Sleep?

So, our girls are ten weeks old today. To say that Mac and I are sleep deprived is an understatement. But, last night, we saw the light at the end of the tunnel and, this time, I don't think it's a train. The girls have been going about four to five hours between their 7 pm feeding and their next feeding. This has been really good except that after that they have been waking up at two to three hour intervals driving Mac batty as she is the one who handles all feedings after 1 AM. Last night we put them down around 7:30, fed and bathed. We got into bed around 8:45 after eating our own dinner and prepping bottles for the overnight feedings. 9:09: Gray starts crying. I get up. Pick her up and all is well. Put her down. Get back in bed and, blammo, crying again. I get up again and pick her up. She has gas. I give her gas drops and hold her for a few minutes. Put her down. Get back in bed for about 10 minutes. Gray cries again. Mac gets up and tries to calm her. Puts her down and gets back in bed. Gray cries again. I get up. Pick her up. She is rooting. Rooting=hungry baby. It has been about three hours since their last meal at this point and so I tell Mac I want to feed her. Mac says we have to wake Nora up, too. That has been our constant amongst all of the change: FEED BOTH BABIES AT THE SAME TIME. For the most part, it has been our sanity saver as well. I look in the crib at Nora, blissfully sleeping away. Mac and I look at each other and decide to just feed Gray. I attempt giving Gray just 2 oz to try and keep her more in line with Nora, thinking it will be enough to satiate her. It wasn't. Fed her another two oz and she went down hard. It is now 10pm and I am prepared to get up in the next hour with a hungry Nora. I think it will be worth it and I am the before 1 AM feeder so it doesn't affect Mac's sleep. What do you know? Those babies slept until 3 AM! That means Miss Nora Frances went 8 HOURS BETWEEN FEEDINGS! She is a champion baby. And the Gray-bird went five hours after her 10 o'clock meal. So, what have I learned from all of this? Be super flexible, even with your one steadfast rule sometimes. You might be surprised what happens.

Woefully Inadequate

Well, I have definitely been far behind chronicling all the babyness in our lives. Turns out, babies are are a time suck. So, I am redoubling my efforts and committing to making at least one post a week. So, the last post was all about the wonderful birth of our girls. They are now a whopping NINE weeks old! Internet high-five to Mac for us keeping them alive this long. There has been a lot of stress involved in this whole new parent thing. Initially, it was all about what these little people meant with their varying screeches and wails. Mostly it was, "Hey! I'm hungry!," or "Hey! My pants are wet/dirty!" and so we have spent an inordinate amount of time feeding babies and changing diapers. How many diapers? We estimate around 1000 at this point. We went through 700 newborn diapers! Most people go through 80-100, and some never even use them. Our girls are champion eaters, especially Miss Gray. She weighed 10 pounds 5 ounces at their 8 week checkup and Nora weighed 9 pounds 2 ounces. The doctor said their weight difference is perfectly normal and they are both gaining weight at the same pace just on different trajectories. We have gone from feeding them one ounce at a time to more than five at some feedings with an average of 3-4 most times and Mac is nursing them also. Some of the "good" stuff has started. We got our first social smiles out of our little ones last weekend and there is nothing better. You look into their tiny faces with giant cheeks grinning like a wild person and they smile back! It is quite wonderful.