* They play downstairs just about as much as they play in their playroom upstairs. (At least when Chris is home. When it's just me, keeping up with two runners at once is a little much!) Thus, this:
 |
| Cubbies for their little books! And yes, I do realize that after-hours iPhone photography leaves a lot to be desired, but this gives you the general idea. I do think I'm going to replace that pink drawer with another brown one, but then it will look pretty good, I think! Also, that's our coffee table in the foreground -- and I know you can't tell here, but it's devoid of any decor or books whatsoever. Baby-proofing has left virtually nothing untouched around here! |
* BottleWean 2013 continues. (And I know most babies their age have long been weaned from bottles, but these girls have had to overcome a LOT of obstacles to get to where they are with this! More on that below.) At this point, they're on 100% whole milk, mostly taken without oatmeal and in sippy cups. However, we have the speech pathologist's permission to give them a bedtime bottle and one during the day, if necessary. The whole thing is reminding me of the intense old days of logging every little bit they take, except this time it's in ounces, not CCs!
 |
| Keeping tabs on the amount of liquids they take at every opportunity. [And oops - today's the 20th!] Thank heavens I have no iconographic coding system like I did last time around, back during the height of their bottle aversion days. There was a time when there were all manner of notes and details beside each entry, and smiley faces or sad faces depending on how the feeding went that time. There were even tears for when they'd cry during feeds. This time it's much simpler! |
When we went to the pediatrician for the girls' 15-month check-up on Friday (which went GREAT, by the way -- minus the non-fun aspect of shots, of course!), he finally gave us the OK to stop having set bottle times. The girls are finally eating like big people! It's just a LOT for a mom of former preemies to take in! I mean, this was once a MAJOR, MAJOR deal:
 |
| Tamsie's first bottle EVER, given to her by her nurse, Mrs. Lynette, back at the U of L NICU! |
You see, the girls were on feeding tubes for weeks back when they first arrived on the scene, and then they had to demonstrate feeding cues to their nurses in order to finally get to attempt the bottle, and then they had to work up to taking their milk consistently. It was a frustrating time for Chris and me, because just when it would seem like everything was fine for them to come home, they would drag their little feet in learning to take those blasted bottles for all of their meals. Once they came home, we couldn't let them go longer than a set number of hours -- I think it was four -- before we'd have to feed them again (because they were sooooo small). That means that even if they were sleeping soundly in the night, we'd have to set our alarms four hours past their last feed time to wake them up and feed them. UGH! Then we went through the nightmare of the reflux/bottle aversion ordeal, and then we overcame that, by God's grace, and now we're finally weaning off of bottles altogether. Now I still get so scared they're going to lose weight or be malnourished in some way or another, but they seem to be getting to where they need to be... slowly but surely. It is a LOT for this mama to handle, but we're getting there! Most of all, it's just weird to be free of the every-four-hours bottle schedule that we've been on since the NICU.
Whew! When I say these girls have come a long way, I'm not kidding! Thank you, Lord!!! So when I get frustrated that Tamsie is only taking teensy sips out of her cup at meal time, it really helps to step back and think of how much easier our trajectory really is becoming as time goes by.
* Today we also finally got them some convertible car seats! Babies 'R' Us is having a great sale where you get a big discount for trading in your old car seats, so we cashed in on that business today. What's really odd to me is that the car seat we bought will stay with them until they outgrow booster seats in the car altogether, and it's made for babies as small as 5 lbs! Pretty sure back when I was pregnant, that wasn't an option -- I mean you HAD to start out with the infant seat first, right?
Speaking of -- I'm starting to feel like I was pregnant back in the stone ages! I mean, my girls grew up with Bumbo seats:
and Nap Nannies:
* They're also quickly moving up to size 12-month clothes, primarily because of their length! They are in the less-than-fifth percentile for weight, one is in 15th and one 25th for length, and both are 70th percentile for head circumference -- which makes me laugh!
Well here are a few pictures of my growing-up girls (and YES, I know they're still little bitties -- they're just acting so much bigger all of a sudden!):
 |
| Evie models her ongoing obsession with getting herself into and out of boxes. Lately it has ramped up even more than usual. Who knows -- she's probably just trying to find a little space of her own after sharing everything with her sis all the time! |
 |
| And speaking of her sis, here's Tamsie with one of her favorite toys -- this little babydoll. She pulls its hat off and then brings it to me so I'll put it back on again. And then, of course, the whole cycle just repeats itself... until something else catches her attention. Which usually is about 15 seconds later. :) |
 |
| "Sis or mirror? Mirror-image sis, or mirror image?" |
 |
| Tamsie isn't as into the box thing as Evie is. Literally. Ugh, sorry. |
 |
| K, time to get out... |
 |
| She is her mama's daughter: she looooves her bracelets, even if she has to improvise them with her stacking rings! |
The bookshelves look great! Aaaaannnd I totally have that song stuck in my head thanks to your blog title....thanks for that ;)
ReplyDeleteI think I had that song in my head a whole day after I wrote this thing! ha! And thank you! :)
ReplyDelete