An actual post...

I AM alive. Our children are great and we are somehow in a routine. Granted it's a routine that ebbs and flows, but still, it's a routine. It feels like we "worked it out" with the girls, and less like it's something we imposed on them.

Around 9ish, tonight it is 8:30 we feed them in their car seats (love the person that invented the rocking car seat) and they fall asleep. We bring them into the bedroom in their car seats and they sleep until midnight, minimum. Last night I think they slept till 3am, which is rare. One of them cries out, squirms and coos loudly and we rise to meet them. Kate or I put on bottles (in water we heat in a pot)and then feed them a bottle (usually 3/4 or less). They usually get sleepy and then we swaddle them in the Miracle Blankets (Miracle is too strong a word for sure) and lay them in the co-sleeper crib next to our bed. They sleep until 6-7am most days.

Not very exciting, but our first routine no less. It's organic in how it came to be, which I like. Basically, it serves the girls best, but also works well for my lady and me.

Check out the picture above with the girls in their black glam onesies. Ruby Faye is on the left. Look closely at her left hand. That's my girl!

My new favorite picture...

Grandma Cheryl took this one!

Old hardwood floors and sleeping babies

So we are renting a cute little bungalow from a friend of ours at this time who is generous enough to give us a deal on the rent. We may be here a while.
Anyway, the house has hardwoods and of course we love hardwood floors. We had stained concrete in our house in Richardson. After two years we decided to never do stained concrete again. It's too cold and hard. Wood floors are the way to go, although I do like a nice berber carpet in the bedroom. Kate does not. When we build our dream house maybe we'll flip a coin.

In this house, it's all hardwoods. Old pine hardwoods that are charming. Except...
with sleeping infants. Our babies primarily sleep in a co-sleeper next to our bed. Most nights our routine is like this: feed babies, burp babies, stare and ooh an awe at babies for a while, drink a glass of wine or two, bathe babies (every other night), swaddle babies (Matt's job), play the YouTube of Hush Little Baby by the Horseflies between 4-8 times, slowly creep back to our bedroom with sleeping babies, set babies in co-sleeper, step away from co-sleeper gingerly.

This is where the problem is. As you step away from the co-sleeper, there is a spot you cannot avoid on the floor, unless you fall back on the bed, that as you are lifting your foot off the floor the floor creaks with the sounds of exploding fireworks. Many if not most times it sounds like a tiny person that lives under the house is shooting a tiny gun rapid fire. This, of course, is most frustrating as the babies will startle and wake up. Thankfully though, they are getting used to the sounds it seems. Less and less do the little firecracker sounds of our wood floors wake them.
Beware the old creaky wood floor with infants.

Grandma Cheryl is coming

Grandma Cheryl is on a flight as we speak. She is going to stay a week with us. She is also coming for Christmas, but she decided she just had to see them now. They have changed so much since she last saw them.

We are thankful and excited about her visit.

First doctor's visit and Mono or Di?

Ruby Faye and Violet had their first doctor's visit two days ago. Everything is perfect and they are now 9lbs each. Violet has passed Ruby Faye in weight, by one once.
We also visited our midwife for the last time and she said they are progressing perfectly as well.
They do have thrush in the their mouths and we are treating it with water and baking soda and a prescribed anti-fungal medication.

The the most important thing we are dealing with now though is that we do not think they are identical. We were told they were because there was only one placenta, but what I have found out is that many times one placenta can actually be confused with two fused together. The thing is that they do not look identical to us. They very clearly look different. So, we are probably going to get DNA testing done.

From what you see in this picture do you think they are identical?

Hush Little Baby

There is a lot of catching up to do on this blog. It's been 7 weeks since Ruby Faye and Violet were born. It seems like a lot longer, honestly.
I am so tired by the time I can write in the evening and thus usually don't. But, here I am. I am not going to get into things too much tonight but I do want to post a song. We have been dancing and singing our babies to sleep with this one every night for the past few nights. After swaddling them, they wrestle like little Houdini wannabes trying to get out of the swaddle. This song has really helped get them to accept the swaddle and sleep.

I love the song obviously, but it has a sadness to it. I was wondering if the singer is singing from the perspective of the little "rich" baby that has a lot of things but still is not happy. What do you think?

New Pictures!

Hey everyone. I just uploaded more pictures. Select the album at the top right.

Cute!

-- M