Two months!

An example of my day, one screaming....

... and now the other. :)

 

The second month has been a lot of fun.  The babies have truly developed personalities- especially over the last few weeks.  They both love to smile and will "talk" with you.  When they make "cooing" noises we will make the noises right back at them and keep the conversation going. I have only been able to catch a few of the smiles on camera, but I love each and every one of them.   They have started sleeping a longer stretch at night, from about 9:30pm to 3:30am which has helped the exhaustion some.  They are napping less during the day which means I feel like I am in constant entertainment mode.  I never knew I could make so many silly voices and random noises, but if they get me a smile I will do them for hours.  I have also found to willing participants to listen to my singing.  Eventually they will be able to crawl away, but until then they are subjected to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" several times daily.  That being said, they love listening to music and it calms them down quickly.  They both like the swing. Riley loves tummy time and even managed to roll herself over at five weeks.  Landon hates being on his stomach, but we have been forcing it on him as much as possible.  Riley has great head control and she loves to push off things/stand now as well.  Her daddy things she is going to skip the crawling and go straight to walking because she is already pretty determined to stand.  Landon is not as great controlling his head, but he is making progress.  The poor guy has a pretty big head to control so we will let it slide for now. :)

They are currently taking about 3oz at each feeding 6-7 times a day.  At their two month check up on September 12th they were both close to nine pounds! I took Riley to the hospital for a swallow test as well due to her waking up choking during the night.  We weren't sure if it was reflux or just a result of her tracheomalacia.  She passed the test and has no issues with swallowing or reflux, so that is good.  She continues to be a very loud sleeper and heavy breather, but hopefully she will grow out of it sooner rather than later because sometimes she just sounds so pathetic-like she is straining to breath.  Overall, we are very lucky that the babies are so healthy and we hope to be able to keep them that way through the flu season.  As of right now, we do take them out in the community, but that is about to change as the weather is getting colder and people will be getting sick.  They do pretty well in their double stroller and we even managed a trip to Savannah on Labor Day weekend.  The babies got to see the ocean and dipped their little toes in.  Landon seemed to love it as he squished his toes in the sand...

For my first workout after having the babies, we decided to climb the 178 stairs to the top of the lighthouse... needless to say I had to take several breaks along the way and it is a whole new experience walking down that many stairs with a baby on your chest.

 

They also caught their first baseball game and in the tradition of the Hubby we got their picture with the mascot.  

 

My mom and grandma came for another visit and it was great to see them and to see my grandma holding the babies.  There are four generations in this photo. :) 

 

The babies were a little more cooperative for the two month photo shoot.

Riley showing off her skills... Landon, not so willing to lift his head up for me.

 

Month one... what a blur.

The first month at home was a blur of bottles, diapers, and visitors.  My parents were here to help get us home from the hospital and the Hubby’s parents came for a visit when they were a week old.  My mom stayed for most of the month and it was a huge help. When she left my brother came to visit along with his girlfriend and my niece.  My best friend, Trey, came to visit as well.  We had many other friends in and out to see the babies and some brought us food (very helpful with no time to cook!). All the help was greatly appreciated and allowed the Hubby to delay his paternity leave so I had help for the first five weeks. 

The first week was spent at various doctor appointments and lactation appointments.  The babies lost more than their allotted weight in the hospital so we had to have several different weight checks as well as jaundice checks.  Landon was showing signs of jaundice in the hospital so they almost kept us an extra day, but they decided we could go home and come back the next day.  Riley didn’t start showing signs until we got home, but by the end of the first week they both got the all clear. We were put to the test that first day home when I called the doctor office to schedule the appointment and was told the only available was in 45 minutes- we were able to feed and dress them both, pack a bag, dress ourselves and get out the door – winning! Ha ha. 

We had to start formula when they were only two days old due to the weight loss and my lack of production. They took to the bottle well and we were able to get a system of breastfeeding, bottle feeding, and pumping into place every 2.5 hours per doctor orders – basically one feeding led into the next.  The Hubby has been amazing throughout the process and has been waking up with me in the middle of the night to help feed, even while going to work the next day. 

Overall the babies did really well in the first month.  I went into it with no expectations of how easy/hard it would be I just knew it was something I had to do – and I think that attitude and lack of expectations helped me to make it through.  I am not going to sit here and say it was perfect.  We were convinced that Landon had colic at one point and would cry for about an hour several times a day.  Sometimes I just cried right along with him.  Riley was spitting up a lot, all the time – we eventually found out that she has tracheomalacia.  Basically she has a “floppy windpipe” making her breathing very loud and labored sounding at times.  If she gets upset she has difficulty catching her breath at times and she snores pretty loud.  She will eventually grow out of this sometime over the next two years. 

After the first bath at home.

Heading out to one of the doctor appointments.

Riley waiting to have her heel pricked.... again. :(

Landon's first time in the bouncer... look how big the socks are!

They have arrived.

The babies are here! Well, they have been here for 10 weeks, but I have been a little busy and not able to write…. so I will be playing some catch up.  My intent is to use this blog as a means for the family to share in our adventures with the twins, but first I will fill you in on their birth story!

I was feeling huge and very much ready to meet these babies.  My parents came on the 4^th of July as I was convinced the babies would be here soon due to the swelling, discomfort, and contractions – well I hoped they would be here sooner rather than later at that point.  I spent most of the week with my parents in an effort to get them out! I walked miles, ate pineapple, started taking primrose oil, walked up and down about a million stairs while my dear Hubby played “Eye of the Tiger” for me, and even drank a glass of wine.  Nothing seemed to be working – not even the overheating due to our air conditioner breaking.  Nothing like being nine months pregnant with twins and without a/c, needless to say we ended up spending our last two kidless nights in a hotel. 

I went to the doctor the morning of July 11^th where I was fully prepared to beg the doctor to admit me to the hospital.  Turns out I looked pretty pathetic and did not have to do much begging – that combined with the 7 pounds gained in six days and the high blood pressure got me a trip to the hospital for monitoring.  Once at the hospital, I was told I was not meeting all of the criteria for them to induce because technically I was early (36w4d), but they would monitor and we would make a decision once the lab work came back.  A decision did not need to be made because they checked and I was already dilated to a 2 and then shortly thereafter a 3 so I was admitted in active labor.  We were moved to a room about two that day (room 11 on the 11^th – thought it was a sign!) and the rest of the day is pretty much a blur.  I was allowed to eat a meal, a very good thing since I had not been feeling well and did not have much breakfast so I was starving at that point).  They continued to check and by this time I had been on the non-stress test all day.  I did get an ultrasound that morning and it was discovered that the babies were both head down – a good thing because I was hoping to avoid a c-section if at all possible.  I received some Pitocin to speed the process on a little, they broke my water and I got an epidural.  I found out that we had to deliver in the operating room due to the chance of my little girl flipping over once she found all the room after her brother’s eviction.  I didn’t know that prior to that day so it was a little upsetting because it meant that my mom could not be in the room as well, but I knew she and my dad would be waiting for me in the hall.  We went to the operating room about 2 in the morning on July 12^th-didn’t make the 11^th deadline that the Hubby had in the pool.  I will spare you all the gory details in the operating room, but after about 2 hours there was an extra little body in the room as Landon Patrick joined us at 3:53 am at 6lbs 4 oz.  His sister, Riley Anne, joined us about 50 long minutes later at 6lbs 3 oz.  She was bigger than expected as well as entering the world face up- forcing us to wait a little longer for her appearance.

 

We were very lucky to have a friend come to the hospital and take some pictures for us, Below are some of my favorites, but there were far too many I love to choose a few. Thank you to www.devinneyphotography.com