One Month Wrap Up

Wow! Where does the time go? When you have two babies everything kind of runs together. :) Here is a wrap up of the twins' first month and first Christmas!

Once everyone made it home healthy and happy both Anders and Joline started to grow like weeds. By their two week check up Joline made it to 7lbs and Anders 8.6lbs. We are on a 3 hour feeding schedule during the day which means that they eat, have some awake time, and then nap before it all starts over again. We just started this plan last week and so far both babies have different times of day that they actually will stay awake after their feeding and sometimes they go down for their nap good and other times they cry. We are working on sleep training with this schedule and according to the "Preparation for Parenting" plan they should be sleeping 7-9 hours at night by around 8weeks old. Now, because my babies are premature this might take a little longer because technically, they are only 3 weeks old if you go by their due date. The twin world calls this their "adjusted age". Hmmm. We shall see how it all plays out. Right now Joline still wakes up at night for night time feedings. Anders would sleep until 5:30-6:00 if I let him but I try to keep the babies feedings together so I'm still feeding him at 2:00 with her. I might stop that though...

This is all a huge learning experience for Jared and I. We have no idea what we're doing. We have had many friends give us great advice about twins and babies in general but at the end of the day we have to do what works for our babies and for us. Right now, a Schedule is essential to daily living. Without it I would get nothing done. And it keeps me sane. I know this is just a stage and like the rest, all stages will have their challenges. I welcome those challenges but I know I cannot do this alone. God is sustaining us physically and otherwise. We absolutely cannot do this without His strength and guidance. I don't know how any parent can. Some would say that God is a "crutch" for the weak but its not that at all, it is the simple truth that I am so very weak and my faith is not a made up thing I cling to to get through hard times. Faith is believing what you cannot see and trusting Him when you're unsure. It takes incredible strength to have faith. But even the strength I have to keep my faith is coming from Him. He is so gracious with me as I stumble through this parenting thing.

The babies turned one month on Christmas day! What a busy and fun season this is. Although it does kind of make things interesting when you have two new babies. :) We were able to make it to all the family parties and enjoy time with our loved ones. What a blessing! We even had a visitor all the way from California. My 93 year old great-aunt came home for Christmas and to see the babies, both ours and my cousin's new daughter. What a blessing she is. I know that she has been praying us through this journey and it was so much fun to be able to introduce the babies to her in person. It was last February that I was sitting in her house on vacation pouring out my heart to her about how Jared and I wanted so badly to be parents and how hard it was to wait on God's timing. And here they are! I know that her prayers helped them get here. Unfortunately, Jared ended up getting a really bad bout of the flu & a head cold and we were not able to spend much time with her outside of the Christmas party and our family Christmas since she was staying with my parents. Maybe someday we will be able to take the babies to her in California! Wouldn't that be awesome! :)

I went to church for the first time in 4 months last Sunday. It was great. Jared stayed home with the babies and I went with my sister. I really just tried to sit back and take it all in. Because Jared and I are very involved people I have come to realize through this journey how much I take for granted our Sunday morning service. It is such a blessing to be able to go and freely worship with my brothers and sisters in Christ, and receive teaching from the Word of God. What a blessing to hear our pastor again! Of course everyone stopped me to ask where the babies were and I had to bring the bad news that I had left them at home. :) They will make their appearance soon. Maybe even this coming week. Its hard to know when to bring premature babies out into the public and especially hard when it's cold & flu season. We will get out eventually though. I'm starting to get stir crazy so I'm ready to get out to do more with the babies. I should be receiving my stroller anytime today and I'm anxious to get it out and practice with it. After a lot of research and weighing our options I landed on the Stroll Air MyDuo stroller. This is a side by side, one of the only ones on the market that will accommodate 2 car seats at once. It will grow with us and we won't need to buy another stroller hopefully. All of the reviews were great on this one so we'll see if it lives up to it's reputation.

Here are some pictures to wrap up:

Aunt Kasey & Joline

Grandma & Grandpa Parcels with Joline 

Anders on Cpap

Mom & Dad with Joline in the Hospital

Family of Four! 

Aunt Sandy & cousin Kami meeting Anders

Anders in NICU

Grandma Winell and Anders

Both babies home for the first time! 

Uncle Jake and Joline 

Grandpa Winell and Anders

Grandma Winell and Anders

Nana with Joline

Papa and Anders

Aunt Abby getting tricky with both babies! 

Uncle Dan and Anders

Jared, Anders, Fitz, Aunt Abby and Joline. 

Winell Christmas Grandma and Grandpa with all their grand babies! 

1st Christmas as a family of four! 

Parcels' Christmas Grandma & Grandpa and all their grand babies. 

Grandma & Grandpa Parcels with Anders and Joline on Christmas day. 

Ok, I'm sure you're tired of reading. I've been saving up this post for a while so I have a lot to say I guess! :)

God Bless, Sleep Well,
-CW