Another Fabulous Weekend

The twins had a very busy weekend.  It started on Friday when they got to spend the day with Grandma Charlotte and Auntie Heather so that Brian and I could go to the funeral of a good friend's father.  As you can see from the picture they were angels for my mom and sister all day.



Saturday we hosted a BBQ for some of our friends with babies.  We had 6 babies,  3 two-year-old's and 12 parents over for lunch.  It was very busy.    James was the only boy baby there.  JJ are very lucky to already have so many friends.  I see a lot of play dates in their future!  Saturday night Jenn and Kelly came over for a visit.  

Sunday we brought the babies to church and then to Hugh and Sally's for lunch and their first ever Goodwillie cottage meeting.  I can tell that they are excited to spend their first summer at their cottages with their cousin Emily and all their Aunties and Uncles.

Tomorrow the twins and I are head to Port Colborne with my mom, sister and sister-in-law to visit my God Mother and her daughter and grandson.  They have a not-so-perfect record on long car trips so this could be a great day or a disastrous one.  

Josie's Big Day

Today Josie had a follow up appointment at Credit Valley Hospital.  She gets these follow ups at 4, 8, 12, 18, and 24 months because she was less than 2 kg when she was born (James was 2.1 kg so he doesn't get to participate).  

She was first seen by an occupational therapist who looked at her cognitive and physical development.  Cognitively Josie is developing perfectly.  She smiles and laughs, makes eye contact, follows objects with her eyes and can bring objects to her mouth.  Physically Josie is a little behind.  When she stands she is always on her tip toes.  We now have to work on getting her to plant her feet.  She also has trouble fully lifting her head when on her tummy.  The therapist showed us some other positions to help her with her neck stenghth and we have committed to practicing these with her more.

We then saw a nurse.  Josie is now 9 lbs 8 oz.  which puts her between 0.1 and 3rd percentile for weight.  The good news here is that she's finally on the chart!  Her length put her in the 3rd percentile and her head circumference is in the 40th percentile.  The nurse explained that sometimes small babies will develop disproportionally large heads because that's there body's way of focusing on brain development.  Her body size will catch up but right now it's most important that her brain be growing big and strong.  This may also explain why she has trouble lifting her head during tummy time.  

Lastly we saw a Dr.  who told us that we are doing a great job as parents, always nice to hear.  It is so great that Brian was able to come to the appointment too.  We both learned a lot about how to help JJ grow and develop.  

Today was also a sad day for me because I had to pack up all of Josie's newborn clothes.  They have gotten to short for her.  She has now moved in to 0-3 month clothes.  It's neat that she has a whole new wardrobe but sad that my little girl is growing up.  

Sleep Training

So tonight is night 4 of our attemp to sleep train James.  Josie doesn't need training because she is able to stay asleep from the first time we put her down.  James, on the other hand, falls asleep while drinking his last bottle and then wakes up 10-30 minutes later crying because he's hungry.  The books say to keep him awake while he eats but that's pretty much impossible.  My Dr. Recommended letting him cry it out.  This means letting him cry himself to sleep which can take up to 2 hours the first night and then is supposed to get shorter each night until he just sleeps.  Brian and I decided against this method because we don't want James crying into Josie's face for 2 hours and because we don't have the heart to let our little man cry for 2 hours straight.  Instead we are using the method from Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Twins.  When he wakes up we wait 5 minutes before we go in, then 10 minutes, then 15 and then 20.  

Here is how we are doing so far:

Night 1:  James fell asleep during first feeding so we put him to sleep in his crib.  He woke up 10 minutes later, so we let him cry for 5 minutes before going in to get him.  We fed him more and put him back in his crib.  He woke up again 20 minutes later so we let him cry for 10 minutes and then went in to get him.  We fed him more and put him back down.  He woke up again and cried for 12 minutes before he fell permanently asleep.

Night 2: Despite Brian's best efforts James again fell asleep half way through his bottle.  We put him to sleep and he woke up 40 minutes later.  We let him cry for 5 minutes and then I went in and fed him the rest of his bottled.  He woke up again, but only cried for a few minutes before falling asleep permanently.

Night 3: Brian was able to keep James awake enough to drink 3/4 of his bottle before he fell asleep and Brian put him down to sleep.  He woke up about 20 minutes later, cried for 3 minutes but then fell asleep permanently.  We did not have to go back in for him.

Night 4: After talking to my friend Renata (whom I consider an expert in all things twins) we tried starting our bedtime routine 30 minutes earlier so that James wouldn't fall asleep while drinking his final bottle.  It didn't work.  He fell asleep while drinking so we put him to sleep.  He woke up 20 minutes later, cried for 5 minutes and then drank another 3 oz before falling asleep again.  He woke up again about 10 minutes later but fell back asleep quickly so we did not go in.  It's now 8:30 and he seems to be settled.  We shall see...

Josie - when you are older and you are reading this, thanks for being such a great sleeper.  James - you're lucky you're so cute!

Update:  last night James woke up hungry around 11 pm which just happened to be when Brian got home from watching the Raptors game with some friends.  So, Brian fed James a bottle and he went back to sleep.  Josie woke up at 1AM so I fed her and then both babies slep until 5 Am.  

Today is day 5 and we got some great advice from Erin to keep James awake by keeping him in only a onesie and rubbing him with a wet wash cloth to keep him cool.  I tried this tonight and I was able to get him to drink 6.5 oz before putting him to sleep.  

As I write this it's been about 40 minutes since James went to sleep and he has just started to cry.  Thankfully only for a minute and he seems to have gone back to sleep.  Fingers crossed!

Easter photo shoot

I couldn't resist another photo shoot with my twins.  Here are the best ones.  

Easter Weekend at the Cottage

The twins are enjoying another great weekend with their grandparents at the cottage.  

Thanks Auntie Jenn for the adorable outfit!

There is finally a purpose for some of the moose parafenalia at the cottage.

These babies love to fall asleep in someone's arms.  

A beautiful day for a 5 km walk.

It's now Easter Monday and Josie rolled over from front to back for the first time!  She actually did it 3 times.  We are very proud of her.

4 months old

I can't believe they are already 4 months old.  They seem to grow and change every day.  The twins had lots of visitors this week.  They got to spend Tuesday with their grandpa.  Dave had James laughing.  

Josie loved her visit and cuddle time with AuntieHeather. 

James continues to sleep anywhere.

Josie got some help from her Dad with her writing skills.  She is crying because she really wants to be left handed.

The card was for Auntie Jenn for her 30th birthday.  The twins got to spend the night with Grandma Jane and Grandpa Dave so that we could go celebrate with her. 

Co-sleeping

So co-sleeping usually means that the baby sleeps in bed with the parents.  In JJs case co-sleeping means that our babies sleep with their faces touching!

This weekJames has become a master of pushing up on his forearms while doing tummy time.  Sometimes he pushes himself so high onto his arms that he looses his balance and rolls over. 

Last week James learned how to grab objects and bring them to his mouth.  Josie has now developed this skill too, only a few days behind her big brother.  They both love laying on their playmat and reaching for the different toys that dangle above them.

This weekend we did some spring cleaning.  The weather was finally nice enough for us to use our sunroom and to spend some time in our back yard.

On Saturday we had a visit from Zac and his family.  Zac is the young man with Autism that I have spent my Saturdays with for the last 8 years.  I had not seen him since the twins were born and I missed him terribly.  I am happy to report that he had not forgotten me and that we had a great visit.  Saturday night we had Lynne, Mike and our God Daughter Emily over.  Em loves her baby cousins and was a great helper with their bath time and bedtime. 

Sunday morning I took the babies to church while Brian stayed home and got some school work done.  My friend Sandy came to my rescue yet again and held Josie for the entire time.  There was also a lot of slow, sad music in the service so I think it helped the babies sleep.

On Sunday afternoon we finally met the Ikavalkos.  They are Brian's sisters fiancées family.  They are a wonderful family and having kids in the house gave me an excuse to climb the tree in our back yard.  

Weekend with twins are far from relaxing so here's hoping for some down time this week...yeah right!  Here's hoping the babies are as tired as me so they catch a few extra hours of sleep tonight!