15 Weeks old and getting so big!

The girls are 15 weeks old/10 weeks adjusted today! It's been a big couple of weeks here. We survived our 2nd "leap" and are hitting milestones! I can't get over how fast it's going.

Tonight we had our first official sounds from both of them! It seems late for me but they haven't really tried to use their voices yet other than gurgles, grunts and more definite whimpers.  I present to you our first words: ah and uh. Clear as day, not a sigh, Viv said "AH!" I almost cried. Jules followed up later with beautiful "UH!" and it went on from there. What an amazing night! Just one of many memorable moments from the past few weeks.

In the past week or so they have been sleeping 6-10 hours a night, and last night they slept for almost 12. I don't want them going 13 hours without eating though (and me over 8 hours without pumping is no good) so they won't be doing that again. They woke up at 5 and we brought them to our room and just put their pacifiers in assuming they would wake up in an hour or so. They didn't start to stir again until almost 9! I was totally freaked out but they woke up hungry, ate well and napped well all day so I think they're fine but we will see if this becomes a pattern. I am betting on them hitting the four month sleep regression with a vengeance so we're working hard on our version of sleep coaching by having plenty of active time during the day playing, helping them learn to self soothe, putting them down drowsy but awake and setting clear routines. We don't have an established "bedtime" yet because I still follow their lead on when they want to eat. If they're hungry after "bedtime" we feed them no matter when it is.

3 Days Old - First time together!

They're eating 25 oz. a day, a mix of 1/2 bm and 1/2 Nutramigen, 5 oz. every 3 hours from about 9am to 9pm. I can't believe they are on their NICU schedule still The big difference is they're much more active in between bottles finally! However there's a drawback to this. I am still EPing but I'm starting to wean so that I can spend more time playing with them. I'm tired of having to pump while they're sleeping as I can't get anything else done but they're too alert and active during and after bottles that it's getting too hard to do both. I also don't want to be pumping at all with other people's kids here so I hope to be weaned by the end of December. By then I will have enough frozen to get us through the winter with them receiving 5-10 oz. each of BM.

15 weeks old -  Just waking up for the day!

It's a funny thing. I know in my mind to trust my babies and myself and I believe I would know if something were ever wrong. But I still second guess everything. I double check everything. I go over my baby connect app a hundred times a day making sure they're doing things "right." And every time I have to stop and remind myself that we're fine. They're growing. They're happy. They're fantastic. And we're doing just fine too.





We don't go back to the Dr until December so I have to figure out a way to get them weighed. I know they're growing as we're almost out of their first prefold cloth diapers and their clothes are getting tight. We looked at pictures from 15 weeks ago and cannot believe how much they've changed!

Viv is a little freaked out.

Jules is perplexed

We also had our first selfies this week! I can't believe I never thought to turn the camera on them before Not too surprising since I am not at all a selfie taker. I have lazy eye issues. They made the funniest faces looking at themselves although we still haven't mastered smiling at the camera yet!







We had our first dinner at the table with Mom and Dad although of course they just observed. We love having them out there while we cook and they seem to really enjoy it!








 I will leave you with this gem from Sunday when we celebrated cousin Jillian's 3rd birthday. They did great and it was a great time, as Vivienne is clearly showing us with her look!

Four months here we come!

Xo,
M