Figuring Things Out & Visiting our Twin Friends

The twins are 6 weeks old (2 weeks old adjusted - a preemie calculation by due date). We're pretty much in a routine now.   They came home from the NICU on a 3 hour schedule.  When we brought them home we were told to keep them on a similar schedule, which means we have to wake them up to eat every 3rd hour, even if they just fell asleep.  At his 1 month appointment Dean had gotten big enough that the pediatrician said he could stretch to 4 hours at night if he wanted to, but Rachel still had to eat every 3.  We decided it was easier to just keep them together as much as possible.  Now that Rachel has been home for 3 weeks she's gained enough weight and is eating enough to sleep 4 hours at too (every 3 during the day still).  Last night we tried it out and it worked fairly well.  It's amazing how much more sleep we got during the night!  Just how much sleep you ask?  Most days Mark takes the 7pm-midnight shift and then I take the 12am-6pm shift.  We overlap for about an hour after he gets home before I go to bed.  So we each get about 5-6 hours of sleep, have about 5-6 hrs to get things done around the house, and spend between 11 & 15 hours feeding, burping, & diapering the babies.  Most days are fairly routine.  There were 2 days last week that both babies wanted my undivided attention NOW.  We're lucky to have great friends an neighbors though, so with one phone call and I had someone here to help within minutes!

We're slowly but surely figuring out how to do everything more efficiently and discovering tricks too.  If we have to we can feed them both at the same time by ourselves.

We found out that they both LOVE the warm air of the blow-dryer, especially after their baths.  Mark took these before and after pictures about 3-5 seconds apart.

 There are, however, times when being a twin in this house isn't that fun.   Last week I got home from my errands and left Rachel covered in her car seat so I could feed Dean before she woke up.  Unfortunately she woke up about 30 minutes earlier than normal and started crying.  Dean was being such a good eater and was so close to being done that I didn't want to stop him. I tried to soothe her by talking and singing, but she spent about 5-10 minutes crying before going back to sleep.  When Dean finished I went over to get her out and feed her.  This is what I found. She wasn't crying b/c she woke up hungry.  He headband and slipped down over her face. I felt so bad!  I learned that lesson the hard way and always keep the 2nd baby within arms reach during feedings now.

Yesterday I took our twins over to see the Jones twins.  Nicolle and I carpooled to Tulsa for a couple weeks and we both got pregnant on our first IVF try so our babies were due the same day.  Her girls came even earlier than ours though.  They are already 2 months old, but one weighs the same as Rachel and the other is just a tad smaller.  We spent about 3 hours together at Nicolle's house just feeding our babies, comparing pediatrician advice, holding each others twins if ours were sleeping, and just having some good mommy time.  We've already decided that we want to make it a weekly play date. Hopefully our kids will be great friends by the time they've grown up.  There wasn't a time when all four babies were awake, so we did the best we could.  Dean and Ainsley (I think that's Ainsley) woke up just as we were ready to snap pictures.  Rachel and Elodie snoozed right through all of the ruckus like nothing was happening.  Doesn't Dean look HUGE compared to the 3 girls?!

My twins are growing great!   Dean is our little chow hound.  He's up to 8lbs 6oz and is taking 4.5 oz bottles.   Rachel weighs 7lbs 4.5oz and only eats between 2.5 & 3.5 oz at each feeding.  We know that those are normal newborn weights, but they seems so big to us now that Dean is up 3 lbs and Rachel is up about 2.5 lbs from their birth weights.

Next week we have family coming into town for their blessing at church.  I'm so excited to see them in their blessing clothes and blankets! We custom ordered Rachel's dress and my parents bought Dean's suit too.  Susan made baby blankets for them too.  So I've been saving all those things for that special day.  I'll be sure to post pictures!