A new phase

Would you believe it?  Ethan and Sydney are 7 months old today.  They are getting so big.  In fact, they were weighed again today and Ethan gained another pound in 2 weeks and Syd gained 12 oz.  We were thrilled - wish there was a 'bigger' word than that.  They are now exactly 1 lb apart.

Sydney: 14 lbs 2 oz

Ethan: 13 lbs 2 oz

While Doug slept in last week, the three of us made him some waffles.  The part I want to make sure I include is that he was up burping Ethan while I went back to bed earlier that morning.

We took a hike last Saturday to another waterfall.  Doug wanted to climb up to the top with them in these carriers...crazy man.  I vetoed the idea - at least for me joining him.

Doug's sister, Jenn, came into town this past weekend.  We were so excited to see her.  Pretty sure E & S were sad to see her go because she is so fun to play with.

Doug's neice, Erika, has come over for a few days to help me so I can work on my real estate license.  She has been so good with E & S.  They have really enjoyed her and I think she has had some fun as well.  School is back in tomorrow - bummer.

There is something magical about finally understanding a baby's schedule and routine. It's too bad it's short-lived! One recent change around here is that Ethan is all about touching Sydney. Where he grabs and pinches us, he is so soft and tender with his sister. Wish I'd caught all of them, but here's a few.

Doug and I were laughing so hard at this one.  He planted a kiss on his sister - right on the mouth!  We knew because we didn't realize that he had spit up...so she had the mark to prove that he'd hit the target.  So, so funny.

He has been loving feet since his brace is now part-time.  He not only loves his feet, but I think he loves Syd's just as much.  He got them a few times in his bumbo, but it took a lot of work.  Notice that we mixed up the colors?  Ethan looks so cute in his sister's pink bumbo, don't you think? 

Sydney is a good sport with him always wanting to 'connect' with her but she does have her limits.  Meanwhile, if she touches Ethan (even a brush against his ear) when he isn't prepared for it, he gets so upset.  Talk about personality.

Life is a party with these two - never a dull moment.  Sometimes I crave a dull day, but lately a dull NIGHT.

Confession

Ethan's eating has stressed me out since the first day he came home from the NICU. He has been really spitty, fussy, a lazy eater, and he beats me up during the feeding/burping routine. I am covered in scratches from my face to my belly. Even at 6 1/2 months, we burp him for at least 1 hour after every feeding. It's getting so very old!

After his last weight check, I became more stressed and frustrated. All this work feels like an up-hill battle, but he still wasn't gaining sufficient weight. Feeding these two babies has been one of the hardest things I've ever done. I have moments where it's so worth it and moments where...it's so NOT worth it.

The nurse from the county came back at my request 2 weeks after she weighed them last--just to see if he'd gained weight. We consulted with a few people - their pediatrician, the county nurse, and the occupational therapist from their NICU stay. Here are the changes we made:

- Add 4 T of rice cereal to his 6 oz bottle. It's like sludge. The occupational therapist believes he has reflux and he's not getting enough milk from me - so he is hungry a lot. This has helped.

- Don't let him cry himself to sleep any more - for the time being. We rock him, well bounce him to sleep every time. This is to help him conserve his calories. He fusses really hard when we let him cry in his bed.

- Give him 2 fortified bottles per day instead of just the 1 we've been doing. Which means I pump more.

Well, the results were in on Monday afternoon. He gained 12 ounces in 2 weeks! He is back on the growth curve.

Sydney, on the other hand, only gained 5 oz. I'd been working so hard to get Ethan's weight up that she suffered a bit. I have to pump about 12 times per day to get the 18.5 oz I need to get to feed them their bottles. I come up short almost every day and we thaw from frozen milk.

My question: Why is this so stressful? It has put me over the top countless times when I don't have enough milk for them. I've fed them for 6.5 months but it looks like we may have to start supplementing with some formula for a bottle or so a day because our frozen stash is almost out. I've shed too many tears to count over this and last night I realized that it's not worth all the stress. I've accepted the fact that I will be supplementing their feedings with a little formula while continuing to feed/pump/feed/pump etc. I finally don't feel like I will have a meltdown over this. Love that feeling.

Countdown is over

Boy are we excited to see these shoes empty this morning...

Dr. Faux looked at Ethan's foot this morning and said the correction was perfect and he was ready to move to night and nap-time for his brace. I think I was grinning from ear-to-ear the entire conversation. It brings tears to my eyes thinking about how much he will love it. He loves to move and has been trying to scoot around but the brace makes it difficult. When we took his brace off to show the doctor, he had a sore on his foot that looked like the laces had pinched his skin - so glad that will be less common! We have loved working with Dr. Faux (and will continue to see him until Ethan turns 3). We go back in 3 months to make sure that he hasn't regressed at all. He told us that he wished all the kids he treated had corrected as well as Ethan has (his foot it really flexible and easy to move where other kids, the foot is still really stiff). I told him it is probably because he never stops moving!

I asked Dr. Faux to take a photo with Ethan. I'll post this one for your benefit as it's not my favorite shot of myself. :)

We also asked Dr. Faux about his 4th toe on his clubbed foot. The toe curls in toward the 3rd toe with the nail facing the other toe. We thought it was because of the casts he wore when he was so little. He said it is called a 'curly toe' and that it is a genetic defect that is most often not corrected because it isn't a problem for walking. He said they sometimes operate when the kids are teenagers by removing part of the tendon under the toe and moving it to the top of the toe to straighten it. Bummer that it doesn't fix itself. I enlarged the photo to so you could see it.

Here is a video I shot when we first got home of Ethan's first time playing without his brace for a little while.

I took a few photos last week that I am going to tack on to this post. Here is a shot of me burping them after eating. I finally worked a way to move them both into this sitting position by myself.

This is a (cute) shot of me in their play gym with them last week reading them a book. I was laughing so hard at myself when I crawled under the toys. They seemed to enjoy it.

I've been trying to post a cute video from earlier in the week and it finally uploaded! See below:

Hey there sister, I love you.

It's funny. I have had this nagging worry (I have discovered that I am a really great worrier) that Ethan and Sydney may not be the best of friends. Ethan has whacked Sydney a few times in the last week - twice in the head and one of those broke the skin. She is pretty mild and relaxed while Ethan is intense and constantly moving.

Doug ran for the video camera today and caught their best interaction we've seen so far on video. We were thrilled to watch them smile and 'talk' to each other. After the video was over, it seemed like Ethan wanted her to look at him again and was touching the crown of her head until she looked at him. We loved it and thought we'd share.

These days are getting more fun all the time. It seems like everyday I say, "he/she/they have never done that!" For example, yesterday Sydney conquered that little arm underneath her to make the complete roll onto her belly. Now that's all she wants to do...rock and roll. Here is a great video of her giggling with her dad. It seems a light-switch was turned on with her in the past week or two and she's catching up with her brother developmentally with laughing, rolling, 'talking', and grabbing at toys.

6 Months!

I can't believe our little babies are 6 months old! My friend, Kayla of Simply You Photography, helped us mark the day with some photos. She did an amazing job and took just under 700 photos (mostly because we had two babies to make smile at the same time). Thank you Kayla. Also, thanks to Doug's nieces, (Heather, Erika, and Nikki) who came to help get their attention.

Here are some of our favorites. We decided that we have pretty photogenic kids and think they are pretty adorable...but we're pretty biased.