Somehow we flew right by the 6 month post - I guess it was all that frustration over solids. ;)
Actually, not a ton has changed except 4 major things:
1. We started solids.
2. Kenna has two teeth as of last week!
3. Nathan is probably seconds away from crawling.
4. A trip to the emergency room for Nathan.
Solids...
We are doing MUCH better with solids now. We started rice cereal about a week and a half before they turned 6 months because I could tell that they were ready - well, that Nathan was ready. He was always hungry after emptying his bottles and never seemed satisfied, even with more milk. The cereal wasn't a big hit, they both spit it out. They still aren't big fans of it, but when I mix something in it goes better. We have since tried bananas, applesauce, carrots, pears, peas, green beans, squash and oatmeal. The only one they outright try to reject is peas. But I keep giving it to them because I want to give them the chance to like everything. It's getting better and they do pretty much eat them now. Victory! I definitely don't want picky eaters. Kenna LOVES applesauce. Nathan reacts pretty much the same to everything. I'd say Kenna has more of an affinity for her veggies than Nathan but he still eats them fine so I'm happy.
So, the recipe for our success after the frustrations of my last post was as follows:
1) Give them 3/4 of their bottles before solids. This was about 70% of the success. I had tried 1/2 of a bottle before and it wasn't enough to make them stop crying because they were still really hungry. I had tried the whole bottle but that was too much and they no longer cared about the solids. Well, Nathan would still have cared but I always try to find something that works for BOTH of them if possible because I like to keep it simple! So, giving them 3/4 worked well because it was right in the middle. If they aren't screaming, I'm not frustrated. So that was huge.
2) I made them pay attention to what we are doing and open their mouths before I would give them anything. Before when they were crying so much I was just trying to shovel it in fast so they wouldn't cry. But I realized they didn't know what was going on and I don't think they realized it was even food, so they were crying for their bottles. Now I make sure they are looking at the spoon, move slowly toward their mouths and wait for them to open. They have learned quickly since then. Nathan is a total pro already. He basically sits with his mouth open the whole time. Kenna is still a bit difficult sometimes - it's off and on with her. Sometimes she tries to play by blowing raspberries with the food rather than swallowing. I stopped laughing at it and she has done it much less. I now shake my head and say, "No, we don't play with our food." We've had a couple of choking incidents with her and I realized that she wasn't swallowing everything sometimes, just building it up in her throat and opening again. Now I wait a lot longer between bites for her and it hasn't happened again. It was super scary though!
3) They have a serving of solids with breakfast (7:30), lunch (10:30) and dinner (5:30). They have bottles at 2:30 without solids. I really felt that they would learn more quickly by praciticing more frequently so I kept at it with 3 meals per day and that's worked out. I also make sure to feed them bottles AND solids in their high chairs so they know it's feeding time. The only time I don't is the 2:30 bottle-only feed. I do that on the boppies. I figured out that they weren't crying BECAUSE of the high chairs, but because they were hungry by the time I put them in. Now they sit in the high chairs for a bit before we eat and a bit after. I make them wait for me to clean their faces, clean their bibs and their trays before they get down. I explain to them each time that we must do each of these things before they get down (and wait for one another). They intently watch what I do. It's really cute. :) They have become really patient! I'm so happy to see how they have changed that way. I don't give them toys or anything while they eat or wait because I want them to focus on mealtime, and then get used to waiting patiently. I'm amazed, to be honest, that it's working with them being so young. They used to scream to get down right after but now they understand that doesn't work and wait nicely. I am a proud mommy!
Kenna has two teeth...
Kenna beat Nathan to something...she has two teeth that broke through last week! A couple of months ago I could have sworn she was teething but nothing happened. I didn't notice any teething symptoms lately and then all of a sudden there they were! There was a little blood spot on the gum one morning and the tooth broke through the next day. By Wednesday last week, the other one popped through too, literally a day or two apart! It's so cute! They are far enough out that you notice when she laughs and smiles and it's adorable - she seems like a big girl now! I'll post pictures in my next post. No sign yet of Nathan's teeth, just a bumpy gum.
Nathan is probably seconds away from crawling...
For the last month I would have sworn Nathan was like a day or two away from crawling. He is SO strong. He has done every position possible without actually crawling. I thought for sure around his six month birthday he was really close. He pushes up on his arms really high, scrunches his knees under him, then buries his head in the floor to push forward. He also has been doing something I call the backwards crab. He lies on his back, arches it way up with his head arched behind him (so his neck is sticking up) and scooches backward. He rolls all over the room. Basically, he can get wherever he wants with some combination of these things but hasn't actually crawled. If he has been days or hours from crawling earlier in the month, he must be seconds away the last couple of days. He has his stomach off the ground now and is in a perfect crawling position - up on arms and knees. This morning he managed to bring both knees up at the same time and moved forward. I thought for sure this was going to be it but not quite. :) It will be very, very soon. Kenna, ever since she learned to roll over both ways that week of my last post, has become so much stronger. It was like an overnight transition. She now pushes way off the ground just like Nathan. But she hasn't bunched her knees up yet so I think crawling is a while off for her.
A trip to the emergency room for Nathan...
This was much less eventful than it sounds. Nathan is fine. I will spare you the boring details, but basically he started "panting" heavily off and on at 5 pm last Thursday. It got more and more frequent and the Dr's office was closed so we took him to the emergency room. I didn't know what was going on; he had never done it before and I didn't want to just put him to bed panting. What if he couldn't breathe during the night? I took a video of it to show the doctor since I knew with my luck he wouldn't do it when we got there. Sure enough, he was sleeping and wasn't doing it. I showed them the video and they were totally amused I had taken a video. The triage guy said in 16 years no one had taken a video to show him. I couldn't believe it. It seemed totally obvious to me. The doctors checked him out and said he was fine. They saw the video and concluded he must have just "learned" something new.
What hasn't happened...
No sitting! I seriously think Nathan may walk before he sits. He is completely solid on his feet. In fact, this morning I was holding his hands and he started lifting one foot at a time to walk toward me! I was amazed. I have tried that before with him and he didn't want to lift his feet. He can sit with his hands between his legs for a few seconds but always wants to "get down" to roll/pseudo crawl instead. Kenna actually does better trying to sit. She can do it for a few seconds and has a better "posture". I think they are both strong enough now, they just haven't seen a reason to want to learn it. :)
I will post new pictures in a bit!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Taking a deep breath. :)
OK, sorry about the random dramatic post last night. lol I was SO frustrated and I just had to get it out. I appreciate the comments and suggestions. It's a new day and I have renewed energy so we'll try something different today. Pledge for today:
1) I will not become frustrated when the babies don't want the solids. I understand they can sense this and it helps nothing.
2) I will keep reminding myself that though they seem like little kids now compared to being newborns, they are still just little babies who have a lot to learn in the world. This is a very different experience for them. I think sometimes I see them as big kids now.
3) I will keep the bigger picture perspective that they don't have to have learned to eat full meals 3 times per day by tomorrow and we need to learn a little at a time. They have not failed and I have not failed if they don't get it immediately.
I will let you know how that goes. Thanks again for the suggestions and comments. I will change some things up today. :)
1) I will not become frustrated when the babies don't want the solids. I understand they can sense this and it helps nothing.
2) I will keep reminding myself that though they seem like little kids now compared to being newborns, they are still just little babies who have a lot to learn in the world. This is a very different experience for them. I think sometimes I see them as big kids now.
3) I will keep the bigger picture perspective that they don't have to have learned to eat full meals 3 times per day by tomorrow and we need to learn a little at a time. They have not failed and I have not failed if they don't get it immediately.
I will let you know how that goes. Thanks again for the suggestions and comments. I will change some things up today. :)
Friday, June 12, 2009
FRUSTRATION!
I am interrupting the regularly scheduled positive blog experience to vent to the world about my frustrations with solids. I don't know why, I just have to put this out there. (I will post a 6 month old update soon, I promise!)
So we started solids a couple of weeks ago. It is NOT GOING WELL!! Honestly, by the time night comes I am so frustrated I want to throw rocks through our windows. Like right now. Here's the problem. They pretty much cry the ENTIRE time I am feeding them the solids. In fact, they cry the second I put them in the high chairs for the most part. They don't like sitting up to eat and they don't like eating anything but their bottles. I know it's not the food because they outright rejected peas, so now I know what that is like (spitting out all the food and refusing to swallow). All other foods we have tried - rice cereal, pears, carrots, applesauce, and bananas - they have accepted (i.e., not spit out for the most part; yes I am waiting 3 days between starting each new one). But the whole time we are sitting there they are crying in between bites. I've gotten to the point I'm so frustrated that I wait until they scream - mouth open - and stick the food in. Yeah, I know, really helping the situation by giving them a negative association with the experience.
I'm sort of mad at our pediatrician for telling us we had to wait until they were 6 months old. I'm convinced that this is too long to wait and that at this point they are so used to their bottles they don't want anything else. It's been TWO WEEKS of the same thing and they aren't getting any happier with it. I've increased the frequency so we now do a serving of solids at breakfast, lunch and dinner, just like the end goal. They get their bottle after they finish the serving. Then there is one feeding at 2:30 of just their bottles. They are doing fine swallowing it so I'm not going by the whole "give them 1 or 2 spoons to start per day". They know how to do it, they just don't WANT to, so I see no reason for just having them take 1 or 2 spoons. They'll never learn that way. And Nathan has no problem eating a whole serving in a sitting. He likes the food, but he is still crying.
I think the reason Nathan cries is that he is totally hungry by the time of the feed and he can't control the speed of solids. Yes, I've tried 1) giving him half the bottle first so he's not ravenous and 2) giving him the whole bottle first and then the solids. If I give him half the bottle he still cries because he wants the rest. If I give him the whole bottle he doesn't want the solids. Kenna I think cries just because she doesn't want to accept anything new period.
At this point, I'm not willing to stop for a few days, cut back to 1 or 2 teaspoons per day, etc. I don't see the point. They just have to learn and practice makes perfect. And I may go insane in the meantime. I mean, really, really insane.
Did anyone else have a really frustrating experience starting solids?
So we started solids a couple of weeks ago. It is NOT GOING WELL!! Honestly, by the time night comes I am so frustrated I want to throw rocks through our windows. Like right now. Here's the problem. They pretty much cry the ENTIRE time I am feeding them the solids. In fact, they cry the second I put them in the high chairs for the most part. They don't like sitting up to eat and they don't like eating anything but their bottles. I know it's not the food because they outright rejected peas, so now I know what that is like (spitting out all the food and refusing to swallow). All other foods we have tried - rice cereal, pears, carrots, applesauce, and bananas - they have accepted (i.e., not spit out for the most part; yes I am waiting 3 days between starting each new one). But the whole time we are sitting there they are crying in between bites. I've gotten to the point I'm so frustrated that I wait until they scream - mouth open - and stick the food in. Yeah, I know, really helping the situation by giving them a negative association with the experience.
I'm sort of mad at our pediatrician for telling us we had to wait until they were 6 months old. I'm convinced that this is too long to wait and that at this point they are so used to their bottles they don't want anything else. It's been TWO WEEKS of the same thing and they aren't getting any happier with it. I've increased the frequency so we now do a serving of solids at breakfast, lunch and dinner, just like the end goal. They get their bottle after they finish the serving. Then there is one feeding at 2:30 of just their bottles. They are doing fine swallowing it so I'm not going by the whole "give them 1 or 2 spoons to start per day". They know how to do it, they just don't WANT to, so I see no reason for just having them take 1 or 2 spoons. They'll never learn that way. And Nathan has no problem eating a whole serving in a sitting. He likes the food, but he is still crying.
I think the reason Nathan cries is that he is totally hungry by the time of the feed and he can't control the speed of solids. Yes, I've tried 1) giving him half the bottle first so he's not ravenous and 2) giving him the whole bottle first and then the solids. If I give him half the bottle he still cries because he wants the rest. If I give him the whole bottle he doesn't want the solids. Kenna I think cries just because she doesn't want to accept anything new period.
At this point, I'm not willing to stop for a few days, cut back to 1 or 2 teaspoons per day, etc. I don't see the point. They just have to learn and practice makes perfect. And I may go insane in the meantime. I mean, really, really insane.
Did anyone else have a really frustrating experience starting solids?
Friday, May 29, 2009
For the record book...
This is DEFINITELY Kenna's big week to officially claim she can roll over...and over...and over! She has rolled from front to back probably 20 times in the last 2 days. I keep putting her on her tummy and she immediately rolls to back (I think she thinks it's lots of fun to not have to do tummy time now!). Hooray! It took a while, but she has it mastered!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
New Pictures
(Baby update in post below...)
Here are some recent favorite pictures! The outdoor ones at the end are from Memorial Day weekend. We went to Big Bear Lake. It was so much fun hiking with them and taking them fishing for the first time! I was so excited to share our favorite activities with them.
Here are some recent favorite pictures! The outdoor ones at the end are from Memorial Day weekend. We went to Big Bear Lake. It was so much fun hiking with them and taking them fishing for the first time! I was so excited to share our favorite activities with them.
5.5 Months!
Time for an update! I keep resolving to get back to my weekly updates and then time slips away. I have so much I want to write about outside of baby updates (about parenting in general and life after infertility) but top priority is baby updates so I can keep track of everything so here we go! I will post pictures in a little bit (today).
Nathan
Nathan continues to be our little strong man! He is VERY physically active. I desperately wants to crawl but isn't quite old enough. He pushes up on his arms about as far as you can possibly go and scrunches up his knees to try to push. He just hasn't quite coordinated lifting his tummy off the ground in order to get to that next step. He rolls around constantly so I have to watch him at all times. The other day I left him in the middle of the living room floor and went to get something in the kitchen. I came back and it looked like he was gone! But instead he had just rolled all the way over to the corner of the room behind a chair. :) He was lying there smiling at me when I found him! He is such a happy little boy - full of BIG smiles for mommy especially. I can almost always make him smile hugely at any time. A lot of times when he is playing on his own and I'm doing something else I will catch him lying there watching me. As soon as I smile at him and he realizes he's been "caught" watching mama he gets a giant smile and buries his head in his arms like he is embarrassed! It's so adorable. I'm sure babies don't get embarrassed at this age, so we think he just forgets to coordinate his smiles with his strength in pushing up (he is almost always on his tummy now, pushing up on his arms).
We bought an exersaucer sort of thing to help them gain the muscles for sitting up and eventually standing. Nathan struggled with it the first couple of days but now he LOVES it and is sitting really well in it...and standing! It's crazy how you can see the development happening so fast. He plants both feet on the ground solidly now and can literally stand up in it, whereas a couple of weeks ago he hadn't figured out how to put his feet on the ground. I can tell it's made a difference in his balance and back strength too because he can now sit unassisted for a few seconds at a time. And when I hold him standing (not in the saucer) he now stands solidly straight up! This is all new since the saucer, so I'm very excited it's doing something.
Nathan is loving his feet. He lies around holding them and looks very pleased with himself. He is great with his hands too, though I don't think he's got the same fine control that Kenna has yet. He just takes big swats at things and grabs everything he can.
Once in a while we can get him to laugh out loud. We got lots of squeals or little mini-laughs, but full on adult-type laughter is still hard to get. One very random thing we can do to elicit that kind of laugh is say in a very gravely, low voice, "mama's gotta work". I know, it's so random! I don't even remember how it started. I was probably playing around with him one Monday or Tuesday when I work (I work from home) letting him know I couldn't play then and he just thinks it's so funny. I've tried other phrases in the same voice and it doesn't get the same response. :)
It's a good thing we get to start solids in 2 weeks...Nathan ate 15 ounces of formula this morning! HE IS READY! LOL - He is on his tummy next to me and reached over and hit the caps lock right when I typed he is ready!!! I guess he wanted to make that point! He is over 18 pounds and wears mostly 9 month clothes! I'm 5'2/110 pounds and B is 6'2 and thin as a rail...I don't know where Nathan is getting his size from!
Oh, and we have solved Nathan's sleep issue, of getting stuck in the rails and screaming...or rather J solved it. She brought us a mesh bumper and it worked! I'm not afraid of using it since it's breathable, and it keeps him from getting stuck, so we are back to full nights of sleep! Hooray!!
Kenna
Kenna has had a few big moments in the last week...she's rolled over several times! She is really showing an interest now in more physical activity. She has rolled over in the past a couple of times but it was never something she could "replicate". Last week she rolled from stomach to back three times in a row one morning, and this week she has rolled over a few more times from stomach to back. I think she is getting the hang of it because you can see her trying a lot more now. She is also trying to go back to stomach and spends a lot of time on her side recently, half way there. She rolled over that way once or twice a while ago, but never again. So she is definitely working on the more physical skills now. I'm relieved - I really thought she was never going to do this stuff! She lifts up much better now on her tummy and gets up on her elbows. She doesn't have the arm strength yet to push up on her arms like Nathan but now that she is taking an interest in more movement I think it's going to happen pretty soon. I'm excited to have the saucer for her too because she is interested in it and it's helping her with her upright balance. She won't stay in as long as Nathan because she hasn't figured out how to plant her feet so she has more control. But I can definitely see it helping her already too!
Kenna continues to be extraordinarily aware of everything and everyone around her. You can just see her studying things all the time. While Nathan is rolling around experimenting with his body, Kenna is calmly and intently watching either him or some small part of something in front of her. She has a really deep attention for things and you can practically see the wheels turning in her head. You can often tell what she is thinking - especially when I am holding Nathan and she is staring at me. "What about me? Why are you holding him and not me?" She is so aware of what Nathan is doing and most of the time he is totally unaware of her (though I caught them smiling at each other once and it was so precious!). She is our little deep thinker. :) I can't make her smile on cue the way I can with Nathan, but once I get her going, she gives the cutest, sweetest smiles you've ever seen. Her cheeks are so big and sweet when she smiles! We also laugh about how her cheeks seem like a separate part of her - we ask her, "how are your cheeks today?" :) She is still a snuggle bunny, loving to be held and carried around.
Kenna is over 16 pounds now, but she seems so much more delicate and petite than her brother! He feels like a tank compared to her! She eats 9 ounces per feeding, 4 times per day though, so she is holding her own. She still waits patiently in her crib in the morning for mommy to come in and now Nathan has caught on. It's so pleasant to wake up at 7 on my own, not to crying babies, and come in to find them happy and waiting!
I absolutely love dressing Kenna up with little dresses and hair bands/bows. I will go crazy when she has more hair to play with! Of course I'm biased, but I'm going to come right out and say that she is a beautiful little girl. We still get a constant train of people when we are out commenting on the twins and coming up to see them, etc., and she steals the show most of the time. :)
So that's the latest...they'll be 6 months in a week and half. That is CRAZY!!
Nathan
Nathan continues to be our little strong man! He is VERY physically active. I desperately wants to crawl but isn't quite old enough. He pushes up on his arms about as far as you can possibly go and scrunches up his knees to try to push. He just hasn't quite coordinated lifting his tummy off the ground in order to get to that next step. He rolls around constantly so I have to watch him at all times. The other day I left him in the middle of the living room floor and went to get something in the kitchen. I came back and it looked like he was gone! But instead he had just rolled all the way over to the corner of the room behind a chair. :) He was lying there smiling at me when I found him! He is such a happy little boy - full of BIG smiles for mommy especially. I can almost always make him smile hugely at any time. A lot of times when he is playing on his own and I'm doing something else I will catch him lying there watching me. As soon as I smile at him and he realizes he's been "caught" watching mama he gets a giant smile and buries his head in his arms like he is embarrassed! It's so adorable. I'm sure babies don't get embarrassed at this age, so we think he just forgets to coordinate his smiles with his strength in pushing up (he is almost always on his tummy now, pushing up on his arms).
We bought an exersaucer sort of thing to help them gain the muscles for sitting up and eventually standing. Nathan struggled with it the first couple of days but now he LOVES it and is sitting really well in it...and standing! It's crazy how you can see the development happening so fast. He plants both feet on the ground solidly now and can literally stand up in it, whereas a couple of weeks ago he hadn't figured out how to put his feet on the ground. I can tell it's made a difference in his balance and back strength too because he can now sit unassisted for a few seconds at a time. And when I hold him standing (not in the saucer) he now stands solidly straight up! This is all new since the saucer, so I'm very excited it's doing something.
Nathan is loving his feet. He lies around holding them and looks very pleased with himself. He is great with his hands too, though I don't think he's got the same fine control that Kenna has yet. He just takes big swats at things and grabs everything he can.
Once in a while we can get him to laugh out loud. We got lots of squeals or little mini-laughs, but full on adult-type laughter is still hard to get. One very random thing we can do to elicit that kind of laugh is say in a very gravely, low voice, "mama's gotta work". I know, it's so random! I don't even remember how it started. I was probably playing around with him one Monday or Tuesday when I work (I work from home) letting him know I couldn't play then and he just thinks it's so funny. I've tried other phrases in the same voice and it doesn't get the same response. :)
It's a good thing we get to start solids in 2 weeks...Nathan ate 15 ounces of formula this morning! HE IS READY! LOL - He is on his tummy next to me and reached over and hit the caps lock right when I typed he is ready!!! I guess he wanted to make that point! He is over 18 pounds and wears mostly 9 month clothes! I'm 5'2/110 pounds and B is 6'2 and thin as a rail...I don't know where Nathan is getting his size from!
Oh, and we have solved Nathan's sleep issue, of getting stuck in the rails and screaming...or rather J solved it. She brought us a mesh bumper and it worked! I'm not afraid of using it since it's breathable, and it keeps him from getting stuck, so we are back to full nights of sleep! Hooray!!
Kenna
Kenna has had a few big moments in the last week...she's rolled over several times! She is really showing an interest now in more physical activity. She has rolled over in the past a couple of times but it was never something she could "replicate". Last week she rolled from stomach to back three times in a row one morning, and this week she has rolled over a few more times from stomach to back. I think she is getting the hang of it because you can see her trying a lot more now. She is also trying to go back to stomach and spends a lot of time on her side recently, half way there. She rolled over that way once or twice a while ago, but never again. So she is definitely working on the more physical skills now. I'm relieved - I really thought she was never going to do this stuff! She lifts up much better now on her tummy and gets up on her elbows. She doesn't have the arm strength yet to push up on her arms like Nathan but now that she is taking an interest in more movement I think it's going to happen pretty soon. I'm excited to have the saucer for her too because she is interested in it and it's helping her with her upright balance. She won't stay in as long as Nathan because she hasn't figured out how to plant her feet so she has more control. But I can definitely see it helping her already too!
Kenna continues to be extraordinarily aware of everything and everyone around her. You can just see her studying things all the time. While Nathan is rolling around experimenting with his body, Kenna is calmly and intently watching either him or some small part of something in front of her. She has a really deep attention for things and you can practically see the wheels turning in her head. You can often tell what she is thinking - especially when I am holding Nathan and she is staring at me. "What about me? Why are you holding him and not me?" She is so aware of what Nathan is doing and most of the time he is totally unaware of her (though I caught them smiling at each other once and it was so precious!). She is our little deep thinker. :) I can't make her smile on cue the way I can with Nathan, but once I get her going, she gives the cutest, sweetest smiles you've ever seen. Her cheeks are so big and sweet when she smiles! We also laugh about how her cheeks seem like a separate part of her - we ask her, "how are your cheeks today?" :) She is still a snuggle bunny, loving to be held and carried around.
Kenna is over 16 pounds now, but she seems so much more delicate and petite than her brother! He feels like a tank compared to her! She eats 9 ounces per feeding, 4 times per day though, so she is holding her own. She still waits patiently in her crib in the morning for mommy to come in and now Nathan has caught on. It's so pleasant to wake up at 7 on my own, not to crying babies, and come in to find them happy and waiting!
I absolutely love dressing Kenna up with little dresses and hair bands/bows. I will go crazy when she has more hair to play with! Of course I'm biased, but I'm going to come right out and say that she is a beautiful little girl. We still get a constant train of people when we are out commenting on the twins and coming up to see them, etc., and she steals the show most of the time. :)
So that's the latest...they'll be 6 months in a week and half. That is CRAZY!!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Five months old!!
Nathan and Kenna are five months old! Can you believe it? I certainly can't. It really is remarkable how fast they grow. It's so trite to say that (and I get tired of hearing it), but yes, it is true. Nathan is 17 pounds and Kenna is 15 pounds. People are always surprised when they ask how old they are and we say 5 months...they usually think they are a couple of months older!
So let's see, what's new? Well, I have to say that things have gotten a little more difficult lately if I'm being honest! I thought as babies got older they needed less attention, but I swear that Nathan and Kenna want more and more attention! It used to be that we would do "stations" during the day...some would involve me, others would involve them playing independently on their mat, etc. But I don't think there are ever times now where they are both happy to play on their own. It's become very tiring!! I get no breaks except during their lunch nap (and of course once they go to bed at 6:30). Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with them, but I also have to continue to get things done around the house and when two babies are constantly wanting attention it's next to impossible!! Mommy is very tired by the end of the day lately! All the little brief breaks I used to get during the day have gone out the window...I literally have swamps of emails I haven't been able to get to, and haven't read blogs in weeks. I know, that's not all that dire, but still, these were little things I used to do during the day when I had some free moments. I'm in the process of readjusting my expectations. :)
I would say the above is true for both of them, but especially for Nathan. He has always been so low maintenance (except at the beginning when we had the feeding problems) but lately he never wants to be in one spot for more than a few minutes. All this really started when he learned to roll from stomach to back a few weeks ago. He won't stay on his back at all now and just constantly is rolling around. When we put him down for bed time he immediately turns over and puts himself on "tummy time". He plays around for a while (meanwhile Kenna is fast asleep, being the champion sleeper she is). Then when he gets tired he goes nuts because he is stuck on his stomach...he has somehow forgotten for the most part how to roll from stomach to back even though he was doing that since he was six weeks old! So he goes crazy in the crib, gets his arms and legs stuck in between rails (we have bumpers off since they are considered a hazard now), and screams until we come in usually 45 minutes after we put him down. We pull him out of the rails and he sleeps on his tummy the rest of the night (that's supposedly OK once they start flipping on their own, and this is how he chooses to sleep every single night now). It's become a little routine for him. Then he sleeps until 4 or 5 am when he wakes up and realizes he is stuck again and we have to move him. Very frustrating seeing as how we have had them sleeping 12 hours a night since they were 7 weeks old thanks to the brilliant schedules in "Contented House with Twins". I got too cozy with our little routine I guess! I move Nathan now half asleep and come back to bed. :) He is just a really active little boy and it's easy to tell he will crawl and walk really early...he is trying to crawl desperately but is just too young. He gets really frustrated because he wants mobility badly! Little Kenna is content to just sit in mommy's lap all day and smile at me. She has still only rolled over twice...they are stereotypical for a boy and a girl I uess!
Our schedule these days is: Wake up at 7 and eat. Nap 9-9:45 then eat. Nap 12-2 then eat. Nap 4:15-4:30 (yes, a cat nap) then eat. Bed at 6:30. Yup, they sleep over 12 hours at night! They both eat about 9 ounces per feeding (4 feedings per day). We'll start solids at 6 months per the pediatrician's recommendation. I can't believe they are almost old enough!
In other news we accomplished our first family trip! We went to Mammoth last weekend (ski area in central California). It's one of our favorite places to go both in winter and in summer. We went with some good friends of ours who also love Mammoth and who have a baby just 3 months younger than Nathan and Kenna. We drove up at night during their bed time and they did great (5 hour drive). They slept in their car seats the whole night and had no problems. The next night we had them at the condo in pack n plays and Kenna was the great sleeper she always is, just like mommy. Nathan, however, woke up at 4 am. I immediately started to panic and two lessons immediately became clear: 1) It is far more stressful to have babies in a location where others are sleeping because you can't just let them cry back to sleep like we would at home. 2) Without our trusty swing that puts either baby back to sleep when needed within minutes, combined with number 1 above, it was a very scary situation. B walked Nathan around for a good hour and he just didn't want to sleep. It threw the whole day off. The next night he woke up even earlier, and it was even less fun in the wee hours of the morning. We are going to a cabin over Memorial Day and no matter how much space the swing takes up in the car, we will have it. :) When all was said and done, all of us were so proud to have made the effort to go...we are all of the mindset that it is really important to not give up on the things you enjoy after having kids just because it's more difficult. It wasn't the most fun trip I've ever had, but now that we know what to expect we can plan better for future trips.
So today is Mother's Day. I really looked forward to going to church this morning since they always celebrate motherhood and I have avoided this service like the plague for the last few years. But truth be told, I felt really weird about it all this morning. Our church had a red carpet toward the entrance with sunflowers for all the moms. I absolutely couldn't bring myself to walk down it and purposely walked in the other side. A red carpet signifies a position of honor or prestige. It's not that I don't think moms deserve that, but it hurt me to think of all the women who do not hold this "position of honor" yet long to desperately. There is no way I felt comfortable blithely walking down the symbolic path of honor knowing that I do not deserve that honor anymore than those women who are waiting still. Pretty much every time I'm out with the twins in public I am told how lucky I am. Over and over people tell me how much they always wanted twins, and how perfect that they are a boy and a girl and how beautiful they are. I am SO incredibly lucky. I am constantly aware of that. You can not decide that you are going to have kids, so anyone who has them IS lucky. Of course most people never have to give it a second thought. But for many of us who do, it will never feel right to be "honored" for something that you realize you can in no way control - Nathan and Kenna are a beautiful, precious gift from God and J and I am just the recipient of that blessing. No red carpet for me, please. I just want two of those sunflowers to put in their nursery, one for each blessing we have received.
So let's see, what's new? Well, I have to say that things have gotten a little more difficult lately if I'm being honest! I thought as babies got older they needed less attention, but I swear that Nathan and Kenna want more and more attention! It used to be that we would do "stations" during the day...some would involve me, others would involve them playing independently on their mat, etc. But I don't think there are ever times now where they are both happy to play on their own. It's become very tiring!! I get no breaks except during their lunch nap (and of course once they go to bed at 6:30). Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with them, but I also have to continue to get things done around the house and when two babies are constantly wanting attention it's next to impossible!! Mommy is very tired by the end of the day lately! All the little brief breaks I used to get during the day have gone out the window...I literally have swamps of emails I haven't been able to get to, and haven't read blogs in weeks. I know, that's not all that dire, but still, these were little things I used to do during the day when I had some free moments. I'm in the process of readjusting my expectations. :)
I would say the above is true for both of them, but especially for Nathan. He has always been so low maintenance (except at the beginning when we had the feeding problems) but lately he never wants to be in one spot for more than a few minutes. All this really started when he learned to roll from stomach to back a few weeks ago. He won't stay on his back at all now and just constantly is rolling around. When we put him down for bed time he immediately turns over and puts himself on "tummy time". He plays around for a while (meanwhile Kenna is fast asleep, being the champion sleeper she is). Then when he gets tired he goes nuts because he is stuck on his stomach...he has somehow forgotten for the most part how to roll from stomach to back even though he was doing that since he was six weeks old! So he goes crazy in the crib, gets his arms and legs stuck in between rails (we have bumpers off since they are considered a hazard now), and screams until we come in usually 45 minutes after we put him down. We pull him out of the rails and he sleeps on his tummy the rest of the night (that's supposedly OK once they start flipping on their own, and this is how he chooses to sleep every single night now). It's become a little routine for him. Then he sleeps until 4 or 5 am when he wakes up and realizes he is stuck again and we have to move him. Very frustrating seeing as how we have had them sleeping 12 hours a night since they were 7 weeks old thanks to the brilliant schedules in "Contented House with Twins". I got too cozy with our little routine I guess! I move Nathan now half asleep and come back to bed. :) He is just a really active little boy and it's easy to tell he will crawl and walk really early...he is trying to crawl desperately but is just too young. He gets really frustrated because he wants mobility badly! Little Kenna is content to just sit in mommy's lap all day and smile at me. She has still only rolled over twice...they are stereotypical for a boy and a girl I uess!
Our schedule these days is: Wake up at 7 and eat. Nap 9-9:45 then eat. Nap 12-2 then eat. Nap 4:15-4:30 (yes, a cat nap) then eat. Bed at 6:30. Yup, they sleep over 12 hours at night! They both eat about 9 ounces per feeding (4 feedings per day). We'll start solids at 6 months per the pediatrician's recommendation. I can't believe they are almost old enough!
In other news we accomplished our first family trip! We went to Mammoth last weekend (ski area in central California). It's one of our favorite places to go both in winter and in summer. We went with some good friends of ours who also love Mammoth and who have a baby just 3 months younger than Nathan and Kenna. We drove up at night during their bed time and they did great (5 hour drive). They slept in their car seats the whole night and had no problems. The next night we had them at the condo in pack n plays and Kenna was the great sleeper she always is, just like mommy. Nathan, however, woke up at 4 am. I immediately started to panic and two lessons immediately became clear: 1) It is far more stressful to have babies in a location where others are sleeping because you can't just let them cry back to sleep like we would at home. 2) Without our trusty swing that puts either baby back to sleep when needed within minutes, combined with number 1 above, it was a very scary situation. B walked Nathan around for a good hour and he just didn't want to sleep. It threw the whole day off. The next night he woke up even earlier, and it was even less fun in the wee hours of the morning. We are going to a cabin over Memorial Day and no matter how much space the swing takes up in the car, we will have it. :) When all was said and done, all of us were so proud to have made the effort to go...we are all of the mindset that it is really important to not give up on the things you enjoy after having kids just because it's more difficult. It wasn't the most fun trip I've ever had, but now that we know what to expect we can plan better for future trips.
So today is Mother's Day. I really looked forward to going to church this morning since they always celebrate motherhood and I have avoided this service like the plague for the last few years. But truth be told, I felt really weird about it all this morning. Our church had a red carpet toward the entrance with sunflowers for all the moms. I absolutely couldn't bring myself to walk down it and purposely walked in the other side. A red carpet signifies a position of honor or prestige. It's not that I don't think moms deserve that, but it hurt me to think of all the women who do not hold this "position of honor" yet long to desperately. There is no way I felt comfortable blithely walking down the symbolic path of honor knowing that I do not deserve that honor anymore than those women who are waiting still. Pretty much every time I'm out with the twins in public I am told how lucky I am. Over and over people tell me how much they always wanted twins, and how perfect that they are a boy and a girl and how beautiful they are. I am SO incredibly lucky. I am constantly aware of that. You can not decide that you are going to have kids, so anyone who has them IS lucky. Of course most people never have to give it a second thought. But for many of us who do, it will never feel right to be "honored" for something that you realize you can in no way control - Nathan and Kenna are a beautiful, precious gift from God and J and I am just the recipient of that blessing. No red carpet for me, please. I just want two of those sunflowers to put in their nursery, one for each blessing we have received.
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