Once Upon a Time

there were two babies that were very predictable. They loved to sleep right after a good belly full of milk. They slept for 3 hours and half of the time we would have to wake them. They rarely cried, fussed or showed signs of irritability. Fast forward to the days of two newborns. Today we are behaving as newborns. Things have become more unpredictable. Bryson tends to have a hole in his stomach. It is not uncommon that we think something is wrong considering he slept for an hour and woke up crying and can't be calmed. The only thing wrong is that we don't have another warm bottle ready for him two hours after the last feeding!!! He doesn't seem to require very much sleep these days. We used to think Addison was going to be the low maintenance baby but lately she's more high maintenance than her brother. Keep in mind high maintenance = parental time consumption + parental confusion. It is no longer advisable for anyone to be left alone and outnumbered 2 to 1. They'll eat your brains!!!! Kim found some new bottles that have really lowered the irritability as the Modela bottles were pushing too much air in their tummies. Supposedly the Dr. Brown bottles put off some chemical / estrogen reaction so that wasn't an option for mommy; nor Addison when she is 12! Both are growing fast and tonight I realized how fast they were growing when I saw Bryson in the tub, on the mat after the bath and on his sleep positioner. His legs are hanging off things now. I even had a feeling that I wanted them to stop growing so that we could enjoy them at this age and size even longer. I think because we've nurtured them as preemies, it makes me like the moments are moving too fast or leaving me behind. Well I should end the update because Bryson is not going to last past midnight without a feeding. Meanwhile Addison could sleep for 5 hours easily. Also I forgot to mention we don't have updates on size because the home health care nurse isn't coming weekly but she'll be back one more time before the year is up for the next round of RSV shots.

One of these days I'll post more pictures but I have not even had time to take that many. It will be in another picasa album so you don't have to scroll past all the preemie era pics.

They are now mature

Since this would have been the 40 week full term day for Kim and the babies, I thought it was befitting to comment that we can now take the "Pre" off and say they are "mature", right?

Bryson weighed 8 lbs 4 ounces, 19.75 inches. Addison is 7 lbs 7 ounces, 19.25 inches. Bryson is no longer a tight ass. Seems the pinkie finger stimulation experience was so humiliating the first time, he decided to figure out how to do this on his own.

I'm back to work for the most part but still try to help out during the day on Tuesday and Thursday which happens to be the day our nanny aka professional babysitter is not working this month. The term 'nanny' reminds me of the old sitcom Nanny with the annoying Bronx/Brooklyn voice. Her name was Fran Drescher. Our nanny is nicknamed Bumper. She'll be starting full time in December. She just finished her last family (sounds mafia style) last month and had triplets on her hands. She also teaches art to children all day on Saturday with ages starting at two. This is great to know because I basically only knew how to trace things using my Disney character tracing lamp. That is not original! I did teach myself how to draw stick figures though.

Update

Addison's laser procedure on her right eye went as planned. We are just giving her eye drops throughout the day. No patch but she has some redness in the eye. We will know how effective the procedure was a couple of Tuesdays from now.

Mercy Home Healthcare came by today and Bryson weighed 6lbs 11 ounces. Addison gained an ounce since the last time she was weighed. She's at 6 lbs 1 ounce. I'm sure Tuesday was a little stressful on her. Later today we received a call from Arlene (our home health nurse) stating we could take BOTH babies off the oxygen. A nurse will come by to check their oxygen saturation level Saturday morning to make sure they are okay on their own. The apnea monitor is sure to tell us before the nurse arrives if there is any regression. We now know that their heart rate will increase if their bodies need the oxygen assistance again.

One other thing. Bryson is now at 20" and Addison is 19.5". I would have never guessed she was only one half inch shorter than her brother.

Also I may create another photo album once they get to November 13. That would have been their 40 week full term date. They are both at the point of being responsive much faster to our voices. Bryson is doing the Ray Charles with his head and neck. It is is cobra imitation. He also just started paying attention to the dogs as I had him on the floor sitting up. Both are more focused at staring at us now. I caught Bryson for the first time staring at the mirror in bed 10 minutes after I laid him down. Usually it is either crying or passing out. Sounds like a sorority trash can punch party. Ba da bump! Addison, being a female, of course, starting staring at the mirror early on. She said something about her hair getting messed up by the bunny hat.