Happy 5 month Birthday

The girls celebrated their 5 month birthday yesterday.  They went to the farmers market for the first time, where they were a hit.  All of the spectators loved to look and the girls, talk to the girls, and find out more about the cutest twins in Fishers, IN!

Girls together

Kathryn Smiling

Anna smiling

We were able to pick up some fresh bread, and local veggies, along with an amazing cinnamon roll, while we walked along the Farmers Market in Fishers.

It was a very warm day, but we were glad to be outside for the first time in a while.  Sam and I have been fighting off colds for over two weeks.  We are still not 100%, but playing with the girls always makes us feel better.

We do not go to the doctor this month, so we do not have new stats, but we can tell both girls are getting bigger.  Kathryn continues to sleep through the night.  We feed her at 9pm and then we wake her up at 6am.  She sleeps all the way through the night, it is a treat.  We will her bottles to 6oz, and she usually takes 5 to 6oz at her feedings.  She has become quite the "talker".  Everyday when she wakes up from naps, or when she is home from school she likes to share with us information about her day, how she is feeling etc, through her babbles.  They are so cute!  She is a very animated talker, and I think she will follow in her daddy's footsteps of becoming a great story teller.

Anna is still very small and is not able to sleep as long.  She has made it 7 hours a few times, but it is not consistent.  Therefore, Sam continues to feed her at 3am.  What a great Dad!  We fill Anna's bottles to over 3oz, and she usually takes about 2 1/2 or 3oz.  Anna has started to "talk" too, but she is more of a mover and less of a talker. 

We also celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary today.  We celebrated with a lobster meal on Saturday evening, accompanied by fresh squash and peppers grilled on the grill that we bought from the Farmers market earlier in the day.  We feel lucky to have found each other!  We could not have imagined how blessed our life would be 6 years from the day we were married.  What a ride we have been on, but it is the best ride of our life.

Last weekend we celebrated Fathers Day, for Sam's first Fathers day.  The girls picked out a card for their favorite Dad!  We had lots of family time together, since we were fighting colds.  We did manage to grill steaks and veggies on the grill and make corn as a Fathers Day treat to Sam.  Even though we didn't feel well, we ate outside on the deck while the girls napped.  It was very enjoyable.

Kathryn looks like she is ready for the tennis court, and Anna likes to kick her legs a lot

Sweetest Girls, beautiful Kathryn

Sweet Anna

Anna is a little more adventurous than Kathryn.  She likes to lay on your chest and push herself off your chest and roll over onto the couch.  Sam taught her the trick and she loves it!  She is our little dare devil.  Kathryn will also do the same trick, but she isn't into it like Anna is.

Then we ended the day with Chinese takeout, because that is the only thing Sam wanted for Fathers Day.

We are starting to get ready for the first big road trip with the girls to Michigan.  In order to enjoy the beautiful fresh water in MI, the girls need to have life jackets.  Anna is sampling her pink jacket below.  Hopefully they will tolerate the jackets, so we can go on a boat ride.

Strawberry Patch

On Friday I volunteered for the Special Olympics State Games in Terre Haute, IN.  What a great opportunity to give my time to help athletes compete.  Thank you Finish Line for supporting a great event!

Saturday was a fun outing for the family.  We went strawberry picking!  Time is limited with the twins, so we headed over to the strawberry patch where Momma picked a few berries for the family.  The girls slept in their stroller while I dug around to find perfect berries.  We all wore our strawberry pink to go to the strawberry patch.

 

 

While the girls slept, Sam and I enjoyed an ice cream cone.

What a fun family activity.

We had lots of play time together at the house.  Girls sitting in bouncy seats, playing on their favorite mat, and of course tummy time.

Kathryn in her bouncy seat

Anna trying out the bumbo

Anna smiling on her play mat

Anna has picked up a new trick in the last week.  She loves to stand up when she is laying on your chest.  She has the biggest smile on her face.

Both girls have found their thumbs.  Kathryn sucks her thumb when she is sleeping or getting tired.  Anna will still take the pacifier sometimes, and sometimes sucks her thumb.

On Sunday we skyped with the Grandparents and Great-Grandparents.  What a wonderful technology for family members to see the girls even when they live far away.  Let us know if you want to Skype the girls too!

First Week of Daycare

This Tuesday we took the girls to day care for the first time.  Sam and I took the girls together on Tuesday morning.  We prepped Anna's bottles, diapers, wipes, extra clothes, pacifiers, sleep sacks a partridge in a pear tree for their first day.  I know we picked out a great place for the girls to spend their time, but it was emotional for me.

The girls ate and slept well their first day, which is a great sign they were already adjusting to their new surroundings.

The first day, we forgot to bring Kathryn's empty bottles to day care, so she used extra bottles on her first day and it did not bother her at all.  She is a flexible, go with the flow, kind of girl.  Mommy remembered to pack her empty bottles on Wednesday.  We bring empty bottles for Kathryn because she uses the formula day care provides, SO NICE!!!

The day care fills out a sheet on the girls activities daily.  However, mommy and daddy sometimes forget to bring the sheets home.  It is taking us a little longer to adapt to the new routine.

I picked the girls up on Thursday for the first time.  I had the pleasure of battling traffic for a country concert on my first night picking up the girls.  Thankfully I was still able to pick them up on time.

On Friday I took Anna in late to school, because she had a CT scan in the morning.  This was a treat to be able to bring Anna in.  I met her teacher for the first time, and also was able to see Kathryn smiling away on the floor playing.  It gave me comfort to see Kathryn happy in the middle of the day.

The girls continued to eat an sleep well at home throughout the entire week.  I am so glad the girls are adjusting to their new surroundings.

First Day of School Matching Outfits

Kathryn calling everyone to update them on her fun day at school

Favorite Activity Playmat

 

 

4 month update

The girls are 4 months old, I can't believe how fast the time has flown by.  The girls are growing every day.

Anna weighed 8lb 13oz at her check up.  She is 21 1/4 inches long.  She is long and slender and very smiley.  She is in the 5th percentile for the adjusted chart for height and weight.

Kathryn weighed 13lbs 9oz at her check up.  She is 24 1/4 inches long.  Kathryn is also very tall.  She is in the 50th percentile of the regular chart for height and weight.

Both girls out grow the length of their clothes before they out grow the middle section of their clothes.  They take after their tall mommy and daddy.

The sleeping patterns have changed for the better for both girls.  Kathryn is currently sleeping through the night about 9 hours.  We feed her around 8:30pm and she falls asleep by 9pm.  Then I wake up at 6am to feed her.  She is very smiley in the morning.  I love the time I have with the girls in the morning for their 6am feeding.  Kathryn eats about 5oz 6 times a day.  Sometimes she eats as much as 6 oz in a feeding and as little as 4 oz.

Anna cannot sleep as long as Kathryn, but she sleeps very well.  She sleeps around 6 to 8 hours at night.  We feed her at 9pm and she is asleep by 9:30pm.  She slept until 5am this morning, yeah!  During the week, Sam feeds Anna at 3am bc she cannot quite make it through the night consistently and we need to have the girls on a good schedule now that they are in day care.  On the weekends we let her sleep as long as she can to work on her sleeping more.  She eats about 3oz 7 times a day of the higher calorie formula (24k).

Anna had a CT Scan of her head to make sure everything is forming ok.  Her head is very narrow in the front by her forehead.  This is common for preemies.  However we wanted to make sure it was a preemie head and not a problem head.  The results came back normal.  We are so thankful Anna's head is growing normal for a preemie baby.  I love her sideways smile, so cute!

The girls favorite activity is to lay on their back on the activity mat uncle Ryan gave them.  When the mat moves the star overhead lights up and a little music plays a tune.  The girls smile and giggle, and talk back and forth as they kick their legs to make the songs play and the light shine.

They also enjoy their bouncy seats.  They are batting at the objects and sometimes holding onto the rings that hang down in front of them.  We also work on tummy time daily.  They are starting to move their heads back and forth more and move their legs a lot.

Back to work for Mommy

I went back to work on April 29.  I did not want to leave the girls, as I only was able to spend 7 weeks with them together at home.  However, I was very thankful for that time, as it was more than I thought I would get.  We heard a lot of stories about NICU kids and the duration of time the spent in the hospital.  We were so lucky to have both girls home before their due date.

In order to allow the girls to grow to their adjusted age of 12 weeks before we put them in day care, we had the Grandma's come to town for the month of May to take care of the girls when I went back to work.

The first week Mormor was here, the second and third week Grammy K was here, and the fourth week Mormor came back to help out.  We are so thankful the Grandma's were able to come down from Michigan and take care of the girls. We are also glad the girls were able to spend so much time with their Grandma's.

It was so nice to have an extra set of hands to help out in the morning and in the evening.  It was also wonderful that we had piece of mind to know the girls were well taken care of while I was at work.  It was so great that we didn't have to worry about what they were doing, how well they were eating and sleeping etc, bc we know the Grandma's showed the girls such love and care.

It was also nice to spend time with our Mom's during the month of May.  The time goes by very quickly, and some how I didn't take any pictures of the Grandma's with the girls this month.  I do know the girls enjoyed their bouncy seats, tummy time, and play mat daily.  They also enjoyed walks when the weather was nice.  I could not imagine if I had to go back to work and take the kids to day care on the same day.

Kathryn in the beginning of the month with a mysterious look on her face

The girls playing on their favorite activity mat that Uncle Ry gave to them for Christmas

This is how we spend a lot of our time, sitting together feeding the girls

They look like twins here, one is just a little bigger than the other one

Poppy game down for the weekend while Grammy K was here and I captured him talking to Kathryn.

Smiley Kathryn

Daddy and Anna

Sweet Anna

Mommy and Anna

 

What a great month we had as a family adjusting to Mommy going back to work!