6 Months Old!

It's hard to believe half a year has passed since the birth of our girls! I'm not sure that time is so much moving faster since their birth, but we are so much busier that it truly seems that way! Each day passes into the next, always something on the horizon. Looking back, this is not how I ever imagined my life would be! But what a great life it is! Rusty has been such an involved dad, interested in the fun things that come with being a parent but also the side effects (dirty diapers, baths, cleaning dishes and a constant need to tidy the house!) Our marriage is truly a partnership with shared hopes and goals. Something almost 6 years in the making! Being a mother is also something I knew I would love but it is different in unexplainable ways. I think the most surprising thing is the emotional roller coaster. One minute your heart is about to burst with joy over your precious babies, the next, they are screaming for no damn reason and you want to tear your hair out! Haha!

This past month we were busy with ordinary life. My sister, Paige came for a much needed visit and we took a trip to the beach with Grandma and Grandpa Jones. Most noted, we introduced solid food to the girls' diet! So far they have eaten: avocado, pear, sweet potato, zucchini, butternut squash, banana, yellow squash and carrots! They hardly ever like something the first time they try it but when offered a second or third time, they will polish off the whole jar! It's so much fun to see them exploring food and trying new things for the first time!! We are still letting them explore table food as they experience spoon feeding. Their favorite things to feed themselves are avocado pears and bananas!

Developmentally, they are starting to sit unassisted. Audrey is rolling all over the living room and Madison prefers to sit and watch the show. (Especially when it involves Layla chasing after her toys!) They are doing well, according to their doctor and Audrey remains solidly in the 5% for weight and height and Madison is around the 50%! They differ in weight by 2.5lbs now and are certainly very different babies! For October, we are looking forward to visiting SeaWorld's Halloween Spooktacular, a mommy's day out brunch (with daddies to babysit!) and a picnic with work friends at Lake Eola. Oh, and babies' first Halloween of course! With fall in the air, it's shaping up to be a pretty good month!

Adventures in Solid Food!

Today the babies got their first taste of something other than milk: Avocado! Probably much more exciting for Rusty and I than for Audrey and Madison but they didn't seem to DISLIKE it!


First, they started out feeding themselves (well at least Audrey did, Madison was totally uninterested!) This is called the baby-led-weaning method of introducing solids. In true BLW, there is never any spoon feeding, the baby decides when and how much solid food to eat and when to wean from milk. I'm into letting them discover textures and foods in their natural form but I'm wanting them to actually EAT the food too (this doesn't usually happen until about 9 months old with BLW). So we are making up our own routine! BLW with some spoon feeding thrown in the mix! It was so much fun watching their little faces with the first tastes of food!



I'm not quite sure what Madison thought of the whole experience. Definitely not as interested as Audrey but not totally rejecting it, just unsure! Our more timid child for sure!!! Next on the menu: baby cereal and pear and sweet potatoes! I wonder if the girls will have the same reaction to sweet potatoes as Rusty did as a baby (he spit it all over his grandmother!) Just another day in the life of a twin mommy :)

August

As August draws to a close it seems it is time for another update. I feel like I'm doing pretty well if I can update this blog once a month...lol. We didn't do much this month except maintain! The grandparents (my dad and Rusty's parents) alternate watching the girls on Saturdays and daddy gets the girls Sundays when I work. Monday and Tuesday are our weekend but it's hard to just enjoy when there are long to-do lists on our short weekend! I have started to work less night shifts and more day shifts. It's harder on me that way (less time to sleep between shifts!) but it's nice to have my Monday off be an actual day off and not just a recovery day from staying up 24+ hours.

We took a trip to the beach, just the 4 of us, and had a great time until Mother Nature decided it was time to have a thunderstorm. We got a good hour at the beach but would have loved a bit more! I think another trip will be in order soon. I never got my nap!

The girls are now 5 months old and we have gone through the trouble of getting a new pediatrician. We met him this week and are really happy with our choice. Audrey is now 12lbs and Madison, 14lbs. Madison is almost 3 times her birth weight. I almost can't recall how tiny they were anymore. It's sad how memories fade so fast.

The girls are both very smiley these days. Audrey is very interested in anything and everything going on around her. She likes to sit, stand, look around and be stimulated as much as possible! Madison is much more easy going and has started to giggle, especially at the dog. It's fun to watch their personalities blossom.

Next month we are looking forward to Labor Day weekend (my sister is coming home...YAY!!!) She returned to school at the beginning of August and her leaving has been an adjustment! (We miss her!!!)

More pictures...

July pictures are uploading now! Check them out in our web album on the right side of this page!! :)

July in a nutshell

Another month has flown by and the girls are now 4 months old! They are doing new things everyday it seems. Just the past few days Madison has started giggling and Audrey has been babbling! SO cute! They are sitting up with support, rolling over and jumping around in their bouncy. Our living room is quickly transforming into a daycare with plenty of gadgets to entertain little ones! Life is good!

I returned to work mid-July and have survived! It has been a challenge to find time to pump at work but it's working out so far. My co-workers have been so supportive and it has been nice to come back! Right now, I am working on the day shift and night shift twice a week. I am working per-diem which means a minimum of 3 days a month, one holiday a year and no rules when it comes to which days I choose to work. Unfortunately, it also means I am first to be canceled when we are overstaffed. This may end up being a problem as our unit recently hired 30 new staff. I'm hoping things work themselves out!

4 years after graduation from college, we finally paid off our last student loan. Not a week later, our indoor a/c unit revealed it was in need of major repair. We decided to replace it. So much for getting ahead! Ha! At least now our a/c is covered under guarantee for the next 5 years! If it's not one thing, it's another!!!

At the end of the month, Rusty finally got to dive someplace other than Jaws!! We took the girls to Blue Springs and Rusty went diving with our friend Charlene. We got rained out but that didn't interfere with diving :) He had a great time and is looking forward to his next diving trip!!!

Change 3 Things

It all started out as a way to save money but it has evolved into so much more. The choice to cloth diaper our babies seemed insane when I first thought of it. When Rusty agreed to try it it was plausible. But when we started diapering Madison over a month ago it seemed like second nature! I knew it was good for the wallet, the babies and our planet.

Recently I found the "Change 3 Things" campaign. It challenges parents to replace 3 diaper changes per day with cloth diapers instead of disposables. If 100,000 parents make the switch it will result in up to 50 MILLION POUNDS less waste in our landfills. Waste that, by the way, won't biodegrade for over 500 years! In just one day, the 9,000 people who have joined the project so far, prevented the amount of diapers 19 babies use in a year from entering our landfills!!!

In the time it takes our girls to be potty trained we will have saved our wallets over $3,000, our planet 14,000 disposable diapers in a landfill and saved our girls' cute little butts exposure to chemicals! So for all the skeptics out there: it is easy and it is possible! If you know someone having a baby, challenge them to consider using cloth diapers instead of disposables! (And yes, I'm ready to get off my soap box now!)

Besides, who could resist these cute diapers :)

Happy 4th of July...

...a few days late! Here's a pic of the girls from Independence Day! The girls didn't get to enjoy fireworks this year but they got to enjoy their mommy. We had friends over to celebrate and shoot off fireworks. The girls, who usually go to bed about 7 and sleep until 1 or 2 am (yay!), changed up the routine and kept me sequestered in the nursery feeding them until about 10pm! Although I'm sad I missed fireworks, I can't really complain about extra snuggle time with my girls!!!

In other news: Audrey. Is. Mobile. She rolled over for the first time on her 3 month "birthday." Now tummy time is almost impossible because she has figured out how to get into a more favorable position! Madison remains content to hang out and just smile :)

Sunday will be my first night back to work. Nervous and anxious to leave my girls. Happy to be going back into society. Hoping like hell I can remember how to do my job after 5 months on bedrest/maternity leave!!! Daddy will be taking over childcare on the days I am working...I know he'll be great!