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Sunday Feb 3rd 2002

6 and half months

Boy can Kate eat! The girl packs away the apple like it is going out of fashion. She makes Mmmmmmm sounds as she eats it too. Aiden can take it or leave it really. I made peas the other day and it basically looked like I had blended Kermit the Frog.

Kate and Aiden appear to be enjoying getting to know each other more and more. They squeal, laugh and talk to each other on a regular basis. In the supermarket yesterday they caused a sensation because they were holding hands and Kate was chewing on Aiden's hand. Aiden is such a delightful easy-going boy he just let her do what she wanted. I think we delayed the line of customers waiting at the Deli counter.

Both of them are experimenting with sounds more and more each day. Kate is now chewing on her tongue in a similar way to Aiden who did this a week or so ago. She loves a captive audience.

Aiden is now bearing weight on his legs and holding still rather than bouncing everywhere. They are both able to sit up much better, Kate still more so than Aiden.

How are the cats? Hmmm not too bad, no life-threatening injuries this week. People still come to visit and leave with Itchy clinging to their back. Snitzel has been around the place more but still leaps the fence to visit the German lady next door. Looney is fine but she wishes someone could stop the voices in her head.

I feel  Kate and Aiden are in an in-between phase where they are waiting to become more independent and mobile (absolutely no signs of crawling yet).

We still go out most days and I have perfected a quick response to the average 10 people who will stop us at the shopping centre. "Twins!/?" they say. I reply, "Yes, boy and a girl, Kate and Aiden, 6 and half months, not identical, they are very good, we are blessed they are our first and last" To which the only real response is "Awww that's nice". Saves time! 

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Tuesday Feb 12th 2002

Almost 7 months

I'm calling it: Kate can sit up on her own. She sits for a good 5 minutes and plays with her toys. You still have to sit near her in case she topples and face-plants. 

Aiden is almost there. He doesn't completely fold in half like he used to and he can sit for a short while. He doesn't have the strong, straight back yet but he is very very close.

This week we have focused on tummy time (or lack thereof). Kate whinged and complained at first but after the first few tries she realised life was a whole lot easier if you used your hands and arms rather than lie crying, with your face in the carpet and your arms stuck out behind you in the air. She is such a quick learner and now leans up quite high on her arms.

Aiden still rules tummy time and he has started making moving motions with his legs. He can't coordinate any other part of his body but he knows his legs should be doing SOMETHING.

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Sunday Feb 17th 2002

7 Months

Kate and Aiden have been waking up around 5 - 6am (sometimes even 4am) for a while now and it is making us very tired. Aaron gets up and puts dummies back in and they fall into broken sleep until about 6:30am when they are fed. I rang the Parent Helpline to get some hints on this and basically we will be trying our own special version of controlled crying/comforting. This is hard to do when there are two babies as if you let one cry too much it can wake the other. You are supposed to wait 2 minutes and the go in and comfort them, then do 4 minutes, 6 minute, 8 minutes, 10 and then 10. This is basically teaching them to put themselves sleep (making sure they aren't teething or anything like that!). Wish us luck! Last night was the first night we were going to try it but they must've known and slept right through.  

I read the Sleep Dr's book and he was talking about dummies being a parent-dependant sleep cue. Aaron said the Dr was right but he doesn't have twins so Aaron will continue to put dummies in as the first step!

Aiden is now sitting up and Helen bought them a little fold out couch. They both LOVE it and can sit up quite happily. Kate sat in the corner with her arm casually slung over the back....just waiting for someone to feed her grapes.

Kate's verbal repertoire is rapidly expanding and she makes a whole series of chatting noises. She says, among other things, Da-da-da (which actually sounds like dar-dar-dar). She twists her tongue sideways in her mouth as she makes these noises. Kate is also really into reaching and grabbing for things. She tries to pull everything into her mouth. The other day I was holding her for a cuddle and she grabbed my face and tried to put it into her mouth so I had slobber all over me. Then she coughed and sneezed on me. My life is now complete.

Aiden bounces like a madman in his exersaucer. He also makes big chewing motions which makes him look like he is chewing gum. Aaron was feeding Kate and Aiden the other day. They were side by side in their feeding chairs (we are using old rockers rather than highchairs) when Snitzel came along and saw they were eating yoghurt. He lined up next to Aiden, mouth open, in the hope of getting some too. When Aaron wouldn't feed him any he, being ever-resourceful, decided he may as well lick it off Aiden's face. Luckily Aaron stopped him just in time. Aiden found the whole thing a hoot. 

We are looking to change a few things (one of them sleep as mentioned above). We are now feeding cereal in the morning, making it 3 meals a day. We are also keeping them up close to 3 hours, if possible, each playtime. I will be working on only 2 sleeps a day instead of the current 3.

Oh and Kate had her first haircut this week as her mohawk was getting too long. Aiden got a token hair cut too.

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Sunday Feb 24th 2002

7 months and one week

On Monday we had the women from our Parent Group over for the morning. Aaron took the day off to help (yet more evidence that he is husband/father of the year - well except when he leaves his clothes on the floor, but I digress). Within a matter of minutes there were babies everywhere! Kate and Aiden are slightly younger than most of the babies so we hadn't been prepared for babies that don't actually stay put. Many of the babies are crawling and the parents said it happened all of a sudden (yikes!). The morning was great and Kate and Aiden got to show off their jumping skills in their Jolly Jumpers. Of course we were told  we have been putting them on backwards! Lucky we found out or we would've ended up with bow-legged children because it is wider at the back than the front.

One day this week was very hot and we couldn't get the house cool. We figured we would have to try and leave Kate and Aiden unwrapped for one of the naps. We also put a fan in their room. So it came time for a nap and Jackie and I took Kate and Aiden into their cots and put them in. Both looked a bit stunned. Aiden was very tired by this point, in fact I would hazard a guess that he was overtired. He started crying, then crying louder, then screaming. He became inconsolable so I took him out and wrapped him in muslin. He almost sighed with relief and fell asleep with some soft sobs. Whilst I was dealing with with Aiden I could detect all sorts of movements coming from Kate's cot (don't forget we have a sheet draped over the top to block out visual stimuli, this was bouncing all over the place). When Aiden had settled I went over to Kate's cot. We have Kate in the end near the wall so she doesn't get blinded by the hall light when we open the door. If you were to peer in you would see the top of her head. So I slowly peeked in and saw two big blue eyes and a big grin right at my end of the cot. As I watched she preceded to flip all over the place and play with her legs. Needless to say she got wrapped up as well.

We won't be stopping the wrapping any time soon.

I took Kate and Aiden to the hospital drop-in to weigh them now that they are 7 months old. I figured that with all the Kate had been eating she would've caught up to Boof who had been 500g (1 lb) heavier. Nope, he is now 900g (2 lbs) heavier! He must be having more breast milk than her. Kate is a lot more active than Boof and I think she may have a  high metabolism.

This week I also gave a talk at the Breastfeeding Twins class at the Women's and Children's hospital. I took Kate and Aiden along too and they did their best to keep everyone entertained. I really enjoyed talking to everyone there and I was able to reflect on the fact that I was in their position not so long ago. All were pregnant except for one who had delivered. Breastfeeding Kate and Aiden has been the best thing I have ever done and I hope to continue (even if it is morning and night only) until they are one. 

Oh and we haven't done any controlled comforting as they have basically slept through each night (except one)

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