Twins 8-9 Month Update

Well, I guess you can tell when twin life gets busy again based on twin mamas start to fall off the blogosphere again.  That and the fact that it's summer means not much time for blogging.  However, I finally did my last month's update decided to lump it together with this month's.  So here is the scoop on the boys' 7 and 8 months of living:

Eat

These months have seen a huge shift in the boys’ eating patterns.  First off, RJ is nursing much better!  Whenever he is put to breast he will eat (unless he is full), but I am still pumping for two bottles and nursing him just for two feeds.  I guess I am still holding onto doubt that he will eat as much as he needs.  Though when it comes to solid food, I don’t have to worry.  This boy loves to eat!  We started Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) and he has eaten everything we give him.  He LOVES food.  Basically he will sit in a highchair as long as we allow him and eat continually until we stop giving him food.  He loves to feed himself.  MJ started a bit slower, but now he eats just as heartily.  The boys have eaten all sorts of foods: bananna, avocado, sweet potato, toast, peach, pear, squash, chicken, beef, pork, lamb...and that’s all just what they have fed themselves.  We also do some pureed food but it is time consuming and BLW works well for us.  We have tried to cut down a milk feed, so now they have 4 main feeds, with a little snack or two of milk and they eat 2-3 solid food meals a day (lunch is usually just a snack).  We haven’t had them weighed since their last set of shots (which in adjusted age was just at the start of 7 months), but RJ weighed about 16 1/2 lbs... and MJ weighed 18 1/2 (bruiser!). We are not worried about them any longer (little porkers).  I really think RJ just likes to do things himself and is much happier eating a variety of foods.  RJ is wearing some 6-9 month clothing, and more 9-12 month, and MJ wears 9-12 or 12-18.  He is huge!  Both are in size 4 diapers.  

Sleep

Sleep has improved so much that we can finally say the boys are sleeping through the night.  Wahoo!  Party time!!!  They still wake occasionally, but they have slept through for many nights.  Sometimes when they do wake they are able to self-settle too.  Teething threw that for a bit of a loop, but all in all they are doing very well.  Naps have settled into a nice routine too.  They go down at 9 for an hour to an hour and a half, and then again at 1:00 for and hour and a half to two hours.  If they haven’t napped well sometimes they will sneak in a third nap, but usually just an early bedtime.  They go to bed between 6:30-7:00pm (which gives us a nice evening to ourselves).  I am soooo glad we used a sleep consultant and developed some great sleep habits right away.  They still use soothers, which we’d like to get rid of, but it’s tough.  

Play

Again, it has been a fun time for play.  These boys are such characters!  I love seeing their personalities develop more and more as time goes on.  At about 8 months they started sitting up on their own, and from there things quickly happened.  MJ has been moving to the crawling position and then back to a sitting position all on his own.  He rocks back and forth in the crawling position but only moved backwards until today (July 13th).  Today MJ officially crawled!  And it was a real crawl.  We were so proud.  RJ is also on the move!  He doesn’t do a traditional crawl, but uses one side of his body to pull himself forward.  He is now just starting to try the crawl position a bit too.  We spend a lot of the day just playing on the floor and the rest of the time it feels like they are eating haha.  We try to get out once a day, either for a walk, or to the park, or to a group.  The boys haven’t really started interacting with other children, but are slowly starting to “play” with one another.  RJ loves to be outdoors looking at trees and MJ seems to like noises like trucks and airplanes.  RJ is still very vocal and knows what he wants and doesn’t want.  He is quite silly and giggles a lot.  He also has become quite the flirt, particularly amongst ladies.  He still is extremely responsive to music and wants to jump and dance and sing.  MJ is less vocal, apart from using the back of his throat for a very guttural sound but sometimes laughs and likes to sing during church.  He is a charmer when he smiles and just has such a sweet disposition.

Events

A HUGE milestone for the boys was finally the development of teeth!  While we were away on holidays, the boys both popped out two each!  And they got their first tooth on the very same day.  Our summer vacation was the biggest event during this period.  We took a trip to Harrison Hot Springs for a friend’s wedding and then carried on to Kelowna for nearly 2 weeks with D’s parents.  The boys did fantastic with all the travel and new scenery.  They slept great in their travel cots, did awesome during the driving, and adapted well to being in a new home.  We tried to keep their schedule pretty consistent and it really worked.  They had a great time with D’s parents (especially his dad).  We also celebrated their first Father’s Day with taking them out to brunch (which was more work than it was worth it with just the two of us handling two babies).   We also took the boys for their first “swim” outdoors, but they just cried at the waves and the cold water in the lake.  We tried a river too, but they just weren’t into it.  I guess we should start with a warm kiddie pool and see how that goes.  We continue to meet with the moms from our preemie group and take the boys to church.  It will be great once they are moving around in the fall and we can take them to more “active” groups of kids.  For now, we’ll sit back and enjoy this summer as much as we can!  

Twins 7 Month Update

This must be where twin life suddenly gets busy again!  I'm nearly 2 weeks late, but here is the 7-month update for the boys. 

Eat

This was a fun month for food!  We started introducing solids to the boys.  So far we have tried banana, apple, sweet potato, and carrot.  Next we will try some meats.  RJ LOVES eating.  We have tried baby-led weaning and he is totally into feeding himself.  He has great fine motor skills and is able to bring the food to his mouth himself.  He especially loves bananna.  MJ can’t quite manage to get the food to his mouth so we help him out, but he is good at “chewing” and so proud of himself for eating.  MJ is still nursing like a champ, though he feeds pretty quickly now (about 10 minutes).  He is also starting to go to the breast for comfort when we are in a new place.  It is cute.  RJ mainly bottle feeds, but he will take the breast sometimes just before or after a nap, but not for long (5 mins max.).  So I still pump him bottles (though my supply seems to be decreasing a bit so I hope I can keep it up).  We currently do 5 milk feeds a day, and 2 solid feeds.  Sometimes there is a night feed, but for the most part that has been dropped.  We haven’t weighed them for a few weeks so I don’t have an update to give there.  

Sleep

We JUST made the switch to dropping the night feed!  It hasn’t quite materialized to us getting more sleep quite yet because they still wake up a few times and we are teaching them to self-soothe (which takes longer for them to get back to sleep).  I pump once a night too, in order to keep up supply.  I know it is a great step for the future, but is a little bittersweet.  I do love those precious night-time cuddles.  With the amount of time we spent up with them at night, it is sad to say goodbye to that era.  That said, I am so excited about the prospect of more sleep (soon!).  The boys sleep for nearly 12 hours.  Naps are still hit and miss but they are starting to improve.  I can definitely count on one nap that is 1 1/2 to 2 hours long, and another for 45 mins to an hour.  

Play

It has been so neat to watch the boys grow in their physical development this month.  They have learned to roll from back to front AND front to back.  MJ does it all the time, but RJ is still just experimenting.  They are so close to sitting up on their own too.  They will roll themselves and squirm around to try to reach toys.  They put everything in their mouths.  They have a special fascination with tags on clothing and toys.  RJ loves to watch the trees and the sky when we are outside.  They both enjoy music.  RJ “dances” and sings to music videos that Dan shows him.  MJ sings along at church.  They love being at the nursery at church and “playing” with the other kids.  RJ is a bit more cautious of new environments and takes a while to warm up, but MJ smiles and interacts with new people right away.  RJ is quite talkative and even talks himself to sleep.  MJ is quieter but talks most in the morning and sometimes as he is putting himself to sleep.  RJ loves to stand and jump. He likes to play in the exersaucer.  He likes to be tickled.  MJ has started to play with my hair and grab at my face.  He loves being thrown in the air and “flying.”  They are super smiley and giggly and such fun to interact with.  

Events

Our biggest event this month was a visit from halmaoni and halabaji (the Korean names for grandma and grandpa - my husband’s parents).  They brought presents for the boys and the boys had a great time being fed by them, reading stories, and playing on the floor together.  Halmaoni took videos the whole time.  They were obviously smitten!  This month was also Mother’s Day.  During the visit, we went out for lunch with halmaoni and my mom with the boys.  They were awake and well-behaved for the entire meal!  Our own Mother’s Day was low key.  We had church in the morning (it was a potluck Table Sunday) and had the evening off to spend as a family.  I had requested that we do a hike, so on Monday we walked with the boys at Seal Bay (the ocean).  Other than that, it was pretty normal.  The month really just flew by!  I can’t believe we are past the half-way-to-a-year mark.  Stop growing up so fast boys!