Jakob loves it even more when you pretend to drop him while bouncing.  He will just laugh and laugh and laugh.  He also does this little squeal at the end of each round of laughing that makes my heart smile.  We actually bought an exercise ball over the weekend to help with Jakob's love of bouncing.  Also both boys tend to fall asleep when you are bouncing so we thought an exercise ball would be really helpful during fussy time.  Plus it is good for us too!!  It is hard to bounce the boys while sitting on the couch.  The exercise ball has also been helpful to use for some tummy time.  Of course Jakob laughs the whole time!

Alex

This is a picture of Mr. Serious.  I absolutely love this picture.  It appropriately documents his personality!  I think Alex spends most of his time trying to figure out the world.  He will probably be our cautious child while Jakob ends up in the emergency room a bazillion time because he will also act before he thinks!  I would give anything to know what Alex is thinking at any given moment.  I also love this picture because it includes his new obsession 'Robbie the Robot'!  Alex loves to grab onto 'Robbie the Robot' and I think it brings our non-pacifier child some extra comfort.

Mary

i never did like multiple choice tests

Let's begin with some cuteness!

It finally felt like fall over the weekend.  And fall is my absolute most favorite time of the year.  We had to bundle the boys up a bit when we took them on our nightly walk.  And of course that lead to a lot of cuteness.

Alex

Jakob

From the moment I got pregnant I always assumed that Jakob and Alex would be our only children.  Kara and I had always talked about having two kids and then we got pregnant with twins and it just seemed like our family was going to be complete in one swoop.  Plus I didn't exactly have a picture perfect pregnancy and so often we made the comment "God knew we wanted two children so we were blessed with twins so that I wouldn't have to ever be pregnant again".  In fact, I often got asked when I was pregnant whether or not we would have more children.  My response was always, "Nope.  We got our instant family."  I think I told my OB this exact sentiment at least a handful of times during my pregnancy.  And then the boys were born.  And now Kara and I don't know if our family is complete.  We feel differently almost every day.  Under "traditional" circumstances this would not be a problem.  We would just make the decision a couple of years down the road.  But Kara and I do not have a "traditional" family.  And so this forces us to make decisions about our future in the next few months that I really wish I did not have to make in such a quick time frame.  

So what are our options?  And what are our current obstacles?

We currently have one IUI ready vial from our donor being stored at our RE's office.  We have to pay a yearly storage fee to keep this vial at the location.  If you compare the current cost of one vial ($515) versus the yearly storage cost (about $100 per year), then it would make sense to continue to pay the storage fee for a couple of years versus having the vial destroyed and starting from scratch with a new vial should we decide to try and get pregnant in a couple of years.  But if we decide to not get pregnant then we could be out a few hundred dollars.  Not a big deal.  So this is the least of our worries.  Our bigger concern at the moment ... Do we buy more IUI ready vials from the cyrobank?  Like I mentioned above we only have one IUI ready vial from our donor.  There is no guarantee, should we decide to have another child in a couple of years, that our donor would have any vials left for purchase.  I am for certain that I want our children to be at least half-siblings.  In all probability, although stranger things have happened, I would be the one to get pregnant again.  This would mean our children would be full siblings if we used the same donor or half-siblings if we used a different donor.  However, should we decide that Kara would be the one to get pregnant, then I would absolutely want to use the same donor so that our children are at least half-siblings with each other.  Plus, there is a part of me that feels, if we were to have another child, it would be difficult for that child, especially if he or she is a singleton, to genetically be connected to a donor different from the donor we used for Jakob and Alex.  That's just my feelings.  So this is the reason a decision needs to be made soon.  We can purchase additional IUI ready vials but then so many questions come to the surface.  How many vials do we purchase?  It took us 5 tries to get pregnant with Jakob and Alex.  I will be older in a couple of years.  Strike 1.  And I got pregnant with the help of fertility medication.  I would like to avoid the use of fertility medications if we decide to get pregnant again.  I do not think my body could handle another multiple pregnancy.  Strike 2.  So do I expect it to take 6 or 7 or 8 tries the next time.  What happens if we purchase a handful of vials and amazingly we get pregnant on the first attempt?  We would have a number of vials left in our possession.  But what happens if we purchase a handful of vials and we are unable to get pregnant before we run out of vials?  There is a part of me that feels like we should just use the one vial we have in a couple of years.  If we get pregnant, then that would be wonderful.  If we don't get pregnant, then that would be the sign that our family is complete.  But really people ... that's like telling a straight couple you only get to have sex one time to try and finish your family.  So really that is unrealistic.  And then there is the financial aspect of the whole process.  Remember I said that each IUI ready vial is approximately $500?  Kara and I are by no means a wealthy family.  So to turnover an extra $3,000 - $5,000 is not a walk in the park.  Plus the cryobank has an annual storage fee of $340.  Yikes!  The cryobank will "buy" back any unused vials only if the donor is still in the program.  This would be unlikely considering we would only be  buying the vials should the number of vials available for purchase from our donor be getting smaller.  Plus they only buy back the vials after taking a 30% restocking fee.  So there is a part of me that just wants to live in denial.  I'm just going to pretend that no one else will purchase vials from our donor.  And the vials will be waiting for us should we choose to expand our family.  Okay.  That's unrealistic too.  I guess I just need to get the courage to pick-up the phone and call the cyrobank to see how many IUI ready vials our donor has remaining in stock.  Maybe the only vials the donor has sold will be the ones that Kara and I purchased almost two years ago!  It would at least be a baby step in the right direction.  Did I mention that I always hated multiple choice tests?  I always over analyzed each possible choice and in the end I always seemed to make the wrong choice!

Mary

what's going on

The boys continue to change right before our eyes!

I stole this from a friend.

Age: The boys are 4 months and 1 week old.

Weight:  Jakob weighs 11 lbs 15 oz and Alex weighs 11 lbs 10 oz.  This barely puts the boys on the growth chart for their age but the pediatrician expects them to be well on the chart by the end of their first year.

Length:  Both boys are 24 inches long.  

Clothes:  The boys can still fit into some clothes that are 0-3 months but seem to be wearing more 3-6 month and 6 month outfits as of late.  They are in 3-6 month sleepers at night.  They are growing out of clothes so fast!!

What are we eating?:  We FINALLY have the boys on a regular eating schedule.  Hip Hip Hooray!  The boys are taking 5 oz of breast milk at 5am, 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm.  We have been given the green light to start solids whenever we feel the boys are ready to give it a go.  I was super excited to start solids but now that the boys are actually following a regular eating schedule my excitement has minimized a bit.  I think we will just play it by ear.  There is part of me that would like to wait until the boys are 6 months old to introduce solids.  But then again things change so fast around these parts that come next week I could be shoving cereal down their throats!

How are we sleeping?:  I am no longer sleep deprived!  The boys still go to bed at 8pm each night.  There are some nights it is a challenge to get Jakob to fall asleep.  Because the boys will not take a pacifier they often fuss for several minutes before they fall asleep.  I usually just sit by their Rock N Plays and rock them back and forth until the fall asleep.  They will stay asleep until anywhere between 4am - 7am.  Kara will get up and give them their "5 am" bottle whenever they wake-up.  They then go back to sleep until 8:30am.  We usually have to wake them up at 8:30am.  I know there is often a "four month wakeful period" but I am crossing my fingers we don't experience that one.  I know we are SUPER, SUPER lucky in how well the boys sleep for us.  Let's keep it up boys!!  Our next big project will be to transition the boys to their cribs.  This absolutely terrifies me for a number of reasons.

What's going on?:  They accomplish something new each day!

Jakob "officially" rolled over from his belly to his back on September 19th.  There were a couple of times Jakob "rolled" over from his belly to his back when we first brought them home from the hospital but I'm not really counting those moments because there was no intent in the action.  It just sort of happened.  Jakob is also really close to rolling from his back to his belly.  He automatically turns to his side when you put him on his back.  Jakob still loves to watch his Baby Einstein video.  He absolutely loves colors and music.  We have a little Baby Einstein music player and he loves when we play it for him.  Jakob is grabbing for objects when they are put in front of his face.  He now understands opening and closing his fists to grasp an object.  Alex is also reaching for objects in front of his face but he has not quite mastered the opening and closing of his fist.  Both boys are bringing objects up to their mouths constantly.  And the drool?  It is crazy.  They drool all the time and we often have to have the boys in bibs during the day.  Alex still LOVES his jumperoo and will actually give Jakob the side-eye if he is spending time in the jumperoo.  Both boys will put weight on their legs if you allow them to.

Their personalities are so different.  Alex is so serious!  It takes a lot of effort to get that boy to smile and laugh.  And often times you will get him to laugh and then he will give you this look that means "Oh no!  They saw me laugh.  Now what will they think?"  But Jakob on the other hand laughs all the time.  He will laugh and smile for anyone that comes up to him.  I still believes that Jakob feels every emotion to the extreme.  This means if Jakob is hungry he is really, really, really hungry.  If Jakob is happy, then he is really, really, really happy.  There is no middle ground for Jakob.  Alex never really gets upset about anything but he does have "whining" down to a science.  He will just start to whimper and then you can't help but go and pick him up because he is so stinking cute!!  

What do we look like?:  They both have a little more hair on top of their heads.  But both would still probably be classified as "baldy babies".  Jakob's hair has gotten a bit darker.  However, I still think he will have dirty blonde hair with blue eyes.  His eyes continue to get lighter each day.  Alex on the other hand has dark brown hair and his eyes continue to remain brown in color.

How are the mommies doing?:  We are doing good.

I seem to be falling a part at the seams.  I had heard that once you hit about the 3 month or 4 month postpartum period your body goes to the crapper.  And that is the truth.  My hair is falling out in clumps.  I have no idea how I am not bald.  We have to clean out the shower drain on a regular basis.  I have never had sinus issues and I am not battling them on a daily basis.  I feel like I have been punched in the nose 100 times.  I still have not gotten my first postpartum period (thank you pumping) and to tell you the truth I am dreading it.  My fingernails are also super brittle.  Weird.  

I seem to have more and more clogged ducts that drive me crazy and cause me a lot of pain when they happen.  The good news?  I am getting more sleep at night which has actually helped my milk production.  I am still pumping six times a day (1:30 am, 5:30 am, 9:30 am, 1:30 pm, 5:30 pm, 8:30 pm) and I average about 61 oz per day.  The boys are drinking 60 oz per day and we have about 250 oz of frozen breast milk. I am still crossing my fingers that I can keep them on only breast milk for as long as possible.  My minimum goal will be six months.  However, I would like to drop to five pumps per day at some point in October so we will see if that impacts my milk production at all.  It makes me nervous.

Kara is still my superhero.  She is such an amazing mother and partner.  Our house would be in shambles without her.  She takes care of the boys all day long and still manages to cook and clean the house.  Not to mention she is solely responsible for taking the dogs out several times a day.  And because she spends so much time with the boys she knows all the tricks of the trade.  She is often able to tell me what works and doesn't work so that I don't have to spend hours figuring things out myself.  She is an amazing mother!!

Mary  

4 month stats

Jakob

Weight: 11 lbs 15 oz (less than 3rd percentile)
Height: 24 inches (8th percentile)
Head Circumference: 16.5 inches (29th percentile)

Alex

Weight: 11 lbs 10 oz (less than 3rd percentile)
Height: 24 inches (8th percentile)
Head Circumference: 17 inches (64th percentile)

What can I say?  They have my head!

Mary

cloth diaper madness

Hi.  My name is Mary and I am a cloth diaper addict.  Phew.  It feels good to get that off of my chest.

The boys are four months old so I thought it would be a good time to give some insight into our cloth diaper journey.

I was obsessed with cloth diapers during my pregnancy.  I spent hours researching our cloth diaper options.  And then I discovered the hundreds of different companies that sell cloth diaper cuteness and before you knew it Kara and I were busting at the seams with fluffy butt cuteness!!  Kara had to take away my credit card once I went on bed rest because ... 24 hour access to the Internet + 24 hours of boredom each day + a healthy cloth diaper obsession + a credit card = the poor house.  But then the boys were born and all my enthusiasm went right out the door.  I was a new mom to preemie boys and the last thing I wanted to think about was cloth diapers.  The boys were in preemie diapers for several weeks so we just relied on disposable diapers.  Plus the hospital sent us home with a ton of "free" (we paid for them somehow) preemie diapers that I did not want to go to waste.  Thankfully Kara remained on the cloth diaper bandwagon and eventually took the lead on the project and started to dip into our cloth diaper stash.  I eventually got comfortable again with idea of cloth diapers and I have never looked back.  I cannot imagine using disposable diapers.

Our daytime cloth diapers of choice have always been GMD Cloth-eez Prefold Diapers.  We have in total purchased 24 of the newborn (orange edge) diapers and 24 of the small (yellow edge).  The boys were in the newborn diapers until about 3 months of age.  Because the boys were on the small side we got a lot of use out of the newborn diapers.  I do not think I would recommend purchasing the newborn size diapers if you are expecting a full term baby.  However, in our situation, the newborn diapers were a perfect match.  We have a variety of different covers.  Our absolute favorite covers at the moment are bumGenius Flip Diaper Covers.  These are a one size cover that should fit a baby between 8lbs - 35lbs.  We have zero leakage problem with these covers.  We had purchased several different brands of newborn covers.  We really did not have issue with any of these covers but are favorite newborn covers had to be the newborn size Thirsties Diaper Covers.  These covers, while snug, actually still fit the boys today at 4 months old.  I will be sad to move these to storage bins in the next few weeks.

Our nighttime cloth diapers of choice are Kawaii Baby Goodnight Heavy Wetter Diapers.  These diapers are amazing.  The diapers definitely make the boys have a fluffy bottom as they are designed to last through the night.  They are a one size pocket diaper.  We have had zero leakage issues with these diapers.  We put the boys in the diaper before their 8pm feed and they do not get changed again until about 8:30am.  Now the boys are definitely extra stinky in the morning but we have never had a leakage problem.

Our cloth diaper process is as follows ... We bought a big cheap plastic bucket that sits in our 1/2 bathroom downstairs.  We put a Diaper Rite Cloth Diaper Pail Liner in the bucket.  Because the boys spend their day in the living room that is where we do all diaper changes during the day.  It would be a pain the carry the boys upstairs to the nursery each time we need to change a diaper.  The cloth diapers are currently stored in our entertainment center in the living room.  Isn't that where everyone stores their cloth diapers?  We also have a Rumparooz Wet Bag upstairs in our bedroom where we put the nighttime diapers.  This use to consist of a lot more diapers but now it usually only holds the diaper the boys were wearing before we put them in their sleepers for the night.  Because the boys are not on solid foods we do not have to rinse any diapers during the diaper change.  We have been on an everyday wash routine.  However, we just purchased two additional overnight diapers so we will officially be able to move to an every other day wash routine!! Yippee.  We use Rockin Green Laundry Detergent.  Because it is a bit expensive we only use this detergent for the cloth diapers.  We actually use a homemade detergent for all of our other laundry items.  We simply take the wet bags full of diapers and dump out the diapers into the washing machine.  You then simply toss in the wet bags to get washed too.  We do one rinse cycle without any detergent.  We then do one wash cycle (with hot water) with the Rockin Green Laundry Detergent.  On occasion we will do another rinse cycle.  We then throw the diapers in the dryer.  During the summer we were able to line dry the cloth diapers.  This is the best way to get rid of any staining issues.  But to be honest we have not had any issues with stains or with bad smells.  And that's it.  It is a simple process.

Some random observations ...

The boys struggled with diaper rash when they were in disposables.  We have had zero issues with diaper rash since we made the transition to cloth diapers.

Always keep your eye out for deals!  A lot of the daily deal sites will offer up cloth diapers on occasion plus all of the online retailers are in constant competition with one another so sales occur all the time.

Do not buy too many diapers of one brand.  I got trapped by a sale on FuzziBunz Elite Onse Size Diapers and in the end I am not a fan of these diapers.  We keep these diapers in the diaper bag because they are super convenient for "on-the-go" diaper changes but the diaper requires you to adjust several elastic bands as the baby continues to grow in size.  This is a huge PAIN.

I think a lot of people new to the cloth diaper world tend to veer towards the use of AIOs.  But do not be afraid of the prefold diapers.  They are really easy to use and the cost is 1/4 of that of an AIO.  Plus it takes forever for an AIO to get completely dry.  Plus we know how common it is to put a diaper on a baby and five minutes later have to change the diaper again.  We have a few AIOs on hand and I am not a huge fan of any of these diapers.

I have purchased diapers from several online retailers.  However, my retailers of choice would be Green Mountain Diapers,  Diaper Junction, and  Sweetbottoms Baby Boutique .

Mary