Happy Halloween.
Mary
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Sunday, October 28, 2012
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
And this is what we saw today on October 28, 2012 ...
A bit of a difference!
Mary
Monday, October 22, 2012
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
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
Monday, October 15, 2012
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
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
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
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
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
Monday, October 8, 2012
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
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
Monday, October 1, 2012
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
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
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