Family pictures

Our awesome friend Laura took our family pictures about 2 weeks ago.  It was super windy and it rained on us a little bit.  Add in the fact that Jacob doesn't like to be too close to his brothers and he definitely doesn't like them to touch him, taking our family pictures was certainly not easy.  All I can say is that Laura is amazing.  If you ever need a photographer in the Katy area, Gilgen Photography is the place to go.

7 month old babies

Twins at 7 months old

**I am super late posting about the babies being 7 months old.  Justin and I spent the week after they hit the 7 month mark getting ready to go out of town and then when we got back the laptop crashed AND I was super busy getting ready to host my bunco group.  Now I'm going to have a really hard time remembering what happened between 6 and 7 months vs what has happened since. **

Joel with the elephant

Jeremy with the elephant

About a week or so after they were 6 months old, Joel finally figured it out and started crawling!  He started out slow at first, but he can sneak up on you super fast now.  Right after Joel figured out the whole crawling thing, Jeremy realized he didn't want to be left behind and he started army crawling.  It really takes me back to Jacob army crawling around the house when he was a baby.

We have had ups and downs with eating.  First Joel seemed like he was a great eater, Jeremy not so much.  Then Jeremy was the rock-star eater for about a week while Joel mainly cried when I tried to feed them.  Then neither would eat very well.  Trying to feed babies is definitely my least favorite times of the day.  And since the babies don't eat well at all when one person tries to feed them both at the same time, I spend a lot of time trying to feed babies.

Happy babies

Daddy's helping Jeremy tackle Joel

Watching TV with Daddy

All the boys like the same toys

First injury to one of the babies, luckily no stitches needed

All 3 kids were originally playing with this xylophone, but Jacob moved as soon as I got the camera out

Lots to blog about, where is the time?

I'm sad that I haven't been blogging, but with 3 kids under 3 my life is usually crazy.  I do have things to blog about.  I hope to do a write up about the twins being 7 months old, especially since they will be 8 months old on Sunday.  I have been wanting to do an update on Jacob.  Justin and I went on a trip - all things blog worthy.  Now that my laptop is working again, hopefully posts will start magically appearing on the blog in the next week.  Now to get back to filling out these forms that have to be filled out by 9am tomorrow.

6 month stats for twins

I was scheduled to take the babies in for their 6 month check-up the day they turned 6 months old.  But Jeremy had a nasty little stomach bug so I had to call and reschedule.  Poor little guy had so much trouble getting over the bug that I had to do a second reschedule and they didn't get in for their appointments until 2 weeks later than originally planned.

I figured that since they will 7 months old this Friday, I should put their stats up here before I lose the paper they are written on (because I lose a lot of things these days - I only somewhat still have my mind).

Summary is - we have little boys.  I always thought that Jacob was little because he was 6 weeks early.  He wasn't on the growth chart until 2 months old and then he stayed between 5th and 15th percentile up until he was about 18 months old.  I'm not sure where he is now.  I thought that since the twins were bigger when they were born, they would be bigger boys.  Wrong!

I went back to here to check Jacob's 6 month stats and these little guys are just about the size that he was.  I guess we grow them little around here.

Joel weighed in at 15 lbs 1oz (11th %-tile), was 26.75 inches long (53th %-tile) and had a head circumference of 42 cm (10th  %-tile).  Jeremy weighed in at 15 lbs 9 oz (which they told me was also 11th %-tile), was 26.5 inches long (50th %-tile) and had a head circumference of 42.5 cm (24th %-tile).

I had to get these up here because this is currently serving as my kids' baby books.  One day when they are in school, I can get real baby books and transfer all the info but in the meantime this is where it goes!  More about the babies when I do their 7 month update.

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...

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.

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!

4 months old

Wow - our twins are 4 months old!

Joel

Jeremy

Probably due to all the spit up, our boys aren't as big as I thought they would be at 4 months. Joel measured in at 12 lbs 14 oz (15th %-tile), was 24 in long (20th %-tile) and had a head circumference of 40 cm (7th %-tile). Jeremy weighed in at 13 lbs (also 15th %-tile), was 23 in long (less than 5th %-tile) and had a circumference of 40.5 cm (15th %-tile). Jacob was 12 lbs 12 oz at 4 months old, so they are right about the size he was, although at their 2 month appointment they were each over a pound bigger than Jacob was at 2 months.

Even though our boys are still spitting up like crazy, we think we have the pain of their reflux under control. Too bad they are both already teething!!! We noticed that they were both chewing on their hands a lot and I really thought I was imagining it when I thought I saw 2 little spots on each of their lower gums where their first teeth would come through. But the nurse confirmed it on Thursday - those little teeth are fighting to come through.

These babies are nice and fussy while they are teething (oh joy!!). Lately they love for us to rub their gums and infant Tylenol is like a good friend right now. When I first thought they were teething I didn't want the teeth to come through yet - babies just look so much different once they start getting teeth and lose their gummy smiles. But now I just want those teeth to make an appearance so these babies can be happier. It must be no fun to be a baby. Jacob didn't get his first teeth until 9 months, so I can't believe those little teeth look like they could pop through any day.

We have started putting the babies to bed a little earlier some nights (early as in between 8:30 and 9 instead of between 10:30 and 11). We haven't fed them in the middle of the night for well over a month now. Sometimes when we put them down early, one or both of them get a little restless around 5am, but they still don't eat until about 6:30am or 7am. I am super grateful for babies who sleep pretty well at night. I have to admit though - I am really looking forward to a 7pm bedtime for the twins, but I have no plans of doing that until I feel pretty certain that they will still make it until after 6am before needing to eat again.

As far as other developmental milestones that the babies have hit - they are learning to laugh, but haven't really started belly laughing yet. Each baby has rolled over from tummy to back, but it isn't something either has mastered yet so sometimes they don't stay on their tummies for long while other times they get all upset and can't figure out how to move into a more comfortable position. To be honest, we don't put them on their tummies or lay them on their backs as much as we would if they didn't spit up so much.

Tummy Time X 2

The babies are still pretty random when they sleep during the day and when they are awake, but if they stay awake the whole time between feedings we know that they will struggle to stay awake to finish the bottle. I know that one thing that will make them a little easier is when they have a more predictable awake/sleep pattern for the day with a couple good naps.

After church Sunday naps on the couch

2 smiles

Watching us eat dinner

Surviving

Things are a little rough at our house most days.

Jacob

At 2 and a half years old, Jacob still isn't talking. I can get him to say "Mama" and "Dada", but he doesn't call me or Justin anything. If he wants us he just whines. I think when I tell some people that Jacob doesn't talk they think I mean he doesn't speak in sentences like kids his age should because that is usually followed up with them asking me what words he says. He has 1 word: "sit". He says it usually when he sees a dog, even though we always tell him that it is a dog or a doggie.

We had him evaluated and his hearing is fine, but he is super sensitive to sounds and covers his ears a lot. Because he can't talk (and I'm pretty sure that he knows he should be able to) he gets frustrated very easily and he bangs his head on the floor or the wall when something isn't going his way - something that is really hard to see when it is the tile floor. :( I posted a few months ago with pictures of what he had done to his head when he was mad here.

We have been working with Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) pretty much since the beginning of the year and he has been making progress, but of course it feels like he isn't making nearly enough progress to get him to where he needs to be. They told us initially that he had sensory issues, but they didn't really explain what that meant. After doing some of our own research we learned that this is a big deal. You can learn about Sensory Processing Disorder here and here. Of course Jacob doesn't have all the different sensory problems, but it was nice to finally know why he wouldn't eat food (as opposed to drinking his meals) until he was 15 months old and why he is such a picky eater as well as some of the other problems that Jacob has.

The babies

Our babies are not "easy" babies. They have problems with reflux, they spit-up LOTS (and sometimes they even have projectile vomiting, I am taking Jeremy to a pediatric gastroenterologist in a couple weeks), and they have painful gas. As I mentioned to the pediatrician - when babies come in twos like this, aren't they supposed to be a little easier on mommy? They have limited time during the day when they are happy and willing to be put down on a playmat or put in a swing. And since there are 2 of them and they have an older brother who has a myriad of developmental problems, life is pretty difficult around our house.

The babies love to be held, so anytime people come over they want to hold babies and it is heaven for our little guys. As long as they aren't spitting up or having bad gas, this makes it seem like they are easy babies when other people are here.

When it is just me here with all 3 kids, Jacob gets almost completely ignored. Poor kid. Luckily there have only been a couple times when I have had to be here by myself all day. I have a helper who comes everyday to help me with the babies until the afternoon. Once she leaves I have about 3-4 hours before Justin is home from work which sometimes goes pretty well, but sometimes I am pulling out my hair by the time he finally walks in the door. Having a helper has actually done wonders for Jacob since he is able to get a little attention while the helper is here. It is also the only reason the house isn't a complete and total wreck - only a partial wreck.

I know quite a few people with twins and everyone has told me that the first 6 months is definitely the hardest. I honestly feel like things would be WAY easier to handle if Jacob were either older, or if we had had twins first. Even if Jacob didn't have all the developmental problems that he has and just was a regular 2 yr old with regular tantrums, this would be lots better. Or if the babies didn't have whatever digestive problems they seem to have. But seriously the combination of it all I sometimes feel will be sending me to the loony bin soon.

One day at a time, right? I bet you're all wishing you lived at our house.

Not so little anymore

**I plan to have a few posts in the next few days (if babies and toddler cooperate), so if you haven't checked out the blog for a little while keep scrolling down. :) **

The babies are growing!!! I know they are still a lot smaller than other babies their age, but check out how big they are next to the outfits they wore home from the hospital.

Jeremy's foot next to the little bitty sock

Jeremy next to the little bitty outfit

Joel's foot next to the little bitty sock

Joel next to the little bitty outfit