ummmm yeah

Ok so I couldn't think of a title. I thought I should do a better post seeing as the last one was so short. 4th of July was spent with my mom tired and sun burned doing a yard sale. We cant complain to much because we did make some money.

Being away from cribs and holding the boys so much did cause a little disruption in the sleeping pattern. this is what I found when I heard Ethan playing in his crib during nap.







Evern grocery shopping was hard work


But the 4th of July was still fun





After a hard weekend I thought the boys needed to let loose and have fun.



In other news...Owen got up on his knees and rocked today. I am excited because that is the next step moving towards crawling.

a start of something new

Our normal schedule:

7am wake bottle 7oz
730-8 bouncer chairs (must sit up 30 min for reflux)
8-9 floor play/ baby yoga
9-11 nap
11 wake bottle 6-7 oz
1130-12 boppys (must sit up 30 min for reflux)
12-1 floor play/ tummy time
1-2 nap
2 wake bottle 7-8 oz
230-3 bouncers (must sit up 30 min for reflux)
3-6 play/tummy/yoga (if I am lucky there will be a 30 min nap in there)
6 bottle 7 oz
6-630 cuddles and snuggles with mommy and daddy
630-7 bath book and top off 1-2 oz
7 bed

Bed time is ALWAYS at 7 but they may not wake til 8 pushing back all bottles before 6 by one hr.

Well last night the boys slept in their own beds for the first time (well Ethan was in the crib and Owen in the pack n play). They slept til almost 8 so we just let them talk in there til 8. I got them up while Erick made bottles. They finished eating at about 830. We put them in their highchairs and ate breakfast ourselves. Then we did something else new. WE STARTED OATMEAL.

Before playing with spoons:


What is this thing?


I dont need your help I can eat on my own

Owen had to have his spoon taken away because he kept actually getting it in his mouth but he was gagging himself on it.

First bites:








After all messy:

How not to beat the heat

It has been 2 days of the high 90's here. My boys have started a new phase at the same time. Can you guess what that is. Yep they only want to nap if I will hold them and let them drool down me. FUN TIMES

Easter and more

For Easter we went down to Salinas. It totally messed with the boys. First off being in the car on the drive there made the boys nap later then they normally do. When we got to the house they were just waking up. They knew it was time to shower and eat (we hit traffic and the drive took a little longer than normal). So I go to bathe them and they are not happy. They want to eat. This task is not made easy by people that want to make sure all is well and see the babies. Finally I get them bathed, dressed and downstairs to eat. I had the bottles made before we left the house and in a cool case but that meant I was offering cold bottles. That didn't go over well but they didn't want to wait for warm ones. To add to it when we are at home we don't have company during baths and bottles well you cant help that when you are the company. So while feeding the boys we had eager grandparents wanting to ooo ahh and fawn. Which is fine but distracting. Once we got the boys fed and down (took almost 45 min longer than normal). WE got to eat. Once we got to bed we were in for it. Ethan woke up at midnight screaming we would just get him down and he would do it again. This went on every 45 min from midnight to 7 when they got up. We hadnt had a night like that sense maybe week 3.

Saturday we went to visit Erick's grandma. She was excited to see the boys and we hung out and watched the Giants game with Erick's dad. When we got back to Erick's moms we were informed that more company was coming tonight. In my head I am envisioning a repeat of the night before. See our boys know the schedule and the bath, butts, books, bottles and bed pattern isnt something we EVER mess with. Im sure I wasnt as nice as i should have been when I found that out and was trying to get the boys routine done but we did bring them down for family to see. Then we had pizza and played cards. Erick won. Then bed.

Sunday.... slow morning then lunch at Erick's grandmas. The boys got a chance to meet family they had not yet met and i got a chance to show off a little. Erick's family was impressed that I could tell the difference in my boys cries and what the cry was for. hehehe that was fun showing off. I am with the boys all day every day of course I know what each cry means and who is doing it. When we left there we headed to Erick's best friend's house. He had a little boy the month after our boys were born. This was our first meeting. He was so small compared to my behemoths. From there we headed home. We made a quick stop at my mom's so she could see the boys on Easter. Ahhhhh Home!

Monday... Nothing interesting.

Tuesday...ahhh another busy day. The boys and I were out of the house by 8 am. Why you ask because we wanted to have some fun. We were to meet my MoMs group at the Oakland zoo. First we had a little stop to make. My friend Ariel (from wishing for my miracle link on the side) need some adult interaction too. I went a little out of my way to pick her and her son R (20 days older then the boys) up. We had a great tiring hot cold day at the zoo. Then went back to Ariel's house and learned some moves and took some pics.


The boys and R on the floor

On the way home I had even more fun. I hit traffic. Why did I hit traffic? Well for one I left late and it was rush hour. But the biggest thing that made my drive home taxing is that people are afraid to drive in hail. Yes you read that right there was hail.

Wednesday...One of the coolest things happened. Erick came home from work and I was showing him some of the new baby yoga that I learned (from a book Ariel suggested). Well the boys, Erick and I were on the floor and Owen laughed. I mean a real honest to god laugh. I am so happy Owen did that for the first time with Erick home and he got to witness that first with me. It was the best sound. He did it for about 3 min and now refuses to do it again (little stinker).

what I didnt do anything

That is how I found the boys this morning after they woke up at 7:45. The funny thing is they slept good last night 6:30pm - 2am 2:30-7:45am I think its time for two beds and that makes me sad.

ZZZZZzzzzZZZZZzzzzZZZZZ

Ok Ok I know much of my blog has been about sleep lately. I cant help it. Sleep is a large part of my world right now. If they don't sleep I don't sleep. If I don't sleep I'm not happy. If mommy isn't happy NO ONE is happy.

Well I am happy...VERY happy. Ethan slept 7 hrs or more for the last 3 nights. That's right my good eater is now also my good sleeper. Its kinda funny because he used to be the one to keep us up at night because we were afraid not to watch him. Now all we need is for Ethan to teach Owen his trick because we are still only getting 4 hrs a night out of him. Owen has been sleeping more as well but it more like between 5-7 hrs.

And you cant talk about sleep without seeing how cute they are sleeping. And yes I know Ethan drooled yucky stuff but I was not about to wake him to clean it.

sleep

So last night started like any other night. Bath, lotion, book, bottle then bed.



well I guess the story really worked because...

Owen
730-955 2.5 hrs
1030-124 3 hrs
205-630 4.5 hrs

Ethan
730-124 6 hrs
205-350 2 hrs
440-620 1.6 hrs

see that 6 hours from Ethan.

Today's happenings

I have a few things I need to talk about that have happened in the past 24hrs or so. Most of which is good news.

We started an improved bedtime routine. Now the boys get play time, bath, massage, book, bottle, swaddle, then bed. Here is how it really goes. Erick plays with the boys while I prep the bath. When it is almost ready he cleans butts (most the time someone is poopy at this time) and gets the first baby nude. As I am washing whoever is first Erick is getting the other one ready. When washed I bring the wet baby wrapped in a towel to the living room and take the other one. Erick begins to dry, massage, lotion, and dress that baby. When I am done washing the other one I join them. We finish about the same time so while sitting on the floor I pass the baby I have off to Erick who reads them a book. I get up and go make bottles. When the book is over they eat, swaddle then go down. This seems to run smoothly maybe a little to smoothly. Both nights we have done this the boys have fallen asleep in our laps eating.

Last night we tried this new thing. We decided to let the sleeping baby lie. The boys were in bed by 730. We sat up and finished things that needed to be done. The boys had been eating again at about 10 or 1030. We waited to hear them stir and heard nothing. 11pm nothing. Finally at 1130 we decided to just go to bed. We were finally woken up at 1220. yes that's right nearly 5 hrs. So I get up not even a min later Erick has to get up because Ethan decided he didn't want to sleep in he wanted fed too. So they go back down 330 Ethan decided he is hungry. We let Owen sleep. hahah he fooled us 10 min into Ethan's bottle Owen was up and hungry. They go back down. 713 comes and both boys are hungry. That's right we were going to let the sleeping baby sleep and they decided that they wanted up too.

By the time the 713 bottle was empty the boys were awake and we started our busy day. First was Owen's heart appointment. We got there a little early and the place was empty (same place I had my NST done) but we still had to wait. When we get to a room I strip Owen he is measured and weighed (not releasing this info til tomorrow when I tell you about them getting shots). The Dr comes in and listens to his heart and says it will be about 15 min til we can get the u/s done. That 15 min turned into almost 40. The guy comes in to get us and tells us to bring everything because we are going to switch rooms after the u/s. So we pack everything and go into the room with the machine. I hold Owen while they get the pictures they need. By this time though the appointment has run into bottle time and he is no longer holding still or being quiet. They finally get the needed pics and we gather everything again and move rooms again. Once in our third room I got Owen dressed and made bottles. About the time the bottle were made the dr came in. Are you ready for this? I dont think you are. So the dr saw me put mylicon... just kidding ...INNOCENT... It is already closing and working itself out. There is no need for a follow up or anything. Ok really the dr did see me with the mylicon and started this whole discussion about how and why it worked. Then we left.

From the Dr we had to go straighten out Ethan's social security number. We find the office and it is full. We get our number and sit down. The boys are still hungry so we start to feed them the bottle made at the Drs. I just get Owen eating and my number is called. CRAP I don't want to stop him but i need to do this. I hand him off to Erick who starts to feed him. I leave everyone at the seats and take the stuff needed to get Ethan's card. I just get to the window when I hear Ethan crying to eat too. Poor Erick. I try to hurry the lady. i get the print out and rush back to the seat. Erick has Owen in his lap and is hunched over feeding Ethan in his car seat. I take Owen and we decide to sit there and feed the boys then finish our errands.

After finding lunch for ourselves we dropped off some papers at the school for a friend. I love taking the boys to the school they get oohed and ahhed over. Then we went and opened savings accounts for the boys. After that it was off to target then home.

Whew what a day!!!

EDIT: Erick was just putting away the paperwork form SSA and noticed that the lady that entered our info wrong. Wrong address #, apartment # missing and wrong zip. Guess I get to go back to social security tomorrow. crap I know its my fault for not checking it while I was there but I needed to help feed my babies.

Life happens

I have been so caught up with the boys that I have been a bad blogger. We went on our first overnight trip with the boys and let me say they did great but it was hard on me. They stuck to their schedule which was wonderful but unwanted input and advice can get overwhelming at times. I dont understand how people can poopoo the wishes of the parents or even blatantly ignore them. BUT that is another story for another time.

Our little trip took us to my MILs house so that Erick's grandma could meet the boys on her 89th birthday. She was so happy to get to meet them and hold them. Over the weekend the boys also met Erick's aunt and uncle. I really missed our small apartment because we stayed on the second floor about as far in the house as we could have gotten from the kitchen. Going down stairs holding a baby while half awake at 3 am is not something I enjoyed and is something that is enough to wake you from any amount of drowsyness when you get to a landing and think you are missing a stair. That is how we spent our Valentines day feeding babies and visiting family away from home. Romantic right? To add to the romance Erick got me exactly one thing for Valentines day. Are you ready for this? He got me NOTHING. No card...No note... No chocolates... No not one little thing.







In addition to the family the boys met while we were away we stopped at my grandpas and the boys met more family. All this meeting family has made me realize one thing. When babies are around you you have no personal space. People touch you and them and sit as close to you as they can. It doesnt matter what you are doing. They want to see and touch the baby so they will.

The boys have a lot going on this week too. Thursday is Owens heart check and Friday the boys get their first round of shots. I cant wait to find out how much they weigh. It finally looks like Ethan is going to be bigger then Owen for the first time sense birth.

To sleep for chance to dream

Well it is 11:38pm and rather than being in my nice warm bed I am on here writing. A few min ago when I noticed that it was after 11:30 I figured that at this point I might as well stay up because by the time I get into bed and comfy it will be time for the boys to get up and eat. This is getting easier and easier which is strange because last night I got about 2.5 hrs and the night before though was more still wasnt 8 hrs.

So the whole sit the boys up for an hour after eating doesnt work. They are just as likely to spit up if we hold them for an hour and put them down as they are if we hold them for 30 min and put them down. So now we are trying mixing formulas if that doesnt work we will add rice cereal to the bottles. Today it wasnt formula coming up but chunky water ... yum.

The boys are getting stronger and more vocal. Again Owen rolled over while no one was in the room. Of course the little stinker wont do it when we are looking. They both are holding heads up and looking around for short bits. They also squawk in conversation. It is so funny to watch Chloe's reaction when she yells at them and they yell back.

Things are still in the air for a lot of things with the boys but I wouldnt trade it for the world. Yeah some days are tiring and I want nothing more than to take a nap but when you look in those little eyes you just melt. Owen has this big pouty lip that would make you hand over your life savings if that is what he wanted and Ethan has this little half smile that makes up for all the tears and vomit.

Good news

Ethan is starting to catch up!!! His appetite on the new formula is great. He is eating about 50ml at a feeding. It still takes twice as long to feed Ethan as it does to feed Owen but he is eating so we are happy. Owen is rapidly outgrowing the preemie clothes. shoulders on outfits are starting to pull but Im not really for him to be in the next size up yet lol. Last night for the first time Erick and I slept at the same time. We slept while they slept. I think it was really hard for Erick at first. He kept getting out of bed to check on them. After about the 3rd night feeding it looked like it was easier for him. It really was great not only did I get just over 6 hrs sleep last night (even if it was broken in 2 hr chunks) I got to sleep with Erick which is something I really missed.