Its a Crazy Life!

So what could elicit such a reaction as the following from our Kate?

 Yep, bath time!  Until their umbilical cords fall off, both girls have to have sponge baths.  This was always Daddy's job when Lauren was little.  It's still his job.

 Madison was much more calm although she didn't stay that way the whole time.

 Daddy and his clean babies!

 Nap time with Madison.

Madison on the left, Kate on the right.

 When Lauren woke up this morning, she exclaimed "this is going to be a busy day!  I have so much to do to take care of our two babies!"

 This is Kate, although half the time we call her "Peanut" or "Katie-Bug".  At about 4lbs 11oz right now, she really is a peanut.

 Here's Madison.  She is totally Lauren's "mini-me".

 We have a Pack-n-Play in our family room now for daytime naps.  We also have two in our bedroom to ease into the nighttime routines.  The first two nights home were really rough.  Monday night I think Chad and I each got about 2.5 hours of sleep total.  Ugh.  Tuesday night was a little better.  In fact, when Kate woke up around 7a.m., I fed her and Chad took her downstairs for the day.  I told him I'd just sleep until Madison woke up and then feed her and bring her down.  She didn't wake up until 11:00a.m.!  Woops.  I coincidentally also did not wake up until 11a.m..  Chad let me sleep--thankfully!  Last night though, we put the girls to bed at 9 and we went to bed too.  Then they were up together to eat at 12:30, 4:00 and 7:30.  We felt like we got an awesome night of sleep because of some long chunks of deep sleep.  Both of us felt really well-rested today!

 Today we took our first walk to the neighborhood park!  Lauren loved it.  The twins slept the whole time :)

 Since Kate is so tiny, she's in preemie outfits.  Here she is above, modeling her favorite from Lauren's friend Sophia.  Big sister Lauren wanted to stay in her jammies since the colors matched Kate's outfit.  Kate is wrinkling her forehead--I call this her "little old man face"!

Daddy having story-time with two of his girls :)

What else can I share with you?  Chad was given a month-long paid paternity leave.  What a help!  I think he plans to go back part-time after the first two weeks though.  My mom has been a God-send and is here for about the first two weeks as well.  She has been keeping us up-to-date on groceries, meals, laundry, cleaning as well as helping with Lauren and the babies.  Lauren is adjusting well....but is having some attention-seeking behaviors already.  These are things not normally typical of her behavior, such as using "potty language", being really loud and silly and just flat out not listening to Mommy or Daddy.  She also likes to yell at us lately.  These are very frustrating behaviors for us but we keep reminding ourselves that this is a HUGE life change for her and she is used to having our undivided attention.  We are both making an effort to do things alone with her but it's still less time than she's used to.

As for the babies, they are doing very well.  I am nursing both of them.  Madison nurses like a champ and acts as if she's been doing it for months.  At our doctor's appointment Tuesday, Madison was weighing in at 6lbs 8oz, so she's almost back up to her birth weight.  Kate was weighing in at 4lbs 11.5oz, so she has a little more way to go.  Because she's so tiny, her facial muscles aren't strong enough to elicit much milk when she nurses so I am using a supplemental nursing system with her.  It's basically a tiny feeding tube that I use to administer my pumped breast milk.  I attach it to my body when she's nursing and use a syringe to give her my milk.  This way, she still gets enough breastmilk while learning to nurse.  The doctor estimated that I'd need to continue this method for 5-7 days.  The good news is that I can tell Kate is getting stronger every day so I think she's have it figured out very soon!

As for their personalities, we can't really tell with Madison because she SLEEPS.ALL.THE.TIME.  Seriously.  I mentioned today that I haven't really seen her eyes because they are always closed!  Even when Kate is laying beside her screaming her head off, Madison is sleeping peacefully.  As for Katie-Bug, she is alert more often and is often looking around wide-eyed.  Both girls can be really feisty though, especially when getting their diapers changed.  Oh!  And I can't forget to tell you that Madison gets the award for going through the most diapers at once on the changing table...FOUR!  Yep, my poor Mom was trying to change her and every time she put a fresh diaper on Madison, she pooped or peed in it before my mom even had it securely fastened.  Speaking of pee and poop, I know I expected to go through a lot of diapers and wipes, but this is crazy!  It pretty much always smells like baby poop around here.  Awesome. 

It's a crazy life...but we are very blessed.

Love,

M