Twins-3 Months Old

Wow, a fourth of their first year is already over!  Things are really starting to become fun-

Lauren:  You are quite the smiler and have the cutest little closed-mouth grin that shows off your dimples.  You are also starting to coo and talk a lot more.  Your head continues to be on a swivel-you doesn't want to miss a thing.  Because of this, you are sometimes a cat napper during the day.  However, no matter how much or how little sleep you gets during the day, you are almost always in a good mood.  You continue to sleep well during the night-maybe waking up once between 2-3AM, although you have slept 10-11 hours at night before.  You remain our little peanut and don't seem to be gaining weight as quickly as Caleb.  Your acid reflux has acted up a couple times so I have had to increase your meds to help with the symptoms.  You continue to eat 4 ounces every 3-4 hours during the day, and have hardly had any formula your entire life! 

Caleb:  You love to give smiles and talk during the 3AM feeding!  You like to eat and sometimes don't like to wait the 3 hours to have your next meal, especially in the evening.  You are eating anywhere from 4-6 oz every 3-4 hour and has had 7 ounces before.  It is obvious you are gaining weight quickly and you will probably be my Michelin  Baby :).  I can't wait!  You are becoming more observant and your head control is much better now.  You can sit in the Bumbo seat for 10-15 minutes without difficulty. 

Lauren seems the closest to rolling over, but neither twin loves tummy time.  They do continues to love their baths and being read to.  They are not great car riders and often cry in their carseats.   

Alena:  You continue to be such a great big sister.  Now that they are more interactive you love talking to them and trying to calm them down when they are upset.  The twins LOVE smiling at you and watching you.  You are definitely their biggest fan-I know you will continue to entertain them as they get older, which will be SO helpful for mom and dad.  I love how you call Caleb "Buddy" and Lauren "Sister" or "Little Girl."  One evening, we put the babies to bed before you so that we could spend a little time alone with you.  But you weren't really happy that the babies were not downstairs with us and wanted us to get them...you love them so much! 

Decorating for Christmas

It has been our tradition to pick out our Christmas tree at my parent's house.  This year, we let Alena pick out the tree all by herself.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of us by the tree before we cut it down, but I was able to get some while we were decorating it. 

All ready to go pick out the tree

Alena is so excited about Christmas and loves to look at Christmas lights.  Although Justin said he wasn't going to put Christmas lights up this year, I think Alena talked him into it.  Alena is also curious about our little elf, Ernie (or she calls him Bert and Ernie).  She likes to see where he is hiding each morning.

 

It's become an annual tradition to make Christmas cookies at my parent's house.  So we spent a day in Ames decorating cookies.  Alena really got into it this year-I'm sure there were more sprinkles on the floor than on the cookies, but we all had a great time.   

A Thanksgiving to Remember

...or forget!

I definitely enjoyed my last week off of work, especially because Thanksgiving was coming up and that is by far my favorite holiday!

Justin had a "simple" inguinal hernia repar the day before Thanksgiving.  His surgery went great and we were home a little after 12:00.  My mom picked Alena up from daycare and took her to Ames for the night to make things easier on Justin and I.  Late in the afternoon, Justin got sick, but we thought it was from the pain medication. We decided to go ahead and head up to Ames Wednesday night in case Justin wasn't able to help with the twins.  Unfortunately we had a hard time even getting out of Des Moines!  I had to stop at the pharmacy to pick up Lauren's new acid reflux medication and while I was doing that, Caleb was crying in the van.  After getting the medication, we headed for the interstate, but he wouldn't calm down.  We ended up pulling over at a gas station so I could feed him quick before heading up to Ames. 

The Grandmas watched the babies during Justin's surgery

Thanksgiving day was great!  It was just my parents and the five of us, but we still had a whole spread of food (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, the traditional jello salad, homemade rolls, green bean casserole, corn, and two pies!).  Justin was able to eat a little bit, but not much due to a lot of extra gas in his tummy.  The twins napped during our feast. 

                                                                     Making Rolls

Early Friday morning, Justin woke up in a lot of pain.  We called the physician on call and he thought he was constipated and recommend he take Milk of Magnesia.  Of course the bottle my parents had expired in 1999 so Justin had to drive to town to get some in the middle of the night because I was feeding babies.  Later that morning he got sick and was still having pain.  I knew something wasn't right and worried about an ileus or an obstruction. I called his physician again, and told him he still wasn't doing well. I asked if he was concerned about an obstruction and he mentioned that that is quite rare to get after a hernia surgery.  He recommended Justin have clear liquids that day and continue Tylenol as needed.  Unforunately he wasn't able to keep anything down so that next morning (Saturday) he was admitted to Methodist Hospital for dehydration.

An x-ray was completed which showed he was constipated.  He was hooked up to an IV and told to walk as much as possible.  He continued to throw up despite not eating/drinking anything.  An NG tube was placed Sunday evening and a copius amount of icky stuff came out!  Finally, on Monday morning when his surgeon walked in the room and saw the NG tube he knew something was not right.  A CT scan was ordered which showed a small obstruction in his bowel. He was taken to surgery and the bowel obstruction was repaired laproscopically (thanfully!).  To add one more complication to the mix, he had trouble peeing after surgery!  Luckily he was able to go home on Wednesday (a week after his original surgery).  Besides a little discomfort from having two surgeries in 5 days, he is doing well.  Alena missed her daddy and was glad he was home.

Unfortunately the timing of all of this was horrible, as it was my first week back at work.  We had already planned to have the grandparents watch the twins this week so we had a lot of help at the house (sometimes all 4 grandparents were there!).  We are so lucky everyone lives close enough to help out. 

Every one of us, except Alena, has been hospitalized this year!  We are really looking forward to 2013!