Chronicles of a Twin Mom: 4 months 06-27-2011

13 Weeks:
We made our first official trip to the lake and both Blake and Dax did so well in the car. My secret...a huge bottle right before leaving to put them in a milk coma and yes it worked. We spent our time in the house since the weather was very warm and they even decided to dress up for the Memorial Day occasion. Papa did not agree with my choice for his son; however once again he's a baby and I think his outfit was a grand choice for MD.

Doctors....
Blake has made it to 5 pounds 9 ounces so she was released to go every two weeks instead of every week. Our doc was so excited when he heard the news. At the same time he pulled the plug on my in home daycare that I found. My bubble was busted because I was so excited that I got into this particular day care and that all the parents are first time parents so I thought I was doing good against the illness fight. Since he pulled the plug he is writing a letter to the lady so we don't get a bad name in the "day care world". A term he found to be quite entertaining.

Bath Time:
As a clean freak when it comes to hygene one would think that I would do a better job on my children. My disclaimer is that I'm a new mother and I have never done this job before so here goes. I refer to all baby center articles and books and thought you give them a bath once or twice a week. All these references do not mention a head and butt cleaning daily until I got an article from what to expect. It said you need to clean them daily. Again sleep deprivation and common sense just flies out the door. I know in reality that I would want a clean butt and neck.

A few weeks later I kept smelling something more like a fish like infection type of smell that I could not figure out for the life of me. I was cleaning their necks nightly; however I realized I missed the area behind their ears. Yes crusty dried up milk behind their ears. It was the foulest smelling thing I've ever smelled....poor babies.

Personalities:
Dax- My sweet little guy who found his voice has decided that his mommy and daddy will end up flying through sitters. He loves to bow his back backwards, legs completely stretched out, red faced, big tears, and scream at the top of his lungs in the 8 o clock hour every night. This is his bed time routine that he has established. As long as it's not 8pm he's very content and enjoys the nap nanny. He babbles and smiles at us when we talk in high pitch voices and every time we see this it makes that 15 minutes of screaming torture become a thing of the past.

Chillin in the Nap Nanny

Blake- She is just as sweet as ever and such a laid back little one. She is starting to coo and babble at us and recently began smiling too. We constantly wear bows so that when she is able to pull them off she will feel like they are part of her head and leave them alone.

14 Weeks:
Our first night without the monster at 8pm two nights in a row and I'm hoping we have nipped this one in the butt. Dax has moved up to 5 ounces a feed and Blake is now in between 110cc and 4 ounces. We have come a long way since the days of TPN and 5cc's of food.

Blake is officially 6 pounds 12 ounces..YOU GO GIRL! This will be the only time in her life where we are super excited for a weight gain. Hopefully later in life she will have a petite little frame where she does not have to worry about her weight.

Smiles, smiles, and more smiles....
This is our absolute favorite! They are both smiling when we talk to them and it is simply the cutest and sweetest thing ever. Dax at 3AM loves to start smiling at me after I'm done feeding Blake.

Sleep..
So far both Blake and Dax have given us very little sleep until one night they decided to sleep from 8:30 to 4:50. I woke up prior thinking what's wrong, do we have a case of SIDS, did aliens abduct my babies? No, they were peacefully sleeping away. A couple of nights later they did the same thing. I've learned that if both of us are working the next day they do not give us this much needed sleep. Again it's like they know with their baby ESP that mom and dad have a hidden agenda.

This Coos for You...
Yes the sounds of my sweet angels making cooing noises along with their precious smiles melts our hearts every time. We have become a customed to burps, cries, and poop noises so this is a wonderful sound to hear. We started playing patty cake and this gets Mr. Dax going like no other. He just loves it. Blake coo's and smiles when she is laying on her back looking up at the play mat toys. She prefers my game we made up where we point out her nose, mouth, ears, and such.

15 Weeks: First piece of Tail
Dax got his first piece of tail the other day...dog hair that is. He grabbed Bellas tail and yanked some hair out. She surprisingly did not run and I'm sure this will not be the last time.

When he is on his playmat he will grab and hit his cow that hangs from the top. At first I didn't think he knew what he was doing until I sat and watched him do it over and over again and smile at the result. Blake was sitting right next to him watching, cooing, and smiling while this went on. I really think they knew what they were doing.

We ventured out to the pool for the first time. We stripped both down to diapers and put them on wet towels. They loved every moment of it. We even borrowed Elle's pink sunglasses and again they loved it. Father's day weekend we got both their own pair of shades and you would have thought they had been wearing shades forever. Both really were not bothered by it at all.

Four Month Check Up:

Dax: Today 6-29-2011
Dax weighed in at 12 pounds even, length 23.5 inches, and 15.5 head circumference. Overall he is in the 4th percentile for weight, 6 percentile for length, and 2 percentile for head. This is all based on a 4 month old baby. As you know, I'm a bit competitive and feel that's not a fair determination considering they are really 2 months gestation so of course I asked what it would be if we were looking at 2 month charts and he guessed that Dax would be in the 60 percentile range. This little man has come along way and today he ended the day by rolling over for the first time.

Blake:
Little Miss thing is now 8 pounds 3 ounces, length 20 inches, and 15 head circumference. Overall she is .02% for weight, below 3% for length, and .9% for head circumference. Again I asked about her as a 2 month old and was told around 20%. She is finally catching up, prior to today she was not even on the charts due to the slow growth. We have one last blood draw before our apt in July with the GI specialists and again we are hoping the results will be good so we can cancel that appointment....fingers crossed.

In the four month check up I was asked a series of questions regarding our routine, sleep, food etc. I must say I left with some confidence. One of the questions he asked was if they are sleeping in their own room. My response with hesitation yes, they only lasted in our room for 48 hours. I had no idea what the response would be and I was told I'm very rare and that he is usually convincing moms to move the babies to their own room. I left with an inflated head because I felt a little guilty for doing this so early but decided I could not handle the noise. I must say that I feel a lot better about this decision. Second question, Do you wait to go in the room in the middle of the night? My response...umm yah (again with hesitation) sometimes it takes a bit to wake me up does that count? Again I was told it's okay and that they will more than likely go back to sleep.

We have been on quite the ride and this journey continues to get better and better each day. Everyday we learn something new about one another and as we do this each day gets easier. Yes some days are extremely hard and others are easy; however I say to myself God gave us what we can handle and so far we seem to be doing okay. These children light up our life and we could not ask for anything more. Well maybe some more sleep and a date night. Please enjoy some of our favorite pictures from the past 4 weeks.

Ma and Pa Foster