Type One With Twins: July 2014

Birthday Boys! Scott & Adam

Adam & Scott are officially one year old as of June 23rd... I am the mother of two toddlers! They are amazing - growing so fast, and doing new things every day. The last month has been more of the same... Not amazingly great weather, but we've still gotten out for lots of walks and outings. They are still my little porkers, and seem to eat more and more every day.

Let's see - in the past month we had a new railing installed, got babysat by Gramma & Papa so Jamie and I could go to a friend's wedding, played in the yard lots, ran a 10k, went to Grampy's 65th birthday party, discovered a love of shopping at superstore (they always have bouncy balls for the boys to hold - and double carts), swung on the swings at the park lots, and went through Mommy having mastitis... It's been a busy month!

My usual - sleep. We've had good days and bad days. More bad than good lately. They've been waking up more at night again lately, which is frustrating. I think I am too quick to nurse them overnight, and they are used to just getting milk whenever they want it. It's tough though, because they barely nurse at all during the day if we're busy. It's hard to get them to settle down and just EAT. I think this is actually why I developed mastitis. The boys love to start to nurse, then get distracted and leave to go and play. I think that led to a clogged milk duct, which led to mastitis. Basically I went from having a sore boob at dinner, to a 102 fever with chills, sweats, shakes - the whole nine yards just a few hours later. I had about an golf-ball sized lump in my left breast, and even after nursing, it wouldn't go away. Luckily, antibiotics cleared things up pretty quickly and I am feeling 100% better. Back on topic though - the boys have some nights where they're up 2 times a night (usually around 2 and 6) and other nights where it seems to be constant. I really think they 'should' be sleeping through the night, but at the same time want to let them progress on their own... I guess we'll see how things go. I think there's another sleep regression at 12 months old, so I'm sure it will pass soon.

After joining the gym, Jamie and I took the boys to child-minding twice. The first time was great - they were the only kids there. The second time however, the staff was way overworked with far too many kids and babies. The boys both developed colds 2 days later and they lasted for over 2 weeks. They were in great spirits the entire time, just snotty snotty snotty. So glad that has finally passed. We've decided to just not bring them in until they'e a bit older. We're all for building up their immune systems, but at the same time - we don't want sick kids. I don't know how clean everything is there, so better safe than sorry. Jamie and I just take turns going to the gym after the babies are in bed. Yay for 7PM bedtimes!

The boys are still in size 3 diapers, and now in mostly 12 month sized clothing. They've both gotten taller, and Adam is now 29.75 inches, with Scott right behind him at 29.50 inches. They love to eat EVERYTHING. I honestly can't really think of anything they won't eat. Still not crazy about eggs, but other than that, they're bottomless pits. They drink water out of sippy cups now. We use the ones with straws and they love them! It's so great how quickly they caught on. I try to get solo time with them as much as possible. If Jamie is home and I need to run errands, I will often bring only one baby with me, so we can each have some alone time with them. I really think it's important that they aren't always sharing us, it's great to get that one on one bonding time. And going out with only one kid is like a vacation, so that's a plus!

We celebrated their first birthday party on the 22nd and it was amazing. We went with a dinosaur theme and had the party at my parents' house. About 15 family members came, and the boys had a ton of fun. They got some great gifts; fun stuff to use in the summer like an amazing red wagon, and money for their education funds...Surely one of the two will end up being a doctor, right? They were actually late to their own party... Figures, the one day they nap late is their party day. I went to my parents house early to get ready, and Jamie came with the boys when they were up. Good thing is that they were well rested, and we didn't have overtired grumpy birthday boys. Jamie and I made them dinosaur cakes, and I also did a 'who's who' contest with older pictures which was fun. I will do an actual post about their party with more pics soon!

Cake Table

I can't really even comprehend that they're one already. It seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital finding out that I had HELLP syndrome and that the babies would be coming nearly 2 months premature. I always expected them to be a little early, and possibly have some time in the NICU - that really helped me accept it all when it happened. But I sure wasn't thinking they would be quite as premature as they were. We've been amazingly lucky. The boys are thriving and healthy. We haven't had any issues related to their prematurity, only a very very long newborn stage. They are sweet and funny and engaging and so loveable. I feel so lucky to have them, lucky for the 50,000 questions and comments every time I visit Costco, I love it all. As one of the rare people who never yearned for twins... They're pretty awesome. There is absolutely nothing cuter than watching your babies laugh and giggle with each other as they play peekaboo with each other behind the curtain in our bedroom.

And a quick update about me; I decided to resign from my job after my maternity leave runs out (aka now). There wasn't a suitable part time position available, so I decided to just take the summer off and revisit everything in the fall. You only have 1 year old twins once, and I want to spend every moment with them. Luckily, we have some money in savings that we can use over the summer, and I am planning on going back a few days a week in Octoberish most likely. My only concern is that I had our benefits through my work, and so we are going without for now. Luckily I am almost at our pharmacare deductible, so the province should help out a bit until the end of the year at least. Also, I went off of my pump a few weeks ago, and back to using pens. I like to give my body a bit of a break, and it's actually gone amazingly well! Fingers crossed it stays like this. It is great not being connected 24/7.

Picture time and then updates on each of the boys!

Grocery shopping with Twins at Save On Foods (no double carts) A in the cart, S in the ergo

Adam & Scott after a walk at Tynehead Park

Adam & Scott at Costco - we go every week!

Adam & Scott watching our new railing go up

Scott & Adam out for a walk! Cheerios everywhere as usual

My sassy Scott and smiley Adam

Adam and Scott LOVE the swings!

Finishing our 10k! We did it in 1:09:54!

A Fathers Day tribute to Jamie - a truly great Dad!

Scott and Adam grabbing lunch with Nana!

Think they're identical? Scott left, Adam right.

Scott finding joy with a balloon, Adam being a big boy

Adam & Scott shopping for their Birthday Party!

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

7 Months: 15 lbs, 3 oz

8 Months: 16 lbs, 1 oz

9 Months: 16 lbs, 9 oz

10 Months: 16 lbs, 14 oz

11 Months: 18 lbs, 1 oz

12 Months: 18 lbs, 7 oz

My Adam - AKA 'Butt Butt'... somehow that is the nickname of the month. Adam is my little sweetie still. He is getting so silly, and recently loves being 'comfortable'. He will spread out on the rug on his tummy and smile up at us. Of course, he'll sit up just to flop down again, so cute. He loves dancing, and is a pretty clean eater! He likes to pick up his food one piece at a time, and carefully put it in his mouth. He learned the hard way that bouncing around in the bathtub is a bad idea - He flew right out a couple weeks ago. Luckily he was okay, just shaken up. Needed a couple minutes of cuddles and he was back to normal in no time. He is pretty careful, I think he is starting to learn how to go down stairs backwards, instead of just flying up them and heading back down face first. Such a smartie! He still has 7 teeth, no change in a few months. Not walking yet, occasionally letting go while furniture cruising, and he does like to 'walk' while holding our fingers. Other than that, he would much rather drop to his knees and crawl to get around, or use a walker. I have a feeling it's going to be a while before he's actually walking on his own two feet. Adam is a big 'reader' - he will sit and flip the pages of board books happily. He likes to sleep on his tummy with his butt up in the air and his legs curled under him. He is adorable, I love him so much!

Paying for lunch, so generous!

Selfie with Mommy while we wait for Scott to wake up after our walk

Reading his book

Playing with the pop up toy

Getting drowsy in his car seat

Snuggling with Mom

Crazy hair! And soothers make great toys

Uncle Andrew gave him a mohawk for Grampy's birthday party!

Checking out the fountain rock at Uncle Andrew's with Gramma

Enjoying some chicken fajitas

Drinking like a big boy

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

7 Months: 14 lbs, 11 oz

8 Months: 15 lbs, 13 oz

9 Months: 16 lbs, 4 oz

10 Months: 16 lbs, 11 oz

11 Months: 17 lbs, 13 oz

12 Months: 18 lbs, 8 oz

Scotty! My BIG boy! Little porker has officially overtaken Adam as the 'big baby' and now has 1 oz on him. Scott is hilarious. He has recently become very chatty and is always saying something, or squealing. He has started having 'conversations' with us, it's the cutest thing in the world. He still loves to shovel food in his face, literally. He will pick up handfuls at a time to eat, and it's a common occurrence for him to have blueberries on his forehead after breakfast. He is a wild guy, very daring - and obsessed with water. Bathtubs, washing his hands in the sink, the water table... Anything for an excuse to splash. He is the reason I am soaked after their baths; He will sit and splash and squeal happily the entire time. Scotty still has 7 teeth like Adam, and isn't too interested in walking either. Crawling works for now I suppose. I guess I should be happy - they are already so fast, I can't imagine chasing after running toddlers. Scotty keeps me on my toes, and is a bit of a ringleader when it comes to playing with the Telus box, pulling books off the shelves etc. But he is a little baby too sometimes; We've given the babies soothers in their car seats for a while, usually they just play with them while I drive. Lately though, Scott has started actually using the soother! It's so cute, especially if he's getting close to nap time. Luckily, he doesn't seem to care once he's out of the car seat, we don't want a soother dependence to start at 1 year old. I love my Scotty so much, he keeps me laughing every day, and his joy is so contagious.