Daci Dates

 Daci has been so sweet to the babies. She loves them so much and always wants to hold them and take care of them.  I'm so glad she has reacted to them this way.  With us, however, we have had some problems. She has struggled with being obedient and will do things that she knows she isn't supposed to. I know she is just dying for the same amount of attention she got before the babies came. Since it is obvious she is craving attention we hav decided to do Daci Dates. When Penny was here I took Daci to the mall on a mommy-daughter date. She got to ride the carousel 3 times and then we got an ice cream cone after. She loved it! She also loved having mommy all to herself again :)

Last week was rough without any grandmas here to keep Daci company. We tried really hard to give her attention and be patient with her but there were a lot of rough moments! By the end of the week we were all frustrated. We decided to make a day just for Daci.  Rick took her out in the morning to breakfast at Chick Fil A and let her play in the playplace for a while. Then, on the way home he let her pick a treat out at Target. She chose fruit snacks :)  Then, in the afternoon we went with Carly and Leni to Red Mango (Daci's favorite!), and to Barnes and Noble where they played with the train set, looked at books, and put on a show on the little stage. She had a blast and there were much less behavioral issues that day :)

She chose cookies and cream with these little orange balls (yuck!). She loved it!

Playing with the trains

Looking at books on the little stage

Today I took Daci to her three year check up.  She is 3 ft 2 inches (80th percentile), the doctor said that is the average height of a 4 yr old! She is 34 lbs as well. She has been so excited to go to the doctors. She has been playing doctor with her new kit every day. She knew the whole routine of the stethoscope , the ear checker, the throat checker, etc. The doctor was very impressed with how much she talks and the funny things she was saying. She told the doctor she was 24, that her lips were pretty and that I was her daughter :) She got the flu shot today.  I was really nervous about it because it was the first time she would actually know what was going on.  She was a champ though!  She didn't even cry even though "it hurt really bad mom" and she was really brave.  She loved the doggy bandaid she got and was excited to have a bowl of ice cream because she did so well.  It really hit me today that she is no longer a  baby, not even a little bit!  As hard as she can be, she is also a really good little girl and I enjoy spending everyday with her :)

5 Week Postpartum Reflection

We are five weeks postpartum and I wanted to document what has gone on the last five weeks.  It seems like for me everything started feeling better at around four weeks.  I wasn't in as much pain and the hormones had pretty much leveled out.

My schedule:
-I nurse the babies every 3 hrs for 20 mins. They get abt one ounce from me, then I feed them 2 ounces expressed breast milk from a bottle after they nurse.
-During the day the feeding takes abt an hr from start to finish but I'm not willing to be up that long at night. So, at night I feed them formula and pump to stock up on breast milk for the next day.
-I have gotten the night time routine down to 30 mins but then it takes me abt a half hr to fall back asleep. So, even though they go 3 hrs between feedings its only abt 2 hrs of sleep at a time.

Daci likes to help me feed the twins.  I don't just let her do it by herself....I just backed away to take a quick pic :)

The babies are cute as ever.  It is really hard to handle both when I am by myself but I'm hoping in the next few weeks it gets easier.  Rick took his paternity leave this week and it has been really nice having him around to help me and to spend time with me.

Livvi:

-Still a very chill baby.  For the most part she is very happy. She will just lay there with her eyes open and not make a peep. The downside to this is that she doesn't get held as much as Street because she doesn't demand the attention like he does.
-She always looks like she is smiling
-The only time she is fussy is when her tummy is sick. She is very gassy, I mean like a constant stream of toots is coming from her 24/7. Sometimes she gets backed up and she cries from the pain but once she finally gets it out she is happy as a lark again :0
-She is an eating machine! This girl loves her food! She has put on a lot of weight. She is much bigger than her brother now, even though she started out smaller
-Her head is much bigger than Street's. She was measuring a half inch bigger in head circumference from him at 2 weeks but I would be willing to bet it is a bigger margin now.
-When you look at the two of them side by side she just looks a lot bigger.  Her rib cage is a lot wider than his.
-She started losing her hair at 3 weeks. The hair line just keeps receding further and further. I'm so sad because she had the most beautiful textured hair. I'm sure it will grow back just as pretty though :)
-Her hair is very light and looks like it has quite a bit of red in it
-She looooves her baths!
-She is so patient with her fussy brother and has taken one too many smacks to the face :)
-She is not a big binkie girl, she falls asleep really well on her own

Livvi at 4 weeks

Street:
-He is a high maintenence, demanding baby. But, if you give him what he wants he is super sweet
-He's very cuddly. He loves to be held and loves to snuggle up on your chest.
-He likes to sleep on a slant, his tummy hurts him when he lays flat
-He spits up A LOT. He would be the same size as Liv if he could keep it all down because they eat the same amount of food but he spits like half of what he eats up.
-He always has his bottom lip sucked in
-He started losing his hair at three weeks also. His looks like male patterned baldness :)
-He also loves his baths but he does NOT like getting out of them
-He loves tummy time
-He is a big binkie boy! The bink has saved us!

Street at 4 weeks

Typical Street :)

Can you see how much thicker Liv's torso is?

The two of them together:
-They eat every three hours round the clock.  Occasionally, if they are feeling really sweet, they will give me one 4 hr stretch at night. Also, in the evening the wi cluster feed and want to eat every 2-2.5 hrs
-They eat three ounces of breastmilk during the day for each feeding and then 3 ounces of formula at night for each feeding
-They aren't alike in many ways, but one thing they do identical is how they lay when they r on the ground. They put their right arm bent up and their left arm straight out (see first photo below)
--If they are both crying during the day, it is madness.  Luckily, I am not someone who has a really hard time hearing babies cry because with twins you just have to let them.  If they are both upset, one can only be consoled at a time, so I have to let the other one fuss. I'm not gonna lie, its pretty exhausting!

Doing their pose. Poor Street is always on a girlie blankie. We just have so much more girl stuff around here.  Don't worry...I'll make sure he turns out manly :)

Liv has a bigger head :)

tummy time

Street has male patterned baldness.  Luckily we can cover up Liv's receding hair line with a bow!

My Loves

I haven't gotten many pictures of me with the babes.  Mostly because I never get ready :)  I feel like my main role right now is "milking machine".  I feel like a cow.  I feed from sun up to sun down!  I am normally just in silky button up pajamas because that is what is comfortable and allows the easiest access.  I take a shower a day and that is NOT enough.  The second I get out I am covered in either milk, spit up, poop, or pee :)  I'm sure once my help leaves I won't even have a spare second to shower so everyone might just want to steer clear for awhile!

I have had a few reasons to get ready this week so I decided to take advantage and bust out the camera. It feels so good to get ready, even if it was just for a visitor coming over to my house.  I think after so many days of feeling gross, getting dressed and putting my make up on made me feel like a new woman.  My weight has come off a lot faster this time around.  I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I am nursing TWO babies instead of one.  I still have ten of my 46 pounds to go but I am proud to say that I am in my jeans and they button! (Never mind that they kinda, sorta cut off my circulation....I am in them and that is all that matters! Ha!)

My Twin Loves:

My Hubby Love:

Rick is so great with the babies.  When he walks in the door, Street is usually screaming his head off, so Rick takes over and does the magic bounce for him.  We can all do the bounce, but none of us can last as long as he can.  It must be his huge muscles :)

Doing the bounce...notice Street is calm

The second he stopped the bounce for a pic...Street freaks out :)

Loving his precious Livvi

 My Daci Love:

I had so much fun doing something special for Daci on Valentine's Day.  I love to make holidays special and I have felt like I haven't done much for her since the babies were born.  Luckily, the morning was going really smoothly with the twinners (Street laid on the floor, without screaming, for a half hour straight!) so I decided to whip up some pink, heart shaped pancakes for Daci and give her her Valentine.  She was SO excited!  She had never even heard of Valentine's Day until the morning of and after I gave her her Valentine it was all she could talk about.  She wanted to make Valentine's for all of her family members, she wanted to be a Valentine Princess and she wanted to do Valentine dances :)  She is so cute!

with her breakfast

Her Valentine

Holding Livvi in her Valentine outfit

Blowing Valentine kisses

Playing with Livvi.  Whenever she wants to play with or hold a baby we give her Livvi....she is much more patient with Daci than Street is :)

Livvi on Valentines Day.  Daci had to put her kitty next to her for the picture :)

Street on V-Day.  What a handsome guy!

My Three Loves

The cute twinners sleeping side by side, facing  each other and sucking on their binks.  Priceless!

Personalities

My mom and grandma left and Penny came to help out.  I'm so grateful for  all the help.  Seriously, having two infants and a three year old is so much harder than I ever thought it would be.  The few times I have been left alone with them, I have nearly lost my mind.  It is so overwhelming to have three kids needing your attention that very second!  It is so hard to not be short and lose my cool with Daci when she is knocking things over and climbing all over me.  I know she is just trying to help and I don't want her to see my frustration, but when I have babies screaming and her all over me I can't barely contain my anxiety! I am absolutely terrified that I won't be the mother that I want to be when it is just me and the three hoodlums all day long.  I want to be patient and loving and calm but I can already picture a frazzled mess in my head.  I need to think positively and know that I wasn't given more than I am able to handle.  Heavenly Father wouldn't do that to me.  I am so blessed to have these three amazing children and I love them with my whole heart.  I CAN do this and I will do it...even if I'm a hot mess in the process :)

These two babies couldn't be any more different. Street is high maintenance and completely adorable all at the same time.  He fusses a lot and constantly wants to be held.  I'm pretty sure he has some reflux.  He spits up a lot of his meal and he cries out in pain quite a bit.  He has a really hard time falling asleep during the day unless you have him pulled in tight to your body with his binkie in.  When he is REALLY freaking out the only thing that calms him is holding him out from your body, and just bouncing him over and over.  The second you stop, he freaks out again :)  He has the most beautiful black eyes and when he is calm he will just stare deep into your eyes.  He is so precious and pulls the cutest faces.  I am so in love with him.  It breaks my heart when he is acting like he is in pain. I just want to take it away from him!  He wakes up every three hours like clock work for food.  Luckily, he has figured out at night that he has to go straight back to bed and that we won't hold him to go to sleep. He is always the first to wake up at night and we have to wake up Livvi for him.  They eat, and then go straight back to bed.

Livvi is the calmest, chillest baby I have ever seen.  I'm so grateful for her and her sweet disposition.  I don't know what I would do if I had two like Street :)  She is so patient with Street.  If they are laying next to each other and he is freaking out he will usually be smacking her in the face.  She doesn't care :) She just lays there and patiently waits for the tantrum to be over.  She rarely cries.  When she does its just one quick little squawk every 30 seconds or so.  Once in a blue moon she will be really upset and cry hard.  She also has beautiful eyes.  Hers are blue and she seems to stare right into your soul.  She seems so wise.  She will just chill on the floor or in the bassinet, wide awake, forever.  And then when she is ready to go to sleep she just shuts her eyes and drifts off.  Seriously, the perfect baby.  I often think that she would already be sleeping through the night if we didn't have to wake her up.

Last night was quite the interesting experience.  Penny took Daci to Carly's house and they had a sleepover over there.  Rick and I took care of the babies at our house.  At one point, Rick needed to go have a little meeting with Micah for some work stuff.  I told him to wait til they were asleep. Well, they ate at 4:45pm, they both cried until 6:30pm, by this time they were both FREAKING OUT and we had tried everything.  So, I decided to give them more to eat (they were both rooting also).  We got them set up with bottles and I told Rick to go because they would surely fall asleep after their bottles, they had been up for a long time and they had worn themselves out from crying.  Right?  Well as soon as the bottles were gone they started right back up again.  This time, it was ten times worse.  BOTH of them.  It was so out of character for Livvi. After an hr and a half our pure madness (and a few tears of my own shed) I called Rick and told him to come home.  He came home and we each took a screaming baby.  After another hour of crying we decided to bathe them, feed them, and hopefully put them down.  Luckily after their bath and food they were exhausted.  We put them down and they didn't get back up until 2:30am!  Wahoo!  They slept for 5.5 hours!  Maybe I can put up with some fussy hours if I get a good sleep stretch....then again, maybe not :)  After their 5.5 hour stretch they had a 3.5 hr one and then a 3 hr one.  I'm really hoping I can get them stretching to four hours at a time by next week :)  Wish me luck!!


Here are a few pics from the last week or so.

Daci helping feed both babies

Street in the bouncer

Yia Yia with her granbabies

Princess Snow White Daci with her twins.

She loves to hold them!

Livvi at three weeks 

What she looks like when she lets out her squawk :)

I love this pic.  It looks like Daci is telling him a story and he is listening intently

Street at three weeks

This is what it usually looks like at our house.  Street screaming and Livvi chilling :)