There are still days when I can't believe I have twins. Two babies and one pregnancy. I just can't wrap my mind around it. I have now had three months to wrap my mind around it, but it still catches me off guard some days.
Emma and Ella are three months old. They have grown and changed so much. They are weighing around 12 pounds I am sure. They were 11 pounds 4 oz (Emma) and 11 pounds 14 oz (Ella) at their eight week check up. Essentially they have doubled their birth weights. So much growing!! One day shy of her three month birthday Emma rolled over in her crib while swaddled to her belly. She rolled from her belly to her back a few weeks back. She has enjoyed snoozing on her belly. I don't let her do that often, but when needed she will lay on her belly and just go to sleep in the middle of the living room floor as if there weren't two older siblings jumping and playing wildly all around her. Ella amazes me in her contentment to lay across my legs on her belly while sucking on her hands. If she is fussing this is how I will position her. Ella hasn't done much rolling. She is more like a rock and much less happy to be positioned on the floor on her belly. She is improving her ability to hold her head up so she will be rolling soon. I just started putting the girls in their Bumbo seats, and they love them! They are enjoying the new view of life from sitting. Neither of them is particularly happy to be swinging or placed in a bouncy seat. They both prefer to be held. There are many a days spent holding them both while chasing Hadley and entertaining Jackson. I have learned how to nurse Emma while having Ella placed across my legs. It is amazing what you will and can do in order to make two babies happy at once. I have held a baby with my leg and in place with my chin....must get creative when you only have two hands and four children (two of which are newborn twins!)
Pacifiers are such a big deal in a little babies life. Emma loves hers and can't go to sleep without it. Ella on the other hand will take hers occasionally. She prefers to cry herself to sleep. It is difficult to let her just cry, but she does it in little 20 to 30 seconds bouts of crying and then will just dose off to sleep. I realized when I was stuffing her pacifier in her mouth I was making her angrier. One evening I simply held her while she cried in these little bouts and she just fell asleep. I had never seen anything like it!
The girls eat well. Emma was born knowing how to suck and eat. Ella struggled at first and was labeled with a disorganized tongue. She quickly caught on and easily surpassed Emma in weight. When we were discharged from the hospital Ella was 6.0 and Emma 6.2. At five days Ella was 7 ounces less than Emma. At eight weeks Ella had surpassed Emma by 10 ounces! Emma reversed rolls with Ella and became a very particular positional eater. She wouldn't tandem feed with Ella and would just happily suck on her pacifier while waiting for me to position her cross body. She did this for a few weeks, but has come around and feeds when positioned tandem football hold or cross body. The only time she fusses while eating is when she hasn't pooped. This girl can produce and explosive poop like I have never seen. She usually does it while we are out and about in her car seat. She has ruined several outfits! I have learned new ways to clean clothes because of her explosiveness!
The girls are finally settling into a better sleep routine. Actually sleeping longer than thirty minutes at a time. They have taken turns taking long naps just the last two days. We will see how today goes! They still don't like to stay awake longer than 45 minutes. This is so key! If I can get them down right around 45 minutes of wake time they will easily put themselves to sleep. Because of Hadley Rose I have been forced to let them put themselves to sleep. She usually will run in to the room screaming or yelling or grabbing a baby or patting their heads, pulling their arms while I am trying to put them to sleep. It was just easier to swaddle them and lay them down. If Hadley wasn't pulling at her sisters she would either be in the pantry sneaking food or throwing something down the toilet. These girls didn't stand a chance of being quietly rocked to sleep!
Their little lives revolve around sleep, food and poop! They are able to stretch out their feedings at night to 5 hours and up to seven at times. Ella longer than Emma. I have been letting Emma lay in bed with me while we wait for Ella to wake up so that Emma goes back to sleep and I can feed them at the same time. I have at times let them feed separately at night, but it is a nightmare. Literally up all night! I have spent many a nights in the recliner sleeping with two babies. This is often how I manage to get five hours of sleep. I just fall asleep with them at their bedtime around 8 o'clock. We bought a big rocking recliner just so I could feed them tandem with my brestfriend pillow, which is large, and sleep with both of them. It has been a lifesaver!
I must mention how much Emma hates the car. Ella will simply fuss a bit and go to sleep, but Emma will scream for longer than 45 minutes. I learned my lesson while traveling to Tulsa with them and Emma screamed relentlessly for 45 minutes. I stopped every fifteen minutes to calm her without relief. I won''t be doing that again anytime soon! They were about ten weeks old at the time. We spend a lot of time in the car so I hope Emma will outgrow her hatred for the car. While Jackson was in school it was a relief to get in the car and get out of the house. The girls would just sleep and Hadley would quietly watch a movie. Unfortunately Emma's screaming has made our car rides much less enjoyable. We usually arrive at our destination with Emma screaming so she goes into my baby carrier and Ella into the stroller. We usually walk around the store with at least one baby screaming. I have learned to just smile at those that pass by and make comments like, "wow you have your hands full". No Kidding! "Are they twins?" Umm yes!
If we go for a quick grocery run this consists of babies in the stroller and wearing Hadley on my back with the Ergo. It is the only way to go! And I needed to go just to get out of the house. When I carry Emma I can put Hadley's seat onto the stroller and she can ride. This must make for a horrifying sight because this is when we get the most stares and comments. I can get as many groceries that will fit into my stroller basket + a reusable shopping bag hooked onto the stroller handle via my mommy hook. There are just some things that we can't leave home without...the Britax B-ready stroller and seat attachment and my Ergo. Not to mention the minimum of six diapers plus one for Hadley, two boxes of wipes, two burp cloths, two onesies for the occasional blow out, and four pacifiers...those things bounce away like rubber balls.
As I listen to them cry, at this exact moment, they are attempting 45 minute naps again this morning....of course, I am reminded of how easily I can tell their cries apart. I never thought I knew my baby's cry, but they are very easy to identify and tell apart. Extremely unique and very different. Travis can't tell them apart, but I can every time and from a very early age. Ella has more of a cat dying cry as I call it and Emma a very typical newborn wah wah.
I have heard so much crying and especially newborn crying gets to my nerves quickly. I want to fix it and make it better. Not easily done when driving across town or handling two babies at once. To be honest with myself, I have wanted to cry, scream, drive off the road, and bang my head against the steering wheel more than once! When the girls are both screaming Jackson will often escape to his room. Hadley on the other hand seems less effected. If she is effected she herself will start crying, which sends Jackson escaping to his room every time! Hadley and Jackson are very attached to their headphones in the car. I need a pair myself. I have been seen driving with my elbows while holding my ears with my hands. Yes it is that bad at times.
I simply do not have enough lap space for all of these children. Hadley wants in my lap when the girls are feeding and I have to convince her to lay next to me or in the middle of the brestfriend pillow. She will push the babies out of her way or just grab my arm and put it around her. She wants the middle of my lap! She has handled the twins interrupting her little life so well, but there are times when she just needs Momma! The girls were less than two weeks old, Gigi and Daddy were here and could not get Hadley to bed. She was screaming so loudly I could not fall asleep hearing her in that much distress, although desperately needing sleep myself. I went into her room, rocked her, talked to her and put her to bed within five minutes...sometimes you just need Momma and their isn't enough of me to go around.
Jackson has taken the brunt of less Momma to go around. He has been a trooper. He has been a little more emotional at times, and I can't help but think it is because he gets less of me than he is used to. He has been forced into more independence and alone time. Being my first child and having me to himself for four years he isn't exactly the king of independence. Just in the last few weeks I have emerged from the newborn stage and have been able to sit with him and do his workbook, learn site words, and help him read. He has come so far in kindergarten and can easily read his BOB books. We are starting on some Dr. Seuss books in order to boost his confidence in his ability to read. He is reading these with very little help. We started with Green Eggs and Ham and are working on Go Dog Go. He thought that he could not read because BOB books aren't real books he said. So we have moved on to real books! Next up tying shoes and loosing teeth!
Hadley + Jackson. As expected they fight and they play well together! She does whatever he does. She loves to follow him and play with him. He enjoys her most of the time, but also wants her to leave him alone when he is creating something or playing something he thinks she will mess up. He loves waking her up from naps, chasing her, giving her piggybacks, racing her, reading with her and swinging together. She will take his lap as a substitute for mine. When she wakes up and I am feeding both girls and simply can not hold her she will snuggle with Bubba. He sweetly gives her the best snuggles he can. When Hadley wakes up the first thing she wants to know is where Bubby and Daddy are. Jackson was often gone to school by the time she would wake up in the weeks after the babies were born because Uncle Jerry was taking him to school for me. She notices his absence very quickly.
We have kept Jackson busy with soccer and t-ball in the girls first three months of life. The girls were at their first soccer game at two weeks of age. It was my way of making sure we got out of the house. There are always lots of hands on deck at Jackson's games. Mimi, Poppy, Uncle Jerry and Aunt Jan are almost always at his games. This means lots of people to help hold babies! Jackson was awesome at soccer this season. He scored three goals in one game. He was aggressive and not afraid to go after the ball. We loved cheering him on. I learned to count to four after leaving him behind after one of his games. I am now always counting to four when we are out in public. That is the downside of having so many hands on deck. It just means I have to see who is with which kid. Fortunately Jackson was smart enough to find his coach's wife, who led him straight to us. I was overwhelmingly thankful that God was watching over him that morning.
Three months means we are phasing out of the newborn stage. I am both glad and sad. There is just something special about mothering a newborn who is completely dependent upon Mommy. With their being two babies it is nice to be out of the newborn phase because there is hope that the babies will become happier and easier to manage for Daddy and others!
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