Front to Back, Yo

The girls can turn themselves over front to back now! Ruby first did it a few weeks ago, but she's been pretty off-and-on about doing it again. Ellie didn't turn over until last week, but last night when I turned her over for tummy time, she immediately turned over. I flipped her again, she turned over, flipped her, she turned over. Holy cow!

Today's A Day.

I feel like we're never, ever going to catch up. We have so many things that we are supposed to be doing and we can't seem to find the time for any of them.

Zazie went back to work the week of Christmas. We knew when she went back that it wouldn't be for long, only long enough to have it seem legit that she's discovered that being back at work was "too much" -- not that having maternity leave covered and then quitting to stay home was always our plan. In an ideal world, Zazie could work from home part-time, but this particular company wasn't ok with that. Full-time childcare for two kids, in home or out, is a financial impossibility for us. Going down to one income seems pretty frickin' impossible too but we'd rather do that than scrimp and save so someone else can take care of our children.

She went back to work, I stayed home with the ladies during Christmas and New Year weeks, then my mom came from Texas to take over day time childcare for two weeks. Tomorrow is Zazie's last day of work. We are excited for her to be home, but fearing for our finances. Buckling down is a must... we have always played fast and loose with our financial planning but those days have to go.

Between the bottle washing, and the milk-making, and the bottle filling, and the dinner making and the dish washing and the laundry doing and the BABY LOVING, it's hard to find time to do all the other necessary tasks like finishing the second-parent adoption paperwork, submitting our FSA paperwork so we can get reimbursed for all our medical fees, creating a new budget for our new finances, sending out the thank you notes for the baby shower our friends threw for us IN AUGUST.

Lordy. At least the girls are cute and sweet and growing so fast! Ruby rolled over the other day- we didn't see it, but my mom did. And both of them are pulling themselves forward on their playmat. I took a very sweet picture of them sleeping side-by-side, Ruby has her arm tucked into El's... of COURSE I intended to upload pictures today, but sleep deprivation makes it difficult to get out of bed, and thus I ran out of time before I had to leave for work. Tomorrow!

What do you do?

The day we found out we were pregnant, we were snorkeling in Belize. A family in our snorkel group had nine year-old twin boys. Zazie, of course, had a feeling from the moment the test turned positive that morning (on earliest day the test could work, by the way) that we were having twins. These were the first people we told about our pregnancy.

We had a long conversation with them that day. They told us that they didn't tell their boys who'd been born first. In fact, their boys had gotten in a discussion with one of their friends at school. This kid said: "You can't have been born at the exact same time. That's impossible." To which the boys replied, "How do you know? You're not a twin!"

We thought that was a pretty cool idea. We've learned from Zazie's sisters (who are also fraternal twins) that sometimes birth order can become pecking order. Despite being only minutes apart, one twin became the de facto "oldest."

After talking with our new Belize friends, we decided they had it right. We weren't going to tell anyone who'd been born first. We know, but no one else will.

It's been really hard, though. Who knew? People act a little insulted when they ask who was born first and we won't tell them. Zazie & I are people-pleasers and it's difficult to tell people no. We just say "We're not telling anyone."

Is there a better way to say it?

They are nearly three months old!

These girls turn three months old on Sunday. (We are counting weeks instead of going by the calendar date. Does that sound right?)

This morning, I got them ready for the day and they were both smiling at me... those smiles are delicious. It's getting easier and easier to make them smile. This morning, Ruby was enjoying my kissing noises, while Ellie thought my chucking her cheeks was fantastic.

Zazie takes them to the pediatrician for their vaccinations this morning. We're doing a spread-out schedule, which I know is controversial, but they'll get them all, just not all at once. The doctor's fine with it and we feel more comfortable. I am waiting for the call that they did ok.

It is so hard to leave them in the morning and I rush home from work every night to see them again. Last night, Aunt B. was holding Ruby and Ruby started to cry and cry and cry. I can't say I wasn't pleased to have her stop crying immediately the second I started to hold her.

My sweet girls make my heart fill to bursting.

Hallelujah!

The girls have had problems latching since birth. They were preemies and, though they were healthy and good-sized for twins, breastfeeding hasn't come easy. Zazie's been pumping enough for most of their bottles, but she'd like a break from that once in a while. We were told by the lactation consultant that preemies usually get the hang of it right around when they would be considered full-term.

They're a couple weeks behind, but praise jeebus, they both fed for a significant amount of time last night!! I think we might be over the hump. That's a huge weight off Zazie's mind.

And this too shall pass, yes?

So far, the girls have been pretty mellow. We've fed them, burped them, changed them, played with them a bit (depending on the time of day), then they go right back to sleep. Now, holy jeebus, things have changed. If they are awake and we are not holding them, they are crying to be held. When they wake up to be fed, there's no leeway... they're 0 to OHMYGODFEEDMENOWI'MDYING. That aside, they are both thisclose to smiling & we are anxiously awaiting that day. After seeing their gassy smirks, their actual smiles will be beautiful.

6 weeks Sunday!

More pictures! Yeah!