Twins - 7 months old!

Happy 7 Months, Twinnies!

These babies are growing into these amazing, cute and wonderful little humans. I'm so smitten I don't even know what to do with myself.

Trevor and I are crazy in love with these guys. Even through all the sleepless nights, poop fiascos, epic pukes and piles of laundry - we have never been happier.

I think one of the biggest things that we saw towards the end of the month was the evening out of Savannah and Oliver. Savannah has been weeks to months ahead of him developmentally since they were born. She was almost 2lbs heavier at birth, and came home from the NICU almost 3 weeks before Oliver. She has traditionally been on track for their birth age, where Oliver has been more on track with their gestational age.

I've often wondered if it is more personality than development, though. Oliver is just calm and contemplative. You can see him thinking, where Savannah is kind of a spaz.

This month though, I feel like Oliver has caught up.  They are still excelling in different areas and are so different - but Oliver has definitely stopped being the underdog.

Talking

Savannah jabbers non-stop! She screeches and yells and screams! She loves to play in either excersaucer and just scream and yell.

Oliver has traditionally only been verbal when he is trying to tell you he needs something. If he's tired, hungry or needs a diaper change, he suddenly becomes very vocal. But if all his needs are met - he doesn't jabber. This has changed a little this month. That is still mostly true - but he has started to jabber more. He will occasionally scream and yell like Savannah does - but that is rare and usually when he does have a need. He probably starts jabbering the most when he is near Savannah. It really does look like they are talking to each other.

Laughing

Neither laughs often - which is a total bummer. They both will occasionally, but still it's rare. They each probably laugh about once or twice a week. Savannah does laugh more than Oliver. Best way to get a laugh from Savannah is tickling under her chin. Best way to get a laugh from Oliver is to hold him upside down.

Smiling

Savannah smiles! She holds true to the movie name. She is a happy, smiley little girl. Her gorgeous blue eyes are just always glittering with happiness.

Oliver smiles... when he wants to. I keep hoping he isn't just a cranky little man. I think he's teething and that is why he is so grumpy so often. He has this cute, sweet little smile. But he definitely does not smile like Savannah does.

Sleeping

Savannah LOVES TO SLEEP. She's been a really great nap taker and go-to-beder since she was a couple of months old (she was a terror to get down before that, while her brother was a sleep champ!).  Traditionally, I'll put her in her bed with her special blankie, her wubbanub and her binkie (she can't use the wubbanub as a binkie anymore because she loves to play with it and pulls it out of her mouth). She will go straight to sleep about 50% of the time. The rest, she will be good for a minute and then will cry and I will have to go in and put her binkie back in. I usually have to put her binkie back in about 2-5 times before she is out. Once in a while it takes 10-20 tries before she's out, but that is pretty seldom. And I know when she is really tired or close to going to sleep, because she holds her wubbanub over her face in the air, and then will rest it on her face. As soon as she's got it on her face I know she's out. She also loves to put her blankie over her face while she sleeps. I have to go in and take it off her face many times while she's sleeping.

But she's started this new thing lately, where we put her in her bed for naps or the night, and she just starts smiling like it's Christmas morning! She will scream and yell (happily) and kick her feet and just all around have a party. She won't even take her binkie (I cannot say how weird this is for her, not to want her binkie when she goes to sleep) she just wants to scream and jabber. I'll be in the living room and i'll hear her happy screaming for a while and then it will stop and she's asleep. She is like her mama - she LOVES sleep! :)

Oh and she's such a sweet, happy girl. But she turns into a complete monster when she's tired. Delaying or missing naps, or putting her to bed too late results in absolute drama and meltdowns and crying and screaming. You do not mess with Savannah and her sleep.

Oliver. Oh Oliver. Take everything I just said about Savannah, turn it to the opposite and you have Oliver. It's been rough for a while with him. He refuses to take naps, but he needs them! He doesn't get emotional and crying/screaming like Savannah when he misses naps, thank goodness. He rarely shows he's tired, but you can tell he just needs to sleep. And wants to be held. But the kid WON'T GO TO SLEEP. To get him to sleep, I have to swaddle him (which he hates and screams and yells) and then hold him and feed him a bottle. Then he will kick and thrash and try to get out of your arms, but you have to just keep holding him and rocking him and eventually he will give up and go to sleep. Most the time he will sleep for 20 minutes or less, which he needs so much more than that!!! Most the time if I put him down, he wakes up screaming bloody murder after 5 or so minutes. This kid has me TEARING OUT MY HAIR. Every day Trevor comes home, I hand him Oliver and just say, "I can't... I can't take him anymore."

I feel so bad because I know it's just teething and he probably is just hurting - hence the refusing to take naps. But oh my heavens. He is so hard.

He's so sweet though. He's such a sweet little man. BUT HE WON'T SLEEP.

I really prayed about how to help him sleep, how to give him what he needs. And I felt like he needed to sleep after being awake 1 hour - before he got too tired. And that part of the reason he was not sleeping well and waking up screaming is he was hungry (growth spurt on top of teething). So I got the idea to put him in bed with a bottle. That worked WONDERS. It worked for a couple of weeks, and then it didn't as well and it's still not always the answer, but that has saved me. I hate putting him down with a bottle and have to check on him constantly to make sure he's ok - but he goes down SO MUCH EASIER and stays asleep much longer.

Eating

I am doing Baby Led Weaning. We are liking it. Most people give their babies solids at 4-6 months. I was hesitant to start even at 6 months, not sure with being 2 months early they would be ready. So I decided to just wait until I thought they were ready.

Savannah was ready much sooner than Oliver. One day, she just started staring at our food and reaching for it. Then she would throw herself on our food. Trev was eating a peanut butter and honey sandwich and she shoved her hand in the middle of the sandwich and got peanut butter all over her face. Trev didn't know the whole - no peanut butter until they are 1 thing (which I hadn't planned to wait until a year, but hadn't planned on it being her first food) and so he put the peanut butter from her face in her mouth. She did not have a reaction. But after that, I figured what the heck! She's ready to start eating! It was SO SCARY at first giving her food, and I still freak out, but she does so great! She's had banana pancakes, bananas, avocado, sweet potato, squash, broccoli, avocado pasta and cream of wheat. She hates being fed purees or anything on a spoon. She wants to feed herself.

Sav LOVES her milk. When she sees a  bottle, she screams (not happy scream) and reaches for it. Then she takes it and shoves it in her mouth. She can hold her own bottle. She still drops it often but she can hold it.

Oliver is still unsure about food. He's starting to notice our food and reach for it more and more (a whole month after Savannah started, haha). He still isn't crazy about when I feed him. I give him mostly purees because he doesn't show much interest in putting food in his mouth yet. But he doesn't like purees. He will mostly pool the food at the front of his mouth and just let it sit there. So I think he's swallowed and am so proud and feed him more, and eventually it all just comes poring out of his mouth. On the occasion he does swallow - he makes a face like he's eating a lemon. It's so funny. He's had most of the same foods as Savannah. I didn't give him the avocado pasta since he had to chew it and I don't think he's there yet. We're still working on bananas.

crawling/rolling

Savannah lays on her back and doesn't move.

Oliver is starting to get mobile. For a while he's been rolling in his bed. He rolls onto his tummy almost immediately when we put him down. It's funny - he would wake me up screaming a couple times a night when he first started rolling over. He would wake up and want to be on his back, or just move but he was groggy and couldn't so he'd just scream. I'd roll him to his back, feed him and he would go back to sleep.

He wouldn't roll over in the living room though. I knew he could - but he wouldn't. Then it all changed. Now he rolls all over the place and tries SO HARD to crawl. His favorite thing to crawl to is his sister.

Sitting

Savannah is sitting up on her own! She loses balance a lot so we always put a boppy around her. It is less for support and more for a falling cushion.

Oliver can sit up on his own for a couple seconds, but falls over. He isn't very motivated to sit - he wants to crawl.

Dramatic

Their little personalities are developing more and more and it is so dang fun!!

Savannah is a drama queen. This girl! She slightly grazes her head with a pillow and she screams and screams like she's dying. She's hungry or tired and it's like the world is ending.

Oliver falls and hits his head and you can tell it hurts - but he rarely cries. He just bucks up. Trying to get him to sleep results in him screaming and thrashing - but he is so calm otherwise.

First Family Vacation and Sickness

This month saw the first sickness in our house.We have still been mostly in quarantine. At their 6 month appointment, their pediatrician told us to start taking them out. It's been an unseasonably warm winter, and he told us to be careful but to start going on. So we did. We went to St.George for our first family vacation!!!

I packed all four of us up and into Tim by myself (my mom helped me load some things)! I felt like mom of the year. I'm sure this will become a frequent thing for me, but I'm going to enjoy these first time mom things. I loaded the twinners and we picked daddy up at work. Then we drove to my grandparents to visit them. We hung out, played, fed them - and then at 7, their bedtime, loaded them in Tim for the long drive to St.George. Mercifully they slept the whole way which is what we were hoping and praying for.

We left on Wednesday night - Trev had taken Thursday and Friday off, and we were to stay until Sunday.

It was nice to be away from home. We figured as long as we kept the twins on their napping schedule, they would be completely fine. Not so much.

They were awful. Terrible. Dreadful! On Thursday we said, "hmm maybe we shouldn't stay till Sunday. Maybe we should leave Saturday." On Friday we said, "this sucks. Lets go home tonight."

We were able to see family and Cody and his girlfriend, but the twins just kept getting crankier and crankier and it felt like one was crying at all times. On the way to the hike with Cody, Oliver screamed bloody murder the whole way. It was terrible and so uncharacteristic of him. Then on the hike, Savannah started to wail and wouldn't stop - so we left.

Friday they were just as bad, so after a nice dinner with Mike, Heidi and Hannah we packed up as fast as we could and headed home.

It was really nice to get home. I've never loved our home so much as in that moment. Hopefully when they need less naps and are a little older, taking a vacation won't be so catastrophic. Also, I think the fact that we've been in quarantine since they were born adds to their inability to thrive anywhere but home.

Saturday we hung around home and went on a quick Costco run.

Sunday Oliver was sick. It kept getting worse so later in the week I took him to the doctor and he had RSV. My heart totally and completely broke. In the NICU they scared us silly about RSV. We were on strict quarantine for 6 months to avoid any illness. I literally had no life and rarely left the house to keep these kids well, and Oliver gets RSV regardless. The doctor calmed me down and told me they are old enough to handle it well now, it's not a huge deal and won't have any long term affects on them. He also told us as soon as he's well - to start taking them out again. Ugh. Gave me so much anxiety.

Ollie got pretty sick and it was really not fun. I had to take him daily to the hospital for breathing treatments and to get his nose sucked. He hated it. I'm certain Sav got it too, just not bad. She was cranky and exhausted while he was sick. She was taking marathon naps all day long. Then, my mom got a bad cold (on top of chemo- no fun), Sav got a bad cold, I got the cold, Trev got the cold... somehow little man didn't get it on top of RSV which I am so thankful for. We were really careful to keep things separate, they didn't sleep together, but still I can't believe he didn't get it.

Teething

Ollie is teething and it's horrible. I'm pretty certain it's why he's been refusing to nap and so cranky. Poor guy. I'm hesitant to give him Tylenol since I can't see any teeth and it's just conjecture - but seriously the kid has to be teething! I want me sweet guy back. Sav has yet to show any teething, other than she drools up a storm all day and gets these bright red cheeks.

They love:

Savannah - Her wubbanub, her pacifier and special blanket Teta made her. She loves food (specifically bread - my bread) and milk. She pretty much just loves food in general. She loves playing in her excersaucers. She loves loves the giraffe on the safari one, and will jump to get it. She loves playing the piano and screaming. She loves nap time. She loves sitting up or standing up so she can look around. She loves my water bottle, specifically the straw. She lunges for it every time.

Oliver - He LOVES baths! He kicks and splashes and just has so much fun. He's so amazing to watch. There is this one toy we have he specifically loves. He loves being on the floor so he can try to crawl and explore. He loves his sister! Seriously, she's his favorite. He loves snuggles. He's started to enjoy the exercaucers more, but will often prefer being on the floor to play. He loves to chew on things. Everything. Not food - he wants to chew on your face, the table, your hands - everything.

They hate: 

They HATE having saline up their nose and having it suctioned (who can blame them for that though!?).  They have figured out if they shake their head and wiggle we can't do it, so it's a two person job. They hate getting medicine and will just spit it up. They hate getting clothes put on.

Savannah has started to hate baths (she used to love them so not sure what happened there). She hates being splashed by brother. She hates when brother is too affectionate and won't stop touching her face.

Oliver hates eating solids (I don't feed him often since he hates it, and I'm going on his cues. I will occasionally just to see if he's ready). He hates having a messy diaper. He hates being swaddled to force him to go to sleep. Eventually he goes to sleep and it's the only way to get him to sleep - but initially he hates it.

Silly things they do

Savannah - shakes her head "no" over and over. It's hilarious. No idea where she learned it but she'll randomly do it and it's the best. She will get frustrated or angry at us, and she will squeeze her face and blow out her nose really loudly. It's the funniest thing I've ever seen. We have no idea where she learned it! And it's to show us displeasure.  She screams in happiness and kicks when we put her to bed. She loves sleeping.

Oliver - this dude is pretty easy going and he doesn't have this crazy zesty personality like Savannah has. He's so sweet and tender. He does love grabbing my face and putting his wide open mouth on mine. It's so cute.

Well, this will wrap up month 7 for now!!! (I started this right after they turned 7 months, and am finishing it less than a week from their 8 month birthday. Hopefully I did a good job separating the two months, since they all seem to blend together).