Double Trouble

[woodcliff]

Buckeye, thank you! Actually, M. Freaking Poppins is 27 yrs old and you would think she was a pediatrician, her opinions are so forceful. I had to stop myself from slugging her after our meeting because she said "I'd love to help your son with his ANGER problem"
HE IS THREE WEEKS OLD...he cries when he is hungry!!! She is a nutbag.
I have her one more night...then I believe I talked her into believing she'll be miserable here with me ... she bought it, I think.
She has bummed me out sooooo much with her criticisms...
Ironic, eh? I had hired people because I felt some family members would be critical of my (lack of mommy know how!) skills...and here I go and hire a critic.
DAMN I HATE HER
OK, sorry about the b*tchin

Went to the 3 week appt...babies are healthy, he is 8 pounds and she is almost 7 pds! Up from their birthweights...My Ped is so cool...I love his style...he thought Mary Poppins sounded nuts too.

Thank you again for your help...

[LauraLou]

Woodcliff- Congratulations on your babies! I am so sorry to hear about Mean Nanny. Babies doen't have anger issues!! What a nutcase! Your son probably cries because he hates her too!

I can't believe my boys will be a year old in 3 weeks! They are walking along the furniture, but haven't ventured out on their own yet. My little 4 lbs babies are turning into toddlers!

I can't believe how quickly the last year has gone. Okay, the first 3 months dragged on forever, but the last 9 months have flown by!

Congrats to all the new mommies and new mommies to be.

[kholtan]

Good Evening Mommies!

Laura Lou~ Nice to see you! I cannot believe your babies are going to be 1! How? why? OMG!!! You said your babies were 4 lbs. . .mine too. Quick question, my little ones sit up great and play fabulously but refuse tummy time and rarely roll over. At 7.5 months Annelise has only rolled 3 x's. Also, they are still about 15 lbs. right now. Can you remember about how big yours were at this age? I'm not worried but more curious. They are great talkers and have really good hand-eye coordination but just cry every day when they have their tummy time. What to do?? If they hate the tummy time so bad I'm not sure I'll ever get them to crawl and they already try to pull themselves up on things.
At any rate, I'm glad things are well and I would LOVE to see some new pics! I bet they are adorable!

Woodcliff~ Sounds like the wicked witch is on her way out! YIPPY! No baby has anger problems and don't let her put anything in your head that is just BS. You are doing an amazing job and they sound healthy and happy so there is your proof! Hope all is just getting better every day! Oh, and at this age, I pretty much did the playmat, tummy time, walks, music, one-on-one time, and I read a lot to them.

We had a very grouchy night and the babies were almost put on E-bay. JK! We are trying to only get 3 naps a day but cutting out #4 has made the last hour or two very hard. I would just love for them to only nap from 8:30- 10, 12-1:30 and 3:30 -5. I would have thought we would be down to 2 naps by now but we aren't yet. Anyone else have this at this age? Just curious??

Better run while DH and I have some quiet time. Take care!
Kimberly

[buckeyegal]

Hi Laura! Glad you checked in! I can't believe the boys are almost 1!!!!! Where did the time go? I am actually in the process of trying to make the kids birthday invites (want to do a cool photo invite thingy). And I just ordered the plates, napkins, etc. for their party. Do you have a theme? You'll have to post a new pic....your boys have to be so gorgeous and huge by now!

Kimberly--Dang, I should have been on ebay last night! I would have snatched em up! Sorry to hear they weren't doing well. I know how hard it is to drop a nap, but it does seem to work itself out. I honestly don't ever remember having 4 set naps a day. From the time mine were probably around 4-5 months, they were taking 3 naps. Around 7 months or so, we would occassionally drop the 3rd (hell....I know....). By 8 months it was gone. Some days were definitely rough, but it made for an earlier bedtime (yeah!), and usually a better night's sleep. Good luck!

woodcliff--is the poppins gone?

We're having sleep issues as well over here. It might be teeth. It might be the ears again (nooooo!!!!!). Or, it could be the temp of their room. IT's been gorgeous here lately and in the 70's. Our old house heats up the upstairs very quickly. So, I've just been putting E and B in little onesies with a light blanket (that they always end up kicking off). E was up at 2 and B was up at 5. I finally turned the A/C on today. Not that it's THAT hot outside, but I just want to try controlling the temp in their room to see if that helps. What to do?

[woodcliff]

Ladies, thank you for your kind words re: MPoppins...I still have her for a week...at least...we shall see...I think she's 'getting' that I want to 'fire' her and she is being stubborn...my poor son. MP is efficient but kind of handles the babies the way they do in the hospital--you know, like kitties or puppies, as if they are 'product' not 'people'...they are cared for, just not in the loving way the rest of us do things...so I go into the nursery often at night to hold them when she is here. she hates it but tough sh*t.

And, no, newborns do NOT have 'anger' issues...this woman is a Bible Thumper and I feel someone who thinks babies are born totally in sin and something to 'put up with' ... I don't think she likes boys either!

Buckeye ... wow. Planning a 1st birthday party!!!! How amazing, exciting, and kind of sad to think they have grown so quickly!!! Have fun with the planning...

Kholtan, thank you for the tips re: what to do...Your babies sound adorable...I've heard how much babies hate tummy time! At 3 weeks, I'm surprised my pediatrician said to do tummy time 4 times a day...we'll start tomorrow or Monday...but geesh. OK, time to start reading to the babies...

How often did you bathe your babies at 3 weeks? My twins also don't seem to sleep some days except for 1 hour here or there...the longest they sleep is 3 hours, which is terrific, but it seems less and less...

Oh well...they are only 3 weeks old.
Oops...more later...I need to send a potential au pair an email.
lots of love and good wishes to all of you!!

[kholtan]

Good evening everyone!

WC~ Sounds like your MP is on her way out eventually so there is a light at the end of the tunnel. HURRAY!!!! It's too bad she can't be more warm and loving because she is blessed with such an amazing job and she doesn't even know it. I really felt like I was getting the best gift ever to be part of a new babies life and the families were soooooo sweet to have picked me to trust enough with their little ones. Just keep your head up and keep lovin your sweet babies and all will work itself out.

As far as bathing goes. . .I'm a bit OCD with the babies so your probably shouldn't follow me but I'll tell you what I did anyway. At about 3-7 weeks we bathed every other morning . It was sweet but I found it hard to get anywhere on time. So, I started to give them a bath at night and I found it to be a great bedtime routine and they started to figure out that the next time they went to sleep it would be for a long time so they nursed more. Now we do the eat, bath, play, book bed routine and they love it. We love it. It just fits us well to have such quality time with them when we are all winding down for the day.

As far as sleep goes. . . . we were babywise babies and they did naps every 3 hours for about and an hour and a half. I tried to leave them there even if they didn't sleep. It totally helped Annelise sleep all night but Bodie was a bit of a struggle. We were really fond of the schedule but you have to decide if it's for you or not and then dedicate yourself to doing it. Good luck with what ever you do. It's so hard to know if we are doing the right thing but as long as we have healthy happy babies!

My babies NEVER liked tummy time but they do it and now even w/o much fuss but Bodie just rolled from back to tummy yesterday and Anna has only rolled 3x's. They do all sorts of other things but still aren't huge fans of tummy time. I met a gal yesterday who has twin girls one day younger than mine and they don't roll yet or sit up so I felt so much better about our babies not rolling yet. They were SOOOOOO cute!!!!!! Two girls. . . .do we have any twin girls in our group???????

Kim~ How is sleeping going? I dread teething now for sure! I need some new pics!!!!! What are they doing as of recent?? What did you do for a B-day theme?

Di? How are you?

Babyb? I saw you had your babes!!!!!! Congrats!!!!!

A Mothers Love~ Any news? I hope everything is ok!

Better run, DH is waiting for some grown up time.
Take care~
Kimberly

[buckeyegal]

Woodcliff--a week ain't so bad! You can do it girl! I don't blame you for holding those babies as much as possible...when my kiddos are upset or sick, I take advantage and cuddle! As for sleep at 3 weeks, I felt like mine slept all the time? Except at night of course? We did Babywise too. Another book I've found helpful is Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child. It kind of guides you through the months as far as how many naps, how long, etc. It also explains why their sleep changes all of a sudden! My kiddos hated tummy time too. We used to call it torture time! BUT, since I'm a teacher, I knew how important it was for proper development. So I did torture my babies at least 3 or 4 times a day. I usually did it before eating time (or else we had spit up everywhere!). I think my kiddos eventually learned, "we get to eat after this!" As far as baths, we only did it every 2 or 3 nights. On the off nights, they'd get lotion massages--which they love! Now that my kiddos are older and getting dirtier, we usually bathe every other night.

Kimberly--we got a full night sleep last night! Yeah! It's pretty sporadic...we'll have a few good nights, then a bad one or two, then another good night. Poor Braeden has to be getting 4 at the same time right now. His top gums are just BUSTIN'! I'll try to post new pics soon. I'm finding it very hard to get decent pics right now because they're ALWAYS MOVING!!!! Plus, they love to come grab the camera from me.

They're both crawling like crazy. Ellie is a very efficient cruiser, and she's yearning to walk, but it hasn't happened yet. Braeden's pulling himself up on everything and cruising a bit. THey both say ma-ma, da-da, and G.G. (stands for gorgeous grandma---yes, that would be MY mom!). They're holding their own bottles and sippy cups (THANK GODDDDDD!!!), and they're pretty good finger food eaters. I'm trying to get them to clap now. Braeden is getting it. Ellie just balls up her fists. She's stubborn for sure!

Our party is a puppy party. Their favorite books is "THE DOG, FROM AARF AARF to ZZZZ". It's a pretty cool ABC book. I could be in another room and start reading it to myself, and both kids will squeal and come crawling to find me! It's hilarious. ANyway, I found party stuff with the same dogs on it. We're going to have dog-bone cookies, and our dog Murphy will be an honored guest! I'm also working on making memory books for each baby. I've been using Snapfish to make a book of pics for each kiddo. It's hard though because I start getting all nostalgic while I"m making it--I just can't believe nearly a year has gone by!

HOpe you all are well! I've gotta run. My 2 MILs are coming over today to help watch the kids so DH and I can work on landscaping. DH didn't do anything last year (and I wasn't able--too fat!), so we have a lot of weeding and mulching to do. Oh, isn't it funny that it takes TWO grandmas to babysit! ha ha! Maybe it's because both babies are trying to crawl the stairs!

[woodcliff]

Wow...you ladies are so organized! I still feel like a bit of a slug and now that my energy is returning a bit after the birth, I feel I don't know where to start most of the time...but the babies are fine and moving forward so something's going right

How do you ladies share photos with your families? Websites? Snapfish (I see, Kim, you mentioned it)...Sometimes I think of starting a blog ...Kholtan, you have one...was it tough to start? free? Is there a main domain I could go to to start one? Sorry--you have your hands full as it is...I just realize that, hey, the babies are 3 weeks old and I need to get with it so family won't be breathing down my neck all of the time for photos.
Also, we're thinking of having some professional shots done...did anyone do that?
Thank you for all of the tips...I do need to get on the tummy time and reading, now that I am feeling better...
When did you start getting the babies out of the house? I live in the city (DC), and the sidewalks are so choppy that I don't trust my stroller to support the babies' necks enough to take them out...then there is the issue of the heat...I can take them to the backyard this week, we have a terrace and huge side garden...but I do not want to overheat them!

sigh. always something to worry about.
Loads of love to you wonderful twin moms...you are an inspiration...
WOOF WOOF (love the party theme)

[buckeyegal]

YAAAWWWNNNN....landscaping sucks! But, my yard looks so pretty now!

Woodcliff--don't put too much pressure on yourself. Your little ones are only 3 weeks...seriously...you're allowed to be in a "fog" for a while! Last summer was a complete blur to me. Seriously! As for websites, I have used several (photobucket, kodakgallery, and snapfish). I've held off on the blog because I"m a little leary of "snoops" on the internet who might peep in on us without being invited, KWIM? As for going outside, I took mine out after a few weeks. We would just go on little walks. We took advantage of the moderate weather in the mornings and evenings, but during the afternoon we stayed inside. My mom would get nervous about the bumpy sidewalks too! But, they managed okay! Could you put some towels around their head supports? That might help.

Oh, definitely give the professional photos a shot! My FIL is a former photog., so we had him take the newborn shots. Then we've done professional shots at 3, 6, and 9 months. We'll do another set at 1 year. A little over the top, maybe, but these are probably our only kids, so I don't want to miss a thing! Kimberly had some GORGEOUS newborn shots taken, btw.

However you decide to post photos, let us know! (you can even private message us if you don't want stalkers to see!). We want to see your babies!

Good night gals!

[LauraLou]

Kholtan- I don't remember what they weighed at 7 months, but I know they weighed 18 lbs at their 9 month appt, so your babies's weight sounds great!

My babies were tummy sleepers (Yes, I know I am a terrible person!), so they loved tummy time! My mother stayed with us for the first 3 months. After about 8 weeks of getting 2-3 hrs of sleep at night, she had enough of "back to sleep" and started putting them to sleep on their tummies.

I didn't argue as they started sleeping so much better. In fact, they began to sleep 10 hrs a night at 11 weeks. To this day, they go to bed at 7:00 pm and don't get up until 7:30-8:00 am.

Because of that, they rolled over very early. Tummy to back at 3 months and back to front at 5 months.

Woodcliff- I didn't take mine out much until they were 6-8 weeks old. Mine were born at 35 weeks, so they were little and I didn't want them exposed to a lot of germs. We went for a occasional walk before that, but it is so humid in Dallas, that they would get overheated quickly.

I don't bathe my babies every day. They have very dry skin and the doctor said daily bathing would dry it out even more. Especially when they were little, they really didn't get very dirty!

Kim- It sounds like you have a great B-day planned. I am not much of a party-giver, so we are just having a small family affair. We will have cake and presents, but that's about it. My poor babies don't have a theme! They will be jealous!

[tolbee]

Hi Everyone!

My Mom has left and we are just so busy with one less pair of hands to care for three kids. I am exhausted.
I have not read all your new posts but sounds like you all are doing great.

Will post again soon.

Take care!
Kimi

[Kery]

Hi ladies
Hope you don't mind me jumping in and asking a question. I'm just wondering if any of you got pregnant with twins through a iui?

[kholtan]

Hey Kery~
Congrasts on your BFP! I did not get pg w/ IUI BUT my friends SIL did and she was pg w/ twins. Hope that helps.

When do you find out? Good luck to you!

Kimberly

[buckeyegal]

Laura--I love your pic of the boys! My kids use the exersaucer as a tunnel to crawl through too! I can't believe your boys are going to be one soon!
I wouldn't worry about the theme--I think it's more for us mamas than the bambinos!

Kimi--I hope you're hanging in there without your mom! Check in when you can...

Kery--I personally went through IUI twice w/o getting preggers. IVF did it for me. BUT, my good friend got pregnant with twins during IUI. Good luck!

[kholtan]

Kim~ OMG!!!! I just checked photobucket and you have outdone yourself woman!!!!! Those are absolutley adorable invites and I'm afraid I may be forced to copy you one day!!!!!! LOVED THEM!!!!! The babies are getting so, well, more like children and less like preemie babies! It's a sad yet happy thing. Maybe I should hire you to do our party!!

Lauralou~ Again, they get even cuter! I simply LOVE identicals. Sounds like our little ones were about the same size at the same stages. They are soooooo cute and I love how we all have the excersaucer of MEGA stuff. Glad they are well and life is good.

I miss so many of the twin mommies we haven't heard from. Hope they are all well and happy.

We have been super busy around here and it doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. Between playdates, family, friends, household shopping and the yard we seem to be on auto pilot now days. I keep adding pics to our blog so at least the far away family gets to see the babies. They have been hilarious lately! They seem to have a language all their own now and talk constantly to each other. I have been teaching them sign language and hope they start signing back soon so I have a clue what they are thinking. It certainly has stunted their desire to talk!

I just bought life vests the other day at Costco so the babies are boat ready! They look like the Micheline Tire man in them and will probably hate them but what can ya do? We hope they will like the boat and I hope I can keep sunscreen on them. The little fella had an inch of leg showing one afternoon here and there and now he has a VERY tan sock line. The Italian and Portugese(sp) in them is comming out already!

Better run! I have been reading real books now that I have conquered the baby section and love it!

Good night everyone!
Kimberly