Sleepless Nights

Lately Presley has been waking up in the middle of the night and screaming...LOUDLY...for anywhere between 15minutes to two hours. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with her, no real tears. When you lay/hold her on your chest, she seems content but then starts squirming around, moving her head side to side as if trying to get comfortable. Just when you think she has fallen asleep, she starts wailing again. I have tried giving her a little bottle, but when you give her a bottle (day or night) she starts screaming when you take it out of her mouth. I really don't know what is going on with her, as she does this during the day sometimes as well. She used to be a great sleeper! Her crying is definitely taking it's toll on me both during the day and at night. My friends from high school, Andrea, Pam, and Melissa came in town this weekend while Kyle went to Midland. Instead of being able to enjoy my friends' company it turned into a babysitting job for them. They were up helping me in the middle of the night, and since I was already tired from the previous week's sleepless nights, I took naps during the day and didn't get to spend a lot of time with them. I know they were happy to help, but I still felt bad. Has anyone else experienced this? Of course everything is compounded when you have Marshall who decides to cry at nap time too sometimes.

This has been going on for almost a month and I am at a total loss as to what might be the problem. Please, Please, Please, pray this ends soon!

The Little Embryos that could...

One year ago, September 17th, 2009, we transferred our two good embryos to Sarah's "very nurturing environment to grow babies in" (as she describes it). There was no turning back! It's so hard to believe that a year has come and gone, and I still can't fully wrap my head around the fact that one of my best friends actually carried my babies for me. She is a saint and I love her dearly! The first picture is our two good embryos (they were each 12 cells) under the microscope in their petri dish, sorry it is bad quality but I don't have a scanner. You can see all the different cells, but in the original you can see the wall of the embryo. We like to think of this as our first ultrasound! The second picture I took this past week of my delicious little twinkies! This last picture is Sarah and I with the embryologist before the transfer...he was in charge of the embryos, making sure they thawed and were multiplying well. Yes I looked like the Michelin Tire Man in that thing...one size does NOT fit all!

Four Month Stats

Presley: 15 lbs, 10 oz (90%) 25 inches (75%) Marshall: 15 lbs 14 oz (70%) 25.75 inches (80%)

They did great with their shots, only cried a tiny bit!

New stuff

Marshall rolled over today! He was very proud of himself. Presley rolled over for a second time yesterday so we are pretty excited! Presley has also started squealing when she gets really excited about something. She will laugh and then all of a sudden let out a loud squeal/shriek. It's cute but it is a little rough on the ear drums. :)

Four Months

Wow, I've survived 4 months with twins...some days by the skin of my teeth, but I made it! Here is what the babies are up to...

Marshall is still my sweet, handsome, chilled out little angel. He almost always has a smile on his face, whether it be due to the funny face you are making or the picture on the wall. Sometimes he laughs for no particular reason, he will just start laughing out loud almost like he thought of a funny story in his head. Marshall is only upset when he is sleepy, and REALLY hungry. His cry isn't much of a cry at all, kind of a loud whimper. I love kissing his chubby cheeks! He drools all the time and loves to put his hands in his mouth. He is figuring out the exersaucer and jumparoo, although he hasn't yet realized that the seat can move around. However he jumps like crazy in the jumparoo and thinks it is hilarious! He is great in the car, most of the time he falls asleep, or just stares out the window at the world. He pretty much chills out most of the time, yet still has a huge personality. He loves to watch football with his daddy (of course), and hasn't met anyone he doesn't like. He hasn't rolled over...yet but is on the verge. He has made great strides in the past two weeks with holding his neck up. He can push up to his elbows while on his tummy! He still can only "stand" on his legs for a couple of seconds, but I am sure being in the jumparoo will put some muscle on his legs. He is asleep by 9, and wakes up around 7, and is usually pretty good at going down for naps during the day. When my patience is wearing thin, I can just look at his smile and everything seems better, for a minute at least! :)

Presley is definitely my daughter! I think she is going to be girly, but love to get down and play in the dirt with her brother. She is (so far) the dominant of the two, and is more high-maintenance. Most mornings she wakes up happy and laughing in her crib. She is outgoing, loves to talk (surprise), and gets very cranky when she is tired or hungry (I told you she was my daughter). She will be fussy one minute, then laughing the next, but has the most angelic face when she is in a good mood.She immediately figured out the seats turn in the exersaucer and jumparoo, however hasn't quite gotten the "jumping" part. Like Marshall she drools and loves her hands right now. She is hit or miss with naps, sometimes she fights them but other times she will fall asleep in the middle of what she is doing. The day she was born a nurse said, "she's got Angelina Jolie lips" and ever since then people either make the same comment or tell me what perfect lips she has. She has tiny little feet that she inherited from Mammaw (Kyle's mom), and I think she got the lips from Kyle's side too. She rolled over once, but hasn't done it again! Presley might be a little more high maintenance than her brother, but she is quirky and hilarious. Lately Presley has had trouble staying asleep once you put her down, and she will wake up screaming, crying, etc. We are hoping this passes soon!

They are eating 6 oz about every 2.5 -3 hours, and are in Stage 3 diapers! They also blow raspberries a lot, it's so cute! We don't go for their 4 month checkup till next Thursday, so I will post their stats then. Here are some pics I took today.

Seeing Double?

We had two fabulous play dates with my Mothers of Multiples friends. It was great to get out of the house successfully two times in one day! I can't tell you how nice it is to be around other moms who totally "get" where I am coming from and have been in my exact shoes. Our first playdate had 12 babies!!! Four sets of twins (including mine) that are all around 3-4 months, one set that is 8 months, and one set that is 6 weeks. They didn't "play", but really it was just an excuse for us moms to get together. At our second "date" we spent time with April's one year old twins (William and Charlotte), and Sarah's 8 month old twins (Lukas and Maddox). We got pictures at each, and I have to say it was MUCH easier to get a picture when they aren't mobile, as you can tell by the picture! Thank you so much Kendra and Sarah for opening up your houses to us. I definitely need to do things like today more often, it helps with my sanity. :) Oh and no, my kids aren't always laying down, we decided to stick the moms in last minute to help keep the mobile kids corralled for the picture...or I would have been holding mine too!



Telsey, Adele and Pearl, Sophie and Cooper, Luke (brother of Telsey)
Lilly and Cassie, Brody and Luke, Marshall and Presley



Charlotte and William, Maddox and Lukas, Marshall and Presley (notice the ever present spit up on my clothes)

Rollin, rollin, rollin

Presley rolled over yesterday! I was so excited I got tears in my eyes!

We spent a wonderful weekend with Sydney, Jake, their 9 week old son Gus, and her family at her parent's ranch near Graham. Although they didn't know it, the twins and Gus had a great time together. Hopefully next time they will all be on the same schedule! Gus is a strong (and adorable!) little dude, and he can roll over. I told him to give Presley and Marshall some pointers. When we got home, I immediately put the babies on a blanket so they could stretch, kick, and wiggle around after being in their car seats for 2 hours. I turned Marshall over for tummy time, then Presley. I hollered for Kyle to come in and look how well Marshall was doing (he was pushing up on his elbows), when all of a sudden I look down and see Presley in mid-air on her way to her back! Of course she didn't do it again, but seemed very proud of herself. :)

The past 10 days has brought unexpected changes in their sleeping. We had gotten to where both babies were in bed by 9, and Presley was sleeping till 7 or 7:30 and Marshall till around 6:30. For some reason they have decided that Kyle and I were getting too much sleep, so they have been getting up at 3:30, 4:00, there was even a 1:30 a.m.! I am hoping this stops..soon!

Unfortunately I didn't get any picks of the 3 babies this weekend, but here is one of Presley in her shades, and one of Marshall last week.