Our Garden

While California may be able to boast its agriculture friendly climate, the soil here in Lincoln pretty much invalidates any presumed bragging rights. Perhaps our friend, a Lincoln native, put it best when he asked us, "Did you know that Lincoln has the finest grade of clay soil in North America?" Great news for the clay pipe factory. Bad news for our garden.

We didn't plant much this summer, but I promised my mom that I'd document what we did get coming out of our earth. I'm still elated anything grew at all!

E and the okra. T met okra on his mission in Brazil. T likes okra.

Left: Cucumber
Middle: E
Right: The-butternut-squash-everyone-thought-was-a-zucchini

Basil, basil & tomato.

Note: E likes to water the garden with his squirt gun. He's so helpful, though not terribly efficient.

Smiles

When we last blogged about A & M, their pediatrician had allowed us to exclusively breastfeed and we were elated. Well, after four days of only breastfeeding both girls had lost 8 oz. Not good. Not good at all. Their pediatrician put us back on a supplementing schedule and I've come to accept it. It's not what I'd hoped for, but my ultimate goal is to have healthy, growing children and if that means we have to supplement then so be it. After 1.5 days of supplementing both girls gained 8 oz. back and since then they've gained another 8 oz! Their stats as of Friday, August 7 were:

A: 8 lbs. 6.8 oz.
M: 8 lbs. 9.5 oz.

The best part is that both girls have begun making a lot of eye contact and smiling within the last week. They've also gotten a lot more active in general: kicking, singing, grabbing. We were going to stop swaddling them when they sleep, but they move so much that whichever one of them was awake would punch or kick the other one and wake her up. Needless to say, we're back to swaddling, even if it's only as a safety measure.

E & Uncle Jared livin' it up at the Wheeler reunion this past weekend.
Think he has fun with his uncle? Just look at his face. I love it.

M smiling

M smiling again

A smiling

A smiling again

And, for your viewing pleasure, we present evidence of the recent onslaught of movement.

Perspective

I Like 'em Big, I Like 'em Chunky

M, Me & A

Three weeks ago A & M's pediatrician put us on an intense feeding schedule because neither of the girls had gained enough weight. The schedule goes as follows:

1. Both girls nurse for 20 min. (Note:A & M both have a bad case of nipple confusion and will only nurse with the assistance of silicon nipple guards. They're helping us on our way to the goal of nursing pure and simple, but have to be washed and sterilized before every feeding.)
2. Burp both girls.
3. Supplement feed A & M with 2 oz. expressed breastmilk or formula through slow-flow nipples.
4. While supplemental feeding I have to pump any remaining milk I have in order to keep my body producing.
   
5. Burp both girls.
6. Twice a day feed 4 oz. from bottles, 2 oz. of which is Neosure, a high-calorie infant formula.

Keep in mind we have to constantly sterilize nipples, bottles and pumping parts because the cycle repeats every 3 hours. It's been exhausting.

Well, today we had a follow-up weight check and the girls are getting bigger. A weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. and M, our tiny NICU baby, weighed 7 lbs. 11.7 oz.!!! Their pediatrician said we can go back to breastfeeding exclusively for the next week and we'll see how they weigh in at their 2 month appointment next week.

I'm excited that the girls have gotten bigger, nervous that they'll lose weight if they're only on breastmilk, worried that my body won't produce enough milk for them, and relieved to have their feeding simplified. Wish us luck an d continued weight gain... for the girls, that is.

M & A

Ode to E & What Would You Do (Part 2)

I've been feeling the need to pay a little tribute to our first born in the wilderness. E is such a fantastic kid. It's easy for me to forget how wonderful he is when I feel entrenched in the daily rigors of motherhood. But lately a few other people commented about how funny or sweet he is, and it really made me stop and think and realize how blessed I am to be his mom. Here are some of my favorite things about E:

• He's bursting with personality
• He's very sensitive to others' feelings
• He's not afraid to do his own thing and be his own person
• He's an AMAZING big brother

I worried about how E would handle the girls coming into our family after 3 years of being the sole recipient of Mommy and Daddy's attention. I tried to make simple preparations to help him know that the girls were adding to our family and not taking away from him, but I think he didn't need it at all. He loves A & M so much. T and I speculate that perhaps the reason we were blessed with two babies at one time is because E has both the love and energy to be their big brother.

Feet painting. It's like finger painting... only better!

Cute little colorful feet.

E experimenting with what colors he could make by mixing paints.
I think he made a lovely shade of gray.

E with me outside the movie theater this morning. A nearby theater hosts free family movies Tuesday - Thursday mornings throughout the summer. E and I went on a date this morning to see "Horton Hears A Who". My favorite part was when the mayor of Whoville was called a "boob" and all the kids in the theater laughed. E turned to me and said, "Mommy, what's a boob?" I explained that "boob" meant "silly person" and E then let a hearty, albeit tardy, laugh out.

Waiting for the movie to start.

Advice Needed
Last time that we ran into a few parenting dilemmas we got some great advice and so we're back to solicit more. We have two challenges we're trying to handle at present.

#1: Bedtime = The Never Ending Battle
Since A & M were born E strongly detests bedtime. We still follow his lifelong routine of jammies, brush, books, prayer, songs, but I think he figures that if everyone else gets to be up, why should he have to go to bed? Consequently, he doesn't go to bed. He comes out of his bedroom over and over and over and over and over and over and I'm sure you get the idea. When we ask, or tell, him to get back in bed he usually refuses and one of us has to escort him back to his room. One night we told E that if his little feet wandered out of his room they would get spanked. Mind you, we're not big spankers, so for us to have even said this shows how frustrated we've become. E tried it and we spanked his foot. He cried for about .2 seconds and then came out of his room again. His foot got spanked again and then he asked Daddy, "Please spank it harder." Yeah. We've tried leaving him with a couple books and the night light on so he can gear down and read himself to sleep. That worked for two nights. Not anymore. We put the baby gate up outside his bedroom door so that he couldn't get out. He kicked it until it fell down.
Help.

#2: Ineffective Time-outs
Lately, time-out just isn't getting E at all. He creeps out of his room and constantly calls us, "Mommmyyyyyy!!!!! Daddddddyyyyyyyyy!!!!" We started buckling him in his booster chair and then he'd sit in the kitchen screaming at the top of his lungs. We moved the booster to his bedroom and that works semi-well, but it's kind of unrealistic because we have to move the chair into his room and then buckle him in it. I can't very well do that when T's not here, or when I'm feeding the girls. Is this just a phase? Should we stay the course? What alternative do we have?

I hope these dilemmas don't make E sound horrible. He's an angel 95% of the time, but sometimes, like all kids can, he can be a challenge. We're just feeling a little stumped and wanted some fresh advice from other people.