Confusion with Solids vs. Bottles

The babies are loving their solid foods so far, with a few minor exceptions.  Even the few that they didn't like at first, they later decided that they were at least tolerable.  We've mostly done purees and cereal to this point.  I have given Ayden a few tiny pieces of bread.  Their Uncle S tried giving them a few Puffs and Yogurt Bites, but that didn't go over very well.  Probably the funniest food faces they've made to date! Didn't get any pictures though!  I'm not sure if it was because of the taste or the texture.  And then Rylee choked on a yogurt bite so we gave up at that point.  They aren't ready for that yet.

We started with rice cereal and then oatmeal.  Then moved on to veggies for a few weeks and have done only a few fruits so far.   

Veggies

Sweet Potatoes

Peas

Green Beans
Carrots

Avocado

*We debated over whether avocado is a fruit or vegetable.  Tony thinks it's a fruit, but I put it under veggie, only because it's not sweet like a fruit normally is. 

Fruits

Apples

Bananas

When they wake up, they get their usual morning bottle.  About an hour to an hour and a half later, they get oatmeal (made with formula), and I have now started adding a fruit with that.  I've been giving them a veggie in the afternoon on most days.  Occasionally we aren't home and we just skip the veggie.  Today I'm going to give them their first meat along with the veggie in the afternoon.

Here's my confusion:  even though they are now getting some solids, it has not made one bit of difference in the frequency of their bottles.  I thought that since they are actually getting a decent amount in the morning with the oatmeal and fruit, that they wouldn't need a bottle quite so soon.  I was putting them down for their morning nap without another bottle, but they would wake up after only 30-45 minutes.  I think it's because they were hungry.  This week, I've been giving them another bottle even though it hasn't even been quite 3 hours since their first bottle and they've had solids in there too.  Now they are back to their usual 2.5 - 3 hour naps.  Praise the Lord.

When does the transition occur so that we start giving them fewer bottles?  How much "real" food do they need to be getting so that they are satisfied with that?  I've been feeling rather overwhelmed with transitioning to solids and how to go about it.  My sister has helped a lot and answered a lot of my questions.  I'd be lost if I had to figure this all out on my own!  Thank goodness we are old, geriatric parents and have lots of people that have ventured into parenthood before us to help with all our silly little questions!

Don't they look a bit confused also?

7 Month Birthday

The babies turned 7 months old on the 23rd, last Wednesday.  I've been looking forward to writing this post and sharing their pictures!  Well, since I've just recently done posts dedicated to each baby individually, I don't actually have a lot to write about, so mostly just pictures of my cutie patooties.

Rylee really does smile!  I get lucky enough to capture it on camera sometimes.

Having what appears to be a serious conversation

First time using sippy cups

Mommy and me (us) selfie

Gotta love the baby overalls!

Ayden had his first occupational therapy appointment last week.  It was mostly just a consultation to check his fine motor skills.  He still tends to hold his wrists at funny angles sometimes, curling them instead of putting them down flat on the floor when he is on his belly.  He also has trouble grabbing/grasping things.  It doesn't come as easily to him.  The consensus is that he is just a bit behind but that he is fine.  We just didn't want to miss anything if there was something to be concerned about.  He will have at least one more OT appointment and then that will probably be it.

As of yesterday, Ayden is now getting up on all fours!  He has rocked back and forth a bit on his hands and knees.  I'm pretty sure it won't be long before we have a crawler!  And Rylee isn't very far behind!  She is a funny little person and does more planking than getting on her hands and knees though.  She actually gets on her hands and TOES!  No knees touching, hands down with arms out as far as she can get them in front of her.  Wish I could do that!  I keep wanting to get a picture of it, but I am always to slow to grab my phone.

Oh!  Ayden has his first tooth!  It broke through on Friday and boy is it sharp!  I have to be careful letting him bite down on my fingers now because that sucker hurts!  Unfortunately, this whole teething process isn't treating Ayden too well.  Putting him down to bed at night has become a bit of a challenge.  He still goes down for naps relatively easy, but that sometimes doesn't go well either.  He's been a bit of a grumpypants, but yet we can still get lots of smiles from him too.

I just love that smile!

We have an appointment for Rylee to see a GI specialist.  Our pediatrician doesn't think there is really anything wrong beyond the normal reflux, but we want to be sure on that and rule out there being a more serious issue.  She is still spitting up/vomiting quite a bit.  We couldn't get in until September 2nd though. We've gone from a little baby quilt on the living room floor for them to play on, to two baby quilts put together, to one of our blankets.  Now that the babies are moving around more and more, we have to cover more area to protect our carpet!  I put towels under the blankets because there is so much spit up, it soaks right through.  I'm looking forward to the end of the spit up days.  I'm afraid that by the time that day comes though, our entire living room floor will be covered in blankets and towels!

Rylee has now slept a record 8 1/2 hours in her crib, although it has only happened once.  It still varies anywhere from 3-8 hours before I have to go get her to finish out the night sleeping with me.  There is no consistancy in how long or short it will be.  I thought we'd made a break through when she went 3 days in a row sleeping 6-8 1/2 hours straight, but then it was down to only a few hours again.  It varies and I just keep reminding myself that this phase will eventually pass.  I do enjoy getting extra cuddle time with her, but I also look forward to the day I can sleep the whole night in my own bed.

Miss Rylee

We are having so much fun with our babies!  Some days are exhausting and frustrating, but I still wouldn't change it for our old life with no kids.  Tony and I went on our first date yesterday since the babies have been born.  We were just gonna go to a movie, but we had a little extra time beforehand so we stopped at our local miniature golf course.  It's just a rink-a-dink course run by a local man at his house, but I had never been there before and we didn't know what else to do with ourselves and our free time.  We had fun (and I kicked Tony's butt, which NEVER happens!), but we kept thinking the whole time how much fun it will be when we can take our kids to do stuff like that.  Oh the things we are looking forward to doing!  Not that I want time to speed up any faster than it already is.  It's amazing to watch them grow and change right before our eyes!

Now, for the rest of their 7 month birthday pictures!

I love the look on Rylee's face

My mom was here when I took these pictures and she commented on the workout I was getting trying to get some decent pictures!  It's not easy when you have two little rugrats who don't want to sit still, and even harder when you have one that is SO difficult to get a smile from for the camera!  Here are some of the OUTTAKES from our little photo shoot:

No words.  Just laugh.

I believe I caught Rylee in the middle of a sneeze!

"Stay back Brother.  I got this!"

"Mooooom!  I'm so tired of that stupid flower in my face!"

"Mmmmm.  You taste so good!"

All About Ayden

This post is all about Ayden!  Our sweet, adorable charmer!  He is our happy baby.  Anyone who says hi to him will be rewarded with a smile.  Doesn't matter who it is, he's going to smile and flirt.  When he does get upset, sometimes he's not sure whether to laugh or cry and we get a little bit of both.

On his 6 month birthday

The best word to describe Ayden is content.  He will happily lay on the floor playing with his toes or whatever toys are within reach.  He's been pretty content staying wherever we leave him.  Even though he can roll over, he's usually happy staying wherever we put him.

He loves his little piggy toes!

As of Tuesday, Ayden weighs 19 lbs 8 oz, which puts him in the 76th percentile on the regular chart, not the preemie chart.  He is 26.8 inches at the 38th percentile.  So basically he is short and fat!  lol, I am just kidding.  He is perfect.  However, his weight gain is exceeding his growth curve so Dr. B has decided it's time to take him off the NeoSure formula because he most definitely does not need the extra calories.  He is still getting vitamins with iron every morning, and now that he is starting to eat solids, she felt that he will be getting the necessary vitamins and minerals that the NeoSure was providing.

Oh, and did I mention that his head circumference is at the 98th percentile?  Yeah, he still has a super big head.  Big heads do tend to run in our family, so Dr. B isn't concerned about that at all.  Big head = big smarts!

Ayden is in size 3 diapers and wearing a variety of clothing sizes, anywhere from 6 months to 9 months. He's actually even grown out of a few 9 month items, but can still wear some 6 month stuff?  I don't know how that happens, but apparently it does.

Ayden is able to lift his entire chest up off the floor and he is able to get his knees under him, but he can't seem to figure out how to do that at the same time.  If his knees are underneath him, he just manages to push himself around with his face plastered to the floor!  Haha!  Once he figures out how to put his hands down and lift up at the same time, I think he will be off and running crawling!  He loves to stand up, with assistance of course.  He's also been working on sitting up.

Ayden is super ticklish.  Shake his belly, he will laugh.  Tickle his chest, he will laugh.  Change his diaper, yep, he laughs.  We discovered that he thinks our cold hands are pretty funny too.  I always tried to be careful not to touch him too much while changing him if my hands were cold, but one time my cold hand brushed his belly and he burst out laughing!  So of course I then had to test it out and pressed my hand on his belly and he just laughed and laughed and laughed.  It's probably mean, but he has such an awesome little baby laugh!

Teething has officially set in.  Ayden LOVES to chew on his hands and suck on his bibs.  It's difficult to get a bottle in his mouth because he always grabs his bib and stuffs it, along with his hands in his mouth.  And then he complains if we don't feed him fast enough!  It is forever a struggle to hold his hands down while trying to get a bottle in his mouth.  He's not partial to his own hands either.  He will suck on any hand/arm/leg that is anywhere near his mouth!

Sucking on his Grandma Nini's thumb

He can just about get his entire fist in his mouth!

We will be making a visit to Occupational Therapy for Ayden next week.  He struggles with his fine motor skills and has a hard time grabbing things.  He also tends to hold his wrists funny at times.  We are hoping that he is just a little behind and will soon catch up to his sister.  The OT will evaluate him and make suggestions as needed.

Ayden is sleeping through the night anywhere between 10-12 hours.  However, it has definitely been a struggle the last few weeks putting him down.  We have learned he's not much of a cry it out baby.  He just gets more and more worked up.  We've tried teething tablets, Orajel, Tylenol....Bedtime has been a struggle. It took us 2 1/2 hours before he fell asleep one night.  He still goes down fairly easy for naps though.  Thank goodness.

I always wanted a girl.  When we found out we were having twins, I really hoped for at least one girl.  I think I would have been a little disappointed if we had been told we were having two boys.  Of course I would have ultimately been happy with two boys, but I REALLY wanted a girl.  Now that we have our boy Ayden, I can't imagine NOT having him! We would have missed out on experiencing all his beautiful smiles and his joy when he gets excited about something.  I know I'm biased, but I also happen to think he is a beautiful baby!

Now, for a grand finale to this All About Ayden post, I leave you a bunch of pictures!

He almost looks like a little boy instead of a baby with only shorts on!

Just LOOK at that smile!!!!!

Working on his sitting up skills

"I can't ALWAYS be happy Ma"

Taking a little snooze instead of watching the softball game.

Trying out his high chair for the very first time.

First Veggies

We started the babies out eating cereal.  First rice cereal, then oatmeal.  Initially, it was in an attempt to help Rylee not spit up so much.  We tried it in her bottle, but when that didn't work we tried spoon feeding it to see if making it thicker would help her bottles stick in her belly.  That didn't work either so we backed off the cereal for a few more weeks because it had been a little early still, based on their adjusted age.

When we decided it was time to reintroduce cereal again, we stuck with that for a few weeks, giving it to them just once/day.  Then it was time for veggies.  We waited for a weekend so that Tony could be here too.  We had the camera ready to capture any funny faces they made!

We started with sweet potatoes.  Neither one of them was too sure at first, but Ayden decided they were pretty good.  Rylee wasn't a big fan, but she did eat them the first day.  On the second day of sweet potatoes, she gagged on them after a few bites so I let her be done.  Ayden enjoyed them though!  We'll try them again with Rylee another time.  I've been told that you should try new foods 10 times before you truly determine that they don't like them.  Sometimes it's just a foreign flavor and they have to get used to it.

Mmmm....Sweet Potatoes

Next, we tried green beans.  Rylee thought the green beans were pretty good after the first few bites, but Ayden absolutely couldn't stand them the first day!  Every bite was a funny face.  When he started gagging and actually looking like he might throw up, I didn't make him eat anymore.  That is, until the next day.  Just goes to show that you should always give them more than one try at new foods because on the second day of green beans, Ayden gobbled them right up!  I think it made a difference because I warmed them up a little more.  I don't really know if that was it or not, but he didn't turn green from the taste on day 2!

This picture cracks me up.  Poor Ayden!  Mean Mommy because I couldn't help but laugh hysterically at him!

Yesterday we introduced peas.  Success!  After only one funny face, they both decided peas were okay!  Phew!  Something they both like.

Yay for Peas!

We are giving at least 3 days in between introducing new foods, just in case they have some sort of allergic reaction.  So far so good!  At my sister's suggestions, we are also introducing new foods earlier in the day rather than later so that if they get a tummy ache we won't be up all night with them.  I'm not sure about a tummy ache, but I can most assuredly say that introducing solids (or purees) has not made a difference in the spit up department.  They both still spit up.  A LOT!  The only difference is that now it is rather colorful at times.  Sigh....

* I know I still have my All About Ayden post to do.  Stay tuned.  It's coming.  It just is a more in depth post and I need more time to sit down and write it!

All About Rylee

Remember I said in my 6 Month Birthday post that I was going to do separate posts for each of the babies? Well here it is!  This is all about Rylee!  My sweet little, petite, firecracker.

My Love Bug

At her last weigh in 3 weeks ago, Rylee weighed 13 lbs, 2 oz and was 24.5 inches.  Woo hoo!  She's reached 2 feet tall!  Rylee is still wearing 3 month clothes and some, but very few 3/6 month.  My sister made the observation the other day that Rylee has no butt, even with a diaper on!  It's true.  Any pants/shorts that are bigger than 3 month size just fall off her.  She is wearing size 2 diapers, but could probably still be in size 1.  I was afraid to buy more size 1 and have her grow out of them before we had a chance to use all of them.  Little did I know, that she would continue to have no waist!

Rylee is now a roll over queen!  She has been able to roll from her belly to her back for quite awhile, but now she rolls from her back to her belly constantly!  We cannot keep her on her back and it doesn't matter what's in her way.  She will keep working at it until she can finally get herself where she wants to go!

She's gonna roll onto her belly, even if her brother is in the way!

In the first few months of Rylee's short life, we worried because she was such an unhappy baby.  She had reason of course, but still.  I can now happily tell you that she has found her smile and talks to us all the time. She is on the brink of laughing, but hasn't quite gotten there yet.  For about 3 days, Rylee's talking was more of a scream.  She loooooved the sound of her voice scream.  She wasn't upset.  It was just her way of talking, even at 3:00 in the morning.  It was actually pretty funny and I couldn't help but laugh, all while trying to shush her at the same time.  Now she only lets out a big squeal every once in awhile instead of screaming over and over.

Rylee LOVES to stretch.  When she first wakes up, she stretches out her entire body as long as she can possibly get.  I think it's so funny when you first pick her up and she stretches her arms as far as she can overhead and locks her legs as straight as they can be.  I feel like we need to get her a cape because she's working on being a superhero trying to fly.

Rylee's fine motor skills are coming along.  She does a great job of grasping things, although she still doesn't have the concept of putting teething toy to mouth yet.  It's fun to watch her pick up a toy and actually play with it.

Rylee loves to stand up.  If she's fussing, a lot of times we can just stand her up on our lap or on the floor and she goes from fussy to smiling.  She is nowhere near standing or sitting on her own, but she does enjoy practicing.

I can now say that Rylee actually enjoys bath time.  She used to hate it with a passion and scream like a demon baby the entire time, but now she doesn't mind it at all.  Thank goodness!  Big sigh of relief there. Bath time used to be pretty miserable for both of us!  She also used to HATE getting dressed, but now doesn't mind it at all.

Same thing with diaper changes.  Used to HATE them!  I know this was because she was in so much pain due to the ulcers, so she did have a reason to be so upset.  She has been ulcer free for almost 2 months now. This has totally changed our life!  Diaper changes are no longer a method of torture.  If you are new to our story, you can read this post that tells you and shows you what we were dealing with for the first 3 months of Rylee's life.

She still has reflux and spits up ALL.  THE.  TIME.  We had her on Ranitidine for a long time, but it didn't seem to help.  We also have her using half Neosure and half Alimentum for her formula.  We tried all Alimentum, but that didn't work at all so it was too expensive to keep using that at $30/can.  The half and half seems to be our best bet so far.  We also tried soy for a week, but that was a big failure.  We finally broke down and changed medicine.  We are now trying Prevacid.  It's a $72 CO-PAY!  Yikes.  If it wasn't so expensive, we would have tried it sooner.  Our pediatrician keeps reminding me that reflux medicine is intended to take away the acidity of the spit up, but won't necessarily take AWAY the spit up.  The amount of spit up/puke that we were dealing with made us desperate enough to try the prevacid, even though it is so dang expensive.  She is still spitting up, but it does seem to be improving.  Maybe it's working?

We are still working on our sleeping arrangement.  She goes down to bed in her crib every night and will stay there anywhere from 3-5+ hours.  Sometimes we can give her a bottle and she will go back down again in her crib, although it then takes over an hour for her to go back to sleep.  Sometimes, like last night, she refuses to go back to sleep and will just cry and cry and cry.  Finally, after an hour and a half of this last night, I broke down and went to get her so we could finish out the night on the couch.  When it's 2:00 in the morning, I can only take so much.

One of my absolute favorite things in the world is when Rylee wakes up from a nap and sees me for the first time, she gives me a great big gigantic smile.  If it's the weekend and I've been shopping that day and gone for awhile, she does the same thing.  She gets soooo happy to see me and that just melts my heart.  She is getting to be a lot of fun.  I truly do think she's going to have a little firecracker personality when she gets older.  She has no problem at all letting us know when she wants something, but she also has the biggest smile when she is happy.  Although it is still hard to actually catch those smiles on the camera.  She can have the biggest smile, but as soon as I pull out the camera, she goes deadpan sometimes.  I get pretty elated when I can actually catch one on camera!

Here's a few a lot of pictures of Rylee from this past month...

Our little Oregon State fan.  Go Beavers!

Gotta love little naked babies!

She still looks so tiny in her car seat

She kind of got swallowed up by the exersaucer

I put a box under her feet so she could actually play

There's that beautiful smile!

She even tries to roll over in the swing.  Can't quite make it so she settles for sleeping on her side.

Reading us a story.  So much cuteness!

The day she turned 6 months!