It's a crazy Crain life!: Three Weeks

It's time for a three week update! Happy due date baby twins!!! This will probably be a pretty long post since a while has passed since I've blogged. I'll say the babies have gotten a bit more needy over the past week or so - hence the lack of posts. I've spent a little more time holding & snuggling my sweet babes than I did the first few weeks.

Why the fussiness? I'm attributing it to two things - the babies waking up a little more (they really mostly just slept the first two weeks - except, of course, at night) and a growth spurt. They have definitely started eating more often. I'm lucky if I can go three hours without feeding one or both of them. I remember Maddex going through a growth spurt/fussy time around 3 weeks, so I'm hoping this is short lived! Mornings are definitely our best time. They tend to settle pretty easily & I'm able to take a bath and do one or two things around the house. Night time is still a bit of a challenge. They usually go one or two stretches where they eat every 3 hours, but then will eat more often at some points as well. They are still 100% nursing, so it's a big job for this mommy. Mitch is great and usually stays with me and helps me get them situated. He will also take the job of comforting/holding them after their 9ish feeding so that I can sleep. They're also still a little unsettled/awake at night and prefer to be sleeping next to one of us. Definitely not my favorite arrangement, but we're still in survival mode! We've gotten the swings out, but they don't rely on those for sleep right now and will get fussy when we lay them in the pack & play. We keep trying, but halfway through the night I'm too tired to care!!!

We had a great success with wake time & napping today. After feeding the twins late this morning, I kept them unswaddled and had them in the boppy on the playmat. When they started to fuss, I swaddled them back up & laid them in the pack & play. Major just went right to sleep (good boy!) and Harper needed a little extra love to get to sleep, but eventually went down pretty easily and somewhat on her own. I am hoping that as they spend more time awake that they'll learn the swaddle is a trigger for sleep & be able to put themselves to sleep. That's the goal anyway - and it's a far reaching goal bc we still do plenty of snuggling them to sleep right now!

We have also had great success with bottles! Mitch and I each gave the babies a bottle last night and they took to them with ease. Hallelujah! I plan for them to have a bottle each day as I get ready to go back to work. Of course it'd be easy and great to say Mitch could give them a bottle while I sleep, buuuuut I'd still need to wake up to pump. So I'm not sure that arrangement will happen! Speaking of going back to work, I found out yesterday that I go back on December 20th. That is already 3 short weeks away! :( The silver lining is that I work for 2 days and then we have Christmas break. When I go back in January, the twins will be 8.5 weeks & hopefully sleeping a little easier at night! Please pray that I will have rest in those days and weeks and that the Lord will continue to sustain me as He has so far.

I spent time with all three kids alone this weekend! I had the three of them some on Saturday and Sunday and it went better than I could have expected! Maddex was sweet and so good and the babes just ate and slept! Mitch is going to brave the three kids alone tomorrow night while I go to our women's Christmas party. Pray for him ;)

Overall, I'm feeling pretty tired and am starting to feel "over" waking up at night. I'm doing much more groaning when I hear them cry in those wee hours than I did the first weeks. However, I'm trying desperately to enjoy the snuggles and love on these babies as much as I can. Soon I'll be gone from them all day and will miss those kisses. And before I know it they'll be all grown and won't snuggle anymore! I'll start wrapping things up with some stats on the babes & pictures...

-Babies still eat every 3 hours or more often. Always sleep between eating, but are starting to spend some time awake after their daytime feedings.
-They love being swaddled :)
-Harper has been very congested in her nose the last week or so. We are constantly sucking out snot and boogers :( I'm also concerned she could have some reflux. I'm not sure if it's reflux or gas...I plan to make a call to the doctor tomorrow about that.
-Major is still Mr. Laid Back. His favorite song is "Do you know the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man? Do you know the muffin man? His name is Major Crain."
-Both babies lost their umbilical cords right after my last blog post :) We have transitioned to baths in the bathtub instead of on the counter and they seem to enjoy those a bit more. I usually bathe them in the morning b/c 3 baths at night is kind of a lot right now!
-We don't go back to the doctor until December 10th for their 1 month check-up.
-The twins seem to be a bit more aware of each other. They've ended up holding hand some and seemed to be looking at each other the other day when I was feeding them.
-Maddex nursed her stuffed giraffe the other day. I laughed so much. I know little girls do this often, but I just didn't think she was old enough to make all of those connections. She made sure I knew she was doing it, too.

OK, picture time :)