Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Summer!
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
10 months
The girls are 10 months old today! Isn't that nuts?
To celebrate, both came down with colds yesterday (Quinn even got a bonus present of croup).
They're freaking cute these days. Both are speed crawling now, pulling to stand, and lowering themselves down with grace (until a week or so ago, Quinn just cried when she wanted to sit again!). They both clap and are super happy when we get home from work. They have continued to be so-so sleepers - a good night is 7:30-5:30 - and ok nappers. We're not big schedule people (and naps are mostly a daycare issue - they nap pretty well at home on the weekends), so whatever, except I think it might be time to do some tough love for that morning wakeup call...
AFTER Avery is done with this bout of teething. She is a, um, rough teether, and is currently getting her top two. I think one is through the skin, and the other is just about there. Quinn popped out her two bottom ones last week with nary a complaint, as long as her soothie was handy in the crib for chewing (pacifiers aren't for sucking...just teething, hah).
Avery continues to be our mover, and I think she's thinking about walking. She's let go and stood on her own a couple of times, and she spends most of her time cruising and standing around. Her favorite thing to do is to try to get to and eat your shoes. They're like magnets for dirt. Quinn is still our chatterbox, and is definitely the micro-focused baby. She loves music and banging on her drum (an old potatochip canister) or the iPad. They're both bitty baby bullies at daycare, stealing toys from unsuspecting babies. I think they're just advanced on "sharing" ;) since most babies don't have to deal with that!
To celebrate, both came down with colds yesterday (Quinn even got a bonus present of croup).
They're freaking cute these days. Both are speed crawling now, pulling to stand, and lowering themselves down with grace (until a week or so ago, Quinn just cried when she wanted to sit again!). They both clap and are super happy when we get home from work. They have continued to be so-so sleepers - a good night is 7:30-5:30 - and ok nappers. We're not big schedule people (and naps are mostly a daycare issue - they nap pretty well at home on the weekends), so whatever, except I think it might be time to do some tough love for that morning wakeup call...
AFTER Avery is done with this bout of teething. She is a, um, rough teether, and is currently getting her top two. I think one is through the skin, and the other is just about there. Quinn popped out her two bottom ones last week with nary a complaint, as long as her soothie was handy in the crib for chewing (pacifiers aren't for sucking...just teething, hah).
Avery continues to be our mover, and I think she's thinking about walking. She's let go and stood on her own a couple of times, and she spends most of her time cruising and standing around. Her favorite thing to do is to try to get to and eat your shoes. They're like magnets for dirt. Quinn is still our chatterbox, and is definitely the micro-focused baby. She loves music and banging on her drum (an old potatochip canister) or the iPad. They're both bitty baby bullies at daycare, stealing toys from unsuspecting babies. I think they're just advanced on "sharing" ;) since most babies don't have to deal with that!
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Rolling
Although the girls are still in their infant seats, e stored using the double snap and go stroller a while ago. They like to sit up and look around, and that thing is great with new little ones but so unweildy (is that a word? My phone does not think so ).
A lot of stores have double carts, but except at BJs, they all seem to be of the toddler variety (eg a car attached to a cart, etc). Not a huge problem for us...
Of course, almost right after I took this photo Quinn cried and I picked her up, releasing Avery's leg, so she immediately stood up. In the front of the cart....so I was them stuck in the middle of home depot with two banks in my arms....
I ended up plopping Avery back in and sliding Quinn in behind her, since I needed to pin her down for a second to have a free hand to grab the buckle. Poor Quinn. She totally have me the look of "i was crying and now you are using me like a doorstop".
I was happily suprises to find bucklimg avery solved the climbing for now, and I can hold off on rethinking my cart strategy until the day Quinn tries to escape...
Monday, May 14, 2012
almost summer
I tried to do "9 month" photos at the park and this is the best I could do. They're cute, but not exactly what I had in mind. We might need to spring for someone more skilled for their one year photos :)
Sunday, May 13, 2012
how things look around here
We're really getting to be on the move.
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| that phone up there is no longer safe... |
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Sleep, Part 2
Moral of the story:
It gets better.
4-5 months ago, I was dying. Dying a little. Not sleeping for an average of even 6 hours a night is hard. Hard. I've put on almost 10 pounds since the babies were born, and I attribute at least some of that to having newborn, preemie twins who didn't sleep well for a long time. (That's kind of another post.) But it is much better now.
Most of the time, they're asleep around 7:30 and sleep through until 5 am. Thanks to some Crying It Out with the middle of the night feeding (for Avery), we can usually get 6+ hours of sleep each. They're slowly naturally moving up that 5 am wakeup call to 5:30 or 6. One day I would like for it to be 7, but due to their weight, especially Quinn, we're not going to sleep train them for the morning yet.
They nap pretty well, and at this point it is usually a short morning nap and a 90 min to 2 hour midday nap. Sometimes they get a short snooze in the running stroller too after daycare. I think we'll be on two main naps by a year.
It is so easy to stress about sleep, especially with two babies. You read a lot of "schedule" recommendations. You read a lot of "they need XXX" recommendations. We (half ass) tried to get them on a schedule, but it just isn't for us. We're not schedule people, and you know what - the babies have done just fine. They nap together 75% of the time, and go to bed on time each night. I don't stress over missed naps, and life is fine. Now, I fully believe I'd sing a different tune if I stayed at home with them. I would need the down time, the set schedule, some kind of outline to our day. But the way it is is just fine for us. Daycare does naps-on-demand for the infant too, so the transition from home to daycare is pretty seamless.
I admit I am still tired a lot of days. Like today. Hence why I am blogging and not working. Going to bed at 10:30 and getting up at 4:45 is still rough. But at least I don't have that general hit-by-a-truck/going-to-pass-out-in-the-car feeling anymore.
It does get better.
It gets better.
4-5 months ago, I was dying. Dying a little. Not sleeping for an average of even 6 hours a night is hard. Hard. I've put on almost 10 pounds since the babies were born, and I attribute at least some of that to having newborn, preemie twins who didn't sleep well for a long time. (That's kind of another post.) But it is much better now.
Most of the time, they're asleep around 7:30 and sleep through until 5 am. Thanks to some Crying It Out with the middle of the night feeding (for Avery), we can usually get 6+ hours of sleep each. They're slowly naturally moving up that 5 am wakeup call to 5:30 or 6. One day I would like for it to be 7, but due to their weight, especially Quinn, we're not going to sleep train them for the morning yet.
They nap pretty well, and at this point it is usually a short morning nap and a 90 min to 2 hour midday nap. Sometimes they get a short snooze in the running stroller too after daycare. I think we'll be on two main naps by a year.
It is so easy to stress about sleep, especially with two babies. You read a lot of "schedule" recommendations. You read a lot of "they need XXX" recommendations. We (half ass) tried to get them on a schedule, but it just isn't for us. We're not schedule people, and you know what - the babies have done just fine. They nap together 75% of the time, and go to bed on time each night. I don't stress over missed naps, and life is fine. Now, I fully believe I'd sing a different tune if I stayed at home with them. I would need the down time, the set schedule, some kind of outline to our day. But the way it is is just fine for us. Daycare does naps-on-demand for the infant too, so the transition from home to daycare is pretty seamless.
I admit I am still tired a lot of days. Like today. Hence why I am blogging and not working. Going to bed at 10:30 and getting up at 4:45 is still rough. But at least I don't have that general hit-by-a-truck/going-to-pass-out-in-the-car feeling anymore.
It does get better.
Monday, May 7, 2012
9 months
percentiles from this site for actual age. It uses the CDC and not WHO charts, but whatever, good for scanning curves at least. It also reports anything at 5% or under as 5, which is ridiculous...Quinn is more like 3rd, if that, in weight when you look at the chart.
Quinn
Birth: 3 lbs 8 oz & 16 inches
1 month (40w gestational): 5 lbs 13 oz (5th) & 19 inches (5th)
2 months: 7 lbs 13 oz (5th) & 20.5 inches (5th)
3 months: 9 lbs 9 oz (5th) & 22.5 inches (29th)
4 months: 10 lbs 9 oz (5th) and 23 inches (16th)
6 months: 12 lbs 0 oz (5th) and 24.75 inches (24th)
9 months: 13 lbs 14 oz (5th) and 26 inches (38th)
Quinn is a talking machine and babbles all days. She loves music and dances by shaking her head (you'd think she was saying no). She still can't quite push to sitting but zooms around army crawl style. Quinn is the independent one - she prefers to go to sleep alone in her crib, and prefers to feed herself thankyouverymuch.
Avery
Birth: 5 lbs 0 oz (5th) & 17 3/4 inches (5th)
decisions
Inspired by a blogger friend at Our Growing Family, I've put together a list of some of our parenting decisions. I might make this a semi-regular series, as I know there are so many more decisions to come.
1. Our kids are belly sleepers and have been since about 3 months. Sleep is important, especially for parents, and getting 3 hrs of sleep in a row was really important by then.
2. Neither girl takes a pacifier. They haven't since about 6 weeks.
3. We don't use a monitor at night, much less a movement monitor.
4. My amazing wife provides the majority of their food. Breastfeeding didn't click, but pumping did, and I'm so proud she was able to provide for them 100% for 8 months, and still is giving them 80% breastmilk. We buy generic, cheap as I can find, formula for the rest.
5. We vaccinate as the doctor tells us to.
6. We didn't have a full sized swing, and our babies never slept in them at night.
7. Despite having multiples, we are not, by any stretch of the imagination, on a strict feeding or nap schedule.
8. We go out in public ALL the time. We sit in high chairs. We eat off tables. We sit in carts. We don't own a cover for any of these things.
9. The girls have been at a daycare center since 5.5 months. I couldn't be happier with their care and am somewhat more comfortable leaving them there while we work than with their grandmas all day.
10. We make a lot of their baby food, and give them a lot of table food, but we also feed commercial purees when we're out and for meat.
11. We've done Cry It Out. We don't rock to sleep. We do let them fall asleep on the bottle.
12. We medicate babies who wake in the middle of the night these days, under the assumption it is teething pain or illness.
13. We use carriers. And strollers.
14. I have zero guilt about working and putting them in daycare.
15. We don't sanitize, well, anything.
16. We cloth diaper 99% of the time.
17. We don't own an infant tub.
1. Our kids are belly sleepers and have been since about 3 months. Sleep is important, especially for parents, and getting 3 hrs of sleep in a row was really important by then.
2. Neither girl takes a pacifier. They haven't since about 6 weeks.
3. We don't use a monitor at night, much less a movement monitor.
4. My amazing wife provides the majority of their food. Breastfeeding didn't click, but pumping did, and I'm so proud she was able to provide for them 100% for 8 months, and still is giving them 80% breastmilk. We buy generic, cheap as I can find, formula for the rest.
5. We vaccinate as the doctor tells us to.
6. We didn't have a full sized swing, and our babies never slept in them at night.
7. Despite having multiples, we are not, by any stretch of the imagination, on a strict feeding or nap schedule.
8. We go out in public ALL the time. We sit in high chairs. We eat off tables. We sit in carts. We don't own a cover for any of these things.
9. The girls have been at a daycare center since 5.5 months. I couldn't be happier with their care and am somewhat more comfortable leaving them there while we work than with their grandmas all day.
10. We make a lot of their baby food, and give them a lot of table food, but we also feed commercial purees when we're out and for meat.
11. We've done Cry It Out. We don't rock to sleep. We do let them fall asleep on the bottle.
12. We medicate babies who wake in the middle of the night these days, under the assumption it is teething pain or illness.
13. We use carriers. And strollers.
14. I have zero guilt about working and putting them in daycare.
15. We don't sanitize, well, anything.
16. We cloth diaper 99% of the time.
17. We don't own an infant tub.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
how ridiculous is this?
Avery spends a TON of time standing in her crib now. She has taken to talking to Quinn over the side at bedtime until they flop over and go to sleep (knock on wood and all, but bedtime has gotten easier lately). Quinn can pull herself up sometimes (and sometimes just gets frustrated and cries) but if you stand her up, she's happy as a clam...until she wants to get down.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
35/35
A very belated 35 weeks in/35weeks out montage...
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| 35w0d. About 12 hours before the girls were delivered. |
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| Avery, 1 hr or so old, freshly bathed and hanging out in her Size 1 diaper. Our hospital was cheap on diapers and put even small NBs in Size 1 folded down (NB diapers ARE $$). |
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| Avery, 35w (8 mo) |
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| Quinn, 2 hrs old. She got a preemie diaper in the NICU, so it fit pretty well. |
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| Quinn, 35w (8 mo) |
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