Household happenings - 4 months

Just a basic update on life around here as the girls cross over the 4 month mark.

They had their 4 month pediatrician check up and things are good!

Christina - Weighed in at 10lbs 5.5oz, length was 22 3/4 inches.  She's still below the 5th percentile but her rate of growth and weight gain is right on target, she just started so far behind that she's likely to remain below the chart for quite a while.  She's generally healthy, but she's developed a flat spot on the right side of her head.  We're supposed to encourage her to look to the left whenever she's lying or sitting against something.  So far, we're not having much luck.  I see her sleeping in her swing and her head is always turned to the right which will make the flat spot worse.  I have a call in to the pediatrician for hints on how to even this out without waking her up by turning her head left every time she takes a nap.

Charlotte - Weighed in at 11lbs 6.5oz, length was 23 inches.  Woot!  She's actually on the chart at the 5-10th percentile!  Everything is normal so not much to report.

We're going to stop using the Neosure and just have them on straight breast milk for the next month.  The doctor gave us a weight target to check when that month is up to make sure that they are growing fine without the extra calories.  Going to straight breast milk is going to make life easier around here.  I can make up bottles immediately with pumped milk rather than store it in the fridge waiting to be mixed with the Neosure.

We've also taken Tina off of her acid medication.  What we thought was reflux might have just been a constant overtired from sleeping in her swing instead of getting proper naps.  So we'll see how she does and if she's still having issues next week, we'll call the doctor about trying a different medication because I don't think the one she was on was doing anything.  But lets wait and see if proper naps and plain breast milk makes for a happier baby.

The harness is still a pain in the butt.  We're a little over halfway through the treatment.  It should be taken off on Halloween.  I can't wait to get this stupid thing off of her!  She's become slightly more cranky since putting it on and I don't blame her.  She can't really move her legs a whole lot, the straps might rub her from time to time, and it's just annoying.  When she's cranky, we'll rub her feet and squeeze her legs in case they have fallen asleep.  Her feet almost seem to have "off" buttons on them.  We squeeze them and the crying tends to stop.

In personality news, Tina is the moodier of the two.  She is far more giggly and has the bigger grin, but she also gets far more cranky.  Once over tired sets in, life is hell and she goes from giggly to over tired in the blink of an eye.  Charlotte seems to cruise more the middle of the mood spectrum.  She has her very giggly and cranky moments, but in general she's just content.  Tina hates all pacifiers, Charlotte loves her wubbanub.

Sleep training is going about to be expected.  Some good nights, some bad nights.  Last night started out sucky.  It took a couple of hours to get them down which finally happened about 10:30.  We were woken up at 2am, fed both while I pumped (I now have a portable pump for when I really need to help K out) and we were back in bed by 2:30.  Then a phone call woke us up at 9am!!!  Followed shortly by the girls of course.  But 6.5 straight hours!!!  So what started sucky ended really well.

Tonight my parents babysat and I was really concerned about the night off from the consistent schedule.  But when someone offers to babysit for 4 hours, once a week, every week so you can have a date night, you take them up on it.  So we come in at 9:30pm and it's quiet.  Wow, quiet, in my house!  I turn the corner, and I see Charlotte in her play thingy on a pillow, watching TV upside down, sucking on the wubbanub like there's no tomorrow.  My parents are on the couch, and Tina is on my moms lap, also looking at the TV like she's hypnotized.  *sigh*  Oh well.  I knew I would give up on the whole "tv is evil!!!" notion eventually, but I was hoping to hold out longer than 4 months.  Fuck it.  If it makes them happy, I'll let them look at the pretty lights from time to time.  But no Spongebob!  That's friggin annoying.  The kids can watch the Food Network and Rachel Maddow with us.  Not so flashy and we like listening to it.

And tonight, we did bath time around 10pm, and I'm writing this at 10:30pm with 2 sleeping babies.  Maybe 10:30 is their natural bed time.  Good lord I hope so.  That would fit in with this family so well if that's the right time for them to go to bed.

Let's see, what else.  Oh, I went through many, many hand me downs and pulled out the 3m size because at 4 months, the girls are finally growing out of newborn size.  Yup, those are my itty bittys!

Charlotte grabbed a toy today!  In her play mat thingy, she grabbed the hanging rattle on purpose!  So that's new.

Oh yeah, and the other day, the girls finally understood the existence of the other.  I think I got the moment, or at least one of the first moments when they looked at each other with real comprehension.

And this picture is just because I love it.  It's my hubby and his mini me.

One more picture.  A picture I wouldn't usually post, but there's that blog post making the rounds right now about how we moms need to get our fat asses into the pictures so that our adult children will have evidence of our loving them as little ones.  So, here's a picture of me with my kids.  This is the real me folks, dirty hair, jammies, plopped on my couch.  I'm not usually one for a big cheesy grin, but so far every other picture I have of me with my kids is me looking down at them.  Even in this series of pics, the one I would normally choose is the one where I'm looking at the kids instead of the camera, but I figured it was almost a joke at this point so I'm posting the big cheesy grin pic.  Be kind.

Just this moment I realized that Tina in the above picture and me in this picture, head cocked the same way... same grin....  Ok, sorry, didn't have anywhere to go with that observation.  Carry on.