A climber, a singer, a laundry basket, two standing babies and teething

The girls are going through a few teething pains and we had a few rough moments this weekend with extreme clingyness and a lot of crying. As long as both Darren and I were both within about six inches of them, they seemed okay. It looks like Brooklyn has her second tooth coming in so hopefully she'll start feeling better soon.

Brooklyn is now climbing up the stairs (see video below). The first time she did it, she climbed up those stairs so fast at a frantic pace giggling like a manic (with Darren right there in case she slipped). She also tried this morning to climb on top of her toy kitchen set by placing her knee on top of the toy stove. She would have succeeded if I hadn't pulled her off. She is a wild little monkey girl. Anne also told me at daycare she succeeded in climbing up the ladder of the plastic slide and going down head first. And she's not even walking yet. It's funny that we knew Brooklyn would be our wild girl even in the NICU and especially that first week home. 

Bailey can pull herself into a standing position now! The only problem is she hasn't learned yet how to sit back down (or is too afraid to). So after she is standing for a while, she just starts crying until you come over and sit her back down. It is so funny. Darren also took a video of her baby babbling and I swear she is singing along to the ABC song (see video below).

Darren also put the girls into the clothes basket for an indoor ride. They love this so much. Brooklyn holds on and makes little vroom type of noises. The first time Bailey went in there, her mouth was just wide open in delight. So adorable. Darren's mom said his dad used to do the same ride for him and his sister when they were little.

Two babies in a clothes basket: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_oo-FcKjiM

Brooklyn climbing stairs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kOclGdj144

Bailey singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzKrNjsdtWk

First Birthday Party Menu

I really like to cook but don't get much a chance now. (I would say for most of the first year, dinner time generally involves Darren and I scavengering around in the fridge for weekend leftovers or putting together something fast and eating standing up in the kitchen, alternating while on feeds the kids and the other has about two minutes to inhale food. It's recently been getting better. And now that we are getting a weekly Fresh Fork bag, I've been actually making some really yummy dinners during the week.) Anyway, I was really excited about the first birthday menu. After consulting Pinterest, here's the menu:

Raspberry Sherbert
Coconut and honey energy balls
Mango salsa (which, might I add, is award-winning based on my victory at work in the salsa contest)
Taco cupcakes
Chicken and waffles 
Meatball and breadstick sub skewers
Fruit salad (my mom made this)
Chocolate and white almond sheet cake (Giant Eagle)

Milestones and teeth!

Crib interactions!

• Teeth! We finally have teeth! Both girls have one tooth poking through now (not to be confused when I incorrectly thought Brooklyn was teething at four months. It was just a calcium deposit that disappeared!). Neither tooth is all the way up but you can visibly see it poking through. 
• The girls are now interacting in their cribs which is sooooo cute. You can just hear them laughing at each other and watch them reach through the crib to touch each other. The other day I watched on the monitor as Bailey was asleep and Brooklyn was crawling around the crib playing, pulling herself up to peer into the crib to see what Bailey was up to. She finally picks up a stuff animal and throws it into Bailey's crib to try and wake her up! (Which she did!)
• Brooklyn climbed up one stair yesterday! Ahhh! She is on the move!
• We also switched the girls to convertible car seats (rear facing still) over the last week or so. 
• Brooklyn started dancing (rocking and back and forth) like her sister now. And she climbs up on EVERYTHING. I've seen her stand without holding onto anything for short periods, too. 
• Bailey is really close to being able to pull herself up. Her crawling is getting a lot faster. She's also been clapping all the time like Brooklyn. 



Last day in infant car seats!

• They are doing really well eating still. Had their first bites of pizza the other day. Actually they are really liking kale and avocado smoothies right now. They get so excited over that stuff. Silly babies think it's ice cream or something. :) 

One Year Check Up

One year vs three weeks old.

Girls had their one year check up on Friday. Both weighed EXACTLY the same, 20 lbs 7 oz (the nurse said this is so unusual, even identical twins are usually at least a few ounces different). They were pretty close in height, nearly 29 inches (Brooklyn was a sixth of an inch taller). This puts them in the 40-45th percentile (in the adjusted scale) for height and weight.

They also got three more shots at their appointment. First MMR, Hept A and I think PCV but I can't even remember now. Thankfully Darren was able to go with me so we could each hold a baby after their shot. The nurse was telling us with twins as they get older, they have one leave the room so they don't see the other get the shots. I can only imagine how the other twin waiting in the hall is feeling hearing their sister crying inside!

Overall they are doing so well. Right on track for everything. We switched them to whole milk on Friday (cold turkey) without any issues (as long as it's heated a little to take the chill off). So they are now getting 18 oz of whole milk a day. Let's do a little dance of rejoice for never having to buy formula for the twins again! One Enfamil refill box of formula ($35.99) lasted us about 4.5 days (as a side note, I think we calculated we spent about $5K on formula over the course of a year. Wowza! They were drinking more ounces before we started solids and we had to buy preemie formula, which is more expensive, for a little bit.)

Croup times two!

I think last week was maybe one of the hardest weeks I've had as a parent since the girls were little babies.

What is harder than one sick baby? Two sick babies. What is harder than two sick babies? Two sick babies while your husband is out of town AND you are supposed to be working and don't have back up child care. (Single mothers, I don't know how you do it.)

Darren left Sunday for a work conference. On Monday when I dropped them off at daycare, Anne mentioned that croup was going around the daycare and two kids were now sick with it (out of eight).

First of all, I've never even really heard of croup (other than my cousin's son getting it). It's one of those thing that you sometimes hear about and sounds kind of scary but I didn't really know what it was. Let me enlighten you. It's a bad cough (just viral) that sounds kind of like a barky seal that needs to run its course. In most cases, because it's viral, you don't even need to go to the doctor unless your child is having trouble breathing.

So on Tuesday the girls both had a low grade fever (99.7 and 100.4) so I kept them home from daycare. The cough started shortly after. We were very lucky in that it was never so severe they needed to be hospitalized (look at croup on YouTube and you'll find some pretty awful cases). So from Tuesday- Thursday I was on my own without Darren, trying to "work from home" while taking care of two sick babies who both just wanted to be held by mom. I noticed when either of them would get upset and cry really hard (ie, mommy left the room for ten seconds to make their bottles) they were start wheezing which scared the shit out of me. We did a several steam sessions in the shower (closed door, water on high and hot) where we just sat on the floor of the bathroom. This seemed to help. Used the humidifier in their room too. Seemed to get worse at night. They coughed all night long poor babies.

But we survived. Darren came home Thursday night just as the girls were going to bed. We kept them home Friday again but they were on the mend by then (just a lingering cough, and doctor said they weren't contagious anymore and lungs sounded clear). They still have a slight cough today but much better. Everyone made it to daycare this morning!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HIQr_kmj1Y

 

Happy Birthday Babies!

Can't believe our girls turned one on Sunday. Happy birthday to Bailey, the oldest (by one minute), who giggles all day at everything and anything, who shoves cheese by the fistful into her mouth, who squeals in delight at the sight of the cat, who recently learned to crawl forward after many weeks of struggling only going backwards, who has beautiful blue eyes that melt your heart, who rocks back and forth when she really likes the music playing, who loves lifting the flaps in the zoo book and who gives the sweetest hugs. Happy birthday to Brooklyn, our wild child, who is always on the go crawling everywhere and recently mastered pulling herself into a standing position, who shakes with happy anticipation when she gets her sippy cup at dinner, who has infectious grins that make her green eyes sparkle, who prefers the Disney enchanted princess song book before bed, who tackles and climbs all over you in lieu of hugs and who finds such joy in sunglasses & baseball caps and turning everyday objects into hats (ie book hats). And for your mutual love of peek-a-boo, blankets over your heads, mirrors, Cheerios, remote controls, cell phones, belly laughs and giggling at each other, happy birthday to our angels. xoxoxo

Two crawlers AND two spoon users

Big couple of weeks for the girls.

Bailey is officially crawling now (backwards AND forwards).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyrrVuReZMY

And, last night they used spoons to feed themselves. There was a lot of spillage and they weren't really getting a ton but they were figuring it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBwh91yUohE



They are also (kind of) learning how to give high fives (a very important baby milestone). Brooklyn is also starting to master putting Legos together. She is so funny because she gets so frustrated when she can't figure it out and doesn't want any help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-IEWyW_XeU

Mommy's first post-twin half marathon

Ran my first post-twin half marathon (13.1 miles) this weekend. I've done three half's before (Akron twice and the towpath one). I actually ran Akron's half with Darren about a month before I found out I was pregnant with the girls.

It was a tough run. Obviously it's a lot harder to train with two little babies, so I only ran three times/week after they went to bed or on the weekends (and sometimes only twice a week), and I didn't really cross or strength train like I should have (or at all, ha). We kept increasing our distance run on the weekends so I did run ten miles the weekend before. But to say I was sore would be an understatement. I feel pretty good now though.

Not my best time: 2 hours, 14 mins and 29 seconds (10:15 min/mile pace). My PR was the towpath at 2 hours 2 min. Still, I was really happy with the race. My goal was around 10 to 10:30. Plus I did not anticipate how much the hills on shoreway would suck! 

And wasn't it all worth it anyway for the adorable pictures of these babies holding our medals?????

I'm going to ease off of running for a bit and focus on T-25. Yes, I was sucked in when watching an infomerical one night while Bailey couldn't sleep. It's a ten week program, just 25 minutes a day, five days/week. I'm anticipating some days will be tough to pull it off so I'm going to approach this with some flexibility. 

Roseola and Baby Milestones

Roseola

Breakfast Picnic

Bailey came down with a fever on Mother's Day (my first Mother's Day! Which was great until the fever. We had a picnic breakfast Saturday at Rocky River park overlooking the lake then went to the zoo Sunday morning). Anyway she was really sick Sunday night and I took work off on Monday. Saw the doctor, no ear or respiratory infection. Fever still there. Hit 102.9 at the highest. Fever continued Tuesday and Wednesday morning, finally went away by Wednesday afternoon. She was able to go back to daycare on Thursday but we noticed a slight rash. By Thursday night she definitely had a rash all over her body - roseola. It's a really common baby virus that everyone gets before kindergarten with a really high fever followed by a rash. At least it's no longer contagious at the rash state. There's a nine to ten day incubation period so if Brooklyn is still healthy by the 25th we are in the clear. Let's hope!

Roseola rash on back

Bailey is feeling so much better (she's laughing and playing again) but hasn't been eating or sleeping very well all week. Poor thing!

Baby milestone update: 

Crawling

Brooklyn is now crawling everywhere like a professional baby crawler on a Pampers commercial. This lead Darren and I to the realization that we need baby gates and baby proofing. That will be the plan for this weekend!

Bailey is still crawling backwards but she is trying so hard to go forwards, especially now that she sees Brooklyn doing it. Any day now.

Standing Up

Brooklyn can now pull herself into a standing position, and yesterday at day care she was standing up in her crib after nap time. Slow down baby girl!

Toys

How can toys be a milestone? Let me explain. Brooklyn is really starting to figure out how toys work. She can put balls into the top of the chute and watch them come out the bottom, and then put them back in again. She can also put objects into other objects (like a coin into the piggy back slot or a block into the square cut out). Here is a hilarious video of Brooklyn figuring out how to put the coins into the piggy bank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdJnygpfEXw

11 months, March for Babies, new tricks, twin group

May is already a super hectic/busy month (as opposed to the previous 11 months, when having twins was a piece of cake and we sat around, ha).

First, the girls posed for their standard monthly photo shoot in the adorable sailor outfits I got at the twin sale. Check out the 11 month vs 3 week comparison. This is the last month my girls will officially be babies (toddlers start at one year). I can't get over how big they are and how much they are changing every single day.

Their newest trick is learning to stand (albeit a bit wobbly). Brooklyn does the craziest baby moves ever where she basically gets into a down dog or complete plank in an effort to try and stand herself up. This often results in her doing the splits and just rolling around like a maniac. She is so funny. Bailey is still trying to sit herself up but I can tell it's coming soon. She won't really try to stand on her own, but will hold the position if you put her up. She is also a good walker if you hold her hands.

Bailey learned to give hugs recently which is so adorable. Who received the first hug? Mom? Dad? Trick question - neither. The cat. Bailey loves Dexter soooo much its ridiculous. She could sit and hug that cat all day. But she is hugging people now too which will melt your heart!

Brooklyn is still the wild child in that she is always on the move. Even giving the girls baths in the sink (just once a week, ha) is a completely different experience between the two. Bailey plays with her toys in the sink and laughs the entire time, Brooklyn reaches for everything around it and never fails to find something she shouldn't have. She even wants to climb out of the sink. She can't be contained!

We had our twin survival get together this weekend. Five sets of twins ages 16 months to 10 months (minus one baby who was sick). It was so much fun. It is so cool to see so many babies in a similar age range all doing funny baby things. Plus I really like all the parents so we have a lot of fun eating and drinking and swapping war stories.

We also did the March for Babies with my twin group at the end of April. The girls were six weeks early, which is obviously not THAT early, but enough that the NICU made a big impact on me. I really truly believe too that organizations like the March of Dimes that fund research to keep woman pregnant (and provide care for babies born early) are the only reason I made it to 34 weeks anyway (that whole I was in the hospital at 30 weeks overnight and they had to give me meds to stop my labor episode). I'd like to try and do this walk every year since it has special meaning to me. I know how lucky lucky lucky we were to make it as far as I did. I've been following a blog of a little baby boy (Benton) born at 23 weeks that my cousin Alice knows through a friend. He's been in the NICU for 175 days. For me, 11 days was hard. 175 is just... unimaginable.  If you feel like having a good cry (very emotional, but an incredible story), read his story on the Blessings for Benton blog.