Fall Fun:)

I love fall! I love the weather, the changing seasons, the crunchy leaves. I have no idea why, but there are certain days each fall that take me back to high school football games, and that was a LONG time ago.

I'm always looking for ways to build traditions into our lives. My parents weren't really "tradition" type people. Of course, Christmas each year was always fun, lots of presents, cookie making, etc. And, the Easter Bunny came every Easter, but they never went out of their way to do things not neccessarily associated with a holiday.

I know so many people get into apple picking, but I've just never been drawn to that. I remember my grandparents taking me a few times when I was little, but it never evolved into a tradition. And honestly, I like apples (love to bake with them!), but I don't see the need to travel 45 minutes to an orchard to bring home 10 pounds of apples. Maybe next year, we'll give it a try, if Sophie seems eager to do it.

However, we are 2 for 2 with the Pumpkin Patch!  As a kid, I never went. Didn't even know it was a possibility. I took Sophie for the first time last year, wearing Connor, since he was all of 6 weeks old. This past weekend, we all went. It was an adventure, but we all survived. Thank goodness for our wagon that can strap in two babies.  Sophie was jealous that the babies got to ride, until she say the play area. Slides, stacks of hay, a zipline, she was in heaven! She had so much fun that I took her back the next day.

My absolute new fave of my little red-headed boy:)

 

My big girl Sophie. I have a very similar picture from last year. I need to do a side by side:)

 



And, last but not least...my favorite new walker. I love that Connor is chilling with his sippy:)

Oh, and speaking of fall, I made these FABULOUS brownies, bars, whatever you want to call them. Next time, I'll most likely use 2 boxes of cream cheese:)
http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/11/cream-cheese-pumpkin-roll-bars.html



And so it begins...

The twins are crawling, they're moving and shaking. Although typically content to play with toys, usually Sophie's (because why on earth would they want to play with BABY toys), they've starting trying to invent fun.

Evidence #1: This is Sophie's room, while she was at daycare. It was clean-ish when we left yesterday morning.  They upturned every freaking thing in her room, and obviously found her stash of dipes. Poor Sophie looked a little stricken when she walked into her room last night. I just threw my hands in the air and said "it happens," which has been my go to phrase for Sophie lately. Because really, why get upset? It's an easy clean-up.

It reminded me of this little sweet potato, who ironically was 11 months old at the time. Is this some sort of development stage that I wasn't aware?

Evidence #2: Not long after, I found Avery tearing into one of the bins in her room. Nothing like needing to do a load of clean laundry:) And pardon the skin showing, those are 6-9 month jammies, and STILL fall off of her.

Evidence #3: And finally, Connor found the laundry chute while Avery discovered the toilet paper.

I wonder what this weekend will bring!?

9 months old!

The twins turned nine months yesterday. It has been a whirwind of busy-ness and chaos. Some days I try to remember, other days I'm honestly glad are over. Twins are hard. Twins and a toddler are even harder. The twins have so many physical needs to meet, while Sophie has so many emotional needs. Juggling them is nearly impossible. I think we do a decent job, probably better than decent most days, but it's usually at the expense of ourselves.

My diet is shit. It doesn't help that Dan is so busy he doesn't have much time to cook, although he is slowly easing back into that. Nothing sounds good, but I know I have to eat. So I eat crap.

It's been about 18 hours since I last pumped. I've been struggling with stopping pumping. I breastfed Sophie until she was one. I feel like if I don't do that with Connor that it means I love him less. Obviously not true. My supply has been dwindling for weeks, so he's been getting 50/50 breastmilk/formula. The truth is, I have no motivation to do anything that will increase my milk supply. None. When I wake in the morning it is the last thing on my mind, and when I go to bed at night, it's the very last thing I want to do, once snuggled up in bed.

Connor has only been breastfed twice, once in the NICU and once when we came home. The logistics of breastfeeding twins is nearly impossible. Huge kudos to twin/triplet moms who can pull it off. I couldn't. Avery let me off the hook when she went on Nutra.migen at 10 weeks. If not for that, my supply would have surely dwindled months ago. I'm just tired of it. If I *were* breastfeeding, it might be a different story, but there is just no emotional attachment to a plastic thing stuck to my boob a few times a day.

But there is guilt. My sweet, sweet boy deserves the best and I'm just too tired to do it anymore. I know many wonderful, WONDERFUL moms who never breastfed, and I'm sure they love their kids as much as I love Connor.

I haven't firmly decided I'm done, but the fact that I haven't pumped since about 8 pm last night says alot. And I'm not engorged. That's how low my supply has gotten.

As for the twins, they are fantastic:) Little Avery is a powerhouse. She's been army crawling for a few weeks, and ready anytime to take off on all fours. Avery is all over, moving around like a little worm. I think Connor will be skipping the army crawl (Sophie did too), as he's definately trying to figure out the hands and knees thing.

They are both sitting independently, although Connor is probably a bit better than Avery. She is trying desperately to sit from a lieing down position.

Connor has 4 teeth, with a 5th to come soon. Avery is the slacker with just her two bottom teeth;)

Connor is my giggly boy; Avery is the cuddler. She is quick to cry, but relatively easy to sooth, at least with the tricks I have figured out. Connor is NOT a fusser, but when he does is almost inconsolable at times. This is probably because he usually only cries when something hurts; while Avery just has that mentality of "look at me, I'm crying, pick me up."

Their 9 month pedi appt is tomorrow so I'll know official stats then, but for now:
1) they are getting ready to move to size 4 diapers
2) Connor wears 6-9 or 9 month clothes; Avery is in 6 or 6-9
3) 4 bottles a day, about 30 oz of formula/breast milk
4) Two solids a day, usually a fruit and a veggie. Connor still has a pretty significant gag reflex so he doesn't do well with anything except really pureed foods. Avery loves food so much that she sucks it off the spoon, and gnaws the spoon with her teeth:)
5) Connor's hair is red, with the start of a wave/curl on top; Avery's brown hair has lightened alot and looks almost blonde.
6) Both still have blue eyes.


This was taken today:)

Specialist #551

Avery has a pediatric GI appt scheduled. It's been a long time coming, and I don't know what's really taken so long to pull the trigger. She has been on Nutramigen formula since she was 10 weeks old. Nothing short of my eating bread/water was going to make her little tummy happy.

At her 6 month pedi appt, the dr suggested that most babies can be weaned off the sensative tummy stuff at about that age. I started weaning her...slllloooowwwwwwllllllyyyy. I did not want a repeat of those first 10 weeks. I'm talking, cutting down one scoop every 10-14 days. Things were going well, she was tolerating the other formula that I was using as replacement. And then suddenly, almost like the switch flipped back, the tummy issues were back. This all corresponded with the introduction of solid foods, as well as the onset of her UTI.

We're now back to nothing in the freaking world can make her tummy happy, even going back 100% on the Nutramigen.

I've talked to the nurses. I've followed all of their guidance. I introduced prune juice. She now gets 6 oz a day. We  cut out apples and bananas. We tryed a probiotic. NOTHING will stop the obvious pain she is in before she poops. HOURS before she poops she's in pain. When she finally poops, it's like water. As the nurse told me, she should not be in THAT much pain if there is just water coming out.

She's miserable, can't be soothed. I'm back to swaddling her full time, because it's the only way she'll sleep through the night.

After screaming in pain from 12-3 am a few nights ago, I took her in to see the pedi. She's at a loss. Things SOUND fine in there, but clearly there's something wrong. She looked at her poor little bum. It appears to be fine. Whatever is going on, is definately internal.  I think she felt bad referring us to another specialist. She made the comment that "you guys must think I can't make a decision on my own." To the contrary, she has NEVER steered us wrong, and each time we've been referred her suspicion (of whatever) has been confirmed.

So, here we go again. We now have an orthopedist, physical therapist, ENT, opthomolgist, one MRI and more ultrasounds than I can count under our belt.  Not to mention that Sophie was in the ER on Saturday night, where her fever topped out at 105 and she was having asthma symptoms. Diagnosis was a double ear infection. I haven't seen her that sick since she was hospitalized for the first time last March. I really thought she was headed back for another hospital stay.

Mother's Day 2012

After we endured 4 hours from a screaming Connor, the day got progressively better Poor guy. I thought he was teething, but in hindsight I think it was tummy trouble. These two little babies have more issues than I would ever think possible with their stomachs/gas/poop/etc. I’m not sure what more we can deal with in this area then we already have, but you won’t catch me saying that outloud!


I was able to “sleep in” until 7:45, which is quite an accomplishment since Connor’s screaming started at 6:30. Dan gave me a card, which was more than enough, especially considering my semi recent splurges on an IPad and new DSLR camera. I was a bit sad that Sophie’s sitter hadn’t sent anything home for me that Sophie had made

My parents and grandmother came to visit for a bit, and then it was back to business as usual. I did get the almost impossible gift of having each of my 3 babies nap on me. First Connor, who was completely exhausted from his scream-fest, slept on me for an hour. As he was waking, Avery was starting to melt-down so then SHE fell asleep on me. Last but not least, at 3:55, Sophie finally gave in and fell asleep in my arms. I can’t think of much better presents than those.

As Avery fell asleep last night (the first time), I held her for almost an hour, as thoughts of my mother in law floated around in my head. It was Sunday, it was Mother’s Day, and it was gorgeous outside. Under other circumstances, she would most definitely have been at our house, waiting for Dan to finish grilling. I could tell he was thinking about her too. I know he thinks about her often, but there are times when he’ll go to the grocery, or a restaurant, and bring something home that she would have bought. Last night it was asparagus. She loved grilled asparagus, so that’s what we had

I keep thinking about an argument that he and I had a few weeks before she died. I was standing in the kitchen, and he was in the dining room. The twins were about 4 weeks old. We weren’t yelling, but our voices were raised. It was the same disagreement that came up frequently in those days. “You need to quit asking your mom for so much help with the babies.” Don’t get me wrong, she was a tremendous help to us, but I was also of the opinion that we needed to figure out how to do this thing/how to manage, on our own. I will never forget him saying something very close to “she could have a stroke and die tomorrow.” My response was “oh whatever, your mom is not going to DIE.” And then she did.

One of the last things out of Sophie’s mouth last night was “Nana. Gone.” She says it with finality.

And for a few pics of the McBabies…

Pardon Mr. Man’s snot droplet. There is no time in my world right now for Photo Shop!

Avery, Mother’s Day Eve…the twins were almost completely unswaddled, but then the UTI hit (as well as the re-emergence of tummy issues), so I swaddle her as needed. She’s still small enough to fit in there

Santa brought this to Sophie, but it never made it under the tree.

Finally, (hoping this works here), a 25 second video of Sophie and Avery, about 10 pm last night. I have NEVER heard Avery giggle like this. Sophie LOVED the attention she was getting from her. She would dance a bit and Avery would just give these belly laughs. It went on for a few minutes:)

29 months!

May 5 marked Sophie’s 29th “month day”


A few unofficial stats…

1) Size 5 diaper

2) Wearing 2T and 3T clothes. 2T on bottom, 3T on top because she likes to make sure her belly is covered:)

3) her hair continues to lighten. She got it cut a few weeks ago and the hairdresser mentioned that her "new" hair is very very blonde. Her curl will be gone with the next hair cut:(

4) Grey-blue eyes.

5) Definitely has phases of food likes and dislikes. Likes are "usually" cheese, chicken nuggets, goldfish, bananas, grapes, yogurt.

6) STILL sleeping in our bed. I have GOT to work on this.

7) Said her first 5 word phrase a few weeks ago. Otherwise, communicates very well with her 3 word phrases. She’s suddenly been very quick to repeat things Dan and I say. This is both a fun and no-so-fun thing:-/

She’s started saying “big” words like elephant.

8) She has phases of self-potty training. This week alone she’s gone twice on her potty, without mentioning anything to us. We are letting her take the lead on this---just don’t have much time in our schedule to work on it. I’m sure it helps that she’s the only one at daycare who is NOT potty trained.

9) 2 year molars have been coming in. She's been drooling as much, if not more, than the babies.

10) She is SO shy in front of the camera. I can rarely get a smile.

11) She has officially been put in "time out", when she actually understood what was going on. She's not a fan. She likes to hit, and then laugh.

12) She says “a, b, c, d, and then the rest of the alphabet is just one super long syllable The Easter Bunny brought her a $1 set of cards that has a different letter on each one. She calls these her “ABC Cards” and LOVES them

13) She is starting to count, as well as hold up the right number of fingers when counting.

14) I don’t even know what term to use, but she’s started matching colors. If she’s playing with a red block and has on a red shirt, she’ll say “same.”

15) Her favorite color is purple.

16) She adores sidewalk chalk.

17) She’s recently taken a strong interest in playing mommy to her dolls. She’ll wrap them in a blanket and rock them.

18) If the babies cry and she’s not in the mood to hear it she’ll say “NO, A-B” or “NO, Ton-r.”

19) She likes to “pick the nuckies” from her toes. This makes me cringe, not because I think it’s gross (it’s really funny!), but because I hope I’m not witnessing the onset of OCD! It has gotten better over the past few weeks, I just don’t mention anything when I see her doing it.

20) This is her "I know I'm in trouble look." Head down, chin pulled into her chest;)

Sophie trying to put her toes in her mouth, because her brother and sister like to do the same:)

A classic Sophie face (and legs complete with blue highlighter). This was taken about a month ago. While we're at it, classic Connor with his belly hanging out and hand in his mouth:)

Ignore me, but this is another classic Sophie face that I am NEVER able to capture. She loved our self-portrait session:)