It seems that Avery is on her way to having two teeth of her own. From what we can see/feel, it seems like she may be getting her two bottom teeth come in now too, just like Alex. Alex’s teeth are doing well and are quite sharp (as we’ve found out a few times unfortunately).

Updates (and hopefully photos) will follow as the teeth continue to grow.

Both kids are battling their first colds at the moment. They seem to be handling it fine during the day, it’s sleeping at night that’s been a challenge. It really does break your heart to hear them in their room coughing up a storm all night. We picked up some special Vicks vapor machine to see if that can help clear up their stuffy noses at night.

Hopefully they’ll get over it soon and get back to their good night sleeping.

Well, two teeth, actually. The beginnings of them anyway. Don and I have been saying for a couple of weeks that Alex was really close to getting his first tooth. He had all the classic signs – drooling, fussiness, waking at night, grabbing his mouth and crying, etc. And every day, we’d try to look and see, but he has this little trick of covering his gums with his tongue anytime we try get a peek. We’d feel around and never felt a lump or anything. So yesterday, we went to the doctor for flu booster shots and I wanted to ask if we were giving him too much Motrin because he’d been getting it every night about an hour after bedtime for a week or so. Teething tablets helped during the day, but pain really seemed to be getting him at night. The doctor came in and checked him for an ear infection and made sure nothing else was wrong, and told us to try Tylenol instead since it was less irritating to the stomach. What really surprised me was that she looked in his mouth and said it would be “awhile” before he actually got a tooth. I was dreading weeks longer of his fussiness. Imagine my surprise when I caught a glimpse of something on his gums today. I felt with my fingers, and not only is there one jagged little edge on his bottom gum, but two jagged little edges poking through. He seems to be getting both central bottom teeth at once! I don’t know if we’re supposed to count today then as his first tooth or wait til it grows in a bit more. He certainly didn’t seem to be in as much pain as he has been – I think it must be awful to feel something pushing up through your skin like that. And now that it’s partly through, he’s feeling better. And I guess that doctor and I have different understandings of the word “awhile.” At any rate, it’s exciting and bittersweet at the same time. Between that and the crawling, I feel like he’s growing up an awful lot in the last couple of days and sometimes I just want him to slow down so I have my baby longer!

We’re finding that we get more than a little frustrated with our pediatricians’ office pretty regularly. There are 4 or 5 different doctors we’ve seen, and they seem to have differing opinions on everything we ask. It makes it hard to feel like we’re making the best choices for the babies when they don’t seem to have a consensus, and often their advice differs from what the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends. For example, at the 6 month appointment, I asked about adding baby foods with meat, and dairy products like yogurt to their meals. The doctor we had that day said no meat til 9 months, and no milk or dairy at all til 1 year. Everything else I’ve read says 7 or 8 months is fine for both. And I wouldn’t mind so much if they just were ultra-conservative about everything, but a different doctor really encouraged us to start cereal and fruits at 4 months instead of 6 to help Alex’s reflux and Avery’s constipation. One put Alex on Zantac 3 times a day for his reflux and told us to call if it wasn’t working so we could adjust the dose. But when I called to get it adjusted, another doctor told me he was on the max dose for his weight and switched him to Prevacid once a day. She said to mix it with applesauce. Don picked it up and all the directions say in bold print, “Mix ONLY with water.” At $50 for our monthly copay, I want to be sure we’re not making it ineffective by doing what the doctor said. And he’s been puking more again, so I really wonder if they have a clue. Though he also has a fever tonight, probably (hopefully) from the flu shot, so I figure I need to wait til the fever breaks to see if that and the puking are related or not. My friend Katie just had a little girl a week ago, and one of the doctors told her to avoid kissing her because of it being cold & flu season. How can you tell a new mom not to kiss her baby?!? But there are only 3 pediatricians’ offices in Mt. Airy, and one isn’t taking new patients with our insurance, so if we leave this practice, it seems like we only have the one other choice. Maybe I’ll have to do some more research for surrounding areas. Before the babies came, I wouldn’t have thought twice about having their doctor be in Columbia or Frederick, but now that I see how often we go, and how hard it can be to get there, and sometimes how quickly we need to go, it sure is nice having them 10 minutes away. The price of living in Mayberry, I suppose… In the end, we make our own decisions, but we’re new at this and I like feeling like I have the doctor’s expertise on my side, and more often than not, I feel like I question their judgements.

At any rate, I’ll post a pic of Alex’s toothy grin soon, I hope!

Alex has mastered the Army crawl. It’s just a matter of time now before he’s up on the knees and into everything. I’ve been working on getting everything baby proofed now that he’s on the move, starting with all of the electrical outlets. Here’s a short video of him going after the remote control for the TV (he loves that thing). Today I even got him his very own remote from Target so he won’t destroy the one that we need.

You have to love it when it’s 70 degrees in Maryland in January.  Al Gore is probably right about global warming, and most of the time I think it’s a  huge concern, but sometimes it works out in our favor.  We took the twins to the new local park for their first playground adventure today.  Avery and I sat on a swing together waiting for the baby swings to open up.  It was really crowded, but didn’t take too long for us to get two next to eachother.  I was glad to see that the babies fit in the seats without falling through.  Alex looked worried, as usual, but both seemed to like the people-watching.  We only stayed for about 15 minutes, but I think by the time spring and real warm weather rolls around, they’ll be ready to really have fun there.