First weekend away....

I can do this, right??? How can I do this is the question. Will they forget me? Forget who I am? Should I record tapes of me singing and talking? Should I make a daily video of myself for them? I jest. Although I am going to LOVE going to Chicago with my hubby. I must admit I am a little afraid. I haven't been away from my babies for anything longer than 6 hours. But I am confident I can do it. I'll just expect my in laws to send my pictures on an hourly babies is all. Then I think I can manage. I am excited, though. We are going up for a dear friend's wedding. He is Indian, and is marrying an Indian, so it is a true Indian wedding, with all kinds of fabulous traditions. I am really excited about it. Poor Jake, though. It's his first Father's Day, and he's pretty upset about missing it. We don't get home until late Sunday. However, I have a surprise for him that will hopefully help make him happy. (I'll share that later).

So...here we go. How does a breastfeeding mom of two do a trip out of town you ask? Well, my freezer is stocked full of milk. Also, I am carrying on my old trusty pump. I also have been stocking up on water bottles (washed of course). I decided to go this route over the breast milk storage bags. I find that they develop holes and they DO leak, even though they say they don't. (I have wasted many a bags this way, which made me cuss a lot). I plan on pumping, then putting milk in each water bottle until it fills up. Then either icing them down in the bathroom sink or hopefully will have a fridge in the room. Then I am going to carry it all on board the plane on my trip back. I have one of those grocery freezer bags that supposedly works fabulously. This all seems very confusing and cumbersome, and believe me, it is. And don't even get me started on WHEN I will actually pump. I haven't thought that through yet. Being in a busy city, you don't always go to your hotel quite that often. Have to make exceptions though!!

So,please say a prayer that I will get through this weekend refreshed, enlightened, and back to babies that missed me terribly.

We're five months old!!

Week 19-20 Slideshow

Pool-time fun

Well, being that we live in the south, I couldn't wait to get these babies in the water. This mama loves her pool time. We are going to forget about the fact that #1: I shant be ever relaxing with a book by the water again, and #2: that this body isn't quite ready for ole swimsuit season yet.

Anyway, we decided to take a chance again at the water. While we were in Knoxville on Memorial Day weekend, the babes got in for maybe two minutes, and screamed the whole time. It was so bizarre. They LOVE baths, so I didn't understand why they were not happy in the water. I just told myself that maybe it was because it was dusk and colder outside, which made it really cold in the water.

Well, we went again last weekend to Old Natchez and tried again - and they loved it!! As soon as we put Josh in his float, he laid back and just started kicking. Jules cried at first, then realized it was just like a big bath and started kicking like crazy. They lasted an hour! Which is very long in baby time. I definitely think I have water bugs!

Here is our first foray into the water:

And our second: (can someone please tell me how I can avoid taking a million pictures every time I get them in a pool? Because I might run out of memory or my camera. Its nearly impossible)

17-18 Week Slideshow

I have really slacked on this. They have been on the slideshow forever, I just can't remember to post it!!

Our first trip to the zoo!!

We went to the zoo for the first time weekend before last (sorry for the lack of posting). My sister, AKA Aunt Ginny always does crazy, nutty things for her birthday. She tried to make it as kid focused as possible (for her, not actual "kids"). One year we all went paint-balling, another we were skating, we've also done a carnival at her house, along with a dunking booth, jugglers, and face painting. And no, she's not 5. This year, my 30 year old sister wanted to have her party at the Knoxville Zoo. So, off we went. The babies had a GREAT time. And by GREAT time I mean that they fell asleep soon after we walked through the zoo gates. Josh stayed put in the stroller for the duration, but Ms. Fussy pants decided she would rather be held the last third of our zoo journey.

Anyway, here we go!

20 Weeks - Update on the Babes

20 Weeks Old!

Lots going on this week! Based on my goals from my last update, we are doing "ok", not perfect by any means, but ok! Since I read ALL THE TIME about babies, I know know we are going through what is called a "Wonder Week". Wonder Weeks are "eight major, predictable, age-linked changes during the first year". We have just gone through the Week 19 of Wonder Weeks. It is really crazy how spot on this research is. Their appetite is off, they are more clingy, more fussy, sleeping/napping may be off, etc. AFTER this leap, though they calm back down. And seriously, its like all of a sudden they are so much smarter babies.

Feedings: Still trying to keep up with them. Fenugreek is helping a little, but not much. I can tell the biggest difference in my morning pumps (7-8 hour stretch). Even though it takes forever, I am getting close to 24 ounces, which is nuts! They are still taking 6-6.5 ounces/bottle. They have started on cereal at night though, which has helped. They love it. Jules is eating rice cereal, while Josh is on oatmeal. (Rice makes his tummy hurt). We are close to introducing more foods shortly. I HATE depleting my frozen milk though. I am like a squirrel storing my nuts with those things.

Waketime/Napping: Ugggg, we have gone backwards here, and slowly progressing forward. I have adjusted their schedule so they are eating every 3.5 hours (moving towards a 4) and so their naps have suffered as we are adjusting their eating and wake times. Plus, we have dropped the fourth nap, which has created some difficulty as well. The first nap is about 1.5 hours, the second is probably 45 minutes, and the third is 30! Yikes!!

Nightime: We are still doing good here. I must say that its harder with two babies. I am DYING to let them CIO during their "middle-of-the-night" stirrings, or their early waking stirrings, but I am so terrified of the waking the other one up, so we are still going in and putting their paci. I really wish I didn't have to do it, but I have no other ideas. So, we are still sleeping 7:30-7:30, with a dreamfeed and a couple of paci moments. Still not too shabby. I think back to those early days and I shudder. I am working on dropping the dreamfeed. I read to move it back every few days as well as decresing the amount. So, we are doing 5 oz at 9:30 (instead of 10) now.

Our Schedule: New schedule! Its been a little hard to get used to.

7:30 (sometimes 7) - feed/wake
9:00 - nap (hopefully 1.5-2 hours, but that never happens)
10:30 - feed (this one is 3 hours still)
12:00 - nap (again, hoping for the best here)
2:00 - feed
3:30 - nap (this one is just horrible)
5:30 - feed
6:30 - baths
7:00 - cereal and "some" bottle
7:30 - bedtime
9:30 - dreamfeed

Outing/Events: We went again to Knoxville for my sister's 30th birthday party. We all went to the zoo for a few hours, then had a big pool party. The babes did great at the zoo. I was afraid of them being too hot, and they were, but were also fine. Jules made it almost to the end and demanded to be held (of course). Josh did great though. They napped some too. I took the MacLaren stroller, not the stupid snap-n-go. They also were in the pool for the first time! They hated it, so literally were only in there for 2 minutes. Not sure that was worth the 30 minutes of "changing into swimsuit, putting on little swimmers diapers, getting pool accessories, in water, out of water, take of little swimmers, dry off, dry swim suit, change diaper, put clothes back on". Better get used to this right?

Diet: Haven't checked in a while. Now that school is out (woohoo) I will be going to the gym more!

Milestones: So many! Josh is officially swaddle-free! Woohoo! However, he now likes to sleep face-down, which terrifies me. We took out his sleep positioner wedge out, because he was scooting down anyway. We also took the bumper out of his crib, but still...As soon as you put him down, he flips right over, which is bizarre to me. He has literally spent the first 19 weeks of his life knowing only to sleep on his back, then-bam - on his tummy. We are now on foods, which is exciting. Just cereal, but I will probably add something more in the next few weeks. Jules all of a sudden is just dying to crawl. She flips back and forth from her tummy to back all the time. She'll be on her tummy and just gets so mad when she doesn't go anywhere. They both push up great on their arms and kick their legs, there is just no movement yet (which I should be thankful for now, LOL) They are really good at sitting up with a little help, so it won't be long before they are doing that too. They are both using the Jumperoo and Exersaucer, even though Jules still can't touch the floor very well. They both just smile and smile and smile, and are truly happy babies.