Our helmet saga continues with both girls not sleeping well since Samantha got her band. Grrrrr!  Amelia must be having sympathy pains for her sister because the first night Samantha wore her band, Amelia woke up at 2 a.m. and wouldn’t go back to sleep without some milk, which hasn’t happened in almost 2 months! Samantha stirred around 3:30 a.m. and had a hard time going back to sleep. Both girls woke up again around 5 a.m. to eat and then slept again until 8 a.m. I know that’s not nearly as bad as waking up every 2 1/2 hours like I did the first month of their lives, but man, do I miss sleeping for over six hours at a time!

Both girls had a difficult time going down for naps again yesterday, but it wasn’t as bad as the first day with the band on. Samantha and Amelia both got a few good naps in, even though it took a while to get them to sleep, and they weren’t as fussy at bed time as they were two days ago.

Last night, Amelia woke up again wanting to eat around 2:30 a.m., and Samantha at 4 a.m. On top of the girls’ sleep being interrupted, Jake’s been working literally 4:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. every day this week on the biggest case he’s ever had. He has a huge mediation coming up Friday, so that means I’ve been getting up with the girls solo, since he’s already sleep-deprived without having to wake up with the twins. So, it’s been a rough few days! Thankfully, Jake’s niece, Maddy, is still here with us and has been a big help entertaining the girls, cooking, and doing dishes. I’m hoping her trip wasn’t so boring that she won’t want to come back again next year!

I’m hoping this whole helmet thing will be worth it and over soon!

Lots of love,

At our appointment, the clinician took a bunch of “before” photos from all different angles of Samantha’s head. Everyone loved her outfit and thought we had dressed her up especially for the photos haha. Then, the clinician showed us how to put on Samantha’s helmet and had us practice. She had Samantha wear the helmet for about a half hour in her office just to make sure everything fit. Samantha didn’t seem bothered by it at all and only fussed toward the end of the appointment when she was getting tired. I think I was the only one who cried at our appointment…it was just so sad seeing her with this giant white boxing helmet on her head! I have a feeling she’s going to get a lot more snuggle time for the next few weeks since we feel so bad for her!

Samantha seemed to be pretty oblivious to the helmet for most of the day, except at nap time. She fought sleep more frequently than usual and hardly napped at all. I’m not sure if it was the fact that she didn’t get a good morning nap while she was at her appointment that ruined her sleep the rest of the day, or if it was just hard for her to sleep with a big foam boxing helmet on her head.

For the next few days, we are supposed to take her band off every three hours, just to check for any red spots from the pressure or weird skin reactions. Today, she had a few small pressure spots, but all of them went away within ten minutes. The band is surprisingly lightweight and doesn’t seem to cause her trouble when lifting her head at all. It definitely makes her warmer than normal, which the clinician said would happen, so she recommended dressing Samantha in light clothes and keeping her out of the sun and out of her car seat whenever possible.

                  

After Samantha and Amelia’s traumatizing four-month shots, the fact that I was NOT looking forward to the girls’ four-month doctor’s appointment yesterday was an understatement. I was positively dreading it, so much so that I called in reinforcements. Jake was able to take the day off work for the appointment and to stay home in case things got crazy.

As soon as we stepped foot into the office, Samantha immediately started screaming her head off. She has the memory of an elephant that girl….she never forgets! She continued to cry while being weighed on the scale and let out a short firecracker of a wail during her shots, but then conked out and was pretty much fine for the rest of the day.

Amelia, on the other hand, was all smiles and giggles as Dr. Young was examining her, but screamed like a banshee during her shots and for about five minutes afterward. Once she got in the car, she passed out for the ride home and was a little bit fussy during the day, but nothing out of the ordinary. I think giving them some tylenol about a half hour before their shots really helped take the edge off a bit and helped them feel better throughout the day. In fact, yesterday was one of the most mellow days I’ve ever had with them! They were tired and mostly napped on Daddy, but when they were awake, instead of being fussy in the evening per usual, they were giggling and having a grand ol’ time with their toys. They even went right to sleep at 7:30 and stayed asleep until 6:30 this morning.

Samantha is now nearly 25.5 inches tall and weighs 6 pounds 12 ounces (90th percentile), which was not surprising, considering she feels like a ton of bricks every time I pick her up. That girl is one chunky monkey! Dr. Young said that even though she normally recommends waiting until 6 months to start solids, she feels that Samantha is probably ready and said we could start her on rice cereal mixed with breast milk or formula within the next few weeks and see how she does. Dr. Young is also hoping that her digestive system will regulate a little bit better once she starts veggies since her poo has been an avocado green color (TMI) for the past month or so. I’m not sure if I am ready for solids as this adds a whole new level of complexity to our routine, so we will see what happens.

The bad news for Samantha is that owing to the fact that her head is still pretty flat in the back, we have to go back for another appointment with the cranial technologist next Monday to take some measurements and decide upon a course of action. Dr. Young said that she won’t necessarily have to wear a helmet, but we need to take a look at her more closely in case she needs something to re-shape her head. I guess it’s better to take care of it now rather than force her to have a funny shaped head the rest of her life (especially since she will always be compared to Amelia, who has a perfect head!), but I’m still not happy about the prospect of making her wear some sort of head-shaping apparatus. Poor girl!

Amelia is still an inch shorter than her sister at 24.5 inches and weighs 14 pounds, 6 ounces (77th percentile). She is a strong, healthy girl and continues to try and catch up to her big sis.

I was really worried that the aftermath of the shots would leave the girls restless and would disrupt their one-week streak of sleeping through the night, but they ended up sleeping peacefully. In fact, they woke up this morning smiling and giggling so much that I almost thought they must be delirious from the tylenol.

Unfortunately, their good moods didn’t last. After initially waking up happy, they must have suddenly remembered that they had been poked and prodded yesterday with sharp needles and, understandably, became grumpy. After drinking five ounces of milk, Amelia promptly projectile vomited most of it all over her sister, who was about to fall asleep for her nap. Needless to say, Samantha was not amused. No more vomiting so far, but they day is not yet half over.

Basically, I threw my to-do list out the window and have been holding them on the rocking chair the entire day. The minute I try and put one of them down, one twin screams bloody murder, startling the other twin and commencing a double scream fest. It’s much easier just to sit here holding both of them, which wasn’t a problem until Samantha exploded poop everywhere and I had to clean her up, at which point Amelia realized no one was holding her and started wailing. Next, Samantha cried. And then I cried. Yay for triple crying fests! After changing Samantha’s diaper, outfit, and our bedding, it was back to the chair to calm all of us down. Just at that moment, my neighbor dropped by with some homemade cheesecake, which made all of us feel slightly better.

Apparently, today would have been a better day for Jake to take the day off, but there were just too many fires to be put out at the firm for him to leave. Fortunately, Jake came home from work at lunch to give me a little break, but had to go back, so I pretty much plan on camping out upstairs all day with the girls. Both of them have slight fevers, so I’m monitoring them and keeping up with the tylenol every five hours. Bed hasn’t been made, Bandit hasn’t been walked, dishes haven’t been done, but I have to tell myself that’s ok. Tomorrow is another day. In the mean time, I can write this blog post and feel like I have at least accomplished one thing.

On a happier note, it took several different location and costume changes, but in spite of the girls’ determination to the contrary, I was able to get some pictures of the girls smiling last weekend! Samantha and Amelia had both ripped off their four-month stickers last time we attempted a photo shoot, and Amelia had completely crumpled hers up, so we went without for the their four-month photos.

Ready for a photo dump? Here we go…

Samantha and Amelia turned 4-months-old yesterday and I thought I’d take some cute pictures of them. HA.

When I uploaded my photos, my camera said I had taken 156 photos…how is it possible not a single one turned out?

Here are the highlights:

Let’s look opposite directions!

By the end of the photo shoot, both girls had defiantly ripped off their 4-month stickers, Amelia had completely crinkled hers up, and their dresses were soaked with drool. You may have won this one, girls, but I’m going to try again this weekend!

Lots of love,