Merry Christmas!!

I thought newborns were supposed to nap. Everything I read about parenting/newborns tells me that they are supposed to sleep at least 7 day-time hours until about 8 weeks. I've tried telling this to my girls. Repeatedly. I have even quoted my sources and explained to the girls how reputable those sources are. All to no avail. These girls do not nap. And, therefore, I do not update my blog.

In their defense: they have both been battling fairly intense cases of acid-reflux. Who knew that a 6-week-old could get heart-burn? Apparently this is a common ailment of young babies due to immature digestive systems and should go away at some point during the first year. We've had one heck of a time finding a medicine that will help them - we are on our third trial. Hopefully third time's a charm; it breaks my heart to watch (and listen to) them being in so much pain.

But on to the good stuff...

Yesterday we celebrated our first Christmas with the girls! It was an odd Christmas; we didn't have a tree or any decorations (actually, my Halloween decorations are still out), no stockings, no wreath or candy cane shaped pastries for breakfast, no Christmas morning full of opening presents. But it was a good day none-the-less. We did have two fantastic dinners and some quality time with our family - and that is what the day is truly all about. And I must say that I'm quite proud of how the girls handled themselves: remarkably out of character, they took two naps (albiet short) - conveniently at eating time.

(Another side note: Last week we really put the girls to the test at the Wiley family Christmas party. There were 35 people at my parents' house to celebrate the season, and the girls made it through the evening alert and happy as clams! Cora then proceeded to sleep for the next 24 hours, barely waking to eat. Evaline, true to form, was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed following the extravaganza.)

Here are some pictures of our Christmas:

Evaline (is that a smile I see? Not really, but it sure looks like one!!)

Cora, not so happy here

A bit happier...

Our gifts to the girls...super cuddly Lambert and Duckie (my names, the girls can feel free to re-name at will):

Tag Team (back again check it top, Wreck it - let's begin)

With twins, you quickly learn the true meaning of "team work." One great example of this is our bath time routine, where we use the "tag-team" approach to getting our girls clean. Since all of the counters in our house (kitchen and bathroom) are bizarrely tall, we have opted for bathing in the tub with a large sponge (made specifically for this purpose) on the floor. After Merry's surgery she was unable to kneel down so Ian did the honors while Merry diapered, dried, clothed, etc. And that's the routine we've kept - if it's not broken, why fix it - right?

Other things requiring unprecedented levels of teamwork on our part:

• preparing over 32 oz of formula every day to feed these hungry girls
• taking turns with changing the poopy diapers and urine-soaked changing stations
• the hour-long process of leaving the house which includes: diaper changing, feeding, bundling up, warming up the car, packing the diaper bag, securing screaming girls into car seats, etc (hopefully this will get easier as we grow)
• cooking a meal - we use the tag-team approach here as well: one cooks while the others holds girls, then we take turns alternately eating and holding, then holding and cleaning up
• midnight and 4 am feedings - we've adopted the "when one cries both feed" approach. FAR better than being woken up by a second screaming baby twenty minutes after putting down the first
• getting equal snuggle time with both of them - not everything with twins is work

Some picture highlights from this week:

Babies in a Basket

Evaline:


Cora:

Bathtime "Fun"

Cora:

Evaline, waiting for her turn:

Evaline:

And so it begins...

This seems to be the year of trying new things, so it only seems right to enter into the blog-o-sphere. Just over three weeks ago our family doubled in size with the arrival of Evaline and Cora, and we're already realizing the difficulty of regular communication with our loved ones and friends. We can only imagine that this difficulty will increase as the girls continue to grow and demand more time and energy. We thought that this might be a convenient (for us, anyway) way to keep everyone up-to-date and involved...that and it seems to be a fantastic avenue for showing off and bragging about our beautiful babies.

That being said, here are some photos to commemorate the past three and half weeks:

A Child (or two) is Born
November 12, 2008 - After spending a week and a half in the hospital with pre-eclampsia, Merry went into labor - less than 24 hours shy of her scheduled c-section (scheduled for 37 weeks pregnant). Rather than laboring all night and then going into surgery in the morning, the doctor decided to spare us the labor pains and perform the surgery that evening. And so we have...

6:29 pm: Cora Lynn Petersen arrived at a whopping 5 lbs 10 oz and18 inches.

6:30 pm: Evaline (pronounced Ev-uh-lyn) Jo Petersen arrived at 4 lbs 4 oz and 17 inches.

Cora had some trouble acclimating her lungs to the air outside the womb and had to spend about 45 minutes in the NICU right after birth; but soon the girls were reunited. (Cora is on the left, Evaline on the right.)

Four days later we introduced the girls to their new home. When we brought them home Evaline weighed 3 lbs 15 oz, and Cora was 5 lbs 3 oz. (Evaline is on the left, Cora on the right.)

At Home:
The girls are continuing to grow, both are gaining at a higher-than-normal rate. We're considering this good, since they have a bit of catching up to do. At their doctor's appointment on the 5th Evaline was up to 5 lbs 4 oz and Cora (aka: Chunky Monkey) was 6 lbs 13 oz. Here are some of our favorite photos to date:

Evaline:

Cora:

Sleeping Babes: Evaline - left, Cora - right

Evaline conducting her morning stretching routine:



Cora - top, Evaline - bottom

Cora - cute as ever!

Cora - left, Evaline - right