Baybay & Baybee: Week 9

9 weeks old!

It's 4:00 in the morning. Maya is awake. I'm awake. Brett and Ella are asleep - for the moment. The days have all been blending together... I think I need more sleep. Last week was one of our best weeks for sleep. The past few days, not so much. I'm not sure what happened. We were consistently getting a 5 hour stretch from about 8:00-1:00 a.m., followed by an hour awake, then another 3 hours of sleep! It was pretty sweet. Sometimes we would get up and start our day at 5:00 in the morning, but mostly we tried to get the girls to go back to sleep for another hour, which only worked some of the time. Hopefully we are just having an off couple of days and will get back to the good sleep soon.

We have been using pacifiers quite a bit recently. The girls really seem to enjoy them and it gives us a break.

We spent a bunch of time outside this week, going for walks and cleaning up the gardens. The girls enjoyed being carried around in the Moby Wraps. The weather has been perfect for being outside, especially if you have a warm, cuddly baby wrapped to your chest!

We tried to get outside as much as we had energy for this week.

Selena and I went for a walk together up to the center of Florence and back. We stopped at Cafe Evolution for some treats along the way.

Grocery shopping with babies works well when we each carry one. It still takes a long time to get through the store because we get stopped every 2 minutes with comments about how cute we all are and questions about the twins.

Brett turned the compost pile while the girls slept and I did some weeding in the garden.

Big smiles for Daddy!

Nose kisses.

A contented Maya.

Our babies love to be naked. We try to spend a few hours a day with them playing on the floor. We usually let them be without diapers at the same time. They love to practice pushing up on their hands and trying to roll.

One interesting outing this week was to Scrabble Club on Monday. We decided to try something different, so we drove to Club, put the girls in Moby wraps, and each got to play a few games of Scrabble while they (mostly) slept. It worked out quite well! I didn't win my games, but had fun and played well with the handicap of a baby on my chest. Brett won all 3 of his games.

Along with our outings and walks, this week saw Brett going to Springfield quite a bit, and me watching Ella and Maya at home. It's tiring, but not as overwhelming as it used to be to watch both girls on my own. I have learned to relax more about who gets my attention when they both want it at the same time. The Springfield house has been frustrating us lately, with a leaky shower and an irresponsible handyman. It will be such a relief when that problem is finally fixed!

On Thursday, after Brett had been to Springfield, Evan and Merry brought dinner down from upstairs, and we shared a delicious meal topped off with pumpkin pie that I had made and a game of Ticket to Ride: Europe! It was so amazing to be able to play a game, even though we were really tired and it was interrupted many times because the girls had a hard time getting to sleep.

Sunday was the monthly Parents of Multiples group meeting. It was a nice day to be outside and we met up with everyone at the Montessori school playground. It's so wonderful to get together with other parents of twins to share experiences. Can you find Maya and Ella in this picture?

Two months old!

Two months old today! Happy birthday, Ella and Maya!

To celebrate, the girls spent a lot of time napping, eating, looking around, and smiling. Here are some pictures from the day.

Baybay & Baybee: Week 8

Smiles have been the highlight this week. Both girls have been so happy. It's fun to talk to them when you get smiles and happy squealing noises in response!

A big smile from Ella!

And one from Maya!

A few quick smiles.

Selena came over and watched the babies for a couple hours last Wednesday, so Brett and I could bike over to pick up our farm share and spend some time together. We had a nice ride and the babies slept almost the whole time! She also came over again yesterday and Brett and I got to go for a walk together. Both times were so helpful to us and played a big part in us staying positive this week. Thank you, Selena!

So lucky to have such a loving, kind friend to spend time with.

I got a little bit of time to myself this week and spent a few hours shopping at the thrift store and wandering around downtown. Brett stayed with the babies and they were totally fine without me. It's hard for both of us to take time to ourselves, but it feels good when we make it happen. I'm finding it difficult to balance all the different parts of life. Right now, so much of our day is focused on the babies. Sometimes we forget that it's important to make other parts of our life a priority. Feeling tired a lot of the time doesn't help.

Maya, hanging out in her cool new leggings.

We've been tying to start some nighttime routines. One of the things that the girls seem to enjoy is taking showers. Bedtime seems to work best if we aim for putting the girls down around 8:30. In the beginning of the week, they had been sleeping for almost a 5 hour stretch in the first part of the night, and that was fantastic! The past couple of days it's been back to a maximum of 3 hours at a time. Getting up a couple times in the night isn't really getting any easier for us, but we are surviving.

Relaxing in the warm water together.

After a shower, we have fun brushing Ella's hair.

"If we put our heads together, maybe that will help us flip over! Ready? We'll go on three..."

Such love.

Kisses.

Hanging out on the Boppy.

Getting stronger!

We took a couple family pictures. It was hard to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time...

...and to get everyone to smile.

Here are a couple extra pictures from the week!

Baybay & Baybee: Week 7

7 Weeks old!

We have seen so many changes over the past few weeks. The girls have outgrown most newborn clothes and now fit pretty well in 3-6 month outfits. They are growing up so fast!

Ella is a champion sleeper, regularly taking a 3+ hour nap during the day. At night, she is almost always the second baby up. We often wonder how long she would sleep if we let her, instead of waking her to feed both girls at once. She loves to take long baths, and enjoys resting in our arms in the warm water while having her hair washed. She is content to sit in her rocky chair and chew on her shirt, or lay on a blanket for extended periods of time just watching us go about our day. Staring at lights and contemplating their luminosity is a favorite pastime. She's got a rockstar head of hair, which forms a mohawk all on its own. She has recently started melting our hearts with big smiles, especially when she is at the sink for a diaper change, or when she knows she is going to eat soon. Her eating style often resembles a cat who has just caught a mouse, clomping on and off the breast, licking and shaking her head back and forth, until she finally settles down to nurse. She usually has two burps after she eats. The first one is safe. The second one comes with spit-up 90% of the time. When she cries, she is LOUD.

Ella with her Papa.

Sleeping on her tummy.

Ella is getting better at sleeping without being swaddled. It's so cute when she spends a while calmly watching the world go by and then falls alseep.

Maya has taken to EC with great enthusiasm and skill. She usually wakes up when she needs to pee, squirms around, starts to fuss or cry, letting us know that she has to go. Yesterday, she went most of the day in the same dry diaper because we always made it to the sink on time! Since she was born, she has had a strong preference for being bounced on the ball, rather than being rocked to sleep, though she has recently started to appreciate the comfort of rocking. She has long light eyelashes and her eyes sparkle when she smiles. Faces are a great source of interest and looking at us is when she is the most smiley. Eating is one of her favorite pastimes, and when she eats, she doesn't mess around. She will latch on and stay put until she falls asleep. Though she is a very serious eater, she is not at all quiet about it. As she sucks, you might wonder who is playing with the squeaky toy in the room. Her burps resonate, and she could hold her own in a room full of teenage boys. In the rare instance that Ella is up first at night, Maya always schooches herself over to where Ella was in the co-sleeper, making whining sounds. We think she misses her little sister.

Such a strong girl!

Maya says, "Bath time makes me sleepy!"

A nap in the carseat.

All dressed up!

Both girls have just recently started to "hug" when they are picked up. They sort of cling on and lean into us. It's so adorable. They have also added many different coos and squeals to their sound repertoire. Tummy time is usually spent together on the bed and the girls are big fans of holding their heads up and trying mightily to flip onto their backs, which often results in flailing into each other. They can't quite make it all the way over on their own.

The girls are not quite ready to play with toys. They are more intersted in trying to find something to suck on. Like their sister's clothing.

Gazing out the window at the light.

On Sunday, we had a great day at Brett's parents house. The girls got to spend lots of time with their Grandma while Brett and I rested. They also got to meet their great grandparents for the first time.

Maya with her Great Grandpa Val.

A picture of us with Grandma Mary, holding her great grandaughter for the first time.

We also had a lovely visit from Aunt Anne this week. She came over for an afternoon and got to meet Maya and Ella.

Aunt Anne carries Ella in the same Snuggli that she took me for a walk in when I was a baby.

7 weeks old and already learning how to share.