January 20, 2017

We Made It! Beth and Jake Are Officially One Year Old!

When I first found out I was having twins I was shocked into silence. I was so unbelievably excited, yet so worried that they both wouldn't make it to term. As the months of pregnancy went by, I began to believe a little more each day that one day I'd get to hold both of them in my arms. And once I really began to believe that I'd soon have two precious babies in my arms I began to worry again about how in the world I would do it. I remember the sleepless nights with Abby. Walking around for hours in the darkness of night as I tried desperately to shush her to sleep. Holding a screaming child who hurt from teething. Cleaning up the endless messes as my whirlwind crawler raced from one room to the next. The first year with Abby was tough. How tough would two just like Abby be?

Every twin Mom that I encountered said that life would find a new normal around four months and that I would survive that first year. It wouldn't be an easier second year, but it would be a new difficult. Sleepless nights would turn into ones with more sleep. Endless crying would turn into situational crying. And those need everything newborns would slowly start to entertain themselves and each other.

And you know what? They were right. As I look back over this past year I'm able to gleefully say I survived. I SURVIVED!!! LOL. This past year has been wonderful watching them develop and grow. I am SO looking forward to what the next year brings for these two special little ones.

"Birth" - First night at home around 5 days old.


One Month Old - Wondering who this other person is.

Two Months Old - Looking like their own person now.

Three Months Old - Getting their own personalities.

Four Months Old - Beth poses for her picture while Jake is totally over the camera.

Five Months Old - I got them on the same side as before! Starting to really enjoy baby life.

And the official 6 month photo where they both refuse to smile at the same time no matter what I do. This was the best of the bunch! I do like how it shows the difference in body types between the two. You can see that Beth is just tiny compared to Jake, especially their chest and waist size differences.

They're so excited to be 7 months old. LOL.


They were so full of smiles that I had a tough time picking which picture I wanted to highlight this month.

Their nine month pictures were taken about a week after the actual ninth month and the day after we'd returned from our week long cruise. While on that cruise Jake developed a cold and didn't get as much sleep as he would have liked. Beth came home almost happier than she normally is. So this was honestly the best photo I could get of the both of them.

"Yay, Mom kept us alive for 10 months!"

11 Months means we don't have to cooperate for pictures anymore. Or so they think!

The ONLY picture I got of them sitting down at the same time.

My happy babies.

It seems fitting that the last "month" picture of them is one where they're too big for the blanket, too distracted for the camera, and too into the stickers and papers to care what Mom's doing. A very different picture than the first "month" picture we took.

Here are Elizabeth's stats:

                 Height          Weight               Head CM
Birth           17.5 in.         5 lbs. 8 oz.
2 Weeks      18.0 in.         5 lbs. 7 oz.          33.0 cm
1 Month      19.2 in.         7 lbs. 9 oz.          36.8 cm

2 Months     21.0 in.         9 lbs. 7 oz.          38.7 cm
4 Months     22.5 in.         11 lbs. 6 oz.        41.0 cm
6 Months     24.1 in.         13 lbs. 0 oz.        43.0 cm
9 Months     25.3 in.         14 lbs. 6 oz.        44.7 cm
12 Months   26.6 in.         15 lbs. 9 oz.        46.0 cm

Beth learned to crawl for real! She's been doing the army crawl for months now and kept getting up on all fours like she wanted to "real" crawl, but every time she picked an arm up she'd fall over. Then I looked up one time and saw her do a combo crawl of real and army across the floor. Just a few times later and she'd gotten it down. Once she figured it out there was no turning back! She's a champ now and lightening fast. Elizabeth finally got teeth! Two bottoms ones came through at pretty much the same time. But she's still all gums on top with no teeth in sight. She loves sitting in boxes and buckets (although she can't get out of them on her own yet), pulling cups out of her cup drawer, is a huge meat eater, and finally lays her head down to snuggle with me. She gives kisses almost on demand (I say "kiss, kiss" and pucker my lips and she leans in and touches her lips to mind), waves bye-bye, and giggles the sweetest giggle when you tip her upside-down. Beth got moved into 6-9 month clothes as the 3-6 were getting a little snug, but the bigger size still swims on her. She's still in size 3 diapers, though. Sleeping took a little bit of a regression so we're doing some additional training to get her to sleep for longer stretches at night. She goes down beautifully but still wants to wake up and eat every three hours or so. So we're working towards getting those wake-ups to just once a night. It's going. :-)

Here are Jacob's stats:

                 Height          Weight               Head CM
Birth           17.5 in.        5 lbs. 10 oz.
2 Weeks      18.0 in.        5 lbs. 7 oz.          33.5 cm
1 Month      19.0 in.        8 lbs. 2 oz.          36.8 cm

2 Months     21.1 in.       10 lbs. 2 oz.         38.3 cm
4 Months     23.0 in.       12 lbs. 14 oz.       41.0 cm
6 Months     24.8 in.       14 lbs. 3 oz.         43.6 cm
9 Months     26.0 in.       16 lbs. 8 oz.         45.6 cm
12 Months    27.2 in.      17 lbs. 12 oz.       46.3 cm

Jake popped not one, not two, but THREE teeth this past month. All on on top and the fourth one is so.close to popping through his gums but just hasn't quite done so yet. No wonder he's been a little on the fussier side with major diarrhea diapers. Poor guy. :-( Jake took forever to figure out crawling, and still army crawls at times, but he's pretty sure of himself now. He's cute as he goes from carpet to linoleum, though, as he'll be crawling normal on carpet but then go into a bear crawl once he hits linoleum so his knees don't touch the hard floor. :-) He's learned to demand attention at the top of his lungs and shrieks to high heaven if he's put down before he's ready. He loves playing with the pots and pans and shoving the magnets off the fridge. If my dishwasher is open he's pulling anything he can touch out of it. He's so cute when he bounces signalling that he wants more of the "this is the way the ladies ride" game and still sweetly lays his head on mine.

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