First Halloween

First, our skeleton shirts (shown in my post a year ago!) They were just the right size!

Both babies inherited my husband's money toes, so it seemed just right that our Monkey-Toe-Man was a monkey for Halloween and one of Anna's nicknames is Anna-Banana, so there you go. I really wanted two costumes that went together- and I'm pretty sure I would never be able to convince Anna to be a banana for Halloween once she understand what wearing a costume is all about!

(If you were wondering why Sam has green socks on- they are Frankenstein socks.)

They were unusually serious today, and I could not get a smiling picture from both of them. I think it's because we went for a walk in the woods earlier as a family, and all that fresh air tuckered them out. Oh well- usually I do pretty well with the smiles!

I can't wait until next year when we can actually take them Trick-or-Treating instead of hoping the Trick-or-Treaters don't wake them up from their nap! (We have scheduled trick-or-treating hours during daylight in our area)

I May Be Jinxing Myself...

I hemmed and hawed about sharing this already, but I am just too darn elated to hold it in despite the worry I have that I may just be jinxing myself:

Anna is now swaddle-free.

Wohoo!

Yes, she is over 7 months old. Yes, we tried several times to wean her of the swaddle. And yes, we gave in every time after a few days. But now I am so glad we did.

You see, Anna has always been our better night sleeper. For a long time until recently, we put her to bed and didn't see her open eyes until we woke her in the morning. (Of course there were a few glitches here and there but overall- she was a superb night sleeper.) We stopped waking her to eat after Sam was fed at night pretty early for a family with twins, but we suspected that since we were always waking her up, that she could go a lot longer than her brother- and she could and she did.

When we first attempted to de-swaddle, she was sleeping basically around 12 hours straight through. We chose to go cold turkey so that (like ripping off a band aid) it may just be more painful at first, but it would be over and done with sooner instead of having long drawn out poor sleep from taking one arm out first, then the other, etc.. We never got past 3 days of torturing Anna to try to sleep without her swaddle, because instead of sleeping 12 hours in one stretch, she was waking every hour- and often waking her brother with her shrill screams too. It didn't get better, even on the third night. 3 days was all I could take of that sleep deprivation/hearing your child scream-cry torture. De-swaddling attempt #2 a month later had the same results. Because we both work, we felt that we could only attempt this beginning on the weekends, so this weekend ended up being a perfect scenario for attempt #3 because I had off of school Thursday and Friday. Two extra days could give us a head start.

Just like before, we were determined to see it through no matter what it took. I was hoping that her lack of good sleeping recently was a sign that maybe she was letting us know she was finally ready, but fully aware that that was probably wishful thinking.

And guess what- I think it really was a sign! We put her in a sleep sack like her brother last night, and initially she did have a little trouble falling asleep. However, she did sleep a nice big chunk of sleep last night, and just woke up a little early this morning- with no intervention all night long (except to change a soiled diaper). I might even say that it was a better night for her than some we've had lately. I was amazed!

I put the swaddle away and didn't look back- she took both her naps in a sleep sack today and both naps were their typical length. I didn't expect that either! Tonight is following the same pattern and I am optimistic that I'll get a good stretch of sleep tonight too.

I know that a lot of people might think she was swaddled too long. Our pedi advised us to not swaddle after 6 months. (Another pedi in her practice said his thoughts on swaddling were that you would know when they were ready to quit being swaddled, however.) I definitely felt pressured to break her of it a long time ago. I maybe even felt a little mommy shame that I was still allowing her to sleep swaddled well past 6 months and we couldn't get her to be okay without it. However, now I am glad we let our own child be our guide- not a book, nor someone else's preconceived notion of what a baby should or should not be doing at any given time. I think this way was the least painful for all involved.

Sam was swaddled until he didn't need it anymore. Anna was too. She just needed to be swaddled a few months longer than he did.

Twins But So Very Different, Part 2

When our babies were only a few weeks old, I wrote a post sharing what differences we had already noticed. As Sam and Anna get older, each day gives me a little more insight into their developing personalities. True to the rest of their differences, their personalities are on opposite ends of the spectrum, too.

Anna's such a talker, and she gets loud. This is a girl that wants to be heard, and lets you know it. She's got so much spunk and such a fiery personality. I see a lot of myself in her (don't they always say you get payback for how you were growing up when you have children of your own?). She lets you know what she wants and she lets you know when she's not happy too. When she smiles, she smiles with her entire body. Anna's a studier- faces, toys, whatever- you can see the concentration in her furrowed eyebrows when she's examining something.

Sam has so much energy- he's always on the go, always moving and won't sit still. He's so much like how my husband has been described to me as a child (again, payback...). It is nearly impossible to change him or get him dressed. He's my snuggler once I get him into my arms, though. He gets frustrated pretty easily when he wants to do something and can't figure out how. He is so quick to smile back at you, and giggles can be induced whenever you want.

In short:

Anna=talker
Sam=mover

Anna=independent
Sam=snuggler

Anna= more interested in living things- people, dogs, etc.
Sam=more interested in objects- toys, books, etc.

Anna= slow and steady (tortoise)
Sam= fast and bursts (hare)

Anna=better nighttime sleeper (usually)
Sam=better napper

(One of my newest favorite pictures)

Sleep Deprivation is a Valid Form of Torture

I honestly think I'm more sleep deprived now than when Sam and Anna were newborns. Back then, I could take a nap with them during the day, even if it was a short catnap. I could lay around in my pjs all day and accomplish nothing except care for babies if I had no energy.

Now, sleep or no sleep, I still have to drag my butt out of bed at 5 am and get ready to spend the day with kindergartners. Kindergartners who probably did get enough sleep the night before and have lots of energy to expend. We don't have naptime in our all day kindergarten classrooms anymore and whenever my class is gone (like at recess or lunch or art/music, etc.) I run around like a madwoman trying to get stuff done as efficiently as possible so I can leave the earliest second possible to get home to my babies (um... or hop on the internet and check recent blog posts). I used to leave 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours later than I do now and I used to bring work home to do, so I've had to get a LOT more efficient in my day to day prep for teaching and all the other little things teachers do.

Once I get home there's no down time either. We go straight into dinner for babies, dinner for ourselves, bedtime for babies, prep for the next day (wash/make bottles etc.) then to bed ourselves. It's go go go until I can finally reunite with my bed.

Lately Sam and Anna have been having some nightime sleep issues. What happened to my stellar nighttime sleepers??? We very randomly have some good nights, but most are disastrous. Sam still gets one MOTN feeding. We just can't drop it because he's hungry and I don't have the heart to make him cry in hunger to "teach" him to stop drinking at night if he's hungry. (let's face it- as adults, if we wake hungry in the middle of the night, we go get something to eat. I don't think it's fair to expect a baby to not eat if they are hungry.) But that's not a problem for us really, because he'll go right back to sleep usually.

The problem is that on top of the MOTN feeding for Sam, Anna's been waking randomly several times most nights lately. She is not hungry and will not take a bottle then. She does not like to be held to be soothed back to sleep. She's been pooping pretty often at night lately, which is part of the cause but not always. It is very difficult to get her back to sleep if she does not want to be held, but needs to go back to sleep. She will CIO (sometimes for 30 min, sometimes up to an hour) and fall back to sleep on her own. Part of our problem is that having her CIO often wakes up Sam because she's a shrieker- and then we've doubled our problem.

So lately (even with the two of us tackling all the night wakings), our sleep has been very disjointed around here. There have been a few nights where, on 3 hours total of sleep split up all night long, I drag myself out of bed at 5 am and get ready to teach all day. (Why does it seem that our babies sleep well typically at 5 am-6:30 am? It's added insult to injury that they sleep crappy all night and then just when I have to be awake they sleep a good 1 1/2 hour stretch when I CAN'T be curled up in my bed.) Last Friday I don't think we had a stretch over 45 minutes when both babies were asleep at the same time. Once day this week, I never got back to sleep after 3 am and only made it through the workday thanks to an emergency stop for a pumpkin spice latte.

Besides Anna's pooping at night problem, I am hoping she's finally telling us she wants to graduate from her swaddle (her brother has been sleeping without a swaddle for a while now). We're commencing our next attempt to deswaddle her tonight. I also think both babies are on the verge of crawling because they are making the right movements and can make a little bit of forward progress. I've read that when babies are reaching a new developmental milestone, they don't sleep well, because they are rehearsing it in their mind and want to keep practicing. It's probably a combination of all of that. I just hope, soon, very soon, I can get a 5-6 hour stretch of sleep again.

7 Months! (and a half)

At 7 months, Anna:

Is in size 2 diapers (using up the last of our stash before moving on to size 3s)
Wears some 6 month clothes but some 9 month outfits, and all 6-9 month pjs
Weighed 14 lb 2 oz (two days before 7 months old) - almost 10%ile
Drinks 6-9 oz a time, 4 times a day
Often needs to be entertained with a noisy toy to finish drinking a bottle lately- not a good development
In the last month and a half went from 1 solid meal a day to 3 solid meals a day- breakfast, lunch and dinner
Has eaten avocado, banana, rice cereal, sweet potato, butternut squash, sweet peas, green beans, peaches, pears, carrots, pumpkin, prunes (all homemade except for the rice cereal and prunes)
Favs include banana, pear and pumpkin- not a fan of carrot or green bean by themselves
Is a pro at opening wide for spoonfuls (and should teach her brother a thing or two)
Will blow raspberries when she doesn't want to eat any more food
Drinks water out of a sippy cup at mealtimes
Has eaten banana spears, MumMums and puffs for finger foods
Has been waking overnight lately :(
Poops pretty often at night recently- this has been creating some awesomely wicked diaper rash.
Still swaddled (next attempt to deswaddle later this week)
Takes 2 longer naps of 1 1/2 hours to 2 1/2 hours a day
Getting better at sitting, but not a fan
Has started to make crawling-like movements with her legs and arms, but the bellah is still on the ground holding her back
Rolls back to tummy but doesn't like to often
Started to finally like jumping in the exersaucer and jumperoo
Seems to be focusing more on the verbal development over motor skills
Drooling has decreased- but still no teeth?
Is a big talker- I've lost track of how many sounds she can make and string together (common sounds include da-da, da-di, hi-ya, ya-ya-ya)
Still a shrieker- (I call it her pterodactyl noise)
Loves to yank mom's hair and chew on sweatshirt strings
Favorite toy of the moment: her star teething vibrator




At 7 months, Sam:

Is in size 2 diapers during the day and size 2-3 Pampers at night (using up the last of our stash before moving on to size 3s)
Wears all 9 month clothing
Weighed 15 lb 10 oz (two days before 7 months old) - almost 10%ile
Drinks 6-9 oz a time, 4 times a day and one MOTN bottle
In the last month and a half went from 1 solid meal a day to 3 solid meals a day- breakfast, lunch and dinner
Has eaten avocado, banana, rice cereal, sweet potato, butternut squash, sweet peas, green beans, peaches, pears, carrots, pumpkin, prunes (all homemade except for the rice cereal and prunes)
Favs include banana, pears, carrot- but will eat it all
Has eaten banana spears, puffs and MumMums for finger foods
Is not a open-wide kind of guy and often pushes half a spoonful out when swallowing
Drinks water out of a sippy cup at mealtimes
Now hates getting his reflux medicine via syringe with a passion
Rolls over to tummy to sleep every night
Falls asleep right at the end of his nighttime bottle and is dead to the world
Hates being confined by a carseat or highchair initially until you distract him
Takes 2 longer naps of 1 1/2 hours to 2 1/2 hours a day
Getting better at sitting, but prefers being on the go, all the time
Army crawls but rolls all over the place to get where he wants to go most
Bounces like a madman in the jumperoo and exersaucer
Always on the go- sooo wiggly all the time it is amazingly difficult to change him or get him dressed
Growing hair much faster than his sister and filling in his noggin
Can no longer go in our swings or bouncers because he tries to roll out of them
Gets in really chatty moods sometimes
Gets frustrated quickly when he wants to do something and it isn't working the way he wants
Drooling has decreased- but still no teeth?
Loves to pat his belly like a drum when he's not wearing any clothes
Favorite toy of the moment: still books- any books

(Anyone with twins should know how crazy lucky I got to get this shot of two smiling babies with perfectly placed stuffed animal- and heck, you can even see one of the 7 month stickers to boot!)

P.S. The post maybe 2 weeks late, but the pictures were taken on time, over 2 weeks ago!

I'm Here! and Latest Happenings

I'm sure my absence in the last week after my last post was misleading- but unintentional! Our router died, and so my internet usage has been minimal for a few days. I am hoping to get back in the saddle and get back to posting and commenting asap!

Latest news:

After my MIL stayed for a week while my husband was gone, my mother came to visit for a few days this week. I am glad that our visitors are over for a while now. My husband's next work trip is in 3 weeks, and I plan on doing it completely solo. I may just take a few days off of work during the week, but I think I can come out on the other side without having a mental breakdown (all bets are off if Sam and Anna are in the thick of teething, which is highly likely).

I signed our babies up for swimming lessons which start in a week, so I've gotten really excited for that! I have a friend enlisted for help during the week my husband is gone, since there needs to be an adult per baby at all times. Just yet another way life with twins is a little more involved than with a single baby- all four of us will be making swimming lessons a family event!

This probably belongs on my still-missing 7 month post, but in the last month we dropped a nap and went down to 2 naps a day, which magically improved the quality of their naps. We had been doing well on 3 naps a day and then they started to turn into short crapnaps again. I took that as a sign that they were ready to transition to 2 naps, and lo and behold- on two naps a day, the actual time asleep during naps ended up longer than they 3 crapnaps they had been having. Right now, Sam and Anna seem to have fallen into a nap around 9 am (usually 1 1/2 hours-2 hours) and a nap around 1 pm (usually 2 hours long, sometimes 2 1/2 hours). When switching to 2 naps, we lengthened our feeding schedule to 4ish hours between bottles, which has also helped them drink better each time.

In the last week, we also added in a third meal. With two meals, Sam had started drinking in the high 30's for ounces on top of the 2 solid meals, and one day even drank 41 oz (which puts too much strain on his little kidneys to process), so we added a meal in the hopes it would drop his formula consumption. I find it incredibly ironic that after our long issues of drinking too little and working so hard to get every little ounce in our babies, that our current problem was that they were drinking too much. Go figure. So Sam and Anna now get a breakfast, lunch, and dinner in between their bottles. They still drink around 6-9 ounces each bottle though. They aren't huge solid meal eaters- usually a little more than 2 oz before they get full/bored. (hard to tell, since we have homemade food and I split the food between the babies. It also depends on if the food is a fav or not.)

This is what our schedule looks like right now:

• 6:30 am wake and bottle (about 6 oz)
• 8:30 am ish breakfast meal: fruit+ cereal
• 9:00 am ish down for nap

• 10:30/11:00 am ish 2nd bottle (7-8 oz usually)
• 12:30 pm ish lunch meal: fruit and veggie (or 2 veggies if dinner is just a fruit)
• 1:00 pm ish 2nd nap

• 3:00/3:30 pm ish 3rd bottle (7-8 oz usually)
• 5:00 pm dinner meal: new food + sometimes something that goes well with it
• 6:30 pm bedtime bottle (9 oz)

Should Do vs. Want to Do?

When blogging becomes another thing added to the long list of things you should do instead of something you want to carve out time for, is that when it is time to close the chapter on bloggyland? This is where I feel like I've been lately.

I won't deny that my long list of should-dos is bogging me down. It is hard to be a full-time momma to twins - twins that aren't "easy" babies to boot (but boy, they sure do make up for that in adorableness). It is hard to be a full-time kindergarten teacher. That combo of momma to twin 7 month olds plus full-time kindergarten teacher is almost more than I can handle. Have I mentioned that this year's class is no picnic and that it's my evaluation year? (gulp- professional development plans don't write or implement themselves, unfortunately)

Oh, and did I mention that my husband was out of town all week for work last week?

Yeah, I survived that; but barely. Mental breakdown was kept at bay with a 24 hour early return of the hubs.

Did I mention that he asked my MIL to help and stay with me all week (and that said help was often times more stressful and caused more work instead?)

I should probably write a detailed post about how that went, but I'd rather just breathe a big sigh of relief and move on. I'd rather not relive how I was so tired on the school forest field trip on Tuesday that I almost laid down on the ground in the middle of the woods (woodticks be damned) and that I audibly told myself under my breath that I had to "dig deep- dig deep" on my less than 4 hours of disjointed sleep. I wish I didn't shed a few tears on my way to my classroom on Friday morning out of pure sleep deprivation because I would have killed to crawl back into my bed instead; so please don't ask about that. I'd rather not recall how the "helpful" MIL could not get any child back to sleep at night and only resulted in creating double the work by waking up the other twin.

I know, I know- the 7 month post is over a week late already. I have a whole 'nother post in my head about why that one is late in coming to fruition, too. But meh- the motivation to type it? So not there.

Well, that's all I've got. I must 1.) take care of laundry 2.) get daycare stuff together before the morning rush (bonus points to me if I actually get time to eat a quick breakfast tomorrow!) 3.) figure out what I'm going to wear 4.) maybe go to bed "early" so I can get more than 4 hours of sleep tonight (which has been slowly becoming then norm - damn you sleep disturbances. Please Sam and Anna, become adept at crawling already so you don't feel the need to think about it at say, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 am).

What I want to do? Go to sleeeeeeeeeepppppppp.....

Lots O' Leaves!

It was a gorgeous weekend, so we hung out under our beautiful maple tree and enjoyed the weather on Saturday.

Wordless Wednesday

(Does every baby bounce this enthusiastically?)




(Please excuse the mess)

Advice, Please!

There's a few things that have been on my mind lately that I would love a little bit of advice about.

1. We experience frigid Wisconsin winters. I'm a little unsure what to do about winter clothing for Sam and Anna. Everywhere I look, the bunting-type snowsuits go up to 6-9 month or 12 month size. The winter coats/snowpant separates start at 12 month size. Sam and Anna are just starting to get into 6-9 month clothing. What do I get for them? I wonder if a 6-9 month bunting would last the entire winter, and they are definitely not as warm as the coat/snowpant combos. I think they'd be swimming in the 12 month coat/snowpant options though. And will they be able to crawl/play in the snow (when they learn how to crawl) in the buntings? I want to get them soon so we don't have to forgo walks on chilly days (although today hit a rare 80 degrees, this morning it was in the 40's). Help, please!

2. Now that Sam and Anna are older babies, I think we need to branch out and get some more sophisticated toys for their age. I've been beginning to get the feeling that they are bored of the same old rattles and such. We have a V-Tech roll ball, a standing table, and several stacking toys (and of course, an exersaucer and jumperoo) that are beyond the simple rattle stage. What toys did your child(ren) absolutely love at around 7 months?

3. The big Halloween question. Sam and Anna have adorable costumes hanging in their closet. Now that I've gotten them, I actually started to think about the logical side of my 7 month old babies and Halloween. Is it acceptable to take them trick or treating, even though they can't eat any of it, just to show off how cute they are? And if it isn't, then what do we do with them to make use of their cute costumes? I'm thinking dress them up and keep them at home to help pass out candy... and take lots of pictures- am I right?

Thanks! Y'all rock!

How the Weekend Went

Well, I did survive the weekend. My husband left Friday evening, right before the babies' dinner. That was the first time I fed them solids all by myself (not a big deal, just something we've done together so far). It was totally do-able alone, just harder to keep them from getting food everywhere. We had just started carrots, and Anna hates them with a passion. Sam- he thinks carrots are hilariously delicious. No joke- he laughs and giggles through just about every bite, and carrots have been one of the only food we've tried (besides banana) that he opens his little mouth very wide for.

The evening went fine, even though b.b. (before babies) I would always be exhausted on a Friday night after teaching kindergartners all week, so a.b. (after babies) I am the walking dead on a Friday. Seriously, I am so tired I am physically ill some evenings. Teaching kindergartners full time plus being a full time mommy to twin 6 month olds is like running a marathon every single day, on less than 6 hours of sleep to boot.

Bedtime went okay Friday- it took twice as long to go through all the motions of pjs, books, bottles, etc. so it was tricky to keep a tired baby awake while I fed one and put one to bed first. I actually had to stop feeding Anna mid-bottle and start feeding Sam because Sam was dozing off in our swing, and once he's asleep for bedtime, nothing will wake him up for a long time. (Although all summer long I bottle fed both babies at the same time, I did not do that this weekend. They haven't been tandem fed on boppies since August and since then they have gotten increasingly distracted and wiggly. I chose to fed one at a time to ensure we got good feedings all weekend.)

Night time went okay too- Sam is still getting up once a night to eat, and we're finally considering attempting to wean him from that, since their eating seems to be stabilized and not a concern anymore. Saturday went well- they both took good naps, and we went shopping to break up the day. Sam and Anna are always in good spirits when we go out and about now, I always get compliments from other people at how content and happy they are while I'm shopping. I indulged and got a bunch of outfits for both of them since we're transitioning to 6-9 month clothing. :)

Saturday evening was not the best. Sam woke Anna up mid-night, and it is impossible to get both back to sleep when the other one is fussing/babbling in their crib. Eventually, they did go back to sleep and momma did too. However, their nighttime sleep disruptions impacted their naps the next day, and for the first time in a long time, on Sunday we had short crapnaps only. My husband was planning on being home for bathtime that evening, but because of road construction he was running behind. I ended up giving Anna her bath (Since baths are my husband's bonding time with the babes, I haven't done bathtime since they were newborns). Whew! Boy was I thrilled when he walked in the door and could take over with Sam's bath.

Believe me, by the time he got home I was ready for a baby break. It was nuts solo parenting twin babies for over 48 hours without any help at all. I thought I was busy before- this brought a whole new level to being busy. I did not really sit down all weekend- once they were napping, I ran around trying to eat, do laundry, wash and make bottles, etc. before collapsing in my bed for the night. I don't think I turned on our tv all weekend either.

I know several people who take care of two children while their significant other is gone for a few days. Although I am not dimishing that that would be hard too, two babies the same age is just different. Typically one child can feed themself and walk if you have two children that aren't twins. Often two children will have staggered bedtimes to reflect their ages. Two babies that need the same level of care is totally and utterly exhausting by yourself for an extended period of time. So I feel pretty darn good about being able to successful do it without any mishaps or super stressful points.

One thing I should mention is that a while ago, my mother had mentioned coming to help this weekend. The closer we got to it, she didn't mention it. (I think she forgot) In a way, I didn't want to mention it either, because I was partly hoping she wouldn't come so that I could just have some time with my babies to myself. My mother is kind of exhausting herself- always talking to me and although the help would be nice, I knew I would be craving the downtime by myself when the babies were asleep. I was actually considering thinking of a way to ask her not to come. But, on the other hand, I was slightly irritated that she finked on me. My MIL is coming for the entire week that my husband will be gone next week- my own mother couldn't offer to be here on a weekend that a little help would be nice? Oh, and she is coming in a few weeks for a weekend- because she has two days off of school and wants to come. It's even a little more irritating to me that she'll come when it is convenient for her but not for us. Our fall weekends with all four of us as a family are limited (hunting season and all) and I don't really want her to take one of them up by visiting. But, I am just trying to keep in my head that she's not coming for me, and Sam and Anna will benefit from a little grandma time, even if it isn't what I want.

So overall, things went better than I thought, I was more tired than I thought, and I'm pretty confident I could do it again without issues. My saving grace was that there were no weekdays that I had to get everyone up, ready and out the door before 7 am. When that happens- we all may just sleep in our clothes!

I'm Gonna Be Gray By Age 35

Good Lord, what a week so far.

I stayed home with Anna yesterday because of her fever. She napped a lot (4 naps with over 6 hours of total nap sleep) but ate very little compared to her usual amount lately. During the day I had noticed that her soft spot was kind of more pronounced than usual- "bulging" out, even. I called our pedi's office just to see if that was something I should be concerned about. I was told somewhat dismissively "maybe I was just noticing it more than usual because she was sick" and that maybe she was "over-hydrated" (WTF- I had already told the nurse that she wasn't drinking as much as usual AND that she had had 6 diarrhea diapers during the day- there's NO WAY she could have been "over-hydrated" and I didn't even know that it was possible to be "over-hydrated." I ended up googling bulging fontanelle (why do I always consult Dr. Google even though I KNOW I'm going to get the worst-case-scenario??) and meningitis came up. Her other characteristics- fever, diarrhea, stiff neck (probably more related to her torticollis but aggravated by not feeling well) plus the bulging fontanelle were all listed as symptoms of meningitis. It was too late to call back by then, but we had been told to bring her in if she had the fever for 3 days anyway, so we waited for the morning to see how she was doing. I really didn't think it was something super serious, or I would have brought her to the ER. I thought we would be okay at least until morning.

Anna didn't have a fever this morning, so we brought her to daycare. Our daycare provider emailed about 10 am and said she had a fever and asked if she could give her generic Tylenol. Since we had been told to bring Anna in to be checked over if she had the fever for 3 days, my husband made an appointment to bring her in as soon as we could. (I had our first school field trip today, so it would have been really difficult to be gone from work myself. My husband has a lot more flexibility at his job than I do.)

My mommy instinct was warranted, because our pedi told my husband she had never seen a soft spot protruding that much on an infant as old as Anna before, and ordered a CT scan and bloodwork to try and figure out what was going on. Although Anna was hungry, they wouldn't let my husband feed her in case the results from the bloodwork came back bacterial and she would need a spinal tap. Good lord. She had only napped for 15 minutes all day on top of all that. I called over an hour after the appointment because I had not heard anything from him yet (I figured he would have left by then), and this is what I heard (my baby screaming in the background) "they are going to do a CT scan to rule anything out- oh, I have to go the doctor just walked in." Click. I had to wait over an hour to find out anything else. Way to make a momma want to drop everything and run to her car to get to her baby as fast as possible! BUT, as a teacher, it's not like I can leave my class high and dry with no adult to watch 16 5-year-olds. Plus, my husband was there, what was I going to do that he was not doing? So I stayed and waited not-so-patiently for more news.

The short version is that the bloodwork came back showing a viral infection, so she most definitely does not have bacterial meningitis (the bad, bad kind). And no spinal tap was needed, thank goodness. She finally got to drink her bottle and was in relatively better spirits.

She may have a mild case of viral meningitis, but neither the neurologist nor our pediatrician thinks that is the kind of viral infection she has (they don't know what kind though). She officially has a "begnin enlargement of the subarachnoid space"- basically extra fluid in the tissue layer of her head (NOT her brain and not in the layer that has veins, both of which would be bad) that is pushing her soft spot up. 16% of infants apparently have this, more commonly boys. They will be monitoring her head circumference closely as she grows and that's about it. It shouldn't cause any issues or interfere with her development.

Anna also happens to have her next cardiologist appointment tomorrow to check on her VSD and ASD heart murmurs. The plan is to get a EKG to see if they have gotten smaller. I anticipate good news, because the last couple of times her heart has been listened to, our pedi said it sounds like it has gotten smaller.

Life is certainly never dull around here! For a relatively "healthy" child, she sure has seen a lot of doctors! Besides her pediatrician she has seen a cardiologist for her heart murmur, a gastroenterologist for her GERD, a physical therapist for her torticollis, a chiropractor, and now a neurologist. I'm 31 and have never had a EKG or a CT scan. Anna's less than 7 months old and she's had both. I'm really ready for this to calm down a little around here and have a normal couple of weeks. I'm not sure I know what normal is anymore!

Twins = BFFs

Wordless Wednesday

I love how they interact with each other now! :)

Poor Sweet Pea

First colds about a week ago, now Anna has her first fever. :( After checking, I know that it is not teething induced- maybe ear infection or virus? My daycare provider took her temp yesterday afternoon and it was 100.8. After generic Tylenol, it was 99.4. She was semi-fussy, and wanted to be held most of the day. Anna had 6 loose, soiled diapers throughout the day, poor bug- so she has a major diaper rash on top of feeling crummy. I decided to stay home with her today, although she could have gone to daycare (since it's just our babies and a 3 year old, she's pretty flexible about fevers/colds). The babies had a pretty rough night because Anna had frequent cry-outs in her sleep, which kept Sam from sleeping well. We also decided to bring Sam to daycare, so that I could focus on helping Anna feel better and knowing that her eating and sleeping routine would be really off today. I miss my Sam man a little more today because I know that I elected to have him not here, but I know it's for the best.

Anna had a fever of 100.2 when she woke up this morning as well. She isn't eating well, and she's sleeping a lot. She took her usual 2 hour long morning nap, woke up and ate 3 oz, and then practically fell asleep in my arms a half hour later. (She didn't actually fall asleep while I was holding her, because she's my little independent girl- even sick, she really would prefer going to sleep on her own in her crib than cuddling to sleep.) After putting her back down, she's been asleep for over an hour now.

After calling our pedi's office, they suggested bringing her in tomorrow if she continues to have a fever. My poor little sweet pea- I hope she feels better soon!

Edited to add: OMG! I realized later that this was the very first time Sam and Anna were seperated for a long period of time since, well, since they existed as a mass of rapidly dividing cells. I am glad I didn't think of this sooner, because it might have made me a little more teary-eyed to leave my little guy at daycare all day alone, without his BFF. Our daycare provider said there were a few moments he looked around and she pondered if he was wondering where Anna was. Also, my dog seemed a little more on edge today. I bet she thought I lost the other baby! Ha!

Thank You

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2010 to Robert G. Edwards for the development of in vitro fertilization.

Thank you for giving me two perfect children and making our family complete, Dr. Edwards.