Easter

Our Easter Sunday began promptly at midnight when Major man woke up. I nursed him & put him back down. Sis followed around 1:00, so I fed her and put her back down. She was back up around 4:00, so I fed her again. I used this opportunity to get our dinner started, so I started the Mississippi Roast in the crockpot. As soon as I laid back down around 4:30, Maj was up again (I decided it was better than me falling back to sleep again)...soooo I fed him and put him back down. At some time around 6:00, I heard Mitch's alarm and I think Harper might have been crying or whining. I got up at 7, fed her, and put her back down. Y'all - that's a lot of work before 7 AM!!

At this point, I got up and got myself ready, then proceeded to get the babes up and ready. Let me interject that Mitch left at 7 to get to church, so I was by my lonesome! Our church had two services today, so we needed to be there by 9:00. Before I got the babies up, I got ready, fixed some breakfast, and made sure I had everything packed for the kids. Here's a rundown of the next hour or so...

8:00 - get Major up, feed Major, eat breakfast while nursing

8:15 - put Major in bouncy & get Harper up, feed Harper

8:25 - change babies into church clothes & load them in carriers

8:30ish - put a waffle in the toaster oven for Maddex, get Mad up & dressed

8:35 - start loading up kids & car, heat up some breakfast for Mitch

8:40 - on our way to church

We made it a few minutes late, but I decided that was acceptable considering my position :) Church was wonderful, as usual. We celebrated the Lord's rise from the grave!! Easter is such a fantastic and joyful holiday. I really, really love it. The babies were so sweet during nursery time. I fed them and Harpy even let me rock her to sleep - such a treat for me :) 

Maj playing on the floor

Harpy swinging

Snuggling my baby boy

Harpy is doing Elvis!! Maddex Jr for sure!

Maj's kissy lips

 

Oh my word - this man is so handsome!

After church, we headed home for that delicious Mississippi Roast. I decided that I really needed to try to get a picture of all three kids today. Maddex is not loving pictures these days, so I really talked it up on the way home. She was excited to take a picture in the rocking chair with the babies. Well, we apparently took too long getting the babies out and finding my camera because she had time to change her mind. No longer was she excited to take the picture, but instead was ready to pitch her typical two year old fit...here's what we got...

The crying begins...

And gets worse...Lol @ Major

Won't look at the camera - but hey - Harper's smiling!!

Annnnnd that's as good as we got! So then we spent the next few minutes trying to calm her down from this fit. She went outside with daddy, but I guess she wanted me to go outside too, I don't know, but the fit continued. At this point, it's after 1:00 and I'm trying to finish making lunch. Today reminded me why we always eat Jambalaya Shoppe on Sunday. Eventually, I was finishing lunch with a 2 year old on my hip. Next week, we'll be back at the Shoppe. And every week after that.

As crazy as our morning/early afternoon seemed, the rest of our day calmed down. Mitch finished up lunch while I fed the babies. Maddex became a pleasant, sweet baby girl - my favorite kind! Here's proof...

Maddex was a great eater and that roast was melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Both of the girls went down easy for a nap around 2:00. My buddy boy just wasn't having it though! At this point, he had only slept maybe 30 minutes so far in the day. After he cried a while, I nursed him some more and was able to get him down around 2:30. I excitedly laid down and got about an hour nap in before Major was up again. For a boy who hadn't slept much, he was in such a sweet mood. He sat in his bouncy for hours this afternoon and just "giddy upped" (kicked his feet so that he bounced).

The girls took great naps and Maddex was my sweet Mama's girl all evening. We snuggled and laughed and played. OK, at this point, I'm tired of typing, so I'll sum it up quickly :) Major wouldn't nap again, but was still just such a sweet boy! He eventually took a cat nap in the swing. Harpy slept the day away! We ate pizza for dinner...Maddex & this mama were happy! I bathed Maddex and she was hilarious and sweet. We ended the night playing with all the babies in Maddex's room - sweetest moments of our lives :)

Before I sign off, I want to say this - Today we celebrated the death and resurrection of our Savior. I am so thankful that He died for me and I can live because of Him. There are times where I look back at mornings like today and wonder how on Earth I survive. I am reminded instantaneously it's because of the strength the Lord gives me. I'm not sure I could make it through my life these days without His guidance, His wisdom, and His strength daily. People always say that the Lord doesn't give you more than you can handle...but let me tell you this - in my flesh - a 2 year old, infant twins, a full time job, and graduate school is more than I can handle and that's what the Lord has given me. BUT, I can make it through these days with joy because of HIM. He gives me more than I can handle in my flesh so that I lean on His strength to bring me through. My survival of these months is a testament to the faithfulness and reality of our Savior. He is alive and well in my life! I hope you are allowing Him to be alive in your life as well.

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9.

Zoo Trip

I've been having some guilt lately that Maddex is missing out on fun anytime that I'm off. It's not easy to get out with the twins, so we mostly stay at home. When we're home, I feel so busy feeding babies, putting babies down, calming babies, making food, cleaning dishes, doing laundry, and so on and so forth that I don't spend enough time playing with Maddex or organizing activities for her. I don't doubt that she enjoys her days at home - she plays with the babies, talks to us, watches a couple shows, plays with her dolls, and acts silly all around the house. Still, I wanted to get out and do at least one fun thing with big sis over my break! I'm not sure why I decided to go to the zoo, but the zoo it was!

Wednesday morning turned out to be a bit cold and blustery, but I refused to be deterred. We got loaded up and headed to pick up Nana. Thankfully, Nana is brave because I couldn't handle these trips by myself! (Sidenote: during the trip, we decided it probably would have been a good idea to have a third adult!). We finally made it out to the zoo around 11:00 AM. We checked out some noisy monkeys, lazy tigers, and made a beeline for the playground. Maddex loooooooved the playground but was a little reserved about the big playthings! She ran around and did a little climbing while Nana followed behind and applauded all of her two year old playground accomplishments. I took the opportunity to feed and change the twins and did a little applauding from a distance. I did manage to snap a few sweet pictures of Maddex playing. This was probably her favorite part of the trip. We should have just gone to a park.

Next was lunch. Yum. I have great things to say about zoo hamburgers. Here's where a 3rd adult would have come in handy - 2 adults + 2 strollers = 0 hands to hold a tray of food! I abandoned the twins momentarily to grab the food & drinks. We ate happily and took a bathroom break. As usual at the BR Zoo, there were peacocks wandering around the food area. Maddex made me chuckle when she was calling "Hey pretty bird, come here, come here!" as we walked to the bathroom. Leaving the bathroom resulted in a meltdown because she wanted a diaper change on the nasty plastic table. She won. I covered that thing in paper towels. Gross.

Annyyyyyway. We headed off again. Oh, I forgot to mention that the twins were screaming during most of lunch...they were tired and didn't seem to want to fall asleep in the stroller. They had no choice. We spent the next hour or so discovering animals throughout the zoo. They really should make that place a little more stroller friendly. I often had to lift Maddex's stroller up so that she could see the animals. At one point during the trip she repeatedly informed me, "Mama, alligators bite hard" after she overheard a boy telling his mom the same fact. Maddox the parrot. My favorite was the building with the fish and snakes because she could see them close up, on her level. Emerging from said building led to the end of our trip. By this time, the baby twins had minimal sleep and were not happy about being in the stroller any longer. I eventually took Harper out and held her while pushing a stroller (insert adult #3 here to hold crying baby or push stroller). We traversed the long walk back to the car, spent what seemed like 20 minutes loading up, and headed home. All kids were asleep within a few minute. Trip = successful. I'm glad we went, but you can bet I won't be doing that again soon :)

That night Mitch asked Maddex about the zoo. He asked her about the different animals we saw. She confirmed that we saw monkeys and tigers and volunteered that we saw birds. She also said we saw pigs. We didn't see any pigs. Stop! Picture time!

FOUR months!

Y'all! My babies are 1/3 of the way to ONE...I can't believe it. I really believe we are finally settling in to a calm, lovely routine & are on the cusp of more sleep! Each day I am more thankful for my babies and don't know what I'd do without twins (besides sleep  ;) ).

The babies are really beginning to love to play and interact with us. They smile, coo, and giggle just when you look at them! They are both learning to roll over from back to belly! Harper started rolling about a week ago. Once I put her on her back, she'd immediately start rolling over. She's calmed down a bit & stays on her back for longer these days. Major just started to roll this week! He's not quite all the way over, but is getting close! Next skill we'll work on is sitting up! They love to sit in the stacked boppy's and corners of the couch.

Here's a little rundown on each babe:

Harper

Ok, for all the fuss that baby girl gave us during the first couple months of her life, she has become the sweetest baby child! In the past weeks, we have transitioned her out of the rock & play and into the crib. I took her off Zantac a few weeks ago because she didn't seem to need it. I figure if she's grown out of reflux, she probably also doesn't need to sleep on an incline in the rock & play. Anyway, she was sleeping all night in the rock & play, but started waking in the night again in the crib. I wanted to abandon the crib immediately, but we stuck it out! We also noticed that she would wake up when she wiggled out of her swaddler. So, we decided to also try unswaddling her arms. We hoped if she fell asleep unswaddled, then she wouldn't wake up because her arms were free. Anyway, (I'm taking a long time to get to my point!) she is now sleeping all night, in a crib, with her arms unswaddled. She is SO big!!! Last Monday night was my absolute favorite - we put her down around 9:30 and she went happily to sleep. She slept until 5:00 & I got up and fed her. After I fed her, I could hear her in there just a talking in her sweet baby voice until she fell asleep again. Tuesday morning Mitch went in to get her up. She was already awake and talking quietly. She gave him the biggest grin when she saw him. Melt my heart!!! She is just beyond sweet!!! Maddex was a sweet baby, but Harper just might be out-sweeting her!!!

Other Harper news...she is the happiest baby. She just laughs and laughs when you tickle her, smile at her, kiss her, etc., etc. She is also easy to confuse with a baby doll. Our friends Kerri & Todd watched our kids the other night, so we could go on a date. Both of them mistook Harper for a baby doll at a different point in the night! I always tell her that I love her bald head, chubby cheeks, blue eyes, sweet smile, pig nose, and basically every part of her face :) I could just kiss it off!

Her 4 month stats:

Length: 24.5 inches (25-50%)
Weight: 14 lbs 7.5 oz (50%)
Head: 44 cm (98%)


Major

Maj is a typical boy - the strong, silent type. He has beefed up over the past month and looks like such a  stud in his little 3 month onesies that are almost too small! He is still spitting up like crazy & has developed a rash in his neck from it always being wet :( He is also smiley, but more reserved with his giggles. I love his deep, raspy voice when he laughs. It's the complete opposite of his sister's high, sweet voice.

Major is still sleeping swaddled in the rock & play. I definitely think he still benefits from sleeping in an inclined position because of his reflux. He is also not quite the self-soother that he used to be. He will sometimes go down for a nap without crying, but if he wakes up prematurely, it takes some work to get him back to sleep. He's definitely behaving more like his older sister in this category. He's also still waking at night regularly, but it's getting better. It seems like his first big stretch each night is getting a little longer every few days. I think he's close to the textbook definition of sleeping through the night (6 hours), but I'll still be getting up with him nightly until he makes it to 8-9 hours without waking.

His 4 month stats:

Length: 24.5 inches (10%)
Weight: 14 lbs 11 oz (passed up his sis! - 25%)
Head: 44 cm (90 %)

They are growing wonderfully! We are trying Major on some prevacid instead of zantac after discussing his reflux problems with our pediatrician. We started the medicine a few days ago, but I haven't noticed any amazing difference. I'm thinking he's just going to be a spitter until he outgrows it. The babies had a great check-up and took their shots like champs (screaming champs, but champs nonetheless).

So, it's finally time to finish this post. I've been working on it for WEEKS. Seriously - weeks. The babies are already doing so many different things since I last posted...

-We are finally transitioning to 3 naps a day (from 4)
-The last 2 nights have been miraculous - in bed by 9:00 and slept until 4:30 Monday morning then 5:30 this morning. Hallelujah!
-We got out one of the exercausers today - they did great! We are trying to extend their wake time activities.
-The babies are taking their first trip to the zoo tomorrow!
-I will be changing out their clothes to their 3-6 month and 6 month clothes this week. So sad!
-I am really enjoying being home with them these days, but it's exhausting! The house is always a mess and I can hardly finish one task before it's time to do another - dishes, laundry, feed babies, put babies down, feed 2 year old, change diapers, yada yada yada. I may be more pooped than when I work ;)

Time to finish up with some pictures! Maybe in a couple of weeks I'll blog about our zoo trip ;)

How cute are those shirts?

Major makes the same face in all these pictures!

Check out Maj's wet spit up shirt

Holding his baby sister

Be still my heart! Look at that flirty boy!

Trying to kiss that sis

Lol @ Harp

Photography by Maddex. Watch for her portfolio soon.

Harp didn't like laying on the ground, but I really wanted a picture of their shirts!

Maddex-isms

I know I'm overdue for a 4 month update post, but that'll come after we visit the doctor for their check-up on Thursday. I'll give you this spoiler: these babies are so sweet. I am simply head over heels!!!

As Maddex grew older, I fully intended to record all of her funny words & actions in some type of book. My mom even gave me this nifty one line a day book at one of my baby showers for her. Of course, I've totally dropped the ball on that! I'll try to remember to throw some in during my blog updates, but I'm going to devote this post to that silly girl.

I'll back up a little to her birthday...I was bathing her that night & I managed to record most of what she said during her bath...

-"Happy birthday to you Maddex" (which she pronounces Man-nex)
-"How you doing? Two How you doing? Good"
-"That's right Maddex that's right!"
-"Gonna eat Cane's, eat fries, gonna dip, gonna dip it. Ketchup dip it, Ketchup on the face, dip it."
-"LSU tiger"

All of those phrases were said in about a span of 2 minutes...

Here are some other happenings as of late that I hope will bring a smile to your face!

-I told Maddex she better go see her daddy to take a bath & I was going to count to three (she has no idea what this means)...she jumped up and said "Ooonnnee, twooooo, FIVE!"

-Last night she was sitting on the recliner with Mitch & Major. She kept telling Major "Hey Major! Gimme a kiss!" She finally got that kiss, too.

-She may or may not have been taught to say the following phrases: "Stand up & get crunk," "Everybody's got nipples."

-The other day she was sitting on the counter while Mitch was getting ready to take her to Mrs. Vickie's. She started pointing at my mom & talking a bit in gibberish...she finally got out what she was trying to say, which was..."I see Nana's nipples." (Sorry if that's TMI, but it's hilarious. And no, she could not see Nana's nipples.)

Unfortunately, along with all of this cuteness has come a string of "NO!!!" and "That's mine!" which are not my favorite things to come out of her mouth. She's being sent to her room when she throws an unnecessary fit & it's the most pitiful thing. She runs off crying then stands in the doorway screaming until one of us goes in. The best part of this stage is the snuggles she's willing to give during the "talk" afterwards.

I'm so thankful for this girl and what a sweet big sister she is! I think the babies are starting to take notice of their big sis. I'm excited to see how they begin to interact with one another over the next few months. She is going to LOVE it when they start giggling at her!

Now, who wouldn't love this face?????

Prayers Please

I haven't been showing my face on the blog much lately - why,  you ask? I'm just simply exhausted. This season of my life is really kicking my butt. I desperately don't want to sound negative, but I do want to be honest. Yes, the newborn days were hard...the babies didn't sleep at night...but I had the days to rest, we were blessed with meals, and I was just high on love ;) (don't get me wrong...I'm still high on love!). I remember predicting that this time in my life would indeed be more difficult than the newborn days, and I have to say that I was right. The babies actually seem to be sleeping worse than they were a few weeks ago. This weekend I've been up 4 times a night with them. Weeks of interrupted sleep, followed by a full day of work, then home to take care of babies & Maddex, make dinner, and attempt a chore or some school work is really catching up with me. And I'm not sure there is an end in sight - which can feel very discouraging and frustrating.

I say all of this to ask for some prayer. I am finding that my exhaustion is causing me to be generally more "down" and sensitive. I am usually a very positive and upbeat person, but I've felt so drained lately that it's definitely affecting me negatively. Please pray that my babies will sleep. Please pray that the sleep I get will sustain me through my daily responsibilities. And please pray for my attitude...that I will be filled with positivity & happiness and not get caught up in the difficulties of my current situation.

Thanks for your prayers and allowing me to be honest.