6 Months Later

I cannot believe that I have two six month old babies living in my house!  How in the world did that happen and where is the time going!  It seems like just yesterday we were loading up the sister ride to head home from Jackson with them and now all of the sudden we have two babies, not infants, but babies.  I really can't describe the feeling of "I blinked" and look what happened. haha! 

So Aunt Amy brought the girls some new bows.  I have been forbidden to spend one cent of their daddy's money on this type of thing, so Amy comes to rescue and gets them for us.  haha!  I think these are sooo cute, but poor Ellie's small head is just not made for a gigantic bow like this.  Sid and I laughed and laughed at her while I was taking these pictures! 

At 6 months old, Elissa weighs 19.2 pounds (per her cardio appointment about 2 weeks ago) and Ellie weighs 13.4 (per her doctor's appointment last week when she went because of fever).  Speaking of that doctor's appointment, this was the first appointment for either girl due to random acute illness.  We still are too sure what Ellie had, but after a bunch of tests that showed a high white count, she got a shot and some medicine to take at home.  She seems to be better as far as the fever goes, but Friday night I noticed her belly button looking funny.  I had to doctor is a bit and it looked way better on Saturday, but we will for sure mention this when we go for their 6 month appointment this week!

I had a friend tell me this didn't even look like Elissa with that  bow on her head. I'm guessing it was the fact that all her dark dark hair was hidden!  Yes, you read correctly when I said that Elissa was weighing 19.2 pounds.  She is just a big baby because she doesn't over eat or really eat more than Ellie.  She eats 4 to 5 seven oz. bottles a day (all have cereal in them) and she eats two solid meals a day, usually a fruit with milk and oatmeal in the morning and 2 veggies at night.  We will add in a 3rd meal probably sometime this month.  Elissa has done very good eating solids and hasn't gagged like she was doing when we first started.

Elissa is the sweetest baby I have ever seen.  I know that isn't very nice of me to say when I have two more babies, but really and truly, the other two are so high needs and Elissa is just as laid back as she can be.  She will love all over you and talk and talk, but rarely cries or fusses.  When she does, we know something is up. When we took her to the doctors last week, I bet 20 people stopped us to tell us how pretty of a baby she was because she was just smiling at everybody and talking and SO good!

At a day shy of 6 months, yesterday, Elissa's first tooth broke the skin.  I think there are about 3 more to come very soon!  She did really good with it, too!  Wasn't fussy, didn't run fever, nothing.  Well, unless you count her runny nose, which some say might have something to do with it and some say it doesn't!

Elissa sleeps in her bed now, instead of the nap nanny, but does sleep on this medical type pillow that still props her up.  Even though we have been released from the ENT and her airway is perfectly fine, she is just used to sleeping on an incline. She also sleeps under a blanket and with a small blanket pulled up close to her face.  She has always wanted her face buried when she sleeps.  She takes a paci when she goes to sleep but spits it out and doesn't really cry for it at night after she falls asleep.  If she ever does wake up at night, we can put her paci back in and wrap her back up in her blanket and she goes right back to sleep. Elissa generally goes to sleep about 6 and sleeps 12 straight hours!  AH! Such a good baby!!

Oh, sweet Ellie!  Ellie is eating 4 to 5 six oz bottles during the day and eating the same solid amount as Elissa.  They both still want to eat about every 3 hours during the day.  Ellie has spells where she doesn't want to go to bed and will just cry and cry.  She has spells where she will go to bed just fine and then wake up an hour later and just cry and cry.  Currently, she is in a new spell of going to bed and sleeping fine until about 4, when she wakes up acting like she hasn't eaten in six days!  I usually get up, feed her, and within an hour have am back in the bed. During that time, we usually are both asleep in the rocking chair, so neither of us are up an hour.  Ellie still sleeps in her bed, on her stomach, with her head buried and under a blanket.  She tends to wake up wanting her paci more than Ellie!  On nights when she goes to bed and stays in bed, she will sleep 12 hours, too!  (ignore the nasty on her shirt, spit up!)

I can't get over how blue her eyes are.  Both of them have blue eyes, but Ellie's just glow!  No teeth for Ellie yet either, but she loves to chew on anything she can get her hands on and to her mouth!

Both girls can roll from their backs to their stomachs and Ellie can roll from her stomach to her back in the bed, but I think she uses her pillows or blankets as leverage to get over.  Both girls act like they are ready to just crawl off and would rather be sitting and playing than in the swing now.  We are working on sitting up and Elissa does better at than Ellie, but they will both get there.

And off with the bows!!!  Ellie and that look!!

Elissa's new trick is to suck on her bottom lip.  That may be why she doesn't need her paci at night!

Sid was waving his hat or something trying to get their attention.  This was right after bath and just before bedtime!  They both look so tired in this picture to me!

 Sometimes it is so hard to not get upset being stuck in the house all the time.  We can't really go anywhere at night because the babies eat and go to bed so early.  Twice this past month, we have thrown caution to the wind and stayed out past bedtime. Both times, the babies did so good coming home and going to bed despite the fact that they were off schedule.  I'm hoping we are coming to a crossroads between having two infants and having two babies that will allow us a little more flexibility.  It's so hard not to worry about the schedule when there are two babies to think about.

I put this picture in here to compare their profiles.  They don't even have the same hair line.  It is unreal to me how truly different they are.  Last night, we were in Jackson and ate at Applebee's.  The woman at the table next to me asked if they were both mine.  I said yes, and was nice about it, but inside I was thinking "really lady???"  I mean, why would I want to have to take two 6 months old and my 3 year old out to supper.  And they were dressed the same, too, so if they both weren't mine they probably wouldn't be dressed alike either, I wouldn't think!  Then of course came the next age-old question of "are they twins."  I know they don't look alike, but they really don't look 9 or 10 months apart either.  So, some common sense every now and then would be great. And six months later, I still cannot stand the whole "I know how hard it is, mine are 12 or 15 or how ever many months apart."  I am sure that is a different kind of hard, but unless you have two babies the exact same age with the exact same wants and needs, or sometimes different wants and needs, then no you don't.  It's hard to be nice when you get that line, especially in the still slightly sleep deprived state.

At 6 months old, I still long for a night of not having to have the monitor by my head, of not being woke up before the sun, and of being able to have maybe 2 hours to do what I want to do. My hair is the pits, so much so that I'm sort of embarrassed by it, but I just do not have the time to get it done.  And when I do, it's never at a time that I have help with the babies.  I have a ton of help when it comes to Bailey and I'd have to recognize the fact that I need that help and it's ok, but sometimes I am just in tears for some time to get things done that I need to get done.  I have several hundred dollars of pictures that need to be put into frames, I have clothes I need to get out of my closet and their closet.  Bailey being gone allows me to focus on the twins and not be so overwhelmed, but I still have two more babies here that don't really allow that kind of stuff to go on.  I get upset because I want just one good nights sleep or just one Saturday to get things done or just maybe one Sunday afternoon to catch a movie Sid.  And then I see this sweet face and I am sooo thankful that I have these babies.  That my pregnancy was event-free and that their 7 week early entrance into this world didn't bring a slew of problems.  That I have not one, not two, but three healthy happy children.  And it makes up for the fact that I get no sleep or even when I do get sleep, my days are non-stop.  That I work full time and have a full time household to run.  Not everybody gets to have their dreams come true like me and for that I am grateful.

It might have taken 6 long months to get there, but I am grateful for these beautiful babies!

At the end of the month, we are having Ellie and Elissa, along with my cousin's baby, Tanner, christened by my grandfather in Oneonta.  I cannot wait and think this will be such a special experience for all us, but especially for my pappaw.  I put in a special request to have Amazing Grace put into the service somehow. Every night, the babies go to sleep to me singing this song to them.   Bailey's song was Jesus Loves Me and then turned into He's Got the Whole World in His Hands and is now "the manager baby" which is Silent Night.  I wish all the time that my grandmother were still alive so she could see me with these babies, and give me advice!

I think that just about sums up what is going on at 6 months for these two.  They new nickname from Big Sister is "my baby deers". She is too funny and how she comes up with this stuff is anybody's guess, but it is so funny to hear her refer to one of them has "baby deer"!  haha!

Happy Six Months my sweet girls! We love you both so very much!  It is truly nothing but AMAZING GRACE when I look at the two of you!!!!  Here's to a month of growing even more. I bet by the time I am writing about 7 months I have some crawlers, some sitters, and lots more teeth!!!!!

(PS- If you missed the pictures from last week, go to the last blog post to see them.  They are sooo cute of all three girls!)