10 weeks and so sweet...

Maia and her giraffe lovie

Callia and her tiger lovie

Maia

Callia

Sleep is had by all but me...

Callia in blue / Maia in green

Maia in her boppy

Callia wide awake

It is a beautiful Sunday afternoon and I am enjoying a few moments of peace and quiet as my two daughters and husband are napping. Why am I not also napping, you ask? Well I would but there is no more room on the couch right now and I am too tired to climb the stairs to the bedroom. Everyone tells you to get twin newborns on a schedule but I wish it were that easy! I have a sample schedule a friend gave me and we try to use it as a guideline except Callia & Maia want to do their own thing! I find it so difficult to feed them both at the same time and get them to stay awake or sleep at the same time so in essence, there is no time for me.

Just this week, I hired two wonderful young, college age women to help me for a few afternoons per week and I wish they could come every day. We went through about a week and a half of very fussy babies every night for hours at a time until we realized that maybe we should just put them to bed earlier! It has been working much better although they are still not going to bed at the same time. Callia is our night owl, staying up until sometimes midnight and sleeping in until 10am (I have started waking her when Maia wakes up so hopefully she will start going to bed earlier too). We think she is already set to start her life as a college student - if only she could read and hold her own head up. Maia falls asleep at 6:30 pm but wakes many times and around 4 am she realizes she is sleeping in her crib so she fusses until one of her sucker parents picks her up and cuddles with her in bed just so they can get some more sleep. Please excuse the run-on sentence...I slept for 20 minutes here, 10 minutes there last night. My head is very foggy right now.

This week, Jason is in California on a very important business trip. I have called in "the troops" asking friends and my new mother's helpers to come for afternoons and evenings so I am not completely by myself. We are also fortunate to be able to hire night nurses for those nights and I am thrilled that I may actually get some sleep! I am hoping they can offer tips on how to get the girls on more of a schedule.

In the meantime, the girls continue to get cuter and acquire new tricks. Maia loves to kick her feet and wave her hands around like "Wax on, wax off". Callia is interested in observing many objects and is working on her grasping technique. She also gave me the biggest smile today making me so proud.

Please forgive me if you have called or e-mailed and I haven't gotten back to you yet. There are two very important and adorable things keeping me very busy right now...I am lucky to get a meal!

Visit from Grandma and Granddad Redi

Maia and Callia - 6 weeks

Maia's "left hook"

We had a lovely visit from Grandma and Granddad Redi last weekend and the girls were thrilled to be cared for by them. Jason and I were thrilled to have the extra help! They brought us delicious lunches and even helped at Babies R Us while we picked out our new crib since the original one was recalled. Normally, we don't dress them exactly the same but thought it might be fun to test their "grandparenting skills" to see if they could truly tell them apart. So we put them in the outfits above and these grandparents were not to be fooled. They passed with flying colors and were rewarded with lots of holding time.

The girls are doing very well although are certainly testing our parenting skills these days. I am realizing that being with the girls 24/7 is wonderful but tiring and I need more "time outs". Luckily, Jason is a phenomonal dad and is willing to give me some breaks here and there. We are also thinking of finding someone to help a few times a week so that I can eventually leave them and have a few hours to do errands. The great news is that we think they are already sleeping through the night! For about a week now, they have been sleeping for 5 -7 hour stretches at night which is amazing! However, evenings are really hard as both girls are very fussy and sometimes keep us up until 1am!

They both weigh 8 and 1/2 lbs and continue to eat us out of house and home. They are starting to smile, on occasion, when we talk to them and have more awake time. We started our first Isis class and met some other nice moms and their twins. We are still amazed when people on the street treat us like we are celebrities for having twins since it seems so commonplace now. Isn't everyone this lucky? However, if I hear "Double the trouble!" one more time....

This is a beautiful quilt that a very special person made for the girls. Mrs. Cwiakala, who has been like a surrogate mom to me, made a turtle quilt for each girl. We are still trying to figure out the best way to display them in their room but have had little time to think about it...