4 months!

Our little angels are 4 months old!! We just got home from their official 4 month visit and they are both doing great. We made a plan to treat Nora's eczema and I have decided to continue to nurse for now and hope we can get a hold of the problem with some more diet modifications and medication. However, if nothing works we will go to formula. 

Nora is in the 75% in height, weight, and head circumference. She weighs 14.5 lbs, is 25 inches long and her head measurement was 16.5 inches. 

Zoe is in the 95% in height and 75% for her weight and head. She weighs 4.11 lbs, is 26 1/4 inches long and her head measured 16.5 inches.

So, the girls are about the same weight and have the same head size but Zoe is a lot taller! Which explains why Nora weighs less but looks much chunkier than little Zoester! 

Both girls are starting to babble a lot. Zoe must be the most social little creature to ever live. She never stops talking. She babbles herself to sleep, she babbles in her car seat, she babbles in her swing and babbles at her reflection. She gets SO excited when she makes eye contact with someone and realizes they want to talk to her. It.Is.So.Cute!! She is the kind of child who will skim right over a nap if anything is going on. She has to be in her bed in the dark to sleep. She just loves people.

Nora is not as much of a "people person". Nora loves one on one time with mommy singing or reading. She loves to smile at Zoe and has started cackling the cutest little squeaky laugh! However, Nora loves her sleep and unlike Zoe we have to make sure our little Nora gets her nap ON TIME or life is no bueno for anybody!! Nora's little smile and soft voice will melt your heart. It is just so sweet, but she is definitely our more serious child! 

It's interesting having twins because you can see two such different little personalities emerge. We originally thought Nora was really laid back compared to Zoe, but now I'm not sure. They both have their moments of freaking out and both have their sweet moments. Zoe has definitely evolved into a baby who can roll with the punches a bit better. She can handle a late nap, or hunger pretty well. Nora used to be that way but they seem to have switched personas this month! I guess we'll see if they switch back again. 

As far as their motor skills and things go they are both rolling some. Interestingly, Nora rolls from her tummy to her back and Zoe rolls from her back to her tummy. However, neither baby cares to do it much at all. Nora sleeps on her tummy and has been rolling to her back in the night and is none to happy about it! However, yesterday I went to get her up and she was on her back smiling at me! Progress!! 

Zoe pretty much always wants to be "standing" and looking around. When on her back she is always trying to sit up and is pretty annoyed I think that she can't sit up. She is trying so hard. Shes done it for a few seconds before falling so far. Yesterday, she even supported her weight on her legs and held onto the ottoman for a out 15 seconds! At 4 months! She's really a strong little thing! 

Nora is finally supporting her weight on her legs. She had earned the nickname "little blob" because every time we tried to get her to put weight on her legs she would just crumble into a blob. But now she's every bit as good as sister! 

Both girls are doing great with tummy time. No joke, when I realized I needed to be putting them on their tummies each day I put Zoe down and she popped up on both elbows and stuck her head straight up and smiled. She cracks me up. It took our little sweet blob a few weeks to master tummy time but now she can almost keep up with her sister. 

Nora loves to lay in her activity mat and swat at her toys. She loves all things yellow. She truly favors anything yellow. Its funny. Zoe likes to grab the toys and try to pull them down to put in her mouth. Just today she rolled to her side, picked up her empty bottle and started drinking from it. Looks like its time to make sure Zoe doesn't get her hands on things she can choke on! 

I'm learning that Nora is 100% on track developmentally, but Zoe is pretty ahead of he game in lots of ways. But for a while I worried that Nora was delayed. But shes not...she is just not as strong and motivated as Zoe in lots of ways. And that's ok! They are different people. 

I really can't wait to see if they continue to stay so different. Because right now I feel like they are pretty much opposites! I think Nora would like to spend the day in the sling with me cuddled up singing songs and talking and I think Zoe would like me to push her stroller into the middle of a crowded room and just let her "talk" to everyone! I can't imagine which child is like Lance and which is like me!? ;) 

Anyway, we are seriously enjoying these girls. It's gets better and better each day! We are blessed!!

My big girl at the doctor...poor thing didn't know what was coming :(

My little"er" angel at the doctor...sweet thing! 

Both girls one morning....but this day was rough! Two little fussy girls for some reason this day! 

Zo Zo with Mimi 

The girls playing with the Bradford girls one day!

Nora angel one morning! 

Our Nora Girl

Our sweet little Nora is struggling. She has had dry skin and tummy trouble her whole life and at about 4-6 weeks the doctor suspected she may have a sensitivity to dairy. I cut it all out of my diet and it seemed to help a bit. I was never completely sold however that she was allergic to milk. But who knows! Anyway, her dry skin turned into what looked like a teeny bit of eczema and that teeny bit of eczema tuned into a lot of eczema covering her little body and driving her nuts. 

For weeks now she won't sleep and spends most of the day crying if she isn't being held. It's very hard to hold a baby all day when she has a sweet little sister who needs you too! It's also very hard to know your baby is hurting and not know how to fix it. 

I took her to the doctor yet again because she was screaming inconsolably and pulling on her ears all week. I thought she had an ear infection. Nope. Maybe teething...but who can really tell! Anyway, times like this is would be so helpful for our whole family if sweet Nora could tell us what's wrong. Lance and I are very tired from getting up 5-10 times a night with her. She just lays in our arms and moans! Breaks our hearts!! 

I am considering putting Nora on a hypoallergenic formula the doctor recommended months ago. I have resisted and cut foods from my diet for months hoping something works and she just seems to get fussier with each passing day, and gets more and more rashy, and is now pretty much congested sounding all the time. She has pretty textbook food allergy symptoms. So even though I can pump 20oz at most times in the day....I may be putting Nora on formula. Stinky, expensive formula at that. But I truly don't care one bit at this point. We are just desperate for our little nugget to feel herself again, we are all ready to sleep again and I think Zoe is ready for mommy back too! 

Parenting truly is 1000 times harder than I could have imagined. Having a little helpless human counting on you to make all their decisions and keep them healthy and happy can be hard work at times!! But I'm so thankful to be the mommy of my little fussball and look forward to the day that she is no longer quite such a challenge!! She has SUCH a sweet, easy going personality and whatever is bothering her has made it hard for her to be her happy, sweet little self! Poor angel! 

We will see how her trial week of formula goes! I'm a bit skeptical but we shall see! :) 

Enjoy the Nora pic overload! She really is such a precious little angel & such a blessing to our family! We wouldn't trade her for the world! even when she sleeps 4 hours a night and screams for the better part of the other 20!! Not really, but maybe close! Hehe ;) 

Wide eyes first thing in the morning on her 4 month birthday

Colleague of cuteness!

Listening to mommy act like a crazy lady singing show tunes to get her to smile! 

Sweet angel after her first "sleeping through the night" it probably goes without saying based on this post, but sleep has been seriously regressing! 

Work

So on September 3 I start work. I am only working Monday and Tuesday late afternoon/evening so not much at all, but work it is! I am very excited to get out if the house for a few hours a coupe days a week, I am very excited to be able to contribute to a few bills, I am very excited to add a little speech therapy back into my week, and I am very very excited to have 10 hours a week with some guaranteed adult interaction, conversations where people talk back (well, in my line if work people don't always talk back but that's what I'm there for hehe), and something to take my mind off all things mommy for a few minutes. 

But I will admit that leaving the girls for 10 hours a weeks, even though I 100% trust their temporary care takers and daddy, is making me uneasy! I pretty eat, sleep and breath these two baby girls. I know them inside and out and know how they tick. Well, at least this week, they do love to change it up! I am telling myself that a little distance is healthy, that they will live even if at that evening nap Zoe isn't rocked up on my shoulder and Nora in the crease of my other arm while simultaneously putting in both pacis and singing "You are my Sunshine". But it's hard for me. I'm sure it's just first mom"itis" but I just hate to change things up on them! I worry that they will have a hard time with the change and wonder where I am. Am I giving a 3.5 month old too much credit!? I have been told by those I love most hehe that I am a baby micromanager. I think it's sadly true. But this letting go thing is HARD for me! 

But I think this will be a good lesson for me. I can get in my car, put on my music and say a quick prayer knowing they are in Gods hands and he is their ultimate protector, not me. And hello, they will be with my mom at my house Monday and a sweet nanny at the house Tuesday. Then Daddy takes over! He will do great and I must say, I'm a little glad daddy gets a taste of what two babies alone are like. He is so supportive of me and helpful, but I think he will gain a more clear picture of my days with them when he sees the "fun" getting two babies fed and asleep alone brings hehe! 

But I am very thankful for my job, for the flexibility it allows and for the opportunity to switch gears from mommy to speech therapist a couple evenings a week! Not that you can ever really turn off mommy brain! 

Wish me luck! :!

They won't ever know...

Today as I was sifting through my girls 6 month clothes, yes they have outgrown 3 month hehe, I found 3 little onesies from a friend that she's got at an adoption conference. They say "hope for orphans" and we have 3 of them. One just waiting for Jane. 

I was looking at Zoe & Nora in the little shirts and thinking, "man, they have no idea." They have no idea that they were born into a family who loves adoption. They have no idea that they will likely be going on multiple trips to Ethiopia, celebrating Ethiopian holidays, and "gotcha days". But then I thought about it some more and realized they will no nothing different. We won't have to teach them that no matter what color you are God loves us all the same. They will only know a life with siblings with different color skin. And we won't have to help them understand that you can still be a family, even if you have different biological mommies and daddies. They won't know a thing different. We wont have to explain to them how much Jesus loves orphans and that we are called to take care of them. They won't have any memories otherwise. All they will ever remember is a family, all mixed up with different colored people. 

Sometimes since having the girls I stop and think, "ok....what have I done. We finally have a really good system down here. Am I really about to rock the boat with another child who will likely have some special needs?" Because, having twins comes with some serious "special needs" and not a lot of sleeping, or eating, or cleaning, or talking to your husband or keeping up with friends. But when I stop and look into the future and know my girls will only know adoption as normal, when I realized we will have to teach them that we are in fact the "different" family it makes me smile! Because it took me a long time in my life to realize that as a Christian "different" is in fact our goal. We are supposed to be set apart. My girls will only ever remember being "different" and as odd as that sounds it makes me so very happy! 

I can't wait to see what God has in store for us with little Jane, because the last two gifts he gave us were pretty amazing!! :)