Type One With Twins: 2013

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

And just like that... They're 6 months old!!!

What can I even say? 6 months have passed since the night our little baby boys came into the world... I can't even begin to imagine life without them! They are reaching new milestones daily, and just becoming such radiant, happy, amazing, adorable little men! They are both almost always smiling (except for when I try to get a picture of it of course!!) and I just love the fact that colic has passed... It's kind of like the NICU though, such a distant memory, it almost seems like it didn't happen. But of course I have enough videos to remind me, should I ever get baby fever again. ;)

Okay, so what's happened in the last month? Well, to start... Not a whole lot of sleeping!! We are right in the middle of the dreaded 4 month sleep regression. The boys are actually only 4 months old adjusted, so we kind of jump between the two ages to see what they 'should' be doing at which time. I've heard about this 4 month sleep regression, and I officially think we're in deep. Granted, we've never have much to 'regress' from, but we're not getting a whole lot of sleep. Apparently it can be because they have too much on their little minds. They're learning new things every day (more on that later) and it keeps them awake. Throw in the early stages of little toothies coming in, and I can understand why they're keeping us up. Do I wish they'd sleep longer? Of course! But in the grand scheme of things, they are only a baby for such a short period time, when they're old I will not regret the middle of the night nursing sessions and extra cuddles one bit. We've started moving their bedtime a little earlier, and on a good night, we'll have them down by 7:30-7:45. They're up usually a couple of times before I go to bed at midnight, and after that it's about every 1-2 hours. We've looked into sleep training, but just don't have the heart for cry it out, and although we've tried some of the other techniques, they're not working for us yet. Maybe we'll look into it a bit more once they get over this little spurt.

The boys have been growing and learning like CRAZY! Just since they turned 5 months, we've added a jolly jumper and a jumperoo. Adam likes the jumperoo, with all of the noises and lights. Meanwhile, Scott will go absolutely nuts in the jolly jumper. It is about the cutest thing in the world to watch the two of them jumping like little maniacs. A few days ago Adam mastered rolling tummy to back, and Scott followed the next night! Now it's pretty much impossible to keep them on their backs, which makes diaper changes fun. I always blow raspberries at them, and since yesterday that is Adam's new (messy) party trick. He will just stare at you and try to blow raspberries, which pretty much just works out to a lot of drool. But it's adorable. Scott is becoming a little giggle monster. Today we were walking around in the stroller (long overdue for a nap) and Adam was a little cranky, but Scott was just grinning and giggling at me. Best sound ever. They both have a lot of hair coming in, and Adam's sticks straight up, where Scott's hair lies flat. Which is the exact opposite of how their hair was in the NICU. They'll both be moptops before we know it. They want to sit up and see the world, so we're not using the stroller with the car seats as much as we used to. They seem much happier this way. Still using the infant seats, but they're getting heavy to carry around! They're still sitting up on their own a little bit here and there, but nothing concrete yet. Absolutely love to be standing, with help of course. They love toys now, Scott's favourite is this little chicken I got, and Adam is still most fond of the good ol' O-ball. They're in size 2 diapers (we're using Pampers) and currently just busting out of the 3 month stuff into 6 month! They have such long arms; All of their 3 month long sleeve shirts are now 3/4 length shirts!

Today, I made the ultimate switch to the Mom lifestyle and traded in my CRV for a new Dodge Grand Caravan. Absolutely love it! The van is pretty nice (okay really nice), but the best part was just the boys at the dealership. We spent quite a bit of time there over the past few days negotiating a deal and checking out different models, and there were a lot of photo opportunities of course! I love that the babies tolerate all of the silly pictures I take of them. I thought I took a lot of pictures before, now with them being so cute all of the time it's getting out of control. I had to upgrade to a 64GB iphone!

My new ride!

Adam (green) & Scott (white) wanted a viper instead of a van!

Adam was the passenger while Scott worked on his driving skills

Overall, they are the light of my life, and I am overwhelmed with how much I love them. It's sappy, but every single day I fall more and more in love with them. Every little thing they do amazes me, and I am thoroughly obsessed with my babies. The long nights, the tears (which still happen of course), the lack of 'free time' is all more than worth it when we witness the 'splash-olympics' during bathtime where they both like to see who can soak us -and the entire bathroom- more. I'm so excited for their first Christmas, it's going to be great - Let's just hope they NAP a little bit during all of it. Ahhh, finishing this I know I'm missing so much. Like that we went swimming as a family at the Pacific Inn and that we got new stroller cozies (hey, they're nice) for cold walks, and that I lost one of the ergo carriers while walking out on some local trails (oops)... I just feel like time is flying by so fast, and I want to capture/ remember everything. Every single day they're getting bigger and older and before I know it they will be off to college. Well, maybe not that soon, they need to sleep through the night before that happens. One step at a time. 

As per usual... Photos! 

Adam & Scott

Adam & Scott, enjoying a relaxing massage while Mommy makes sure we get a good deal on the van!

Adam & Scott - can't keep their hands out of their mouths!

Adam & Scott

Sweet boys, Scott & Adam

Family photo. Adam with me, Scott with Jamie

Adam

Birth: 3 lbs, 15 oz

1 Month: 5 lbs, 5 oz

2 Months: 7 lbs, 6 oz

3 Months: 9 lbs, 12 oz

4 Months: 11 lbs, 10 oz

5 Months: 13 lbs, 8 oz

6 Months: 14 lbs, 2 oz

Sweetheart!

Happiest little dude ever

Cutie in his carseat

My little scholar

Learning to ride a bike, already!

Selfie with Mom!

Scott

Birth: 3 lbs, 9 oz

1 Month: 4 lbs, 13 oz

2 Months: 6 lbs, 12 oz

3 Months: 8 lbs, 13 oz

4 Months: 10 lbs, 8 oz

5 Months: 12 lbs, 8 oz

6 Months: 13 lbs, 8 oz

Sleeping while out shopping

Snoozing with Nana!

Cuddles with Dad

Smiley adorable guy

Emperor Scott says "Feed me!"

Little model baby

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

5 Months Old!

Posting this a few days late, but Adam & Scott are officially FIVE MONTHS OLD!! I say this all the time, but how are things happening so fast? Life is really good! We've kept busy, and the boys are getting cuter and cuter. We are still seeing decreases in the crying, and it's actually not really a 'thing' anymore. They are still a little fussier than the average baby, and would rather be carried over sitting in their stroller (the strollers I did so much research for!!) but that just means we're getting a lot of use out of our ergo carriers.

So what's happened over the past month? Well, for starters, the boys got their first movie role! I saw a posting that a casting director (for extras) was always looking for twins and I e-mailed in some photos not expecting a response. About a week later I had a call and the boys booked a job! They were used for a scene in a new movie coming out called 'If I Stay'. It was a neat experience! Scott was the baby we used in the shot (sorry Adam, your turn next time!!) and he'll likely be on screen for about 1.5 seconds, but STILL. My baby is a superstar! Proud Mommy right here, and hopefully we can do it again.

Blue Steel

All costumed up! Where's hair and makeup?

I find these monthly updates so difficult. I have so much to say, and it's hard to really organize my thoughts. So I apologize once again for the spewed out, unorganized ramble that's going to follow. The boys love to stand! One of their favourite things is to be in a sitting position, and then hold our fingers so we can 'pull' them to a standing position... Wobble around like that for a bit and then sit to do it all over again. I wonder if we'll have early walkers. They can both easily roll tummy to back and are SO close to rolling the other way, but it's tough getting all the way over. After losing all of their hair (aside from a tiny bit right at the back of their heads near their neck) it is growing back, and actually pretty quickly. So far they are blond haired and blue eyed, super cute. I wonder if it will stay that way.

Sleep: We're still not getting much at all. It seemed like we were having big improvements, but now we're going backwards. We usually have them down by around 8:30 or 9, and the first waking after that was anywhere from 2.5-4 hours. After that, it's pretty often. I think they just love to cuddle, and are waking up for that. That's my expert opinion at least. Now, it is pretty much 2-3 hours to start and then almost every hour after that. UGH. Although, last night was a good one with only 3 wakings!! I really want the boys to learn how to put themselves to sleep. We have to put them down pretty much completely asleep or else they cry. We're not interested in letting them cry it out either, they get WAY too frantic and panicky. I just keep telling myself they will only be young once and these days will be long gone before we know it. It could be worse!!

Bathtime: We decided shortly after they turned 4 months that we wanted to move them into the basement bathroom. First we bought some of those little bath 'slings' which really didn't work too well! The boys kept sliding down, there was an uncomfy bar that kept hitting them, and they didn't fit too well. Jamie ended up finding these amazing bath seats on Amazon and they are PERFECT. The boys fit right in there, and they can kick and splash to their hearts content without going anywhere. Best purchase ever. For the first few nights, Adam LOVED bath time (splashing like crazy) and Scott was indifferent. Jamie and I would always joke that Scott would rather be sitting and sipping a glass of wine with a book rather than splash.... Within a few days, Scott decided he wanted to be a splashy-splasherton too, and he joined in the fun. Now, Adam seems to HATE bathtime. My poor guy. He went from having the best time, and now he cries after a few minutes. I think he's just tired by bedtime. He had a super long nap last night and we did baths right after he woke up, and he actually enjoyed it. Only problem was that he didn't want to go to sleep afterwards, can't win!

Doesn't work too well with slings

Hanging out in their new bath seats!
We now have them facing each other though

What else? They are working on sitting up, and can usually sit for about 5-10 seconds (supporting themselves on their arms) before flopping over! They love the ergo carriers and will gladly hang out in there for shopping trips. It's funny, we bring a big double stroller to the mall and end up wearing both babies! At least strollers are great for hauling around all of your purchases! The babies still love watching TV (don't judge unless you have twins) and naked time before their bath. They are becoming so vocal, especially Adam. He loves squealing when we're out to let everyone know he's there. They are laughing now, and Scott has the widest shy smile ever. If you catch his eye, it will spread across his whole face and he'll turn his head all coy-like. My 'perfect for going from breast to bottle' babies now refuse bottles. We've tried a number of them already, and just got two new brands tonight. I'm convinced they will pull it together eventually. If not, I guess Mommy just won't have time off until they're on solid foods and nursing way less. They are now in size 2 diapers, and almost outgrown their 3 month clothing! Excited to break out all of the 6 month stuff!

We are getting over a pretty bad cold, and it's been tons of fun, hah! I felt myself coming down with something last week and assumed that the boys would get it. Sure enough, they were congested pretty quickly after me. We actually even had to break out the snot sucker, which was interesting. Ended up buying a 'nose frida' (google it... it's gross, but effective!) They never had a fever, so aside from some crappy nights where they were up pretty often, and them sounding just so snuffly and sad, it hasn't been awful. They seem to heal quickly like me, and they're almost completely back to normal I'd say (knock on wood!!)

Overall, they are AMAZING little kids and I can't believe how much I love them. Twins is a lot of work, but it's starting to be so fun. They are noticing each other a little more every day, and during a walk last week I swear they were talking to each other from their comfy seats in the baby carriers. They hold hands all the time when we put them next to each other, which melts my heart. They do so many hilarious things and keep me laughing all the time. It's amazing how your life can completely revolve around two little people, but yet it is so natural.

As per usual... Photo time!