Saturday, November 23, 2013

Tears of Joy




Sometimes when I am holding my girls, or feeding my girls, or when I'm playing with them and get a great big smile from them, I can't help but cry. The love that I have for these two is so overwhelming sometimes. I am so grateful that they have chosen me to be their mom. I feel so lucky that they are mine and that they are healthy...and have been since day 1. Even throughout the pregnancy...we made it through the "is this pregnancy valid?" stage, and the "vanishing twin" stage and my worrisome blood pressure stage. They both stayed head down basically the entire pregnancy, so we knew we probably wouldn't need a c-section - and we didn't! And my favorite...they didn't have to spend any time in the NICU. Lyla was able to get the fluid out of her lungs just fine! I got to bring my sweet babies home from the hospital 2 days after they were born!

I watched this video:
http://thestir.cafemom.com/baby/164477/dad_takes_breathtaking_video_of
on Facebook this morning and couldn't help but be so grateful for my experience of being pregnant and giving birth to my two BEAUTIFUL and HEALTHY baby girls. I love watching them learn and grow...although they are growing way too fast. Before they were even two months old, we had to move them up to 3 month old one piece jammies. It's so bitter sweet! 

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Favorites

 Almost every morning after my girls eat, one of them falls right back to sleep while the other stays awake for a little while. They are really good at alternating who sleeps and who stays awake. This is one of my favorite things, just because I get to spend time playing with my awake daughter and then cuddling with her and rocking her to sleep for her nap. I love this one on one time I get with them!!

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

2 months down...

That might not have been the best title for this post. I am not counting down days until my girls turn 18. The longer they stay my cute little baby girls, the better!




These two are so fun! They have been such a joy for me and Matthew! It's been great getting to know them, and I feel so lucky to be their mom.

I have to say, there are days when I get a little jealous of moms who only have one baby. Twins can be hard. Not to say that one baby can't be hard...but there are things that I try to do with both of them that I just know would be so much easier with one! For example, trying to calm down two babies at once is not easy, bottle feeding two babies at once is not easy...heck, NURSING two babies at once is not always easy! I haven't even tried taking them to the store by myself yet (granted some of that reasoning is because they are still SO TINY to me...) 2 month shots with two babies by myself would be pretty near impossible. :) But I am SO extremely grateful to be a mom of twins. I love the fact that I have BOTH of my girls and that they will always have each other!

The girls were blessed this month (11-3-13) and Matthew did such a beautiful job with their blessings. In their pictures (which are not the best...there was absolutely terrible lighting...and one day I'll have a really nice camera...until then, I will keep practicing) they are on the blankets that their Aunt Sarah made for them for their blessings! They are so beautiful!



 My little Lyla is so cuddly. She still loves to lay on our chest and snuggle her face into our necks. She still likes to be rocked to sleep. She has such a high pitched scream that sometimes just comes out of nowhere! You would have no idea that she is upset until she screams. Other times, there is no doubt in your mind that she is upset! She has been a little less bossy this month, and a little more patient with me. Maybe she is learning that I am also learning. She is such a sweetheart. She sometimes really likes to sleep on her belly, and she thinks that she doesn't like to be swaddled, although she won't put herself to sleep if she is swaddled. If someone is holding her and rocking her, she will sleep without being swaddled. If she is rocked to sleep and we try to put her down once she is asleep, it doesn't take her long to realize that no one is holding her and she wakes right up. Lyla is starting to smile at me and her dad. It is one of the most amazing things - being able to make my baby smile! :) She is doing SO good with her "tummy time!" She holds her head and torso up for a really long time and just likes to look around. We were doing "tummy time" one day on my pillow. As soon as I laid her down, she snuggled up in the pillow and fell right to sleep!She has great big blue eyes, which I love. In the past two days we've heard a lot of people comment on how big and blue her eyes are. I really hope they stay blue! I think that Miss Lyla is going to be a mommy's girl ... which would be just fine with me! Lyla likes her baths, but still does not like getting dressed and undressed. I think her least favorite part of getting a bath and our bedtime routine is the lotion. We always rub lotion on the girls before bed and she makes some of the FUNNIEST faces! She 
really hates it, and it is so funny!





 I think that Alya looks SO much like me when I was a baby...which is kind of weird because she and Lyla are identical...but Lyla has just been so much smaller than Alya. She is very alert and likes to see what's going on. She likes her sleep, but doesn't like to let herself fall asleep sometimes. I guess both girls are like that. When she does let herself sleep, she is really good about putting herself to sleep. At night, she pretty much always falls asleep while drinking her bedtime bottle, but as soon as we lay her in her crib, her eyes pop right open, and she is wide awake. She likes to just lay in her crib and talk and suck on her binky until she falls asleep. She is really even tempered, but she has been more assertive the last little while. She has been enjoying sleeping on her belly, too. Just a couple of days after Lyla fell asleep on my pillow during "tummy time," Alya did the exact same thing. She still LOVES her baths. She does so well! I think bath time is going to be pretty easy with Alya. She likes to be held, but it's not a necessity for her. She is such a content baby, unless she's hungry! She loves to be free of her swaddle. She's most happy when she's laying on a blanket and just kicking around. I need to get a ceiling fan, I think. She was laying on a blanket at Aunt Patty's house underneath a ceiling fan and she was 
pretty mesmerized by it. I think Alya is going to be more of a daddy's girl! She is making tons of noises, sometimes it sounds like she is saying "mom." She has been SO smiley! Mostly in the mornings, but when she is in the mood, it's not hard to get her to smile. She gets distracted by the camera, though, so it's hard to get a picture of it. Just know that it's ADORABLE!!!




The girls have been AMAZING sleepers. They take their bedtime bottle around 10:30, and go to bed, and they don't eat again until around 7:00 in the morning. Some mornings Lyla decides that she misses me and her dad and cries around 4:30 in the morning, so she gets to spend the last few hours of her night in bed with us! Alya usually gets jealous of her and joins us around 5:30 or 6:00. They are so fun and so cuddly!



 This is Lyla...and I promise she likes her "tummy time," but I thought this picture was hilarious!

My girls are so funny! I love them to pieces!!!

OH! I can't forget to update you on their doctor's appointment!! They are both doing so great! The doctor said that they are very healthy babies!
Lyla is 21.5 inches long and weighs 9 lbs 2 oz
Alya is almost 22 inches long and weighs 10 lbs 1 oz