First day of work for Mama Lovebo!

Monday was the first day back to work for this Mama Lovebo. I was a little sad Sunday night thinking about being gone all day Monday, but I slept fine and (more importantly) the boys slept fine as well. Mindy arrived at 8am so she could entertain the babies while I packed up and fed them each, and I was late to work as usual. I have a good number of cases but none that I have yet examined are in immediate emergency mode, it appears. It was great to see my colleagues and settle back into a routine at work, and I felt good using a part of my brain that has been dormant for the last nine months. I'm sure there will be parts of work that will annoy me or stress me out but I think it's very good for me to be back at work, especially in this ideal arrangement. I came home at lunchtime to nurse the babies, and returned home before 5pm. They were happy and well-rested and had eaten a good quantity of squash with Mindy. I feel comfortable and secure knowing she is here with them, and I never worry that they are not being taken care of. I also feel good that they will not experience the turnover and different faces of caregivers at a daycare, and can learn to expect to see Mindy's smiling face when I am not here. Mondays are my longest day of work (8:30-4:30) and then I have a whole day with them Tuesday, a half day Wednesday, and a whole day with them Thursday before going back for a shorter day (8:30-3:30) Friday. I think it's a pretty ideal schedule and I'm very optimistic that it will work out well for our family.

The general nighttime routine now is we put the babies to bed between 6-7pm, depending on how tired they are, and they sleep through til 1am or so. At 1 I feed one or both of them. Someone usually wakes up again around 4 or 5am, and I feed one or both of them. Sometimes Beck wakes up earlier than 1, usually around 10 or 11, and wants to eat. It seems to us that he is putting on a lot more weight than Theo, but we won't know for sure until we go to the six-month pediatrician appointment next month.

Pre- and Post-Thanksgiving

I got two free snowsuits for the boys a week or two ago and they've been wearing them on walks when it is cold out. They are way too big for them now but my guess is they will be snug by the end of snowsuit season. Sometimes they fall asleep on the walk and then I try to transfer them to their cribs or the swing for a nap afterward. On this day, I was successful. They slept for 2 hours after we got home!

We had a wonderful if short visit with Auntie Alexis on Saturday. We went for a lovely walk around the witching hour to help the boys have a brief nap before dinner. Theo's in love, as you can tell.


Baby sunglasses! Another great deal from Babysteals.com! Beck can really rock some sunglasses.


We had a really great visit with Jeff's family in Northborough, Massachusetts for Thanksgiving, with a too-short interlude to my aunt and uncle's house nearby in Clinton. I hope to add pictures from those trips in future posts--when we get the pictures off of our phones and from Jeff's uncle.

Grandma Joanie makes a funny

An email to me from Grandma Joanie tonight after viewing the below video:


Subject:

Was it after the applesauce [editor's note: into which I put lemon zest, some would argue too much] that the boys had trouble staying asleep?

Message:

Because:

1. They don't trust you to take care of them

2. They had acid indigestion

3. They wanted to make you suffer like you made them suffer

Trying New Foods

We continue to feed the boys different foods to try. They like some better than others. Watch Theo's reaction in this video as he tries some applesauce. It's priceless.

More solid foods!

We're still experimenting with solid foods, seeing what types of foods the boys like and at what times of day. I'm pretty much through with rice cereal, as I really don't see the point. The boys have had mashed banana, pureed butternut squash, and pureed peas. I need to make the applesauce at some point so they can try that. The squash last night was definitely the biggest hit, though it may also have been because it was at the right time, when they were hungry and alert and could best tolerate it. Each of them ate a full ice cube tray's worth of squash. They can together put down half a banana but the peas and the rice cereal is more difficult to get down. I'm going to try the squash again today. They're nursing as much as ever, and we'll see how that changes as they start to eat more.

Firsts! and a few anniversaries

We scored two free snowsuits from a mom in the Multiple Moms Mingle group. This is Theo modeling the handmade one we got. I don't really understand why it has a wizard hat attached, but it's warm and the price was right.

Theo has his first tooth! It has cut through his gums but is still hard to see, especially with all the thrashing that occurs when one tries to look inside his mouth. But it is easy to feel. It is kind of sharp and ridged and definitely a tooth. Our babysitter, Mindy, found it when she came over to watch Theo when I went to my boss' retirement luncheon. I hadn't even noticed it! He hasn't been grumpy, or had a hard time sleeping, or anything. He just cut his first tooth, no big deal.

So here's the roundup of points awarded so far in the FIRSTS categories:

Theo, with two points: first born, first tooth
Beckett, with three points: first smile, first laugh, first to roll from front to back.

And I want to mark the belated anniversary of when we found out I was pregnant with twins, on Veterans' Day. We went for a hospital tour of the St. Joe's Birth Place at 11am, which was awesome and had us very excited to have a baby there, and then went from there to our 1:10pm sonogram to find out how far along I was. The tech, after taking forever and worrying me that there was no heartbeat, announced that in fact there were TWO heartbeats and that we were growing two babies. Jeff of course laughed hysterically doubled over with his head between his legs for about ten minutes, and I felt my eyes roll back in my head and may or may not have been conscious for the rest of the exam. I was nine weeks pregnant. Today is the anniversary of when Jeff and I traveled to New York for me to undergo CVS, early genetic testing of the babies. And I believe it was December 3 when we found out that both babies were healthy and that we were having twin boys! So last Thanksgiving was a bit of a stressful time, awaiting the results of the CVS. We're so grateful and happy this year to be celebrating with our gorgeous and funny babies!

This picture has nothing to do with anything except I think it's funny.

Monday we had a great visit with our friend Anne, who stopped by for the afternoon. The boys have tried out the PeaPodPlus they received from the Cathleses and LOVE it! We tried it at not the best time, when they were cranky at the end of the day just before they ate for the last time, and surprisingly, they both started giggling and smiling and kicking their feet. I hypothesize that it feels close and contained, which feels comforting. I am just grateful that they like it so that we can imagine using it for traveling! It's also surprisingly roomy inside, such that I think we're going to try having them share it when we go away for a few days next week. It's been at least a month since Theo has turned perpendicular in the crib, and they generally seem to flail and thrash less than they used to, so I hope it's okay! We'll make sure to bring their own blankets so they can each put theirs over their heads, etc.

Check out these awesome winter hats we got from Mama Goose!

We had a great visit with Toby and Toby's mom Sarah this morning. The boys kind of played together, to the extent that they can, and then Theo and Beck made a Toby sandwich. Mmmm! Toby was the only one interested in my make-the-baby-smile-for-the-camera antics. Theo and Beckett were more interested in Sarah.

Beck OWNS this swing.

PS I bring you this post because the boys have been sleeping for two hours and counting. They went down around 1pm and it is now after 3. I keep checking on them to make sure they're still breathing. I have also filed most of the pile of "to be filed" that has accumulated since the boys were born and addressed all of our Christmas card envelopes. I guess I'm going to have to tackle something more substantial if they keep sleeping. Maybe dry mopping the downstairs? Cleaning the upstairs bathroom? Geez, I'm going to be wishing these guys would wake up!