First Christmas

Even though the babies are too young to remember this Christmas, mommy and daddy will sure remember!  (And if not all the details, that is what this blog and pictures are for, right?)

To begin our holiday weekend, Eric and I decided, against our credit card's wishes, to take the boys to the mall for a photo with Santa.  I think that, as a child, I only went to see Santa once or twice, and now I know why!  These photos should be lined with gold!  Anyway, we didn't want to regret not having the pictures when the boys get older, so we bit the bullet and forked over the dough.  We fed them, changed them, and were ready for adorable pictures with our happy, full, clean, and adorable babies.  This is what Felix looked like before we got to Santa...

And this is what he looked like when we got to Santa...

Luckily, that outburst only lasted a few seconds!  But, we couldn't retrieve the smiles from either baby, and so we got some cute but serious pictures :)  This isn't the one the photographers took, but Eric got this one from the designated parent area.

On Christmas Eve, we woke up to the babies' calls of hunger at 5:45 am (they are sleeping through the night now!!), and were on the road to Eric's parents' house by 7:30 am.  The babies spent a wonderful first Christmas with grandma, grandpa, aunt Jenni, great-grandmother, great-great aunt Dee, great-great uncle Joe, great-aunt Cathy, great-uncle Jim, and second cousins Hannah and Willow.  This was the first time the family has been able to see so many smiles and coos from the boys - they are getting so big and growing so fast!  Here are some pictures from the weekend...

Reading with grandpa

Felix in one of his Christmas outfits

Asher in matching outfit

Spoiled already! (In their Christmas sleepers and bathrobes!)

The new family - smile daddy!!

And, since baths don't wait just because it's Christmas, grandma offered to bathe the boys - little did she know she would have an audience of the whole family and several cameras!  How could we resist, when they're this cute?

Asher

Felix

All in all, it was a fabulous Christmas.  Everyone is looking forward to the coming years when the boys are toddling around and can open their own gifts - and undoubtedly just want to play with the wrapping paper and boxes!

Smile!

The babies started smiling a few weeks ago, and I have to say it is the best thing about being a parent so far.  How can you beat having your precious child recognize you and beam with enjoyment?  Or watch him smile at the dog, or let's face it...smile at a blank wall!  They are just happy babies!  I have been trying to catch them on camera for the past few days, and I managed to get some silly smile pictures - however, they really don't do them justice because I couldn't catch the "peak" of the smile - darn technology!  Oh well, you will just have to see the boys in person to appreciate their handsome toothless grins! :)

As of yesterday's checkup, Asher weighed in at 9 pounds 11 ounces and was 22 inches long, and his "little" brother Felix was 10 pounds 12 ounces and also 22 inches long.  Both babies are on a great growth track!  Asher is at the 5th percentile (which is awesome since he started out below the growth chart!) and Felix is between the 10th and 25th percentiles.  Keep  growing (and smiling) boys!

Felix (shiny with dry skin ointment for his cradle cap!)

Asher (looking more like his "little" brother everyday!)

And of course, Cody had to be in the picture too, even though he's not smiling...

"Identical" twins!

I meant to blog about this earlier this week when we found out, but such is life!  We had genetic testing on the boys through a twin study we are participating in, and the results came back - the boys are monozygotic, or identical!  We were very surprised to learn this news - while in Hotel Uterus, each baby had his own bedroom (amniotic sac) and kitchen (placenta), which usually means that the twins are fraternal, or from two separate eggs.  Identical twins usually share one or both of these things.  But, it is possible for one fertilized egg to split within three days of conception, which would create identical twins with their own separate living quarters.  This happens in only about 25% of identical twins.  This is what happened to us!  According to wikipedia (so you know it must be true), monozygotic twins are only .2% of the world's population, and only 8% of the twin population.  Further, male monozygotic twins are the most rare!

I put "identical" in quotes in this posting's title because so far our boys don't look the same!  It is possible that they could have different expressions of the same genes, or that environmental influences in utero have caused physical differences - the biggest difference is that Asher is quite a bit smaller than Felix, but also Asher's left ear was a bit smushed at birth (it's getting better), and the boys' heads and faces are different sizes/shapes.  They will probably begin to look more alike as Asher catches up to Felix though.  When they were first born, and in different nurseries in the hospital, I could have sworn they were identical.  But, once I saw them together, I wasn't so sure.  Over the next few weeks, they looked very similar when sleeping, but I could always see vast differences when they were awake and making any facial expressions.  Recently, before we got the test results, I was positive they were fraternal because they looked so completely different to me - Asher looked like me, and Felix looked like Eric.  But, I guess if you happen to know identical twins that actually look identical, you can always see differences and can easily tell them apart after you get to know them!

Monozygotic or not, these boys are definitely not identical - in appearance or in personality!

Can you tell us apart? :)

Insurance...friend or foe?

In the current national debate about health insurance, and knowing the statistics of the number of people who are uninsured in the US, I am feeling extremely grateful that I have coverage.  Sure, it's not the greatest - it is 80/20 coverage - but my job pays the premium, and 80% coverage is still 80% coverage.  And as the bills from prenatal care, multiple ultrasounds and hospital stays, delivery, and the babies' care seem to arrive daily, I am grateful for any help with the final amounts.

That being said...having a baby (or two) is expensive!!!  Even with insurance.  I know that my expenses are much higher than a typical, healthy, singleton pregnancy and birth, but geez.  I haven't wanted to calculate exactly how much we racked up in out of pocket expenses, but since I think the last bill is finally here, I guess now is the time.  The grand total is....(drum roll please)...$8,000.  Yikes.  And that is just out of pocket, I don't even want to take the time to calculate what the total would be if we were uninsured.  This is another reason (other than my bleeding liberal heart) why I support health care reform...it simply isn't right that the expenses of having a baby (or breaking a bone, or contracting a disease) could possibly put you and your family in serious financial straits.  Something needs to be done!  Even for those that are insured - the costs of health care are simply ridiculous.  This amount, while lower than it would be without insurance, is going to take us 3 years to pay down.  Did you know they charge over $2300 to administer an epidural?  Seriously?  For pain relief?  And mine didn't even work correctly!

OK, that is all I have time for now - those precious, worth-every-penny babies upstairs are waking up!  We are off to change diapers, drink some milk...and pack our things to move to Canada!

Sleeping, and eating, and playing...oh my!

Sorry for the lack of updates...by now, you all know I am busy!  My life recently has been consumed by the trilogy above - sleeping, eating, and playing.  Trying to make each of those things better for the babies (and thus, for me) and figuring out a schedule to make that possible.  I have read a few baby advice books over the past few weeks, and while most of them are geared toward people with one baby, I have been able to glean a few valuable points from them.  But none of them gave me the play-by-play points on how to create a schedule for my twins!  And after a few weeks of days like the one outlined in my last post, I needed a schedule!!  I think Eric and I got so used to the notion that we needed to basically force feed the babies to help them gain weight and catch up to their age (especially Asher, since he was/is so much smaller than Felix), that anytime one of them cried, we assumed it was hunger - thus, I was nursing or giving bottles almost all the time.  Of course, that leads to exhaustion when dealing with twins.  Now, after doing some reading in all of my *spare* time (i.e., when the babies are napping), I finally have a better grasp on the babies' behavior and how I can help to shape their days to make all of our lives better.

There are a few books that have proved helpful, and I thank God that my friend Michelle gave me these (as well as tons of other baby stuff from her kids Jack and Max)!  Thank you!!  These books are: Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, Baby 411, and On Becoming Baby Wise. The first and last books are about creating a sleep schedule, and the middle is about baby care in general, but it also outlines and ranks books about sleep.  I do recommend these books to anyone with an infant!  In fact, read them while you are still pregnant!  I spent so much time reading about the pregnancy and birth, and barely any time at all reading about when the babies would actually be here, which makes no sense at all.  And now my brain is so scattered from sleep deprivation and cabin fever, that it's all I can do to just skim and look for the main ideas!

The plan that I have chosen to follow at this point is from On Becoming Baby Wise.  I forced myself to actually read this whole book because it seemed to fit most with our child-rearing ideals and it seemed like it might really help.  These authors outline a plan that you can actually start almost from birth, and it is supposed to naturally help your babies to sleep better and longer, and thus be happier, healthier, and brighter babies and children.  Who wouldn't want that? :)  The plan is simple: Feeding, Wakefulness, Napping.  Babies at this age are on a 2.5 - 3 hour schedule, and the time between feedings is increased as the babies get older.  First, the babies wake up, and they are fed and changed.  With my boys, this can take between 30-60 minutes, depending on hunger, mood, and number of caretakers.  Then they have a period of wakefulness, where they play in their activity gym, or we read some books, or they sit in their infant seats and listen to music, or they swing (there are not many other activities that a 2 month old likes to do!).  When I begin to see signs of drowsiness, but before the baby falls asleep, I put him down for a nap.  This is a key point in all of these plans - to put the baby down while he is awake.  This is so that he learns how to fall asleep on his own, without the use of sleep props (such as a vibrating seat, swing, stroller, or even rocking in mommy's arms).  This increases his independence and ability to self-soothe, such as when he awakens in the middle of the night.  The nap lasts between 1 and 1.5 hours, and a few minutes of crying is okay at the beginning of the nap - although luckily so far they haven't done much more than whimper and then fall right asleep.  I then wake them (a cardinal rule is that mommy decides when the nap begins and when it ends!) when it is time to eat again - which is 2.5 to 3 hours from the last time they ate.  This routine continues all day until the late evening, which is the last scheduled feeding.  For us, that has been about 8:00 or 9:00ish.  Then, we let the babies sleep as long as they will, and when they wake up in the middle of the night, we feed, change, and put them back to sleep.  We have only been doing this for a few days, but we got some great stretches of sleep so far - a few of 5 hours and one of 6! It has been great for me - I can plan the day around what the babies will need, not to mention getting a few more hours of sleep at night.  Plus, they have generally been a lot happier - we've had a lot of smiles and coos lately!  Let's hope this trend continues, and that they will be on a solid schedule by the time I have to return to work and leave them in the care of a nanny.

That is the subject for another post...choosing a nanny!  I put an ad on craigslist, and have actually gotten some wonderful responses, but it is going to be the hardest decision we've had to make.  How do you find someone that you totally trust your children's lives to, even for just 25 hours a week?

Luckily, daddy will be there for two days a week...