Sunday, August 28, 2011

6 months old



Jeremy


Joel


We have had a lot of improvements over the last month.

First - the babies have realized that they can take naps in their cribs!!! This is amazing! The bad news is that they typically don't nap at the same time or a lot of times they only overlap by a little. Only a couple of rare occasions have they put themselves to sleep for their naps. But normally they are super tired and I hold them for about 5 minutes to get them mainly asleep and they fall further into slumber as I carry them upstairs to lay them down. This is way better than having to rock them to sleep for 30 minutes with a bottle (like I had to do with Jacob for every nap) because let's be honest, that would not be happening with 2 babies when I also have a toddler running around.

Both babies are on the move! We aren't crawling yet, but if you put one of these little guys down chances are they will wiggle and roll themselves to where they want to go (sometimes getting frustrated at the effort it takes though). Joel is especially making an effort to crawl. Starting about a week before they hit 6 months, he has been able to get himself up on all fours and rock back and forth. I know that any day he will be able to figure it out and then there will no stopping him.


Both Joel and Jeremy have the ability to sit up, but neither of them seem to like to sit up. In fact, many times when I go to sit Joel down he will develop extremely stiff legs so that he can stand while I balance him. Silly kid.
Joel

Neither baby is eating "solids" yet. (Why are they called solids when they are pureed baby mush?) I think that Joel would do pretty well, whereas like I said in the last post Jeremy didn't do well with his rice cereal. The problem that I have now is that there is never a good time to try to feed them. You know - feed them when they are happy; not really hungry, but not full. I know the best time to feed them "solids" would be halfway between 2 bottle feedings when you are trying to teach them how to eat. Neither baby is happy at the half-way point between bottles. Pretty much when we get to the halfway point, they are both starting to get pretty grouchy - but not quite ready for a nap.
Jeremy

Both Joel and Jeremy have become super determined when they want something. They will twist all around and reach (when we are holding them and they do this it is super hard to hold on to them). And as with all men in our family - they are extremely drawn to electronics. They see a remote control, a phone or a laptop and they just gravitate toward it.

We are still trying to figure out the best schedule for these babies and us. Since Justin doesn't get home from work until after 6pm every evening (except those half days on Fridays) our evenings are pretty crazy and hectic. Let's be honest - every night is pretty hectic, but when we are waiting for Justin to get home from work is almost insanity. We have tired babies who need to eat another time before they can go to sleep, but they probably shouldn't eat for at least another hour (based on when they last ate). We have a toddler who needs to eat dinner (because usually it is too crazy for me to feed him his dinner before his daddy comes home) and then get a bath and go to bed. And work into there bathing the babies every other night and it is hard to get it all worked out. One day...

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

A little comparison


Just before Jacob was 5 months old I took these pictures of him.

Then I decided to take similar pictures with Joel and Jeremy.

Wow. Joel and Jacob look a lot alike.
And wow, the twins have way more hair than Jacob did.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

5 months old! (well, 2 weeks ago at least)


I think the past 5 months have very well been the most chaotic 5 months of my life.
Jeremy

Couldn't get Joel to keep his hands out of his mouth

The spit up has not stopped, or even lessened. Sadness. Some days I have my hopes up that it is letting up, then we have really bad days again where everyone and everything is getting drenched. I get a lot of people telling me spit up is normal, then they see how my boys spit up and are surprised. But to me, spitting up 3 hours after they have eaten and are about to eat again just isn't right.

One morning both babies started crying and when I went in there Jeremy had made his way to Joel's side and was upset that he couldn't get over Joel. Joel was upset that Jeremy was bumping into him. So within the next couple days they were in their own separate cribs.

The babies are on a pretty set feeding schedule and even though they sometimes wake up during the night, we don't feed them and they don't even act like they want to eat. Instead they just need to be comforted back to sleep. This is very different from Jacob who wasn't really on a schedule and would wake up screaming in the middle of the night that he was starving pretty regularly until he was a year old.

Although the feeding schedule is set, the napping schedule is not. As of now, neither baby can make it without some type of snooze in between each feeding. And both babies really want to be held to take their little naps. Fun times all around with that one. I will be glad when the nap schedule is set to 2 naps a day - and hopefully (unlike how it was with Jacob) these boys will be able to put themselves to sleep for naps.

Both babies also act like they are hard-core teething still - way worse than it ever was with Jacob, but no teeth yet. Sometimes the teeth look like they are right there about to pop through, then the next day they are gone. Why are teeth so cruel to babies?

Both the babies are addicted to TV. If it is on they crane their necks to be able to watch. They also already love the computer and my cell phone.

2 of my 3 kids being entranced by modern technology

Although both babies are getting better at rolling over but sometimes when they are on either their backs or bellies they get upset because it seems like they can't figure out what to do.

We also gave each baby their first taste of rice cereal.

Joel seemed to enjoy it, although he got really annoyed really fast that his tongue kept pushing the cereal out of his mouth. He kept acting like he wanted more, but was screaming and crying that he wasn't really getting any (I think this kid has a temper problem). Jeremy was not such a fan. He gagged and acted like he was going to throw up. Pretty much the way Jacob reacted any time we tried to feed him baby food. Jacob was watching everything unfold and he gagged and did throw up. We decided to give the babies a little more time before trying to feed them again.
Jeremy isn't such a fan

Joel looks like he is surprised by something

Hard to believe that almost half a year has passed since these boys joined our family!