Time flies

OMG - where has the time gone?! I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted - I'm so sorry! A few details to get everyone up to speed, and I'll post more often after this, I promise.

The boys are now 7.5 months old and...

...are rolling like mad devils - no crawling yet, although Will is starting to give it a determined effort.

...both have two bottom teeth - and whew, teething is a rough time! And everything goes in the mouth now.

...have been eating solids since they were 5 months old. I intended to wait until 6 months but they had other ideas - so far they love everything they've tried except for avocado, prunes and peas.

...have been wearing their 9 month clothing for about 3 weeks now (*sniff* my boys are growing up so fast!).

...are really into each other as playmates...and for hair pulling. About 15 times a day, I have to pry one boy's hand off the other boy's head while hysterical crying fills the air. Mmmhmm.

...love noisy toys and books - Will is all about squeaks, rattles and songs while Dash will sit holding a book for ages and cries if he sees one nearby that he's not allowed to have.

...and now Dash has woken up crying from his nap, so I've got to run. *sigh* A mama's work is never done!

Rollin' rollin' rollin'...

We have rollers! Well, one, at any rate. Will is all over the back-to-front rolling and Dash is nearly there. Interestingly, neither have rolled front-to-back yet - they're just kind of like, "Eh, why bother?"

To be honest, I've been wondering when they'd start rolling since most of the milestone charts show babies rolling from front-to-back at around 3 months. I know all babies are different and that those are just averages and don't really mean anything - plus multiples often lag a bit behind developmentally since they don't get the one-on-one time that a single baby does - but of course there's that teensy bit of your brain that worries ever so slightly when a milestone date comes and goes.

It's so amazing to watch my little dudes grow and develop - it seems like they do something new every day! 

Daycare, schedules, and life returning to normal

I am a working mom.

I work because I have to. Because there is absolutely no way we could afford to live on what my husband makes alone. I also work because I want to. I enjoy my job (most days!), and I think I might go nuts if I didn't have some adult interaction and intellectual stimulation every day.

My maternity leave was 12 weeks long - over half of it unpaid. Last fall, we researched daycares, and in December, we put down a deposit to hold a spot at the one we liked. We're lucky we found a place we liked that was convenient. We live downtown in one of the larger American cities, and it's not exactly full of young married couples with kids. In our building, there is one other baby besides Baby Citysaur, and one toddler. Fortunately, there are over a 100,000 people who work in the urban core of our city, and some of those folks like to have their kids nearby at daycare. So where we live, there are around 4 church-affiliated daycares and 1 non-church-affiliated daycare. Since neither of us is very religious, we went with that one.

So when we put down our deposit, we reserved a spot for June, since that's when we estimated I would return to work. We were second on the list for June. Baby came...and we waited on word of our spot. April came and went...then into May. Finally, we were nearing June...and I got the call. There would NOT be a spot for us in June. We were told it would be "mid to late July" before a spot would be available.

Of course this sent us scrambling for other arrangements - for 6-8 weeks! Fortunately, Mr. Citysaur was able to switch shifts at work, and he began working Friday through Monday. I was able to work out a deal with my boss so that I only worked 4 days a week - Tuesday through Friday. And on that one day when we both worked, it just so happened that my mom didn't work - so she watched Baby Citysaur on Fridays! This arrangement wasn't perfect (I really missed seeing my husband, since we didn't get any days off together!) - but it worked.

So we chugged on through, playing tag-team parenting and handing off the kid each day. In some ways, it was nice. I did love those 3-day weekends, and all that time with my precious baby boy. But I really missed my husband, and having time together as a family.

Finally, in mid-July, we got another call from daycare - this time with good news! We'd have a spot open on August 2nd. Hooray! There was much rejoicing in the Citysaur household!

So now we've had a week of daycare. Baby Citysaur is doing great! He hasn't had any issues with napping, which was my biggest concern. The teachers rave about him, and I only cried a little bit that first morning. He's the youngest baby in his class right now - so he'll be watching those other babies and learning from them, hopefully!

And we're wrapping up our first weekend together as a family since I went back to work in June. It's been really nice. I'm so glad for things to be returning to normal. And I can tell the baby is glad too. He was soo happy and smiley this weekend - even more than usual!

Here's my little cutie, just a couple of weeks ago. I can't believe he'll be five months old next week!

Losing it

My hair, that is. I knew this would happen, but it's still alarming to see fistfulls of hair on my brush every day...especially since I've never had particularly thick hair anyway (even when pregnant). Still, I feel like one of these days I'm going to wake up looking like this:

And trust me, I do NOT have the skull to pull that off!

When will it end???

Four Things

1. Will and Dash turned 12 weeks old on Wednesday. 12 weeks! Where has the time gone? They're turning into such big boys (they're over 14lbs each now!) - I was looking at their newborn photos the other day and couldn't believe how tiny they used to be. *sigh*

2. My little dudes are sleeping through the night! And by that, I don't just mean the technical definition of 5-6 hours at a stretch, I mean from 11pm-8am. They've done it every night for over a week now so I feel confident in saying it's turned into a habit and isn't a fluke...oh, and it is faaaaaabulous! Between an incredibly uncomfortable pregnancy and the normal sleep deprivation that comes with twin newborns, I had literally not slept that long in over nine months. BLISS!

3. I think I've mentioned that my mother came to visit us from the USA (we live in Australia) for 2 weeks back in May, and my father and stepmom just left this morning after also visiting for two weeks. It's been so good to see everyone - I hadn't seen any of my family members in several years - and I'm thrilled that they could meet our boys, but I'm also so sad that they had to go, especially since I know it will likely be at least 2 years before I see any of them again.

4. A word of warning: when you are holding your baby to your chest, and he looks up lovingly into your eyes then barfs down your shirt, if you're wearing a tank top with a built-in shelf bra, it will hold the puke like a soup bowl. So.Freaking.Gross.

4 months already?!

My baby Benjamin...you turned 4 months old yesterday! These last four months have been incredible, amazing, a bit trying, but so wonderful. Daddy and I are working out our issues and learning how to be parents together, which isn't always easy. But you make it so worth it!

So, what are you up to these days?

*You looove chewing your hands. Can't get enough of them. I know you'd love it if you could just stuff that whole fist in your mouth.

*You're still exclusively breastfed, even though Mommy has been back at work for over a month now. I have to pump three times a day to make sure you get enough to eat, but so far, it's going well.

*You're generally a pretty good sleeper. We stopped swaddling you several weeks ago, and you didn't mind at all. You'll take naps in your crib, but I don't think either of us are ready for you to sleep there all night yet. Right now, you're still sleeping in the co-sleeper bassinet next to Mommy's side of the bed.

*You're a very happy baby! You love to smile, and I've gotten you to laugh a few times. You're still very stingy with the laughs, but the smiles come all the time now - even first thing in the morning. I love how you wake up happy!

*Daddy weighed you the other day on the bathroom scale, and we think you're close to 14 pounds. We'll find out for sure on Monday, at your 4-month appointment. You'll get more vaccinations then too. You did great with your 2-month shots, so I hope you do equally well this time.

*Your favorite thing to do is stand up. We still have to hold you steady, but your strong little legs can bare all your weight no problem.

*You hate tummy time, but we make you do it anyway. Your arms are still a bit weak, especially compared to your superbabylegs, but we're working on it. You've rolled over a few times, but I think it's just because you were on an uneven surface. Still waiting to see a real "rollover".

*You have your entire family wrapped around your finger. They all adore you, and why wouldn't they? You're the cutest baby ever! (Daddy and I agree on this).

I love you so much, Benjamin, and I truly enjoy watching you grow up and learn about the world around you.

Love,
Mommy

Twinshock

My boys are nine weeks old today. Nine weeks! It seems like they were born only yesterday, but here they are now, nearly double their birthweights and wearing clothes that are two sizes bigger. I'm so immensely proud of them, so happy to have them in my life. They bring joy to every single day, even the hard ones...but it wasn't always like that.

I can't even begin to describe the first week at home after we left the hospital. No really, I can't. It was such a fog of hormones and sleep deprivation that I don't even remember it. I do remember turning to Mr Bibliosaur at one point, tears streaming down my face, and asking, "What have we done?" I know that sounds terrible. It wasn't that I didn't love our children, but I was so incredibly overwhelmed by...well, by everything. By the massive hormonal shifts that were happening in my body, by not getting more than 30 minutes of sleep at a time, by the overpowering neediness of the two babies that were suddenly in my life. In desperation, I picked up my twin book and discovered there was a word to describe this: twinshock. It's what happens when it all suddenly hits home.

It helped that my mother flew to Australia from the USA, arriving after we'd been home just a few days and stayed with us for a couple of weeks; even though she'd never had multiples of her own, she had given birth to and raised three children and her experience and advice were invaluable, and Mr Bibliosaur and I grew more confident by the day. And then she went back to the States. And Mr Bibliosaur, who had taken a month off, had to go back to work. And I was home. Alone. With two babies.

I was terrified. How could I even begin deal with this? What would I do when they needed to be fed at the same time? What about if they both started crying at the same time? I'm not a baby person - I never babysat as a teen, never even interacted a great deal with my friends' children until they were toddlers. What did I know about parenting infants? Nothing! The twinshock returned in full force, and I was shaking hard when I kissed Mr Bibliosaur goodbye the morning he returned to work. I turned to face my two 4-week-old children, uncertain how we'd make it through the next eight hours. And yet somehow we did. I cried with relief when Mr Bibliosaur arrived home that night, but at the same time I felt a surge of hope - we'd managed to survive a day! I had no idea how we'd make it through the rest of the week, but we could at least make it through one day.

The same thing happened the next day, and the next, and by the fourth day I was starting to feel better - more clear headed, more confident. I'd worked out my preferred method of feeding them both at once, and luckily for me they seldom fussed at the same time. Since then, things have gotten easier every day, taking a huge turn for the better at around six weeks when the boys dropped one of their nighttime feedings and started sleeping for slightly longer at night; and now at nine weeks, I feel like an old pro. The twinshock has long since worn off, and although I still get nervous occasionally when I need to take them somewhere that's crowded and busy, on the whole I feel happy and confident about my ability to care for them. 

So if you've just had twins and are feeling overwhelmed...hang in there, OK? It will get better - I promise!