Today my boys turn 5 months old and in the last month, they sure have started acting like little people instead of just baby blobs. I can’t believe how much they are growing and learning. Within the last month we have started a few different things with the boys, two of the biggest are sleep training, which includes scheduled naps in their bed and eating cereal. I’ll have a whole blog post later on sleep training, how we went about doing it, how successful it was, etc. In short, they boys are doing great with their sleeping but there is still some work to be done at nap time.

We started cereal a few weeks ago with Hayden and he just wasn’t ready for it, he kept sticking his tongue out an blocking his mouth as to say “I do not want that, you are not going to put it in my mouth!” So we waited and tried again this past week. We purposely waited until now to start feeding Ian cereal because the pediatrician was she wanted us to wait a little while longer with him due to his reflux and feeding issues. This weekend, both boys actually started eating it and were doing really well. They only eat a little bit at a time, but that’s enough for me. I’m sure they will start to eat more and more as time goes by. If they continue to do well with cereal this week, we may start squash or something else different next week, the possibilities are endless 😉

My Hayden is growing like crazy, it’s hard to believe he was once 4 lbs. He is eating 8 ounces at every feeding and you can tell he likes his food! He is our little one that needs his sleep and will let us know when he hasn’t had enough of it but will fight it to the end until he finally gives in. He has been known to sleep for 2 1/2 hours at nap time.

He has started to grab at things and anytime Presley comes around he reaches out for her. Neither him or Ian are afraid of her and actually love to be around her. He is definitely our tactile one, he loves to touch things and feel their texture. Not only that, but he loves to have human contact. He would sit in your lap or next to you all day long if you let him, he just loves to be with someone else and hates to be alone. Good thing he has a brother and playmate to share a room with 😉

Hayden is doing great at sitting up, with assistance of course – but only minimal assistance now days. He as learned to roll over from his tummy to his back (he was the first one to do this) but hasn’t yet learned how to go from his back to his tummy, although he wants to soooo bad. He is talking and babbling a lot as well as making a lot of new sounds. He has learned how to make bubbles (although I’m not sure he knows what he’s doing) and loves to do that while making some of his new found sounds. Most of the pictures you see of Hayden show his serious side, and he is more serious than Ian, but he is also a very happy baby and loves to laugh and smile.

His hair is finally growing! He’s got quite a bit of it but it is lighter than Ian’s so you can’t see it as well. It is also very coarse where Ian’s is very fine.

Our little Ian is one of the happiest babies I know. He always has a smile on his face or laughing at something. He doesn’t need as much sleep as his brother and usually only naps 45 mins -1 hour, although he has taken a 2 hour nap a few times. He will be happy, talking and laughing one minute and then start fussing the next, and that’s when you know he’s tired. You can sit down with him and 1 minute later he’s out. He usually only fusses for two reasons, he’s hungry or tired. Hayden has always been the snuggle bug but Ian has definitely earned that title as well now. I can’t tell you how many times he has sat in the chair with me just snuggling.

He is doing great at sitting up with assistance as well, and loves to stand up. He has rolled over from his tummy to his back and from his back to his tummy (he was first to do this). He doesn’t roll over a whole lot but will when he wants to. Ian loves to play with his toys and will fall asleep playing in his frog exersaucer (Hayden does this too).

Ian loves to talk, babble, laugh, and makes all kinds of sounds. He’ll just sit there making noises for 10 minutes straight. It never gets old listening to him.

He has found his feet and loves to lay on his back and grab them. He even tries to grab them sitting up! I’m just waiting for him to grab them and try to put them in his mouth. I’m sure once he figures out he can, he will.

He is doing great with his reflux. He remains on Prevacid and Zantac, although we have almost weaned him off the Zantac! We tried this once before and it didn’t work, so we gave it a few months and tried again, so far so good – I hope I didn’t just jinx it!!

I say this every month, but the boys are such a blessing and I thank God every day for them. I think back to this time a year ago when we had just found out we were pregnant, but didn’t know there were two. I recently saw a friend say they prayed for their daughter and their son was a blessing. Well, we prayed for one and were blessed with two! Can’t wait to see what this month brings!

Our once preemie sized, 4 pound babies are now 4 months old…and NOT 4lbs anymore!! They have definitely gown up and filled out. They had a check up last Friday and are doing great. I believe the doctors words for Hayden were “he is perfect”. Hayden weighed in at 16.5 pounds and 23.6 inches and Ian weighed 13.5 pounds and was 23.2 inches long. We are adjusting both of their medications for reflux. We are going to switch Hayden from Zantac to Prevacid and we are keeping Ian on Zantac and Prevacid. The GI doc wanted us to wean him off the Zantac and we did wean him off the morning dose, but he wasn’t doing as well so the pedi said we can put keep him on both meds, just decrease the Zantac dose a little. She said we can start solid food now if we want to but she would probably prefer to wait a little while longer, especially with Ian. Hayden just downed 10 ounces last night before bed so I’m guessing he is going to be ready to start them pretty soon. They got some more shots and this time they definitely protested to let us know they did not appreciate getting poked.

We are still in the process of getting the DocBands for both boys. We are trying to get everything set with our insurance company so we get some of it covered….they are pretty expensive, and we have 2 to pay for. Hopefully in the next month we’ll be able to get them.

Developmentally the boys have started doing so much and are learning new skills daily, it seems. They are becoming a lot more social and they love to laugh and smile! They both absolutely love bath time and splashing around in the water.

They are pretty much used to their bedtime routine now and have been going to bed a whole lot easier within the last month. They are sleeping through the night now…well, they aren’t eating in the middle of the night anymore. They still wake up sometimes, but all we have to do is generally give them their pacifier and they go back to sleep. They eat their last bottle about 8:00 PM and then don’t eat again until 5:00 AM. I’d say we are extremely lucky to have both boys sleeping through the night! Now we just need to work on their nap time.

My little chunky monkey, Hayden is still our snuggle bug. He loves to be held and take a nap in your arms. I am all fine and dandy with that because I love to snuggle with him, but remember the whole thing about him being 16.5 pounds, ya that’s kinda heavy when you’re carrying him around all day!! He also loves to smile and laugh. When this boy smiles, his whole face smiles…his eyes light up and all. Hayden also loves to talk but he doesn’t do it as much as Ian. He will sit and listen to Ian talk most of the time, but once he starts he gets on a roll and will talk your ear off too. While Ian thinks its funny to get his clothes taken off, Hayden simply loves having his clothes off. He loves to be in nothing but a diaper. He is our hot natured boy! If he is fussy and we don’t know why, we just start taking his clothes off and usually he’s happy after that, but not always. Hayden actually rolled over from his tummy to his back for the first time about a week ago. He rolled over and had this big grin on his face…priceless!

My little Ian Bian loves to talk and will talk your ear off. I can’t get enough of it and love to hear all his little noises and sounds he’s learning to make. Ooohhh that hair…he has a natural mohawk, It just stands straight up. There is really nothing we can do with it except give in and make it a stylish mohawk instead of just standing straight up. Ian loves it when you take his clothes off, he just thinks its the funniest thing. He is doing great at sitting up (with assistance of course), but his balance isn’t quite there yet. He wants to roll over so bad, he has started to roll onto his shoulder some but hasn’t quite made it all the way over yet. This boy loves to stand up and look all around. We laugh because he is so curious and constantly looks around and watches what everyone does. Take a look at the clip below from the movie UP. Ian kind of reminds us of the dog “dug” in the movie when he meets the boy and old man. He is talking and all of a sudden, mid thought, he gets distracted and yells, “SQUIRREL” and then goes right back to what he was saying. I have a feeling he will keep us on our toes as he gets older and will definitely be our comic relief.

The boys have been such a blessing to us and everytime I look at them I still can’t believe they are mine!

There were many things I looked forward to about becoming a mother. Watching them grow up, teaching them new things, doing things together as a family, etc. But there are so many little things that remind me everyday why I love being a mom. As Jonathan says, “it’s the little things that get you” and it’s so true…for example, I just got my old (I’m talking 6-7 years old) toaster oven back from my brother who got a new one for his wedding, and I have never been happier. Thanks Brian!

Anyway, Here are the top things that make me love being a mom:

I love love love all their little noises, especially the sound of them sucking on their pacifiers, it’s soo cute. I love seeing their smiles (and they looove to smile) and hearing them laugh – I’ll do anything to get them to laugh. Its funny to watch them laugh in their sleep…what does an infant dream about to make them laugh?! I love getting them up in the morning and watching them stretch, Hayden especially loves to stretch. I love watching them get all fidgety and fiesty when its time to eat. I love watching them try to suck on their fingers (they still jerk them out of their mouth too much to actually suck on them). I love Hayden’s little “goat” noise and Ian’s noise he does when he’s hungry. I love giving them baths because they love bath time. I love watching them watch Presley and now each other. I love to snuggle with them, but I think they love it even more. There are so many things I love, I could go on and on but I won’t. I’ll leave you with a video I put together of the boys laughing.

The boys are 3 months old today. They have changed so much over the last month, its crazy. They don’t have a check up this month, we go next at 4 months. So we don’t know what they weigh, but 3 weeks ago Hayden weighed 11 lbs 3 oz and Ian was right at 10 lbs. So if I had to guess, I would say Hayden is somewhere around 12.5 lbs and Ian is about 10.5 maybe 11 lbs. From what I can tell, the boys have two completely different body types, but it could just be because Hayden has consistently been eating a lot more than Ian and he just hasn’t caught up to Hayden yet.

We now have both boy’s reflux under control and it is such a good feeling to have our happy boys back. Hayden is still on his Zantac twice a day and doing great while Ian is on Zantac and Prevacid twice a day. Ian is like a completely different baby. It took a while to get him where he is now but he is finally eating great and without any problems. We have an appointment with a GI doctor at Children’s in about 2 weeks. We would probably be fine not going to see him now since Ian is doing so well, but since he is requiring two different meds to control his reflux, it’s probably a good idea to go.

A month ago when we saw the pediatrician we started the Prevacid and kept the Zantac for the inital 2 or 3 weeks because it takes a good 2 weeks for the prevacid to kick in. After those initial 2 weeks we were to back off the Zantac until he was off it. Well after 2 days he started having some problems again so we are back to twice a day zantac. She also told us to remain on the Elecare formula for now (until we saw the GI doc) because at this point we still weren’t sure if it was a formula issue or just reflux. She did tell us we could take Hayden off the Elecare and put him on a regular sensitive formula. She said we would know within 2 or 3 bottles whether or not he would tolerate it. Since that appointment he has been on the sensitive formula and doing great with it! So we got to take one baby off Elecare but still had one on it.

Fast forward about 3 weeks and Ian is finally doing great on his 2 reflux meds but now he is only eating like 2 or 3 ounces at a time and because of that, wanting to eat every 2 hours. So we asked he pedi if we could add some rice cereal to his bottle to help fill him up some. We started doing that and it did help, but he then started getting some red, dry patches on his neck and chest. I think it was from the cereal but we won’t know for sure, so I wanted to get him off the cereal…he is still a little young for it anyway. This is where mothers intuition takes over. The doctor can only go by what we tell her but we see Ian everyday and see how he responds to things and such. Well since we didn’t see much of an improvement with him when we put him on Elecare I didn’t think his issues were formula related. Since he was doing great on his meds and we didn’t think it was formula related, I took the liberty of switching Ian to the sensitive formula that Hayden was on. I figured if it is a formula/milk issue then we’ll just deal with the consequences and then switch him back to the Elecare, but if it isn’t then we just saved ourselves a bunch of money and frustration with a baby that is hungry all the time. Well, he took the formula great and hasn’t had a problem since. He is now eating 5 full ounces every feeding (6 ounces right before bed) and is a much happier baby because he’s not starving. YEAH- they are both off Elecare!!

It is much better now that we can actually just go to the store and buy their formula, but the only problem is that not too many place have the specific formula they are on. They either run out really fast or just don’t keep it in stock. It is pretty hard to find, so when we do find it, we stock up! Of course, our boys only want the best and like the ready to feed formula…the powder tends to upset their stomach.

So Hayden is now eating 7 ounces consistently, sometimes as much as 8 ounces and Ian is eating 5 ounces and 6 at his last bottle at night. They are now both sleeping through the night!! They do wake up some, usually because their pacifier came out or they just woke up and can’t go back to sleep. So we aren’t completely sleeping ALL night, but they aren’t eating in the middle of the night (except for an occasional night here and there). They get their last bottle about 8:30 PM and then we put them to bed (whether they go to sleep is another story) and then they eat again at 5:00 AM. Eventually we will be able to move the 5 AM feeding to 6 or 7, but for now I’ll take what we can get.

Both boys are smiling and laughing now. Ian was cracking up this morning. Jonathan was tapping his nose and it just cracked Ian up, it was pretty funny! Hayden will laugh in his sleep but he has laughed a few times today in response to something. Even though they have laughed before, today was the first time Hayden and Ian both laughed as a response to something they thought was funny, so today was a big day in the realm of laughter.

They have both successfully been transitioned to their own crib. They had been sleeping in the “bassinets” in their room since they came home and we thought it was time to move them into their cribs since they will soon outgrow the bassinet. They still use the miracle blanket at night which keeps them wrapped up….and when Hayden isn’t wrapped up, he won’t go to sleep.

They like to lay under their play mat and as much as they dislike tummy time, they put up with it. They will usually fall asleep when we put them on their tummy.

We will put them in their bumbo seats for about 5 minutes at a time and thats about all they will tolerate. Their still a little young for those but it helps them learn to sit up.

Ian likes the bumbo seat a lot better than Hayden does, I’m sure its because he has a little better head control and strength in his neck.

They both have pretty good head control and love to sit up and look around. Hayden still has some trouble keeping his neck/head straight up, he tends to tilt it to the right still. It is getting better though. They were evaluated a week ago for DOC bands and we were told they both needed one. Hayden definitely does need one because of the way he was positioned in the womb. Ian could use one, but would probably be fine without it so we are asking our pediatricians opinion next month on whether or not she thinks he really needs one. Their insurance will cover a little bit of the treatment cost but not until they are 4 months old, so we have to wait another month to start treatment.

This has turned into a rather long post, so I guess I’ll wrap it up….overall, the boys are doing extremely well and it is so much fun watching them grow and learn new skills.

Happy 3 month birthday boys – I love you!