For Thanksgiving this year, we went to my aunt Jimmie’s house, as we usually do. It’s amazing how long it took Don and I to get out of the house with all the needed supplies for a day. We took the swing and bouncy seat so they’d be able to nap at her house. Yeah right – Avery refused, but Alex did take a few catnaps. By the end of the day, after a few tastes of pumpkin pie, they were just fried and she was shrieking from being so exhausted. They did at least sleep on the way home – one more thing to be thankful for! It’s fun to see the babies interact with other people. Alex doesn’t seem to care much who holds him, but he definitely checks you out if you’re new. That look Santa got in the picture in the previous post is what everyone gets. And Avery, well she is more particular and does this little bottom lip pout and then cry when someone new looks at her sideways. She loves my grandmother though – she’ll hang out in her arms all day.
I know it’s a Thanksgiving cliche to reflect and enumerate all you have to be thankful for, but it is the point of the holiday too, right? Don and I talk all the time about how much we have to be thankful for now, how lucky we are to have these little miracles in our lives. We’re so thankful for the doctors and the science that helped us make our dream of being parents a reality. Two years ago, we were being told we might never have our own children, and last year we were nervous and praying both babies would make it to delivery. So this year we’re thankful that our babies arrived healthy and have stayed that way. They are incredible little beings. We’re thankful for every little smile and giggle and gurgle. Our lives are so different than they used to be, but only in the best ways. Thanksgiving this year also made me think about how much I cherish Don, what an amazing father and husband he is, and how lucky Alex, Avery, and I are to have him. Seeing him with the babies makes me love him in new ways. We are blessed with family, friends, health, security – pretty much everything we could ever want, and that made this a very special Thanksgiving – definitely one where the meaning of the holiday hit home for me.

I have so many things I want to fill everyone in on.  But I will admit to being lazy and just not getting the job done lately.  Everyone is fine and happy and growing and learning new things every day.  I’m making a list now and vowing to do a post each day until I get through these topics!

1. Thanksgiving
2. New Skillz
3. Sleep Update
4. St. Michaels – first overnight away from the babies
5. Quitting the Pump

Hm, it seemed like so much more in my head.  Maybe I am forgetting some.  But anyway, I am going to be better about it, so check back tomorrow!

1. Naked Lunches

The babies are eating lunch every day – “real food” as my grandma calls it. They get a couple of tablespoons of oatmeal and a jar of fruit or a veggie. This is how it looked the first few times we tried:

It was such a mess and required a full change of clothes from head to toe. So now, we eat like this:

I am happy to report that naked lunches have been successful. They are learning to swallow the food instead of dribble it all back out on the bib. And they’ve liked pears, peaches, and yesterday they both loved squash. I swore I’d wait til 6 months to introduce solids because of allergies and APA recommendations, but Alex’s weight gain was a little low at his 4 month appointment, and I’m desperate to do anything to make them sleep at night, so we started early.

2. Sleepovers

A&A had their first sleepover at my grandmother’s house last Saturday night. She watched them so Don and I could go to a Halloween party. We stayed and put them to bed (we thought) so really she just had to supervise the sleeping. We both were a little nervous – Don that they were going to be monsters for her, and me that I hadn’t left enough milk, since that always shuts them up. But in the end, Avery slept as well as she usually does, and Alex slept as poorly as he often does. He wouldn’t sleep in the bouncy seat that he naps in every day, so my grandmother made him a bed on her couch. He ended up staying up til 9:30 and watching TV (just like I used to do!) and then he drifted off. She said he wasn’t fussy, he just was awake. He woke again when we got back to her place around 1, and he was fidgety from then on. I slept on the couch by him and silently begged him to just be still, but he was having none of that. In all, though, it wasn’t bad, and it was really nice for Don and I to get out with our friends for a night. We’ll definitely do it again.

3. Halloween

I did put the costumes on for a few minutes for Halloween.

But they were in bed by 6:30, as always. We made the house DARK so no trick or treaters would come and ring the bell and make the dogs bark and wake the babies. But two groups came anyway. Who goes to a dark house? Didn’t their parents teach them that dark houses give apples with razor blades in them? We had no good candy since we werne’t planning to participate, so they got candy from our dish that was old and picked over. I am pretty sure a few got Listerine Pocket Packs of those platicky breath thingies. Serves ‘em right.

4. More

Avery is NOT sleeping through the night. It must have been a fluke. She went a few nights waking up only once, and now she is back to twice. At different times than Alex. Of course. She only takes an ounce or so each time, and I probably should just let her cry, but I haven’t. I keep thinking what if she really is hungry or thirsty? ANd the morning nap seems shot to hell too. I used to be able to count on 2, if not 3, hours starting at 8 am. For three days now, it’s been an hour max. I’m typing this and she is giggling and gasping behind me, and Alex is whining in their room. I don’t know what went wrong, but I want the morning nap back!

Also, we never posted their 4 months stats. Avery is (was) 24 inches and 13.6 pounds. Alex is 25.75 inches, and 13.5 pounds. Yes, his sister is shorter and fatter.

I love seeing the little differences in Avery and Alex’s personalities. It’s so funny to me how two kids born at the same time and raised the same way can be so different already. Avery is our little daredevil. She grins when we tip her upside-down and loves to bounce around. Sometimes I see this twinkle in her eye that tells me I better prepare myself for the years ahead. Alex is more conservative – he gets a “What the hell?” kind of look and pukes if he’s thrown around even a little. You may have noticed, he looks surprised in every picture we take of him. But he’s really ticklish and has the best little giggle when I get him going. And Avery has developed a little Steve Urkel laugh – very nasal and monotone. She sounds like such a little nerd! It’s so much fun to play with them and see how happy they are being our babies. It makes me proud in a way I’ve never been before.

The goal of this site is to keep everybody up to date on what’s going on with us and our family. I can’t promise that we’ll post here every day, or even every week, but we will try to keep it updated as much as possible.

I’m assuming that if you know us and you’re visiting this site for the first time that you probably already know that we’re pregnant. If you do know us and you’re just finding this out for the first time, hey, we’re pregnant. If you don’t know us and you’ve found this site by accident, guess what? We’re pregnant!

Jen and I are both very excited about the pregnancy and can’t wait for the little ones to get here next year. Yes, that’s right; I said ones, like more than one. There’s two babies in there! While we know going from zero to two babies right off the bat will be bit nuts, we’re very excited and are (hopefully) up to the challenge.

Here’s a link to the sonogram pictures that we’ve had so far. Because of our situation, we’ve been lucky and have had a ton of them. I still need to scan a few more that I haven’t put online yet, but you can clearly see both of them here and can see their arms and legs even.

So stay tuned for more updates and pictures. I’m sure we’ll have plenty to talk about all during the pregnancy and even more once the kids arrive.