The explorer...



I want to go play inside...not on my mat!

 

It is so cool under my brother's cot

 

Where does it go to?

 

I can stay under here for a while...

 

While my brother takes a nap!



Growing...growing

Went to Babyclinic yesterday for a weigh-in and food chat. Finn has put on 900g in 6 weeks and Rebecca 700g.  He weighs 8.2kg and Becca 6.8kg - both doing just great.  Finn is growing like a weed and is already over the average line for his real age!

On the food front, it is so exciting as we can start to add yummy things like cream cheese, tomatoes, onions, finger foods, dried fruits etc  and in a few weeks time, fish and eggs. I am going to make them a yummy chicken, onion and tomato, veg stew with brown rice. I am also going to make hummus and try cream cheese and avo on rice cakes.  Their high chairs will be arriving this week so it is going to be so much fun putting finger foods in front of them and watch what they do.

Oh how I am loving this phase...it just gets better and better as they get cuter and cuter.  Both give me slobbery kisses and little Becs holds onto my neck when I hold her in my arms as if she is hugging me. I just can't kiss them enough every day!

Their high chairs coming soon...

Let's get moving!

We are gonna start moving soon mum!

Twin update - 7 months old!

Age: Can you believe the twins will be real age 7 months old this week!  Adjusted age - we have started only adjusting by about a month so we are now saying they are almost 6 months old...Our Paed said that by about a year old we can stop adjusting their ages and they turn one in just 5 months time! Wow.

Height/Weight: Finn must be close to 8kg and Rebecca 7kg - we will weigh them at babyclinic on Monday.

Developmental notes: The advances in the past few weeks have been amazing. Neither can sit completely unsupported yet, but Rebecca is becoming mobile!  Yes, she flips herself onto her tummy and then gets up on all fours and shuffles forwards and backwards. We cannot leave her unsupervised for a minute and especially on the bed now - heaven only knows what I am going to do with them in the mornings when they are both crawling all over the place and I am trying to get ready for work - going to be interesting! She gets so frustrated when she can't move over a bump or when her arms get tired.

And I am up weeeeeeeeee!

And Finn's first tooth is coming through! Such incredible milestones. They are both getting extremely vocal with all sorts of new sounds.  Rebecca has discovered screaming for the sake of it...not because she is upset, just to hear herself screech. She doesn't respond to me saying "shush" lol. She also gets this quizzical look on her little face as if she is really thinking about what you are saying to her. Finn boy is as cute as ever and croons away singing.  He is such a smiley baby and breaks into a wide grin at each look. Rebecca is not as giving with her smiles but she has the most gorgeous laugh when you crack one. It is amazing how unique each one's character is already and I must wonder how much this is influenced from their journey in my womb.  Finn was always comfy, had loads of food and space whereas Rebecca was fighting for her share of food and space and working on developing as quickly as possible as she knew she would have to be born early as the placenta was already taking strain from pre-eclampsia.



Trying to see the tooth!

 Eating: They are both eating so well. It only took Finn a few days and he was eating like a pro. Sometimes especially if they are tired, they cry a bit during mealtimes and then we have to entice them to eat with lots of "Yum Yums" and "Oooooh yummies"! They have three meals a day - cereal, yoghurt and fruit for breakfast.  Meat, veg, yoghurt and fruit for lunch and cereal and fruit for dinner. They have dropped their milk intake by about 200mls or so - both getting about 500-600mls a day now.  They have both struggled with constipation but thankfully the yoghurt seems to be helping that now - we only added this in a few days ago and there was instant relief for Rebecca.  We had a few horrible nights of her screaming in pain from passing poos.
 

Mmmmm black beans, quinoa, mango and pear!



This eating thing is tricky mum!

Sleep: I am pleased to report that they both seem to be sleeping through again. There have been a few problems here and there but generally we are back to sleep throughs which is fab. Next step is to cut out the 10pm bottle, but we will only do this once their food intake increases.  We will slowly decrease the 10pm bottle in the meantime. DH and I are still sleeping in seperate rooms so that we get a full nights restful sleep every second night.  When on call, the baby monitor still wakes you up everytime they moan or cough - like last night, they woke me at 1h30 and 3am and then Finn woke cramping and crying at 4h30 so I had to fetch him.  It is so blissful when they sleep well and quietly all night long - and we celebrate every night they do!

Favourite Things: Paw-paw is now their favourite thing by far.  Finn makes little whimpering noises and opens his mouth for more and more.  Between the two of them, they ate a whole 1/2 a large paw-paw one lunchtime! They also seem to really like yoghurt.

Dislikes: Neither were too fond of the lamb stew I made - it had baby marrows in it so I think it was a little sour.  But when I added apples and pears, they were much happier about eating it. I hope I am not setting them up for sweet tooths with the fruit and I really hope they are not fussy eaters so we are trying to introduce as many new things as possible now...

Looking forward to: Everything!

Mommy musings: So I have stopped expressing my breastmilk. And it was really sad for me. I decided to stop the Eglanol as I really felt it was time and also I was putting on more weight - a side effect. With that, my milk production halved so I was expressing once a day. They both started losing interest in breastfeeding themselves as soon as they started solids. I really wanted to stop expressing and had a dream that I could just breastfeed if and when I or they wanted to...but they don't really want to anymore.  I still have milk, a week after I have stopped and I am not sure how long it is going to take to dry up. I cannot explain how emotional this has made me feel and I know it is due to the prolactin levels dropping off...I am trying to stop naturally so I don't want to take any meds to dry up my milk. I am sure things will feel better in time...I think this is in part why I also have a lingering desire to have another baby - to be able to do this all again.  But this too shall fade I am sure, in time...


I love my sister....



Not prepared....

After stopping to breasfeed / express my milk on Good Friday....I am taking strain! No-one warned me that I would feel so sad about stopping breastfeeding...I have just read that it is due to my prolactin levels decreasing and is quite normal. But geez, I am really really sad and tearful and have this growing urge to run to my pump and start expressing right now! I am doubting myself and feeling guilty about no longer being able to feed my babies. Every time I think about the fact that every minute I don't express means my milk is drying up, I just want to cry. I tried to latch the babies on and they did suckle a bit but lost interest quickly. Gosh this is so much harder than I thought it would be when I made the decision to stop.

The wonder of breastfeeding...

There are many things about becoming a mother that has suprised me. But one of the most significant suprises has been what breastfeeding my babies has meant to me. I haven't been able to exclusively breastfeed as I was too preoccupied with knowing how much milk they were getting, so I developed an extremely close relationship with my Medela pump and fed them expressed breastmilk in bottles, topping up with formula as needed when my supply fell short.


Breastfeeding has intrigued me completely. Here is my body, producing a substance that nourishes them with all the nutrients and sustenance needed in exactly the correct amounts. My body...finally doing something perfectly right after years and years of struggling with infertility. And the feeling of your babies sucking and drinking milk from you is quite an overwhelming experience - well it is for me. Simply put, I love it. My heart wants to burst with pride and amazement as I look down at my babies drinking from me.

It is with great reluctance that I have started to wean myself off expressing my breastmilk.  I am still expressing once a day and hoping that my milk supply will sustain to be able to occasionally still latch the babies on if they need to be comforted in the middle of the night. But they need to less and less as they are sleeping through and drink better from their bottles which they are even losing interest in now that they are on three good solid meals a day.

I am not sure why it is so hard for me to just let go...probably because I know I will never again be able to do this...so sad.