Giggles

No  one can get oscar to giggle quite like Auggie can, this is so cute!  they are such good brothers, most of the time...

Switching formulas

So the twins have been on elecare ever since they had there NEC scare in the nicu when they were about 4 weeks old. They have seemed to handle it really well, and haven't had many issues with spitting up or acid reflux. However I started to wonder it maybe it had anything to do with their poor sleeping habits? So I consulted Dr. Google, and come to find out others who were using elecare have had some of the same issues we have been having. I guess that the way the formula helps with the stomach problems is by breaking down quicker so that the body digests it faster and gives the sensitive intestines time to heal. Well since it was digesting so much quicker they were probably getting hungry more often than I was feeding them (in the night) So! Basically, during those awful 2 1/2 hour CIO sessions, I was pretty much starving them to death! Geez! How many other kids do I have? Mother of the year! AND, they have had diarrhea since we brought them home from the NICU we even took them to the GI and they were puzzled by it. But as I read more I found out that diarrhea is also another side effect of elecare (something I thought their Dr.or GI would have known?) So, I called their pediatrician and aasked them what they thought about switching formulas, and they said that we could try half elecare and half regular formula! So yesterday we started doing half elecare and half similac sensitive. I don't think it is coincidence, they are now eating 9 ounces each feed! 9! They used to only eat 5 or 6 just a few days ago! They love this stuff! And so far they seem to be tolerating it fine, and their diarrhea has also improved a little, it at least now isn't complete water. Now hopefully they can start getting full bellies and sleeping through the night! Right?

posted from Bloggeroid

Sleep

The babies are nearing six months old, and only one of them has ever slept through the night, only once! They each will wake up randomly a few times a night, there is no rhyme or reason to the times they wake up, I have tried charting them and have found no pattern whatsoever! We are very sure to never let them fall asleep while eating or being held, we try to get them to bed at the same time every night, and they only take two naps in the day totaling about 3 to 4 hours. So we finally, after being totally exhausted, decided to just let them cry it out, if it had been less than four hours before they last ate. The first night they cried for 2 and a half hours straight. I'm not exaggerating at all, we watched the clock the entire time! It was horrible. And once they finally stopped, lola woke up after only being asleep for about 20 minutes, but since it had been a little over for hours since she had last ate, I fed her. Was that the right thing to do, or am I just teaching her that she has to cry for two hours for me to finally feed her? I don't know. But at that time of night it made since to me. So after that first night we thought the crying time would decrease a little? Wrong. Same amount of crying only at some totally different time in the night! So here is the big question I have, should I not have them in the same room together? Because one always starts crying before the other and inevitably wakes the other one up. We don't even have another rom on the main level to put one in a different room, but I thought we could maybe put a pack n play in our walk in closet, just til we get this sleep training over with? Is that pointless? Am I just training one to sleep in a different environment and going to have to re train them later? I am really desperate here.

I love these kids... But if mommy and daddy don't get some sleep soon, you may be visiting us at the looney bin!

Coming up to breathe... for a minute.

whew! has it really been that long? I feel like I am never going to get out of this thick haze called 2 new babies! we have been battling the sickness train for about 2 months now and the babies have had multiple ear infections requiring several antibiotics and finally 3 doses of the rocephin shot, and once that finally cleared, within a few days they both got croup and almost had to be hospitalized but luckily just had to have a few breathing treatments and be suctioned at the hospital. The croup cleared up after a few days but their poor little noses just had so much mucus it was hard for them to eat or breath! So we did EVERYTHING we could think of to help them, propped up the head of their cribs, constantly ran a cool mist humidifier, vapor baths... but the best thing that we found to help was using a little saline spray up their noses and we bought this electric nasal aspirator which is AMAZING! I was really sceptical and it looks and sounds a little scary, but it really pulls all of the mucus out (I know, only something a mother could be proud of... gross!) anywho. For right now all the sickness seems to be at a stand still for now.

On a happier note, the babies are growing like crazy! they have their 6 month check up coming up at the end of this month so I will post those when I get them. they are finally eating better!!! It has been such a hard struggle but they are finally eating at least 6 oz. four times a day, which is a huge improvement! I wish I could say such great results for their sleeping at night :( they are still getting up at least two times each in the night, and I have been letting them do their own thing in the night and not keep them on the same schedule, which sometimes works well because Lola will usually sleep a little longer than Oscar, but usually it just means that I am waking up 4 different times through the night to feed. I am open to any suggestions anyone has to help ease this a little?

I could go on and on about theses sweet little babies, but I am luck to even have a second to write this! Auggie just turned Three and is crazier than ever! he is such a handful right now! and Milo is eight and we are constantly swamped in all his homework, and its only third grade!

I wanted this.

But this is hard.

pictures that help it seem a little better...

Babies first attempt at eating rice cereal... didn't go so well. Maybe Oscar didn't like it because he had to wear a girl bib?

A little tummy time.

All the kids after tub (hence the messy hair)

babies after church

Where you can find me almost all day!

Mommy and Lola, thanksgiving day.