October 2009 Archives

It's been an exhausting week for some reason.  The girls aren't sleeping more than 3 hours at a time and I think I end up in bed maybe 2-3 hours for the whole night.  Otherwise I'm nursing (or asleep) in a chair or on the couch so it's been rough.  What happened to the 7-12 hour stretches!?

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day.  One of the first and I thought that we should take advantage of it so I bundled up the girls and we all went for a walk around the block.  Lily cried most of the way and finally fell asleep at the end but it was still a lovely walk.  Maia really loved crunching the leaves and looking at everyone's pumpkins and Halloween decorations.  Afterwards I dragged the stroller into our backyard and Maia and I jumped on the trampoline (full of leaves) for awhile.  She had an absolute blast!  It was really good to get outside since I don't think we'll have many more opportunities.

We have been trying to be really careful lately about germs and sickness, especially since it's supposed to be a rough winter.  It looks like we won't be able to avoid it though!  Ben feels congested, Maia is sneezing and Lily sounds really congested.  Lily is our biggest concern at the moment because it almost sounds like labored breathing.  She can still nurse well so I'm not overly anxious at the moment but I also know how fast these things can turn so we're watching closely.

Our friend Stacy brought over a Playtex Ventaire bottle for us to try with the girls.  I tried it today with both of them and it didn't go so great.  I did a fast flow with Juliette and it just ended up going all over her shirt.  I tried a slow flow with Lily and she just kept biting the nipple and I think she did swallow some but she never actually sucked.  I guess we'll try again and probably have Ben try this time.

Maia has started to imitate us more and it's pretty funny.  Yesterday I asked her to clean up a mess she had made and she told me "In a minute, Mom."  I thought that was amusing because she hears that from me countless times a day!  She also likes to tell me to "go away".  Of course she gets upset if I actually do and if I look at her sadly, she'll say "You OK mama?" and then proceed to tell me to go away again in the next breath.  Oh good times!

I know I haven't posted many photos on this blog, mostly because I'm never on my office computer, just our laptop upstairs but since I am right now I'll share a few recent photos of the girls.
 

Not a lot to update on in the Ark's household.  We had a pretty okay week.  Last weekend we went to the pumpkin patch and even though we dared to bring the twins it just didn't work out as we planned because it was cold and too muddy for their stroller.  They threw fits so I ended up nursing them in the van while Ben and Maia picked out pumpkins.  Oh well, at least we got pumpkins!  This week I also baked some pumpkin shaped sugar cookies (with Maia's "help") and we decorated them today as a family.  It was pretty fun - we put Maia in her high chair without her shirt and she went to town.  Most of the frosting ended up on her face and body but I know she enjoyed herself! 

The girls are sleeping a bit better this week so I have that to be thankful for.  Last night Juliette slept for 7 hours straight which is a long time compared to usual lately.  It's a good night right now if each girl only wakes twice so we still have a long way to go!  Heather suggested a chiropractic doctor on the comments for helping with the sleep and I have never considered that.  We've considered it for Lily's reflux (which appears to be getting better) but not for anything else.  Certainly worth considering - my brother is almost done with chiropractic school and I know he'd agree!

I haven't mentioned many firsts lately.  Both girls are grabbing a lot now - Juliette grabs aggressively (she really likes to try to grab food) and they're both laughing.  I think they've been laughing about a month but it's recently gotten much more obvious.  It's so cute to hear them giggle and it just makes me happy and remember how far we've come already.  Juliette is working on sitting up as well.  She can do it for a few seconds unsupported before she topples but we're working on it.  They're still just 4.5 months adjusted age so I don't really feel like we're behind at all.  I'm confident that they'll catch up soon enough.

It's weird to me that we found out a year ago that we were having twins.  It's such a crazy journey and I remember the day we found out and Ben saying to the tech "well, at least there isn't two!" and the tech saying "are you sure about that?"  I started shaking and just couldn't believe it - it wasn't in our plan and it wasn't even in our heads as a possibility but I wouldn't have had it any other way.  I love my girls!

Things are going fairly well being home with all three girls.  It gets tough sometimes, especially when Maia decides she needs to be in a whiny mood but overall we're doing okay.  I really wish that it was about to be summer instead of winter so that we could spend more time outside; I don't look forward to when it's cold and we have to stay inside!   Maybe once the girls are sitting up reliably I can bring them out to sit in the snow?  We'll see how things go.  I've also been thinking about how much I'd love to enroll Maia in some fun activities like gymnastics or dance or something but at this age they all require mommy to be a participant.  I could try to find a sitter for the girls but we still have the whole bottle problem so I'm not really sure how that will work.  My friend Stacy is going to loan us some different bottles to try so maybe that will do the trick for us.

We ordered a rocker-recliner for the twins' room in early September and it finally showed up.  It's really comfortable so I'm hoping it will help with night sleep for me.  The girls are still not in the same room at night either and I'm worried about putting them in the same room and not having them wake each other up.  Any suggestions?  The only thing we can come up with is to rent our house and move so that the girls can have their own bedrooms.  Haha.

Tomorrow we're going down to Prior Lake to visit our friends Amanda and Jeremy.  We haven't seen them in a long time so we're looking forward to the fun afternoon.  Maia will be so excited to see Ivy.

Things have been going a little bit better this week.  One night Lily even slept through again so I'm hoping that trend continues!  Heck, even if they're up once I'll be happy (if it was one baby I'd be happy with twice but me being up 4 times is really tough on me).  I'm probably enforcing bad habits too because when they nurse, I just fall asleep so then they end up sleeping on me until the other baby wakes up.  I'd of course rather they get used to their respective beds (not that Lily is sleeping in hers yet) but right now I sleep when I can for my own sanity.

Speaking of which, we ordered a rocker/recliner back in September so I'm hoping that it will be here soon so that the living room couch no longer has to be my bed.  The girls will have to get used to sleeping in the same room and I hope that's an easy transition.

It was a pretty decent week staying home with all three.  Tuesday, the Early Intervention folks came by and there's nothing really new there.  The girls are doing great!  The OT (occupational therapist) came by too because I was hoping that she could give me advice on bottle feeding but she didn't tell me anything new really.  We're supposed to try in the morning, try with all sorts of different bottles and do at least one bottle a day.  Ideally, I want to just nurse and bottle feed when I leave but apparently that method isn't going to work.  Frustrating!  It's so much work to bottle feed, even just once a day.

On Wednesday, my sister-in-law Kathryn and niece Annabelle came over to play and do an art project.  Kathryn is quite the teacher!  She brought a big smooshy pumpkin that the girls could look at and play with, read a story about pumpkins and helped the girls make their own.  It was really fun to watch - Maia really enjoyed painting her paper plate orange.  I think she used up all of Kathryn's paint.  Whoops!  It's really cute though and we have it hanging in our front entry way.  The girls played outside for awhile and we had lunch before they left.  It was a wonderful way to spend our morning!

Ben has to work tomorrow (Saturday) so that's too bad...hopefully we have another good day.  It was a bit depressing that there was frost outside this morning.  What happened to fall?

The girls aren't doing great right now. Currently it is 11 pm and Juliette is finally sleeping (since an hour ago) and Lily is still up refusing to sleep. She's nursing and calm right now but last time she nursed it was for an hour and she woke the second I laid her down. It feels like all I do is feed, bounce and pacify babies. Plus, Maia didn't want to fo to bed tonight and she was screaming in her room. I have not had more than 10 minutes to myself all day. I look forward to evenings when I can unwind but instead I just get wound up. Ben gets so frustrated and so do I because I just really need me time. I have not slept well in a long time either.

I'm really not trying to have a pity party here I just need an outlet to vent. Will it get better? I just can't take the hours of screaming for much longer. They're both on Tylenol for the shots (both had fevers) but it doesn't seem to matter.

Lily is up again screaming. It's going to be a long night.

The girls had their 6 month appointment today and overall everything was fine.  Lily is up to 10 lbs, 12 oz, 23" and Juliette is 12 lbs, 12 oz, 24".  Lily has gained a pound and a half since August and Juliette has gained 13 oz so overall pretty decent.  Plus, Lily is working on catching up which is great news!

The doctor didn't really have much to say about the gas and uncomfortableness that Lily has been having.  She has been better this week so I didn't press the issue - hopefully that means that those "bad" times are over.

Both girls had labial adhesions (which Maia had too) but the doctor was able to open it up so they won't need the cream that they give for that (thank goodness).  Shots were awful, as expected.  We didn't do the flu shot today because we didn't want to give too many at once so we'll probably go back in a month.  Speaking of shots, the girls both qualify for the Synagis (anti-RSV) vaccines because of their low birthweights and given their history with RSV we'll probably do that.  It's a series of shots during the winter months where a home healthcare nurse will come to our house to administer them.  I'm not excited about it but if it helps I'm for it.  I know what RSV can do to a baby; I've seen it.

The last few nights Juliette has had a really difficult time going to sleep at night.  Last night and tonight she was up for about an hour and a half screaming bloody murder.  She was clean, fed, cuddled - I don't know what could possibly be wrong.  Maybe it's teeth - the doctor looked and said she saw some gum thinning but also said that it didn't necessarily mean anything at this point.  I would thing the shots but she was like this last night too.  Anyway, we finally got her down but she was up an hour later and nursed for almost an hour.  I am hearing Lily right now too - she's been sleeping through the night lately but the last two nights she's been up so I don't know what her deal is.  I guess I oughta go take care of her.

Happy weekend everyone!  I sure am.  One week as a stay-at-home mom to 3 down, many more to go.