Johnny and Rachel

J and R had their nine month check-up last week. We unfortunately had to do immunizations again because I elected to only do half of their six month shots. I can say they did better with them this time. Rachel seems to do quite well with them, it’s Johnny that can’t tolerate them very well. He didn’t seem to spit up any more than usual, and he has been sleeping awful, so who knows!

J and R are tons of fun now. They are both crawling. J started April 10th, right after my parents and grandma were here for Easter. R only “army” crawls, and I would guess she started about a week after J. My mom got them a jumperoo and they both adore it. They both have learned a few tricks recently. They can give “five” on command and they both can wave with a little encouragement.  They love jewelry, which I no longer wear.

We started going to the gym in April. It only took three weeks to get a cold. I don’t know if it’s from the gym or church, but both J and R are sick right now, and Paul and I might go down too. I haven’t had a cold since March 2011, when I was pregnant with them and still working. I’ve enjoyed being healthy.

Johnny

Height: 28.5”

Weight: 16 lb 12 oz

Head: 46 cm

J is our social kid. Anyone can hold him and he’s happy as a clam. He give strangers a huge smile under his binky. He’s still teething, but his last lateral is 1/3 of the way through. Hopefully we’ll have a furlough from teething and once this cold is done he’ll start sleeping better. He actually has been better the last two nights. He still takes 3-4 45 min naps.

Rachel

Height: 28.5”

Weight: 16 lb 9 oz

Head: 45 cm

R is our sensitive kid. She takes everything personally and either likes you or not. (She’s seriously like me!) She is a total ham around me and Paul. Her favorite time to giggle is in the tub. She’s taking one serious nap a day now, and one shorty. She’s been sleeping 7-5 most nights.

We had a visit from Lismarie and her family and Uncle Nate. We went to the beach together!

Wow! The last month flew by, almost. This last week has been another week of rough sleep, mostly for Johnny. There’s lots of teething, constipation, and gas issues going on in our home right now. We are again TIRED. J & R have become tons of fun with all of their new tricks and things are getting easier.

Johnny

Rocks on his hands a knees all the time. He’ll even dive forward, but hasn’t figured out how to move his arms yet. He has also mastered the 360 tummy pivot.

Says “da da” and “mam, ma ma ma”.

Has some GI issues. We’re experimenting with probiotics.

Sits up pretty well.

Still only has two teeth, but two more are on their way.

Figuring out eating Cheerios.

Loves his new bath toys.

Loves to give open mouth kisses.

Loves his new sunglasses.

Rachel

Rolls all over the place. Hasn’t really found her hands and knees, but now does cobra.

Says “ma ma”, “da”, and “ba”. She babbles much of the day.

Tumbles over whenever she sits up.

Has four teeth, with two more to come this week. She cut her upper laterals a few weeks ago. We lovingly call her “fang”.

Loves to eat Cheerios.

Loves her bath toys.

Uses her index fingers to feel things, and pick up cheerios. She figured out if she keeps her index fingers wet, the cheerio will just stick to it.

Not a huge fan of her sunglasses.

Freaks out whenever I leave the room, ugh.

Wow, February flew by. It’s usually a busy month for us because it’s my birthday and then Valentine’s Day. J and R are super cute and really interacting with us now. Unfortunately, they now notice when we leave the room. We’re working on sleep as usual. I no longer feed them at night, and their favorite bedtime is 6:30. This means that they are up around 5 am. Some nights they wake up at random hours and we let them cry themselves back to sleep. Many times they will go back to bed after nursing for a half hour or so, but we are up early, early, early.

Rachel has started to say “Ma ma ma”, mostly when she’s upset or tired. She finally cut two teeth “O” and “P”. She’s super close to sitting up on her own and has joined her brother in rolling all over the place. If J is on the floor with her, we can almost guarantee she has rolled to him and snatched his binky. She likes to chew on a binky and then spit it out. Teething has increased her fussiness exponentially. I’m glad they only teeth until 24 months-HA!  She has become seriously ticklish, and we can’t resist hearing her laugh. She is our stubborn baby, like her “Ma ma ma”, and will cry for 45 minutes or longer when she wakes up at night. We try to not let her cry longer then that, but earplugs help us go back to sleep.

Johnny has found the upper register is his voice and we, as parents, have become dependent on his binky. I am so grateful he seems to enjoy it too. We moved him up to the 6-18 month size binky and since then, he has started sucking on his tongue when he doesn’t have his binky in. He rolls to the left and right now He is super close to sitting up on his own too. He has found his hands and knees and likes to rock back and forth. Crawling is around the corner.

My parents, Ashley and Miles visited last week and we took Johnny and Rachel to the beach and let the roll around on blankets and sleep in their “ErgoBabies”. They did pretty well.

I find Rachel like this regularly in her crib after crying herself to sleep.

More pictures from Ashley to come later. We love these babies!

It’s pretty crazy that J and R are six months old already. By the time I get this posted, they’ll be closer to seven months. Unfortunately, six months equaled more immunizations, which really throws J for a loop. We even cut them in half this time and it didn’t help very much. He still had a 101 fever for a couple days. Luckily, he didn’t vomit every time he ate. Who knows if it was fewer immunizations or just being older? One thing is certain, I could try to figure it out over and over and over… you get the idea. They are finally starting to notice each other. It’s cute, and now sometimes annoying because they’ll grab and scratch each other without knowing what they’re doing.

Ok, so here are some brief stats.

Johnny

Weight: 15 lbs 11%

Height: 27.25” 80%

Johnny is finally getting some hair. Grandma Sally says it’s growing like grass.

He’s rolling like crazy, only to the left. He goes from one end of the room to the other.

He is a fan of yoga, he just doesn’t know it yet. That kid can hold cobra for at least ten minutes. He’s also starting push-ups.

He loves his binky. The doctor was totally surprised that we got him to start taking a pacifier at four months.

Has two teeth, “O & P”.

Does great with teething, besides sleeping.

Loves the exersaucer.

Loves to sleep on his tummy.

Loves to put his feet in his mouth.

Likes water out of his sippy cup.

Eats oatmeal, bananas, sweet potatoes, applesauce, and prunes.

Rachel

Weight: 15 lbs 4 oz 36%

Height: 27” 90%

Has a little hair, but it’s blonde, which equals bald.

Is finally interested in rolling. She doesn’t go far like her brother, but has mastered the skill.

Puts everything in her mouth, even a pacifier, but won’t suck on it. She just likes to chew it to death.

Is a total pill to get to sleep, she fights sleep like crazy.  Rocking, patting, singing, with her arms pinned to her side, and her head on my shoulder plus covered with a blanket is a common naptime ritual. (I’m told payback sucks, ok, I’m sorry already!)

Loves to sleep on her tummy.

Loves to drink out of her sippy cup, water only.

Eats oatmeal, sweet potatoes, bananas, applesauce, and prunes.

Loves to kick, she tries hard to kick her socks off every day. I found socks that stay on. Now she just tries to eat her feet.

Slobbers like crazy. No teeth for R yet, but I’m sure they’re soon to come.

Cute pictures to follow.

We changed their bedtime routine to include a bath.

Oatmeal:

They hang in their highchairs while we eat dinner.

Have I mentioned how much I love sleep sacs? See J doing cobra?

These guys are so cute, and we love them. We still have major sleep issues, but it’s getting better.

What a special year for us, a Christmas of many firsts. Our first Christmas with Johnny and Rachel, our first Christmas in our new home, our first Christmas without any other family, just us. It was a little sad to not be with family, but we are still zombies, so it wasn’t nearly as painful as I thought it would be. Luckily we have skype and could see both of our families this year.

J & R woke a little early, so I fed them at 5:45 and they went back to bed. I had to wake Rachel up at 8:20 so I could feed them and make it to church by 9. Hence the reason they wore their jammies to church. We only had time to eat a yogurt for breakfast and came home and had mush and an english muffin. No muss, no fuss. I’m embracing being a twin mom. We went to some dear friends for Christmas dinner and I took 12 layer jello and a berry salad. It was a lovely meal. We finally opened gifts after J & R went down for an afternoon nap. So non-traditional and easy. It was a lovely day.

My parents came to visit the weekend before Christmas. It was a whirlwind trip, but we were so happy to have them. We pretty much stayed home, although I got out of the house all by myself to do some grocery shopping. We finally caught Rachel smiling on camera. I posted them all because I can’t decide which one I like better. I have no idea where Johnny was while we did this. I think my mom has the photo of her with both babies.

Johnny and Rachel turned five months old on Christmas Eve. It was a bit of a fussy day, and we forgot to take pictures, but here they are in their cute Christmas jammies. We took them to church in these. We honestly didn’t have time to change them into their cute clothes that I, (or my mom, I can’t remember), bought especially for Christmas day, but they can wear them next week right?

They are much happier not wearing hats. It’s a good thing we live in San Diego.

We have been doing some major sleep training around here. Paul took on the burden of letting them cry it out in the middle of the night, and it has pretty much worked. I feed them at 10 pm and not again until 6 am. Occasionally one will wake up in the middle of the night and need to be soothed, but we’re getting much more sleep around here.

Johnny still likes flipping over, but doesn’t really move anywhere. He does end up sideways in his crib often, but not on his tummy. I thought he’d end up being a tummy sleeper; not yet. Johnny has a darling laugh, but I can’t figure out something besides peek-a-boo that triggers it.

Rachel found her voice this month and is quite ticklish. She has started grabbing everything and putting it in her mouth. Both J & R love their bibs and burp rags. They have both found their thumbs, but don’t truly suck on them, especially not to soothe themselves. We got them exersaucers for Christmas. Rachel loves it, Johnny not so much. He needs to become more interested in playing with the toys.

We love these guys!

They also tried rice cereal this month. They like it, and are totally interested in food when we eat. It didn’t make them sleep longer, so I am waiting a little bit until I commit to feeding it to them every day. It’s honestly just more work for me.

Rachel and Johnny turned four months on Thanksgiving. Poor babes has immunizations the day before, so we had a tough couple of days. I am definitely spreading out Johnny’s immunizations, he did not do well.

Our lives revolve around figuring out how to get them to sleep better. Lately they’ve only been waking up once or twice a night, which is a huge shift from just three weeks ago. We keep swaddling them when they sleep, but sometimes we don’t swaddle their arms. Many times they wake up trying to get their arms out of the swaddle. It’s a work in progress. We started rice cereal a few days ago, and they both like it. It took Rachel a couple days to warm up to it, and she can’t be that hungry to get her to eat it. I read somewhere that rice can make babies constipated; not my Johnny. Since starting rice, he’s had a blowout nearly every day. Rachel’s blowouts seem to be fewer lately, so it’s nice that I only have one or two blowouts a day to clean up.

They have both discovered their hands. I’m glad they will suck on their fingers to entertain and soothe themselves now, but I’m so not enjoying cold wet slobber on me. They also love their burp rags and bibs, we find them sucking on them constantly.

Both J & R are trying to roll from their back’s to tummy’s.  Today during their sunbath, J rolled from his tummy to his back. J found his voice a few weeks ago and squeals with glee during diaper changes while he kicks like a spaz. He smiles all the time and is such a joy. This is a huge change from his first six weeks of life where he screamed his head off any time we changed him, or any time he was naked. I credit this to a severely sore bum, and just being shy. Bath time is usually fun and happy, although if J is too tired he’ll still freak out every once in awhile. R is my calm baby. She’ll just hang out, and usually cries when I’ve neglected her too long. She’s becoming ticklish in her armpits and around her neck. When it’s consistent we’ll get some video of her darling little laugh.

Both J & R love story time. We read almost every day, and their favorite book is The Monster at the End of this Book, starring the lovable furry old Grover. I think they mostly love it because I don’t just read this one to them, I perform it. I am amazed how much they have enjoyed reading, even as early as 12 weeks old.

J & R have just discovered each other. It’s mostly J who is checking R out. She’ll notice him every once in awhile, but isn’t too interested yet. We’ll catch them holding hands now and then, but they really don’t know what they’re holding yet.

We have introduced some stuffed animals. Rachel has a pink rabbit named Jack, and Johnny has a white lamb named Chop. They haven’t grown attached to them yet, but I think I should go to Baby Gap and buy two more of each, in case we lose one.

So on to stats.

Johnny:

Weight: 13 lb 7 oz 22%

Height: 25.75” 81%

HC: 16.5” 44%

Rachel:

Weight: 13 lb 9 oz 51%

Height: 25.5” 91%

HC: 16.5” 79%

A family in our ward has many adult children, something like six. One of their daughters has 4 year old fraternal boy twins, and a son was expecting identical boy twins. This son already has three boys and the twins were a surprise. Not only were they identical but they were sharing a placenta/amniotic sac. Two days ago they got tangled in each others umbilical cords and died at 26 weeks. Tragedies like these are so sobering for me. Please pray for Michael and Robin Baker.

We are so grateful for Rachel and Johnny.  They are happy, healthy, sweet babies. I had an amazingly healthy pregnancy. I might have a mild sleep disorder now, and some days are just plain hard. I just love that we have an eternal perspective and are blessed to grow as parents.

We kept Thanksgiving low key this year.  I wanted to get the half a turkey and dressing from Trader Joe’s, but my wonderful grandma came for the week and talked me into buying a turkey. We made an awesome turkey, and my grandma slaved in the kitchen for two days. We weren’t as crazy as we could have been, Costco made the pumpkin pie, and we didn’t end up having sweet potatoes. We also just embellished Mrs. Cubbison’s dressing.  It was a really nice day, that led into an awful night. Johnny and Rachel had their immunizations the day before, and poor Johnny really felt terrible after them. Fever, vomiting, etc. He didn’t sleep well for two nights, which makes me feel hopelessly exhausted.

Grandma Donna has been heaven sent. I invited her for Thanksgiving week so she wouldn’t be alone in Phoenix, and little did I know what a blessing she would be. She has taken wonderful care of me this week. J & R love her to pieces and give her big smiles. She has puttered around my kitchen and folded laundry for nine days solid. Paul commented on how hard she works, and how that got passed down to my mom. Grandma’s response is “it’s better to wear out than rust out”. I love this saying! We love you so much Grandma Donna! I hope I can do all that you do when I am 88.

Things we are thankful for this year: (this is the short list!)

Rachel and Johnny

Family

Friends

The Gospel

A new home

Paul’s new job

Disability (the state of CA handout)

Our health

The nine years of experiences that prepared us to be parents of twins!

Johnny’s eyes just closed. Both J & R are taking naps in their swings right now, with Alicia Keys, Songs in A minor playing in the background. I need chocolate. Every. Day. The last three and a half months have been insane. I don’t even know if insane covers it, but it will have to do for this post. If you would have told me a year ago what being a parent to twins was really like, I might have thrown away all of the syringes and meds and never done IVF. It’s funny that no one really talks about how hard the newborn stage is. Maybe Mom’s of newborns talk amongst themselves while they’re going through it, but that’s it. People talk about the joy and love, and I can now see why. It’s what you cling to so you can make it through another day.

I can honestly say that I’ve never been so overwhelmed or felt so inadequate so many moments in my life. I have also never felt so much love, both toward and from so many people. We have had an amazing amount of support from family, friends, and our ward family. I don’t know how people who don’t have the church make it through the first few months of multiples. I hope they have amazing family and friends. 

Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting at church. Many people talked about their trials, and how they were hand picked for them. Paul and I have talked about our journey to have children and how what we went through prepared us to be the parents of twins. It is absolutely the hardest thing I have ever done. So in church I started thinking about the Season 25 behind the scenes of the Oprah show that I watched the other day. It was the taping of her final show, and they were making a big deal of one of the lines she wrote and said to viewers. She said, “you and this show have been the love of my life.” That line makes my heart ache for her now that I am a mother. Who gives a crap about some TV show?  I am positive that she has done a ton of good in the world and helped many viewers. I just can’t imagine my work being the love of my life. I know that having a family, being parents, and all the good, bad, and ugly that go with it are God’s plan for us. My family is the love of my life.

Now I know better than most, that having a family might not be possible for all of us in this life. I was so uplifted by this talk by Neil Anderson, an apostle of our church. It basically says everyone will have the opportunity to have a family, if not in this life, then the next. I totally believe that. In the meantime, God blessed scientists to develop assisted reproductive technology.  Paul and I are so blessed!

J & R are the sweetest babies on the planet. They do the newborn thing; random nighttime sleep, random naps, fussy when tired, etc. They are really happy babies though. They smile, coo, kick, swat at things, are trying to roll over. They are excellent nursers, but don’t really jive with bottles or binkies. They are starting to suck on their fingers, but they haven’t found their thumbs yet. (Yes, this dental hygienist would LOVE for them to be thumb suckers). They wear bibs 24/7 due to superfluous amounts of spit-up. They actually are starting to suck on their bibs and burp rags. We just adore these guys and are trying to embrace parenthood and all it brings.