unreal

Sometime around their first birthday, we dropped off babies at daycare and picked up toddlers.

A list of things they've learned to do in the last 3 weeks:

• walk (Avery) & stand unsupported (Quinn)
• climb off the couch safely
• climb off the giant, taller than the couch tumbling block
• say "all done" (Quinn)
• "brush" hair
• drink from sippies and straw cups well
• use a spoon to get [whipped cream] food into their mouths (sorta kinda, but Quinn is close to having it down)
• sleep on a cot at daycare
• cliimb up the ladder and go down the slide. alone.

twin love

We're in a really fun age right now (are all ages fun? past newborn/tiny babyhood?).  They're playful and giggly and it just melts me a little how they shriek with joy at each other.

so I think the girls read this blog

Within days of my post on their mobility, Avery got up and started walking. She's been taking steps here and these (mostly prompted by us) but towards the end of last week, she started doing it more. A lot we'll even say.  I'd put her at about a 30% walker as on Sunday. She won't try to cover long stretches now, but she's suddenly standing unsupported (and doing millions of squats) all. the. time.

Quinn isn't far behind. She's typically been 3-4 weeks behind Avery in gross motor, but she is standing free a bit already.  We're guessing she'll just up and walk perfectly one day, much like she just decided to crawl away one day. No trial and error for this kid. She subscribes to my theory that nothing is worth doing unless you can do it right (which is something I struggle with and can't say around them ever again, since it's not long until they repeat us...).

mobility

Walking seems to be the holy grail of the early toddler months like sleep is of infant months. Once you tell someone your baby is a year old, the immediate question is "are they walking?" much like the immediate question for babies of all ages is "are they sleeping?" (no, and eh, no).

They ARE quite mobile. Avery never really army crawled - she preferred to pile drive her head across the floor - but she's been crawling since 8 months and cruising (with distance) since 9 or so. Quinn army crawled from around 8 months, and at 9.5 months just got up and crawled one day. Now at almost 12.5 months, they move, and move and move. They cruise all over the place. They love the push walker, and love really anything they can use to walk with (tables, ottomans, etc). They can walk holding one hand. But walk on their own? Not really.

Avery will take a couple of steps - I don't think she knows she's doing it - but Quinn won't let go. We do sort of fling them at each other to "practice" walking, but I don't think toddling with propulsion really counts. But, as I want to tell everyone who asks, babies aren't considered delayed in walking unless they aren't doing it by 16 months adjusted. These guys have FIVE MONTHS left to be normal.

I do admit I am looking forward to them walking. We might need to baby proof a little better (um, more than a single gate, though, really, they pullup and stand everywhere so will it make a big difference? growing taller might be more of an issue for us than walking).  But the idea of babies who can walk themselves from door to car (ok, might need to wait on the stairs for that...)? or bathroom to bedroom?  It IS appealing. I also love the idea of a kid who can do more than swing at the park...more things to do to fill weekend hours :)

As a sidebar, Avery seems to be chunking up and Quinn has a bit of a belly now. Perhaps their bodies are holding back on walking until they can pack on some pounds since most kids don't gain much for a couple of months once they start walking?

sleep, follow up

I think the babies read the blog. They both slept from 7-6 on Friday night. Actually Avery may have had some milk around 10. I can't remember. But they did sleep from 7-6 Friday night.

They were both up once on Saturday, I think, and Avery was kind of a mess last night, bad enough I rocked her for a bit after giving her meds, but she has a new tooth this morning. I do hope we have a break on the teeth once we hit 8 before the molars (and canines) come in...

the ever elusive Sleep

Sleep is a popular topic with parents of babies.

"Is she sleeping through the night yet?" no.
"Sleep when the baby sleeps!" Say that again and I might strangle you.

It was hard early on. Rough. Nothing really can prepare you for sleeping just a few interrupted hours for weeks on end. I am sure this is a hard adjustment for any new parent (except those people I slightly curve under my breath who have babies who sleep 7 hrs at 2 months old. Trauma lasts a while.). Not that I have other experience, but I'm going to guess the sleep adjustment is especially hard for a) preemie parents (because they're newborns for extra long) and b) parents of multiples. It does get better with time, but it's still hard.

We have had some good weeks. Weeks where they woke once to eat, or for a day or two, slept until 5 without waking. We've had some very bad weeks. Teeth. Ear infections. Hand Foot and Mouth. Two weekends, at the ripe old age of 1 Year and 21 hours old for the babies, we took a drive as a family at 3 fucking 15 in the morning because they had been that much screaming for so long. Maybe it was 4:15. I can't even remember. They'd both been crying for something like 2 hours and we just ran out of ideas (and yes, they'd been drugged with Motrin and teething tablets and milk). It worked, not surprisingly.

Crying it out has had limited success here. It is fine for bedtime, and we've had some luck overnight if the waking is just waking for the hell of it. More often than not though, ignoring crying leads to more crying. Hysterical crying. Crying for 2 hours. So if it goes on, we give them milk, sometimes meds...and on it goes. We're getting into a better cycle it seems, knock on wood, and are back down to one overnight waking each. They're almost 16 and 17 pounds, and a friend told me her son dropped his 4 am-ish feeding around 18 lbs, so maybe it's on the horizon. It DID get better at 10 and 12 pounds, which were also relayed to me as milestones for feeding/sleep.So we'll see.

I have come to the conclusion a lot of overnight baby sleep is luck, baby temperament, and size. My girls have never been good night sleepers by the "standards" for STTN, but they started sleeping significantly more/longer at 10 lbs and 12 lbs (as I mentioned), so there is hope.... They are rather small for their age, so this had led to a lot more night feeding than I'd prefer but it is what it is. We did the same things and worked to establish good routines (for the most part, outside of our sickness/teething setbacks), and one of my girls consistently sleeps more soundly than the other, hence my opinion on temperament.


I'm still tired a lot, and I do think this affects me a lot in other aspects of my life, but it is improving, and I know this stage is fleeting. Heck, we're already a year into parenthood and have technically toddlers (though they're not quite toddling!).

One Year Old

So the girls are one.

and getting really hard to take joint photos of

Our 12 month well visit was last night, and it went quite well (especially compared to our 9 month visit when all hell sort of broke loose and we came home with a nebulizer and an inhaler).  The girls' pediatrician is pleased with their development, and they handled their shots just fine (you know, with lots of pathetic screaming). Afterwards we ran by Target for diapers (since they have - sigh - yeast rashes and we'll need to keep them in disposables for a bit to clear that up) and the drug store for their (associated) scripts. No antibiotics this visit. Score.

So, stats: