4 month dr. stats

The boys went to the pediatrician and had their 4 month appt. today.

Justin weighed: 14 lbs 14 oz (50%)
length: 27 inches (95%)

Ryan weighed 16 lbs 11 oz (80%)
length 26 inches (80%)

Both boys did well with their shots--they had a total of 4 each and their oral dose of the Rotavirus vaccine.

The only other thing to note was that Justin was diagnosed with torticollis--an issue with his neck muscles being shortened on one side and weak on the other. He often tilts his head to the right and rotates to the left, especially when sleeping. He also has plagiocephally which is the flattening of the back/side of his head. This does not come as a surprise to me, since I've had a co-worker look at him to confirm what I had been seeing for some time. We are hoping to take him to a specialist to determine if any other treatment, in addition to physical therapy, needs to be done. Although you never want to hear that anything is wrong with your child, this is minor, and is something that is fairly common. I have also seen and treated it in my profession, with good results. Justin continues to be a happy litte baby and handles the increased stretching, strengthening and repositioning that I have already begun doing very well.

Four Months

The boys turned four months today and long gone are the days of my little tiny babies. Yes they are definitely still babies, but they're so big--(tomorrow we'll find out just how big) and doing so much more-- relatively speaking.

Some firsts this month have included Ryan rolling from his back to his tummy. Justin also blew raspberries at Nana for the first time on Jan. 14.

The boys both seem to enjoy time in the exersaucers, while we have three, we only have one upstairs in the family room. Our family room looks like it could be a daycare with the exersaucer, a playmat, a tummy time mat, a bumbo, a bebe pod, two bouncies, Abigail's table, Abigail's house, a swing, books and a ton of toys for both all three kiddos. Justin's favorite toys seem to be the rings which he "studies" and plays with all the time. Ryan is really enjoying a sesame street toy, that says "i love trash". It moves around and has little balls that spin and light up. Justin is also very into kicking his feet and looking at them, he loves to just watch them move.

Nursing/Feeding: I try my hardest to keep the boys close together in their schedules not only for the nursing, but also to try and get them to nap at the same time. They continue to eat every 2-3 hours. I also try as hard as I can to get to 3 hours, just b/c they aren't small boys and they can go 3 hours easily if I'm not around. We are not tandem nursing and I don't think I've even tried this month even though I often think about it, and then don't' do it. Guy continues to try and give the boys bottles when I'm not around. Usually one of the boys will take a bottle and it's not always the same one--but he has learned that if they don't wait 4 hours, the certainly won't take a bottle.

Sleeping/Bedtime: The boys have been champs about pushing up their bedtime and they nurse and go to bed shortly after Abigail. So generally I'm feeding them around 8:15 and 8:30, which is great for us. It then gives us a chance to chill and unwind or pick up around the house, kitchen, wash etc.... They are still sleeping in the same crib, but are no longer swaddled as Justin was getting too long and Ryan was getting too big. We often lay them diagonally so that they don't hit each other. I really believe that they like sleeping in the same crib, especially Ryan who will often cry until Justin is there with him. At night we were going 5-6 hours before feeding, then they went back to 3-4 hours, now I'd say it's 4-5. So we're generally up 1 or 2 times a night--all in all not so bad, but honestly I thought we'd be closer to sleeping through the night, simply b/c we've been up 1-2 times a night pretty much from the beginning.

The boys are in different size diapers, so we're now buying three different size diapers, 2 for Justin, 3 for Ryan and 5 for Abigail. Clothing wise they both fit into 3-6 month clothes but 6 month outifts from Carters seem to be our favorite size these days.

I've also gone back to work this past month, which has been great for me!! I'm only working 1-3 hours a week, but enough to get my feet wet and get out of the house. It helps me keep my sense of me, instead of just Mommy.

Special times, mean different things to different people. Guy was just saying how he feels like he gets more special moments now that the boys are more alert, something that has really changed this past month. I on the other hand have had some special time in the past week when the boys have been very peacefully sleeping. At about 4:30 am the other night we had just gotten a blanket of fresh snow and after Ryan nursed he just stayed in my arms and I was able to sit back and look at his precious face and all was quiet, then I had to wake Justin up and feed him. Then the following morning Justin was upset and I picked him up and he fell asleep on my shoulder, something that is not typical for him, plus something that Abigail never really did, again just special moments in time. It's these times I want to write and remember, because they are few and far between in all of the chaos that surrounds our daily lives. Abigail really is enjoying the boys more and more and likes it when they're awake!! She now likes and asks to hold them on her lap. She is also great and oh so sweet when she trys "hushing" them down. Both boys respond so well to her and she likes talking to Ryan and making Justin smile. Both boys are so ticklish and Ryan has a great laugh. My baby boys are growing up before my eyes and in no time will be Abigail's age. Today's challenges will be distant memories and we'll be facing different challenges than we are today. I still think I'll be tired, just a different tired.

My roller coaster ride

Life the past few weeks, ok maybe months, have truly been a roller coaster ride for me in particular. I haven't blogged nearly as often as I would like, but no matter what I do, who I'm taking care of, or how much help we have there is ALWAYS something else to be done, that seems more important than blogging. I suppose it always Was like this and will always Be like this, but since the end of the pregnancy and the birth of the twins-- it has been very in my face and noticeable. We're doing well here...I've gotten out alone a few more times, more so than I did when Abigail was this age, mainly b/c I took her with me, and because we have family close by!!

Abigail has been her typical self, good as gold when she gets out of the house and alone time with any adult--I can't blame her and a little bossy when couped up for too long in the house. During football season we were working on cheers like "Its Great to be a Florida Gator" and lots of Penn State cheers including "when I say Jo Pa, You say Terno"...it took her a little while to catch on but she got it down. So much so that she has taken it to a new level, the other day I was getting her dressed and I was putting on tights and she said they were "leggings", and I said "no they're tights" and she responded by getting a silly grin/smirk on her face and said "I say leggings, you say tights, Leggings-tights" and so on...she has also done it with "I say no and you say "Yeah"..she's quite a character....

The boys are doing all sorts of new things everyday and they're naps are starting to coincide a little bit more and they have more awake time so entertaining three kiddos at once for longer periods of time, has been somewhat challenging for me. We all ventured out on a cold snowy day to go to a playdate with some other MoMs. Getting myself showered and fed, in addition to all three kiddos fed, dressed and ready to go took just about two hours, so that all four of us could get out of the house and into a public place--was certainly not my idea of fun and was very frustrating and disappointing. I had two cranky babies, b/c they don't like being in their carseats if we're not in a moving car, can you blame them, and I couldn't be off and running and playing with Abigail as I had hoped for--but afterwards Abigail told me "Mommy I really liked that" so it made it worth the hassle and frustration, at least for the most part.

I realize this post has been very random--but that's kinda what life is like for me these days, I go from one thing to another and often feel that there isn't much cohesion in our daily schedules..I like routine or should I say schedules and I look forward to the days when the boys schedules become a little more routine, so that awake times can be more fun for everyone!!

Roly-Poly Ryan

Ryan has been getting SO close to rolling from his back to his belly--no not the way they typically roll first, but ya know...So close that we've gotten the video camera out several times for him to just look at us...well last night we were awoken to crying from the boys room a little eariler than usual, but still at a somewhat "normal" waking time, so Guy went to get a baby and bring him back for me to feed. When I heard him say "you need to come see this--it's worth it." The crying wasn't even coming from Ryan he was sleeping peacefully on his belly...my little baby rolled over, without us seeing it, but we were able to snap a few pics before he had been there too long and was unhappy.

Dance Moves

So Abigail loves to dance. She has come up with a few moves, but the best one is when she holds both elbows out to the side and dances around. It took us awhile to figure out where she learned it, but then we realized it is exactly how someone (i.e. mommy and daddy) dances when they have two twins in their arms :-)

Go Eagles

It was a family affair... Although having to deal with all the kiddos made watching the game tough :-)

Nighttime

Tonight was a good night for the kiddos. We gave Abigail a "little bath" where she got to play with her new bath crayons. After bath she came into the boys room where Ryan and Justin were playing with Mommy on the floor. We got some great pictures of her laying under a blanket with the boys. When it came time to say goodnight we said prayers, but instead of having Abigail folding her hands we had her hold Mommy and Daddy's hand while we each held one of the boys hand. In perfect timing the boys (who were laying next to each other on the floor grabbed each others hand (unprompted) and held it throughout prayers..

Our first family cold

Well families share lots of things, something we're constantly working on and telling Abigail. Well the same is definitely true of colds as well. Guy started with a cold the week before Christmas, he had it bad and it lasted a while, especially for him--but was healthy for Christmas. Then Christmas night Abigail had a fever and came down with the same cold. From there Justin got it, I got it and now Ryan has it. The lingering effects are still affecting myself and the kids (mainly the boys), but it's amazing how long one cold can last when it goes through a family of five.