Rugby

I miss rugby sometimes, especially coaching.  A few months before the girls were born, the kids we used to coach threw us a huge, unexpected shower. We didn't get to bring the girls to meet them this fall due to rain and bad scheduling, but we finally got to bring them out to a game a couple of weekends ago.

They were the hits of the day, needless to say!

Also, can we discuss how big they've gotten in 3.5 short months?

Right after Christmas!

Playroom

PlayPorch!
We recently transformed (part of) our porch into a play space.

So far, it is a hit!

We do need to secure that gate though...little feet are starting to try to climb it...

flying with twinfants

In their 8.5 months, the girls have been on three round trips via plane - twice to St. Louis, and once to Atlanta.

It was shockingly easy.  If anyone out there is thinking about flying with twins, here's the rundown of directions based on how we did it:

waiting for our first flight at 11 (i think) weeks old

• Babies in the Double Snap & Go stroller in their car seats. We did not bring the bases (and opted for a seatbelt install at our destination) so all of this was coming to the gate with us.
• Check a bag, if necessary. When we went to StLouis, we were staying for 5 days, so we checked a bag (we were also on Southwest, so it was free). When we went to Atlanta, we were only going for 2 nights (and on United), so we took a carry on only for the 4 of us.
• Organize your diaper bag before getting to security - make sure bottles are accessible as well as any other liquids (we packed a change of clothes for the babies and a couple of small toys in there as well).
• At security, remove as much as possible on line - take off jackets/sweatshirts, loosen shoes, get liquids/laptops out, unfasten carseat straps.  When you reach the belt, dump everything you can on it at top speed. One person picks up both babies, and the other loads the carseats and stroller into the xray machine.
• Go through the metal detector. The person holding the babies goes over to the liquid checker guy to test the breastmilk (or RTF formula I imagine). After that, stand around and look pathetic until your partner or a TSA agent can grab a car seat for you so you can set down a baby and start thinking about putting your shoes back on.

first injury

We had our first legit injury last week.

A black eye.

Avery, while smug, was not at fault. Quinn was playing with a toy and reached a little too far and fell into it.

the big FF

So far our formula experience has been a total failure (hence FF).

Over the course of the week, Quinn has spit up no fewer than 4 entire feedings (two of which were at day care and were breastmilk, not formula). 3 of those were on me. Awesome. The poor baby also had loose stool all last weekend and dehydrated pasty stools Monday and Tuesday (when the spitting up started).  Its really the result of the powerful antibiotic she was on for an unresolved ear infection, but now I'm wary about giving her formula. What if it WAS the formula and not the meds? Unlikely, but thanks to my latest Mother of the Year application - see above re poop and puke...I didn't call the pedi and have her discontinue the meds until she'd been on them for 8 days, 4.5 days after the disagreement with her bowels started - I am a little paranoid. The little bitty peanut lost 1/2 a pound according to our scale. This is not weight she can afford to drop.

The other failure was totally my fault. I'm a researcher, and probably over-read on the baby front. I know lots of things about complications we don't/didn't have (I do follow a couple of Multiples message boards and blogs, so that is a big source of my information).
Formula is simple.
Lots of people, a majority of people, and certainly a majority of Moms of Multiples, formula feed.

I fucked up the formula.

The package clearly says 1 scoop per two ounces, not one scoop per one ounce. No wonder it was so damn thick.  Avery had two bottles like this before I realized it. Oops. (Note the "Recipe" in Try 3 of my original post)

formula

After a bit over 8 months, my amazing wife's amazing 500 oz or so freezer stash is almost gone. She's still going strong pumping, but has lost a bit of supply with work and the normal dips, and the girls still eat 24-32 oz each a day (she's average 45 oz now). So we had to buy formula for the first time this weekend.

Now, I know a majority of parents formula feed, especially working moms of older babies.
Formula is easy, right?

I am an idiot and it took me three tries to make a bottle Sunday night.
Since they haven't had formula since they were 2 days old (and then they drank those ready-to-feed nursers at the hospital), I've never mixed it before, and I only wanted to make a little bit since I didn't know if they'd take it straight.

Try 1: add 2.5 scoops formula to one of those little Medela pump bottles and fill it with water. Fail. Clump of damp powder on the bottom.

Try 2: Fill Medela bottle (again one of those skinny ones) with water. Add powder. Fail. 1 scoop of formula sitting atop water...

Try 3. Add 3 oz of water to normal sized bottle. Add 3 scoops of formula. Shake for 999492 minutes. OK. That worked.

I was once an engineer.

Eventually I'll report back on getting our breastmilk fed babies to drink the stuff. So far not so good. Its so much thicker and stinkier...they aren't fans.

so behind/8 months

Our peanuts are EIGHT MONTHS old (and I haven't blogged in forever and  a day).

They're older now (36w this past Friday) than they were gestationally (35w) when they were born. Crazy.

A rare photo of Quinn smiling. She DOES smile, just not for the camera!

A rare photo of Avery sitting. Move move move, all the time.

Quinn is babbling and army crawling now, and Avery is climbing, standing, starting to cruise. Amazing how fast they grow up.

Adorable though. All the time. (Ok, almost all the time).

even if they won't sit still and photo shoots are fast becoming impossible.

Lights and sound

We were lucky enough to be loaned three young toddler toys from a friend with a two year old (who's having twins in july!). They all have lights and sound  (and are giant, but thats another post) and the girls are in love.

Out shopping

When did our peanuts get big enough to ride in a cart ???

Spring

Mom, why am I hanging here?