Watch Us Grow

Sebastien and Eden are four months old! They were at the doctor last week for their Well Child visit, and they are doing great. Sebastien weighed 14 lbs 8 oz and Eden weighed 12 lbs 12 oz. They are both in about the 25th percentile, which is about what they've been all along. Eden possibly has some reflux issues, but other than that, they received a clean bill of health. They had their immunizations, which is always hard to watch. They were both real troopers.

I thought it would be fun to take a look at the monthly pictures I've been taking of Sebastien and Eden.



Here they are at one month old.


This is their two month shot - they were both really fussy that day. I probably should have tried again the next day, but alas, I did not. So all I have for two months are pictures with bad lighting and crying babies.


Here they are at 3 months. I neglected to take a picture with Mr. Monkey in between them that month, for some reason. So, we don't get the perspective shot.


And, finally, 4 months. Bad choice of clothing for Eden - the sweater is so big on her, it's a little deceiving, she looks huge!

Two Little Monkeys

Happy Halloween!

While we didn't go Trick or Treating (hard to convince anyone that the candy isn't just for mom and dad when you are T-o-T with two 3 1/2-month-olds), we did dress the kids up just for fun. We walked over to my grandma's house to show them off to the family gathered for Friday coffee, then kept them in their costumes at home for awhile so I could take 85 million pictures and some video. It was great fun.

We also enjoyed handing out candy...though no need for any crazy candy delivery devices this year (see last year's candy chute video.)

And Sebastien and Eden headed off to bed while Adam and I watched a semi-scary movie with my brother and sister-in-law. All in all, a great Halloween.

Night Time Update

I wrote the previous post on a Sunday night... During the week that followed, everything changed.

First of all, all the work we had been doing on daytime naps started to pay off. For the first time since they were very new (when their nights and days were all mixed up), Sebastien and Eden started taking naps in their cribs at the same time. Not long ones, mind you, and not perfectly coordinated with each other, but a major development all the same. For the first time since they were born, I started to be able to take a shower while no one else was here to watch the babies! And twice I was even able to blow dry my hair!

Ok, so it's not perfect - most days they are both sleeping, really sleeping at the same time, for about 15 minutes. Then I do all kinds of song and dance every 5 minutes to get them to stay asleep because their sleep is very light. And often just as one is drifting off the other wakes up. But still it's progress! And it gives me hope of things to come.

"But that's day time," you might be thinking. Well, I'm not done.

On the Thursday night that week, Eden and Sebastien slept, and I mean pretty deeply slept, all night long! I'll break it down for you. Ate at 7pm, asleep by 9:30, slept until 7am! I woke up several times and checked on them. And I got up at 6am (had to majorly pump, but only did a little because I had no idea when they'd need to eat.) And I just waited for them to wake.

The next night, they went from 8pm to 8am! And so for the last week, that's our schedule. We feed them at 8pm, they're down usually by 10pm, they sleep very soundly until 3 or 4am, and then progressively lighter until 7:50 or so. Then during the day, we're on a 8-11-2-5-8 feeding schedule. It's quite nice.

Now you may notice the time of this post. Well, I get up once during the night to pump. And they are a natural alarm clock for me some time between 3:00 and 4:00.

So, conclusion: Any time I want something to get better, I'm going to write a blog post about it!

p.s.Here are a couple cute tummy time pics.

Night Time with Sebastien and Eden

"So... are your babies sleeping through the night yet?"

A common and understandable question. As a parent of two 10 week olds, a lot of time and energy goes into thought about my kids' sleeping.

For the last month or so we've done some experimenting with night time schedules. Eden and Sebastien can go fairly long stretches without eating now. (Anywhere between 6 and 10 hours!) Granted, they are not sleeping for those whole stretches of time, but we figure it's a great start so we'll take it. One step at a time.

Ok, so here are a couple of scenarios....

(And somehow they always end up eating around 7pm, when I would prefer 6pm and 9pm. But anyway...)

7pm eat
both totally asleep by 9:30
wake them up to eat at 10pm
sleep from 11pm (ish) until... well usually they grunt and fuss starting around 2:30 or 3:00...but they're not really hungry. they stay in their cribs with frequent help from mom and dad until 4 or maybe even 5am
eat
put both back down, they sleep for an hour or two, wake up fussy until mom lays down with both babies and we all sleep until 9 or even 10am.

7pm eat
both asleep by 9:30
sleep until 3:30am
eat
sleep until 6:30am
eat
mom tries to get them back to bed b/c they're clearly tired, but they grunt and fuss until mom lays down with both babies and we all sleep until 9 or even 10am.

So, yes, I take naps with them a lot of days. Call it survival, or whatever... I call it "family nap time." It might be a bad habit. But seriously, that's a post for another day because my kids are not good day-time sleepers. Unless they're being held. Again, perhaps a bad habit, but it's not for lack of trying and they need their sleep!

We've also tried a couple nights where we let each one determine for themselves when they are going to get up to eat. I don't recommend this. Basically it just means I'm awake feeding or soothing one baby or another all night long. We have also had a couple nights where Adam and I each are in charge of one baby. That wasn't great either. Oh, also... some times one of us will do the night feeding without the other so they can sleep. While that is ok when one of us really needs it, it is so much more difficult to do night feedings alone, most of the time we both get up to feed the babies in the middle of the night.

One more note...if our children could sleep on us all night long, they would easily sleep 12-hour stretches every night. When Sebastien or Eden are so discontent at night that pacies and swaddling and soothing isn't working...yet they aren't really hungry...mom or dad will lay down with them. They then need to be woken up to eat, they are so sound asleep!

So, are they sleeping through the night. They're "not eating" through the night. And there's hope for a future of actual sleeping through the night. So, they're getting there.

p.s. This entire post was written lovingly with one hand.

Eden Smiles

For all you non-facebookers out there, here is a short video clip of Eden smiling... Some of her first "real" smiles. :)

"EASY" - Eat, Activity, Sleep, 'You Time'

This is the basic premise of "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer" - which, despite its silly title, is actually a pretty great book about caring for infants. So, this is the routine we're trying to establish.

Eden and Sebastien eat. (This is quite an event in and of itself.) We don't have any pictures of this, because that would be inappropriate.

Then, during the day, we have them awake, which is about all the "activity" they can do right now. Well, that's not true. We look in their eyes and talk with them, they go on their tummies for tummy time, they look at black and white images, sit in their bouncy seats, give them baths... etc. So, there are activities. That time lasts anywhere between 5 minutes and 1 1/2 hours.


Then, when they seem like they are ready to sleep, they either spontaneously fall asleep, or, most often, they need to be held, rocked, swaddled, etc. Then they sleep.



That's the point at which the parents are able to have some "you time" - time to get stuff done, or sleep, post pictures, blog...eat..whatever there isn't time for when there are awake or hungry babies around.

I love this idea. It works out pretty differently in real life, though. Well, real life with twins, I can't speak for real life with one baby. For example, I've been working on writing this post since last Sunday. (It's Saturday now.) Because for us, it more often goes something like this...

One baby, say Eden, falls asleep nicely after 20 minutes of activity time, but Sebastien wants to be awake for over an hour. And not just awake...awake AND held. But finally he shows signs of tiredness, and sure enough after some effort, he finally is down and stays down. But by this time, Eden has decided that she doesn't want to be sleeping anymore...that is, unless Mommy or Daddy is holding her. So, she gets the attention she needs, until she will eventually be relaxed enough to be laid back down. At this point, Mommy quick drinks a glass of milk or grabs some grapes or goes to the bathroom, only to come back to find two hungry infants, because sure enough, it's time to eat again!

Please note that I am not suggesting that it always goes exactly like this - rather, this is one example, but its fairly typical of my time at home with the twinfants. I'm sure singleton babies have "needy" times too, and you other Mommies out there have a tough time finding "you" time at times also.

And I'm also sure that you other Moms out there will agree when I add.. boy, is it all worth it! Eden and Sebastien are such a beautiful addition to our lives. They are working really hard on smiling these days, and are also trying hard to find their voices (non-crying voices, that is.) They have grown and changed so much... it is hard to believe that just 6 1/2 weeks ago they were 5 1/2lb preemies!

So, while I don't get a lot of "you" time, and our routine is not yet "EASY," I am just trying to enjoy this time that I have with them at home. I just love being their mom!

Two at a Time

Just thought I'd post some pictures of us pulling "double duty" to give you a picture of what life is like...






We can definitely tell that Sebastien and Eden are growing! We are going to the pediatrician this week for their one month check-up...and we can't believe that on Tuesday a month will have passed since these two were born!