JD found this today. Lets just say these things make it all the long days, nights and day-nights all worth it. Kids are just plain funny. I can totally see Lucy doing the same when she is 5. She LOVES mac n’ cheese (must be a genetically linked preference). 
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Note: This is more of a post geared toward other parents… but read on if you’re interested!
To save my sanity, I am trying to figure out if there is actually a routine or schedule that the twins seem to follow so life can become a bit more predictable. I learned with Lucy that schedules are not really important, its more of the pattern or routine the kid naturally follows. Plus, no matter what you do to change the pattern, it won’t so you might as well go with it! For example, after a nap, Lucy usually gets tired again 2 hrs. later. Now that Lucy is almost 1 1/2 yrs. old, her day is very , very predictable. Plus she’s always been easy to get to sleep and has needed a lot of sleep altogether. Zoey and Stella are a different story. I’ve been taking notes on what they do all day and when for two days now and I’m not sure there’s a pattern.
So, Stella seems to sleep more than Zoey and can sleep more soundly than Zoey. Stella sleeps for longer and can pretty much sleep anywhere. This all started with the issue that Zoey has a hard time falling asleep anywhere but the mechanical swing we have. So, I am trying to “train” her to nap in her crib during the day because lets face it, she won’t fit into that swing when she’s 1 and what do we do when we travel? Lug that swing with us? So, anyway, they share a room and Stella sleeps fine in her crib, but Zoey has a really hard time in there. When they are both in there and she wakes up, Stella eventually does too. Also, Zoey seems to wake up screaming every 20 min. or so. At this moment, I have Lucy in her room, Zoey in her crib and Stella in a portable crib in our room. Zoey is currently crying! Plus they seem to be on different schedules for when they want to play and sleep. I still feed them at the same times though. By the way, they go down fine for bed and sleep for about 6-7 hrs. straight (yay!). So, here are my questions:
What does a typical schedule for 3-4 month olds look like (I can’t remember!)?
How much sleep do they need?
How do I get Zoey used to her crib for napping in the daytime? (I am currently trying a combo of crying it out and going in and rocking her back to sleep, but don’t want to start any bad habits!)
If Zoey goes down fine and sleeps for 1/2 hr. and then wakes up screaming, do I let her cry it out to try and get her to learn how to get herself back to sleep or do I try to help her?
Will they ever get used to each other and be able to share a room?!
On our way to the polls with all our ladies on the night of the Election! The little old lady poll workers loved our entourage. I’m holding Stella, JD has Zoey. Didn’t realize how sorta dorky we look being political nerds!
In all seriousness, it felt so special to cast my vote in the public high school that my kids will go to someday and my Dad would have gone to if his family had stayed in Buffalo, especially being a teacher. I hope that next time we take this walk with all our girls, when Lucy has just begun Kindergarten in 4 short years, a lot has changed for the better in our educational system. I won’t open that can of worms at this hour of night. BUT- I hope a lot has changed (for the better) with the war, the economy, the student loan system, health care, women’s health and birth issues, early childhood education, social security, veteran services, equal rights for same sex couples, issues of poverty, americorps programs and on and on and on and on……. Hoping for positive growth all around!
I should have known today was going to be a doozy after Zoey threw up, peed and pooped on herself at 6am and then continued to fuss off and on. This turned into wardrobe changes for all 3 by 8am due to the same issues. So the beat went on and I took it in stride, but now, after 9 straight hours of fussy babies and zero down time, not even to sit and eat breakfast with Lucy, I am starting to think today just might be, well, one of those days. I swear all the batteries in our house have it out for me today. How do all the batteries die at the same time? Even those fancy rechargables we got and put in 2 days ago? The silver lining is that Lucy went to a friend’s house today and had a GREAT time and didn’t have to deal with all the fussing while she was gone.
So, how to deal? Most of the time I laugh and sometimes, I admit, on rare occasions I go into the basement (when Lucy is sleeping) and curse to the high heavens for about 30 seconds! That seems to do it and then I think I probably should be conserving energy… So, other parents, friends, family, others- how do you deal with the days when it seems Murphy’s Law is stacking up against you? Trouble for me is that one side of my family are actually Murphys…
NOTE: My Mom’s side of the family (Murphy) doesn’t actually have disproportionate bad luck- I just thought it was a funny pun to make…
“Repeating the same thing slowly and loudly is not a kind of differentiated teaching method that works for kids that struggle more than others. We need to stop teaching the way we want to and start teaching the way our students learn.”
- Dr. Pedro Noguera, paraphrased from his Keynote Address, Our Promise for the Future: Meeting the Challenge, at the Governer’s Summit on Student Engagement and Dropout Prevention at Nazareth College, Rochester, Oct. 10. 2008. Dr. Noguera is a Professor at Steinhardt School of Education at New York University, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education Co-Director of the Institute for the Study of Globalization and Education in Metropolitan Settings.
If you know us, you know we like to do our research. We also don’t like to buy things just to give our kids more “stuff”. With Christmas coming up, we are starting early, especially with me not working. Now that we have a very active 17 mo. old, does anyone have suggestions of the best toy or thing their 1 1/2 year old really enjoyed? Lucy loves music, dancing, filling/empyting and opening things and generally things you can do with your hands. For example, she spends endless hours with our tupperware. She also loves books and Elmo right now. We’d like to get her something that she (and ideally the twins) will all like and use for a while. Any ideas?
Plus, we are trying to think of cheap homemade matching/go together halloween costume ideas for the twins.. any suggestions there? I stress cheap or homemade!
We put together a list from our personal experiences with the twins over the last 3 months of “things” that are essential to daily life with these two cuties + Lucy! Many of these things also were essential with just one baby too. These are just things, but they have been lifesavers! I am also hoping to post on (more importantly) the top 10 “non-things” you need when raising 3 under 2 at some time in the future. Check it out and PLEASE leave your input/comments/advice/experiences in the comments! Read the rest of this entry »
I debated whether to post about this because I hate to spread the negative vibes. This is going to come off like venting, but hey that needs to happen sometimes too! Some of you parents with no twins will definitely be able to relate to this stuff too.. don’t tell me you don’t!
I really don’t mind the attention we garner out in public with our girls. Afterall, they are so cute, although I am biased and I certainly understand the fascination with twins. I come from a family with twins, so I get that and I actually don’t mind at all when people notice or ask, “Are they twins?”. I would be lying though if I didn’t acknowledge that it gets a little old, but seriously I don’t mind confirming the obvious!
I really don’t even mind the twin related misunderstandings, such as the belief that in order to be twins, they must look alike. I like talking about my babies and I like talking science (its kind of a can of worms). And, with Lucy, I got over the inevitable “what a beautiful boy(s)” comment. They could be dressed head to toe in pink outfits with “GIRL” written all over and just because they aren’t cutesy smiling 24/7 with flowing curls in pig tails they apparently look like boys. I get it. No big deal. However, it is fascinating how its mostly old men that do this! I am even getting used to the fact that it now takes us twice as long to do what we need to do in most public places because we get stopped often with comments or questions while our baby parade is out and about. Gone are the days where you can run in and out of the grocery store! However, this really starts to get to me when someone stops me to inquire while my babies are obviously having a meltdown. I have learned to sometimes just keep walking unfortunately. All of this is sometimes annoying but I usually let it go because hey, gotta pick your battles right? I mostly find people funny.
However, I have one small request I would like to get off my chest! (Here is the venting part) Read the rest of this entry »
Anyone know about hypersensitivity in infants? Zoey seems to have a hard time transitioning from sleeping to eating to sleeping again after some playing. She seems to cry a lot more than Stella and often, when she starts up, if you don’t just put her in her swing or down in a quiet place at her first frown she seems to escalate with the crying. Also, the more you do- rocking, talking to her, walking with her, etc. the more agitated she gets. There have been many times with substantial crying for the better part of an hour if you don’t get her right at the perfect time before she gets going. She seems to have a hard time shutting out things around her or at least dealing with things when she is tired and crying. It could be just that she is an active child too. Her arms and legs certainly go a mile a minute when she is playing and wide awake! I have also heard a theory about these really active infants that are sensitive ending up being ADHD kids, but that again is just an idea. Who knows? Any thoughts? Not sure if its bad enough to call the Dr. for thoughts just yet..
Hey everyone! Can’t believe I am blogging. I bet I have all of 5 minutes to update you all. I constantly have about 5 million things rattling around in my head to talk about, but I will start with a quick update off the top of my head.
The twins are getting huge! I can hardly lift them both at the same time anymore but they are holding their heads up pretty good now so its making it easier to shift them from here to there. They are both probably around 9-10 lbs. They say that 10 lbs. is the magic number for babies to start sleeping through the night- riiiiggggghhhhht. What happens if you have a 10 lb. baby? Anyway, they are still eating every 3-4 hrs. and went 5-6 hrs. between eating at night once so far. We were like- wow!…that won’t happen for another 2 months again!
They are doing all sorts of smiling and man is our Stella the charmer. She smiles like crazy! She smiles at us almost constantly, at Lucy, at the cat, at the blanket- at the light! Its so nice to see someone so genuinely excited to be alive. Zoey is our little thrill seeker. Don’t get me wrong, she smiles up a storm too, but her temperment is definitely on the active, lets-go side of things. She rolled over a few days ago and then did it over and over and over. She loves being rolled around by her arms too. She is very physical but definitely lets you know when enough is enough. She has a tendency to get worked up fast and its hard to get her calmed down sometimes so we are working on the transition thing with her. The swing is a lifesaver for her. She is certainly intense for a little one, but I am wondering if that will change. They say that twins can switch between characteristics over time. It will be fun to look back and see what happens.
The twins will be 8 weeks old tomorrow! Whoo hoo! This got me thinking of how we’ve adjusted the last 2 months to feel like we’ve finally got our feet under us in the last week or so. I live by weeks (maybe its the 40 week teaching year part of me) so this is how I think of our time since the twins were born. Here is a record and few snippets from each week about what we were feeling: Read the rest of this entry »
The girls have now been home a little over a month- which is incredible to think of how fast it seems to have gone. They turned 7 weeks on Friday and are both doing great too. We last visited the Dr. about a 2 1/2 weeks ago (1 month old visit) and Zoey was 6 lbs. 3oz. , Stella was 5 lbs. 10 oz. They should both be around 7-8 lbs. by now. Zoey was about 1 inch taller than Stella- both around 18 inches. Stella’s got the bigger, rounder noggin though! The Dr. said normal weight gain is minimum of 15 grams a day. Stella was gaining 25g a day & Zoey 40g a day! Great work ladies! They have also both been smiling away back at us, which is what you wait for after weeks of just watching their tired closed eyes! The eyes are opening and they are so much more interactive. Stella likes to do lots of little excited coos when she really gets going too. Yesterday, when I got Lucy out of her crib after a nap I had Zoey in the Moby baby carrier wrap and when her head popped out to greet a still drowsy Lucy, Lucy scrambled over to her and got so excited and Zoey smiled back at her. Nothing could touch that feeling of having your kids enjoy each other like that! Just incredible!
Zoey and Stella are both 1 month old today. Its so crazy. They’ve been home for 2 1/2 weeks now and are noticeably bigger, chubbier and becoming more alert. Zoey is hovering around 6 lbs. and gained almost a pound in a week! Stella is gaining a little slower and is about 5.5 lbs. They are also sleeping together nicely and have started to look at each other which is so cool. Sometimes they even try to nurse on each others hands or foreheads! We have had 5 nights in a row now where they have fed 2 times at night and gone pretty much right back to sleep. I think we might have a system that works down! I am hoping to post some new pictures of them on flickr soon.
Not only is it easy to tell them apart, their personalities are also emerging different. Stella definitely likes to be held more and likes to look around a lot. She is also generally more patient when waiting to be fed, but is not as good at eating. Zoey really only demands your attention when she’s hungry, but she loves her pacifier big time. Zoey sleeps soundly and Stella does a lot of moving and noise-making while sleeping. So far, they are very different, which is what I expected. Its so inevitable, but so hard not to compare them. This will be life for them right? We are trying so hard to get to know them individually and not do the “dress them alike” constantly routine. Its incredible to think of how life would be different for them if they were simply born at different times instead of how it happened, by luck, to be created at the same time, albeit from different DNA. Read the rest of this entry »
Okay… so Marge is bugging me for updates so now that I have a second to catch my breath, here is a little about what we’ve been up to the last week. This is sure to be scattered as my mind is slowly leaving me!
Zoey and Stella came home last Thursday night and the fun began. The rest is a blur…
Just kidding! But, we have been honing our sense of humor with these new additions. Life is truly crazier and, as it turns out, more funny, than anything that someone could make up! We are trying hard to laugh when we feel like crying, but I still cry a lot! It is so overwhelming at times.
The tough things have been just trying to meet everyone’s needs while trying to get some sleep and take it easy so I can still heal. Obviously, feeding them takes a lot of time since they eat about every 3-4 hrs. However, we’ve been able to keep them on the same schedule, eating at the same time or one right after the other. Stella is learning slower how to eat, so I worry about her, but I am hopeful she’ll pick up. I am even learning to nurse them simultaneously, which I am now convinced should be an olympic event! It boils down to the fact that the only way to conserve time is to try to cut the feeding time in half. When we feed them one at a time it takes well over an hour start to finish… then we start again in two hours or so.
They are still confusing night with day and are fussier at night, but the other night we topped them off with an extra bottle before bed to help them settle down as well as put them in the same crib at night. We were told to keep them in separate cribs when we are sleeping, but I swear they sleep better when they are at least in the same crib, even if at different ends! We may put their cribs right next to each other so they can see each other but not be in the same crib. Anyway, some nights are better than others, last night we slept great from about 10:30-1am and then the rest of the night was full of toddler temper tantrums and off and on baby crying tag teaming us! That was tough. We managed to squeeze in a small nap this morning for an hour or so before they woke up from napping to catch up a little. I am hoping tonight is better!
Its amazing how different the girls are too. Read the rest of this entry »
I hate to get hopes up but the Dr. told us today that Stella is at least coming home tomorrow! Zoey also may come home with Stella tomorrow. Zoey graduated to an open crib today as she struggles to keep her own body temperature up. So far so good though. She was put in the crib at noon today and when I left around dinner time for home she was still maintaining. She must maintain her temperature for at least 24 hrs. before she is cleared to go. They are both almost back up to their birth weight also, so that might figure in to discharging them both tomorrow. We could end up with Lucy at home, 1 newborn- Stella- at home, and 1 at the hospital still- Zoey. Not sure until late tomorrow afternoon what will happen.
I hesitated to post this because the last 2 weeks have been the hardest and longest roller coaster for Jason and I and Lucy for sure and I really, really don’t want to get my hopes up about them coming home at any certain day. Who knows, maybe they will end up not getting home tomorrow. Its really hour by hour. However, they had 4 more sets of twins (2 girl-girl- all in our girls’ pod, 1 boy-boy and 1boy-girl) born and put into the NICU in one night recently so they are kinda edging ours out the door!
On the other hand, its pretty scary thinking about both of them home with Lucy and how we will juggle everyone’s needs and spend quality time with each of them- let alone get them all fed! My neighbor and good friend, who had her second son 3 days before we had the twins (we were in the hospital together too!) told me her goals for this summer were for no one to get hurt and everyone to stay fed! HA! Very realistic actually! In all seriousness though, we know those sleepless nights all too well and how easy it is to wear thin and not be at your best for each other in these difficult times. BUT, Its totally true that you find out what you’re made of, how strong you are, how vulnerable you are, how strong you can be for each other and what you can take for each other at times like this. This is without a doubt the hardest time of our lives so far and I am sure we’ll still continue to struggle for a while once both the girls are home. These are also the times of incredible growth too, which I really look forward to and know we’ll be proud of later.
I have to also thank everyone who’s been supportive of us through all of this either by spending time with Lucy, giving me rides to the hospital everyday since I still can’t drive from surgery, holding the babies in between feedings at the hospital, bringing food to us or simply sharing laughs and listening through tears. I also have to thank Lucy for being so patient, sweet, happy, understanding and flexible with us and all the running around and upheaval that’s been our life the last several months since I was put on modified bed rest in May. She is really the best kid in the world and has never complained or been anyone other than her laid back, contented self through all this. Thanks to both our Moms and Dads, Aunt Chris and Uncle Bill, our siblings, Brian and Kari, my Gram and Aunt Michelle, Aunt Marge, Kim, Melissa and other friends and family members that sent along good wishes and gifts! I know that you’ll all say to me “Stop thanking me already!” but really, you have no idea how its pulled us through.
Ok- I’m off to tie up some last minute loose ends before tomorrow! I am hoping I can post some great (but tired) news very soon!
This was the answer Jason gave me late last night when I commented that I didn’t know how he seemed to stay afloat among all of this running back and forth to the hospital to see the babies, taking care of Lucy, taking care of me, the house and going to work every day until the babies come home. All I could do was laugh!
This weekend has got me thinking about “highs and lows”. My great friends from the U of R Warner School (where I got my Masters in Science Education and still seem to not be able to tear myself away from) will be familiar with this if you ever spent any time in class with April (Dr. Luehmann)! I used to love starting class hearing about everyone’s personal and professional highs and lows lately, realizing they are so intimately attached. This reflection on how things are going has always stuck with me (kinda like Warner!) and I find myself often thinking this way, reevaluating moments, taking stock of experiences and just simply how things are going. Its an awesome way to critically evaluate work, personal stuff, etc. and learn from your own experiences- highly recommend it! The highs and lows from this weekend make me think about what our metaphorical “swimmies” just might be lately… Read the rest of this entry »
Its amazing how fast life can change forever. The last 5 days since the babies were born have certainly been a roller coaster for all of us. I can already tell this will be a long post and probably a little personal and maybe sad at points since our experiences are so vivid, fresh and will definitely be life-changing for both of us. Jason has been running back and forth between home, work and me at the hospital. Lucy was not home since Thursday night and we got to visit with her briefly on Saturday. I was running back and forth between my room at the hospital and the NICU all day to feed the babies as much as possible, trying to rest and deal with the pain that comes with a natural and c-section delivery. Jason’s family has generously taken on Lucy for us 24/7- she’s a pretty active little lady so I know it was draining! It has been hard on everyone, but today things have changed.
I was finally able to come home last night. Read the rest of this entry »
Hey, how’s Lucy doing? Lots of people have been asking so I thought I would update you on her latest accomplishments (which as her parents of course simply amaze us!)
- Sniffing the toes on pictures of baby feet in books just like Daddy does after her bath! She is also building talent in the area of lifting her toes to your nose so you can sniff them. I don’t know how many other kids have this, but our kid’s toes actually smell bad!
- Eating all kinds of foods now that are not related to the general “noodle” category with her newly mastered pincher grasp. Yay- no baby food!
- We knew she already had many dance moves up her sleeves usually arranged in random 2 second stints and repeated, but now she has added a spin around. She loves spinning around in a circle while adding various dance moves!
- Putting feet on the table while eating and trying to grab food with her toes. That one is hard to keep a straight face for when saying no.
- Screaming in delight when Daddy opens the cabinet to get snacks for her causing Daddy to break things because of being startled.
- Dramatically banging her body against baby gates that block her from going outside when the doors are open. That kid just can’t get enough fresh air.
- Learning to run in random directions and generally delighting in her own independence (which is so wonderful to watch). She is also remembering things she sees one time and doing them again- which is amazing. Sponge!
I could go on and on…..what a ham!
There are some things that pregnant women report happening that seem to come just before delivery of their baby (or babies). They are kind of informally the “signs” of impending birth, but some women never have any and some women have several. When I had Lucy I had very little warning I feel like (except my water breaking, which is pretty obvious!) or at least that I paid attention to. I hadn’t gained that much weight, wasn’t uncomfortable and kept rolling forward actively with our everyday lives. Things are different this time around and now that I think I understand and notice those changes in my body more, I have been noticing some of these! You can check out the list through the link above which generally includes the big changes women report, but is not all inclusive. Lately…. Read the rest of this entry »
How great is this! One of our faves from the North, Feist does Sesame Street!
A quick update: there is none! I am 34 1/2 weeks going on 35 this Saturday. Twins are born on average around 36 weeks (1 mo. early when compared to a normal 40 wk. single baby pregnancy). They are each about 5 lbs. or a little bigger now probably and twins average 5-6 lbs. at birth each. So by statistics we are getting close. I also feel like its almost time. I am having crazy baby dreams and contractions (painless) continue. My belly measures like a mom that is about 2-3 weeks overdue so I am pretty large! I feel like that too and have started that hardly sleeping thing (fun!). My hands are swollen and numb from pregnancy induced “carpal tunnel” so I am wearing wrist braces and look like a pro-bowler! The Dr. suggested cortizone shots in the wrists, but I declined being hopeful I would deliver soon. Anyway, things are packed and ready to go, now we just wait. The good news is that they are both healthy, growing equally and well and are in the best possible position for a natural delivery.
As for delivery, I am hoping for a natural delivery vs. a C-section because the recovery is so much easier. I know that I will labor in a regular room and then go to the operating room to deliver in case they have to do an emergency c-section in between the birth of the two. There are really 3 scenarios:
That’s right, we found out yesterday that baby “A” is estimated to be 4 lbs. 9 oz. and baby “B” is estimated to be 4 lbs. 12 oz.! That’s almost 10 lb. of baby! They each seem to be putting on about a pound every 2 weeks. So, I am hoping to hold out for 2 more weeks. The perfect time would be around 36 weeks (July 26) to have them. I am 33.5 weeks and marching toward 34 this weekend. After this weekend, if I go into labor that’s that! They would ideally be about 5.5 lbs. each- which is what Lucy was too. Obviously the bigger the better though, so as long as it takes to have healthy babies that is fine. I’m not gonna lie though, this is getting tough. Its bad enough being uncomfortable moving around and doing normal life things like “walking”, but now just sitting and laying around is not comfortable! Also having a few “warm up” contractions each day now. They are painless and just feel like a lot of pressure, but still since I never had them with Lucy are a little unnerving. Hopefully things will happen in the next 2.5 weeks or so. Trying to be patient…
As posted earlier, I was going to try and create a stenciled effect in Lucy’s new room using DIY Wall Decals after browsing on Etsy and finding some very inspiring, but very expensive premade designs to buy. The original idea was to actually stencil or free hand draw the design like I did in her original room and paint it in with white paint, but in an effort to make things simpler Jason found a great link suggesting the use of contact paper. So off to target we went and picked up some regular white contact paper (also, make sure you call Target to make sure they have it before you go- only one Target (the giant one) had it around us). They even had “stainless steel” contact paper which was intriguing, but we passed on the urge to contact paper all our appliances! How much contact paper would that take?? That would probably look tacky though- anyone tried? Anyone tried the chalk board contact paper??
Anyway, it took me about 2-2.5 hrs. from start to finish to complete the design on two walls of her room. I will probably repeat the design under her second window later too. The pictures are below if you’d like to look. Here’s how I did it:
I’m getting there and getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I’m 32 weeks now and marching on to 33. The Dr. said by 34, whatever happens, happens and by 38 weeks, they won’t let me go any farther. I’d love to make it as far as possible of course, but at the most, its 6 more weeks. My next goal is to get to 34 weeks (around July 12th). Not that the inability to breathe or numb arms when I wake up aren’t so glamorous, but really, now I know what it means to be pregnant and uncomfortable. I never got to this point with Lucy because she was so small and early. I actually woke up from a dream the other day where I was wearing my favorite normal jeans- yeah, not maternity stretchy ones. So nice. I won’t go on and on about these things because I feel lucky to be this far and look forward to going farther. My BPP and NST tests at the hospital this morning were again great. So we wait, patientlyand take in as much ice cream as humanly possible.
In other news, while shopping on Sat. at Wegmans, Lucy was getting kind of antsy so I took out the savior of ants in the pants, none other than the snack container. My girl can hunt down a goldfish like no ones business, even when buried in numerous other crackers. Anyway, she shoved another of her favorites, a pretzel, into her mouth. Kinda a big piece I thought, but I weighed that against getting my finger bitten off with her surprisingly sharp baby teeth (which after nearly happening once before seemed pretty scary) so I kept a watchful eye. Wouldn’t you know 30 sec. later she started choking. I mean the no sound coming out, eyes watering, struggling for breath choking. Terrified I tried to remember what to do and tried to pry her out of the seatbelt thingy on the cart to no avail so I tried to do the infamous finger sweep. This DID NOT work. It pushed the pretzel back farther and I started to freak a little. By the time I called JD over, I had finger swept her like 3 more times, more forcefully (which I wasn’t sure I should have done) and it was all over and I flung that pretzel piece 1/2 way to Japan. Anyway, we finally freed her from the belt and picked her up and she was surprisingly calm, with tears down her cheeks, but not crying freaking out or anything. I thought I would have a break down, but we made it through a couple of more aisles and I was much more calm and she was back to her normal pointing and asking what everything is self. Anyway, how scary. It reminds you that you do what you can in an instant, right or wrong and try to remember how to do all this lifesaving stuff (we even took a baby CPR and First Aid class before she was born) but sometimes its sheer luck. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if it’d been a worse situation. Needless to say all the big pretzel pieces around our house are hidden now. For a while.
Jason’s grandma passed away earlier this week and it has been hard on everyone. We miss her terribly, but are very glad that she doesn’t have to experience pain any longer. She had the best laugh, loved her kitties and was always so funny. No matter the company, she never failed to say what was on her mind, which gave us much to talk and laugh about. Whenever I think of her, I can’t resist getting a smile across my face thinking of all the ways she made us laugh. She was really one of a kind and an incredible grandma, mom and great grandma too. We miss you already grandma, but are glad you are peaceful!
The part of all of this that I can appreciate though is spending some extra time with family. Although the circumstances have been draining on everyone, it was nice to see everyone this week and be able to be at home to rest and play a little in between. Jason and Lucy have been home since Wednesday afternoon so we have gotten some walks and play time at home that are usually reserved for only weekends when things aren’t rushed with dinner, bathtime, etc. Also, it was nice to see Lucy with our family, especially our aunts, uncles and grandparents who adore her. Its comforting in a time like this to see her be so happy to just be herself and be with others who are having a hard time. I think it was a relief to have a little smiling, laughing and now full on walking toddler to break things up. I was so proud of her being so easy-going, entertained and “good” the entire time. I’m feeling pretty thankful for lots of things in this hard time.
Jason and I have never been fans of the packaged baby room decorations that the major chains sell, so we tried a more creative route with Lucy’s room and painted a life-size one color tree in a darker green than her walls on two of the walls from a free hand outline I drew. The idea was to add leaves to the tree and some bird silhouettes to represent the 3 of us, but the day I was getting out the paint was the day she decided she couldn’t wait and was born! Thus, the tree is still stuck in “winter mode”, but still gives the room a lot of unique character.
So, with the new room we created for the babies (which, now ended up being Lucy’s new room because we can’t fit two cribs in there!), we want to again do something different. We chose Lilac for the wall colors and white for the trim and wanted to do some stenciling. However, how does one make their own stencil quickly? Again, it wasn’t our style to use the commercial roses, ivy, ,etc. stencils that are out there in most craft stores and by the time I searched around for plastic to cut a stencil so Jason could paint it… well you get the picture. Plan B was for me to again free hand draw the design on the wall (by the way, chalk is an excellent way to mark on walls without erasing, etc. It just rubs off and its nice and white so you can see it easily on any colored wall).
So, we chose a mod bigger than life kind of poppy pattern or something like that to go around the windows and walls of the room patterned after some incredible vinyl wall art decals we found on Etsy. Etsy had so many to choose from, it literally took us a while to narrow down what we were looking for. Again, the plan was to freehand the design on the walls and paint it in later. Then….
Jason found this link on how to make removeable, DIY vinyl wall art! Duh! All those college years of contact paper in apartment drawers will finally come in handy. I am on the hunt today for white contact paper and I’ll let you know how it goes. Best of all, if it works, it’ll be faster, less messy, no paint fumes and removable down the line. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. Anyone done this before?
Very exciting- our little picky eater ate a whole bunch of spaghetti elbows tonight! Whoo hoo! Progress! Maybe she’ll give up her goldfish addiction a little and start to eat other kinds of “real” food. Imagine.. veggies!
In other news, today was the 2nd non stress test and bio physical profile on the twins at the hospital. Things look fine and the baby on my right side, who will most likely be born first- “Baby A”, is 3lbs. and 11 oz. and the baby on my left, “baby B”, is 3 lbs., 13 oz. They are pushing 4 lbs.! That’s over 7 lbs. of baby. They are already bigger together than Lucy was at 5 lbs. and 8 oz. 31 weeks- 32 here I come! Also, the Dr. said after 34 weeks, if I go into labor, they won’t stop me, but they won’t probably let me go past 38 weeks or around Aug. 9th.
Yes! The solstice is finally here! I love this longest (or thereabouts) day of the year, speaking of hours of daylight of course. Its all down hill from here though! (Did you know that the Earth is technically farther from the Sun around this date than around the Winter Solstice? A LOT of people actually think summer happens because we are closer to the sun during the summer and the winter occurs because we are farther from the sun. I had to add that in- today was the NYS Earth Science Regents Exam!) So, this day always makes me think of Earth Science and one of our favorite (and outrageous) things to do on this weekend each year when we lived in Seattle. I hope someday we can take our girls to this!
On the other hand, many of you will be shocked to know that I started reading for leisure (thats how bored I’ve gotten- I’m not a “natural” reader!). I picked up Eiger Dreams by Jon Krakauer at the library, author of Into the Wild, Into Thin Air and Under the Banner of Heaven, all of which I have read already and all I found fascinating. This book of his is a collection of mostly short essays he had written for magazines (he often writes for Outside and Smithsonian) and are about different aspects of mountaineering, climbing, bouldering and outside adventures. You could say I am living vicariously. However, he is the only author that I have read everything of his I can get my hands on- I love the true life stories he writes about and how gripping he tells the tales. He has great insight, a down to earth perspective and hails from the NW. So far, its very, very good and a fast read!
I could just scream! I have heartburn to end all heartburn and no end in sight until about a couple of months after I deliver probably since that is what happened last time. Seriously, I have it 24 hrs. a day just about. At best it feels like Frank’s Red Hot is stuck in my throat (which if you love it like I do, sometimes it ain’t that bad!). At the worst, pretty much from 4pm-the early morning, it feels like someone is taking a knife and stabbing me in the back between my shoulders. When I bend forward at all (even to look down at a laptop on my lap like twice) or lie down it gets 3000 times worse so I have been sleeping sitting up for days now. Not very restful as you can imagine and I am starting to get a little frustrated. I am taking 2 heartburn max. strength pills each day on top of pretty much an entire bag of tums, which usually doesn’t even touch it. I am afraid to take anything else because of the babies and try to get through it without taking more pills usually, but its getting to the point of making me incredibly miserable. Sometimes a warm bath or milkshake/ice cream (believe it or not) or plain bread will help but usually it just has to work its way through. Any suggestions of things that’ll help? (BTW- this is Melisa, not Jason!)
On Monday, I went to Sisters Hospital in Buffalo to the Fetal Testing Unit where they do just that. My Dr. considers them the best at testing, especially with twins, so from here on out each Monday I’ll be there getting a Non-stress test (NST) and a Biophysical Profile on each baby (BPP) to see how they are each doing in there and making sure no one is having a hard time. This is what happened Monday. Read the rest of this entry »
I went to the annual Senior Awards dinner for my school last night and presented some awards to three outstanding seniors that I advised in our high school’s Key Club (Key Club is sponsored by Kiwanis and is the largest “service to the community” organization for young people in the world). I had such a good time having dinner with my colleagues and I forgot how funny the people I work with are! We laughed and laughed and laughed. To my surprise also, some of my colleagues put together some care packages and boxes of diapers to help us get started and me pass time while at home. How thoughtful and incredible! I didn’t know what to say. I really work with some amazing people!
After dinner, my award was thankfully like the 4th or 5th award of the night out of pages and pages of awards, so I could get it over with because I hate getting up and presenting these things! I get so unnecessarily nervous! Anyway, it was hard to express how special these kids are to me in front of 200 or so people, but I tried. Just after giving them the gifts, cards, certificates and hugs in recognition, they turned the tables, bringing up a HUGE wrapped gift, a card and flowers from the Key Club! I was speechless! They desperately wanted me to open it in front of all the people there, but I tried to gently coax them to bring it off to the side of the room and I’d open it after the awards ceremony. I was so taken aback, overwhelmed, etc. WOW! Anyway, we all had a seat and waited to open it at the end of the ceremony. At the end of the ceremony, we visited and I opened the present which turned out to be a front and back double stroller that will fit our car seats that the club members had saved all their money up for and bought for us. Just incredible. I still keep tearing up thinking about what an amazing thought, let alone present, they worked hard and contributed to get us. I mean, they make minimum wages at HS jobs and imagine how much they had to have saved?? How could I possibly thank them all!? They did this all on their own without me knowing and without any guidance or help. Jason was in on it too but was surprised when he saw what they got us- also very thoughtful (but sneaky!). I just can’t believe it. I wish I could hug them each over and over!
After all of this the real reason I am actually writing this post is that while watching the slide show of pictures of our seniors now and as babies, I thought of our babies. Read the rest of this entry »
Its bugging me that our site name constantly reminds me of one of favorite places in Seattle: Six Arms! If you are ever in Seattle have a beer here! Also, if you are ever in Portland or just generally around the NW, check out one of the fine establishments owned by McMenamins, the organization behind Six Arms. They have created some truly unique pubs, hotels, music venues and even movie theaters. Damn we miss that place! Just had to get that out there!
Damn. Our house just got diagnosed with having brown bats who are likely to have babies June-August (hey, me too!). Work is estimated to cost over $1000. GREAT timing. Sucks that I think bats are so cute. Too bad they are incredible vectors. It seems habitat destruction is causing them to roost in houses more and more. I can appreciate that. However, too many babies in this house- bats have to go!
If you are close to us and have spent time with Lucy, you know that she is a constant talker (she is my child after all!). The Dr. calls her a little ahead in language (now if she could just change her own diaper!). She started with Da-da, then Ma-ma, then cat (loves the cat), now up, dog, ball, that (constantly asking “whats that?” and pointing) and the list is growing. She is also becoming more and more expressive, like screeching when she’s excited or to announce her presence when one of us don’t notice her behind us, inflecting her voice when she points like she is asking a question and can follow some simple commands. She also laughs at stuff we do and she does. Its so fun and her personality is starting to come out a lot more day by day. She seems to have a lot to say about everything and when she is not talking she is usually crawling, climbing, taking things apart, opening things and generally being super busy all the time (often while talking at the same time!). Even when I come in to get her in the morning in the crib, she is walking around and around her crib waving around her bear blanket. The kid never stops!
So, I was doing some research on the interweb about language development and its interesting how young people develop their language (especially as a teacher). By 12 months, most kids use about 1-5 words and by 18 months, this grows to about 7-20. They also start using inflection by about 18 months too and will show emotion with body language. Lucy now lays on the floor face down when she is tired- a little subtle huh? They will also start using consonant sounds and lead to a spurt in vocabulary around 18 months. By 19 months, they can understand up to 200 words and will pick up 10+ words a day! Some can add a new word every 90 minutes! Yikes! They also start to combine words in sentences by the end of the second year and will express needs, wants, likes/dislikes and emotion. Wow, that’s fast and simply amazing. Its incredible to imagine how things will change when she can tell us what she wants and not. Now its just trial and error!
Any stories about early language that you’d like to share?
So, I’ve been home from work on “house arrest” since May 16th now- my 26th week of pregnancy. House arrest simply means that I need to be off my feet most of the day, not lift things (such as Lucy) and generally take it as easy as possible. Being home has been really different than teaching every day and pretty mundane, but not as hard as I thought it would be actually to not being doing much. I guess when your body tells you to slow down, you have no choice. I spend my days doing stuff on the computer, some light stuff around the house, watching ridiculously mind-numbing TV and finally, meeting JD at daycare to pick up Lucy together.
What is strange though is that I don’t have Lucy with me during the day and can’t fully care for her when we are alone. It is simply hard to get off the floor and get down onto the floor with her at this point, let alone changing her and lifting her in and out of her crib. I watch her leave with JD in the morning for daycare and wonder what she is doing with other people and kids all day- that is the hardest part. This morning, she crawled away from me to JD and called him Mama, giving him a hug, when she was sad. I was so sad. Due to me not being able to physically handle her, our relationship is definitely changing and she is relying on Dad more, which is sweet, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t sad sometimes about us losing some closeness. I try to maintain perspective that this has to happen and is a natural part of growing a family and is seen in all cultures, but still at 6:30am I want to be the “Mama”!
I’d like to think our kid is pretty comfortable in her own skin and the world around her. We go to daycare, she never cries when we drop her off and gets right into the mix, smiling and playing with the other kids like she never missed a beat. We visit friends and family and with the exception of a brief warm up period, she is smiling and opening up just like at home. She has always been this easy-going, happy and friendly baby that pretty much responded to all your stimulation in positive, geeful ways directed right toward mommy or daddy’s heart. Can our luck run out at some point- maybe with one or two new additions??
Then came her 1st birthday. She is no longer a baby! You can’t set her down in one spot anymore and expect her to be there for more than a millisecond- all she wants to do is walk, crawl, take things apart, put them together, repeat. In fact, you can’t even sit the child down to eat anymore without major protest!
Somehow with all the wiggling, refusing to be fed and throwing of food over the side of the high chair with a sneaky smile, she managed to gain 3 lbs. since April when she wasn’t eating last too! Feeding has to be a huge independence milestone because what could be more personal than determining what goes into your own body? I can certainly appreciate this and I am trying very, very hard to keep in perspective that the developmental need for her to make these decisions is actually more important than her nutrition at this point- at least that is what the experts tell me.
She is not hugely into feeding herself yet so I worry about her not getting enough food to power her little motor through the day doing all her “baby work”, as we call it. Before, we could give her a bunch of toys and some finger foods and she’d play with them all and let you feed her endless spoonfuls of mushy food while she was distracted. However, She wasn’t really into the texture of things and definitely didn’t like things that stuck to her hands as she picked them up (ok- that’s almost everything!). Now, in the last week, since trying the all so amazing chicken nugget and rice puff, she flat out almost completely refuses to let you feed her! She likes to try and scoop out the food herself with the spoon and get it to her mouth herself (still some bad aim!), but really won’t feed herself a lot…. and won’t let us feed her either! The only things she likes to feed herself are pretzels, graham crackers, rice puffs, cheerios, teething biscuits or other processed carbs! Not really interested in things normal people would call “healthy”. Again, mommy is having a coronary, but trying to keep perspective since turning what I view as an eating catastrophe into a power struggle could be the worst thing to happen at this point. Hmmmm… any suggestions wiser more experienced parents?
I am always fascinated with the vibrancy and deep passion people have when sharing stories involving their families, friends and extended family. This personal storytelling weaves together the inherent connections we all have when we bump up against others, different perspectives, life experiences and the daily ups and downs of everyday life. The shared experiences of others enrich and gently guide our own paths in this life and help us to grow.
The inspiration for this blog comes from how deeply I’ve been touched by the stories of others in my life and especially by our own personal story over the last years, and specifically in the last year, with our daughter. With the beginning of our family, a new set of experiences, reflections, future hopes and vivid “ah-ha” moments have surfaced. We have appreciated that in becoming parents, we have become beginners in this world again- seeing and making sense of our own experiences through new sets of eyes.
Our family is currently Melisa, Jason and Lucy, our 1 year old daughter. We will also be welcoming 2 more bundles of joy (twins!)- two more girls they tell us- in July or August. We will start writing from now, but first, a brief history of where this all started.
