Twinsies 3 Months

You know you are the 3rd and 4th children when your first update is three months in! With the 1st and 2nd it was definitely the first month. Sorry kiddos! You are loved just as much, but just leave me with much less time to write. Oh well, it is totally worth it.

First off- we survived!

I might even say thrived. Not that we didn't have hard hours, days and weeks but we are settled into being a family of 6 and loving it!

Can I just say I have good babies? They are truly wonderful at doing everything they are supposed to do- eating, sleeping, pooping and playing. Besides a few small hiccups, it has all been grow and go.

Even early on, these sweet girls only got up once a night to eat (around 1:00am) which moved to 4:00am or later by 2 months and 8 hours in between feedings by three months. When people would ask if we are getting sleep, I could honestly always say yes. Even when I got up in the middle of the night or 4:00am, I didn't mind it. When it took up to 2 hours, it was difficult but there is something about loving on and growing your babies in the still of the night. I knew it wouldn't last long and now that it's gone, I miss it. I even miss their loud squeaks and grunts from early on. Now, they are so quiet and still I need to poke them just to make sure they are okay. I'm holding on to the ever shortening time I have with them in our room.

I breastfed Waverly in the hospital and attempted to with Esme but she was unable to latch. When we got home, both were bottle fed and were quickly up to 4 ounces. Maybe because of their prematurity, but their eating habits have been a bit off since they were born. Waverly, my good nursing baby is lazy as all get out at eating. Esme, would couldn't be bothered most of the time, guzzles the entire bottle- no stopping to burp- so she can get on with life and back to sleep (she is our super sleeper). In the first few months we had the usual- projectile pike and Esme had some trouble with excess phlegm which made it tough for her to breath, suck and swallow at the same time but thankfully, it didn't last. She still protests eating at times but not too loud or too long.

Pooping- no issues at all. These girls have no trouble making it or getting it out, haha.

Early on, everyone asked if we could tell the girls apart by personality and I usually said no. It was typical baby stuff, however, the twin connection was something completely new to us. As crazy first timers, we had not anticipated the true bond that they have. The girls refused to sleep or be away from each other for any extended period of time which led to me sleeping with them on the couch for the first couple of weeks. Me, curled up and both of them swaddled and put in a boppy pillow together. It was one of the most precious things I have ever seen. I took a million pictures. Eventually, they grew and were no longer comfortable in one boppy or bouncer. That was when we moved them to rock and plays in our room. When they would cry or fuss and we couldn't figure out why, we would put them together and immediately they would calm. Like at the first time at the pediatricians. It was feeding time and we had to get them dressed and undressed. Nothing worked but being together. They stopped crying and snuggled up to each other. No surprise for the girls who held hands immediately after birth. They still love to be touching or with each other most of the time.

Now that the girls are a little bit bigger, we can really see their personalities come to life. They are so cute and funny but I am biased. Esme is my sweet quiet girl. She was baby A who was totally smushed in my belly from her sister cuddling up to her and she still doesn't mind it on the outside. She is softspoken and smiles at just about everything from getting her diaper changed to talking with her big sisters. Since she takes little time to eat, she is held less but it content to play footsies with Mommy while she waits. Very little bothers her but when she is sad there are real tears. She loves to be held and snuggled and will almost immediately fall asleep.

Waverly looks for Ezzie and still likes to fall asleep on her shoulder but has a different approach to life. Waverly is loud and funny! She loves to talk (loudly) to anyone who will listen and will wait intently for you to respond to her. She has the sweetest giggle and squeal. Like her sister, she is a happy girl but when she is upset she is angry. Her big sisters have taken to calling her the angry elf when this happens.

Both girlies love walks and their play mat. They both enjoyed their first family vacation to Cape May, where they got lots of loving from their Grandparents and started sleeping through the night! They also love their big sisters that love to help and constantly dote on them. From the early days, the bigs have helped feed, wash, snuggle and in most other ways care for their little sisters. They are awesome helpers and never pass up a time to cuddle them.

I think I allowed myself to envision worst case scenarios of chaos and disorder when I imagined our life with 4 kids and have been pleasantly surprised at how we have found out rhythm. This is our new normal and it is hard to remember what life was like before we doubled the amount of kids we have. Don't get me wrong, things are crazy. Hubby was offered a new job the day I was induced and started a few weeks after. This has meant little to no time off when we had anticipated a long summer paternity leave. We've had family and friends help out which is wonderful but still not what we had originally planned. It has been hard. Really hard some days to have big kids on a newborn schedule. Early on this meant feeding the babies on my own for 1-1.5 hours every 3 hours while trying to keep the big girls occupied. This has gotten better as I've learned how to make this work and hubby had been given two mornings a week of time with us until the end of the summer.

Four kids are a tremendous amount of work. Twins on their own are! I find myself with not enough hours in the day and am bone tired when I crawl into bed. However, I want to get up and do it all over again every day. I see my babies growing and my big babies learning and loving and laughing and I remind myself that it is okay that this summer wasn't what we had planned. We didn't plan on having twins but look how amazing they are. We didn't plan on having 4 kids but they are each absolutely incredible in their own ways. This is a priviledge and I wouldn't trade this crazy, silly, messy life for anything else in the world.