pros and cons

Remember how I said I couldn't wait for C and E to crawl, well they are both now managing it. Enya still needs to drop onto her tummy every so often but Ciara is on her hands and knees (or feet) the whole time. And fast, they both get across the room in 3 seconds flat. And yes, I am loving it!!
However there are some negatives to the whole mobility scene (I'm not complaining, this is also my journal and in x years time I'll want to remember this all)

Pros : I love that
- I can put somebody down and she will independently get herself to her toys/the next room etc.
- they always crawl towards me when I sit on the floor and want to climb onto my lap
- they are pulling up on everything, practicing their standing. They look so proud of themselves.
- they are in the normal limits for achieving these milestones, given their prematurity this is not necessarily expected.
- I don't always have to carry 2 babies everywhere, they are getting heavy enough that this was very difficult to do and carrying only 1 meant the other would cry piteously until I returned.

Cons: I dislike that
- when I've put somebody down, I often need to search to find them
- our pot plants are looking very bare, having had most of their leaves pulled off. They also have a fascination with electric cables and now that they are mobile every cable is fair game.
- we have no carpeting as I worry about them hitting their heads when they fall over as they are now so quick to pull up, I can't always get there in time.

Ciara manged to pull herself up in to standing in her cot and then was too scared to get herself down again, so instead of napping she stood and screamed until we came to rescue her. Needless to say Enya didn't have a good afternoon nap either. This has been a reoccuring happening today, I think I'll rejoice when Ciara learns how to get from standing to sitting alone!

I must also add naps are not going well at present, we're lucky if they nap for an hour in the mornings and at midday, although the afternoon naps seem to go a bit better. With one thing and another this week the schedule has been completely messed up so next week I have to make sure we get back on track (won't happen this weekend as we are off gallivanting in Muenster again ;-))

Last but not least the appointment by the opthamologist on Thursday was as stressful as expected. Entertaining two tired babies for 2 hours in a hot crowded waiting room with no space to put them down is not fun. The retinas look good ie no more ROP and he also did a rough assessment (by measuring refractions) if they need glasses-they don't yet, they are both slightly long sighted but this is normal in children. Worryingly however neither are showing any interest in 3d pictures (abstract pattern where if you squint your eyes and concentrate you see a 3 d image) which apparently they should both have been doing for ages. We don't need to go back for another 6 months but I know it'll niggle until our next appointment.