Liam has begun the 'crawl'. He's been spinning and scooting backwards for a while now and recently he's started to catapult himself forward. It seemed more like it was accidental than purposely, but still he was sometimes moving forward. So over the past few days he's been scooching forward, more and more often. Now he's pretty much full on crawl... only he does it with a 'gimp' leg. He keeps 1 leg straight while attempting to crawl. We assume it won't be too long until he gets that other leg working and he's actually crawling.

I guess hanging out with Rogan has shown him the technique.. now he just needs to work on it some more! Practice makes perfect.

Coen has won the race! He couldn't let brother show him up and cut 4 teeth before his first.
His first one fully cut through last night... well maybe actually at 4 am this morning when he decided to wake for the day. It is definitely rough and now you can see it!
The 2nd one looks like it's close too and I'm sure Liam's numbers 3 and 4 will be here any day!

Who will get teeth next?
Liam is working on his upper 2 middle. You can see the white through the gums and feel the ridge the teeth are making!
Coen is working on his first 2, bottom middle. You can't really see anything, but his gums have a slight rough spot!

Will Coen get his first 2, or will Liam take over with number 3 and 4?!?!

Will update as soon as something happens. :)

I have a ton of 7 month photos (262 so far) of these boys and I haven't posted them anywhere yet! So here are some of my favs.


Mommy and Coen

Liam giving 'kisses'
Mommy and Liam


All my boys!
Are you serious?
Yup!
So Liam can get on his knees.. has been able to for a while now.
Coen says "knees? who needs knees? ... I'll just do push ups"





Coen trying to eat the camera.

Liam's famous 'I want' face.
Hope you've enjoyed!

The boys were nice enough to let me sleep in this morning (with only 1 small wake up at 5:40). We all woke up around 8:30 and it was great! What made it even better is that I went to bed at 8:45! I had a very good, much needed, nights sleep.

So I bought some of the gerber banana puffs and they didn't really seem too interested in eating them. Liam liked to play with them and watch how they stuck to his fingers. Coen pretty much ignored them.. but he sometimes liked it when I'd feed him small pieces.
Shortly after meal times I'd give them few pieces on their trays to let them play with. Coen became more and more interested in them and would 'call' me to come feed him a piece. He eventually got tired of 'calling' me and picked one up and ate it! He keeps trying, but they don't always make it in his mouth. Then this morning Liam managed to put a piece in his mouth. He still doesn't really like eating them, but as long as he's having fun I'm ok with that.
Fingerfoods, here we come!

Liam has finally decided to roll over! (Just 4 months past Coen. :) ) However it has come at a price. For 3 nights now he's sleeping for about 3 hours, then waking up every hour... or sooner! Waking up upset and not easily put back to sleep.
Last night I observed him while he was trying to get back to sleep and he had his legs straight in the air, while he was fast asleep. It looked as if he was trying to roll over. His legs would eventually drop and he'd wake up crying. Poor guy, trying to roll over in his sleep. So I ended up holding his legs up for about 5 minutes until he was completely out and slowly lowered his legs. Then he slept the rest of the night. Well.. until 4 when Coen decided to get up so he woke us all up.

We also traveled down to see my Dad, brother and family. Traveling with the boys is tiring enough on its own.. then we did it after 2 nights of 'broken' sleep. So I'm very, very exhausted. Went to bed last night at 8 and tonight I will be meeting my pillow before 9. (Just as soon as I'm done writing this.) Never thought I'd be back to going to bed this early because of the boys. Oh well. I need to get the sleep while I can!

I was at Sam's Club today with Coen and was talking to an older gentleman which brings to mind this next subject. I often encounter people who say 'I can't imagine having twins' or '1 baby is tough, how do you do it with 2?'.
Having twins makes parenthood harder and easier at the same time. We encounter situations or problems that most singleton parents don't ever and vice versa. Here's just a few that come to mind.
-1 baby sleeps and eats on their own schedule. You tend to them as needed and generally they won't have to 'wait' on you. 2 babies, if they're on different schedules, generally great! If not then you can easily find your self in the middle of a fussing fit. 1 baby wants to eat, the other needs to sleep, or both babies need bottles. You feel torn. You want to tend to both of them, but sometimes 1 will have to wait. (No fun.)
-Most single babies will always be held when feeding a bottle. It's a wonderful experience to hold and cuddle with your baby as they're eating. For me, the first feeding of the day since they eat at the same time and sometimes other feedings throughout the day, I'll have to put the boys in chairs to feed them their bottles. So I don't always get to hold them. Just a little thing that I miss out on.
-Napping. The boys share a room yet they can't nap together. Naps most times start at different times and they sleep differently. They easily wake each other during naps. So we have to make arrangements to separate them during nap time. Single babies can always sleep in their own room. Yeah there's always distractions but at least there's not another crying infant to wake them.
-I've heard that this stage of life babies want attention. I agree, yes they do. However with 2 babies they often keep each other entertained. If they eat at the same time, I can turn their chairs towards each other when they've finished eating and they'll watch each other and amuse themselves. A single baby (especially one with no siblings) only has himself, toys and you!
-Twins feed off each others feelings. If one is giggly, then the other usually is. If one is crying... the other one usually follows suit.
-Milo and I have observed that they tend to learn off of each other. A long time ago, Coen was trying to get on his knees and he was kicking his legs all over the place. Liam intently watched him and a little bit later, Liam started in.
-This kind of goes with scheduling as well, but taking them anywhere is difficult at this age. If their schedules are off you may have to wake one of them. Also, you pretty much can't go anywhere by yourself. I've met up with someone while going out by myself.. but only twice since they've been born. Imagine carrying 2 carseats (10 lbs each) with babies (16.5 lbs each) and do anything.. grocery shopping, ha! (where would you put them both?) Luckily, since they're sitting well on their own, we could soon put them in carts and leave the seats in the car.
-Holding and reading to your baby... only 1 at a time! :(

I'm sure there's much more that I just can't think of. I guess I'll have to add them in as I come across them.
Being a parent of twins is amazing. I wouldn't trade it for anything! But, it is also very emotionally trying. I love them both very much and sometimes I feel like I can't give them both enough of myself. I know I'm doing my best and that's all I can do, but sometimes it just doesn't feel like enough.
I'm split in two.

Let's see, where to start. I covered most of what they were doing in the 6 month update since I was late in posting it, but they have accomplished a few new things in the past few weeks.

They sit up very well on their own now. We're comfortable leaving them sitting with pillows behind them and generally they do very well. Mostly they'll lean too far forward or to the side and slowly get off balance and end up toppling over. They rarely fall backwards, so that's comforting.
Liam is still 'scooching' everywhere (backwards) and getting on his hands and knees and rocking, but no crawling yet. Coen has shown some interest in getting on his knees, but not much. Then when he does do it, it doesn't last very long.
We're gradually getting the bottle/food/sleeping schedule under control. I was worried that they weren't eating enough because of what the Dr said at their last appt, but I just don't think they'll eat as much as she wants them to. We tried bottles all day with only 1 small food feeding and they still didn't eat as much as she wanted... so I think they like the amount they eat and I can't force them to have anymore. So I'm back to giving them food along with bottles and I think they're doing fine with what they're eating. (Who would have thought it would have been so difficult to feed a baby! Babies eat and sleep and those 2 things have been our biggest hurdles!) Liam has always been our 'messy' eater with food, but the past week or so he's gotten much much better. So now I have 2 semi-clean eating babies, yea!!
Sleeping has gotten a bit crazy. We decided to cut out swaddling... cold turkey. Liam did fine, we had not swaddled him in the past so he took to it again well. Coen on the other hand, not so well. We decided to stop swaddling for a couple reasons. 1. He can roll over now and was getting stuck on his belly with his arms trapped. and 2. He constantly worked his way out of the swaddle... usually minutes after wrapping him. So we felt it was time. The first few naps he did fine, but after that he decided he no longer wanted to sleep.. ever and fought it every nap time. He sees his crib and will start throwing a fit. We've had to just let him cry otherwise he won't sleep. So the past few days he's had to cry himself to sleep for naps. (Bed time is fine, he usually doesn't put up a fight.. but naps are a different story.) I've tried everything to help soothe him and wind down to get ready for a nap, but it usually doesn't work. The moment he touches the mattress it's a fight. We're hoping it doesn't last long because we're not sure what else we can do for him. We hate to have to leave him to cry but we can't let him not nap (he gets exhausted and super cranky) and we can't hold him during all his naps.. not good habit to start and it's not good sleep. Anyway, enough on the sleep issue.

Motherhood at 7 months. Really getting prepared now to take some safety precautions. Trying to mentally prepare myself for crawling babies. (Rogan is helping with that. He's a fast crawler and gone before you know it.) In the coming weeks we'll be rearranging things to be more 'baby-friendly'.
The best thing about motherhood right now is seeing them interact with each other. They giggle and smile at each other and it is the best thing ever.
- also I love hearing their laughter. We hear it much more these days and you can't help but smile when you hear them.

I'm a few weeks late posting this.
6 months! I can't believe I'm a mother to 6 month twin boys! Absolutely insane.
They had thier 6 month check up. Coen is 16 lbs 6 ozs, 26-1/4" long and has a head circumference of 43cm. Liam is 16 lbs 8 ozs, 27-1/2" long and has a head circumference of 44cm. (All measurements fall between the 25th and 50th percentiles, except for Liam's length and head circumference. His head is between the 50th and 75th and his length is between the 75th and 90th.)
The boys have been learning how to sit up, although they still need help, in case they fall backwards. Coen is still a 'spaz', he's just all over the place. Milo and I think he'd just rather stand and doesn't really have a lot of interest in sitting most of the time.
Coen is rolling all the time. He still gets stuck on his tummy though and fusses for us to flip him over... or he's just doing to it get attention.. not quite sure. But while on his tummy he moves around in circles and sometimes scooches around the floor and has started to try to get on his hands and knees and sometimes his toes.. but usually his head is on the floor. :)
Liam is doing some rolling now, but still not a lot and also scooches on the floor. The other day his scooching became faster paced and he was scooting backwards everywhere. The following day he was getting up on his hands and knees while scooting backwards. Then the next day he was up on his hands and toes! Not sure what today will bring for him.
They still like the walker and being in the jumper is their favorite. Sleeping is still off and on. It seems there is always something to disrupt their sleep. Weather it's being sick, or learning to roll over and getting stuck on thier tummy or just simply waking each other up. But it's not really too bad.
They're also eating like champs. Coen is doing great! He's hardly messy and eats really well. He may of had a slower start with the food, but he's made up for the lost time. Liam, little booger, is still super messy and likes to eat his bib and fingers while eating. Then sometimes after chewing on his fingers and getting food all over he decides to rub his head and get it all in his hair! EWW! ... but that's ok, that's what being a baby is all about. Making messes and getting into things. :)
They're also into smiling and giggling at each other. It is incredibly cute and I cannot get enough of it. They like to grab everything in reach now. Liam almost pulled over my drink... I didn't even think he was in reach of it!

Coen had his eye check up and it was better than what I was expecting, yet I'm still bummed about it. His eyes are crossed but the dr said he did well with pulling his eye back when it turned in. Dr said as long as he kept doing that his eye may get better or would just stay the same. Also, with a prescription his eye completely corrected it's self (no surgery needed yea!!!). However, he'd need another check up when he turns a year old and would most likely need glasses at that time. So we're bummed about the glasses, but so happy that he won't need surgery or a patch. I'm continuing to pray that his eye will completely recover and he wouldn't need glasses, but if not then glasses is the better choice over surgery.

Time are changing. We've quickly approached the mobile stage and we'll have to start baby proofing the dangerous things and start teaching what's off limits... crazy!

Motherhood at 6 months, still juggling schedules and working with sleeping/napping well. The boys are becoming even more interactive and playful. Still loving every minute!

So much has happened in the past month. Snow (lots and lots of snow), food, Christmas, New Years, Cabin trip and teeth... yup TEETH!! Let's start at the beginning.
December was filled with lots of new things for the boys. It started by starting solids. They both took to it really well the first feeding. Coen kind of lapped the cereal out of the spoon while I basically had to dump the food into Liam's mouth. They didn't seem to mind the taste or texture of the cereal. Then day 2 came. Liam got better, now he was chewing at the spoon and not as much 'dumping'.. still very messy though. Then Coen... he apparently decided he didn't want to eat from the spoon anymore. I guess 1 day was enough. He 'gagged' when the food entered his mouth, then he gagged when the spoon got near his face. What a booger. I kept trying the cereal, and carrots on occassion, a little every day and decided we wern't getting anywhere so we took a break for Coen. Liam on the other hand is doing quite well. He's now had carrots, squash (not his favorite, but he'll eat it), sweet potatoes, apple sauce and bananas. He's still messy, but he's doing great! So, we took the break with Coen for a few days and decided to try again. This time with actual food instead of cereal. Squash it was and he seemed to love it! He opened wide for the spoon and cleared the spoon with his upper lip... eating like a pro!!! He even ate the whole container (the small ones). GREAT!! The next day... more gagging and refusing the spoon, what a little booger! All in all, it's a slow process for him. Obviously he CAN do it, I just think he doesn't WANT to. That's fine. It gives me time to try and figure out a feeding/bottle/sleeping schedule for Liam, so maybe when Coen does want to eat we'll have a schedule figured out for him... hopefully.
Next was Christmas and lots of snow. Their first Christmas was great. We went to Oma and Opa's on Christmas Eve and Uncle Oliver and his family were there. We opened gifts (the boys napped through most of it) and had a great time. Christmas day we spent as a family. We decorated a gingerbread house which turned out interesting since the icing never hardened so it all fell apart and then we opened the last few gifts we saved for Christmas day. It was very nice to have just the 4 of us, and Whistler, together in our own home celebrating together. We're hoping to make it a tradition from now on. Normally we're at my Dad's but were going to go a day later this year, but ended up cancelling due to the mass amount of snow.
Then the snow came and came and came. At first the boys couldn't even look outside because it was so bright, but they've since adjusted and seem to like looking and all the bright white covering everything. It's even snowing again, as I type this! Another 3 inches, I think.
New Years, not much happened. Milo and Jesse hung out at a church funciton, while Cynthia, Rogan, the boys and I all hung out at home. A very uneventful New Years, but that's fine by me. I'm a home-body any way and I really enjoyed hanging out with Cynthia.
So, we don't get enough of Jesse and Cynthia on a weekly basis so we took out bi-annual cabin trip. (We actually handn't been in a year since we were both pregnant and had new babies this year. But I think we're back to at least going twice a year now that the boys are a bit older.) So we're headed down to the cabin (Jan 1st) and stopped to eat and feed all the boys. Cynthia was helping feed Liam and burst out 'HE HAS A TOOTH'... I about fell over! (I also cried, of course, I'm a sap.) Liam had gotten a cold and had been a bit fussy, but I never suspected teething. I go over to check it out and sure enough he has a tooth that just sprouted through. It has ridges and is very sharp... he bit me! The next day we noticed the one right next to it was started to poke out and the very next day it had completely broken through as well! The little guy has 2 teeth now in a matter of about 3 days! So amazing!

They both love chewing on their fingers. Coen rolls to his side and talks a lot. Seriously a lot... he's going to be our chatter box. Liam still sits back and observes, but still chimes in when he's being talked to. Liam is doing well sitting up. He can stay balanced for several seconds. Last night he was sitting on his own for about 20-30 seconds before toppling over. Coen sits well too, but not as long. Today he's been leaning so he only sits for a few seconds a a time before leaning to the side and falling over. We still occasionally find them rolling over. Still usually by accident. Coen is doing much better with tummy time. You have to get him at the right time, but he's now using his arms to help prop himself up. Liam is doing great too. He can now turn himself in a circle while on his tummy. The boys love to stand and be upright now. They tend to get easily bored when on their backs, so they love spending time in the walker, jumper and bumbo.
Sleeping is still off and on. After the cabin trip since they napped together and slept all night in the same room we decided to keep them in the same room and just deal with night wake ups. They also seem to not wake each other as much now which is very nice. If one starts fussing and you get to him to take care of him soon enough the other usually doesn't wake. We still have the pack 'n play set up in our room as a back up, in case one of them is having a hard night. It's still a work in progress, but isn't everything? Nothing will ever be 'perfect' but I'm content at how things are right now. Waking up 1-2 times a night is much better than every 1.5-2 hrs... every night.
They also are quite ticklish! When you're changing them so they're all naky, all you have to do is walk your fingers up their bellies/sides up towards their necks and they just giggle away.

Motherhood at 5 months. New things happening all the time now. New experiences, new faces/expressions, new foods, new sounds... new new new! I still consider this the 'honeymoon' stage. I'm loving everything. I absolutely love being a mommy. The wait was so worth every minute I have with them now.

Yup, it's that time again. 4 MONTHS OLD and of course growing like weeds. Coen is moving up to the clothing Liam was wearing (some things he can't wear either, due to his growing head, lol) and Liam has almost outgrown some of the 6 month size sleepers! This boy is just too long! Christmas and the new year will definitely bring lots of new clothing.

Sleep has gotten better and a little worse at the same time. Better because they're sleeping 12 hours straight! (A day I thought I'd never see.) The catch is they did this for a few weeks and we were getting lots of sleep and everything was going great. We started focusing more on their naps since they were only getting about 40 minute naps. Well once the naps started getting longer, now they've started night waking, lots and lots of night waking. (Just wake to want a binki or to be soothed, not to eat or play.) According to my trusty sleep book this is backwards. The better sleep the get during the day the better sleep they're supposed to be getting at night. So, I'm not sure what happened or what is going on, but we're now waking lots during the night again. Luckily this has only been going on for a little over a week, so hopefully it's just a phase and they'll go back to sleeping soundly.

I was beginning to think these boys will never want to crawl. They still don't like tummy time much and Coen has almost regressed. He had rolled over a few times and was propping himself on 1 arm but now he isn't holding his head up as much and still fusses a lot when on his tummy. Just another question I have for the dr. (She said it's normal for them to transition back and forth.)
Liam is doing well but still quickly gets frustrated with it. On the bright/funny side is that when he gets frustrated he'll put his head down on the floor and start kicking his legs wildly and get up on his knees... now if only his head wasn't on the floor and he was propped up on his arms, he might get somewhere. :)

They're sitting up pretty well too. Not so spastic anymore. Neither are very fond of the bumbo still, but they like to sit in our laps or in our legs when we're on the floor. They also do pretty well with sitting in a boppy. I think very soon, they'll be sitting up on their own with no support needed. That will be a fun day indeed!

They still like their link rings and a bug toy. They have some crinkly books and crinkly stuffed animals that they play with now. We've recently started putting them in their walker toy. It is a bit huge for them and they can't walk with it on our carpet anyway, but they seem to like to sit in it and stare at all the fun toys attached to it. The other day Liam was using only his right hand to grab at the toys and Coen was only using his left. Not sure if this is a forecast to them being right or left handed, but we'll see as time goes on.

At the 3 month mark we were just getting some cooing out of Liam, and Coen was just talking and being demanding... wow has that changed in this past month. As long as they're in fairly good moods, all we hear is talking, cooing, gurgling and now giggles and laughter too! Of course Daddy is the funnier one, they like to laugh at him more, but Mommy occasionally gets a giggle here and there.
They also say Mama all the time! Of course it's when they're being fussy... lol. Not joking though. When they get upset all we hear is ma-ma-ma-ma-ma. Coen started it out with um-ma-um-ma, and now they both cry out ma-ma-ma when they need something. So I'm convinced that they'll say Mama first. (But like Milo had to point out, 'doesn't every mother/father think they'll say Mama/Dada first?') Oh well, I'm just excited for them to start talking, crawling .. everything!

We had their 4 month appointment. No shots this time. (With no insurance now, we're getting shots at a free government health clinic.) So they were checked out and all looks well with their health. Coen weighed 12 lbs and 12 ozs and measured 25-1/4" in length. Liam weighed 14 lbs 7 ozs and measured 26-1/2" in length. All checked out just fine. Liam's weight was under his percentile from last time but she said he looks healthy (he has some rolls) so she wasn't concerned with it. We had asked about the crossed eyes, since Coen still crosses his quite frequently so she took a look and she said he should have out grown it by now so she recommended we see an eye Dr. for him. So, tomorrow I'll be making some calls to see how much an eye exam would be w/o insurance and see if it's something that can wait a few months until we can hopefully get insurance, or if we need to act now to help correct his vision. I'm praying that it still has a chance to correct on it's own, but we'll see what happens.

We'll be starting rice cereal for them soon and after Christmas I'll be starting EC'ing (infant potty training). I'm hoping to get a head start on potty training, so I'm less likely to have a 2 year old running around the house pooping on the floor just because he doesn't want to ruin his new toy... his potty chair! (Just at Babies R Us and the cashier is currently going through that.) I think I'm all out of updates now.

One last thing. Milo and I had our first extended date night. For his birthday his father bought him tickets to our home CHL team and gave him some cash to eat out. Opa (his father) and Uncle Oliver fed the boys and put them to bed pretty much w/o any hang up's while Milo and I got out, see some hockey and have some Red Robin for dinner. It was great to get some time to ourselves, but man did I miss them while we were gone.

Motherhood at 4 months. Rested with the occasional bad nights. Less time feeding, sleeping, and being grumpy, more time playing, interacting, talking, giggling (all the fun stuff with babies). Things just keep getting better and better. Currently this has been my favorite times with them, my favorite age... so far. I love playing with them, watching them learn and play with their toys. I think I'm just now hitting the 'honeymoon' stage of motherhood. (I heard the 'honeymoon' stage was when they were first born and they didn't fuss and just slept all the time. I didn't enjoy that time much because of the lack of sleep and the recovery of the c-section. To me this is the honeymoon stage, you get to really enjoy them and they know who you are and love to be around you just as much as you love to be around them.)

So the boys are 3 months now and they are growing by leaps and bounds. I can't believe how big they're getting. I look back on their newborn pictures and they've at least doubled in size and they look so different now it's amazing!
Lots of coo's, gurgling and squeels, so amazingly cute. They're both giving lots of smiles these days and the fussiness has gone down quite a bit... until they get tired.

Sleep has been amazing over the past 2 weeks. Liam had gotten into a routine where he only wanted to sleep for about 2-2.5 hrs at night. (Not cool.) So we purchased the book "Healthy Sleeping Habits, Happy Child". At first I thought the book was a bust since I didn't see how I could apply the techniques/rules to twins. After further reading we figured it out. Not the ideal situation, but it's working and we're slowly putting the pieces back together. First we moved up their bedtime. We realized they were going to bed entirely too late, second we started focusing on quality naps during the day and third, we had to separate them since they tend to wake each other. We tried putting them in separate cribs across the room (their room is too small for it to work) so now Liam sleeps in our room. The first night they went from their typical 2-2.5 hrs between feedings to 6hrs and every night since they've increased the time. Yeah, they've had a couple rough nights where they woke up early or had trouble getting to sleep, but they're averaging 8-9 hours between feedings during the night. They're now taking naps in the same room again, but Liam is still in our bedroom. We figured once they get well settled into their new routine we'd try to put Liam back in his room and see how it goes.

Coen rolled over on his own for the first time yesterday. We discovered his desire to roll over when he was having tummy time on a pillow on the floor. I'd put him on the pillow and within a few seconds he was leaned to 1 side and soon after he'd roll right off the pillow onto the floor. (Of course I'm super cautious/paranoid so I was there to catch him every time.) So during tummy time yesterday he just did it. No pillow under him, nothing. Just laid him down on his tummy, to his side he perched and then voila, onto his back. He only did it once, but still we were so proud of him. Liam hasn't figured it out yet or he has no desire to roll, but that's ok. Liam has had a lot of firsts and this one is Coen's.
Coen also has a few toys that he really likes. He likes to play with his link rings, but his favorite is a little bear rattle. He doesn't necessarily like the sound, but he loves looking at it. I'll sit it in front of him (or attach it to his car seat while on the road) and he'll just stare at it. Sometimes he'll even start talking to it and smiling. (I think the bear gets more smiles than daddy or me. Oh well.) He also is getting better at Bumbo time. At first he hated it, but now he seems to like it.. or at least tolerate it for a while. He has become a much happier child the past few weeks (with the help of more sleep) and we're loving every minute of it.

Liam also likes Bumbo time. He does really well with it and I think it has made it where he wants to be sitting all the time. He seems happier when he's upright sitting with us vs. laying playing with toys or tummy time. Don't get me wrong, he does well with tummy time too, but I think he likes the Bumbo better.
He also likes the link rings, but I think his newest favorite his is hand. He now loves to chew on his hand... a lot. He just sticks his fist in his mouth and slobbers away. He also likes to grab a link ring and then try to eat his fist.
Liam is also full of smiles.. pretty much all the time. Sometimes he wakes up fussy and all you have to do is look at him and then he starts smiling away. Huge grins! I think Coen will be the more serious one of the two and Liam will be more laid back, going with the flow type.
We can't believe how much he has changed. They've both changed so much, but Liam looks like a completely different baby. It just proves why you need to take lots of pictures of them as they grow.

This is already so long, but I need to do my summary of motherhood at 3 months. I'm not sure if it really differs that much from last month. Exhaustion is pretty much gone. (Unless I decide to stay up too late at night.)
I think now it's all just a balancing act. It's all about time management and I'm not well at that yet. Naps, awake time, tummy time, baths... just a lot to juggle now. I've learned so much already, but I know there's sooo much more. My love grows every day for them.
Daddy said it best tonight when he had been away for a few hours he said, 'seeing them after being gone for a while makes me love them even more'.

Liam is 23-1/2" long (daddy's length at birth) in the 75th percentile. A whopping 11 lbs and 12 ozs, 50th percentile and his head is 39-1/2" head circumference, 50th percentile too. (He as increased his percentiles in all categories since the last appointment.)
He got his shots and mommy cried. He was a trooper, he calmed down after daddy was able to comfort him.

Coen is 21-1/2" long in the 10th percentile. He has basically doubled in weight and is now 9 lbs 4 ozs, in the 10th percentile and his head circumference is 38" also in the 10th percentile. (He has also increased all percentiles in all categories.)
He too got his shots and was surprising. He's a bit more cranky than Liam normally, but he didn't cry for as long.

Both boys are doing great and the dr was very pleased with their growth.

The boys are now 2 months old and they have changed so much already.
Let's see what's new...
Liam has been grinning more and more every day. He's started cooing some and I think he's tried to laugh a few times. (He does laugh in his sleep, but not as much when he's awake.) He's getting very big and is rapidly out growing lots of his clothes. Good thing is that cooler weather is arriving and we'll need warmer clothes for him anyway, so it's good timing. He is also our 'explosive' baby. He sometimes will go long periods without having any poopies so when he does... he almost always explodes through whatever he's wearing. One of his explosions required a bath... good thing Daddy was around to help out.
Coen isn't quite as 'happy' as Liam. He's my little demanding one. Which has changed. (In the beginning Liam was the demanding one.) We're just now starting to get some grins out of him, and cooing.. not so much. I'd say Coen is more of a talker than a coo'er. He'll let out little spurts that sound like he's saying "hey! over here.. now!" And he generally just talks to us. We still are having a little trouble with his sleeping. Once he gets super tired he just can't fall asleep and he'll cry pretty much non-stop. But those times are becoming less frequent. I try to make sure he's napping a lot during the days and that the naps are un-interrupted and long... this seems to help.

Speaking of sleep. The sleeping has been getting slightly better, but we still have some super rough nights. They'll go between 4 and now sometimes 6 hours in between feedings. (I love the 6 hr gaps.. I actually can get around 4.5 hours of uninterrupted sleep!) The 6 hr gaps were starting to get more frequent, but they've recently relapsed and are only giving 4 and 3 hr gaps now. I'm hoping by my next update maybe we'll be getting some 7 or 8 hr gaps, that would be great!

Let's see, what else.
They're both trying to stand when we hold them up. They do pretty well too. They can stiffen their bodies while we hold them in place. When we have them resting upright on our chests they can do pushups and it's very cute. They do excellent stabilizing their heads now although they're not too keen on belly time yet. They'll tolerate it for a while, and either start fussing or they'll fall asleep.
I'm sure there is so much more but I just can't think of it all.


Ok... now for our first night away from home.
It really wasn't bad at all.. the following day and night however... ugh!
I decided I wanted to go to my church's womens retreat. Last year was my first year attending and I loved it and thought I could handle going with the boys this year. I think it went well. I had lots of help from Auntie Cynthia and Oma, among others, and the boys behaved themselves very well. My only glitch was nursing them. I didn't have a comfortable chair or place to sit so I ended up with lots of back pain by the 3am feeding. I hardly got any sleep that night. The next day the boys were great until we got home. Coen was apparently exhausted and he let us know. Daddy had to console him for several hours while I tried to catch up on some sleep and relieve my back pain that had me in tears. After 16 hours of sleep (with breaks for feedings) the boys and I were back to normal. My back was still a bit stiff, and Coen was feeling better. (Liam pretty much just went with the flow and was very laid back... just like Daddy.)

Even though we all had a rough evening we plan on taking a couple night trip to visit Aunt Sheri in 2 weeks. Hopefully we'll have some better luck with Coen's naps and he won't be super cranky.

The boys have their 2 month dr appt in a few days and they're getting shots. :( I hope it's not too traumatic for them.

Motherhood summed up after 2 months. Still some exhaustion, but getting better... or I'm just getting used to no sleep. Crying and fussiness is actually cute now. (Most of the time.) I like hearing them talk to me and tell me what they're feeling. Mostly it's 'hurry up and feed me woman!' Also seeing their smiles and having them look and interact with me is great beyond words. I'm looking forward to more of their developments in the coming weeks.

Ok, so technically they're 5 weeks now.
I can't believe it's already been a month! There have been lots of sleepless nights, lots of tears (from exhaustion mostly), lots of smiles (probably from gas) and lots and lots of poopy diapers! Luckily, I've only been pooped on once but I can't tell you how many times I've been pee'd on.. or how many times the boys have pee'd on their heads. LOL

To sum up in 1 word what motherhood is, would have to be 'crazy'. In good and not so good ways. Crazy that I have 2 sons, crazy that they are so adorable, crazy how many diapers you go through, crazy how much you worry about them, crazy how much they sleep during the day, crazy how much they don't sleep during the night (getting better), crazy how much money we've spent on them already and it's only been a month... and we haven't even gotten all the hospital bills! Just all around crazy, but all worth it.

So, the boys are doing great. Both are growing very well and starting to fill out their clothes. They were weighed about a week ago (clothed) and they were 6 lbs 8 oz and 8 lbs 12 oz. Liam moved up to size 1 diapers a few weeks ago and Coen moved up to the newborn size. Both are wearing newborn clothing still. (Coen grew out of the premies quickly because of his length.) Liam can wear the 0-3 month size... haven't tried them on Coen yet, since the newborn fit him well enough.

They're both still getting supplement. We tried going a few feedings without supplementing and they weren't happy at all. I just don't produce enough milk for the both of them. They're taking more and more formula which concerns me that my milk production won't be able to catch up, but we'll see. At least they are getting something from me.. even if it's not much.

No huge milestones yet. Right now we're working on building those neck muscles. Both are doing great with lifting and turning their heads during tummy time.
So, I think that's about as much as I know now. Another update in a month!

So, I've jumped on the blogging bandwagon. (Thanks Cynthia!) Not sure how active I'll be but at I'll at least give a monthly update on the boys.
I already have 6 months worth of blogs to copy over here.