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They don't know it yet, but they're about to be kicked out of the big bed (I think). As most of you know, there was a huge recall of all Storkcraft cribs a while back. We've been using that as an excuse to co-sleep with Mathilde and Alexis, when really we were all about getting more sleep. And maybe the snuggling wasn't so bad either. I've been telling Ivan (and myself) that once the girls hit three months, they'd be out. Today is 11 weeks, so if you go by my method of counting, they're three months next Friday. By Ivan's method, that won't happen until March 12th. Yesterday morning, I put them in their crib for three hours in the morning and they actually slept there! Who knew? So to continue the experiment, I put them in there at 3am after after a middle of the night feeding. And they're still there at 7 30am (I had to feed them at 6am). As well, yesterday the replacement crib brackets arrived from Storkcraft. If you're into signs, and I often am, you might consider that one a sure sign that it's time to kick them out of the Big Bed. I may just kick them out of our room all together! (Since we can see into their bedroom from ours anyway).
We've had a good week. We're dealing with the thrush issue one treatment at a time. It's not that it's a big deal to give them their medicine, really, it's just that the yeast is a hardy thing that's happy to stick around once it's been let in the door. Add another baby to an already tricky equation and you have thrush paradise! Just when it gets kicked out of one joint, it finds another to take up residence in. So you really have to be on top of this one.
Developmentally, I don't know if the girls have made huge measurable strides this week. They smile more, to be sure. They're still working at holding their heads up while they're on their tummies. Tilly seems to be vocalizing more perhaps. She was telling her father an elaborate story last night.
They love having their diapers changed. Bath time has become much more fun for them too. Well, the getting and staying wet parts anyway. They do NOT love getting out of the tub at all, and that's usually when bath night tanks. The happy parts make it worth it though. Well, that and the lovely smelling baby that you get in the end too.
We've also gone a week without using formula. We'd been using about 2 oz to top up Lexi every other evening or so (Tilly doesn't take the bottle well). But I finally gained the confidence to say that they're getting enough without it. Also, I'd probably been sabotaging my supply by not offering her the breast anyway since it's all about supply and demand. Going by the the dirty diapers, I'd say they're getting what they need. Breast feeding sure is mysterious though. Just when I think I've gotten the hang of it, something always comes up. The girls are always evolving their feeding schedules, so that just when you think you've got something you can work with, they want an extra feeding, or even to skip one. I've given up on thinking they might just get through the night without one. Sometimes they do go three nights in a row without a 3am feed. Then, for whatever reason, they want to eat every three hours during the night for a couple of nights. They're still really young though. I can't expect them to form a schedule yet. I'll worry (maybe) if by 6 months they haven't found their patterns. In the mean time, Ivan bought me a beautiful chair that's been waiting for me in the nursery, and since they're getting kicked out of our room tonight, I'll have a chance to put it to good use!
That's it from this house for this week. I'm starving and need to eat so that I can feed the girls. I can hear Lexi stirring and Mathilde has since gotten up and is in her mechanical chair. I'd like to get her out of it. If anybody has any topics they'd like me to talk about, I'd be happy to take requests. Raising twins has, is and will be an adventure! Take care.
I love the feedback that I get from the blog. It drives me to continue writing, and as was pointed out to me recently, it serves as a record of our daughters' development since birth. It occurred to me, however, that so far maybe I've painted a picture of perfection, where we are always happy and doing everything the right way. Well, as the video shows, this is not always true.
In fact, yesterday we took the girls to their 2 month check up. They are steadily gaining weight (Tilly is 12 lbs and Lexi is 11.5). This tells me that all of my breast feeding efforts are paying off. On the other hand, both girls have a candida infection (thrush). Tilly on her bottom and in her mouth (bum in mouth disease?), and Lexi in her mouth. Ivan had questioned the cheese-like curds that were sticking to the insides of their cheeks the other night. I'd seen thrush before, but this looked like the remnants of spit-up to me, and Tilly's rash looked like standard diaper rash. I never put two and two together! I'm usually so good at that sort of thing. So the three of us are on a regime of anti-fungicides which is really a pain. I've got to treat my nipples, and then the girls need to have their mouths bathed in this horrible, yellow, fake banana tasting liquid. How do you tell a 10 week old baby not to spit this out? The problem with such an infection is that it's highly transferable. So one gives it to me, then I give it to the other and then back again to the first. As if I don't have enough to do!
The girls also were given their first set of immunizations yesterday. They didn't really suffer any adverse reactions. It seemed that Lexi's temperature may have been slightly up, but some Tylenol took care of that. Mostly I was scarred by watching my daughters have needles jabbed into their tender little thighs. Really, can't we come up with a better way of administering these things? I'm sure the technology exists, why isn't it available here? They're so little too, it just seems truly awful to be shooting them up with junk so early in their lives. I've been over the dilemma of to immunize or not a million times and each time I can't decide. Both sides have arguments that are so compelling. I guess indecision won this time.
Being home with the girls has been really terrific. The weather is warming up here, so I've been able to get out for long walks with everyone. River, who was the wild card in all of this, has turned out to be really good. He keeps station directly behind the stroller and checks the girls with me periodically. I'm starting to think that he places the babies as highest in the hierarchy of our family. He always greats them with his tail wagging, but down low at a respectable level, and he runs away when a random arm happens to flail too close to him. We still never leave him alone with the girls even just to go to the bathroom, and this can be a nuisance at times. Imagine having an audience every time you pee (even if it is a canine one). I'm sure he's wondering what the heck he's doing there too!
Finally, dare I say, the girls seem to be extending the length of time they spend sleeping at night. We had three days in a row where they skipped their middle of the night feed altogether. Ivan's alarm was going off while I was feeding Lexi, and then I would have to wake Tilly up. I'd finish feeding them by about 0630 and then go back to sleep with them until 0930. I was feeling really good most of the week. Thursday night had them going back to their old habits and we had to get them up by 0630 for their dr's appointment so we were all pretty sleepy yesterday, and last night Lexi woke me up at 0430. So we haven't really found our schedule yet. But it's getting easier all the time.
Well, Lexi is hollering at her dad about it being time to eat. She's saying "Gully, gully, gully, gully!!!" Since there's not much that he can do for her, I'd better sign off. Once again, thanks for checking in on us and have a wonderful weekend!
Alexis (and a certain other Lightwood Lady) are 9 weeks today! Two months yesterday if that's how you're counting. As I said last week, this week is about our girl, Lexi. Which is not to say that we've been ignoring the accomplishments of Tilly, au contraire. But everybody deserves a bit of the limelight, and when you're a Twin, you probably need it more than most.
So if I had to describe Alexis in terms of who she is it might be hard at this point. She is, after all, a baby. True, her personality is developing, and no doubt she is her own little person. She is also a person in perpetual transition, and so Ivan and I have avoided putting labels on the girls. For example, we don't say Lexi is the good sleeper, or Mathilde is the good eater. Because this this changes daily anyway and it's unfair to peg them so early. We might end up fostering the traits of those labels when they might have otherwise turned out differently. So that said, here is a glimpse of Lexi in her ninth week.
Lexi sleeps fairly well. She usually eats her final evening meal around 11 pm, and then sleeps for 5 hours. She wakes then to feed (around 4 am) and then goes back to sleep for 3 or 4 more hours. I can't complain about that! I don't even wake Ivan any more because there is no reason to. Everyone is pretty happy.
Lexi eats very well from both the breast and the bottle. We still supplement every once in a while in the evenings when my milk production slows down. Nature is funny that way. We need the big feed right before bed to tide her over and encourage longer sleep periods, but that is when the production is the lowest. That said, apparently the milk is very high in fat at this point, but it's hard for a mom to trust that. Quantity is more convincing, especially when your baby gives you the "stink-eye" once your milk has run out. And you can't really tell her when she's eye balling your other breast that you're saving it for her sister!
Lexi still does not acknowledge her sister but has been acknowledged herself! And talked to. But that's for next week.
She is quiet when others are not. As a result, Lexi more often finds herself in one of our parent helping chairs or swings. She needs less. She is not fickle with her smiles, when you get one, she means it and it's wonderful. She is less vocal about her problems (wet diapers, hunger etc) and as a result she doesn't get held as much as a we would like. Having said that, she gets held a lot! But only because we make a point to do so. Lexi is observant. She is often content to watch and inspect things.
Lexi is pretty and slight. She looks like herself and her sister.
In summery, our Alexis might be described as an introspective, content and lovely baby. That seems ridiculous to me though. Because sometimes she is very loud, very angry and not very pretty. It's fun to imagine the person that she will become and it's easy to think about her as a writer or even a scientist. But she could just as easily become a police officer or a figure skater. All we can do is nurture that potential and encourage her to become herself. Which is what I should be doing right now, incidentally. So we're off to the rain forest for 20 minutes of play, tummy time and rolling over. Maybe there will be an airplane ride or two, and maybe she'll finally look at her sister and really see her. Or maybe she'll scream, and throw up on the giraffe. Anything is possible!
Have a terrific weekend everyone!
It's not that we don't love Alexis (we certainly do!), but I thought it might be nice to celebrate each girl individually for one week. We got a lot of video of Mathilde this week so it seemed a good fit to make it her week. So tune in next week for all the goods on Lexi....
8 Weeks old today! I can hardly believe it. I guess I can stop saying that now since it will probably be true every Friday for the rest of my life. Time has doubled in speed, or at least that's how it seems. Each day races by and each week is a blur. I wonder why that happens once you have children. Maybe it's just me? Maybe it's that with two babies every task takes twice as long and before I know it, an hour, or two has shot by in what felt like ten minutes. I'll have to find a way to slow down.
So Mathilde met the mayor last Sunday. We were invited by the city council to attend a meet and greet of all new residents of Lac-Beauport and city council members at the community center last Sunday. It was really lovely! They served wine and beer and an assortment of finger foods. They played nice music and had a clown set up in the next room with babysitters for the children. We kept the girls with us, of course, and eventually Tilly woke up to be nursed. Once she was finished I put her up to burp her while the mayor was giving his talk. She was bright eyed and smily faced and so managed to get herself repeatedly photographed by communications officer for the local paper. She had everyone's attention focused on her and away from the mayor; she had effectively stolen the show! The mayor turned out to be a forgiving soul however, and he made a point of meeting our Tilly during the social portion of the event. Her sister, incidentally, slept through the entire affair.
Tilly has been smiling more and more each day. Which is sort of funny since she's the one we affectionatley call the Screamy Screamington. It has more to do with the nature of her complaints than the frequency of them though. Tilly has, from day one, made her displeasure known by emitting a high pitched squeel. It's very feminine, in fact, and it never fails to make us laugh. (She'll no doubt hate us for that later in life when it follows a thwarted attempt to get candy or whatever). Either way, she has increasingly been giving us the most charming open mouthed, gummy grins. She's not quite laughing yet, but she responds to tickling, smiling and the sudden appearance of a parent. She does not, however, care much for her sister. She proved this by puking on her the other day when her father held her over her sister who was lying on the change table. Oh well, maybe next week.
It is funny though how the girls go out of their way to avoid looking at one another. The dog (River) also fails to exist for them. They are only interested in our faces, and those of complete strangers. If we hold the girls up to one another, they will go to extravagant lengths to avoid making eye contact. We have no idea why. Perhaps it stems back to something that happened in the womb? They're certainly not talking anyway.
Today is our first day alone without Ivan. So far so good. The girls are dressed with real clothes on. River and I have had breakfast and I even made the bed this morning. That's a real accomplishment. I will sign off though since they are in their swings/chairs and I'm trying not to rely too heavily on those things. Tilly has just started her protesting anyway. She says "Ah Gee" (hard G) over and over again. We're going to go and have tummy time for a while and then maybe a nap? Wish me luck. Until next week!
