15 Month Well-Baby Visit

The girls had their 15 month well-baby visit this past Thursday. Things are looking good. Here are the details...

Mallory
Weight: 23 lbs. 7 oz. 50th %ile
Height: 31" 50th %ile
Head: 19" 90th %ile (woah!!!)
Anna Claire
Weight: 23 lbs. 50th %ile
Height: 31.5 " 50th %ile
Head: 18.75" 75th %ile

Anna Claire is pulling ahead as far as height goes, but at this appointment she weighed less than Mallory.

Bottles: It's time to drop the bottles. I knew this going in; I've just been avoiding it. I love giving the girls their bottle every morning and every night, but it looks like those days are numbered. We've already dropped the morning bottle, and the girls don't seem one bit upset about it. I haven't had the courage yet to drop the bedtime bottle, and something tells me I'll miss it more than they will.

Naps: We have officially dropped the morning nap and both girls are faring well, but the their afternoon nap is not lengthening consistently (they are napping anywhere between forty-five minutes and two hours). Dr. Tillman seemed a little confused by that, as if she thought their afternoon nap lengths should be more consistently longer. But in the end, she always says the same thing (which I am fine with): the girls get between 12 and 13 solid hours of sleep a night; I do not need to be worrying about naps!

Verbal Skills: The girls are beyond where they need to be verbally. She asked me if I thought Anna Claire knew ten words to which I replied, "no way," and then I started counting. Both girls, though they don't each say the same words, know many more than I realized: mama, dada, water, bottle, pup pup, ball, bird, book, more, banana, papa, yes... and the know the animal sounds for lion, dog, snake, monkey, gorilla (yes, they beat their chests and holler like Tarzan!!), and duck. Their receptive vocabulary is huge...there isn't much they don't understand when spoken to, though it will be a few more months before their expressive vocabulary catches up. Which bring us to...

Temper Tantrums: Mallory has been "asserting" herself recently when she doesn't get her way, not all that often, mind you, but maybe two or three times a week, usually when she's really tired (way too many commas in that sentence - and I used to be an English teacher!). Dr. Tillman thinks this may just be her way of showing her frustration at not being able to communicate to us. Once she is better able to express herself, Dr. Tillman said we would hope to see the tantrums disappear. For now, she says the best thing to do is ignore the behavior. Sigh.

Motor Skills: Fine and gross are both on target. The girls are getting better and better using a fork, they can climb up the stairs and crawl down them backwards. Their walking is great and their running is getting faster and faster. They look so cute running!

The girls can also point to several body parts (their own, ours, and their dolls and stuffed animals)...eyes, nose, mouth, ears, arms, fingers, legs, toes, and chin! Way to go, girls!!

I think that's about it. In a nutshell, the girls are thriving, and I couldn't be happier about that!

Twelve Months Old

Anna Claire and Mallory are twelve months old today (as if you didn't already know)...

I had one more post planned for this evening - their twelve month update - but I am exhausted, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. I've spent the last hour and a half taking a stroll down memory lane as we watched the girls' video from the day they were born and their first few weeks at home, so I thought I would take you on your own little stroll, too.

Twelve months...

Eleven months...

Ten months...

Nine months...

Eight months...

Seven months...

Six months...

Five months...

Four months...

Three months...

Two months...
One month...

And I leave you with my all time favorite picture of Anna Claire and Mallory less than three days old which sits on my bedside table in a frame which reads, "We Dreamed of You"...

Eleven Months Old

Today Anna Claire and Mallory are eleven months old, and they get more and more amazing every day! Hmmm...let's see what this month has brought us.

The girls continue to be great eaters. So far, they've eaten everything they've ever been given. Last night, for example, they are rutabagas for the first time and loved them. Unbelievable! We are about to change up the feeding schedule a bit. The girls are losing interest in their bottles, so today we've started a plan to consolidate bottle feedings with meals which will hopefully leave us with just one bedtime bottle feeding somewhere between twelve and thirteen months. I'm always worried about changing their feeding schedule, but I've never had a reason to. Everything always seems to work itself out just like it's supposed to.

Both girls are doing great standing up on their own and cruising around their toys and the furniture, but no one has been brave enough to take that first step all by themselves. They will, however, walk behind their baby strollers pushing their baby dolls - sweet.

Of course, the latest news is Mallory's two new top teeth which showed up one right after the other. I got a really good look at them today when she was grinning - so cute! Anna Claire is teething like crazy. Hopefully hers will be here soon.

Sleeping is still going great, and naps are getting longer! Just think, a month ago I thought they were telling me they wanted to drop the morning nap, and then this morning they slept for 1 1/2 hours. I think it's all the playing outside in the hot weather that tires them out!

Bath time has gotten a bit more stressful as both girls want to stand up in the tub all the time. Hopefully this is just a phase and soon I will be able to reason with them. It's really hard to explain to an almost-one-year-old how dangerous it is to stand up in the tub. Sigh.

And, as you may be able to tell, we can forget about taking any posed pictures. The girls are in to everything and have no interest whatsoever is sitting still and smiling for the camera. I had to put them in the crib so they wouldn't get away for these shots. Of course, our elephant friend isn't in the pictures, but they do have precious elephants on their onesies.

I can't believe we have one month until Anna Claire and Mallory's first birthday. Party plans are in full swing. Can't wait until the big day!

Baby Einsteins

Anna Claire and Mallory are so smart. I have to brag on them...

Anna Claire has mastered pulling herself up to standing, but she has been having some problems getting down. Mallory just lets go and plops down on her bottom with out a care. Well, Anna Claire didn't like that idea. After a couple of weeks of hemming and hawing and whining for me to help her get down (at which point I would take her hands away from what ever she was holding on to and lower her onto her fanny to the floor), yesterday she decided she had a better way of doing things. She just kneels down to the ground and she's so cute doing it! So smart. Why didn't Mallory and I think of that?

And Mallory can climb stairs. Holy cow! Just today she climbed up four steps to get from the living room to the kitchen at my parents' house! Some major baby proofing is going to have to occur!

Ten Months Old!

Yesterday Anna Claire and Mallory turned ten months old. I can't believe we are two short months away from their first birthday. I better get the party planning started - I'm too indecisive, though. What to do, what to do?
The girls are so amazing at this age. They are both so vocal. I think they're going to just open up thier mouths one morning and sentences are going to come out.

Both are pulling themselves up to standing and Mallory will actually let go. She is getting very good at keeping her balance, but she hasn't tried to take any steps yet. Spring Break has officially started, so we're going to have plenty of time to work on walking. Anna Claire is doing much better getting up and down, but she still won't let go with both hands.

Anna Claire has been perfecting the art of shaking her head "no" for a few weeks now, and just this week Mallory has begun shaking her head "yes." Anna Claire will not imitate me shaking my head "yes" and Mallory isn't quite sure how to shake her head "no." This is too funny, especially when they are doing it at the same time. I wonder what it could mean.

Both girls have taken to table food very well. Our menu now consists of green beans, carrots, potatoes, yogurt, avocado, peaches, mandarin oranges, bananas, and pasta. They absolutely love their sippy cups, and it seems they are losing interest in their bottles - especially their morning bottle which is strange to me. You'd think they'd be starving first thing in the morning. I'll have to look into this.

Anna Claire and Mallory have become very good at entertaining themselves. Just this morning, I spread lots of toys out on the coffee table and they played in the living room for half-an-hour while I did the dishes, got the laundry going, and took out the trash. Not a peep from either one -- they were both in their own little worlds, completely oblivious to me coming in and out the room.

And did I mention they love being outside: swinging, riding in their stroller, watching the wind chimes, crawling around on a blanket or in the grass (both have eaten the grass by the way)...it doesn't matter what they're doing; they love the outdoors, and cry when it's time to go in. Walter is thrilled, and I am learning to like it outside more and more. ;-)

They are such amazing little girls -- happy and healthy and the light of their mommy and daddy's lives. We are so lucky!

Nine Month "Well" Baby Visit

This was supposed to be our nine-month well-baby visit, but we found ourselves sitting on the sick side - again. The girls still have yucky noses after nine days and Mallory has developed a nasty cough. The good news...their ears and lungs look and sound good.

Now, on to the fun stuff:

Anna Claire
18 lbs. 8 oz.
28 inches
50th percentile

Mallory
18 lbs. 13 oz.
28 1/4 inches
50th percentile

I must start taking bets on which baby is bigger - I would win every time!! ;-)

The girls are still good with four 7 1/2 ounce bottles a day and three solid meals a day. They are currently sharing cereal and two jars of fruit for breakfast, a jar of fruit and a jar of veggies for lunch, and a jar of cereal, a jar of fruit, and cereal for supper. We still have the OK to stay away from meat in a jar - yay! Dr. Tillman said we do not need to introduce meat until the girls are one year old and then it can be the real thing. We may also skip level three foods all together and begin introducing table food, starting with fruits and veggies, of course. Yum!

I've had concerns about the inconsistency of the girl's napping, but since they sleep so well at night, we are not to stress out about naps. It is also possible the girls are trying to tell us they only need one nap a day, so we may try to adjust their schedule and try one mid-day nap, but I have no idea what that would look like, so as long as they aren't feeling well, we'll stick with two naps for a while longer.

Time for new car seats! Although the girls do not surpass the limits for their current "carriers," we are to make the transition to convertible car seats and probably should have already. I had already begun my research, but my head is spinning now that we need to go ahead and make a decision. What to do?

Mallory is, in fact, teething again. As a mater of fact, I was able to see her right, top tooth under the gum. So, that explains the extreme fussiness from the past two days. Dr. Tillman didn't see a thing when she checked Anna Claire's gums.

The girls did as well as could be expected with their shots - a little fussier this afternoon than in the past, but they are sick. Mallory let Dr. Tillman see her crawl, but Anna Claire was not in the mood for showing off today.

Hmmm...what else? I had a bunch of other random questions about sippy cups, sun screen, shoes, etc.; that's the "big stuff" for now. I hope we don't find ourselves at the doctor's office again until the girls are one!

Nine Months...Nine Milestones

Anna Claire and Mallory are nine months old today, and it's getting difficult to have them sit still for pictures...

See what I mean. Sorry this picture is out of focus, but Mallory would not stay still; I finally gave up trying.

Here are nine recent "milestones" the girls have reached in honor of becoming nine months old:

1. Mallory's hair is getting so long it has started to curl at the nape of her neck and behind her ears...so cute.
   
2. Both Anna Claire and Mallory can feed themselves fruit puffs.
   
3. Anna Claire has now cut her second tooth. That's two teeth for each girlio.


4. Both girls can make in onto their hands and knees, but Mallory has been the first one to actually crawl, though she only takes one or two crawls forward at a time. Anna Claire is sooo close.


5. They reach thier arms up high for us now when we go to pick them up. I love that.


6. If Anna Claire and Mallory are sitting close enough to us, they can "crawl" into our laps.


7. Mallory can go from laying flat on her tummy to sitting up then to her knees if she has something to pull up on. They are both working hard on standing.


8. Both Anna Claire and Mallory can clap their hands together. YAY!!!
   
9. Anna Claire can hold her 1/2-full bottle and finish feeding herself.

I could go on and on, but I'll stop at nine. Our nine month well-baby visit is next Friday. I can't wait to see how much they weigh.

Nine Months Old

Anna Claire is making a quick trip to the pedi this morning - nothing too major - just a little tummy trouble I want to have checked out, so I'll have to post their nine month update this evening...no time this morning.

Eight Months Old

It is so hard to believe that Anna Claire and Mallory are eight months old today. That's as long as they were inside me. Wow, can sixteen months pass by in a hurry!Both girls are getting really close to crawling now since Mallory has suddenly taken to enjoying tummy time which, in the past, hasn't been her favorite. Still no teeth for Anna Claire, but I just know the first one is coming any day. Both girls are very verbal. Mallory can make the b, d, and m sounds, and Anna Claire has just started saying mmmm.... She still screams and shrieks loudly FOR FUN! They are both such sweet girls who laugh all the time and fuss very little.

They love their solids and are doing great on level two, which besides some new and exciting varieties don't seem all that different from level one; although, they do gag on the thicker mixed-fruit yogurt. Also, I think I've decided that they will not eat jarred meat; I just can't make them do it. Yuck!

Both girls have become a little leery of strangers, especially Anna Claire (she gets very upset in the presence of unfamiliar people), but we are working on that by getting out and about a bit more. Hmmm...what shall we plan for this weekend?

Don't Talk to Strangers

I was just telling someone the other day that I had read babies begin to get wary of strangers at 6 months old, and Anna Claire and Mallory were just past seven months old and didn't seem scared of strangers at all. Then we went to see the pediatrician today...

They screamed their heads off a good bit of the time we were there - especially Anna Claire - when the nurse weighed and measured them, when Dr. Tillman examined them, if the nurse left the room they calmed down, when she came back they cried again. Dr. Tillman even called Anna Claire's behavior "stranger anxiety." The poor thing absolutely sobbed her heart out.

Or maybe they just knew they were getting three shots today. :-(

Here are the stats...Both girls are 27 inches long. Mallory weighs 17 pounds and Anna Claire weighs 16 pounds, 9 ounces. They are both in the 50th percentile for weight and length. Mallory moves up into the 75th percentile for head circumference. Dr. Tillman said the girls are right where they need to be developmentally as far as "talking," sitting up, rolling over, reaching and grabbing, etc.

We've got the go-ahead to stop their prevacid, and if all goes well for two weeks then we can take them off Alimentum and go back to regular Similac Advance. YAY!!!!! Now we'll be able to make our new car payment. We can also move up to level two fruits, veggies, and meats. YUCK - I mean YUM! We can also begin introducing the girls to sippy cups (which we've kind of already started doing once or twice) and snacks like Cheerios and those little fruit-flavored star puff things (which they've already had once - just once, I promise).

Lots of new things happening on the feeding front. Hopefully all will go well. Both girls are such great eaters; I can't imagine they won't just fall in love with turkey with apples. ;-)

Seven Months Old

Anna Claire and Mallory turned seven months old today. Happy birthday, baby girls. I can't believe they are more than halfway to their first birthday!

Both Anna Claire and Mallory sitting up on their own and are both seriously teething. Anna Claire is rolling all over the place and has learned to play peek-a-boo. Mallory is siting up the best and is so interested in her toys. She just sits and plays and plays. Both girls are pulling their knees up underneath them when they are on their tummies, and Anna Claire is actually rocking back and forth. They are smiling and laughing and "talking" and still sleeping all the way through the night (when teething isn't an issue) and they are getting so big!

Being home with them for the last sixteen days has been wonderful. We have spent every day together and I have loved being home with my girls again, even if only for a short time. I'm sure it will be hard to leave them Monday, and I will be counting down the days until spring break.

Six Month Update

The girls had their first dose of the flu shot Friday and all went as well as could be expected. Anna Claire and Mallory only shed a few tears. They were so brave.

The best news is that while at the doctor's office we weighed the girls and Anna Claire came in at 15 lbs. 13 oz. and Mallory weighs 16 lbs 4 oz.! WOW - way to go, girls. And...because of all that weight gain and the girls' great response to eating all their cereal, fruits and veggies, the doctor gave us the go-ahead to drop a bottle. We had been feeding the girls 6.5 oz. five times a day every three hours for what felt like forever and they were rarely finishing all their formula, sometimes leaving as many as 3 oz. I think the feedings had become too close together given the amount they were/were not drinking plus the addition of two meals.

We're now giving the girls 7 oz. four times a day: 7:30, 11:30, 3:00, and 7:00 in addition to their breakfast and dinner meals. This schedule adjustment did make for a rough weekend and we still don't quite have naps figured out, but I think it is working out so much better. An added bonus is that I don't have to rush home from work to feed the girls at 4:30 giving me an extra 30 minutes of fun time (not feeding time) with Anna Claire and Mallory. We got so much done today after we got home and still had plenty of time to play before supper.

Anna Claire got her giggle box turned over. She's such a silly little girl...

...and here's Mallory practicing her sky diving free-fall. I think she's going to be our adventurous one.

Six Months Old

Yes, it's true. My little girls are growing up. They were six months old Wednesday. I cannot believe how much they've grown and changed. It seems like yesterday all they did was eat, poop, and sleep. Now they laugh, "talk," play, roll around, try to sit up, sleep all the way through the night - they amaze me everyday!














Anna Claire and Mallory's new thing is sucking on their tongue and/or bottom lip and making this silly clicking sound and even goofier faces. I'll have to try to get some decent video to post.




























We're a little off schedule with the girls' doctor's visits. We don't go for their 6th month check-up until January, but we do go next week for their flu shot. I have tons of questions I've been waiting to ask, & I'm hoping they will weigh the girls. They are getting sooo heavy! I'm guessing they weigh in the neighborhood of 15 lbs. each.

sorry about the goofy spacing. i'm too tired to try to figure out what's wrong.

Making Sense of it All

*long post*

The girls fared well at the doctor's office today. Here are the facts...

Anna Claire
weight 13 lbs. 3 oz. (25th percentile)
length 25 in. (50th percentile)
head circumference 15 3/4 in. (25th percentile)

Mallory
weight 13 lbs. 8 oz. (25th percentile)
length 25 1/2 in. (50th-75th percentile)
head circumference 16 3/4 in. (50th percentile)

Both girls did great with their shots. I know it must have hurt terribly but they were real troopers crying for probably less than two minutes each.

I always take in my little notebook with all my questions neatly written, but it's hard to get all the answers down when I am usually holding one of the babies while Walter has the other and remember to ask follow-up questions, so I come out with answers written in chicken scratch! As thorough as I think my questions are, I always get home with even more questions than I started with. I end up sitting at my kitchen table like I am now trying to make sense out of my notes. So, here goes...

Feedings
She wants us to keep feeding them 6 oz. every three hours BUT add a 10:30 bottle because we will stop concentrating their formula. Instead of five 6 ounce bottles they will get six 6 ounce bottles which actually all works out to the same number of calories per day: 720.

She didn't seem thrilled we had started rice cereal in the bedtime bottles on our own since our last appointment, but I'm not so upset about that. I knew the girls weren't ready to be spoon fed but needed more sustenance, and everybody else was doing it, so we did, too! ;) We're stopping that and will try spoon feeding the girls tonight - a tablespoon each. My twin books all say to feed from one bowl with one spoon, so I guess I'll mix up two tablespoons and see how it goes. This should be fun!

Here's something where I wish I had asked for more clarification. She suggested we feed them their cereal between the 7:30 PM bottle and 10:30 PM bottle. This is not sitting well with me. The girls have been sleeping through the night for months now (with a bump in the road here and there) with a bedtime between 7:30 and 8:00. I was already a little upset about waking them up for another feeding at 10:30, but the idea of keeping them awake between 7:30 and 10:30 to feed them cereal seems out of the question. Maybe we can feed them their cereal between their 4:30 and 7:30 bottles instead??

We're switching Anna Claire to Alimentum to help with her pooping issues. Hopefully she won't need her daily does of prune juice anymore. At least both girls will be on the same formula again, but WOW! is Alimentum expensive!

Once we get the cereal under control we can start introducing fruits and veggies. She said we could either mix them with the cereal when first introducing or alternate bites during feeding. By the time they are six months old, she wants them eating 2 cereal-with-fruit and/or veggie-meals a day.

She also suggested that once we get Anna Claire adjusted to her new formula we could try to start taking the girls off Prevacid. I would be fine with this. To be honest, we got off schedule a few weeks ago and forgot to give the girls their Prevacid and they both didn't seem to notice one bit - and neither did we! I think they may be ready to come off.

Napping
Our naps have yet to regulate. The girls almost always take three naps a day; sometimes they miss one, and the lengths vary anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours. She didn't seem to think naps were a huge concern since I have such good nighttime sleepers and that, perhaps, this is why their napping is not more regular. She said to expect two short naps and one long nap a day, and as long as they were getting about 15-16 hours of sleep every 24 hours (and they are), they were doing fine.

Sleeping
I was worried about all the wiggling the girls do at night since we elevate the mattresses. She just suggested we keep the mattress flat. We'll try it and see how they do. They have always slept on an incline whether it was on the sleep positioners or in the swings, so I'm worried this will disrupt their sleep in the beginning.

Now that we have the heat on, she suggested we keep the nursery cooler rather than warmer even though the girls are nearing the end of the SIDS danger zone. I had heard on the news that to help prevent SIDS running a fan to keep the air circulating was a good idea, and she agreed.

She said the sleep sacks we've been using since it's been cooler were fine or we could try a pajama blanket. Again, this is one of those things I wrote down in a hurry but didn't ask about. What is a pajama blanket?

Since I'm worried about the girls sleeping on their tummies once they can roll over on their own, she suggested we start practicing with them rolling both from tummy to back and from back to tummy. Right now they can both roll from their backs onto their sides but pretty much get stuck there. All they do on their tummy is pretty much fuss!

Other Bits and Pieces
We have their first flu shot scheduled for December 12 since they must be 6 months old, and the second dose is set for January 13 which is also when they will go back for their 6 month shots even though they will be 7 months old by then - we're off by about a month! Why they cannot just give us the six month shots in December since we'll already be there, I do not understand.

She also said we could begin to see signs of early teething anytime now - increased drooling, wanting to put everything in their mouths...I'd say we were there.

Both girls are right on track with their motor and social skills. YAY!!

So, aside from the girl's having to have shots, I'd say the appointment went pretty well. I just hope we can all adjust to the changes in our feeding routine. I'll keep you posted on that. I'm sure to have some great pictures later tonight of the girls trying to eat from a spoon for the first time!

Eight Cells

It is amazing to me when I remember that one year ago today Anna Claire and Mallory were two microscopic eight-cell embryos. On October 9, 2007, those tiny embryos were transferred on day 3 - something so complex and scientific, yet so simple at the same time. When I think about all the wishing and hoping and praying I was doing this time last year, I never could have imagined, no matter how hard I tried, the reality of the two beautiful babies we have now.

Here's a cute booty shot just for fun...

...and another of Mallory giving Anna Claire a kiss on the cheek.

Four Months Old

Friday, October 3, Anna Claire and Mallory were four months old. It is so hard to believe how quickly they are growing and changing. Our retrieval was exactly one year ago today, and now we have two beautiful daughters. It's amazing to look back on how far we've come. The girls are smiling and laughing, "talking," holding up their heads, sitting with support. They each have their own little personalities and have become so interactive. They love for us to sing to them and read them books. And they're becoming so ticklish! I've never had more fun!

Last Month Anna Claire was the smiley one; this month it's Mallory!

September Favorites, Part 2

Three Months Old!