Madeline and Molly,
You are EIGHT MONTHS old today! Holy cow! Sweet sweet sweet and sweet are the four best words I can think of to describe y'all and our time we have spent together this month. Y'all are just the sweetest little babies and everyone we encounter comes to the same conclusion mere moments after meeting y'all. Y'all are easy, and happy, and sweet as cherry pie.
We are still following the same 3-hour schedule we were on last month, with the addition of dinner around 5:30. Y'all continue to be great sleepers/nappers which I thank God for every day. I just looked back at brothers 8-month post and he still wasn't sleeping through the night at this point. Yay for great sleepers! Y'all also go down easily (compared to the hours I spent rocking your brother to sleep) and continue to nap in long stretches. Y'all are getting to where you don't nap as well in the car or in the stroller, but I think we are inching closer to a 4-hour schedule (hopefully!)
We started giving you rice cereal at dinnertime a month ago and, well, it didn't go so well. I gave that a few days and then tried bananas and carrots, only to stress myself out more. Spoon feeding two babies while also trying to feed a picky toddler is not fun! So we took a few days off while I talked to some other twin mamas and regrouped to attempt Baby-Led Weaning. Basically we are tossing the spoons and purees in the trash and just giving you real food, in easy to grasp portions that you can feed yourselves. So far we have tried bananas, carrots, cucumbers, avocado, sweet potatoes (mashed and roasted), peaches, pears, shredded cheeses, yogurt, waffles, and toast. Your favorites seem to be cucumbers, sweet potatoes and waffles. It awesome to watch y'all go from not being able to reach and pick up food, to devouring whole trays of food! Especially food that your brother would never think of touching!
Besides food y'all's absolute favorite thing this month has been Carter. It doesn't matter if he is laying on top of you, picking you up, or bouncing with you in the jumper, y'all cannot get enough of him! You laugh all day long at his crazy antics and are always trying to get closer to him. Speaking of getting closer to him, y'all are trying your darndest to crawl! Molly, you can actually get up on all fours and rock back and forth. Madeline, you are beginning to do an army crawl to get where you want to go. Either way, if I put you down on the floor anywhere and give you a few minutes it's guaranteed that y'all will NOT be in the same place a few minutes later. I'm holding onto these last few weeks of immobility because I know once y'all start moving my life will forever change.
Madeline Kate,
Maddy Girl, Maddy Kate, Sister Bear...you continue to be our sensitive, gentle girl. You are almost always happy, unless something hurts your feelings and then we get big, crocodile tears and pouty lips. Oh, it's absolutely heart breaking! Thankfully you are rarely upset and easily settled if we can get you close to Molly or Carter.
My favorite part of the day is waking you up in the morning and from your naps. It's always Molly who wakes up first, so when I get to your room you are typically still asleep. You sleep on your tummy with your nose in the sheet, face-down. And you sleep like a rock so when I go to wake you up it takes you a minute to realize what's happening and really wake up. You stretch your arms, rub your eyes, roll over and eventually open your eyes with a big smile on your face. Oh, it's just the very best! Then you get even happier when I bring Sister Bear over to your bed and y'all play together for a minute. I need to record this one day because I never want to forget how sweet it is to watch you wake up.
Your hair has finally started to come in more, but it's so very blonde it's almost hard to see how much hair you really have. Your eyes are still various shades of blue and you have the most beautiful skin. The hemangioma on your back is starting to shrink and we are hoping it is small enough at twelve months that we won't have to go through laser removal treatments. I'm guessing you are still a few ounces smaller than your sister, but I'm not sure. You love to nurse and nurse for longer stretches than Molly, even though you weigh a little less. And you got TWO TEETH this month! Your lower central incisors cut through on the 6th and 11th. You are paying more attention to what's going on around you and will cry if I walk out of the room or pick up Molly instead of you.
Madeline 8 month Stats
Weight: 15 pounds 6 ounces (7%ile)
Length:
Eating: nursing 4 times a day with one breastmilk bottle in the morning. Typically 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, and 7am.
Bedtime: around 7:30pm
Awake: 7:00am
Naps: 8:00-10:00am, 1:00-4:00pm, and two cat naps
Diapers: size 2 Huggies
Clothes 3-6 months
Teeth: lower central incisors
Food: bananas, carrots, cucumbers, avocado, sweet potatoes (mashed and roasted), peaches, pears, shredded cheeses, yogurt, waffles, and toast
Favorites: sleeping, Daddy, Carter, Madeline, riding in the Ergo, your bouncer, eating blankets, Sophie the Giraffe
Development: reaches for things, self feeds, passes toys/food from one hand to the other, cries when I walk out of room, scares easily
Milestones:
10/6- lower left central incisor
10/11- lower right central incisor
Molly Ann,
Molly Girl, Molls Balls, Sister Bear...you are sweet and in charge. It continues to be your world and we just live in it following your lead and schedule all day. You pop up out of bed in the morning and are ready to go (I'm not sure where you get that from except maybe Carter; Daddy and I do not "pop" up ever.) You are very aware of your surroundings and we can see the thoughts buzzing around in your brain all day. I think I might be afraid of the day you start talking for fear of all the opinions and questions we will hear all day long. You want to be in the middle of all the action and have no problem to attempt to leap out of our arms to reach what you want. Neither you or Sister Bear are sitting up yet but you are so close to crawling. You can actually get up on your hands and knees and rock back and forth. Slow down!
You are our cuddle bug and love to be held, rocked and just hanging out in our arms. The only place you would rather not be is carried in the Ergo, probably because you cannot face out and watch the world go by. Sadface. You still love your swing and take two cat naps in there each day. You still take your paci but don't seem as attached to it as Carter was. You are happy to suck your paci at night and during naptime but never fuss if you don't have one in your mouth. You can now pull my hair and it hurts! You have such strength for such a little girl. You love to reach up at my face or over at Maddy while you are nursing and spend a lot of your time holding Maddy's hand. It's so sweet to see y'all love on each other and I hope that continues always.
Our biggest stress for you this month has been your eczema on your face and legs. We have tried every lotion and home remedy under the sun to no avail. We've tracked your eating, the weather, and my eating to see if we can pinpoint anything that makes it better/worse and cannot piece together this puzzle. On good days it's just a little rough, but on bad days is red, cracked, and bleeding. Poor baby girl. It doesn't seem to bother you and we never see you scratching at your face, thankfully. But it absolutely just breaks my heart to see bloody sheets in your bed and cracked, peeling skin on your face. I pray you grow out of this quickly!
Molly 8 month Stats
Weight: 15 pounds 11 ounces (10%ile...double digits!)
Length:
Eating: nursing 4 times a day with one breastmilk bottle in the morning. Typically 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, and 7am.
Bedtime: around 7:30pm
Awake: 7:00am
Naps: 8:00-10:00am, 1:00-4:00pm, and two cat naps
Diapers: size 2 Huggies
Clothes: 3-6 months
Teeth: none
Food: bananas, carrots, cucumbers, avocado, sweet potatoes (mashed and roasted), peaches, pears, shredded cheeses, yogurt, waffles, and toast
Favorites: being held/rocked, Carter, Madeline, your paci, being on your stomach, laughing, baths, your swing
Development: reaches for things, self feeds, passes toys/food from one hand to the other, cries when I walk out of room,
Milestones:
Our sweet babies at eight months
1 comment:
Such sweet girls!!! I have another friend who very recently delivered twin girls :) Made me think of you and your cuties.
I'm totally intrigued by the baby-led weaning concept. I came across the idea after Isaac had already started solids. Since he was doing really well (and continues to eat like a grown man), I didn't pursue learning about it, but it sounds like an easier, more simple method of introducing solids than making tons of food purees. Especially when I'll also be feeding a toddler and infant very soon.
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