Halloween 2011

Halloween this year was not a whole heck of a lot of fun, but hopefully as our kids get older things will greatly improve.  

I didn't get a single picture taken of the kids on Halloween.  Justin left work about a half hour early so we could take the kids to our neighbors before it went too far past the twins' bedtime.  Sadly, traffic was horrible, so instead of getting home a half hour earlier than normal he got home a half hour later than normal.  I had all the kids in costumes and was trying to keep the peace while we waited for Daddy to make it home.  Pretty much as soon as he made it home we walked back out the door and since we had no one here to take the picture of us holding the babies to keep them from crying, no pictures from that night.  Luckily, I took pictures of the kids before Halloween.

Joel is in the Pooh outfit - Jeremy is in the Tigger outfit.  (How did we decide who would be what?  I decided based on how many letters are in their names).

Jacob was Scooby Doo, thanks to our good friends who lent us a costume for him.

Jacob and I at our ward Trunk or Treat - too bad they didn't even start it until 7pm so he was super tired while we were there.

We did get Halloween pajamas for each of the boys.

I really wanted to find another skeleton outfit for the babies.  I really thought it would be easy to find one really similar, if not completely identical, to the one I had for Jacob 2 years ago.  No such luck.  So the babies had to take turns being a skeleton.

Joel

Jeremy

Our Jacob

I started a very detailed post about Jacob, but I think I will never publish it.  I am chronicling what the past year has been like with him and it is therefore super detailed, I think more detailed than anyone but I need.  But I think I do need it.  However, I have decided to publish a cliff notes version because I think it is also important for others to have some type of idea of the challenges that we have faced with our oldest son.

We started working with ECI right at the beginning of the year, but nothing really happened for 6 months.  When Jacob was 2.5 we took him in with us to the babies' 4 month check-up and floored our doctor with Jacob's lack of speech or even communication in general as well as his strange behavior (for his age at least).  She said that she would contact ECI and "light a fire" but she also recommended we contact a private speech therapist as well as developmental specialist.

Upon taking him to the speech therapist, I was brought to reality on how bad things are with Jacob.  Since he is my oldest child I really had nothing to compare him to.  I knew he should be talking, but it was everything else that I didn't realize was so wrong.  I'm sure that other people have seen with their children that even before they could talk, they were communicating.  Pointing to things they wanted, going to the fridge if they wanted milk, etc.  Jacob didn't do ANY of that.  If he wanted something he whined.  If he didn't get it soon enough, he would bang his head.  It was (many times, still is) a guessing game to know what he wants/needs - is he hungry, thirsty, tired?  Pretty much anyone else's guess is as good as mine.  It was also pointed out to me that he didn't play with toys the way kids his age should, or interact with people the way he should.

I was told that Jacob needed ABA Therapy (which turns out is SUPER expensive and isn't covered by our insurance).  That he needed at least 3-4 speech sessions a week and better yet, he should be enrolled in a special school for kids with speech problems (again - SUPER expensive).  Words like "AUTISM" started being spoken for the first time ever, and other words we had heard before like "SENSORY ISSUES".

Talk about overwhelming.  And upsetting.  And stressful.

Things with ECI really turned around at this point though.  Maybe our pediatrician was able to talk to someone about how they weren't doing anything for Jacob.  I'm not sure.  But we suddenly went from 1 visit a week from a developmental specialist, to 3-4 visits a week.  One from our developmental specialist, another with her and a behavioral specialist, one from a speech therapist and a visit every other week from an occupational therapist.  

And we went from Jacob making no progress to seeing some results.  First and foremost - Jacob started talking!!!  His language skills are still about a year or so behind, but considering only 4 months ago he was 2 years behind, we are making real progress.  The head banging is still a problem, but it is nothing compared to what it was when he had a permanent goose egg and bruise on his forehead.  

We still have a lot to work on with his speech and his overall behavior.  There are things that we wonder - does he not understand us, or does he act like he doesn't understand?  And we really need him to get to the point where he asks for things he wants instead of just throwing a fit.

This Friday I am taking Jacob to the school (public school) so they can evaluate him to see if he qualifies to be in the preschool program for kids with developmental delays.  We REALLY NEED him to be in this program.  He needs to be immersed in a program.  And he needs to be around other kids more (since when he is around other kids he doesn't play with them).  And because Jacob is such a high needs kid, I need him to be in this program.  I need to have some time away from him everyday, so I can appreciate the time that I do have with him.

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!