5 months

Well we're not really sure when the boys celebrated their 5 month birthday, just ask their Grandma, she knows all about a real birthday on the 29th of Feb. Anyway the boys are doing well and I'm writing today, because I didn't get to yesterday--so it works for me!!

What's new this month...The common cold seems to be going through the house, for what feels like the past month but probably more realistically for the past two weeks. Today, Ryan and Abigail are STILL coughing and have been for a while and Justin has just started the coughing yesterday. We just purchased a cold mist humidifier, so I'm hoping that will help the congestion and the runny nose and some of the coughing. Both boys also seem to be teething, but Justin's two bottom teeth are starting to show, but have yet to actually cut through. Justin has also started his PT for torticollis and plagiocephaly and is doing very well with that. He's such a big boy when he goes and is SO tired when he comes home.

Both boys are grabbing at their feet, Ryan started doing so about a week after Justin. They both roll both directions, although Ryan will almost immediately roll to his belly when placed on his back and instead of rolling back he usually just cries. They are working on tripod sitting and when placed in the bouncy chairs, if Ryan's not trying to roll out of it, he's trying to sit upright in it. Justin LOVES kicking his feet--whether it's in the bouncy, at his new toy on the floor, on the playmat kicking at the things above him or even in the bath. In the exersaucer Ryan loves to bounce up and down. "Glowie" and their rings tend to be their favorite toys these days.

We don't have height and weight stuff for the boys this month because they don't have a scheduled dr's appointments until next month. Hopefully we won't be there beforehand with all the colds we've experienced. But the boys are now both in size three diapers, but we've moved on to Luv's instead of pampers with hopes of less blowouts..boys really do have so many more than Abigail ever did. They are now primarily wearing 6 month Carters clothes although I'm still trying to fit them into as many 3-6 month onesies as I can, before they completely outgrow them.

Nursing/Feeding-- I'm still exclusively nursing and I'm really proud of that, but it is taking it's toll on me and we're discussing all of our options, although truthfully I hate to give it up, even though it's very taxing. The boys are doing well with nursing during the day and usually can go 3 hours between sessions, unless I feed them sooner, because of getting them up and into to bed. At night they are all over the board. They can make it 5-6 hours, but generally they are going 4 hours at a stretch, but then again last night was only 3--making life very difficult for me because I just can't seem to catch up on sleep or get on any real schedule.

Bedtime/Sleeping--The boys are sleeping in their own cribs and made that transition very easily. I was hoping that by separating them, they may not wake up as often, needless to say this has not been the case. The boys are going to bed anywhere from 7:30 to 8:30 depending on if I work or not and when Abigail gets to bed. Justin sleeps on his right side, or on his back and Ryan sleeps on his belly. I honestly thought that the boys would be sleeping through the night, and they're not. I'm hoping that once we start cereal in the next week or so, that this will help. I also try and let them cry it out for awhile, although I have not done so whole heartily up to this point and won't until they're six months. But I also feel that in their defense it's hard to learn to sleep through the night when I'm usually waking at least one of them up to eat, because the others up and I don't want to be up again in 30 min. So my hope is that the cereal will help and if not, they will start getting some tough love and I may stop waking both up once I know that they really can make it. It's so difficult because there always seems to be an excuse, one is sick or one is teething, etc. One aspect of sleeping that has gotten a lot better in the past month has been naps. The boys seem to want to nap after being awake for a period of about 1.5 hours. Their naps vary in length and don't always make it down at the same time, but for the most part the are always in their cribs and doing well. They seem to do best when I put them down, but everyone pitches in and tries to help because I can't always be the one to put them in for nap time. Justin also seems to be a lighter sleeper and so if Abigail is yelling from her crib, the phone rings or any other various noises occur than he usually wakes up, which throws off the whole schedule in general and that of the boys sticking to the Same schedule.

We have gotten out of the house a little bit more this month, we've gone to a family "winter party" on Valentine's day hosted by the mother's of multiples club that I'm a part of, and we also went to a playgroup with a bunch of the same kiddos. We have also gone out a lot thanks to Justin's PT and various appts.

I've decided that life will get a little easier when the boys are sleeping through the night, are sitting and when we can get out of the house a little more and enjoy some nicer weather. I hope that most if not all of these things will happen in the next month, although as I'm writing this we're "supposed" to get the most snow that we've had in three years--we'll see!!