5 Months, February 28, 2010

The twins are 5 months already... can this be right?

Ian

Alex

This past month has been fun... watching them grow and do new things! The boys started eating cereal... wow are they messy with that! They are still not totally sure what to think about it but I have learned to give them cereal when they are not that hungry.. otherwise they scream because all they want is their bottle! I had to switch them to oatmeal because the rice cereal was really making them constipated. Here are some good messy cereal pictures!

It is so much fun reading books to these little guys... I will put them in their bumbo seats and they will just stare at me while I read - I would love to know what they are thinking! They also try to grab the book and try to get it into their mouths! Notice in the picture.. they are holding hands!



They both have started to really grab on to everything.. and I mean everything! when I change their diaper.. they are grabbing the sleeve on my shirt - grabbing on to their clothes which makes it tough to button back up.. it just makes me laugh because they grab on to things so fast. I will go to put them down and they are hanging on to the string from my hooded sweatshirt or have a handfull of my hair.. and their grip is tight!! They will grab for my nose and my glasses when I have them on. Everything they grab... they try with everything in them to get it to their mouth! They drool a lot... I literally go through 3-4 bibs each a day - if I didn't put bibs on these boys.. they would soak through their clothes - so I would rather change bibs than clothes that many times!!

Ian the past few nights started humming himself to sleep - this is really cute!!

Alex has started to hold onto a blankie when he goes to bed - Ian still gets swaddled so he cannot hang on to things yet but he will have a blankie at nap time during the day.. we don't swaddle him during naps.

Lately soon as I put Alex on his tummy... he immediately rolls to his back. Ian still doesn't show much interest in rolling over.. but they are both liking tummy time.. as long as I put toy infront of them!



Ian LOVES bath time - soon as I bring him into the bathroom.. he gets really hyper and starts kicking his legs and screams out of excitment... Alex likes bath time also but just doesn't show it as much.

Ian is almost sitting by himself - I will put the boppy pillow around him and sit with him but he can hold himself up for a few seconds with no help. They are just growing so fast. They both try really hard to hold their own bottles - I really cannot wait for this - it is still a bit tricky to feed them both at the same time but we are making it work... we put both in their boppy pillows and prop up a towel under their bottles - Alex does great with this... he lays so still and drinks. Ian is a wiggle worm and we usually have to hold the bottle for him.


Right now our schedule is this:

7:30-8am wake up... Bottle (5 oz)
Playtime
9:00am Cereal... 3 tbsp
9:30 - 10am nap
11:00 am bottle (5 oz)
Playtime
12:30 pm Cereal... 3tbsp
1:00pm nap
2:00 - 2:30pm bottle (5oz)
Playtime
4:30pm - cat nap
5:00 - 5:30pm bottle (5 oz)
Playtime
7:30pm Bath
8:00 - 8:15pm Bottle (5oz)
8:30 Bed

They pretty much put themselves on this schedule and it has been fairly consistent!

They have been doing really well lately on sleeping (knock on wood)... they for the most part will sleep through the night - maybe waking up once.. sometimes twice for their binky but no more feeding during the night!!

The BEST thing ever is... seeing how exciting they get when they see me - all I have to do is walk out of a room and walk back in.. they smile and get so excited - it is wonderful!

They are almost half way to being one year old - I cannot believe it. We are having SO much fun with all our boys - we are truely blessed!!

Happy 5 months!

My smiling boys

I feel like in the past couple weeks we have turned a corner and are finally getting a good routine down.. yes.. this almost took 5 months but with twins.. what can I say!! I started back to work this past week and it really did feel good to get out. I only work Sunday afternoons and Monday nights - it is going really well. We have an appointment set for Alex with a pediactric urologist from U of M on Wednesday, March 24. I am very anxious for this appointment... hopefully we can figure things out then.

That is it for now!! We have "Carnival Night" at Brev's school tonight and we are SO excited for that... it will be fun for the whole family! My parents are coming in tonight for the weekend... more work on the basement!!

Alex

Ian

Update on Alex

Yesterday Mike and I had to take Alex to St. Joseph hospital in Ann Arbor. For those that don't know.. Alex was born with an enlarged kidney and they have been monitoring it. Yesterday he had an appointment for another ultrasound which still showed his kidney much larger than the other. They then put a cathedar in him to see if he has Vesicoureteral reflux... they shot dye in the cathedar to see where the dye goes.. sure enough.. he has VUR "reflux". This is where the urine backflows back into the ureters (the tubes connecting the kidneys and bladder). But it not only goes into the ureters.. it backflows all the way back into his kidney. There are 5 stages of this and he is an advanced stage 4 in his left kidney and a stage 1 in his right kidney (stage one doesn't reach the kidney but it does backflow in the ureters). The nurse said to us that she was glad we were getting this done now and not a month from now. If Alex were to ever get a UTI (urinary tract infection).. that infection could backup into his kidney and that could eventually cause kidney damage. So... what is next is that we are going to be seeing a pediactric uriologist at Uof M to see where we go from here... Alex will most likely be put on antibiotics to prevent any UTI's from happening.

So.. that is where we are right now... I felt SO horrible for Alex.. that was not a fun appointment.. but we got through it and we are glad we went. We just ask now for your prayers that the upcoming appointments go okay and that hopefully this reflux can be easily corrected.
Also prayers for both babies as we are dealing with some colds.. stuffy noses and restless sleep!!