8 months

I'm a few late....but the girls are 8 months old! This month has for sure been the best one yet!! The first half of month 7 was rough. Lots of fussiness and sleeplessness and just generally a tough transitional type of month. Month 8 however, has brought much needed sleep, crawling, pulling up, cruising, lots and lots of laughing, lots of eating, lots of playing and just lots of fun! 

Nora:

You started crawling last month and went from no crawling to perfect crawling overnight. It was crazy. You love to pull up on the couch or ottoman. Your most favorite activity is standing at your little activity gym toy and pushing all the buttons. You really get toys, and get what they do. You pay really close attention to things and I really think you understand how a lot of toys work. You also have a great memory! Just the other day, while I was under piles of adoption reading, I let you play in the refrigerator for a long time! The next morning as I was carrying you into the living room you were craining your neck searching for the fridge and the second I put you down you crawled over and went right to the door and started trying to get in! You are more of a laid back player than your sister and will stick with the same activity for some time before moving on. You have a passion for puffs. You would munch on them all day. You are a very efficient eater, which is evidenced by your almost 21 lb self, and have mastered the little pincer grasps to get food in. We've tried pretty much every food with you besides dairy and you have been doing great. We have been slowly upping your dinner to more grown up foods and you do really well. The other night when you were watching TV and eating black beans and rotisserie chicken I really had to take a step back and let the bigness of you soak in! You were not a big fan of babbling consonant sounds at 7 months, your speech pathologist mommy tried very hard to just roll with it, but I would be lying if I didn't admit that it was really bothering me! Your daddy liked to make fun of me and come home at night and ask how we were doing on our consonants for the day. But now you are babbling up a storm! You are generally just really loud actually. Your current fav string of sounds to make is "mamama" and although I know you have no idea what that means yet, I love to hear it! You have started sleeping through the night more often than not. Well, if we do a "dream feed" you will sleep through the night and if we don't you won't. But really, I will take it. Your sleep up until lately was not great. You are seriously on the brink of your two bottom teeth coming in. I feel like you have been trying to get those teeth for 4 months. But lately your gums are super swollen and you are permanently just chewing on your bottom lip which is just what your sis did right before hers made an appearance! You are super smiley and happy and such a pleasant little person. However you definitely continue to be exponentially more high maintenance than your sister. You only like taking bottles before naps or at bedtime. You have no interest in taking a bottle if it's not right before sleep. I can pull this off all feedings except the one around 4-4:30. You have been know to flail and scream and gag on occasion.....but 30 minutes later you act as though you have been starving and suck down 6oz. Very strange. You also go down very easily each night at 6pm and take a 4oz bottle. However, you always wake up around 7pm and want the remaining 2 oz. You would scream for hours if we didn't go in and give you this tiny bottle. You are then out for the night. Again, very strange! Come to think about it, you will never finish a bottle unless we are in your room. But ya know, oh well I suppose. You are also not one that can drift to sleep. If you get tired in the car or on a walk we will hear about it until you find your bed. You nap every day at 9 & 1. I can count on it. It's great! You are just the best, cutest, chunkiest, smiliest little baby and we love you more and more each day!! Your person is really starting to show and as far as I can tell you are going to be a really really sweet little girl, with some high maintenance tendencies. We love you baby Nor Nor!

ZoZo:

You are a person with places to go and things to see! You are all over the place. Your are an awesome crawler, but spend most of your time on your feet cruising all around the house. Just today I was having coffee with a friend in the living room and looked over and you were just standing there. I just looked at you confused for a second and then you crawled away like normal. About 15 minutes later you did it again and then took a couple steps. I was shocked and can't believe how close you seem to walking! You now pull up on the ottoman and hold on with one hand while you bend down to get your toys off the floor. It's so big girl"ish" to me! You have masterd opening cabinets and are still really tall so you can pull every thing off the top of our tables. We have had a couple broken things and have now cleared everything off everything! Everyday I find you somewhere that isn't really all that safe and continue to realize our house isn't as "baby proof" as I thought. We will be really working on that soon! You are really hyper and never stop. This is new. It's like you all of a sudden realized this big giant world around you and are just too thrilled about it to sit still. Twice I have found you in the fire place eating soot. Yes, our ottoman now permanently lives in front of the fire place. You love peek a boo and crack up laughing each time. I love to see you laugh and see your little bottom teeth! You have also started waving at everyone you see and saying "hi". Well more like, "haaaa" but you say it the same way every time and only when you are waving. I honestly kind if think it's a real word. Which is about right for you because you seem to want to try to stop being a baby earlier than you are supposed to...and although we are all very amused by you, I would like you to slow down! You are still a great sleeper, you always have been, but lately have been waking up some and standing up in your crib peeking over the top. I think you are just trying out your new skills and very aware that we are out in the living room without you. We have been ignoring you some and it kills me. Lately when I go get you from your nap you are usually sitting up in your crib just looking at me like "hello I've been up for a while mom". You kind of look like a little prisoner and not a baby the way you sit in the corner pouting! You are a talker and are always giving us all kinds of baby talk. You say "mama" and "dada" too and I can't wait until you know what those words mean! You are super easy with feeding and sleeping and napping. You will take a bottle anywhere and don't really need to be rocked too long to calm down. I love you and your sis equally, but I'm glad you are a bit easier! Your only hard habit is that you have some for real separation anxiety. You really don't like me leaving your side at all. It can make a mamma tired....but I sure do love snuggling you and your sis! You have become a much bigger fan of solid foods and are still perfecting the art of using your fingers the right way. You still wear a lot of your food. So far the only food you seemed to love and eat up in a minute flag was chicken and bananas that I just boiled and shredded up. We couldn't believe how you were shoveling it in! Zoester....you are awesome and we love you so much!! 

Little girlfriends we love you so much and cannot believe how big you are starting to seem!! We are so blessed by you and are so glad you are happy & healthy!!

Sink bath time 

Nora watching baby Einstein from her exersaucer 

Cutie patoots

Nora loving life and Zoe annoyed at people talking to her

The girls chasing me as I try to get out the door to unload the car

Black bean face

My tall angel girl 

More crawling practice 

Other black bean face

Max having a sleep over! He told Betho he lubed living at our house!

Naked fatties

My morning coffee audience 

A day in the life...

*****disclaimer....this is LONG and probably boring to 99.99% of readers. It's for me! 

A twin mom friend of mine did a "day in the life of a working mom of twins" post so I thought I'd do a day in the life of a stay-at-home mom of twins post. I do work Monday and Tuesday evenings, however I did the math and spend a total of 4% of my week away from the girls. So yes, I am claiming SAHM. :)

-Everyday I arise between 5:00-5:30 and give Zoe a bottle. It's the rare morning that she doesn't want to eat around 5am. I then, in an attempt to start the day off well with schedules, go in and feed Nora a bottle too. Lance gets up at 5:45 for work, so if they wake up close to his scheduled wake up time I usually toss him a bottle and have him go feed one. It's pretty funny each morning because he is always SO out of it and usually makes it to the kitchen with a bottle and then says something along the lines of "ok, now what am I doing and who am I feeding?"

-I then get back in bed until around 6:30am when I am summoned by one or both girlies. They usually wake up within about 20 minutes of each other. Nora is starting (knock on wood) to finally stop waking up at night so the mornings are a bit less treacherous now that she has slept through the night recently.

-Once the girls are up I change their diapers, put down a quilt for them to play on and get out their toys for the morning. Once they are happily playing I usually get myself a cup of coffee and sometimes a bowl of cereal. It's pretty funny lately however, because they are both crawling and pulling up on everything so my days of putting them in one spot and finishing a meal are pretty much over. So I usually get a few sips of coffee and cereal and am left with a half cold cup of coffee and soggy bowl of cereal after I am done chasing people, picking up knocked over jars of puffs, comforting both girls over and over after bumping their heads after attempting to pull up on the ottoman or crawling full speed ahead into a bar stool and changing a few diapers in between!

-We play pretty hard until about 7:30 and then we do breakfast. I usually feed them bananas or a squeezie with mixed fruit. I am now suspecting that Nora is allergic to gluten...add it to the list....and have stopped doing as much oatmeal. I did however find some regular oatmeal that doesn't have any of her suspected allergies and she did great. Zoe not so much, but that's ok.

-After breakfast we play some more and around 8:45 we do bottles and at 9am we do naps. Nap time can go one of two ways at our house. On a lucky day I can feed the girls and leave the less tired, more chipper, baby in the living room in an exersaucer or pack n play while I put the other down. But on the not so lucky days the baby left in the living room screams and screams until I get them and I am usually rocking one baby while another is crawling at my feet and often crawling right under the rocker and getting pinched and screaming more! It's quite the sight to see. Also, my sweet little Nora Beth doesn't really like to take a bottle anywhere but in her room in the dark with her sound machine on (ummm, yes she is a bit high maintenance) so I often have to feed her in her room which is way to long to keep Zoe alone so that's where the baby crawling all over the floor in the dark comes into play!

-The girls are napping champs and are usually both asleep by 9:05 and sleep until around 10:30, sometimes 11. On Monday  & Tuesday I am forced to be responsible and usually wash bottles and get everything ready for Betho's house Monday or my mom Tuesday and then get ready for work. I don't leave until 2pm, but it's usually my only down time. On Wed-Fri, I'm not gonna lie...this is the most glorious time of the day. I usually do a super quick once over of the house, pick up diapers and laundry and such, wash a bottle or two, and if it's been a bad night I get in our guest bed and go to sleep. This room is by the girls so I don't have to mess with the monitor. That's a whole other story, but Im not a huge fan of baby monitors. I just don't need to hear every peep! Anyway, on days when I am a bit more rested I usually just sit on the couch and watch tv and eat breakfast. Maybe check Facebook and Instagram for a minute and just kind of decompress. Oh, this is usually when I get out of my pajamas and brush my teeth for the day too! Ha!

-when the girls get up we play until about 11 and then do lunch. I feed them fruit or whatever I have thrown together the day before and they always gobble it right up.

-I then clean them off, wipe down all the highchairs and we play some more. We do a lot of playing if you can't tell. They love to read books and LOVE to play rough and be thrown up in the air or tickled. So we do a lot of that!

-If I have any laundry that needs to be done I usually try to do it while they are up so I'm not too loud while they are sleeping. Luckily, Lance does most of the laundry so I usually am just in charge of getting the dirty clothes to the laundry room and he washes everything in the evening. I am a pretty organized person with a pretty clean house but I am a failure 100% in life when it comes to laundry. I live out of piles. I actually had the thought that I have to get better before I raise three girls who will never know how to follow through with laundry. I will pretty much do ANYTHING else over hanging item after item up in the closet. I just really cannot do it. If you could only see my closet. It is a scary place.

 -At 12:30 pm we do bottles again and get ready for afternoon naps. This nap tends to be easier. Not sure why. They will usually sleep from about 1-2:30 but sometimes it's just form 1-2. This is when I do a for real once over of the disaster that we spent the morning making. I usually spend quite a bit of time crawling on my hands and knees scrubbing carrots off the floor, scrubbing the baby food maker, washing bottles, putting the toys in the bins, throwing away stray diapers, and I usually grab a little lunch too. On my work days I leave after I put them down for naps and it's really nice. I always go get a giant diet coke and something to eat and sit in my car for 15 minutes in silence and relax. On my non work days I usually get done cleaning stuff up just in time for one to wake up. 

 -Lately, I have been referring to the hours spent after this nap until bedtime as the "dark hours". I think it is her teeth, but Nora seems to only last until about 4pm and she is SUCH a grump until bedtime. She will sometimes take a short nap at 4 which helps, but usually she is just a bit of a toot until bed. Zoe does ok, but after about 4pm only wants to be held too so I kind of feel like I am being mauled by babies for the entire afternoon. However, I sure do love those little grouchy toots!

 -around 4:00pm they take another bottle and we usually go on an outing real quick or I load them up in the stroller and we go on a nice long walk. I have found that if we don't get out and do something this time of day it's kinda rough on everyone. Mainly me!

 -we get back at 5pm usually and start the bedtime routine. I usually feed them dinner, oatmeal and fruit, and then wash them off in the sink. We then do lotion and Jammie's and I get their bottles ready. Most nights I try to keep them happy until 6:00 or 6:15 when Lance gets home so he can help with bed. However, it's the rare night that they can make it happily until 6:15 and I usually have to let one scream while I put the more tired one down. It's not my favorite part of the day. The morning nap scenario usually replays in the evenings. But if I am on top of things I can usually start bottles at 5:30 and then I usually leave a couple ounces in each bottle since they are used to finishing their bottles in their rooms at night and leave one in the living room, contained of course, and do a quick version of bedtime with the first baby (e.g., rocking with their bottle and lovie in their room) and then come back out and get the next baby and get her down. Lance usually gets home in time to save the poor abandoned child alone crying in the living room so that's good. I usually text him on his drive home and tell him who needs to be put down, and where he can locate the bottle and when I get done with baby one he is usually already rocking baby two. 

 -we then clean up from the afternoon mess. We call it "reset" and then luckily have from about 6:30 on to ourselves. It's a great time of the day and we eat dinner and hang out and get things done. The early morning can be downright painful, but having the evenings to do whatever we want with is great. Well on weekdays, having babies who go to bed at 5:45 can kind of kill your social life on the weekends. But honestly, up until pretty recently, we were too tired to do much anyway! Thanks to Nora finally deciding to sleep, we are feeling more and more functional these days! :) 

Our days are long. But I truly could not imagine a more full, blessed life if I tired. Sure, I wish Lance didn't have to work as much and some days I wish I had a live in nanny to help me (ha!), but EVERY single day when I am rocking my girls to sleep I am overcome with so much joy I feel like a could burst! I am still in awe of this gift. I feel so blessed to have precious, perfect babies and that I get to rock a baby to sleep 6 times a day! Not many people get to do that and I am SO SO happy I do!! I am still not squeezing into my size 4 jeans and still have bags under my eyes everyday and let's not even get started on the state of my eyebrows or hair....but my heart is full 100% of the time and for that I don't think I will ever stop thanking God!! 

Jane.

I thought I would post my current thoughts on our adoption. It helps me to blog about feelings/fears and just general thoughts currently bouncing around in my brain from time to time.

Honestly, my feelings towards our adoption are still wonderful! Do I yawn just thinking of waking up multiple times a night when I just started getting some, key word some, sleep? Yes! Do I sometimes cringe just a tad at the thought of being driven back into our home for the bonding period after finally being able to comfortably venture out with my current two? Absolutely! Do I fear the change in dynamic? For sure! Do I worry about the unknown, genetic differences, and lack of medical history or knowledge? Sometimes I still do.

But as I was expressing this to Lance tonight we were going through scenarios of timelines and what it will look like with Z & N not being only children, and just talking through fears and concerns we couldn't stop smiling when we thought about HER! I would be straight up lying if I said having these two baby girls in my life hasn't made the adoption a bit more scary. It's been a huge mental change, requiring me to seriously have to stop and wrap my mind around this reality, 3 kids, not just 1! Two babies very very set in a routine and schedule and none to fond of their mom even walking into the other room. Will there be enough of me for all of them? I am responsible for protecting them. How will this affect them? It was one thing for Lance and I to dive into this, but they didn't have a say. But when we talk about this baby girl, she is ours. She is a part of us. I can't really describe it. But as scary as it can seem at times, it doesn't compare to how scary it seems NOT to get her.

This is a true fact. As I was praying through this today,  I asked God to show me what I needed to see. To give me encouragement and confidence in this choice we made so long ago. I opened up my bible and this was starting me in the face, highlighted in red. Not bookmarked, nothing. Ah....thank you Jesus. :)

John 14:15-21 NIV
 "If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

Chills.....yes. I needed this reminder. We are simply obeying what God has commanded of us. Plain and simple that is it. We are obeying God. We love God, and this was commanded of us. We make things so hard from time to time. But without fail, Gods word simplifies it. He makes it easy to understand and we make it hard.

The verse that also comes to mind is......"Trust in The Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In ALL your ways acknowledge him and He will make your paths straight."

So I will leave this up to God. He will sort it out. On my end, I will be waiting until I get to sleep through the night before bringing a third into the mix. I'm talking to YOU Nora Beth! ;) 

Can't wait....all in good time that is......to add our precious, prayed for, Already adored, little Jane to our family. 

7 months old!

Wow....didn't I JUST write a 6 month post!? How are my littles 7 months old!? Thank goodness for blogging because otherwise I wouldn't remember a thing and it has been so fun to look back at what they were doing each month because heaven knows I don't remember it! Sad yes, but true. 

This month has seemed to be a month of lots of change for the girls. They are seeming so grown up to me lately. I'm just going to list lots of boring facts about them so I can look back and remember....sorry readers!!

Zoe this month you:

-started trying to crawl! We have gotten a few legit lunges forward but you mostly just rock on your knees, or stand up on your feet with your booty in the air. It's pretty cute.

-started sitting up from a laying position. All of a sudden you just popped up from the floor onto your bottom. Again, pretty cute! 

-started lots of babbling. You now love to repeat "mamamama" over and over again. I know you don't have a clue what you are saying but I love the sound of "mama". I've been hearing a ton of different consonants this week from you. You will be an early talker I'm pretty sure! 

-started loving the sound of your loud shrill scream. You will sit and scream a joyful little screech until you are red in the face and have to catch your breath and start again. It usually scares your sister or at least makes her jump.

-started for real sleeping through the night. I actually can't pinpoint when you really started sleeping through the night but I also can't remember the last time you woke up at all. You are a great little sleeper. 

- you usually sleep from 6:45-7 or 7:30. Sometimes you wake up at 5:30 for a bottle and then go back to sleep until 7ish. You are a superstar sleeper. 

- you still love to be rocked to sleep and after you spend about 30 seconds fighting going down for bed or naps with ALL your might at all your high decibel glory, you relax and are out cold! Sometimes I swear you are in the exact same position we left you in 13 hours later! 

- you have pretty much started only taking 2 naps a day. If we happen to be in the car at just the right time you will drift for a minute. But regardless of how much you nap or don't nap you still go to bed around the same time. You are a predictable little baby. 

- you play appropriately with your little toys and are starting to grasp cause/effect. Is fun to watch you spin your little spin toy and wait for it to stop and spin it again. It's fun to watch you discover your little world. 

- you take a while to wake up from sleep. You have the most tired little face when you wake up and the pinkest little cheeks. However, the second we walk into the living room and you see your sister you come alive and know its playtime. You smile and wiggle for me to put you down to play with sissy! 

-you are extremely distractable. This was a huge problem when I was nursing and now is a big problem with the bottle. It's like you are on speed spinning your head in all directions, turning to any little sound, straining your head to look out the window, or at sisters toy, or the person talking in the kitchen. We pretty much have to let you sit completely upright and we have to just follow your head around with the bottle. The process is not fast!  Its mainly a concern on the few times I am not with you. You have to take 2 bottles a week from other people and you don't make it easy on them! 

-you are kind of "whatever" about solid food. I think you can take it or leave it. If I put a spoonful of food up to your face you will eat it. But I don't see much of a love for food yet. 

-you are taking 5oz sometimes 6oz bottles about 5 times a day and eating a couple times a day. But I can usually only get you to really eat solid food about once a day. You would rather chew on the spoon, or the tray or turn your head to look at the pattern on the high chair or look out the window.

- you are pretty much over the paci. We still put it in your bed, but you mostly use it as a teething toy and chew on the back of it. I'm not going to force it, I'm hoping we are one of the lucky few who seamlessly part ways with the paci. 

- your current favorite activity is to just crawl around and explore your toys. You are in more of an independent phase lately and seem to want to spend more time exploring your toys and environment than being held in my arms at all times. 

- you continue to be pretty leery of strangers. Just today you got swarmed at the hair salon and had a bit of a breakdown. I could see it building but couldn't get to you quick enough to stop it. You are overwhelmed by crowds at times and loud noises. Not to the point of freaking out or anything, but your daily life is pretty calm and you aren't around a whole lot of kids. 

- you are still big, I think about 20lbs, and are in 9-12 month clothes! 

- you are happy and content about 99% of the time. Lately when you get overtired you just get quiet and very calm. Not a whole lot of screaming. 

Nora this month: 

- you started sitting up from laying down. Your sister did it and you did it about 5 hours later.

- you are finally up on all fours but aren't quite crawling yet. You somehow get around though! You can fly all over your crib with you crafty little scooching and rolling! It's funny and spastic looking.

- you have become LOUD....you alternate from screaming, to growling, to babbling to laughing. I was trying to describe you to your daddy one day and said you were a "scrappy little spaz!" 

- you seem to be all over the place lately. Constantly bouncing in your bouncer or swatting at toys. You just seem hyper to me.

- you have a VERY chipper demeanor about you. You are just so happy to be alive. You love being in the middle of the conversation, love an excuse to laugh or smile and seem to just be waiting for the opportunity. You are SO smiley!

- unlike Zoe you bounce up on all fours the second I come in to get you from your nap. If you are laying down all I have to do is whisper "Nor-Nor" and you flip over and pop right up with the biggest smile on your face and start flapping your arms for me to pick you up. Once I do you are usually so thrilled you start shaking both legs and bouncing up and down. Also unlike your sister, you would be held all day. The way the two of you trade off personas each month is interesting. You continue to change and flip flop on who does what. 

- your are doing much better with night sleep. But I can count on two hands the amount of nights you have slept through the whole night, and that number is 7, ha! You will often sleep from about 8-4 and then eat and go back down until after 7. But you will more often get up around 2am for a bottle and then sleep until morning. You are by no means a bad sleeper, you just don't have it mastered quite like sister. Which I also want to add that I have heard SO many moms allude to the fact that babies sleep or don't sleep based on the parenting style. Not in our case. Zoe was sleeping through the night at 4 months and never needed help with it at all. We have had to WORK to get Nora not to wake up 5x a night. Our 1 night waking now is serious progress! 

-oh and most nights it takes you a good amount of crying or just talking to yourself to go to sleep. I tried my hardest not to let you cry, but I truly can't figure out how. You just seem to need to unwind or something. However, due to this you have been officially relocated to the guest room. It's really sad because the nursery was SO cute, and now your crib is missing. But it's on my to do list to make your new room cute and cozy too. I actually really like having more space in the nursery to fold laundry and such and we are in the process of making the study a guest room which will be great and it's much farther away from babies so now our guest won't have to walk on egg shells, afraid to unzip a suitcase! 

- you are a pretty super napper though. You nap from about 9-10 or 11 and 1-2 or 3. 

-we are in a funky place with you at night. You don't want to go down for a third nap, but are a grump without it. We are just in a transition phase right now, which is making the hours of about 5-7 not a pretty sight. We also can't quite figure out your bedtime. If we put you down at 6 you scream like it's too early, but if we keep you up until 7 or 8 you are in rare form. Between 7-8 seems like your natural bedtime, but we are still trying to figure out a way for you to be more of a happy camper up to bedtime. Because unlike your sister who just gets really quiet and observant, you scream and flail around! 

- your favorite playtime activity is jumping all around in your jumparoo. It seems to give you so much joy!

- you love love love eating. You are thrilled when we put you in your highchair and the only food you have protested so far is peas. You bang your little hands on the tray and pretty much are opening your mouth for your next bite before you are done with your previous one. I think it's safe to say that you much prefer solid food to formula, which is probably because you are on a revolting hypoallergenic formula. Poor baby. 

- I think your eyes are officially brown. And your hair is definitely very dark. Your hair is also starting to curl up when it gets wet. You definitely stand out as having your own look among your sister and cousins who all seem to favor each other with their bright blue eyes, fair skin and light hair. You get to be unique with your darker completion! 

- you weigh exactly 19lbs as of yesterday at your ear infection follow up appointment. However, you seem tiny to me! 

- you are also over the paci and just like to play with it too. You have finally taken to your lovie which is good. 

- you take four or five 4oz bottles a day. This month you are none to interested in having anything to do with a bottle. I think it slows you down too much and I don't think you love your new formula. Unless you are starving it takes us a couple tried to get you to finish a bottle. Which probably attributes to you still waking up at night to eat. It is an even bigger task for someone else besides me or lance to give you a bottle. You spend a total of 8 hours away from us each week and the bottle report is never good for at least half of the time! 

-I would say you are happy 90% of the time, with the 10% grumpy revolving around bedtime. Hopefully this next month will bring some more predictability in your sleep needs! 

-Nora you are a little ray of sunshine, with a permanent smile! 

One new, unfortunate development this month has been illness. NO exaggeration, the day after the girls first full day without breast milk they got colds. It started with Nora, then a week later went to Zoe, then Zoe ended up with an ear infection, then Nora ended up with an ear infection, then Zoe's ear infection didn't respond to the antibiotics and she ended up with a double ear infection and a sinus infection. This all started the day of their six month appointment and we just got the all clear on the ears and sinuses 2 days ago. Then when I felt like I could finally breath a sigh of relief that night Zoe woke up with diarrhea and 102 temp and then Nora followed with projectile vomiting. This was just yesterday. So if you are doing the math it has been a straight month of illness. To say I regret stopping nursing them would be the understatement of the century. And for all you mommies who beat yourselves up because your littles get sick from daycare....don't! It happens to stay at home kids too! Mine are a prime example!! It has really been tough. And I have felt pretty guilty about stopping nursing. But I suppose it's now or when they turned one and everyone who hasn't yet been sock gets sick. But I am praying that this month we have healthy babies! 

But we are happy and loving life in our little corner of life! It gets better and better each day!! I think I'm finally to the point of wanting the freeze time! They are at such a fun age and we are truly blessed!! :) 

My grocery shopping buddies

Bright eyed beautiful baby

Crazy hair with a little left over milk on her face from her crazy eating style! 

Baby dedication Sunday

Me and my little Nora Beth 

Cuties today on their 7 month birthday 

Daddy is home....hallelujah praise The Lord! I love being home with them but I'm with them 6-6 and it can be a LONG 12 hours! 

Bundled for the cold! Cuteness I must say. 

Twin mom dinner

Last week I went to a little get together with other twin mommies in the area. It was really fun and I left with a bit of a new perspective on parenting twins. After talking with all the other mommies I realized I was the only and I mean ONLY mom who doesn't keep their littles on the same schedule pretty much no matter what.

I started out this way. If one ate both ate, if one was up both were up and somewhere along the way, maybe around 4-5 months, I just kind of let them pave their own path. We ended up with Zoe waking up around 7am, Nora waking up around 8:30am. Thus, naps were occuring for someone ALL day long around here, bedtimes were spanned about an hour and a half and if I ever needed to leave the house someone was always missing a nap and fussy! I was always feeding one and having to write down who ate when because Zoe would eat at 7, Nora at 9, Zoe again at 10, Nora at 12....see my point! :) 

Anyway, I left that dinner and decided that I was going to take back my life, even if just a little bit! Who are we kidding, I won't ever truly have my life back with two soon to be three baby girls (and I wouldn't have it another way I might add) but I decided a change was in order! 

Zoe is completely over 3 naps a day and is pretty much the easiest baby on the planet. With no work, no sleep training, nada, she sleeps 12-13 hours a night, naps from 9-10:15 and again from 1-3:15. She then happily plays until 6:45 and drifts off to sleep without a hitch. Nora...umm bless her little heart. She is more of a spirited soul! I forgot to mention that Nora was insisting on a 5 or 6pm nap for about 20 minutes lately and wakes up and stays up until 10:00pm! Not ok when Zoe is out cold by 6:45! So I decided that I was going to keep Nora up and make her skip her third little nap. Hoping that she would just go to bed at an earlier time and be more on track with Zoe. 

Well, it was a miraculous thing and it actually worked. Nora powered through and skipped her third nap and went to bed the first night at 8:45 then 8:00 and last night went down at 7:30! I have been stretching her to keep her up until 1pm so she naps later and the past couple days she napped until 3:00 and was perfectly fine until bed. However, staying up until a 1pm nap is still a little hard for her. :( 

But the past three days I have had 9-10am and 1-3pm TO MYSELF!! Like, rush to wash bottles, brush my teeth, do my work out, fold some laundry and then sit on the couch with a cup of coffee and watch Duck Dynasty TO MYSELF time! This is a far cry from the serial napping, baby always up, baby always needing something while the other was being fed or put down! It's been great and I think Nora will catch on here completely in the next few days and be able to easily make it to her 1pm naptime! 

So thanks twin mommies for the reality check!! I think I needed it!! :) 

Sunday night blues

I love the weekends. I love lance being here to help with the girls. I love getting to spend one on one time rocking one to sleep, not worrying about the lone baby crying in the living room. I love having a partner in bottle washing, dish washing, clothes washing....get then point with the washing!? I love when meltdowns begin being able to say, "ok...you rock her and I'll hold her". I love only carrying one car seat to the car, dressing one baby, and changing one babies diapers. 

See a trend? 

Every weekend I seem to forget how to do it alone, and then Monday comes and I learn all over again!

I have no greater joy in my life than caring for my girls. I couldn't ask for a more blessed, full life if I tried. 

BUT, sometimes is hard to make the shift from constant help to 6am-6pm solo duty! 

Oh well, bring it on week!! By Friday we will know how to do it again, then forget again and start this whole thing over!! :) 

Thought I'd throw in an old school pic. Now at this age, I most definitely did NOT have things under control by myself. I think I called my mom 100 times a day...begging her to spend the night! But oh my goodness, the preciousness of this picture kills me! Thank you God for weekends spent enjoying my family. I am blessed! 

I've been obsessing......I know!

So, yes I am a typical first time mom. And yes, I have been slightly freaking out about my children's first illness. I have always been a weirdo about sickness. I don't really get sick much, but when I do get sick  I tend to think I am probably dying. ;) 

Anyway, we introduced food to the chicas a couple weeks ago and they were loving it. Especially Nora. On Tuesday evening my mom was with the girls and she said that Nora hated her food. I thought it was wierd and then the next day, she didn't eat a bite. She then woke up around 1am and I was kinda bummed since her sleep had gotten SO great. I went in to pat her and could (pardon my grossness) hear the snot! It was out of control. And she was up ALL night because she couldn't breath. The next day it got worse and worse and man is it ever stressful to have sick twins! Nora needed so much attention, and pretty much needed me holding her at all times and couldn't sleep. However, my little 6 month old other baby girl isn't quite old enough for me to hand the remote in times like these and say "Go crazy" I need to take care of your sister. SO, I did my best. But Nora didn't sleep much at all and pretty much the only naps she took were in the car. I actually drove around for 2 hours one day to make sure she got a morning nap. Has anyone ever been to Needville? Ha! 

Next thing I know, and I know this will just be our life, but I hear the same sniffles and coughing on the monitor and Zoe is sick. And so far, Nora has been a much better patient! Zoe acts like we are trying to kill her every time we wipe her nose! Oh Zoester. But it was the same story, only Zoe got sick over the weekend so it was way less stressful! She is still in pretty bad shape, but hopefully she gets better soon so I don't have to do this all over again this week by myself. 

But that's all part of it right!? Lance has convinced me that they will infact live to see another day and I am just praying God heals their little bodies soon. I have racked my brain on where they picked this up. Call me crazy, but I think it's from chewing on the tables at Gringos. Hehe! I've tried really hard to protect them from illness, but I guess it was bound to happen. We hang out with friends and most have kids over 1. So I guess now they are building up their little immune systems. 

In other news I am no longer nursing. Lots of reasons why, but the point is I am done. It was hard at first and I cringed with every bottle of formula they drank. However, now I feel great. And in very very exciting news, we tried Nora on a sample of a prescription formula because her eczema was still awful and after 24 hours she was a new child!! I mean the girl has a new set if skin!! We have been rubbing her sweet little arms, legs and face all weekend in amazement!! She is so soft, and smooth and perfect! She was perfect when she was bumpy too...but she has got to feel better. I even put her in a onsie with not pants yesterday and no itching! This is huge...I usually have to cover her legs because she scratches until she bleeds. Based on this dramatic change, it can very likely be concluded that Nora is allergic to dairy & soy. Our insurance even pays for the formula which is huge because out of pocket it was going to cost us hundreds per month! I no longer cringe at the formula. I scoop that powder in her bottle with a smile on my face and cheerfully shake it up and smile as she gulps it down! I am just so happy she feels better! I suppose we will worry about what a dairy allergy means later. But for now we are celebrating this exciting change! She has also slept about 2 hours later each day since we started. Not sure if this is from less itching or her illness but I am just so happy we seem to have found the key to her comfort! 

Well, I suppose I should head to bed. It's only 10:30 and I've already had to rock Zoe back to sleep 3x and suction her nose. Plus, Nora seems to have liked getting picked up every time she wiggled for a week and I have a feeling she may have regressed a bit with sleep. Actually, I hear a munchkin now! I must say, this week has made me feel so honored that God chose me to be a mommy! I get to be the one to wipe noses, and give medicine and sing to sleep. I get to be the voice that calms and the person who wipes tears. I know I am a tad mushy when it comes to them, but I am just in awe of this gift God gave me and this role he is trusting me to fill! I love these babes SO much! I love to get to be the mommy! Although, I am the tired mommy lately that's for sure! 

Ok, off to pat some little bottoms! :) 

Nora sleeping in her car seat. This was the only way we could get her to fall asleep! 

Me and Zo Zo shopping for sisters medicine

Zoe "steaming" in the tub

Bottle time in the sauna :)

First trip to buy a weeks worth of baby food! 

Nora her first night...she was in bad shape :(

Sicky head baby girl 

Mommy trying her best to force a smile out of the little munchkin 

My new babysitter the Camry! This is a life saver when you have sick twins and can't put both to sleep! 

Starting to feel a tiny bit better

"Mom, for real stop with the pictures!"