Alone time...

Every day in our house is different...no day ever feels the same. I crave a rigid schedule with set nap times and set eating times...but it never happens!!

I know that I am to blame. I know plenty of my fellow twin moms have schedules and their babies thrive like that. I just cannot seem to make it happen.

But I'm starting to see it as a positive, not always just a negative. My kiddos do seem to adjust to whatever the daily schedule may entail. We go to play dates, run errands or stay at home. And the good part of babies on different schedules, is the one-on-one snuggle time I get to spend with them as individuals...

Photo dump

Life is busy, life is crazy, life is good!!

Important milestones

So, yesterday we reached a few important milestones....

Caroline laughed at her own fart...
Joshua grabbed his own junk during diaper change....

6 Months

Wow, where did the last 6 month go?? Some days it feels like only a few days since that early morning trip to the hospital that would change our lives forever. And some days it feels like I have known these babies forever.

They keep changing, just as I think I have figured them out, they move onto a different stage with new challenges and new wonders.



GROWTH
Although we have not yet done the 6 month check up, I think that our Dr will be very pleased with the babies. I know I am and they are getting HEAVY!!. Caroline is currently 6.5kg (14.33lbs) and Joshua is 7.5kg (16.54lbs). They are growing like crazy and they seem very long to me. Joshua is in size 9 month clothes and Caroline is in 6 month outfits.

MILESTONES
Both babies now roll from front to back and back to front. Caroline is a real rollie pollie. You leave her in one location and she will roll to wherever she wants to. She has a fondness of rolling under the couch. She also chews on everything because she now has her 2 front teeth. Joshua is not nearly as active unless you make him. He LOVES standing and has for a while now. I bet he will be the first to walk. Both are also attempting to crawl, although Caroline will likely be crawling before my next blog post (considering they are kind of rare lately). Although not technically a milestone, we did have our first play date with my friend and her twins. Everyone had a good time and I cannot wait to do it again.

PERSONALITIES
Joshua is a real charmer and has the most expressive face. A lot of the times he will just look like he is trying to figure out the world and has this worried look on his face. And other times he will be all smiles, laughs and giggles. He is not a big fan of napping and will usually just crash on the play mat rather than go to sleep in his crib. He does this cute wiggle before falling asleep as if trying to stay awake. He loves to cuddle and will be so easy going UNTIL he gets hungry. If there is not a bottle ready, watch out for the screaming. He also has the loudest squeal that he lets out when he is happy. He also thinks cell phone ringtones are hilarious.

Caroline is getting more and more cuddly, which is nice because there was none of that in the beginning. She has the cutest smiles and it feels like she is sharing a big secret with you when she smiles. She also started sticking her tongue out and fully expects you to do the same. When Daddy comes home she becomes all electric and wiggles all over the place. She is so active and is not still for long. When she wakes up she will use her cute little voice and she and her brother will be chatting until their lazy parents get out of bed. It is the cutest thing. Caroline is also a big animal lover. She laughed the first time she heard a duck quack and when my friend's dog licked her face.

SLEEP
As I mentioned in a previous post my babies WERE great sleepers - emphasis on were. A few weeks ago Joshua started turning onto his belly during the night. He would then wake up screaming because he was upset to be on his tummy and unable to turn back. Then Caroline had nights where she would scream out of nowhere and immediately soothe herself to sleep - but that of cause woke us up. Well, I think the peak was a day where David was gone on a business trip. Combined they woke up 6 times between 10pm and 6am. Needless to say, I was exhausted. Right now we are fighting a cold, which I hope is just about over. David and I split up the babies. The first baby to wake up, would come with me to the living room and sleep in an elevated chair. This too shall pass...

We may be sick, but we are still in good spirits

Hey Momma

Look at my new trick

Such tiny outfits

My chunkies

Zoo time

Okay, this will be a short post - I'm on my phone.

Today we went to the zoo with the kiddos for the first time. We had a good time, although the 3 pictures I took doesn't really convey that. Babies did great and while there were no meltdowns, there was a bit of a blowout. They were awake for quite a while and did look at some of the things we pointed out to them. I think they enjoyed the fish and the people the most.

Cuteness overload!

These babies crack me up...I cannot believe that I get to spend every day with them in all their cuteness and dorkiness...

Love,
Mom

Sleep

My husband gave me a huge compliment the other day. Now that we are trying to get a bit more serious about naps, we were talking about how good our babies are at sleeping during the night. I mentioned that how lucky we were to have babies that just automatically slept really well. He looked at me and said that I was the reason why our babies slept so well, I was sleep training them from the beginning.

Hmmm, never really thought about that. I just knew from the beginning, that I needed to establish routines that I could manage alone, since I knew the would come a time, where all my wonderful helpers would leave. So, I was probably a bit annoying in the beginning...bitchy some might say...but I have to admit that these "rules" were established out of fear. I was terrified to be alone with my babies. I was that person, who did not want to leave the hospital... Anyway, these were the "rules":

- babies will not fall asleep on people (so hard to do, but how could I possibly have two babies sleeping on me)

- babies will sleep in their crib, and only in swings or bouncers if necessary

- babies will go to bed while awake and learn to fall asleep on their own, but we'll be there to comfort them as needed

- babies sleep - eat - play, so they don't rely on food to get them to sleep

- we do our bedtime bath routine regardless of how tired we might be

- we ignore babies when they are stirring at night. Check on them, are they okay? But some of the gruntings are fine to ignore.

- babies will be fed every 3 hours or as close to it, to encourage stomach emptying and ensure a good feed.

Man, do I sound like a horrible mother or what???

Looking back on this, I guess I did sleep train without a conscious effort. And many of these rules were broken time and time again. Hey, survival is what it is all about in the beginning. But I also believe that I have the best babies in the world. They now sleep from 7-7:30pm until 6-7am and only wake to feed once a night (a quick 10 min feed). My babies are amazing!!