Farewell, 2012

What a year! First off, congrats on all of us surviving the Mayan Apocalypse!

Hard to believe that at this point last year I wasn't even pregnant. Talk about big changes! Feeling incredibly lucky to have had such a problem-free pregnancy (up until that last week), and incredibly lucky to have two babies that are starting to sleep in six-hour chunks at night. They really are great kids.

2012 also brought some losses in the family, so we're looking forward to a 2013 with hopefully less of that. Also on our radar:

1. Selling our house
2. Buying a new house
3. Increasing my freelance workload
4. Low-key summer vacation
5. Only one wedding to attend, instead of the nine we've had each of the past two years
6. Enjoying watching our babies grow into little people

I also want to lose the baby weight (haven't even tried yet) plus about twenty pounds. We'll see how that goes...

Teething Already?

As insane as this sounds, I think Periwinkle might be teething already. 

Today she has been super cranky and drooling a lot, and, as she was in my lap crying in full force, I noticed a white spot on her upper right gums. I thought maybe it was formula but I touched it and it did not go away and she started crying harder. Poor kiddo. 

Not Periwinkle, but pretty much what she's looked like most of the day.

I called my mother (of course) and she suggested a cold cloth held on her gums. Periwinkle started sucking on it so I'm not sure if I actually hit the right spot, and then she kept crying. But when I offered her chuchetto (pacifier) she started sucking on that like crazy again and quieted down. She's now quietly swaddled in the pack n play, so hopefully she's feeling better. 

We'll keep an eye on the white spot to see if it sticks around or what. Google leads me to believe three months would be the earliest teething would occur, which, given she's a preemie, would mean she has two months until she should be starting, but who knows? Babies are born with teeth so I guess they could start popping through at any time. 

It figures that I notice this white spot the day after her doctor's appointment...

Happy Holidays!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and will have a fantastic New Year! We headed up to my parents' house for a few days, which is always great because Grandma and Grandpa love getting up in the middle of the night to feed them and let us get more than three hours of consecutive sleep. Feeling somewhat well rested now, thanks to them!

The babies made out like bandits, and we are so grateful for all the adorable clothes and toys they got, as well as the Ergo carrier that makes Periwinkle conk out in .5 seconds. I've yet to put Indigo in it, but his turn is coming soon. We also got a single Snap N Go stroller for when we want to get individual time with a baby, and a humidifier for the nursery that will hopefully help with dry skin and congestion. I'll let you know how that goes!

The babies also got spoiled rotten, as I don't think they were put down for more than two minutes during the course of the three days. Someone was always holding them and loving on them, especially my grandmother, who has decided to go by GiGi. My grandfather has been dubbed More GiGi, which is a nod to the fact that my younger cousin, as a baby, called me Red and my brother More Red. I felt so popular.

Here are some pictures from our holiday!

Christmas Day Finery

Christmas Eve Eve PJs

Aunt Fuschia and Indigo in his Christmas Eve PJs

Peaceful Periwinkle in her Christmas Eve PJs

Me, and Periwinkle in the Ergo

They had their two-month pediatrician appointment today. How they are nine weeks old already is beyond me. Periwinkle is now 9lbs6oz!! And Indigo is still exactly a pound heavier, at 10lbs6oz. They've pretty much doubled their birth weights, and are both into size 1 diapers. Indigo now weighs about what I weighed when I was born. My poor mother....

Baby girl is 21 inches long to Indigo's 22. She has a head circumference of 36cm, and his is a whopping 39cm, which got a reaction of, "Oh, wow" from the doctor. But both are looking great, as, in the doctor's words, "I can't find a thing wrong with them." So that's good to hear!! Indigo is still a bit congested, but we're hoping the humidifier helps with that.

I am hoping to finally get a post up with official "after" shots of the nursery in the next week, once I organize their new clothes and get the newborn stuff out of there. So crazy to think they've outgrown it all already... thank goodness for Christmas gifts!

Naptime

So, along with trying to get them to sleep longer at night (unfortunately we seem to have reverted to 3.5-hour chunks of sleep), I'm also trying to monitor their daytime napping better. Previously, I would just let them doze off in their boppys or on their playmat, but I wasn't tracking how long they were sleeping. Some reading up online has led me to believe that they need more-structured, deeper-sleeping naptimes, which will hopefully translate into longer sleeping periods at night (fingers crossed!). I figure it'll take a week or so to iron it all out, which should be interesting with the holiday coming up...

In short, I think they were getting overtired, especially Periwinkle. So yesterday at the first yawn, up they went into their crib. Indigo wasn't really feeling it, though. He also wasn't feeling the evening nap (between 6 and 7:30), while Periwinkle conked out quite solidly. I'm hoping his lack of napping is why they woke up more frequently at night, but we'll see how it shakes out tonight. I keep optimistically mentally setting their next feeding at four hours, so it's sad when they are crying at three hours. Sometimes we can get away with changing the diaper of the crying baby and getting another 30 minutes or so out of them, but that's not always the issue. Sometimes, one baby is just hungry, and "feed one, feed both."

And now today, Indigo gave the first yawn, so up they went for a nap. It took him about 30 minutes to doze off, but Periwinkle is STILL lying there, burritoed up in her swaddle blanket, looking around the room, cooing, and occasionally trying to break her arms free. I'm thankful she's not screaming, so at least she's having "quiet time." But I'm not looking forward to her behavior later if she does get overtired as a result.

My reading says that the longest babies their age should be awake between naps is 1.5 hours, which is about when I put them down. It also says naps can last 30 minutes to 2 hours. They should be on a cycle of nap, eat, play, nap. Playing can be listening to music, tummy time, having a book read to them, or playing with toys. At this stage of their life, it's usually sitting in the boppy looking around, listening to music, and/or having a book read to them. Yesterday I introduced them to a stuffed animal, which Periwinkle liked to touch and Indigo liked to eat. I'll try to get pictures of that up soon.

Here's a picture of yesterday's boppy time:

This is one of very few times they will be in matching outfits. Periwinkle is in one of Indigo's old outfits he outgrew, and which he happened to have in the 0-3 month size as well. I think they look adorable! Of course, promptly after this photo was taken, Periwinkle spit up on hers so she got an outfit change.

Ah, spit up. Another issue to tackle...

In short, having two babies is hard. You try to get them on the same schedule, but as evidenced by their current "nap," sometimes one baby is tired and the other one isn't, or is at least resistant to napping. In the middle of the night, sometimes one baby is hungry and the other isn't. All we can do is try our best and try not to get too crazy when they don't cooperate.

Good thing they are cute!

Still Happy

So this tighter swaddling seems to be working! The first night they slept four hours before waking up with their hungry cries. I did have to change Indigo at the three hour mark, but then he went back to sleep.

Last night we went 4.5 hours between feedings! Again, I had to change Periwinkle around 3.5 hours but she went back to sleep easily. Last night I did try the Halo sleep sacks I just remembered we had, but Periwinkle was able to free her arms fairly quickly and started crying. Indigo made it to 5am, at which point we discovered he'd peed through his diaper and soaked the sleep sack, so into a Carter's blanket he went, as well. I'll still try the sleep sacks on him, mainly just to use them. I didn't have faith in our ability to swaddle with blankets when I registered for the sleep sacks, but really, we don't need them. Perhaps I can eBay them...

Not my child

And now they are both crying in their boppys, so off I go...

Happiest Babies on the Block?

Perhaps you've heard of this video, Happiest Baby on the Block? It claims to teach you the ways to calm your baby and get them to sleep longer via swaddling, shushing, putting them on their side, swinging them, etc. I was convinced it wouldn't do anything for us, as our babies sleep rather well and are generally not criers. If they are crying, changing their diaper or feeding them usually does the trick.

Well, tonight they were both ornery and whiny and generally unhappy. I decided to try the movie's more aggressive swaddling technique, even though our babies have, from day one, fought to keep their arms free. But I pinned their arms down and swaddled them tight, and now they are both lying quietly on their playmat, not struggling to get free, calm and content.

I am really hoping this translates into longer periods of sleep at night. Right now Indigo tends to wake up at the three-hour mark, and so we feed both of them even though Periwinkle is sound asleep. But perhaps with his arms by his side, he won't startle himself awake around the three-hour mark and will maybe make it to four hours? That would be glorious! We've also fed him 5oz instead of 4.5oz at the last two feedings, and he seems to be doing well with that amount. That should help him last longer between feedings, as well.

Here's hoping... I will update you on how they do tonight in my next post!

Baby Must-Haves

It seems you can't visit a blog these days without finding a gift guide. This isn't so much a gift guide as a list of products that, in my short tenure as a mother so far, I've found to be awesome.

1. Dr. Brown's Mixing Pitcher

This thing is great, especially since we have two babies to feed. We mix up 32oz of formula and then just pour into bottles as needed and stick into a bowl of warm water for a minute or two to warm it up. The real benefit is that this pitcher gets rid of clumps of formula and doesn't aerate the formula, helping to reduce bubbles and gas. Win-win!

2. Cloud B Gentle Giraffe Sound Machine

We've been using this white noise machine almost from day one, so I'm not sure how well they'd fall asleep without it, but I'm not going to mess with a good thing. We usually (knocks wood) can put them down sleepy but awake and with the soothing sounds of Mr. Giraffe they are soon off in la-la land. It doesn't always work, but I'm happy with our success rate. Mr. Giraffe is here to stay. Plus he's little and can travel easily! They also make full-size ones and different animal versions.

3. Carter's Velour Sherpa Blanket

We received a few of these as gifts and they soon became our most necessary items. These are perfect to cover baby in the car seat going between car and destination. They are cozy for swaddling, especially as we head into cold weather. Our babies have a much harder time escaping these than thinner blankets. They're also great to toss over baby's lower half when they are lying in the pack and play (supervised, of course, so nothing dangerous happens). And they are great to wrap baby in after bath time to snuggle them and warm them up. They are available in many patterns, and I'm convinced you can't have too many (sometimes baby has an accident and you need to wash it, so it's good to have backups). We have five and I would welcome more in a heartbeat.

4. Boppy Pillow

This pillow is apparently great for breastfeeding moms, but we've found it to be useful for keeping the babies in a somewhat sitting position to mix things up for them. It lets them look around at something other than the ceiling, helps keep their food down after a feeding, and they just look adorable sitting in them!

You can also use them to help with tummy time, and we found it to be the perfect "nest" during our newborn photo shoot.

5. Black and White Books/Toys

Newborns are best able to see high-contrast images, hence the black/red/white is great for them to work at focusing on. Periwinkle took to this book immediately and just stares at the images, wide-eyed and curious. Indigo is getting there, but he'd still rather just look around the room. I also have some black and white toys that they are still a bit too young to play with, so I'd stick with the books.

So there you go. I wouldn't trade any of these items for anything. Well, maybe money, but then I'd just go re-buy these items. I highly recommend you add these to your registry or buy them for someone who is expecting. They might not know they need them, but they do.

Horrible Mother

I took these photos instead of solving the problem. I call this series "Help! I Lost My Pacifier!"

What cements my place as a horrible mother is the fact that I burst into hysterical laughter every time I see the fourth picture. I can't help myself. Poor Indigo.

Here's a picture from later today where he's much more zen:

Mainly he's just pissed off I'm taking pictures again, I think.

And some cute pictures of Periwinkle in two cute outfits I had her in today. I absolutely love the sleep n play in the first shot. I have no idea why, but the way it fits her or something just makes me go "awww" and want to smother her with kisses. Which I don't. Because that would definitely get me horrible mother status. The second outfit is super simple: just a long-sleeved onesie and blue pants Fuschia got her (remember the clothing cupcakes from my baby shower this summer?). But she pulls it off with aplomb.

Both of these pictures were taken right before she broke out into crazy crying. She wasn't a fan of the bouncy seat today, and in the second shot she was just about to lose the pacifier. These kids and their pacifiers...

Starting to Smile

Caught a rather adorable series of photos of Periwinkle last week I just had to share!

We also took them to the mall today. It's my birthday and Blue took the day off, so we took advantage of the likely less crowded mall to go get our ornaments at Hallmark.

We only had three people ooh and ahh over them, so that was nice. I've heard stories of just being bombarded in public with questions about twins.

And now, off to play with my new camera!