Saturday, February 27, 2010

Growing Too Fast

I can't believe my babies are getting so big and almost one year old. My how the time has passed.

Keaton learned to sit up this week. I was visiting with a friend in the family room and Keaton (who belly creeps everywhere and very fast) was over by the fireplace. Turned my head only for a minute and when I looked back at him he was sitting up and playing with the metal curtain in the fireplace. When he went down for a nap that day he was sitting in his crib when I went to get him. Needless to say we lowered the inside of the crib that night.

Keaton is into everything. He LOVES to push the buttons of the stereo and open the cassette holder part and crank up the music (which actually scares him...he just likes turning the knob). We have been putting a pillow from couch in front of stereo to protect it from breaking. This doesn't work. He pulls the pillow out of the way or his latest thing is crawling onto the pillow so he can touch the buttons even better. When I say "no" he turns, looks at me with a smile like "what did i do?" and then starts trying to get to stereo again. Hard not to laugh or smile at how cute he is but man is it tiring pulling him away from it for hours on end.

He loves to be hung upside down, tickled, thrown in air, or any kind of rough housing given. He is possessive of toys and if McKenna has a toy you can bet he will want it. He could have same toy in his hand, but will want the one she has.

Keaton says Dada and this week started saying Dat when trying to say dad. And he says hi dad. Well at least it sounds like it and he will mimic you saying it too.

He loves clapping and will do it on command, or if you say good job he claps and if you sing "If You're Happy and You Know It".

McKenna had several good days of low retching - only three retches per day. But today was back at six and one had pretty good size spit up with it. She is still not any closer to eating food or drinking (other than a few sips daily from sippy cup of water). We are anxious for the day she will take a bite or drink juice or milk from a bottle.

She is doing a lot better with reaching forward to pick stuff up off the ground and McKenna's latest trick is to pick something up, throw it forward then reach forward to get it. It's so cute to watch and she looks at you with the biggest smile to let you know she is so proud of herself.

She started taking her fingers to her mouth when saying ahhhh this week so it makes that broken ahhhh sound. It's so cute and great to watch. She occasionally will do a da da sound but for the most part just says ahhhhhh for long periods of time. Maybe she will be a singer someday.

She still doesn't like her tummy time and doesn't do well on it. But if you position her arms she can roll over from belly to tummy (can't do it unless you position her) and if you put her on tummy on a blanket and pull the blanket like a sled she looks up.

We are trying a few new techniques with McKenna this week to help her "map out" her body and hopefully it will help her with her sensory issues. Doing something called brushing. They give you a special brush and you brush arms, back, hips and legs without ever picking up brush. Is suppose to make her aware that her body is all connected and for her to feel the different parts of her body. Also doing mouth sweeps to help her feel her mouth out better.

McKenna loves large rings, pacifiers and spoons to play with. She loves watching Keaton play and scrunches her nose and breathes in and out really fast and loud when fake laughing. She is very ticklish on her sides and feet and has learned to take the blanket off her head during Peek-a-Boo or "Where's McKenna" as we call it.

McKenna has been a challenge with sleeping at night - waking up around 12:30 in the morning and will scream every forty minutes to an hour. Have tried everything we can think to do to get her to stop but so far haven't found an answer. Just praying she catches up on sleep sooner than later. The more sleep she gets the better she is with development and strength to grew.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Accomplishments

Keaton is creeping everywhere! The other day I put him on the floor in his bedroom while I ran his trash to the garage and when I came back he was in the bathroom. If I walk out of the family room he will be on one side of the room and when I come back he is usually on the other side of the room, behind couches, pulling on picture frames or tying to poke at outlets. He is fast.

Keaton is starting to do more babbling. Saying dada, baba and occasional mama. He laughs at the simplest of things, like being hung upside down, tickling, saying achoo or boo, shaking your hair in his face...He has become very clingy and wants to always be in your lap while still moving around. He wants you to hold him while he plays with toys. He loves books, ripping pages and the sound of music. He is getting on his knees more and more and rocking forward and backward, in attempt to crawl. He still takes two naps a day, although they are shorter each day. Occasionally they are only thirty minute naps and that makes for a long day. And he loves to crawl over things - McKenna, pillows, laps, toys...

And my favorite thing to watch Keaton do lately is clap. If you tell him to clap, show him clapping or if he hears clapping he does it. And he gets this look on his face like, Did you see that? look what I am doing. It's adorable and truly we get just as excited as he does.

McKenna has really worked on her motor skills lately too. She is now able to reach for things on ground while sitting up, which is just amazing to see. She will roll from belly to back if her arms are positioned right, but if her arms are to the side and head flat on ground she doesn't know how to do it. She is starting to try to push up a little bit more on her belly and can occasionally hold her head up for twenty to thirty seconds, which is a big improvement for her.

McKenna sings all the time, and by sings I mean she just says AHHHHHHHHHH for long periods of time, over and over. She is learning to do an occasional dada noise, although for the most part it is just the singing noises. She is starting to finally look up at objects that are held slightly above her head, which shows she is gaining more head/neck support. She reaches for things high in the air finally too, although that doesn't always happen.

She still isn't eating, but occasionally will allow a syringe of less than a half ml to be put in her mouth (really it's forced into her mouth) and food squirted in or a spoon with hardly anything on it put on her lips. She takes sips of water from the sippy cup throughout the day, although she doesn't always tolerate the sips and we can't give her too many or she will retch, and we can't seem to get her to take anything other than water from it.

She now holds balls and will occasionally McKenna will put them in a bucket or where you tell her to put them. She is averaging only five retches a day for the past couple weeks which is HUGE. We are nervous to think that maybe they are truly decreasing, but hopeful. She still gags throughout day in addition to retching, but hey, we will take gagging over retching any day! It's hard for us to not be discouraged though or scared that she is getting worse again when she has more than five now.

We are so grateful for these twins and excited to see what the Lord is going to do with them. How will God use these babies to win the lost, reach out to the hurting and further his kingdom? I think He has already used them in such amazing ways and for that alone we are grateful.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Girls night out

Second girls night out since the babies were born and it was more difficult than I thought it would be. Was excited to see friends, eat mongolian BBQ and shop. Friend Sarah came to pick me up and as I was walking out of the house I looked at McKenna's face and she looked so sad I was leaving. It made me feel really guilty. Keaton looked confused but wasn't too concerned.

We got to the restaurant and found out that it was going to be an hour wait, so we walked the mall and the entire time I kept thinking about the babies and wondering how the babies were doing and what they were doing and if Kyle was giving them adequate attention and blah blah blah. Made it a little over an hour before texting to check on Kyle. Started crying during dinner because I missed the twins and actually had a little bit of breathing problems and separation anxiety. If it is this bad being away from them for five hours, not sure how I will make it when they go to school. Grateful for the blessing and opportunity to be a mom!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

First Wreck

Needed to run to the grocery store today just to pick up one single item. It was raining ice but with Kyle out of town I really felt like I had to be the one to go. Didn't want to ask his mom to help. So, packed up the tinys and ran to te store and all went smooth.

Have had a tiring and rough week so figured I would reward myself by stopping off at Andy's for a frozen custard, and by stopping off I mean going completely out of my way for a treat my stomach and hips were telling me not to eat.

Of course getting to Andy's means taking the most dangerous intersection in Springfield, literally. So I pick up the phone to gab to my mommy while driving there, and yes it is still raining ice at this point, and get to the intersection and go to to turn on Campbell and WAMMMMM. A woman rearends me. I immediately freaked out, got tears in my eyes and thought to myself, I am really goign to have bad whip lash. Babies aren't crying. Are they okay? Do thy realize what happened?

I jump out of the car, open the back door and see both babies just starring at me like, hello woman, shut the door. It's freezing. SO shut the door and the woman that hit me is out of her van by now apologizing. I am shaking and saying, I HAVE TWINS, MY TWINS ARE BABIES, WHAT IF THEY ARE HURT? Look over the car and see the tiniest amount of damage. The screw holding her licsence plate made the perfect circle in my bumper.

SO we get in our cars, drive a half mile up the road to get out of traffic and exchange information. Get in my car, am crying telling Kyle how awful I feel that I put my babies through such trauma (even though the babies couldn't have cared less) and all he can say is how I should have just called his mom and I could have avoided it all. Oh and he is glad I am okay. Men are so funny.

Got home, called insurance places, made my report and just now calming down and realized I didn't even ask the woman if she is okay. Debating if I should call and check on her. Although again, it was her fault.