Monday, March 30, 2009

Ava's New Jeans

Ava got to wear her first pair of blue jeans today! She's extremely happy to not be wearing another pair of lounge pants, although those are easier to get on with her squirmy little legs!



She is also very excited to go to the doctor this Friday for the twins' 4 month check up. She wants to show mommy and daddy how big she's gotten since we haven't had an official weight on her since February 11th when she was 7lbs14oz. What she doesn't know is that they'll also be getting shots -- and the last time they had them was the first time that we heard our little lady cry cry cry.

Here are some pics from a photo shoot we did on the couch this morning...







Sunday, March 29, 2009

Colin Monkey Boy

My brother - Uncle Drew - says I use "sad" music in my movies, so this one is for him...

Friday, March 27, 2009

Ava



Stacey says I post too much Colin... so this post is all about my girl, Ava.

Hit HQ to watch in higher quality. And turn up the volume really loud.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Four Months Old!

The twins are 4 months old today!



Here's what they've been up to...

  • Colin has full control of his neck and Ava is getting there.

  • They CAN sleep for a 10 hour stretch at night - although most nights Colin wakes up once and can be put down with a quickie breastfeed. We purchased a Marpac white noise machine that seems to help them sleep longer and settle them when they do wake.

  • Yesterday they both were trying to eat 6 ounces at a feeding - which proved to be a bit too much for them, but it's a good sign! They were both up over 25ozs total for the day yesterday!

  • They both LOVE the HBO series of Classical Baby (especially Colin). We recorded their "Dance Show" on HBO a few weeks back and the twins loved it so much that we purchased their DVD trio. If he's fussy, putting on that dvd instantly calms him down and we sing and dance along, so it's fun for us too! We try not to let the TV babysit, we watch with them! They also enjoy watching the Celtics and the Bruins (eh hem, Daddy)...

  • They are both becoming serious nappers too. It literally happened overnight with Colin in the crib with his mobile and Ava in the Pack n Play (in a different room) since they sometimes nap for different lengths of time. But they both seem to log in about 4 hours a day for naps.

    Since it's their 1/3 birthday, we'll celebrate by watching the "story of their birth" video, which we've shared before, but some people may not have seen it yet. So enjoy Theater Thursday which is hosted by Goddess in Progress! (I know we're supposed to keep it an edited short vid, but this is a one time only long one!)

  • Monday, March 23, 2009

    Back to work...



    Ah, my 4 months are up - tomorrow is my first day back to work! And although I'll only be going back to work part-time for now, I'm dealing with some severe anxiety.

    I was given an extra 4 weeks because I had twins...I'm not sure if that's fair to singleton mothers, but I'm not complaining and am very thankful given that I was in the hospital for a week post-partum and then twins were there 10 more days beyond that.

    I know that most moms would agree that it's hard leaving your infant for the first time. You want to be with them, but if you need to work for whatever reason, you have to find a way to deal with the separation. I love my job, I love the science and the research I do, but even so, I know it will be a tough transition.

    Thankfully, MGH has a wonderful working mother program that makes the transition a bit easier - especially since I'll be pumping at work. What also makes this time a bit easier to swallow is that my boss is extremely flexible about when I work. My research lends itself well to coming in for a few hours here and there, very early in the morning, late at night... working odd hours and odd days. Plus, commuting off the rush hours will usually allow me to miss the Boston traffic rush, so I can get home to the twins (and hubby!) quickly.

    So last week we started our new part-time nanny who will be taking loving care of the twins while I'm at work! This way, we're lucky enough to keep the twins out of a daycare with other runny noses for now. The fact that hubby works from home together with my job flexibility are priceless perks that will allow us to shower the twins with the attention and affection that they so deserve... have I mentioned how wicked cute they are?



    So tomorrow, I go back to my lab...I know the day won't be perfect, I know I'll be sad, I'll forget my lunch, or one of them will spit up on me on my way out the door, but it doesn't matter because Colin and Ava will give me big smiles when I open the front door!

    Thursday, March 19, 2009

    We Love Bath Time!

    This Little Piggy



    So we went to the doctor's office this morning for Colin's weigh-in, and he's up to 12lbs 1oz!!! He got that 5oz he had lost right back and gained over a pound, total, in a week!

    He still may have reflux, but with the Zantac and Dr. Brown's bottles he's eating like a champ and is much happier! Go Piggy!



    Sorry for the blurry pictures - Daddy insists on playing with different camera modes. He promises to cut it out.

    Wednesday, March 18, 2009

    Happy Baby Boy - Reflux Solved?



    So as I said earlier in the Uncle Drew's Visit post, Colin has been dealing with reflux issues. It all started (or at least went from silent reflux to painful red-in-the-face, I-don't-even-want-to-look-at-a-bottle reflux) when the twins dropped down to 6 feedings a day on February 28th. After about that date, it wouldn't matter if it was expressed breastmilk or formula in the bottle - he'd only eat a little bit before breaking down.

    So we went to the doctor and they prescribed Zantac (Ranitidine) - at that time Colin weighed in at 11lbs5oz. The Zantac helped some days, and then other days he would refuse a bottle and be screaming so much that Michael was worried his little head would explode. Some times at the mere SIGHT of the bottle, his little lip would stick out and start to quiver...

    One week on the meds goes by, and I decide to thicken with Gerber's Organic brown rice cereal - also at the suggestion of doctors and nurses. This is something that I didn't want to do, but we were desperate to make our little guy feel better. I was adding 1.5Tbsp to 4oz in our Playtex Drop-in Nurser bottles, and I switched to a fast nipple so it wouldn't clog up. The next day he was even refusing his morning bottle (which had been his least problematic) so back to the doctor for a weigh-in. This time it showed that he had lost 5oz, which isn't significant since some of his poops are heavier than that, I think! Still, the doc said that there's not much more we can do for him at this point other than to check his weight in another week and then revisit our options (think GI specialist). The two most important things are that he's gaining weight (he wasn't) and that he's not in pain (he is).

    SO back home I went, feeling like an inadequate mother... did babies even have reflux when I was a baby 28 years ago, oops I mean 35 years ago? Maybe they didn't worry as much? My mother told me that I didn't care too much for the formula and didn't really start gaining weight until I was put on solids. But isn't breastmilk or formula all a baby needs for the first six months?

    Colin's worst day by far was this past Saturday morning... he cried so hard that he was hoarse. We're talking high-pitched, convulsive SCREAMING. We stopped the stupid rice cereal which was hurting his tummy and making him constipated. Then it dawned on both of us at the same time... what if the problem lies with the bottle, itself?

    I guess it was hard for us to even come to that conclusion since we spent the beginning of their second month on the great bottle hunt, and we thought that we already found the perfect bottle for the twins... one that reduced their gassiness and that had a natural latch nipple so it's more like mommy. Yes, those Playtex Nursers with the Drop-In system won over the more expensive Avents and Born Frees and Dr. Brown's bottles - simply because the twins liked them best. So on Saturday afternoon, we tried the Dr. Brown's 4oz BPA-free bottle with Colin... and what a difference it made. Whether it was really the bottle giving him pain or just an association thing he had developed, we don't care. We only wish it had been suggested to us sooner to try a different bottle in combination with the Zantac.

    He's back up to taking 4-5 ounces at a time, eating like a little piggy and very happy. We have another weight check tomorrow, so bring it on Mr. Scale... we're crossing our fingers that we've tackled our first baby nightmare.

    Tuesday, March 17, 2009

    Happy St. Patrick's Day!



    Happy St. Patrick's Day!

    We're celebrating our Irish hertiage! That's right, we're 1/4 Irish.



    Let's see, we're 1/2 Acadian/French Canadian (Mom's family), 1/4 Irish (Dad's Mom), 1/8th Czechoslovakian, and 1/16th each German and English (Dad's Dad). Like Dad, we're mutts!





    But today we're going Irish. Last night we had Corned Beef and Cabbage (well, mom and dad did, and by proxy we are having it today!) and today we're in our St. Pats outfits and drinking Guinness! Also by proxy.

    Happy St. Patrick's Day! SlĂ inte!

    Thursday, March 12, 2009

    HD Twins

    We've gone high def!


    (looks like we'll have to update our blog template too - needs to be a little wider!)

    We're having alot of fun getting used to the new camcorder - and the Sony Vegas Movie Studio software we needed to edit HD - and look forward to capturing lots of milestones in full 1080p HD!

    Good thing we got this thing far in advance of many of those milestones - we have a LOT to learn!

    Wednesday, March 11, 2009

    A Bunch of Pics


    Colin loooooves his vibrating, bouncing Itsy Bitsy Spider chair! Ava digs it, too.


    Almost got the hang of the bumbo...


    My head isn't quite upright, but I know I'll like this thing soon.


    Chillin' on the boppy is a favorite pasttime.


    I think I'm a big man.


    But my favorite place to be is with my mommy.


    There's the girl...


    Ava is too sweet.


    She's like honey and maple syrup and sugar and molasses mixed together and poured over chocolate.


    Now THAT'S sweet!

    Monday, March 9, 2009

    A Visit from Uncle Drew or How the Twins Slept Through the Night


    Uncle Drew and Colin

    On Friday, Michael's brother Drew drove here from Rochester, NY for his first visit with the twins. An extra set of hands from an experienced father (Jack who is 4 today and Brady who is 21 months) would serve to be all we needed to get the twins to sleep through the night!


    Uncle Drew and Ava

    They had been doing a 6 to 7 hour stretch followed by an overnight dream feed, but had yet to do more than that. I believe Ava would've done it a few times, but LOUD Colin wouldn't allow that to happen! Plus, he's been dealing with some reflux issues which we believe the baby Zantac to be helping. He had no feeding issues last Thursday (1st day of meds) or yesterday, but did have some issues Friday and Saturday probably from the increased volume he needs to take in b/c of the dropped feeding.

    So on Friday, I woke up at 6am because it had been so long since I had pumped, and I realized that they were still asleep! They slept from 9pm to 7:30am!

    We're starting to bump their bedtime earlier as well, but the stupid time change didn't help at all! Saturday, Colin woke up once, but was easily put down with a 10 minute breastfeed. Last night they slept again for 10 hours!!! This is wonderful since we're getting ready for my maternity leave to be over in 2 weeks.

    On Saturday, it was almost 60 degrees here in Boston, so with Uncle Drew, we went for the twins first walk in their Kolcraft Tandem Stroller just around our neighborhood. We made it for about 45 minutes before Colin started to fuss. Yesterday, we took them to Pope John Paul Park in the Neponset area for another fun (but windy) walk. Too bad it is SNOWING today, because now I have the walking bug after being homebound with the babes all winter!


    Walking by the river


    They're in there!

    Wednesday, March 4, 2009

    Twin Formals

    We'd love to go get formal pics taken - and eventually, we will - but for now we're giving it a shot at home! Here are the results...


    Sister and Brother...


    Colin


    Ava


    Happy couple - is this photoshoot almost over?


    Col


    Miss Ava