4 Month Update/New Business Venture

My girls are getting so big!!  At their 4 month appointment, Lexi weighed 13 lbs 8 oz  and Livy weighed 12 lbs 12 oz.  They are starting to fit into a few of their 3-6 month, but are still mostly in 0-3 months.

Livy at her 4 month appointment

4 month picture

Feeding has become a bit of a challenge since all they want to do is look around and laugh.  It's hard to be frustrated though when they are so darn cute while doing it.  Their pediatrician recommended letting them start tasting some fruits, so we gave that a try.  They have both tried apples and bananas.  Livy seems to like both and gets a little mad when I don't feed her fast enough.  Lexi makes the most awful faces when I put the spoon anywhere near her mouth, and she manages to push all of the food back out, so we are waiting a couple more weeks before attempting it with her again.

Lexi and Livy have both rolled over this month.  Lexi has figured out that if she wants to stay on her belly, then she'd better stop rolling over.  Livy, on the other hand, loves to roll onto her back or side to see what's going on.

Here are some random pics from the month, including some from our beach trip to Gulf Shores.

Nana and Livy

Lexi and Pa

Livy and Lexi hanging out with their buddy, Garrett

We had the girls' dedication on Mother's Day.  Lexi was a little cranky, but we got through it in one piece.

Me and the girls on Mother's Day

  

My first true love (that I don't talk about nearly enough), Wyatt

He came up with this message all on his own!

Please check out my Etsy shop - Twincess Boutique at http://www.etsy.com/shop/TwincessBoutique.  I'm working on new items to add everyday.  I've also created a Facebook Page, so you can look me up there too.  I'm hoping that this will allow me to stay at home with my babies soon, so buy, buy, buy! :)

3 Months

The girls are 3 months old now.  I'll probably say this every month, but I just can't believe how quickly time is flying by.  I've been back at work for 2 weeks now.  :(  It is quite possibly the hardest thing I've ever had to do.  Lucky for me, my mom came over from Alabama to watch them for a few weeks, so they won't actually start daycare until mid-April.  I'm not looking forward to them being sick all of the time.  I'm secretly hoping that we'll be lucky, and they'll have amazing immune systems and stay well.  They've already had a couple of runny noses from Wyatt though, so I'm not holding my breath.

I'm usually the girls' photographer, but they are not as happy in the evenings, so my mom had to take the girls' 3 month pictures since it fell during the week when I had to be at work.  Here are a few them.

The girls haven't been weighed since their 2 month appointment, so I have no idea how much they weigh now.

I am loving how happy these babies are!  Unless it's their daily cranky time (in the evening), they love to be talked to.  They will spend an hour cooing, smiling, and squealing at anyone who will pay attention to them. 

Livy is especially happy to see me when I get home from work.  She usually whines when someone else has her and stops when I take her.

They are both really good babies.  They're both sleeping through the night (and most of the day).  I'm wondering if they are ever going to spend more time awake during the day, but I'm not complaining.  I know that soon enough, I'll wish they would take more naps.

I believe that Lexi is very close to rolling over.  She picks her shoulders and legs so far off the floor that I'm surprised she hasn't done it already, but I know it's coming any day now.  Livy, on the other hand, doesn't seem interested in it all.  I'm sure that like a lot of other things, she'll see Lexi do it and then become interested.

Here are some other pics from the past month.

On an unrelated note, I'm now appliqueing things to make enough money to pay for the embroidery machine that I bought.  If you are interested check out my facebook album for designs.  I can find a design if you are looking for something in particular.

Lexi and Livy - 2 Month Update

The girls are two months old!  Time is really flying by.  I have three more weeks before I have to go back to work, and I'm absolutely dreading it.  I keep thinking (and praying) that something will happen that will allow me to stay home with them. 

Here's what's been going on this month:

Lexi now weighs 8 lbs 12 oz and is 22.5 inches long.  Livy weighs 8 lbs 4 oz and is 22.25 inches long.  I had to move them up to 0-3 month sleepers because neither of them could straighten their legs out.  Nothing else in a 0-3 month fits yet though.  Their waists are too tiny.  I found a preemie growth chart online and plugged in the girls' measurements.  For adjusted age, both girls are in the 95th percentile for height.  Lexi is in the 50th percentile for weight and Livy is just a little lower.  Looks like the may be tall like their momma. 

Lexi and Livy have woken up.  They are no longer sleeping all day, and frequently have screaming sessions either one at a time or together.  Some days I spend the whole day rocking one baby and then the next or both babies together.  They don't like to share my arms though, so rocking them together doesn't work so well a lot of the time.

I've been enjoying their little smiles more and more each day as they start sharing them more often.  They also throw in a coo every now and then.

Sometimes I'm afraid they are going to hurt their neck from trying to pick it up so often.  They especially like to do this when I am rocking them so they can stare me in the eyes. 

This month, we made another trip to Nana and Pa Taylor's, and the girls met their Uncle Justin and cousin, Anna.  I made the trip without Brandon, and I'm not looking forward to doing that again anytime soon.  It's too far to go without stopping to feed and change them, and stopping takes almost a full hour - turning a four hour trip into a five hour one.  Wyatt was with us too, so of course, he was a little impatient. 

Pa and Livy

Pa and Lexi

Nana and Livy

Mommy and Lexi

Mawmaw Taylor and Lexi

Mawmaw Taylor and Livy - This was the only way she would stop crying.



They also went to their Mawmaw and Pawpaw River's house a few times and got to meet a lot of their family there for the first time.

Natali and Lexi

Pawpaw Dan and Livy

Melanie and Livy

 

Here are some other random pics from this month.  I'm going to try to get my camera out more often.  It's just been too easy to snap a picture with my phone when you have one of them in your arms or they give you a smile spontaneously, but I know I'm going to regret not having better pictures of them if I keep this up.

Lexi couldn't take her eyes off the poodle that Nana bought her.

Playing together

Livy likes the poodle too

I seem to get more pictures of Lexi because she is happier just sitting with me.  If Livy is awake she usually wants to be held or entertained in her bouncer or swing.

Lexi

Livy

Livy

Lexi



Lastly, if anyone knows of any moms of twin girls that would be interested in passing on their coordinating or matching outfits, please send them my way or give me some contact information.  I would love to be able to buy them from them.  Even buying play clothes times two gets really expensive.  The boutique items are outrageous when you are buying for two, and you can't just buy one because you can't put one baby in a boutique outfit and one in something from Carter's.  (I'm not knocking Carter's - I love their clothes, but on both babies at the same time.)  I know several moms with twin girls, but they are either the same age as mine or only one season ahead which puts them in the wrong season for me.  Thanks in advance!







1 Month Old

I can't believe that my baby girls are already one month old!  There's not much to update on because they aren't doing much other than sleeping, eating, and pooping.  Both of the girls generally have one alert period in the morning or early afternoon that lasts around an hour and a half and then a three hour stretch at night.  Yep, that's right, I have a couple of night owls on my hands.  I've discovered that I shouldn't even plan to go to sleep until 2 or 3 am.  It's much easier to just stay awake with whichever baby is awake and then sleep when they do until 10 or 11 am.  If anyone has any tips on getting them to switch to being more alert during the day, I am all ears!  Livy usually stays awake from 8 to 11 pm, and then Lexi takes her turn from 11 pm to 2 or 3 am.  I sometimes think it wouldn't be so bad if they were at least awake at the same time, but then I realize that it's much easier to handle them one at a time even if that means I'm sleep deprived.  This is such a short period of time in their lives, and it will be over before I know it.  I won't miss the sleepless nights, but I will definitely miss them being new babies that don't try to get out of my arms when I want to cuddle with them. 

This month, we had a weight check on 1/4 (2 days after leaving the NICU) and on 1/20.  At their appointment on 1/4, the girls were gaining steadily and were almost back up to their birth weights.  Livy weighed in at 4 lbs 5 oz, and Lexi weighed 4 lbs 14 oz.  Their pediatrician advised us to keep doing what we were doing, which was fortifying my breastmilk with Enfamil Enfacare.  I couldn't breastfeed exclusively because we needed to monitor the amount they were consuming carefully, and the neonatologists didnt want us to wear the babies out before they completed their feeds.  I was a little disappointed because pumping exclusively is hard work and even harder when you're caring for two newborns.  We were allowed to put the babies to breast twice a day for 10 minutes.  Livy took right to it, which surprised me.  I was expecting her to have a harder time since she was so small.  Lexi, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with it and screamed every time we tried.  After my second experience with mastitis in 3 weeks, I gave in and put away the pump.  I really wanted to be able to breastfeed the girls, but it wasn't worth my sanity. 

I knew the girls were growing - they had both outgrown their preemie clothes and moved into the NB size.  I felt a little bad about this because our good friends Kiley and Mark had bought us a whole bunch of preemie clothes and they only wore them for 2 weeks!  BUT, I was so excited that they were putting on weight.  Boy were we surprised on 1/20, when they were weighed.  The nurse came back into the room after weighing Lexi with a shocked look on her face and told us that Lexi now weight 6 lbs 4 oz.  She had gained almost 1.5 lbs in 2 weeks!!  Livy did almost as well by gaining a full pound.  She weighed 5 lbs 4 oz.  I can't wait to see what they weigh now.  Using my scale at home, I'm estimating that Lexi is now somewhere around 7.5 lbs.  We got permission to switch from the high calorie formula to something a little cheaper, so now we're on Gentlease, and it seems to agree with the girls pretty well.

Their pediatrician said to keep the babies at home until they are 6 weeks old, which is one week from today.  I think we are all a little anxious to get out of the house.  I still don't plan to take them into crowded places for a while, but it would be nice to be able to get out some.  They get their second Synagis shot next Friday.  For those of you that don't know, this is supposed to protect them against RSV which could be fatal to newborns.  We don't go back to the pediatrician until their 2 month check up, which won't be until the end of February.

Here are some pics from this month.

Lexi - 1 week old

Livy - 1 week old

The girls with their big brother, Wyatt.

Livy with big brother, Tyler

Wyatt and Lexi - He loves holding them on his chest.

Livy

 

Livy

Lexi

My sweet family (minus Brandon's boys)

1 month old

Lexi and Livy

The rest of these are newborn pictures taken by Franny with FrannyS Photography at 3 weeks old.

Stationery card

Love Cloud Pink Birth Announcement

Click here to browse Shutterfly birth announcement designs.

View the entire collection of cards.