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| 1st picture: Mary Claire (L) and Elizabeth (R) at 2 weeks, approximately 6.5 & 5.5 lbs 2nd picture: Elizabeth (L) and Mary Claire (R) at 6 weeks, approximately 7 & 9.5 lbs 3rd picture: Elizabeth (L) and Mary Claire (R) at 5 months, approximately 12 & 14 lbs |
We're a little over 5 months into this twin experience, so how about a little update on the twins these days?
Edit: Linking up with Bean in Love for an excuse to show off two of my cute kids - looks like I need a John Paul & Cecilia update, too!
Comparing the pictures of them is kind of awesome - they were terrifyingly skinny at first, being born 3 weeks early and having trouble gaining weight at first. Mary Claire started chunking up but Elizabeth had trouble for a while. She's still on the skinny side, but about as long as Mary Claire now. And all that growth is thanks to me!
Milestones:
Both girls have been rolling front-to-back for a while now, and in the past couple of weeks they (much to my chagrin) started rolling from back to front. They're definitely behind where John Paul and Cecilia were at this point (Cecilia was almost crawling at this age), but that's to be expected with twins. Elizabeth has recently started rolling herself over at night, while swaddled, in her glider and in the swing. Clearly she's capable, she just doesn't feel like doing it a lot while awake.
Both girls have also recently discovered blowing raspberries, which is pretty funny - I've tried to get a video but they won't oblige me yet!
No sign of teeth, thankfully! And sitting up isn't going to happen anytime soon, either.
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| Smile at the same time? |
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| Never! |
Elizabeth's current goal? Crawling/rolling her way off the carpet so she can pee on the floor (she's close!).
Mary Claire's current goal? Getting her toes in her mouth (she's close!).
Likes/dislikes:
Both babies LOVE watching their older brother & sister run and jump around. They are all smiles when being sung to and are big fans of their crinkly peacock and dragonfly toys. They also like spending time in their Jumparoo, which they inherited from John Paul and Cecilia.
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| A sign of future issues with possessiveness? |
Sleep:
They're starting to settle into a naptime schedule - Mary Claire takes two longer naps, Elizabeth takes three shorter naps. When they nap too close to bedtime, it's REALLY hard to get them to sleep. When they're down for the night, Mary Claire sleeps in the crib for 6-9 hours before waking up happy and ready to nurse back to sleep. Elizabeth has been more variable - she's definitely a tougher sleeper, since some nights she's up every 2 hours to nurse, and some she sleeps through for 5-7 hours before needing to nurse. Once they're up, they're usually in bed with us until the morning.
Naptime happens in the swing or in the glider, and sometimes while being worn on our backs. Mary Claire especially has a tendency to fall asleep easily while being worn.
Food:
The twins are still exclusively breastfeeding - not a drop of formula or anything other than mom's milk! Thankfully my body responds very well to my pump and I've got a great supply as long as I eat enough (and for some reason eating enough dairy is REALLY important for my supply in particular). It's tough sometimes to consume the extra calories I need to maintain my supply, but much easier than it was to eat all that extra food when I was pregnant and had no room for it!
We started John Paul and Cecilia on solids when they were 6 months old, taking a baby-led approach (whole foods only, no purees or cereals). The plan is to do the same with Elizabeth and Mary Claire, but it's likely that we'll start later than 6 months to take into account their age. Since it supposedly takes 4-6 months for a baby's gut to be closed enough for solids to be safe, we figure we'll err on the side of caution. Plus, their fine motor skills are nowhere near what John Paul and Cecilia's were at this age, so I don't think they'll be developmentally ready for solids for a while anyway. No need to rush something that's really a lot more work than reward!
When they get started, I'm excited to try them on lots of fresh fruits and veggies from the farmer's market!
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| See how much Cecilia "loved" her first taste of peaches? Yeah, no need to rush :P |
Boring post, I know, but this is basically like my digital baby book because, let's be honest, I never bothered filling out the ones we got for John Paul and Cecilia...
Not boring at all! I love your posts about Mary Claire and Elizabeth!!! I have a fraternal twin sister, and so I know about twinship from that perspective, but I enjoy hearing more about it from a mom's perspective! (Bless her heart, my Mom still rarely tells me the "real" story of raising twins, but after becoming a parent I can begin to guess how much of a challenge and how much work it must have been!) Label as many pictures of them as you can...we were fraternal but even my mom and dad will occasionally get confused when they look at those tiny baby pictures of us after all these years!!
ReplyDeleteHaving a twin sister is the best! Your girls are soooo blessed!
Thank you so much for mentioning how hard it us to eat enough while pregnant with twins!!! This is a serious challenge for me. I feel constantly ill at the thought of more food and still the doctor tells me more! More!! More!!!
ReplyDeleteYour girls are just cute to beat the band. :)
Not boring, fascinating! I am so impressed with you. Nosy, curious question...do you nurse them at the same time, or feed one a bottle of pumped milk, or what? I just remember at that age, with total breastfeeding, when they are hungry, they are hungry, and don't know how mine could have waited 20 minutes for a sister to stop nursing. Also, does one side "belong" to each twin, or do they both nurse from both sides?
ReplyDeleteSorry, this is so nosy, I am just curious!
Oh my goodness! They're so darn cute! I wish our twins could meet! My fave pictures are the top ones! It's so fun to see them fill our their diapers the older they get! I remember how my looked like they were being swallowed by their diapers the first month or so. When you say you're doing a whole food approach, what do you mean? You just cut up fruits and veggies into tiny pieces and hand them over? Sounds so much easier than pureeing everything! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for linking up!!!!!!
Elizabeth's just a fighter. Remember: persistence is a good thing. Or so the parenting experts tell me... :)
ReplyDeleteI hope we feel that way once she hits 2 - persistence is not my favorite right now when it comes to Cecilia's tantrums :P
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