When you have a baby (or in our case, babies) you have the long 9 months ahead of you to dream about your child. You wonder who he or she will look like, whose personality they will have and what mannerisms of yours they will take on. Because I was having twins, I had the added thoughts of wondering if our boys would look alike, act alike or even like each other. OK, I never worried about them not liking each other but I did wonder what their relationship would be like.

Well, if you haven’t noticed, our boys are here and it has been amazing to see their personalities start to come out more and see who they take after, me or Jonathan. I think they have a good mix of both of our personalities and looks…but definitely more Jonathan in the looks department, I mean, have you seen our boys?!

BUT…there is one personality trait that our little Hayden and I share. And because of how much I hate having this myself, I really wished I wouldn’t have passed this on. I’ll let you guess what it is by looking at this picture…

this was taken at about 2:30 AM the other morning…and he had been awake since 9:00 PM. Thats 5.5 hours, what 1 month old baby stays awake for 5.5 hours straight?! Don’t let the half closed eyes fool you, he was very much awake, the camera just caught him when he was blinking. Neither of the boys have liked the swing much but it was my next to last resort this night…and it worked. my last resort was to put him in the car and go for a drive because it generally puts them to sleep. Finally about 30 minutes after this picture was taken he drifted off to dream land. While that night was the extreme, he does tend to stay up a while after eating and it is hard for him to go back to sleep, like me. Fortunately, I figured out why this night was so bad. We started him on Prevacid a few days prior to this and the few nights he was on it leading up to this night he was awake more than usual so I linked the insomnia to the Prevacid. That next day I spoke with his pediatrician and she said she has had several parents tell her this happened. Why don’t they warn parents of this?! So we switched him to Zantac and all is better, other than his typical hard to fall asleep nature. The prevacid wasn’t really working anyway so I was glad to switch.

there are some other personality traits or mannerisms that the boys take after either Jonathan or myself and some are funny little quirks like sleeping with their hands by their face/head. they both do funny things with their lips like Jonathan but I have yet to figure out where they get their need to scream or wail when they are hungry. I mean I can get grouchy when I’m hungry but I sure don’t scream, maybe from their dad 😉

It will definitely be fun to see their personalities develop as they grow and start to interact with each other.

The boys are 1 month old today and boy have they changed. They are both getting some nice big cheeks (Ian more so than Hayden) and filling out. They are now close to the size of a typical newborn, but still wearing preemie clothes. They are loosing that newborn look to them and look more like nice “chubby” babies…as chubby as you can be when you are about 6-7 pounds. We have loved getting to know them and their personalities. All their little sounds, cries, whimpers, etc are adorable it has been fun getting to know what all those sounds mean and who they are coming from. Hayden has this little sound he makes…it’s not really a cry or a whimper, it’s just a sound he makes and I absolutely love it! They both smile and chuckle sometimes, yes I said chuckle. Last night Hayden was sleeping and I guess dreaming because all of a sudden he started to smile and actually laugh! Not sure what a 1 month old laughs at, but it was funny. both boys like to cuddle but Hayden thrives on it…he’s our little snuggle-bug.

They are both good babies and sleep rather well. We are feeding them every 4 hours and they eat, on average, 4 ounces at a time…sometimes 2 oz and sometimes 5 oz. Friday night we started letting them go 5 hours in between feedings and so far they have done well. I’m hoping to get them to a 6-8 hour stretch at night, but I doubt that will happen for another month or so (when they are about 10 pounds or more). At night they pretty much just cry when they are ready to eat (right on schedule) but they do like to stay awake for a while (like an hour) after the 12:00 AM feeding. They seem to have their days and nights mixed up some….which we are working on correcting.

We have taken a bunch of pictures over the last month so here are a few that we’ve taken that I haven’t posted yet.

The last two pictures show you just how small they are. That teddy bear is a standard sized teddy bear, not a jumbo one…It’s bigger than them!

The weight of my twin babies and their placentas are now gone, all the extra water weight I was carrying for months is leaving me, and my organs and joints can breathe a huge sigh of relief as the pressure is off of them! Yes, I am tired, sore from a c-section and stretched out, but my babies are finally here. Now the fun part begins — parenting.

I could probably label this post “Things I’ve learned parenting” — period.

But since my first go at parenting is with TWO newborns, it’s a little different than your average first time mom.

During my pregnancy I read all kind of books on babies, parenting and multiples. While they all had some pieces of good advice, a lot of what I would read wouldn’t logistically work with multiples and/or just didn’t have any advice on parenting multiples. Until I found a book by a mom of triplets written for moms of multiples — The Multiples Manual by Lynn Lorenz. It’s a great resource for anyone with multiples.

It doesn’t sugar coat anything and she tells you what to expect. She gives you good tips on how to handle certain situations, things that are must haves and then things that are good to have but not a NEED. I highly recommend this book for anyone expecting multiples. No, it won’t tell you everything you need to know about raising multiples, or even come close to it. But it does help and you learn to take every little bit of help you can get.

Of course experience is the #1 way to learn… our babies are 3.5 weeks old and in the first few weeks here are some things I’ve learned (experienced) thus far…

Sleep: Think its tough when you don’t get sleep with one baby…try it with two. When one falls asleep, the other is usually wide awake, then when that one falls asleep, the other one wakes up because he has been sleeping the whole time. Then maybe both will be asleep at once. There was one night in the last week that I didn’t go to sleep until 6:30 AM because this is what kept happening, in between feedings of course.

We have tried putting the boys in the same crib/pack-n-play to sleep/nap and they tend to keep the other up. Not with crying, but moving. They just don’t really get the sleep they need when they lie next to each other. So we have them back in their little individual bassinets and they sleep better. It also helps that they are reclined and not laying completely flat on their back. They both tend to spit up when they are flat on their back.

Preparing bottles: Our boys are on two different formulas. Hayden is on a high calorie formula to plump him up — and it seems to be working because he is getting some little cheeks on him. Ian has been on 4 different formulas including soy and has now been put on Nutramigen for a milk protein allergy.

We got a tip from a friend that mentioned using the Dr. Brown’s formula mixing pitcher to mix a batch of formula and then make bottles for the day. We went out and got the mixing pitcher and it has been great since making all the bottles for the day. The pitcher helps reduce air bubbles in the formula tremendously and with a baby who has gas issues, this is a HUGE help.

Diaper changing: We have 2 boys and changing a boys diaper is a little different than changing a girls diaper. Boys have a water fountain attached to them and that fountain starts to spray anytime air hits it. What we have started doing is placing a cloth diaper under them when we change them and then pull it up like a diaper in between taking the old diaper off, cleaning them off and putting the new diaper on. That tends to help with water works, but not always!

Feeding two babies at once: When feeding time comes and you have 2 hungry, fussy babies, it will quickly become apparent why humans are not meant to give birth to more than one baby at a time. I’ve had to get creative with feeding techniques since an extra appendage was not a shower gift I received… can you imagine if it were though?! I mean, think of all I could get done with 3 arms/hands – diapering one baby and still feeding the other, all at once! Or cleaning bottles while making the next batch of formula… oh the possibilities!

I have learned to feed both babies at once — and it only took 3 weeks to figure this out. I try to only do this at night because I do like the bonding time you get with each baby when you feed them individually, and during the day I have time to do this. Anyway, by feeding them at once it cuts down our feeding times from 2 – 2.5 hours to 1 hour. Then you have to get them back to sleep. Sometimes this is easy and they fall right to sleep, other times it takes 30 minutes to an hour, or longer. The hardest part of feeding both babies at once is the whole burping process. This is when the third arm would come in handy. You still need to hold the bottle for one of the babies while burping the other one and supporting their head so it doesn’t snap off and roll under the crib. So, while I’m not a supporter of propping bottles, I’ve found you have to for a minute or two while you burp the other one (and with our babies you have to burp them every ounce or so or they will spit up, not drink anymore, get fussy, etc.)

Some of the other random things I’ve learned are:

• Amazon Prime for Moms is awesome…free shipping on certain products
• You can never have enough diapers…especially pampers newborn
• Preemie diapers are kinda expensive, and hard to find…so we just stuck with newborn
• Preemie clothing is almost non existent in most stores, but walmart does carry some…my almost 1 month old babies still don’t fit into newborn size clothing.
• You’ll find dirty diapers and wipes in the most random places around the house…
• I’ve never been more concerned about poop as much as I have in the last 3 weeks…baby poop that is. Consistency, color, smell etc (gross)!
• Going anywhere with our suburban stroller and two infants will draw attention to you

That’s a short version of what I’ve learned so far, I should have more lessons as they get older — but for now I should go heat up a bottle, I hear one of the munchkins getting restless.

And of course, I’ll leave you with a picture of our beautiful baby boys!

So today is Hayden and Ian’s actual due date, November 11, 2010. It was a date that was circled in red on the calendar for 9 months. But instead our boys are 3 weeks old today and I wouldn’t trade the last 3 weeks for anything.

It was a rough start for our little Hayden but he is now doing wonderful. In the last 3 weeks, we have learned a lot about our little bundles of joy. I love the little noises they make and how “talkative” they can be, especially Ian when it comes time for him to eat. They both love to fall asleep on your chest, Hayden more so than Ian. While Hayden is the better sleeper of the two, he does tend to take after his mom in that it takes him a while to fall back to sleep once he has woken up. Hayden and Ian are both very attentive little guys, they just look around and take it all in (well as much as a 3 week old can see). They are both getting little chubby cheeks and growing a little longer. We are learning their personalities and think that Hayden is going to be our little sensitive one, and the boy who wears his heart on his sleeve. While Ian will be our sweet but mischievous one. Ian will think of some trick to play on mom and dad but Hayden will come up with the plan and how to execute it…such teamwork. It will be interesting to see how their personalities will differ or how much they will be alike. We’ve learned a lot in 3 weeks but we have a lifetime to learn a whole lot more.

Jonathan put together a video of the boys from their birthday till now…some of you may need a box of tissues, I teared up watching it. The song was written and performed by All Things New, AKA Aaron Lehmann. Enjoy!

Happy due date boys, but I’m glad you came into our lives when you did!

Hayden and Ian had their 2 week check up with the pediatrician this past Friday (11/5/10) and both boys are doing wonderful. This check up is primarily to make sure they are gaining weight and doing ok since coming home from the hospital. The doctor said what they want is for them to be back at their birth weight by the 2 week check up because most babies lose about 10% of their birth weight in the first week of life. Well our boys not only are back to their birth weight but have surpassed it. Hayden was 4lb 14oz at birth and at 2 weeks he weighed 5lb 8oz and Ian was 4lb 11oz at birth and 5lb 11oz at 2 weeks – he gained a whole pound! They had both been on a higher calorie formula for premature and low birth weight infants, so I guess that formula works like it should. Unfortunately Ian’s stomach hasn’t liked it too much so we have since switched him from that formula to a different brand high calorie formula and it was a little better but still not tolerating it that well. So we have since switched him back to the formula he was on in the hospital because he was tolerating that pretty well…so far so good but only time will tell. Hayden is now starting to do some of the same stuff that Ian was doing so we may be switching him as well….I just hope we can get the whole formula thing figured out soon so we’ll have our happy boys back again.

The pediatrician said that they both look healthy and that they have the strongest suck reflex she’s seen! she put her finger in their mouth to check it and they wouldn’t give it back to her, haha. Ian does have a heart murmur but it is nothing to worry about, it’s basically the same one I have. She said they would keep an eye on it and he’ll more than likely outgrow it. Ian also has something called Laryngomalacia which is just where the soft, immature cartilage around the larynx collapses when you breath in. It’s nothing really to worry about, it just sounds horrible when you hear him. He should outgrow that too by around 18 months. This is something that I’ve seen in many kiddos while working at Children’s. I pretty much decided what it was before we took him to the pediatrician but wanted her opinion on it and she agreed.

Both boys will go back at 2 months for another check up, and unfortunately shots. We’ve already got some questions to ask their doctor! As much as I know about taking care of babies and medical issues with infants, I’m still a first time parent and when it comes to my babies, it’s like I go dumb and forget all I know- haha.