Life Around Here

If you'd like to know what life is like in my home right now with a two-year-old and two two-month-olds, this picture pretty much says it all.

Victoria wearing a princess dress, Charlotte being chill and munching on a fist, and Analisa angry because Victoria decided to put her doll next to her. 

Back in the day, taking monthly photos of Victoria was a breeze. But taking photos of the twins with so many variables is just nutty!

So here is a quick little update on my twins and who they are now that they are 2 months old.

Charlotte is Baby A, the older of the two twins. She is also the smaller of the two, and weighs more than a pound less than her sister. She is tall and thin, and we can already tell her eyes will be blue (shocking because Andy and I don't have blue eyes, and neither do any of our parents. We thought it was a complete fluke that Victoria ended up with blue eyes). 

At two months old she is 23.5" long and 11lbs.8oz., which means she is in the 95th and 68th percentiles respectively. Which is quite hilarious because we often refer to her as our "little one". She is wearing 6 month clothes.

She is a very pleasant baby, always with a sweet, faint little smile on her face. She likes to look around and observe, but she is a monster on her play mat. She loves to move every limb as she lies down on it and tries to grab at the toys.

She is a very noisy little baby, and loves to coo/squeal at things while she looks around. She also is embarrassingly loud while she nurses, an issue we hoped would be resolved when she revised her tongue and lip ties a month ago, but it didn't.

Speaking of tongue and lip ties, we had both babies' ties revised by a specialist dentist a month ago. Victoria also had a tongue tie, but it wasn't severe so I didn't get it revised. I wish in hind sight that I had, because she always had a bad latch that caused lots of clogged ducts and mastitis on my part. This time around, I decided to get all of them revised to make sure nursing and speech issues were not an issue (Charlotte, in particular, was already showing some air intake issues from her ties). It was a surprisingly quick and simple procedure, and the dentist made it as comfortable as possible for the babies, even providing a little swaddle and light-dimming glasses to keep them calm.

Analisa is the larger of the twins, even though she is our Baby B, the younger twin.

 At 2 months she is 12lbs 14oz (98th percentile) and 24inches long (95th percentile). She is a big baby! She also wears 6 month clothing, but she will outgrow them before her twin, I think.

We affectionately refer to Analisa as our "bald baby". Poor thing, her lack of hair is usually the easiest way for people to tell the twins apart. I do see a full head of hair coming in, though, so soon she will no longer be our little baldie.

 Both babies are great sleepers, something I worried about when I found out we were having twins. Analisa, however, is even better at it than her sister, as she had always been able to put herself to sleep easily from day one. There have been moments I laid her down on the floor and POOF, she falls asleep right there.

She is also an extremely strong baby, similar to how Victoria was. She holds herself stiff as a board and was trying to hold her head up in her post-birth exam the day she was born. Now she has perfect head control (Charlotte is pretty good too).

She also LOVES to smile and engage with people, and is never happier than when she is being held and has your attention.

I will say, having twins has been rough. I know from talking to other moms that going from 1 to 2 kids is a big adjustment anyway. But throwing another newborn in there has made this transition very tough for me. I have had to give myself a lot of grace for not being able to be the perfect mom I want to be. I've had to allow a lot more crying than I want to, had to allow Victoria to play by herself a lot more than I want (although I am all about some independent play), and I've had to allow my home to become a lot messier than I want it.

There was a moment a few weeks ago when I was sitting on the couch with two babies screaming their brains off while I frantically tried to calm them (Hello, Wonder Weeks Leap 2!). I was so frazzled and trying to keep calm, and at that moment Victoria ran into the room yelling "Oh no! I pooped my pants!", and then ran out of the room again. All I could think was "Where is that poop going to end up?!". (She hadn't pooped her pants, she either wanted attention, or thought she had pooped.)

Those kind of moments are slowly becoming fewer and fewer as I start to get into our new normal. My kitchen is a lot cleaner, and I am slowly getting a handle on our home again. The twins are settling into a schedule, and Victoria is, thankfully, ALL about her baby sisters.

I just love this (blurry) snapshot of her holding their hands while they were on their playmat.

She is constantly asking to hold them, and if one of them cries, she is the first one to come running with calls of "I'm coming, sister!", usually with a pacifier in-hand. Her tender heart really is such a humbling gift to our family.

I am slowly getting a hang on myself too. I am in a January "change" competition, in which we all strive for personal fitness goals. I am working out again, which has been much easier since I was already in decent shape before and during most of my pregnancy. I utilize Les Mills On Demand to do Body Pump and Body Combat classes in my basement after I put everyone to sleep in the evening. I am feeling so good and am looking forward to getting rid of the rest of this baby weight and packing away my maternity clothes for a while.

Getting ready for my first basement workout

 But for the most part, I spend my days like this: babywearing to keep at least one arm free

This is how I do most of my cleaning in the afternoon/evening when babies are fussy.

But as I said, we are settling in. We have managed some semi-normal outings thanks to our triple stroller. We took it to the zoo to check out the Christmas lights there a few weeks back.

I am so thankful that the Lord has been so gracious to us during this time. I have never been the woman who hoped for multiples, but I know children are a blessing from the Lord, and he is graciously sanctifying me in amazing ways through these three little girls. Yes, some days I feel overwhelmed. Yes, some days I feel like my entire goal is to get all three children sleeping at the same time so I can get 20 glorious minutes to myself. Yes, some days I don't get that shower, or I am wearing pjs a lot later than I want to be, or my home doesn't get as clean as I'd like, but we are getting better.

God has provided in so many ways through this. He has brought so much help my way, with people constantly asking if they can bring us a meal, clean our bathrooms, or come hold a baby. My MOPS group provided us with dinners 3 times per week for two months after the babies were born, which was unbelievably helpful.

So through this busy, crazy, wonderful, overwhelming time, God has been so gracious and faithful.