3 Months Today

The babies are 3 months old. This is a big milestone. Both of them have gotten a tad less fussy and can hang out in their bouncy seats or in a boppy for awhile. They are smiling a lot, and Caryss is starting to coo. Arden is still having trouble with her reflux, waking from her naps after about an hour. I feel so bad that the Prevacid isn't helping much.


I forgot to get pictures so I snapped these two towards the end of the day. As you can see, they were not the greatest shots. And Caryss was not thrilled to be participating.

It was Stephen's last day with us, so Chris and Stephen visited Quail Botanical Gardens, then popped by a local pub for a beer. It was a nice respite for Chris, I think. He is having some serious baby burnout. Twins + a toddler are definitely a lot of work, and we get to listen to a lot of crying and whining to boot.

Alana Dances at the Car Dealership

We just traded in our 2006 Highlander Hybrid for a 2006 Sienna XLE. As Chris likes to say, this minivan is going to change our lives. We used to have the three baby seats jammed in the back of the Highlander. Now our 7-seater van can fit all the seats comfortably and still have room for 4 adults. We decided to get the XLE because it has the DVD player built in and all power doors. Awesome! Anyway, we took Alana to the dealership for our "new car". She was such a good girl. Here is a video of her doing a little dance at the dealership while Daddy signed papers.

More Smiles and A Pair of Feet

Caryss looking rather deep.


"Aw, Shucks Mom!"

Smiling...

Arden smiling...

"Seriously, d'ya really need ANOTHER picture of me?"

Alana thought Arden would look cooler with some shades.

Alana loves the slippers that Grammy Jean sent from Hawaii. She can almost get them on by herself, though sometimes the big toes end up in the wrong place.

What's in a name?

I've been trying to teach Alana the names of her family members. She knows her name, but has trouble with some of the rest of us.

Me: My name is Jennifer.

Alana: No, name not Deffer. You name's Mommy.

Well, I can't really argue with that.

School Report
Alana loves nursery school, and for the most part, the feeling is mutual. An excerpt of her "midterm" school report...

"Alana is fully confident with her teachers and friends at school. She loves to join circle time and she enjoys helping teachers and friends. There have been a few times where a child hurt his or herself and Alana has run up to give the child a hug...Alana's vocabulary is very advanced and she can express herself very well. We enjoy having her in class and we can always count on our morning hugs from her."

Of course, she still has trouble sharing on occasion and will very rarely hit when she's mad, but in general what a good girl she is!

All Smiles

The babies were all smiles yesterday. It was so rewarding to get so many big grins from both babies! We also played games. I would open my mouth and stick out my tongue and both babies tried to copy me. They loved it!


Arden smiling

Caryss smiling
Daddy was slow with the camera so this was the best we got. But she gave me some really big smiles

Arden just started Prevacid. The pharmacist said to give it 2 days to gauge its effectiveness. We're really hoping it works for her. She has had some really bad reflux of late.


Uncle Stephen (Chris' brother) is in town for a conference. (Actually, the conference is in Anaheim, so he is taking Amtrak north tomorrow.) Alana is really enjoying having him here. The two of them played for awhile in the courtyard with a ball, picked flowers, and grilled some kielbasa and veggies. There were a lot of happy screams out there. Stephen or Alana? I'm not sure ;-) I tried catching a picture of the playful mayhem, but it was getting dark and the photo didn't come out.

12 Weeks Tomorrow!

So, around this time in our baby's life, we parents ask ourselves...when, oh when is my baby going to sleep through the night? Should I do cry it out? (in our case, no) Should I read every baby sleep book on the market? (yes) Should I post millions of questions on various parenting message boards? (yes)

With Alana, I read a bunch of different theories on baby sleep and considered several techniques. In the end, I cobbled together my own little version of sleep training and waited for a week when hubby was out of town. It only took about four nights to get over the hump and another 2 weeks to solidify the pattern. Unfortunately, I don't feel comfortable starting the sleep training in earnest until the babies are 4 months or so. So for now we are making do. It is hard with two because after the 1:30/2:00 am feeding, they tag-team me with fussing and I really get no sleep or perhaps an hour on a good night. Thank goodness, Chris handles the 9pm feeding, and lets me nap from 8is-12:30ish when I do the overnight stretch. (Our wonderful postpartum doula, Marily, does the other nights. Thank you, Marily, thank you. You are the best thing that ever happened to this sleep-deprived mom.)

I'm going to start reading a few new sleep books recommended by moms in my twins club. These include the following:

- Good Night, Sleep Tight by Kim West

- 12 Hours Sleep by 12 Weeks Old by Suzy Giordano

- 90 Minute Baby Sleep Program by Dr. Polly Moore

- Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Mark Weissbluth

To that list, I would add BabyWise by Gary Ezzo which I read last time around. It's not for everyone, but I do feel his "eat, wake, sleep" pattern has worked for us. Other folks like Pantley's The No Cry Sleep Solution, but I found that (a) it really favors the breastfeeding mom and (b) it takes a long, long time to train your baby. Personally, I don't subscribe to the old-fashioned notion that crying develops the baby's lungs, but I also think that babies do and should cry at times. First, we know that babies, especially very young babies, use crying to communicate with us. And, second, my gut tells me that for some (maybe all?) babies, crying is a way to burn off excess energy and wind down for the day.

I also found this interesting article about sleep regression online for those who are wondering why they great sleepers have suddenly "gone bad."

http://www.askmoxie.org/2006/02/qa_what_are_sle.html

About My Girls

I thought I'd devote the other half of this post to remarking on something special about each of my girls. Of course, this is just the top of my head stuff. There is so much more that is wonderful about each of the girls.

Alana - The Big Sister

Although she does like to test us, she is amazingly obedient. She always turns to look and ask before she touches something new that she's interested in. She is also so sweet and outgoing that she makes friends wherever she goes. On walks, she says "hi" to everyone she passes.

Arden - The Oldest Twin

This tiny tot never makes a fuss unless she is really starving or not feeling well due to reflux. (She has it bad!) She also has the cutest roundest head you ever saw.

Caryss - The Youngest Twin

This little girl has such great muscle tone. Just tonight, I was carrying her and she held her head up for a whole 5 minutes. She is also amazingly alert and will just stare into your eyes for 10 minutes with the sweetest most adoring expresion on her face.

Random picture alert - Finally I captured a smile!

We're Going to the Dentist!
Yesterday, when Alana woke up I told her she was going to the dentist. She was so excited. She had no idea what the dentist was but it sounded like fun. Especially when I told her that the dentist was going to give her a little present if she was good. She told me, "No, big present". She loves her presents! She kept singing in her little voice, "I goin to da dentist!" all morning.

Walking down the steps to the dentist


Another tenant in the same building...notice the name :)



In the dentist's chair

True to form, Alana was fabulous at the dentist. She was pleasant, listened to instructions, said "tank you" when appropriate, and all around charmed the staff, who I might add are really wonderful and gentle with children. They counted her teeth (20) which she'll have till they start falling out at age 6, brushed her teeth, and gave her a fluoride treatment. Her score was 95% on plaque control. Sounded good to me! At the end, Alana did not forget to ask for her present. The dentist and hygienist kept exclaiming how good she was and even gave her an extra present, a stuffed dog which she loved. She is still talking about the dentist. I'm glad she's got pleasant associations about going. (Note: I have a video which I probably won't be able to upload but I may try doing a link to Youtube. We'll see how it goes)

Random photos

Alana leaving nursery school. She's holding her beloved lunchbox.

Sitting in her high chair. As usual, she stopped smiling the minute I pulled out the camera. Yes, my girl is generally happy and smiles a lot, just not on cue :)

Favorite things

Babies at around 11 weeks. Clearly, my girls are not identical.

Alana's favorite things right now include:

Her Lulus ("nunus") ie, her lovey(s)
She is not supposed to have 2 Lulus, but she knows where we keep the extra ones and just pulls them out of the drawer. And she tells us that she needs "two nunus". So she's usually walking around clutching two of them. It's too funny.

Her Pink Ball - no explanation necessary except that she likes to sleep with this.

Her Hello Kitty Book

Just a little notebook I got at Target for $1.00. It does have a cool hologram on the front.
How old school. She calls it her "key book"

Gorgeous Day

What gorgeous warm days we had the last 2 weeks. While the East Coast suffered from unseasonably cold weather, we have been enjoying days that are about 10 degrees above normal. Alana and I went to the bay to take advantage of the sun on Monday. (Our babysitter was watching the twins) I have a great video which won't upload and some stills from our day of play. Yes, someone was taking a nap in the background :-) Who could resist such a day?!

Recent photos and a video

Photos! Caryss above, sticking out her tongue and asleep in her bouncy

Arden below, swaddled like a little mummy

Miss Alana singing her alphabet

Thank you, thank you

Random Photos Above

1-2) Alana walking the dogs in her favorite jacket and sunglasses

3) Arden in the tub

I will post more later. Right now, I'm getting error messages...

The babies (and by necessity so did mom and dad!) had a very bad few days and nights since their shots. I looked back at Alana's records and she received all 5 shots, but did not get the rotavirus oral vaccine. And as I recall, she just slept off this set of shots. So I really feel the rotavirus really bothered their tummies and made them fussy. I wish I hadn't said yes to it. I almost didn't. It was against my better judgment as rotavirus illness is mostly a problem in the developing world, and babies today get sooo many vaccinations.

I finally got to a bunch of thank you cards this weekend. So many people have been so generous with the babies. But if you get a thank you from us this week, be forewarned. Alana wanted to help us seal the envelopes. Unfortunately, instead of licking the inside of the flap, she licked the outside front of the envelopes. So cute! Alana sent them off with a little extra "love".

I'm planning to upload a video of Alana opening her Christmas present from Grammy Rose. Stay tuned!

On a side note, Arden's eyes appear to be changing from blue to brown. Of course, I'm not sure. Alana's eyes stayed blue, and so far Caryss' eyes have changed to a more clear blue from the deep midnight blue with which both babies started.

Dermatographia

I'm up pumping (breastmilk) right now, so I thought it would be a good time to post.

We've just realized that Alana suffers from dermatographia. It is a harmless skin condition where lightly scratching the skin causing raised red lines or hives. We mostly notice it on her face. I'm not surprised by this because my side of the family has lots of skin issues...eczema, psoriasis, cystic acne, and dermatographia. My brother and a cousin both have dermatographia. Mom and I have got eczema. An aunt and a cousin deal with psoriasis. My mom, brother, some of my aunts and uncles suffered from cystic acne. Luckily, my brother was able to take Accutane, and his skin looks great.

By the way, the babies slept great last night. Caryss is doing 6-7 hr stretches these days. Unfortunately, Arden is still at 4-5 hours. But there is hope!

Shots

The twins got their 2 month shots today. They were scheduled to get 5 shots and 1 oral vaccine in total, but I balked at that and asked the dr to hold off on two (polio and Hep B). So we ended up with the DTaP, Prevnar, Hib, and Rotavirus (oral). Poor babies! When I went to wake them for their 6pm feeding, they were dead asleep. They barely drank an ounce each crying and fussing the whole time. I put them back to bed and they are still sleeping (8pm).

Arden is also starting a trial of Zantac for her reflux. We'll see if it helps her sleep better at night.

Anyway, here are their 2 month (10 wks) stats:

Arden

9 lbs 6 oz (10 %tile)

21 in long (5 %tile)

14 3/4 in head circumference (10 %tile)

Caryss

10 lbs 7 oz (45 %tile)

23 in long (50 %tile)

14 1/2 in head circum (3 %tile)

So the first photo (above) of Alana is the one I wanted to use on our Christmas card. Isn't the dress beautiful? But she would not relinquish the ball or smile for me, so I went with another shot taken a month or so prior. Below that is the 7-wk shot we used on the Christmas card this year. Caryss is on the left, and Arden is on the right. Sweeties.

The first day of the rest of your life

I'm going to start this simply by stating that this is my first post on my first blog ever. I've enjoyed reading blogs of strangers and friends alike and have finally decided to join the cyberspace revolution. Well, I still don't send text messages (I just don't get it), and I only use about 10% of my monthly cell minutes, but hey it's a start.

We welcome our friends and family to check in with us from time to time to see what life with sleep averse infant twins and an active toddler is like.