Long stretch

I have to say this real quiet or I will jinx myself.  Max and Claire had a 6.5 hr stretch last night.  They ate at 7, had a bath then didn't get up until 1:30!!  Couldn't believe it!  Of course they woke up again at 4:45, but nonetheless, they did great the first time!  Hopefully soon they will be able to drop the 4 something feeding!!!
I can talk out loud now!!  Also, my mom thought I was favoring Max in the last post, so to clarify, Claire does smile a lot now, it's just not on camera!  Each day we are seeing more and more from them and I love it!

Justin's parents are coming tonight so I have been cleaning like a madwoman!  AND I have a babysitter coming for 2 hrs so I can run some errands :)  Busy day! 

Lunch date

Today Max, Claire and I met my friend Lindsay, her mom and her 6 month old, Spencer for lunch at my favorite - Village Tavern!  This was the first time I have taken M and C somewhere by myself (besides the park). 

They did great!  But let me tell you, those car seats are no joke!  It was not easy carrying both of them.  Luckily I got a parking space up front ;)   We need to go out more often because I have a feeling it will not be this easy 2 months from now!

Max and Claire looked so cute today so of course I had to do a photo shoot when we got home!  Claire has the same expression in 99.9% of them..... go figure!  

We've seen lots of smiles from this little guy!

 So proud of Claire!  This is the first time she has reached, grasped and held onto something!

 

Max and Claire go to Church!

We finally made it back to Church!  I have been once since going on bed rest at the end of October.  That's awful! Of course we picked a very cold and rainy day to go, but nonetheless, we went!  I had their cute coming home gowns picked out for them to wear and Justin vetoed Max wearing a gown!  So he dressed Max and Claire wore her pretty gown and pink bow!

We didn't have much time to get ready, considering we decided to go at 8:10 and church starts at 9!  Luckily I showered and dried my hair last night. 
They did great and one of the ushers commented that they were the best behaved babies he had seen... he probably says that to everyone!  They were even blessed during communion!  Hopefully we will continue to go back.  Now I just need to schedule their baptism.

Rainy, yucky days (and everything else!)  puts Claire to sleep :)

Jiggle to the Wiggle and a Play date

Today Max and Claire had their first play date!  It was a cooler, windy day so I opted out of our afternoon walk.  However, I think those outings are what have kept me sane over the past two weeks, so we packed up and went to the Reaves house to play with Mason and Davis.  They are (almost) two year old twin boys.  So cute!

Mason

We read and watched the big boys play.  Claire slept!

Davis checking out Max

Shocker....Claire sleeping :)

I love this corner of the playroom!

Now to the Jiggle to the Wiggle...

Tonight I went to the gym and did my first aerobic class since last April!!  I saw that one of my favorite instructors was going to be teaching a kickboxing class, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to jump back in.  Well... lets just say I saw parts of my body jiggle that I didn't know could jiggle!!

Not to mention my boobs bout hit my chin! ha!  I know this is TMI, but I wore two sports bras and pumped right before I left.  Good thing I stayed in the back corner bc I looked the fool!

How do you workout moms do it?  Doesn't it hurt to bounce around?!  I need to figure something out especially since I am supposed to be training for the Peachtree in July!!

Max 2 Months

Little Man is two months today!  You have made so many changes...almost don't look like the baby we brought home!

You are the sweetest, cuddly baby!  You are a really good sleeper, you can sleep through anything....even when Claire is crying.  If I put you down and you wake up, you just stare at your mobile.  You look so peaceful.  We are still waiting on you and Claire to sleep through the night. You LOVE to snuggle with Daddy on the weekends!

You are wearing size 1 diapers and 0-3 clothes.  Today you wore your first "real" pair of pants!!  You looked so handsome and grown up!

-You are very observant.  Your eyes are always open and looking at your surroundings.
-You smile and are starting to do it more frequently :)  I love it!
-You are a great eater.  We have upped you to 4.5 and sometimes even 5 oz.  You seem to be doing a lot better now that you are on Zantac.
-You like when we sing songs.  I think your favorites are The Wheels on the Bus, Old Macdonald and BINGO!  You are a champ at holding up your head when we do tummy time.

Mommy and Daddy love watching your many faces!  I think you cross your eyes a dozen times a day!
You are getting much better at taking baths.  We have added them to our nighttime routine.

I love you!

Claire 2 months

My beautiful Claire!  I can't believe you are already 2 months old!  It seems like yesterday I was meeting you for the first time!  What have you been up to?

-you are wearing size 1 diapers now.  they are a little big but the NB's are way to snug!
-you are wearing 0-3 month clothes, but some of the 3 mo are still to big.
-you are eating 4oz at each feeding and starting to fill out some more!

- you are not the best napper!  you seem to go down ok, but are up 15 minutes later.  I love that I can soothe you by putting my hand on your face and giving you a sweet kiss. You sleep much better, and longer, at night!  Mommy and Daddy are looking forward to sleeping through the night soon!
- you get more and more beautiful each day.  Mommy and Daddy just look at you and talk about how pretty you are and say you are the most beautiful girl in the world!

We love watching your growing personality!  You are such a little diva!  You let us know when you don't like something.

please mommy, not now!

-You make the cutest face and have been cooing a lot lately.  I think you are working on smiling a true smile.

Your head is so strong.  You do great on the play mat and tummy time.  I think the lights are your favorite part of the mat.  Your absolute favorite is the fan.  

- You are not a fan of your mamaroo, so we went and bought a bouncy seat - and you don't seem to love that either!

I can't wait to go to your next Dr appointment on April 6th.  I bet you will weigh 10 lbs!!

2 Months!

Max and Claire are two months old today!!  I can't believe it!  They have been the best and hardest two months of my life!  I want to do a post for each of them because they are so different :)

Today was a great day for us.  They woke up at 6:30am and I held them off til 7 to start our day.  They ate great and went down for their first nap... and actually napped!! the WHOLE time!!  when they woke up, and after they ate,  I made them do a photo shoot in their 2 month onesies.  They were not having it and wore themselves out quickly and went down for their second nap...and once again they did great and slept the whole time!  I was so proud of them :)  I was able to clean up a little and make tonight's dinner!!

After their "lunch" at 1:00 we got dressed in cooler clothes and headed to the park.  We have had several beautiful days, perfect for a walk in the park!  They are now asleep for the night and I am thinking tonight might be the night we get more sleep :)

great naps today!!

Peachtree Road Race

Um.. yeah, so Justin just emailed and informed me that I am signed up for the Peachtree Road Race in July.  This is a 10k that his family has been doing for at least 30 years.  When we started dating, I joined in too.  It is a lot of fun, but let's be real here... I have not run in 11 months!  AND I haven't run a 10k since 2008.  2009 we did not race bc we were going to the Dominican and last year I was a spectator bc I was pregnant.

2008 

Since the weather has been nice I have been taking Max and Claire on daily walks... this means I am going to have to find time to go for runs by myself.  I can assure you the stroller that we are currently using, will not do runs!  I wish we could put them in the BOB.

Monday

Too cute not to share :)

Sunny side up

WOW! We had another BEAUTIFUL day in NC!!  It got to 80 degrees!!  I had a babysitter come this morning so I could go get my hair done.  It feels so good to have a fresh cut and color :)
When I got home she said they did not nap - kept "talking" to each other and fussing.  So after we fed them their lunch, I took them to the park. 

 

This was my first time taking them out of the house and in the car by myself!  I have taken them out individually, but to nervous to go by myself.  They did great :)
This is a great park!  and is full of HILLS!  I should have buns of steel after today's walk!  I'll look forward to the BOB stroller as this is not the easiest stroller to walk with!  It was so sunny I had to cover their car seats with a blanket.

my little man!

I love him so much.  He just gets bigger and cuter every day!

little diva

she is going to be a handful!!

When daddy got home we took the monitor outside, enjoyed a beer and grilled some burgers!  My kind of night!

My lucky charms!

This picture cracks me up! My MIL bought this for Claire only two weeks ago... I was just sure she would still be in NB!  It is no longer a dress!  I had to put some green pants on her!

We have had a pretty good day.  It is beautiful here!  I took them on a walk for their afternoon nap!  It was to nice to be inside!  When we got back I had to pump.  This is when it is difficult with two babies.  If they both wake up, i am screwed!  I either spill my hard work milk when I bend over or I have to stop pumping - which does not benefit any of us.  They have not had a great nap today.  I can put them down drowsy, they fall asleep but then wake up after a few min.  This goes on and on through out their nap.  What am I doing wrong?  We play, change diaper, swaddle then go down for a nap.  I will definitely be glad when daddy gets home tonight! 

baby girl!

little man!

It was sooooooooo sunny today!  I brought out the sunglasses I bought them at Target - they were to big :( So I found some hats - they were to big so I ended up going back to the house to get blankets to cover their faces.  I was so worried they would get burned.  

*side note* 6 years ago, justin told me he loved me for the first time.... go ahead .. awe!!

Happy

I feel guilty after my last post so here are some HAPPY pictures of my favorite people :)

I love this face Max makes!  Poor guy, Claire seems so uninterested in him!

 sleepy girl

 working on tummy time!

 my three loves!

On another note, I was just reading the babywise blog and just had a realization!  I have been trying so hard to keep Max and Claire entertained during their "wake time". I put them on their mat, play music, sing, rattle, etc and sometimes all at the same time!  I have been OVERstimulating them... part of their bad napping is probably all bc of me!  It says since they are so new, just looking around by themselves can be stimulating.  What a RELIEF!  Hopefully this realization will not only help them, but me too!

I am going to try and sneak a quick shower.  It is almost 4pm and I am in my pjs with spit up all over my shirt!

 

It ain't easy!

It's not easy being a mom.  I knew it was going to be hard, but didn't realize it was going to be this hard!  Maybe today really hit me for a couple of reasons: it was a beautiful Saturday, I had a lot of errands to run, it was my friend's bachelorette party, I saw a couple in the grocery store flirting, and Max and Claire were fussy.
In the past, if we had a day like today, I would have spent most of the day outside....well that's hard to do when you have a baby, or in our case two!  Yes, we could have gone on a family walk - BUT we are trying so hard to be on a schedule and I know if we went on a walk they would fall asleep.  I don't want that to be their nap time and if we go after they eat, when they are supposed to be awake - they would fall asleep.
Errands - I needed to go to Costco, Babies R Us, Vitamin store and a few other places.  I left after their lunch feeding and had a little over 1.5 hrs to get back before their next feeding.  I feel guilty leaving Justin by himself when they are awake.  During the week, I don't have the extra hand to be able to go run errands when I need to so that leaves me with the weekends.
A friend was having her bachelorette party tonight and I spent the night with fussy babies (that are now sleeping soundly!)  I know they are having so much fun!

Now the last one is what really got me... the couple flirting in the grocery store. (I actually knew them, but tried not to let them see my in my frumpy sweatpants)  they reminded me of Justin and I over three years ago.  It seems it has been that long since we had the fun flirty stage.  Soon after we got married we started trying to conceive, then went through our fertility struggle, then gave birth to our precious babies.  I miss the little sweet kisses, random notes, hand holding, flirting, going out last minute with friends, getting dressed in something besides sweatpants or pjs......

BUT I wouldn't change our lives for anything.  Max and Claire mean the world to me and I love them more than they will every know!

It's ok for mommies to have a moment and dream about a full night sleep, time out with the girls and fun times with the hubs!

Happy Birthday, MOM!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Mother!

 Mom, I love you so much!  I'm so glad we are close and have so much fun together.  I couldn't ask for a better friend!  Thanks for all you do for our family.  Max and Claire are lucky to have a beebs like you!

1 month check up

Although Max and Claire are six weeks old, today was their one month check up.  Justin was out of town so my sister in law, Darcy, came with us.  I was excited to find out their height and weight but not excited about shots.  Lucky for us, today was only the hepatitis shot - which the saved for last. 
I can't believe how big our babies have gotten!

Max:  8 lbs 10 oz  21.5 in  head 35.5 cm
He is in the 10th percentile in weight and 25% height

Claire:  8 lbs 5 oz  21 in  head 35.5 cm
She was the same percentiles

The Doctor was very happy with their growth.  We did talk about Max and how he balls up and seems to be in pain after he eats.  She prescribed him Zantac.  Hopefully we will notice a difference!

Sip N' See

Yesterday my friends had a Sip n' See for me!  Originally they had planned a baby shower for Nov. 13th, but my body had other plans, and I was on bed rest.  The Sip n' See was so much fun and a perfect way for my friends to meet Max and Claire.  They did an awesome job.  It was decorated beautifully and we had delicious cupcakes and wine :)

Me, the babies and the hostesses!

 Love this book :)

 Our friend Amanda made these growth boards!

 we had two spoiled, worn out babies at the end!

Justin and I are so lucky to have such wonderful friends :)