One Month

A month went by way too fast! The are slowly getting too big for me to pick up with one hand to hold them both and they are definitely too wiggly to snuggle them up together right now. Maybe when they start sleeping through the night they can be put in the same crib, but for now they have separate sleeping arrangements for everyone's sanity. :)

They are starting to get the hang of night time, sleeping usually a couple of 4 hour stretches, so I definitely can't complain. It really pains me now to wake one of them up to eat when the other one wakes up hungry...getting them back to sleep is a little harder than it used to be. 

For a few days last week it seemed like endless crying from them both but I think we have that straightened out a little bit. After looking back at my one month post for Eli, I was reminded that these two babies really may be easier than he was on his own. They both sleep in 1-3 hour chunks during the day, on their own, without being held most of the time. When they are awake they are pretty fussy if they aren't being held but I suppose they have to fight for their time in someone's arms. They literally will cling to your shirt when they can tell they are being set down, but such is the life of being a twin...you just don't get held quite as much. If only I had a third arm.

Cale looked so much like Eli as a newborn, but he really looks a lot different than his one month pictures. I actually see a lot of Kelsey in the picture that he is screaming in the crib. :) 

I'm not sure of exact weights or percentiles for these kiddos, we've yet to be given them. Cale was a couple of ounces short of 9 pounds last week at the doctor (for reflux meds) and from my best guess of getting on the scales with and without Kelsey she is somewhere over 8 pounds - so they are both packing on the pounds!

It is a LOT harder to get good pictures of two of them versus one...

I have lots to post about their sweet brother too, but I haven't gotten around to moving a couple of videos from my phone to the computer...maybe in the next week...or two. :)

Real Life

While these sweet babies have been such a joy and all three surprisingly have cooperated for a few good pictures, we have had some "real life" moments over the past few weeks.

Aside from the normal spit up and diaper blowouts (times two) that every newborn has, they also conspire against you sometimes. Like when mom and I went for a walk last week and they honestly alternated crying the entire time. The second that one of them got quiet, they other started wailing.

We also tried to take a few pictures of all three kiddos in their Polo outfits one night...both babies were sleeping and I was the dummy that thought it would be a good idea to lay them next to each other. Never wake a sleeping baby, right?

"Cheese"...

"I give them a papi?" We have a long way to go on being gentle. 

A certain someone likes to observe baby bath time from the countertop in his diaper...

And today we had a "real life" morning, probably my first rough morning so far (maybe because my mom has been here the past week?). I'm sure there will be more but for today we will just chalk it up as a loss. It is 2:00 and I'm back in my pajamas watching golf while three babies sleep - which means I should be taking a nap instead of sitting here with a computer in my lap. 

Kelsey was up from 4:30 until 8, insisting on being held and refusing to sleep on me. Normally I would have let her just cry it out for a few minutes, but in a small house with a toddler down the hall, it wasn't worth the consequences of waking the sleeping bear. Both of the babies wanted to be held this morning, which I am thankful I can still do, but makes it a little challenging to get everyone ready. I don't mind them crying, but Eli does, so I have to be careful where I leave them or two little hands will try to shove a paci down their throat or cover them with a blanket or two. After timing everyone's feedings just right, we were headed to storytime at the church and 5 minutes before we were supposed to leave Cale spit up massively all over himself...which now requires two outfit changes because it is way more fun if the twins match (not that anyone even sees their outfits when they are in the carseats???). I was confused on the time for storytime, so we missed the hour of playing on the playground at 9 and only caught the story at 10. To salvage the morning for me, I decided me and Eli would just eat ice cream for lunch at Sweet Frogs.  

I'm going to try to nap for a few minutes, which I'm guessing means at least one of the itty bittys will wake up in the next 15 minutes. :)

The sleepy days and nights don't last forever, so for today I will enjoy the sweetness of these real life moments and be thankful I can laugh at them at the end of the day...

Three Weeks Old

It's been 3.5 weeks, where has the time gone? I've thought about sitting down to post pictures on several occasions, and then decided there were plenty of other things that were more important - like cuddling with a sleepy baby or two, playing with a toddler, or cleaning something in this massive pile of diapers, wipes, and bottles.

The twins arrived at 37 weeks on May 19th and were a healthy 6.01 and 6.10 pounds.  I bought us an extra day or two in the hospital when they figured out I had HELLP syndrome shortly after my c-section. It was less than pleasant but I'm so thankful for the doctors that treated me and even more thankful to be completely back to "normal" - it was one of those God things that He orchestrated in a way that only He can. When we figured out we would be staying in Birmingham long enough to have the babies I had a peace about it, knowing they could come early and that resources like the children's hospital would be close by if they needed any special care. Turns out it was me that needed a little extra care from a hematologist, who happened to play golf at Alabama and told us he was praying that the course of treatment was going to work quickly to get me back healthy. It did and we headed home the Thursday after they were born.

They have been such sweet babies. As overwhelming as I thought having twins would be it has been far more overwhelming to hold them both and know how blessed we are. I never dreamed I could enjoy sleepless nights and double bottle feeding so much. When they are both mobile in about a year and I'm chasing them along with a three year old, that may be a different story. :)

Cale looks so much like Eli, except he has strawberry colored hair that we never expected. It was blonde when he was born but it has definitely turned more red over the past couple of weeks. And he has the skin coloring to match the hair - you can tell his mood by looking at his face, he goes from content to blood red in a matter of seconds.

Kelsey is definitely the girl, there is no mistaking it. She is much more petite and even though they are only a half pound different in weight she feels a lot lighter than her brother. Her sweet eyes just kill me, she looks so deeply at things for a newborn and always seems to be thinking.

Kelsey on the left, Cale on the right.

Family of 5

Trouble! Poor kid can't keep his hands off the babies or their things. It has been a learning process...

Wearing one of my dresses.

First time to church, I think I've lost all control on getting a family picture with 5 people looking at the camera.

Meme Jo to the rescue, we are so thankful for all of her help!

First trip to the lake, I think they enjoyed themselves.

Packed and Ready

The waiting is here, 36 weeks and counting, hoping not to make it all the way to the scheduled delivery on May 29th. I know I will be wishing for more sleep and more time with big brother when they arrive, but for now I'm over the swollen feet and remaining 4 shirts that fit over my belly. And I'm kinda excited to meet these two squirmy babies that stay busy most of the day, using me as a punching bag. 

We found out baby boy already weighs around 7 pounds and baby girl is holding her own around 6 pounds - I am so thankful for a healthy pregnancy and babies that are ready for the outside world when God chooses their "birth" day. 

Did I mention that I smuggled some of their nursery things back from Florida after I put everything on the walls there? I'm thankful for a mom that overlooks my insanity during seasons of life like this and offered to bring them back when they went to Florida. Since we are staying in Birmingham for another month or two, they have their own nursery and I figured why not hang a few things on the wall? Allen just ignores it all and let's me do what I want. :)

Thankfully mom came over last week for 4 days and helped me stock the freezer with meals and finally get everything put away in closets and drawers. 

Itty bitty diapers are out, bags are packed for everyone but Allen and the crib is ready for two babies that probably won't sleep there for a while.  But one day they will snuggle together in there, at least until they start waking each other up, then we will assemble crib #2...

Here and There

The doctor finally put a stop to my traveling at 33 weeks, so we made good use of the few weekends before it - traveling to Georgia a couple of times and enjoying a few baseball games in Tuscaloosa.

My mom got lucky again and won practice round tickets to the Masters, and thankfully Allen was able to skip work for the day so that we could go with my parents. His dad also made the trip over for his first trip to the Masters...words just can't describe what a special place it is. Poor Eli doesn't know what he is missing yet - a few of us swapped out tickets throughout the day to watch him and make good use of the playgrounds in Augusta.

Little boy was in heaven when we found a playground with tractors - he lined them all up and started digging.

He is also well on his way to being an excellent drive through server at McDonald's. He LOVES my sister's old McDonald's set at my parents - and is very specific about what everyone can order. Not to worry though, everything you buy is just $2. :) 

Last weekend we went to Tuscaloosa for a baseball game on Friday night and then I headed over to Athens for my sister's baby shower to celebrate sweet Millie. The boys stayed at home and watched more baseball, while I enjoyed in a few hours in the car to listen to my music instead of Veggietales. :)

Chuck E Cheese

So on a couple of rainy days this winter I've made good use of the new Chuck E Cheese 2 miles from our house. It's clean and if you get there when it opens around 9, you don't have to spend extra money on pizza or drinks or scramble to keep up with your kid around a crowd. I've tried to be intentional about when we go, so that it's something he gets excited about versus just another weekly stop we make for entertainment...I think I have accomplished that.

Chuck E Cheese has turned into quite the object of affection for one little guy - every day when we drive past it he waves and says "Hi Chuck E Cheese", along with the alien on top of the T-Mobile store, the gorilla on top of the Shell gas station and the three firetrucks that are usually at the fire station. He's not a creature of habit...at all. :)

Anyhow, recently he has been asking to go to Chuck E Cheese with daddy, I guess I wasn't good enough any more. So on Saturday morning we hit up the local donut shop (with caramel, Reese's, and M&M donuts...to die for) and then surprised him by pulling up to Chuck E Cheese.  Thankfully I had my phone out to video it. In case you need a translation, it is a lot of "Hi Chuck E Cheese" followed by "I missed you berry much Chuck E Cheese"...

Celebrating Easter

We've been talking about Easter the past couple of weeks around our house, so Eli was more than excited when the Easter bunny finally showed up on Sunday. It seemed a lot tougher to communicate to him about Easter from a spiritual perspective than Christmas, maybe because babies being born are something he "kinda" gets and death and resurrection fly completely over the head of a 2.5 year old. I tried to focus on "Jesus is alive" and he sometimes would repeat it a couple of times, but then usually reverted back to talking about Easter eggs and the Easter bunny. :) I can only hope that small seeds are being planted in that big heart of his...

Last weekend we headed to Bass Pro Shops for an egg hunt and pictures with the Easter bunny. I really had no intentions of taking him to see the Easter bunny, but we passed him one day in the mall and from that point on he was dying to go see him again.  Unfortunately, for as wonderful as Bass Pro Shops is at Christmas, it was equally awful for Easter. Lesson learned. The egg hunt was supposed to begin at 1 with eggs just kinda tossed around the store, that is also when the Easter bunny showed up. You were only supposed to pick up five eggs and return them for candy, but by 12:45 all of the older kids had buckets full of eggs and I was regretting being the the "rule follower" that was making Eli wait until 1.  At 1 we let him wander the store, and honestly couldn't find any ourselves! We finally found a little honey hole in the corner of the store and he was so excited to grab his five. By the time we headed back to the Easter bunny, the line was the length of the store - so thankfully he was happy to just walk by the bunny and wave hello.

We had a sweet Easter yesterday, went to church with Allen's family and then lunch. We are blessed to have found a wonderful church in Birmingham, and as a perk it is two miles away versus the 30 minutes we drove in Jacksonville. :) The message was simple but perfect - it either happened or it didn't. Jesus either rose from the dead or Christianity is the biggest fraud in the history of the world, and either way it has eternal consequences. I'm so thankful for a risen Savior!