7 months!

Today Charlie and Lily are 7 months old! Time sure flies. Every day we are just more amazed by our wonderful babies. They are growing up so fast! Lily is officially a roller! Yesterday she finally figured out how to roll from her back to her belly. She sticks her little butt up in the air and wiggles her arm and there she she is, on her tummy. Now she does it every chance she gets. She's so funny. Charlie has started to really grasp on to objects. I don't think they he actually sees something and consciously reaches for it yet, but anything that brushes his hand his grabbed and hung on to for dear life (including my hair, clothes, etc.). We put together their Jumperoo the other day and they are having a great time in that. They are still a little small for it, but we put a dictionary under their feet so they can touch and put a blanket around them to keep them steady. They get a kick out of looking at all the little toys and lights, and from sitting in a new position.

The only trouble we've been having is with Charlie's eating. For the last month or so he's been having some sort of difficulty with the bottle. (He has no problem taking his binky or sucking his thumb.) He'll take a bit of formula, then start to cry, shake his head, thrust his tongue out, flail his arms, kick his legs. He cries when he doesn't have the bottle and then cries when we offer it to him again. He does this essentially at every single feeding every day. We've tried everything - reflux meds, faster flow nipples, different formula, feeding him in different positions, etc. Nothing has helped. It is sad and frustrating, to say the least! The pediatrician finally recommended that we see a GI doctor to have Charlie's suck/swallow coordination evaluated. I'm glad to have that looked into, unfortunately the GI doctor he suggested is booked until June. June! So I'm on the hunt for a new specialist - I just hope they can help.

Happy Bug!

Play time for Mommy and Charlie.
Tummy time! Next mission - to roll from belly to back.

Like father, like son!

Focusing on Sleep

It's 1:30 pm. Do you know where Charlie and Lily are? I do - they are napping IN THEIR CRIBS!! Yay! Yesterday I decided that I would finally start working on transitioning them to nap in their cribs. I had been just letting them nap wherever they may doze - the swing, the boppy, etc. But I was getting tired of having to tiptoe around while they were asleep. (It's hard to, say, put away noisy dishes when you have two sleeping babies less that 10 feet away.) Plus, I was hoping to start getting them on a more consistent schedule and synchronize their naps a bit. So yesterday morning, as soon as Lily started her "I'm tired and need to sleep NOW" fussing, I brought both babies right up to their nursery. I laid Charlie in his crib with his binky (because unlike the Bug, he will lay there quietly) and rocked Lily. She fell asleep and I put her in the crib, but about one second later she coughed and startled herself awake. Then she wanted nothing to do with settling back down. Finally, I got wise and swaddled her the way we do for bed. Bingo. She was sound asleep after 2 seconds of rocking. Poor Charlie, in the meantime, had just fallen asleep on his own. Both babies napped for about 40 minutes, which made me happy.

Next nap was a bit easier - I swaddled them both right away, rocked Lily (who went to sleep almost immediately) then picked up Charlie and rocked him for a minute or two (but he didn't really need it, as he's pretty good as self-soothing with his binky - I just wanted to be fair!). They slept again for about 40 minutes, then did it again for another 40 later in the afternoon. Woo hoo! I was afraid this good napping was beginner's luck and was sure I'd be in for it today, but right now they are on their second crib nap of the day! I really hope they can keep it up! If we can get the napping down pat, my next goal is to work on getting them to bed a little earlier. Right now we try to feed them their last bottle around 8:00 pm and get them to bed by 9:00 pm. I'd like to start getting them to bed by 7:30 or 8:00 pm so we'll see about that soon.

Sweet dreams, babies!

(PS: Joe is going to make fun of the amount of exclamation points in this post, but I don't care! Sleep is exciting!!!!)

Charlie and Mommy sneak in a cuddle. (And yeah, I'm aware that I look about 12 in this picture.)
Charlie and Lily playing in their rocker. They won't be able to fit in there together much longer!

"Hmmmm...what is that red bird up to now?"

Charlie and Daddy "wrestling." Charlie always wins.

Charlie has been enjoying his little red seat. He gets all happy when I put him in it and looks all around the room.

"I spy with my little eye a beautiful Bug!"

Charlie has become quite the thumb-sucker recently. Perhaps not the best habit in the world, but it makes him happy.

Picture Post

Not much new to blog about at the moment, so I thought I would just share some recent pics. Also at the bottom of the post you'll find baby pictures of Joe and I. A few posts ago one of our readers asked us to post our baby pics so she could see if Charlie and Lily resembled either Joe or I. I definitely think Charlie looks like Joe. What do you think?

My preppy boy. That smirk is going to attract ALL the girls.
Not to be outdone, Lily shows off her Miss America smile.

"Hi, Charlie! Whatcha doin'?"

"Who IS that beautiful baby?!?!"

"Mom! I told you not to bug me when I'm hanging with my friends!"

Lily's famous twist. This is what she does when she's mad/upset/impatient. She does it sitting in her seat, laying in the pack n' play, lounging in our laps. It's accompanied by loud crying and screeching. The girl knows how to throw one heck of a temper tantrum!

Baby Joe. (My, that's quite the outfit!)

Baby Brooke

Working towards milestones

We don't have anything too major to report in this post (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) but Charlie and Lily are working hard to give you some good material very soon! Both babies are close to reaching some good milestones. Charlie is super, super close to laughing. Right now he gurgles and makes this growling sound when he's happy so we know he's almost there. Yesterday I THINK he laughed for real - it was quick and I spent the next 10 minutes trying to get him to do it again, but I'm pretty sure that's what it was. Hopefully it won't be long before he's laughing at everything! Lily isn't quite as jovial as our Charlie, but she'll get there soon.

Charlie may be ahead in the laughing game, but Lily is in the lead with solids. While she's certainly not eating her cereal with any regularity, the last few times she's had it she has definitely swallowed a few mouthfuls. She does seem to like it. Charlie seems to like the taste too, but he simply will not swallow it! No worries though - they are still a little young for solids so we'll just keep working and getting them used to the spoon and all that.

We are also working on rolling. While they both seem close to rolling from back to front, I know the books say that babies roll front to back first. (Ooooh - as I was typing this, Lily rolled from back to front!! She had a tiny bit of help as she was in this rocking toy and had a bit of an incline, but still!! Yay!) So I've increased the amount of tummy time they do to help them move in that direction. Lily is a tummy time champ! She is SO strong. She pushes up on her arms and gets into a crawling position. She'll be on the move in no time ;) Charlie doesn't much enjoy tummy time - he usually gets really mad and cries. But the madder he gets the more he moves, pushes up, etc, so I guess it's not a bad thing. Both babies have great head control and leg strength. They push down nice and strong with their legs and will "stand" when we hold them up. They are our super babies!

Speaking of super babies, please help us support the March of Dimes. We're putting together a team for this spring's March for Babies - check out the info here.

On Sunday we wrapped up Joe's birthday weekend. Grandma and Grandpa watched the babies while Joe and I went out to dinner with Uncle John and Aunt Rebecca, then we all gathered at our house for some ice cream cake. Once again, Charlie and Lily helped Daddy blow out the candles.
Lily also helped blow up the balloons. Look at that lung strength! Ventilator? What ventilator? (Yeah, don't call the authorities - the balloon was sitting in her lap and she was surprised by it - the picture ended up looking like she was blowing it up!)

Charlie and Lily modeling their matching polar bear pajamas. Thanks, Nana :)

Lily doing her tummy time. She's ready to be on the move.

Charlie won't eat it, but it still makes him happy.

We're marching for babies! Come join us!

The annual March of Dimes March for Babies walk is coming to our town and we can't wait to be a part of it! We've assembled Team Three Cheers for Babies and we're hoping you can join us! The walk will take place on April 25, 2010 in Mercer County Park in Hamilton, NJ. Head to our personal March of Dimes web page to join our team, then start collecting donations and/or recruiting other walkers. If you can't join us but would still like to help, feel free to make a donation to MOD through our web page. I set our team goal as $5,000 - I know we can do it!

(For those who sign up to walk with us - we'll keep you informed of all walk details with email updates, etc. as we get closer to the date. If you collect donations prior to the walk, please bring them with you to the event. Thank you

Happy Birthday Daddy!

It's Joe's birthday! Unfortunately he had to go to work and couldn't spend the whole day with us, but Charlie, Lily and I used the time he was out to prepare a birthday surprise for when he got home. The babies and I (with a little help from Nana, who visited us this morning) baked Daddy a cake (which was really a pan of his favorite treat - Kandy Kake bars), blew up balloons and hung up a birthday banner. When Daddy got home the three of us were waiting in the kitchen for him, all ready to party! Charlie and Lily gave him the special cards they had picked out for him, then they helped Daddy blow out the candles. Last year Joe's parents and I threw him a huge surprise 30th birthday party. I know what he wished for at that party when he blew out his candles, and this year those wishes come true were right there to help him celebrate! Happy birthday, baby! I love you so, so much. You are the best husband and father I ever could have hoped for.

Charlie and Lily wore shirts to let Daddy know how awesome he is! Lily's says, "I love Daddy and Daddy loves me" and Charlie's says, "My Daddy Rocks!"

Surprising Daddy when he walked in the door.

Charlie is a party animal.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Growing up!

Big things have been happening for Charlie and Lily this past week! Last Monday they had an appointment with the cardiologist at St. Peter's to check on their PDAs. After they each had an ultrasound (during which Lily wiggled like a nut and smeared the ultrasound jelly all over herself) it was announced that their PDAs were completely closed and they did not need any more cardiology follow-ups. Yay!

The next day, Charlie and Lily started solids. Their pediatrician gave us the go to start rice cereal, so on Tuesday we gave it our first try. It was interesting, to say the least! Our mistake was offering it to them before their bottles. While Charlie was happy to try whatever mommy wanted him to, Lily would have none of it. She was MAD that she had on her bib but no bottle. She screamed, cried and twisted so much that we couldn't really get any of the cereal in her mouth. Charlie got it in his mouth, but simply held it there, smiled, and spit it out. He was so cute though! We've been working on the cereal daily since then and we're making a little improvement. Yesterday I started mixing in a little applesauce for taste and they definitely like that better. And this morning Lily actually swallowed a few small bites. Baby steps!

Yesterday the babies went to the pediatrician for their 6 month well visit and some shots. Both babies are getting big! Lily weighed 11 lbs 6 oz and Charlie is 13 lbs 2 oz. The doctor said that they are in the 50th percentile for their adjusted age and we're happy with that! They are also meeting all the 3-month milestones and getting close to some more advanced ones - both babies are SO close to rolling over! We're hoping they do it any day now. Charlie has started babbling and cooing a lot - it's adorable! They both press down on their feet really well when we hold them up and they are tracking object with their eyes like champs. And sleeping - oh the sleeping! For 6 out of the past 7 nights the babies have slept through the night! Life is good when that happens. We are so, so proud of our super babies!

Charlie doesn't know what Mommy is putting in his mouth, but he's happy to give it a try.
Lily wants none of it. "Just give me the bottle!!!!"

I have no idea why this picture keeps coming out sideways, but it's super cute so I'm posting it anyway! Just turn your head to check out the stripy-ness.

Story time! Charlie was loving Clifford: The Small Red Puppy. Lily just wanted Mommy to get on with it already.

Joe managed to cuddle both babies after their shots yesterday. They needed the extra love!

For the first time ever, Joe purchased baby clothes! He found this outfit that says "A Wish Come True" at Walmart and couldn't resist buying it for the Bug.

It's leopard print Lily! Joe calls this her Peg Bundy outfit.

Happy New Year!

They may have been born in 2009, but Charlie and Lily plan on rocking 2010! We hope your 2010 rocks too! Happy New Year!