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| Evangelyn |
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| Tamsie |
Hanging out in PJs, sleeping in swings in mirror-image positions, which is fitting since they are mirror-image identical twins. (I'm aware you're supposed to have them sleep in their nighttime sleeping locations during daytime naps, but as much as they sleep during the days, I can't stand for them to be away from me for so long! Looks like I could be the one with separation anxiety issues later on, not them, right? ;) Plus, they are sleeping like.... um... babies at night, so I'm not too concerned about it!)
OK, to be fair, they had a nice exhausting playtime after breakfast, consisting of the usual - mobile time, playtime on mats, watching the fan, talking with me, listening to Goodnight Moon. (And I'm also aware that Goodnight Moon is probably not the ideal book to read to babies in the morning, but let's be honest - pretty sure they don't know that just yet! The real reason I chose Goodnight Moon is that I just read an article about some good books to read to babies under six months, and this book was on the list. Clearly I could not wait until bedtime!) Playtime did not last as long as usual though before the meltdowns signaling the start of naptime commenced, because the girls are probably still worn out after yesterday's 4-month check-up and the scheduling disruption it caused.
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| Waiting for the doctor to come in. Chris tries to get Tamsie to smile. |
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| Evie eyes her daddy suspiciously (probably for good reason), while Tamsie is enamored with the lights. |
Back when they were still in the NICU, I did a lot of research to find a highly recommended pediatrician with lots of preemie experience. Not only does the one we picked fit this criteria, but he also has a set of twins of his own! However, he has been on medical leave following knee surgery every chance we've had to see him thus far, so until now we've seen another doctor in the practice whom we have also come to love. But yesterday we were able to see him for the first time, and he was totally worth the wait! As soon as he walked in, he said, "I completely understand what your last four months have been like, and let me tell you, it gets MUCH easier from here! Just wait til they get to be 6 months - life will be so much FUN!" He proceeded to answer my 1.5 million questions and then gave the girls an excellent report! In fact, he said that if he didn't know any better, he'd just think they were little happy, healthy, full-term babies. He also informed us that:
- Evie's newborn screen results from last week (and Tamsie's too, from a while back) were perfectly normal!
- The girls can now get 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep before we wake them up to feed them! That means one more hour for us too!
- When we take them on trips, we can keep them in their car seats for 2 hours without stopping to get them out. I'm hoping this means another trip is in order for us in the very near future!
We also learned that, sans diapers, Tamsie is 8 lbs 14 oz and Evie is 8 lbs 4 oz! They are both in the same weight range - yay!! The doctor was very pleased with their growth and showed us a graph indicating that they really are making great strides in catching up with their 4-month peers, even though they are such little fellas! Evie is now only 1/4" shorter than Tamsie, too. She is working her hardest to catch up!
So it was an all-around outstanding visit... until shot time, which, of course, is the saddest time ever. Tamsie actually took it better than Evie did, probably because she's been through those awful kidney tests and knows that it could be much worse! We had to administer some Tylenol once last night, but that was all. While there was some crying throughout the evening, it was nothing like the inconsolable cryfest we had after the 2-month check-up.
And then something amazing happened right before bath time last night that made me laugh and cry at the same time: EVIE LAUGHED! It wasn't the grunt-laugh she's been doing, the "HAAAAA" with the wide smile - it was an actual, full-out laugh that kept going and going and going!! It was the sweetest thing I've ever seen. Chris had her in her crib, watching her mobile, and then he came along and spun it around really fast - and she just burst out laughing! Of course we started laughing too, and then I started thinking about how far she's come in the past four months, which made me rather emotional. Maybe it has to do with rehashing everything by writing these blog posts, but I couldn't stop thinking about how there was seriously a time not that long ago when Evie's life was very much in jeopardy - and now, here she is, getting great news at the doctor's office and wrapping up the day with a great big belly laugh! It was too much for me, friends. I am so thankful. Praise the Lord!! We've really had a great living example of the tenderness of His love in the way He has taken such amazing care of these precious little twins.
Now we're thinking it won't be long before Tamsie graduates from the grunt-laugh to the real laugh, so stay tuned! :)
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