Poor Babies

Brian and Addison above, Emma in our bed

Emma

Brian and Emma
Emma is such a trooper. She can even manage a smile when she is sick!

Guess which one is Addison. (Hint: just look at those cheeks!)

Since last Thursday Emma has been sick with a pretty bad cold. I called the doctor on Friday just to confirm what I should be doing (use the humidifier, saline drops, suction out the gross stuff). Unfortunately, there is not much you can do for a baby when they have a virus. Over the weekend she completely stopped eating. She went 18 hours with no food. Sunday night Brian and I kept her in our bed propped up on the boppy because she was screaming so much. As you might guess, we took her straight to the doctor on Monday. We found out that she has Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). Again, there is not much that can be done about a virus; and evidently this virus can get pretty serious in little ones. At times babies even need to be hospitalized for breathing treatments and dehydration. Thankfully Emma started to eat again yesterday! She is not eating much, but it is better than none at all. We have to keep her upright while she sleeps so last night she slept in her bouncy seat. This virus is highly contagious so the doctor thinks it is only a matter of time before Emma passes it to Addison. Addison has been coughing, sneezing, and sounding a little congested when she breathes. This is how it started with Emma, except Emma had a loss of appetite right away.

Addison below
(Grandma sent these outfits too! They looked cute in them.)

Conversations with Daddy and Addison

Sister love!

We found out that Addison has become quite the chubby baby! I knew she was a little tubbier than her sister, but the doctor confirmed that she weighs 11.4 pounds! Baby Emma only weighs 9.12 pounds. I do think that Emma has lost a little since she has been sick. After baths last night we put a sleeper outfit on Addison that fit last week and she could not straighten her legs. Brian said, “Oh well, it will be okay if she wears it for one night.” Don’t worry, I changed her clothes.

Brian was scheduled to go out of town today for work. He canceled his trip because he was worried about his babies, and he felt bad for me having to take care of two sick babies. He is such a good husband and father!

Sleeping Well & Lots of Pictures

The girls have been much better about sleeping lately. We have been giving them their last bottle around 9 or 9:30, and then putting them to sleep around 10:00. They sleep until about 2-3:00 AM and wake up again between 6-7 AM. So they are really only getting up once during the night to eat! This is really helping Brian and I get more sleep too. I don’t know when they will drop the 3:00 AM feeding, but at least we can deal with one night feeding. One thing that has worked for us is giving them an extra bottle shortly after their bath. We give them about half the amount they normally eat. Sometimes they fuss right before bed, but it usually doesn’t last too long.

I am about to post a ton of pictures!

Addison is on the left, Emma on right (crying)

Emma on left, Addi on right

Tummy time turned into nap time for Addi!

Look at Addison's face in the mirror!

Emma with her new bow that Grandma sent!

Addison

Emma

Addison, Daddy, Emma

Addi with another bow that Grandma sent.

Emma

Addison

Emma on left, Addison on right

Emma

Putting Babies to Bed: Part 2

(Recently the girls have started to notice each other)
Addison is on the left, Emma on right

Bedtime went so well last night! Originally I planned to keep them up until 10:00 PM to see if that made a difference. After bath-time I had dinner and let them hang out as usual. They started getting a little fussy right after I ate. It wasn't time for them to eat again, but I decided to feed them a couple of ounces to try and calm them until feeding time. After they both ate they settled for about 20 minutes. Then they started to get fussy again. At that point I abandoned my plan to keep them up and decided to just feed them their normal 4.5 ounces and try to put them to bed. I finished feeding both girls at 8:30 PM and before I finished burping them they were both asleep! I put them in their crib and didn't hear a peep out of them until 1:45 AM. I fed them again and they went right back to sleep until 5:45 AM! They even went back to sleep after that until 7:30. This is huge progress! I know they are not ready to give that middle of the night feeding up again, but I can deal with this schedule!

(Addison trying to talk to her sister)

(Emma being a good listener)

So it appears that I need to give them about 6.5 ounces before bed to get them to sleep. Brian will be home today! Daddy will be able to help with tonight's routine!

(I wish I knew what they were thinking)

(In this picture it is clear, "I've had enough of this Mommy!")

Putting Babies to Bed

Emma

Addison

Yesterday morning Brian left to go out of town for work. Thankfully this is a short trip because sleep training did not go so well without my husband. I would say the hardest thing about being a mother of twins is not being able to soothe both babies at the same time. When I am alone with the girls during the day I try to stay ahead of them by feeding them a little bit before they want to eat. This seems to work really well, and I rarely have to deal with crying babies during the day.

Addison

Emma

Addison

Last night I continued the routine that Brian and I have been working on for a few weeks now. After the girls have their 5 or 6 PM bottle, we give them a bath, let them hang out while we have dinner, then we give them another bottle and put them to bed. This usually gets them to bed around 9 PM. I should have known better, but last night I was about one hour ahead of schedule since I tried to stay ahead of their feedings during the day (to avoid major crying). I fed the girls at 7:30 and 8:00 and tried to put them to bed. Well, Addison screamed the entire time I fed Emma. Emma did fine until I put them in their crib. By the time Addison finished her bottle she was exhausted from crying so she did okay when I put her down. Emma cried loudly off and on until 9:00. I decided to feed both of them again at 9:00. After that, they slept from about 10-2! I guess Emma was just having a rough night because at 2 AM she thought it was daytime and that we should play. She was wide awake, smiling, cooing, and grabbing the blanket. It took me a while to settle her down. Usually Addison has more trouble at night but I noticed that she is sucking her fist now when I go in the room. Maybe she is learning to calm herself down this way.

Addison working on pulling those toys!

So, I have decided that tonight I will not put them down so early. I am going to put them down closer to 9 PM or 10 PM and see how that goes. It seems like no matter what time we pick for bedtime we have to deal with some crying for that first hour. The rest of the night goes well. Brian will be home Friday and he has a day off on Monday! Life is so much easier when he is home. I don’t know how single moms do it!

Pictures

This post is mainly pictures. The girls are becoming much more interactive. I love seeing them smile!

Addison is on the left and Emma is on the right getting a kiss from Daddy.

Addison gets a kick out of her Daddy.

Addison and Mommy

Emma and Mommy

Emma and Daddy

Emma loves to play!

Here are the letters we ordered for their rooms.

Both girls love bath time! They are still small enough for us to bathe them in the bathroom sink. Here is Addison looking up at me.

Emma

There hasn't been much going on around here. Brian will be out of town later this week and it will be my first time alone at night with the girls. I expect to be worn out when he gets back since they still wake around every 3-5 hours at night to eat. It is very inconsistent right now. One night they made it 6 hours, but that is definitely not the norm. Maybe I will get lucky and they will sleep really well while he is gone.