Three Months Old Already!

Newborns always grow up way too fast but never have I felt that more than with Joshua and Jude. Most days zoom by in a blur of nursing, changing diapers, holding fussy babies...oh yeah, and taking care of the big kids. And now the twins are three months old. Unbelievable. I wish I had been faithful to do monthly posts like I did for Esther but we'll have to be content with this.

I don't know for sure how big Joshua and Jude are since we haven't been to the doctor in a month, but unofficial weights according to our bathroom scale are 12.5 and 13 lbs respectively. Last month Joshua was 9 lbs 14 oz and Jude was 10 lbs 9 ounces. They started out off-the-charts small but are now right in the mix of average-sized babies.

Joshua and Jude continue to have long fussy periods in the evenings. Forget what I blogged about that phase maybe coming to an end. It is still very much a part of our life. BUT--a silver lining--once they fall asleep for the night they've been sleeping really well. They sleep a couple 4-5 hour stretches so I feel rested most mornings. And they nurse quickly at night so we all get back to sleep pretty soon.

I no longer nurse them together unless they are both desperately unhappy at feeding time. The dual football hold just wasn't working as they got longer--they'd kick themselves away from me. Nursing them one at a time takes only a bit longer so that's what we do. Good thing they are quick eaters because they eat about every 2.5 hours during the day.

Joshua and Jude are not great nappers; they often stay asleep for only 40 minutes. (Just like Austin and Esther at that age--what is it about my kids and short naps?)

The babies just started smiling a few weeks ago and they get more gregarious every day. I love their little coos and gasps of excitement. They follow Daddy with their eyes if he gets up and leaves the room. (Perhaps they do for me as well? But I'm leaving so I don't see it of course.) It's cute.

Joshua and Jude's personalities seem so similar right now, so if I seem to treat them like a single unit that's why. But here's a difference--Jude now likes baths but Joshua cries when it's his turn in the tub.

Both boys like to sit up rather than lay down. We thought they didn't like our swing and we were about to put it back in the basement, then one day on a whim I moved the back more upright and all of a sudden I had a happy baby. They like sitting in bouncy seats for short periods, too, finally. It's impossible to cook dinner while holding two babies, you know? So being content in a seat or swing is important when you're a twin.

Okay, let's see if I can find some decent pictures for this kind of post!

Freshly sprung from the hospital! Jude is on the left.

About one month--I think Joshua is on the left.

About two months--Jude is on the left.

Three months! Funny, I think they look really different here. Joshua is on the
left, Jude on the right.

His First Single

Zach got an iPad recently as a birthday/Father's Day/congratulations-on-your-promotion gift. One of the apps he's downloaded so far is Garage Band, which will be useful for work. But Austin likes it, too. So they recorded a bit this morning. Austin laid down the vocal track, then Zach added the instrumentation. If Austin ever makes it big, remember, you heard him here first. :)

Once a monkey, always a monkey

You might remember that we fondly refer to Esther as our monkey girl because she is such a climber and has been since she could move. I guess she likes the nickname! Here's a little conversation I had with her this morning:

Esther: (jumping on the couch)

Me: Esther, sit down please.

Esther: I naht-ney! (I'm a monkey!)

Me: Well, the monkey needs to sit down.

Esther: (sits down)

A few minutes later...

Esther: (jumping on the couch)

Me: Esther, sit down.

Esther: I naht-ney!

Me: Even monkeys need to obey their mommies.

Esther: (sits down) Soh-ee! (Sorry!)

Oh, how she makes me smile! Here's a little video from a few days ago, since I don't have any pictures of the monkey jumping on the couch.

Two Year Old Esther

Here is Esther's two-year birthday post, a mere three weeks late.

So Esther had a birthday! Since she's our little monkey girl, we celebrated with these.

Thanks again to Laura for teaching me how to make them!

All at once! My girl is not one to hold back where sugar is involved. Now
where did she get that from? :)

We opened gifts.

"We" of course including eager participation from the big brother.

Eager to try out her new sleeping bag!

Little fashionista...she just couldn't wait to try on her new clothes.

Letting pink baby try out the new doll accessories.

Then purple baby. I love hearing her say things like "pink baby turn," then
"purple baby turn" a few minutes later. Clearly around here we are familiar
 with the idea that babies have to take turns sometimes.

Two year old Esther is such a joyful part of our lives! She is a doll-mothering, dirt-playing, pretend-cooking, Duplo-building, "pitty-dess" wearing, couch-jumping, stroller-pushing, car-driving, dancing, snuggling little ball of energy. No lack of personality in this little girl!

Cloth Babies

Call us crazy, but we started cloth diapering the twins today. I've been contemplating the switch for a few weeks and finally realized life is never going to settle down enough to really feel like it's the ideal time; might as well give it a go. As Zach pointed out, if it just goes terribly (i.e. laundry piling up to the ceiling) we can always quit and go back to disposables. In fact, I've never thought we'd manage to do cloth full time with two babies. If we can manage half time or better I'll consider it a success. Think about it: using cloth half the time is the equivalent of buying disposables for one baby and you know how expensive that is! So every little bit of time spent in cloth helps our budget.

Joshua and Jude are big enough now to fit well in our diapers. Pretty cute, huh? In a fussy sort of way. They had just had baths and were impatient to be dressed/held/fed. But still cute of course.

Joshua

Jude

I realize I sound pretty optimistic about this whole thing today. Let's see how I feel in a few days when the lots-of-extra-laundry part of cloth diapering kicks in.

"Hoo's Hoo?"

So, can you tell our twins apart?

No? Maybe look from a different angle.

Still no? Twin on the left is getting concerned.

Might even cry about it.

Okay, you can relax. Because the truth is, we can barely tell the twins apart ourselves. Twelve weeks ago I was sure I'd be able to tell them apart easily by now but they are pretty much, well, identical. Each baby has a little red birthmark (Jude on his eyelid, Joshua on his left side) but they are hard or impossible to see in pictures, or in Joshua's case when he's wearing clothes. So...use the pacis. Works for us.*

Joshua and his monkey on the left, Jude and his giraffe on the right.

*Yeah, we know, soon they'll be able to grab each other's pacis. If Jude's birthmark fades by then we're in trouble.

Twinsanity

Goodness! I have not meant to let blogging go so completely by the wayside, but it has. Blogging, like so many other activities I used to enjoy, requires some measure of uninterrupted time and mental focus and, well, those are lacking these days. I have always felt pretty good about my ability to multi-task but lately taking care of the twins is consuming just about all my physical and mental energy. And this is with Zach home for the summer! I don't even like to think about what daily life will be like come late August....

A few weeks after the twins came home Zach and I talked about life with twins so far and we agreed that it was easier than we had been expecting. The babies slept so much so pretty much all we did was feed them, change their diapers, and let them sleep. And they'd sleep anywhere which was convenient. But sometime last month (probably not too long after their due date) they woke up to the world a bit and found their fussy voices. Specifically at night. Most evenings have consisted of several hours of on and off crying from both boys, despite holding, rocking, feeding, swaddling, administration of gas drops, Gripe Water, etc. Every parent knows how hard it can be to listen to an inconsolable baby. Two inconsolable babies...you can imagine the difficulty. One Sunday morning one of our pastors exhorted us to remind ourselves of all God has done for us in the past. The only thing I could think of was "Well God, you didn't let me jump off a building this week." One particularly terrible night I remember praying through my tears "Lord, I don't see how this shows goodness or kindness to me but I know You are good and kind so please help me!" And I didn't go jump off a building that night so obviously God's merciful hand was on me. :) But seriously, I knew having twins would stretch me and my faith in new directions and it sure has.

But (written in a very hopeful voice) I think we may be getting over that phase. It has really helped me, by the way, to remember that Esther went through a similar stage at just about the same age and it didn't last long in the big picture. The last few nights have had much less crying and our days have been smoother too. I think Joshua and Jude are starting to give us more recognizable cues when they're ready for a nap and as long as we respond quickly they take nice little naps in their beds. Thank you, Father, for this mercy!

There are more things I'd like to blog about but that will have to wait for another day. (So sorry, Esther, I did not do a birthday post for you. Aunt Megan says it's not too late--I'll try to get on that before your third birthday.) So here are a few pictures until I can manage more.

Jude (Good thing the paci is visible; that's the main way we
tell the boys apart these days! Keep the paci nearby and
nobody gets mixed up.)

Joshua (Man, these babies are cute!)

Little mirror images. Jude is on the left. I think. Let's call it 95% sure.

Austin and Esther enjoying the view from Grandpa's "tall office
building." More about our visit to Grandma and Grandpa later, I hope.