spit out

Yup I mean spit out not spit up! Ciara has taken to spitting out whatever we try to feed her, be it old favourites like lentils or new favourites like waffles. I can only assume it has something to do with her blocked nose affecting her taste as it began about the same time as her runny nose. Last night she barely ate anything after she finished her bottle so we put her to bed hungry. She got her revenge by making me get up to give her a bottle at 4am this morning though. How did I ever survive getting up multiple times at night doing night feeds? Today she is eating better so hopefully we are on the mend.

Other than that C and E continue to pull up on everything and have taken to racing each other down the corridor. It kind of reminds me of that men's sprint cycling event at the Olympics: they start really slow and the one in front keeps looking back at the one behind trying to psych her out, before suddenly there is a charge for the finish line. They are interacting a lot more with each other, they will often crawl towards each other and then head butt each other, laughing as though this is the greatest game possible. This is much better than the situation a few weeks ago where Enya would start screaming every time Ciara came anywhere near her! I love hearing them laughing and when they are laughing with each other that makes my day.

Survived

It was great to get out and practice my skills last week but I really missed the girls when I was at work, since they've been home from the hospital I haven't spent so much time without them. Once again it has brought home to me how lucky I am that we can afford for me not to work, rather to stay home and enjoy our childrens babyhood. Although they aren't really babies anymore, sob sob!!

I can remember seeing newborn babies just after C and E were born and thinking full termers were enormous (Hell, I thought the 32 weekers were pretty damn big!), now I see newborns and I find them tiny, it is hard to believe C and E were once (much) smaller than they are. I'm also slowly relaxing about Enya's weight. She is now about 2kg lighter than Ciara but as she is developmentally on track, I've sort of accepted it and am even contemplating getting rid of the scales and not checking her weight religiously every week (yah for me!). It'll probably take me another few months to do it but we're heading in the right direction.

Ciara has taken to waking up multiple times during the night and entertaining us with a screaming concert, we've tried going in and giving her a dummy, comforting her in bed, picking her up but as soon as we put her down or try leave the room she starts screaming again so we are now trying CIO (cry it out). There is nothing wrong she quiets as soon as she hears someone coming. We think that due to her blocked nose (both girls have runny noses), she is waking up during the night and then gets bored so screams until someone comes to entertain her. The knock on effect is that both girls are sleeping longer during the day to try make up for the lost sleep at night. Hopefully this will stop once the noses clear up as I've mentioned before I don't do well on less than 8 hours sleep a night and given how grumpy C and E have been this week, neither do they.

Working

Not got a lot of free time right now as after the visit to Muenster over the weekend, we had (german) family over for an overnight stay on Monday night and then I went back to work today for the first time in a year and a half. I'm only going in for 3 days this week and maybe a day or two next week but I really enjoyed m first day back. They are so short of staff that they are desperate and while Z is home, I can help out. I get to practice my skills and earn a little something and Z gets some time with the girls without me looking over his shoulder and nagging him about everything.

Start work at 7:30 tomorrow so it should be fun to get the girls finished before I leave at 6:45 (who cares about the girls it should be fun getting me out of bed before 7am- I haven't done this except to feed the girls in over a year and a half!)

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.

Krabbelgruppe

Today we went to the Krabbelgruppe (play group)again, we haven't managed for the past 3-4 weeks as something else always coincided with it. There were a few more kids there this time but they were all older (walking) and unfortunately my kids screamed everytime another child approached them. I really need to get them socialising!

On the plus side the room where the playgroup is held is carpeted, this meant that Enya crawled properly as it was too strenuous for her to pull herself everywhere on her belly. I don't miss carpets usually but this is one time when at least some carpeting in our home would be good. Well to make Enya crawl and to offer Ciara some padding when she falls over while trying to stand;-)

Another first today: Ciara has learnt to stand up in her cot. I saw her manage it for the first time this morning and when I walked in after her midday nap this afternoon she was already vertical and laughing at my surprise. We can only drop the mattress about 4 cm lower but hopefully it will stop her trying to climb out of bed any time soon!

Eye doctor tomorrow morning early and then no more doctors appointments scheduled this month. I'm still waiting for our physio to give Enya an appointment for this week- I hate not having a set time and day for what is in essence a weekly appointment.

Not so rosy

The past 3 weeks have been fantastic especially when compared with the same time last year but as always it couldn't last forever.

Enya has vomitted (projectile vomitting) at least once a day for the last 3 days. It seems to be associated with eating finger foods although tonight it was with puree. She has also spewed what seemed like the entire contents of her bottle over me, 3 hours after she was given it. This evening after her spew she happily drank another 100ml of formula and ate the rest of her puree, so it is obviously not upsetting her. Me on the other hand, I am getting upset. I know other moms have to deal with this on a regular basis but up to now we have been very lucky. Being covered in vomit is NOT my favourite part of motherhood!

Both girls also have a slight temperature so perhaps its just another viral infection. They are also both very clingy and whiny so lets hope it doesn't last long!

Rocking snail

For the 2nd morning in a row the girls woke up at 9am. As Z has leave, we are allowing them to sleep as late as they want instead of waking them up at 7am. Needless to say I am enjoying the lazy mornings, babies and lay ins, what more can I ask for!

On Saturday I went to my first children's second hand Bazaar, a friend invited me as she has got most of her daughters clothing from bazaars and said they also had lots of toys/books etc. Now I have to back the story up here a little and say for C and E's birthday, I'd wanted to get them a rocking horse but the only one I found that I semi liked was almost 100 euros for a few bits of wood and really quite ugly. Anyway fast forward to Saturday and I found the perfect rocking animal for them- a rocking snail. It is brightly coloured and almost completely stuffed/material covered, only the hand grips (antennae) are wood. The shell is a large bean bag and the seat is wide enough that even Enya doesn't lose her balance when she is sitting on it. They do need to be supervised on it but all in all I'm delighted with it and the girls enjoy rocking on it- if only so they can eat the daises on the snail's hat ;-)


I also got some dungerees for the girls, I find dungerees so practical now that C and E are pulling themselves everywhere, they both have small waists for their size and this means their trousers spend most of the time at half mast. I wish I had the same problem!