The babies have officially passed their 6 month mark. Crazy pants. 2 weeks prior to this celebratory occasion we started solid foods. Jocelyn is a champ I must say. First day of rice cereal she ate her and Jackson's portions. Jackson thinks eating is a game and smiles every time I try to put food in his mouth, and so it just falls out and I'm constantly trying to pick it up and put it back in his mouth. I call this experience the Niagara Falls. Since then, we have proceeded to try green beans (which Jackson hated at first, but Jocelyn loved and ate the whole jar by herself on the first day trying them), and sweet peas. Jackson has gotten better, but Jocelyn continues to out-eat him by a mile. It's amazing how the tides have turned. At first Jocelyn was the pokey eater and now here she is eating her meal faster than I can eat mine! At their 6 month appointment we discovered they are still almost exactly 3 pounds apart (they've been this way since 2 months). Jackson is in the 50th percentile at a whopping 17 lbs 10.5 oz and Jocelyn is in the 25th percentile at 14 lbs 12 oz. Try carrying those two car seats around! I do. It is getting very heavy and I get lots of compliments but mostly stares because it is really a marvel that my twiggy arms can do that.
A few days ago Jackson surprised us by rolling onto his belly from his back! What an exciting milestone, though he hasn't figured out that it is possible for him to roll onto his back again if he is uncomfortable on his belly. He just nuzzles his face in the ground and cries out in frustration until I come and flip him back. Jocelyn is still working on it, but she loves sleeping on her side which is so cute. Jocelyn also loves grabbing both her feet at the same time whenever you lay her on her back. This is ultimate cuteness as she always smiles and giggles at the same time, but it makes wrapping her in a blanket very difficult. When I lay her down at night I have to be speedy gonzalez with the blanket wrapping or she'll have her toes and refuse to let go and then she won't have a blanket on her. Sometimes I just lay the blanket on her little feetsies in hope that when she puts them down the blanket will be on her body.
Jackson has also discovered his soprano voice. He talks in this really high pitched sing-songy voice. Once after he had woken up in the middle of the night (waking Jocelyn up in the process), Jackson did his sing-songy talking for a good 15 minutes. Jocelyn was grumpy and wanted to get back to sleep and so would grunt back at him. It was the cutest little conversation I have ever heard. They have definitely started recognizes each other a lot more and like being by each other. When they are on the play-mat together, they hold or suck each others hands or look at each other. Yesterday, they were both on their sides looking at each other, and Jocelyn had a cough and whenever she would cough, Jackson would laugh, and then she would smile, and then cough again. What a darling little interaction.
Another little funny thing is that Jocelyn has inherited her daddy's ability to twist her tongue and she loves to do it all time! She is always twisting her tongue to one side or the other, and also loves to just stick out her tongue and leave it there. SO CUTE.
I just love my little babies! I think it has gotten easier as the months have progressed. They are so fun to play with, and can't crawl yet and get into stuff so I feel like this is a prime age that I want to capture every moment of! I feel so blessed to be the mother of these two little wonders.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Twins is a full time job, I will definitely say that. The hardest part about the first months was breastfeeding. They were pokey eaters, and I struggled to meet their demand. I pumped after every feeding for the first 4 months, and now am finally slowing down on that to give myself a break. At almost 5 months now they still have yet to both consistently sleep through the night. Jocelyn is the better sleeper. Jackson is just a momma’s boy. Their cries have definitely changed now, but at first Jackson’s had the underlying dialogue of “Mom, I’m just really sad can you please pick me up”, and Jocelyn’s was “I’m dying and I need you to get me RIGHT NOW!!!!” There was a clear winner for whose cry I would rather hear, but now that they are older, I’d say they are both pretty demanding in their cries.
I wouldn’t trade a minute of what I do every day for any other job. These babies are the best thing that could ever possibly happen to us, and though life has totally changed, it is so much for the better. Austin is an excellent husband and father, and still manages to stay afloat in his ridiculously difficult dental classes whilst being awoken several times a night by crying babies. Some milestones I just had to document:
12/01/11: Jocelyn rolled over from belly to back. We didn’t try again for about a week and a half, but then she did it again and again!
12/28/11: Jackson finally rolled over from belly to back while we were in El Dorado Hills, CA for Christmas.
12/11: Sometime in December they both started smiling. It was so very cute and rewarding. Jackson smiled a little bit more at first, but now at 5 months they are pretty even.
2/12: They both started grabbing at their toys on the playmat. Awesome.
3/12: The ultimate extended laughing out loud from Jocelyn. CUTEST THING EVER.
October 2011: The twins finally arrived! Wednesday October 12 I made this gourmet lasagna dinner complete with dessert for our next door neighbors, and that put me into labor :) I was really nervous and the contractions were 8 minutes apart that whole night. Thursday night the contractions were 4-5 min. apart and we went to the hospital! They sent me away because I wasn't progressing and told me to come back when it hurt more :) Saturday morning, October 15, they hurt a lot! I finally got out of bed at 6 am and told Austin now was the time and we had to go to the hospital now! We quick took showers and made it by 7 am to the hospital where I found out my water had broken (I was like 50% sure it had...) and so they let me stay :) By 10 am I wasn't progressing fast enough so they put me on Pitocin....and oh boy do contractions hurt on Pitocin! I was proud of myself for making it to 4 cm without an epidural, but then I got it and life was so much more pleasant after that. I felt like it was candy, it was great. At 7 pm I was wheeled into the operating room and at exactly 7:30 our little Jackson James was born at a hefty 5 lbs. 7 oz! They cleaned him up and I got to hold him for like 2 seconds before I had to give him back and work on getting Jocelyn into this world. Poor Jackson had breathing troubles when he was born. His breaths became more and more laborious, with his nostrils flaring and stomach muscles trying to help with exhaling. The following comes from Austin who was in the infant prep room with Jackson: “I said a quick prayer, then asked the nurse if I could give him a blessing. With the oxygen mask on his face and the nurse watching, I blessed Jackson that he would begin to be healthy, breathe better, and grow up to be a strong man. Immediately after the blessing, Jacksons labored and grunted breathing eased. It was a miracle.” He still was fragile and needed to have tests, so he was sent to the NICU unit for a couple days. 32 minutes after Jackson had been born, Jocelyn finally decided to grace us with her presence. Usually twins come out about 5 minutes apart, but Jocelyn just loved the new space. She had the jacuzzi all to herself now and she was relishing every moment to stretch out and eat all the vitamins she wanted before coming out into the cold outside. She came and yelled a very high pitched and cute squeal, announcing her presence to the world. She was a tiny 4 pounds 7 ounces and was by far the smallest and cutest baby girl in the whole nursery. She was surprisingly healthy enough that I was able to hold her right away, and she didn’t need any special treatment. I didn’t get to see Jackson at all until 1 o’clock in the morning, after I was disconnected from everything, settled into my room, and had Jocelyn in the nursery. Jocelyn was dubbed the “little peanut” by the attending nurses, and this name has stuck. Jackson was the cutest little boy too, and had a million tubes and sensors on his body. They gave him an IV in his right hand and taped it up with a splint that took up his whole arm. The thing flopped around as we held him, and I’m sure it was building him a nice bicep. He had an oxygen mask on for the whole first night, but hated it so bad. He arched his back and screamed with a red face for hours. It was awful, and we cried for our little boy who was in so much discomfort.
After 3 days in the hospital I was so excited to go home! We got to take both babies (Jackson was discharged from the NICU after 48 hours but had to stay in the hospital an extra 24 hours), and they were so cute and teensy in their carseats! For the first week after we got home, Jackson arched his back a ton and was super restless in his sleep. I wonder if it was carry-over from his NICU experience. Jocelyn was so still and quiet I would have to put my hand on her to make sure she was breathing.
Jackson: "Hey don't complain, you look better than me!"
September 2011: Austin continued to study very hard at Dental School (he is at Case Western University) and continued fix ups on the home. We did lots of fun things even though I was enormously pregnant. At 32ish weeks we went to a Cleveland Indians game (Austin's first MLB game ever), at 33 weeks we went bowling (I looked like an awkward penguin), at 35 weeks we played football and frisbee in the park, and all the other times in between I was relaxing at home watching Netflix or running errands :)
Almost a Year in Review
Well the time has come that I finally have a little bit of time to update our blog! I find that the task seems daunting, because so much has happened, but I will start at the beginning and just do a brief synopsis and hopefully I will be caught up in no time!
July-August 2011: We moved into our house in Cleveland, OH! Austin did a ton of fix up work on the house: painted almost every wall, knocked out the whole kitchen, tore out the grimy carpet, tile, and woodwork from the basement, and lots of other things. Our redone kitchen looks oh so much better and I got it all decorated thanks to the help of my family that came out in August to help!
Friday, July 22, 2011
Singing in Maine...and other adventures :)
I'm currently in Maine at the Atlantic Music Festival! It's been a really fun experience performing several times a week, refining my performance craft, and improving technically as an opera singer. I miss Austin a lot, and he has done so many amazing things while I've been away. Last week he went to Cleveland, found a house, and signed the papers to get the keys and officially close on it when we move out there July 26th! He is amazing and has had to deal with so many technicalities that go into buying a house. This week Austin has been packing up the apartment in Utah with the help of our amazing ward. I can't believe all this has happened since I've been away! My baby bump has definitely gotten bigger since I have been in Maine (pictures soon to follow). It's amazing the size difference of just 2 weeks! I have loved the experience here but will love being united with my Austin soon.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Senior Recital, 29 April, 2011. All the family got to come down and see it!
Austin and I snowboarding in January. I'm a lot better now. Austin is awesome. My first experience was a little rough, but I have much improved since then :)
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