Did you miss us?

Sorry for being all MIA on all you folks, but the last month or so has thrown a lot of life at the 'ol Twinsler clan. Fortunately, the twins have been doing great. Both are over 10 lbs now and are starting to smile and show emotions- other than crying ;)

Through a crazy series of events, I lost my job, and Rachel went back to work full-time for a while, offering us both a very in depth look at what its like to walk in the others shoes. I just accepted a job offer, so now we get to figure out what the new normal looks like!

Above is a pic for the girls taken by a friend of ours, Amanda. She did a great job on the ~4 month old shots, didn't she?

-tinny out

Discharged!

Today we went back to Good Sam for a checkup. Ava now weighs 9lbs 7oz, and Ella is a robust 8lbs 13oz, what chunkers!

The best news we received was that we were officially discharged, and as long as there are not any new problems, we'll not head back to the hospital for 5 more months... who-hoo!
-tinny out

The Many Faces of Ella: Part II

Ella was being especially photogenic this past weekend, so here are a few shots that cover the range of emotion that is Ella...
-tinny out

Sunday Morning Update

Sorry for the lack of posts, but for some reason or other we seem to have less free time lately. The whole family is healthy and the girls are only getting up once a night now, w/ Ava having slept through till 6:00am twice. Who-Hoo!

I have always been a problem solver, trying to see causes and effects and how to predict and cause a desired outcome. The Twinsler's have brought out that quality in Rachel as well, especially w/ trying to get them to sleep through the night. Our latest strategy (that has been working pretty well), is to keep them up after their 8:00pm feeding till about 9:30 or 10:00 and then feed them and put them down. They usually do not eat much at this feeding, but it fills their bellies and gives them sweet dreams.

The girls are in a pretty cool stage right now. They have both started to be more alert and aware of their surroundings, being able to follow objects with their eyes. Good stuff. Here are a few random pictures of the stars of this blog.

Ava striking a pose during bath time
Disgruntled Ella post bathThe Girls at 3 months
Ella looking CUTE!
-tinny out

Good Times!

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past weeks. There has been a lot of "life" going on so we haven't been able to (read > made time) to blog. The girls are doing great. Ella is over 8.5 lbs, and Ava is porking in at over 9 lbs. They are just little people. They have started to become more aware of their surroundings and are able to follow you w/ their eyes... so cool!

They are both now on meds for acid relfux which is really helping. We thought that Ava was just a fussy girl, but the doc informed us that she doesn't really have anything in her life that should be making her cry every waking hour, so she thought that we'd give the acid reflux medicine a try. Up till this point, Ava never really was awake w/o crying or feeding, so now it is awesome to just have her be able to set in your lap w/o crying.

Rachel is the best mom in the world, so to celebrate Mother's Day (which was kind a blur), Rachel and I are going to see Brad Paisley in concert in June.

-tinny out

Babies cry a lot

Yesterday was the girls 3 month birthday. We celebrated with huge bottle of fortified breast milk, who-hooo! Overall, things are going well. Things were pretty rough a week or so back, as the girls had us pretty worn down, but we tweaked some of our nighttime feeding strategy and had a few restful nights.

Several nights this week, including last night, Ava has been trying to have a party in her crib... Last night, she cried that "oh my God the world is ending" kinda cry from 11:30pm till I fed her early at 1:15am. After that feed, she has done pretty well, but seems to have handed the baton to her sister Ella. Ella is usually very content, so this ongoing, inconsolable crying is out of the ordinary.

I know that babies can cry a lot, and that is really the only way that they have to communicate to the world. Normal crying is one thing, but I do not think that I have experienced anything worse than not being able to console your crying child. It pretty much sucks.

All you folks that have kids are laughing, I know, and all my friends w/o kids are like huh?

We'll get some more pics up soon.

-tinny out

Life Update

Life is pretty good. We had my parents in town this weekend which was neat to see as they had not visited since very early on in the hospital. Grandma helped Rachel w/ the girls and around the house and Grandpa helped me lay some mulch in the yard. The twins are doing well. The doctors gave us the OK to start letting them stretch one of the night time feedings which is great, but confusing. Ava sleeps for 3.5 hours and then wants fed, so what do you do w/ Ella after that? She is still sleeping, but will most likely wake in less than an hour, but maybe she’ll sleep longer? Then the girls will be on separate schedules, and then what do you do the next mourning? This is all very confusing, and Rachel and I being the planners that we are can easily drive ourselves nutty!

The girls will have been home for 4 weeks already on Tuesday, and will be 3 months old on Saturday…. crazy!

-tinny out