3 Months!

Baby girls are three months old! 

Wow!! 

They are definitely growing and are discovering new things every day. They are good at tracking things with their eyes and will turn their head for my voice or for an unusual sound. They love playing on their little play sets and kicking their legs to the music! A special favorite of theirs is talking up a storm when you put their face right up close to theirs. Smiles and baby goos all around! Michael has noticed it too- "mom, the baby talked!" when he hears a baby cooing. They are also getting so strong, keeping their heads steady when being held and going longer and longer at tummy time. We've had a couple of rolls from tummy time to back and a few times Brynn has rolled her self into a ball and rolled from her back to her belly. 

We have been really trying to settle into a good schedule around here- trying coordinate feeding, happy play time, and sleeping time to all happen at the same time. It is time consuming and hard work, but it helps us with routine and to stay consistent and predictable with our days. I took the girls to Walmart yesterday just to pick up the last of my gifts and a man stopped me and said to me as he looked at my peaceful, sleeping babies, "Wow, how did you get them both to sleep at the same time?" 

Yes, it may seem easy to the common passerby but for me that trip to Walmart required a whole morning of being on track with feedings, a morning nap, me getting my shoes on and purse in the car hours before we were leaving, and then finally when the girls were showing sleepy signs to pop them in their carseats and away we went since I knew we only had about a good hour of sleep time before they would be hungry again. But all the same, I'm glad strangers are impressed. :o) 

To continue with the good....

Both girls are great eaters and nursing is still going really well. They are efficient eaters but have started to get distracted especially if I engage them while they are eating. They will just think it is time for a gab session with mommy and not time to eat! 

Our witching hour has seemed to have passed. The girls had been getting very fussy right around the dinner time hour- which makes sense because everyone is home, being noisy, things are rushed trying to get dinner on the table and chores done, etc. I think our good nap schedule and earlier bedtime has helped, as well as putting them in their swings to chill (which we try not to do *too* often since they always fall asleep and we want them to sleep in their beds!) helps also. 

The girls are also very good about laying down for naps and bedtime without a fuss. We have been taking a morning, mid day, and late afternoon nap and that seems to be working well for us. I've been tracking times so we can give our nanny a good idea of what a schedule is like but so far they are a little bit all over the place. I try and think of the EASY pattern from Healthy Sleep Habits which is: eat-activity-sleep-your time. However, ours usually goes eat-activity-sleep-your time-activity since the girls usually are up before their next eating time. 

And now for the not so good...

The night time sleeping. Argh! It is getting really hard for me to keep it up at night, especially since I know it affects my mood and energy levels all day long. I try and think of the positives which are a lot: they lay down easily and fall asleep without fussing, are sleeping in their own beds, can sleep for three hours at a time at night. However, they do not always go right back to sleep after they are done eating at night and many, many times they wake up at different times for their night feeding. So usually it involves me being awake for a huge chunk of time, trying to soothe one baby back to sleep because it is too early to eat, then feeding, then trying to soothe them back to sleep after the feeding- only to have it happen again just a little bit later. It is seriously driving me bananas and I am not sleeping for more than a few minutes at a time- maybe an hour if I am lucky. 

So last night I started trying to just soothe them both back to sleep instead of feeding them at their first waking time so they can sleep a 5-6 hour chunk of time. It was pretty successful so I am hoping that will make a difference for my sleep as well! It's not just the lack of sleep that is hard, but the aches from getting up out of bed a bazillion times and leaning over the bed to hold pacis in, falling asleep in uncomfortable positions while nursing because I can't keep my eyes open, feeling super anxious when trying to fall asleep  knowing the minute my eyes shut someone will start crying. 

I know that I am incredibly blessed and of course I know I will be tired when raising little ones- but where do you draw the line? I know I am making the rest of my family miserable and I hope to see some improvement by the time I go back to work in January! 

Anna.

Brynn.

They are keeping their eyes on that tricky Rudolph! 

All in all, I still can't believe I have been blessed with these two little girls. I am still not over the fact that there are TWO babies! They are so sweet, healthy and strong and I know they are going to grow up to be some pretty special people. 

Happy quarter of a year birthday, Anna & Brynn!