4 Month Wakeful Period?

Does anyone out there have babies that went through this?

I have been reading a lot about it tonight, and it appears to really be something that some babies do go through.

Our babies appear to be going through it.

We HAD been down to a great sleep pattern. The babies would go to bed around 8pm, get up around 2-3am, and then go back down until 6:30-7am.

That lasted a few weeks and it was blissful.

Then it seemed they were back to twice a night feedings - growth spurt, we thought.

That last a week or two, and then back to once a night.

Suddenly, we have been having some rough nights again...

Last night, it was like having newborns again. They went down without trouble at 7:45pmish, and then Abbey woke up at like 9:30pm (which she never does). Dave went in and was able to just pat her back until she fell back asleep. Then she woke up at 11:45pm, and was just up until almost 3am. Wide awake. Not fussy, just awake. I nursed her to sleep two seperate times, and each time as soon as I laid her in her crib her eyes shot open and she started wiggling. I tried to let just her be for awhile to see what happened, but sure enough soon it turned to fussing, and then to crying, and I had to pick her up and get her out of there before she woke her brother up, because at that point I was so exhausted I couldn't handle the thought of two crying babies (and most likely a crying Momma).

She finally went down about 3am, and then Luke woke up at 3:45am, and then back up at 5:00am, and then back up at 6:15am.

What happened to our good sleepers???

Yes- without getting into the Great Sleep Training Debate, I will say our babies do know how to put themselves to sleep. Or at least they did...


So- tell me, did anyone else experience this around this age? If so, what did you do?

Also, to those of you that swaddled your babies, when did you stop? And, how did you stop? Did you go cold-turkey? Did you try the one-arm-out swaddle?

I ask because Abbey seems to be busting out of her swaddle constantly lately, and I am wondering if that is part of her problem. But the girl wiggles like crazy and is soooo close to rolling over, and I think that is part of what is keeping her up. But from what I have read, most babies aren't free of the "startle reflex" until about 6months, and we had always intended to swaddle them until they are through that phase, so they don't wake themselves up when they experience that reflex. Now I am wondering though if her attempting to wiggle herself out of her swaddle is part of what is keeping her up? Maybe we need to stop swaddling her and she has to learn to fall asleep without that???

Ok-here's where you all come in. Time to help a sista out!! All of you!! Family, friends, blog buddies, lurkers...advice please!!!!

4 Months -Part one

On Tuesday, our little ones turned 4 months old!

I haven't gotten a post up with their 4 month "stats" yet, as it's been a rough week here at our house. Rough sleep-wise...the babies have gotten up approximately 247 times the last 2 nights and also seem to be having a hard time again with going down for naps. Rough stupid-little-things-wise like I was in a hurry while getting ready for work and accidentally grazed my nose with my curling iron, thus resulting in a curling iron burn. On the tip of my nose. Awesome. And rough bigger-things...hard patches of life come and go, and the devil can be relentless sometimes. And that's all I have to say about that.

Anyways...Luke and Abbey have their 4 month check up next week, so I will post what they are up to after that visit.


We did however manage to take their pictures Tuesday morning right when they got up from their nap:

L: I woke up happy from my nap =)
A:What is going on here?


Both: Hey! We like you guys! Picture taking is fun!! Today is going to be great!!


A: Um, I have decided I am no longer on board with this whole picture taking thing
L: I still am! Aren't I cute??


A: Ok, I am back on board now that Daddy is sitting next to me, I like him!
L: What a Diva


A: Now my feelings are hurt
L: I'm sorry...I didn't mean it...



Be back for Part 2 soon...=)

Smiles

The Mister

(he almost always stops smiling when the camera comes out, so I had to put it towards the side of us and play with him in order to try and capture some good old grins, so that's why these are blurry)


The Sister


They are getting sooooo fun!!!!

Take me out to the ball game

David plays on our Church's softball team once a week, and yesterday was their Summer Tournament. It's an ALL day event, and normally I go for (nearly) the whole day and cheer the guys on, but this year was a little different, since we have the twins =). It was supposed to be 95 degrees yesterday, which I realize isn't much for some of you Southern friends, but for us Oregonians, that's hot.

Auntie Natalie hadn't seen the babies in like 8 days which is far passed her limit (we are so blessed!!) so she came over in the morning and helped me load up the kidlets and head out to the ball park. We got there around 11:00am, just in time to catch the 3rd game. Our guys won (yea!) and it was really fun to get to see my cute husband play some ball =). The babies were SO good! They just hung out in people's laps, and then I nursed them (individually, of course...I find it hard enough to nurse one baby sitting on a backless bleacher, at the same time would have been impossible!) and then passed them off to take naps on Auntie Natalie...

(there's a sleeping Lucas under there)

After that game we stuck around for the break time and enjoyed some free BBQ and pizza. Again, the babies were so good!


It was so fun to get out and enjoy the beautiful -albeit hot- Saturday. I was so pleased to see the twins did so great and even each got some naps in. The thing I was most worried about was nursing them in public, and that went great! I just had to catch them before they got hungry, that way I didn't have one screaming hungry baby while I was trying to feed the other =)

After a few hours Natalie and I took the babies home and played with them. I got some adorable video of them each playing with their Auntie...but for some reason I can't get them to load right now =(. And since it's after 9:00pm and David and I just spent 45 minutes randomly rearranging our living room in a desperate attempt to create more space, I better sign off for now. I will figure out how to upload them later.

Happy Sunday all.

Faith Babies

My sweet friend Heather sent these onesies when I was pregnant, and I was so excited to dress our little miracles in them this week!

Luke

Abbey

Our sweet "faith babies" =)

My three favorites...

Weekend Review

First of all, Mary and Anna-you guys are TOO sweet! Offering to meet me to watch Ramona! I was so touched when I read your comments!! Do you think the movie will still be playing this time next month? Because we will be in Salem for a bit then!

We've had a great weekend here at our house!

We are so lucky to have 3 sets of grandparents who are always offering to babysit so Dave & I can have a date night. We haven't really taken advantage of these offers yet because I need to be here to nurse the babies before they go down for the night, and they don't go down until about 8pm. But we got a phone call from my Dad on Thursday saying that my stepmom was going to be meeting up with a friend here in town on Friday evening, and could he come and hang out with the babies? Sure! We all hung out a bit and then the babies went down for the night and Dave and I left to grab a late dinner at The Olive Garden...yummmm...=). It was so funny leaving for dinner and giving my Dad instructions on what to do if the babies woke up...a very "full circle" moment for me! HA!


GrandDad and Abbey

The excited couple =)

Saturday we just hung around the house and had a good balance of getting things done and doing absolutely nothing. I let David sleep in until almost 10:00am and you would have thought I bought him season tickets to the Blazers he was so happy! Hahaha. He kept saying all day how he had forgotten how nice it was to actually sleep in. The babies and I slept alright that night too. They each only got up once, which was back to what they had been doing before their little growth-spurt-back-to-twice-a-night-each-feedings. What's funny (or not really) is that I guess I had adjusted back to twice a night feedings in that week because I kept waking up throughout the night thinking "shouldn't a baby be up now?" until they finally did wake up to eat.

Speaking of the babies, they had lots of fun this weekend...

They ate/played with their lovies...


They practiced standing...



They tried out their new exersaucer...

Abigail wasn't quite sure what to think of this new thing:


Lucas was a fan though!


I was so excited to try out the exersaucer, and truthfully I may have tried it out a little early for them. They weren't quite into it yet. I had been researching them online and decided that this one was my favorite. Only problem was it retails for $99. Eek. I didn't love the idea of spending $100 on something with no guarantee our babies would even like it. So I did some Craigslist shopping and found the exact one I wanted for $30- yahoo! And I was pleasantly surprised when I went and picked it up to find it in PERFECT condition. I still ran some bleach wipes over every inch of it since my babies will no doubt try to eat it.


And today something very noteworthy happened.
I got myself and the babies up, dressed, fed, and out the door to Church all by myself and we were even on time.

Stop for a moment and take that all in with me.

*Pat self on back*

Every Sunday David runs the sound for the Church service, so he leaves early and goes and sets up while the Praise Band practices. Since the babies have been born, he usually comes back after that during the Sunday School hour and helps me get the babies ready and entertains them while I get ready. Since they have been so much better about entertaining themselves (and each other) for longer periods of time, I decided to give it a try on my own this morning. It went great!! Just look how cute they looked before we left:


After Church we came home, ate lunch, the babes took a little nap, and then I fed them and we headed out for a nice walk around the neighborhood. Today all the streets around us were blocked off so people could ride their bikes in between the parks that surround us. The parks had little events and booths at them.

(Don't worry, I positioned her properly in the Bjorn right after we took this photo. It just amazed me -and worries me!- how she can wriggle herself into different positions in this thing so easily!)


And now it is wayyyy past my bed time so I must end this post.

Hope you all had a great weekend too!

Some home movies

These are from a few weeks ago, and of course the babies were both hamming it up big time until we got the camera out =). But here's some small clips of Abbeygirl chatting with us after bath time, and Lucas on the day he first officially laughed =)

Abbey tells a little story...

Luke little giggle...

I know I am 29 years old...

...but I totally want to see this movie!



I grew up reading these books and had a total flashback to childhood when I saw the preview the other day.

I just may have to find the time to go sit and munch on popcorn and watch Ramona Quimby get into some mischief.

Who's with me?

Ode to my husband

Ya'll, I am blessed.

I am married to a wonderful man.

I could go on and on about how great he is, but the mush factor on a scale of 1 to 10 would be 112 and for your sake I will avoid that.

But I do have to brag about this one thing...

So ever since the twins have transitioned to only waking up once during the night to eat (for the most part that is), I have been able to handle the feedings completely by myself. Especially since most of the time only one wakes up and I can dash in there before the other does, I can feed them independently and that makes it SO easy to handle by myself. I usually feed whomever woke up, change them, and then rock and settle until drowsy, lay them back down to go to sleep, and then wake the other and repeat. The whole process usually takes just under an hour and a half. Then I head back to bed.

Then, in the morning, when a baby cries out (usually Luke wakes up first), something wonderful happens...
My man pops out of bed, runs into the nursery, grabs that baby, and takes him out into the living room (so the baby monitor doesn't act as a bullhorn) and changes, cuddles, rocks, and just generally "fends off" the baby (or babies) for 5, 10, to 15 minutes.

Why does he do this?

So that I can lay in bed.

Yup.

You see I am NOT a morning person.

At. All.

I am soooo cranky when I first wake up and start my day. What's funny is I honestly didn't know how bad it really was until the babies came. That's because before, David and I rarely got up at the same time (we always started work at different times) and so I would always have the morning to myself. I would wake up (after hitting the snooze at least once), and stumble into the shower. I would spend approximately 20 minutes in there, just waking up. Then go downstairs and get my coffee and begin my day. If David was either asleep when I left, or had left before I got up, then sometimes I wouldn't utter a single word until I got to the office. All that time in the morning to myself...

I had no idea how important all that time was. I apparently absolutely require alone time in the morning before I can open my mouth.

Or at least before I should open my mouth.


After our routine began to set in with the babies, we noticed a pattern of them waking anywhere between 5:30 and 6:45am each day, and just decided we would both get up and our family would begin the day together. Well, the first few mornings of this, I was just so cranky. Snippy. Rude.

David took it in stride.

He handles mornings better than I do.

(He also can drink more than one cup of coffee as he is not nursing.)

(He also is getting a full nights sleep.)

(And he also just loves me very much.)

After a few mornings of him trying to exchange pleasantries and me biting his head off in return, he gently suggested that he get up with the kids first thing and that I stay in bed for a bit (and wait for Satan to give me back). I argued "but they are hungry in the morning", to which he pointed out that he was perfectly capable of entertaining them for a few minutes while I adjusted myself to the day.

It has made a world of difference.



After he jumps up to the nursery, I lay there in bed and stretch and yawn and pray. I ask God to give me the grace to accomplish what He would like me to accomplish that day. I ask Him to grant me patience, and love, and wisdom.

Then I get out of bed, head out to the couch, adjust my back pillows and giant twin nursing pillow, and my sweet husband hands me our children. Then he goes in to the kitchen and magically returns with my coffee with just the right amount of fat free french vanilla creamer in it, and something to munch on.

Seriously, how lucky am I?

He may not be a perfect man, but he is the perfect man for me.

The color purple

Lots of purple around our house these days...


Purple baby lips




When they woke up the first morning after we tried this stuff, they had it all over their lips, cheeks and faces! We kept saying how they looked like characters in the movie "Braveheart"....FREEDOM!!!!!!!!! hahaha.


We have purple stains on sheets & blankies & shirts.

All this purple thanks to Gentain Violet, which is working wonders for our thrush! Thanks to those of you that suggested it, and a HUGE thanks to my amazing sister Natalie who drove to 47 different stores to get it for us.


Oh, and also, a purple pinky toe...



'Cauz I broke it.


And do you know what you do for a broken toe? Absolutely nothing apparently.


Not much else going on around here. Lazy weekend for our family. Natalie was here Thursday and Friday, which is always fun =) She made us a super yummy dinner and we played Scrabble.
We stayed home from Church today because our family needed some more sleep. We've had some off nights this week. Don't know if it's the hot weather or perhaps a growth spurt, but Abbey has re-introduced a 12:30am feeding three out of the last five nights. Then Luke is up around the usual 3am, and I learned I've got to wake Ab's up after he goes back down and feed her again, or she'll no doubt wake up the minute my head hits the pillow =). This morning when Dave's alarm went off at 7am, both babies were sound asleep...a rarity in this house! So we took advantage of it and slept more too. Luke woke up a little before 8am, and we woke Abbey at 8:45am! I know what so many of you are thinking - The Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt never wake a sleeping baby- well with twins that "rule" doesn't really apply, or they will be on opposite schedules all day!

Hope you all are having a nice weekend =)

Pictures

Play time together!

A Lucas smile!

An Abigail smile!

Big boy in his (sisters) bumbo chair.

Sweet girl


All tuckered out. In a pink boppy.That's what happens when you have a sister 15 minutes younger than you, you end up in pink a lot. (Can you see his eyelashes?)

Abbey's new version of tummy time.

Abbey Mae in the sweet little spring dress I wrote about earlier...

Little Luke straight chillin'...

Come on Momma, put the camera down and let's go for a walk already!

Miracles do happen...

This morning, in a rare moment of curiosity, I decided to weigh myself again to see if the scale did in fact say that number yesterday...

...and right then and there I witnessed a miracle.

I am back down those 6 pounds.

Overnight.

Maybe it was the desperate power walk I took the babies on yesterday evening. Maybe it was the 4 oatmeal cookies I ate after dinner. Maybe the makers of Pop-tarts knew their profits were about to plummet and so they all got together and prayed for a miracle. And God heard their prayers!


Whatever it was, I'll take it!

But even though the "new" 6 are gone, the original 13 are still there, so I still am going to jump back on the Weight Watchers train next week. But I am feeling less of a push now to be hardcore about it.

Here's to unexpected blessings =)

List-style Monday

**Thrush update- Luke's little mouth is already looking A LOT better, and he's only had 3 rounds of the little mouth wash...Hooray! Abbey's is looking about the same, but she didn't have it as bad as him to begin with. Looks like we are on the right track. I am still dealing with cracking, redness, and soreness externally and sharp shooting pains internally. But, hopefully we will see an end to that soon too. (Thanks Lindsay for the "cocktail"! The ped had only recommended Monistat for me so that's all I had been using. The cortisone and ointment are very helpful for the itching and soreness.) The babies don't seem too bothered by all this, and it could be argued that it's making me fussier than it is them. =). I don't mean to be a whiner, but last night the shooting pains were so bad I actually took a pain pill left over from my c-section!



**Thank you for the great crockpot recipe ideas! I am looking forward to trying all of them, and hoping to get a few more, so if you are reading this and have a great, EASY, crockpot recipe, see two posts below and leave a comment with your recipe!



**So at my 6 week post partum follow up, I stepped on the scale (required-ugh) and was pleasantly surprised to learn I only had 13 pounds left to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I was thrilled to realize that my weight loss plan of sitting on the couch nursing twins all day and eating anything and everything I wanted had paid off. =). Shortly after this I read that a woman nursing twins needs about 3000 calories a day and a QUART of milk. That explained why I was so FAMISHED all the time! Seriously, I am so hungry ALL the time. Way more than when I was pregnant. So with some of the weight having come off so easily, and with reading that I actually "needed" an insane amount of calories a day, I continued to give myself license to eat anything and everything I want, whenever I want. And friends, it's not pretty. My diet often includes Poptarts and cookies and ice cream and licorice. Not pretty. Fun, but not pretty. Today I stepped on the scale (ONLY because David and I wanted to see how much the babies weighed, and we figured if we weighed ourselves without a baby and then with one, we could get a pretty accurate weight) and was horrified to find out I am UP SIX POUNDS. That's six in addition to the original 13.

So it turns out the sit-around-all-day-nursing-and-eating-tons-of-junk diet is not working for me after all. Bummer. Looks like it's time to jump back on the Weight Watchers train. But not until next week. I am giving myself one more week of freedom...mainly because my sister made a giant batch of delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookies just the other day and I am powerless against them.



**Yesterday I dressed Abigail up in a spring dress I had purchased back in October of 2006. I was pregnant and shopping at the Carter's outlet. Even though it was too early to know the sex of the baby, the dress was downright adorable and on sale so I bought it. It even had a matching hat. I remember when we lost that pregnancy, I was so sad packing up all my pregnancy and baby stuff, and when I put away that dress I remember staring at it for awhile and wondering if I would ever have a baby girl to put it in. Flash forward 3 and 3/4 years, and there I stood in Church, swaying and holding my precious little Abbeygirl, wearing that very same dress, and singing the verse "Hope which was lost, now stands renewed". Amen.


Happy Monday all.

Ugh.

Two posts in one day?! What would prompt such a thing you ask????

A need to complain.

Lucas. Has. Thrush.

And we are pretty sure I do to.

Ugh.

On my way to Walgreens to pick up an RX for the wee babes (Abbey is just starting to show signs, so we are treating them both.)

Every binky we own is currently being boiled on our stovetop, along with every pumping piece I own.

And as per the doctor, we will sterilize them every.single.day until none of us are showing any symptoms...which could be up to two weeks from now apparently.

It feels a little like headlice.

Did I mention UGH???

Well, at least he isn't showing any signs of being in any pain. He is still nursing just fine...thank God. Please pray he continues to. We have worked so hard to get to this point with breastfeeding and I just can't even stand the idea of taking a step backwards...

Thanks for listening.

Pics and a question

Hey all! What a blogging slacker lately =)

Here are a few pics from the last 2 weeks...


A coworker of mine made the babies these ADORABLE cupcake hats, and Emily and I had dress up time with them one day before a walk...

Most days when I get home from work (right before 6pm) the babies are really drowsy. I nurse them for about a half hour, and then we play for a bit, then I nurse them again around 7:30pm and then they head to bed after that.
Well the other day I came home to some seriously tired babies...

Lights. Out.

Isn't that hilarious?!


Anyways, lastly I am wondering what wonderful 4-6 hour crockpot recipes you all have out there...come on, give 'em up! It's been working great if a couple days a week we can throw something in the crockpot before I leave for work and then have dinner DONE already when I get home. But I am already running out of recipes, so I need your help! And by the way, I am more looking for quick throw-all-the-ingredients-in-the-crockpot kind of recipes, not the ones that take 27 hours to PREP before even starting the timer. Thanks!

Happy Saturday!