First parent day

Kindergarten was closed on Wednesday for Parents Day. Z had finally succombed to the tonsillitis that all the rest of us had had, so he got to stay home with the girls while I went to work and then, after leaving work early, to our appointment with their preschool/kindergarten teachers.

All in all it was a very positive meeting, they are very pleased with how the girls were intergrating in the group. Apparently our girls are very popular with the older girls (the curosity factor because they are twins? or because they are smaller?) who sometimes have to be reminded that Ciara and Enya are not babies and must learn to do things for themselves.

They are mostly speaking german at Kindergarten although they play "repeat in english, repeat in german" with their teachers too now (the teachers are enjoying the challenge of brushing up on their english!). They have definitely realisied that there are two different languages and not everybody understands both. Ciara in particular delights in confounding one of the teachers (Susannah) with new english words that Susannah doesn't know. If Enya notices the teacher doesn't understand an english word/phrase, she will try to find the german translation. Both girls are apparently quick to absorb new words and try to use them as soon as they are learnt.

Surprisingly the teachers feel Enya is further than Ciara developmentally. They feel she has generally better coordination and her fine motor control in particular is better (she uses a tripod grip when drawing and is going to be a lefty like her mom). She is also able to concentrate during activities longer than Ciara can and will seek out her own activities (in paritcular enjoys investigating how things work-this is a long standing interest). Z and I find this very interesting as at home we feel the opposite is true regarding concentration and coordination. We feel Ciara is more coordinated but is also a bit more cautious and therefore slower, where Enya moves so quickly so that the fine control of the movements is not necessary and is also almost reckless- she trusts herself to do EVERYTHING! Ciara is going to be a righty like her dad and she has a peculiar way of holding a pencil, uses all her fingers with the pencil threading up between her ring and middle finger.

Ciara is more social, going and joining the other kindergarten groups and joining in to play with the older kids without waiting for an invitation (they were a bit surprisied at how self confident she is socially). Enya tends to stay in her kindergarten group and is happy finding her own activities, she tends to wait for an invitation before she joins in playing with the other kids. C and E don't tend to play with each other although they do check to see where the other is periodically during the day. We have not as yet had to send one without the other yet and it will be interesting to see how they react when it does finally become necessary.

The best part of the meeting though was when I mentioned that it had been suggested that Enya would be better off with an intergration helper in kindergarten, I was told that Ciara and Enya were doing better than some of the older boys and were more than appropriate for their age. The teachers do not feel it is at all necessary for either girl to have any special assistance!

lots to say today

Most important news first- the girls had another preemie follow up assessment at the Social Paediatric Centre (SPZ) last Friday and ..........






WE'VE BEEN DISCHARGED!! We're going back to see our beloved play therapist once or twice more, just to tie up the last loose ends but the doc says she is happy with how the girls are looking, they are not showing any major delays so get out and enjoy ourselves! We had the 3 year well child assessment on Monday and our paediatrician said exactly the same thing (he ran the SPZ for many years before moving back into general paeds so he's more like a developmental paed really) so we're going with the flow and will be therapy and appointment free for the first time ever. Well, except for the opthalmologist but that is a life long follow up so it doesn't count. Talking about eyes, we were at the orthoptician on Friday as well and I happened to mention to her that Ciara had had a corneal injury a couple of weeks ago, next thing I knew the prof was being hauled out of surgery to come check Ciara's eyes out- everything has healed well but how is that for service? It would never have happened at the Eye Guy's practice!!

Yesterday after a horrendous morning (Ciara decorated our lounge wall with pen, shredded our banking file and scratched Enya's face to ribbons), the sun finally came out so we took the girls out for a walk with their "babies" (the dolls don't have a name, they are both just called baby).


We were hoping to walk some of the beans out of Ciara and it seemed to work, we detoured past the park which for once was quiet so the girls had a ball playing on all the playground equipment the bigger kids are usually occupying.



I know this is a baby swing but it is just so nice to see Enya smiling on a swing especially when it is going high! She goes just as high on the normal swings as well now!!


Today (Sunday) we decided to go into the city as Siegen is hosting the NRW Day (celebrating 65 years of Nord Rhein Westfalen- the state we live in). We'd been warned that there were over 300 000 people expected to visit over the weekend (For comparison about 60 000 people live in Siegen!) and to use public transport, so we did. Busing in this morning was tedious with lots of waiting (thank goodness we had fortified ourselves with delicious choc chip waffles for breakfast ;0) or the meltdowns would have started even earlier) but when we eventually arrived in Siegen we lots to do and see.
On the blue light mile (emergency and military exhibitors)
Army helicopter up close and personal

Safety first



THW (Technische Hilfswerk) Bobby Car race course




After this I stopped taking pictures but there were 16 sound stages scattered around the city centre with free musical or kiddies acts on throughout the day, various free activities (eg. climbing offered by the German alpine club), loads of food and info stalls as well as all the shops being open.

There was so much to look at that the girls couldn't nap so we landed up having to leave around 4pm (we caught the train home- I can't remember the last time I was in such an overfilled train- thankfully the other passengers were all still in really good spirits and no one was drunk or it could have been quite unpleasant). Quick dinner, shower and the girls were fast asleep by just after 6pm and I'm heading for bed too now, sorry can't keep my eyes open anymore :0).

Ladies out for a drive

I love these shots of the girls.

Now please believe me there is nothing staged about these shots (except maybe the fact that they are still long enough for me to get a photo). They go into the bathroom and help themselves to the "gloves" (face clothes) all by themselves, they even sometimes use them as socks. Fantasy play is definitely another tick on the developmental scale!

I'm back

So it's been a while!! I thought I better put something onto screen before I forget everything that has been going on.

I not only survived the time without my girls and Z of course but I had a really relaxing enjoyable time too. This was the holiday that I never got in June, now we just need to get Z to have one too! That is not to say that I wasn't VERY happy to come again as I did miss my family a lot. But I'm much less stressed now and am enjoying the girls so much more and am not as quick to reach critical mass as before the holiday.

The girls had a fantastic time with their dad and granny and I was amazed at all the new stuff they learnt while I was away. Ciara has really blossomed speech wise, is now coming out with things like "I wuv you" when we say it to her first and "A-B-C" (to get them to let us brush their teeth we now have to sing the alaphabet song). They are both counting to 3 as well and some of the later numbers they know what follows i.e. they won't say "seven" instead they say "eight". Enya has also discovered a new game called cave. As the name implys it means huddling under a blanket with her in the dark and that is all there is to the game, but she will run to you and ask to play it multiple times a day. Ciara hates cave but Enya keeps asking her to play too (come here ...sista... come here), needless to say Ciara ignores her when she is under the blanket. They are also both finally saying the name Ciara, although it is still hit and miss if they apply it to Ciara herself! Both will still sometimes point to Ciara if we ask where Enya is.

As expected C and E were a bit stand offish when they met me at the airport but I had been expecting that, as they are the same with Z when he has been away a few days for work. Luckily they thawed over the rest of the day and by evening it was back to normal. I also was amazed by the girls faces having not seen them for over a week, suddenly I could see my sisters in the shape of Enya's eyes and Z's family in Ciara's face- it was almost as though for the first half hour I was seeing them for the first time again.

I must also admit I have a really wonderful husband who also took the rest of the week off (last week) so I could get over my jet lag. Am I imaging it or does jet lag get worse with age? It took me pretty much the entire week to stop needing an afternoon nap and I'm still struggling to get to bed at a normal time.

I have some lovely photos from while I was away but I'm still waiting for a photoshop to be loaded onto my new computer (thank you very much sister iamza) so it will have to wait until later in the week.

Speaking

I did something really stupid yesterday. I had a look at the Baby Centre site at what 20 month olds are supposed to be up to. THe part that shocked me was that they said 20 month old toddlers should be putting 2 word sentences together.. uummmm, okay then.

I'm really delighted because our girls are finally saying some words, although they still often require prompting to speak and not just gesture. I still say that Enya is slightly ahead of Ciara verbally but Ciara is catching up fast.

Enya: mommy, daddy, up (to be picked up), bitte (wants something or to give us something), bye bye, ball (pronounced the german way), empty, all done, hello, tick tock, mine, Anna (Enya?), auto (car in german), eins (one in german)

Ciara: Mommy, daddy, up, bitte, ball, bye bye, all done, hiya, mine, tick tock, Anna, auto
only really with prompting

Wow listing it made me realise they actually can say quite a few words, I know Enya also understands a lot of words, for instance she can point to her ears, hair, mouth, nose, feet, fingers and belly button when asked. She can make several animal noises too, although she doesn't point to any animals when we show her a picture of them (except the butterfly). That is more our fault as we don't often look at books with the girls as they get bored very quickly or start to fight to get our undivided attention just for them.

Ciara doesn't point to anything except her nose when asked, and apart from hissing doesn't make any animal noises. My gut feeling is she has not yet made the full connection between verbalising and communicating and when she does there will be no holding her back!

Countdown to our holiday

Can you believe in less than 6 days we are going on holiday. Needless to say today was spent getting all the things we needed (not so much for the girls but for Z and I) so it can be washed before we leave. I refuse to go clothes shopping alone with the girls as they have no patience, so I land up just grabbing stuff to try on at home and then land up returning it the next week.

I'm still a bit concerned with how C and E are going to manage the meals there but if all else fails I'm sure they have yoghurt and fruit in Turkey too! Happily dropping down to one bottle has been a great success with both girls now finishing a 300ml bottle each in the morning and eating more at the other mealtimes too. They are also wanting lots more water at other times during the day. Now I just have to really gather my courage and drop the last bottle too (not before our holiday though!!).

C and E have learnt a few new tricks in the past week, Ciara has been shaking her head for over a year but now Enya is doing it too. Unfortunately they are not doing it to indicate no, rather just for the sensation and the reaction they get. They also both nod their head, usually just after they've shaken it so again not with any meaning. The funniest trick though is Enya "head bangs" everytime she is sitting and some music comes on, it makes driving in the car with the radio on very entertaining(not least for the people in cars next to us who suddenly see a child and the driver too suddenly start head banging). Ciara on the other hand has mastered climbing into her high chair alone, she usually trys to sit down facing backwards but she manages to climb up and in all by herself.

Sick again

So both girls have 38+ C temperatures and are very whingy and clingy again. They also have snotty noses (remember the english nickname for older babies- very apt at present!) and a nice fruity cough. The mucous deluge started yesterday with the temperatures rising last night. This probably explains why Enya has pretty much lost her appetite, she's not even interested in biscuits which is usually a favourite. At least she is still drinking well as long as the milk is hot.

Today I disassembled the changing table in their room and rearranged their room so we can get a table with two chairs in it. The doctor yesterday wanted Ciara to colour on a piece of paper, needless to say we'd never tried this at home so Ciara was clueless. The result of this abysmal artisitic failure is we're going to get some paper and crayons (and a table and chairs) so we can start trying some supervised doodling. I also really need to push them to look in books (not just eat them)and encourage them to point to the pictures when I name them. We need to practice walking up and down steps too, this is incredibily problematic as we don't have any steps at home at all!! I think that aboout covers all the things I just haven't practiced enough with them and that they should be doing by now.

On the otherhand, out of the blue, Enya has decided to demonstrate her climbing abilites. Yesterday I was preparing lunch with both girls in their highchairs, out of the corner of my eye I noticed that something was different with Enya, when I turned to look at her I could see she was standing hunched over on the seat of her highchair and was trying to push herself upright. Thank God I looked when I did as unlike most highchairs the Tripp.trapp has a very low back so she wouldn't have had anything to hold onto when she was upright, disaster in the making. She has also been practicing climbing on and off the footstool of our rocking chair, thankfully she hasn't tried to stand up on this yet! Then just to round things off, today while I was rearranging their room she climbed from the travelling cot mattress on to the night table and was happily kneeling on it when I noticed what was going on. My grey hairs are definitely multiplying exponentially as they get more mobile!

On the mend

"What do you mean, you don't have this shoe in my size"


Ciara's rash is fading and so far Enya seems fine (she is refusing bottles but that, as the old faithfuls know, is nothing new) so hopefully "SICK" has left our house.

In the aftermath of this sickness though Ciara is being incredibily affectionate and keeps climbing on to my lap for cuddles. Yes, she is actually giving me cuddles, including laying her head on my shoulder. I'm making the most of this phase as I don't belive it will last long (Ciara is not usually very affectionate) but it proves the saying "every cloud has a silver lining".


Paper sea

Enya managed 18 steps a couple of days ago and has even mastered turning 180 degrees without falling. She loves walking between two objects e.g. from Z to me and back. She gets so much enjoyment out of her improved mobility and is practicing so hard that I really need to get my A in to G and go buy the girls some shoes for wearing outdoors. Ciara is a toddler now (pretty much always on her feet although still a bit unsteady) and although I would still class Enya as a crawler I don't think it will be long until she too prefers toddling to crawling.

Eating strike

Well the temperatures are down to nearly normal levels without any meds and the moods are slightly improved, unfortunately neither girl is really interested in eating. Even the morning and evening bottles are not exactly easy. Up to now I haven't started to panic but all bets are off if this continues too long.

Okay topic change: I've been a bit concerned as I didn't think the girls were understanding much.... until this last week. It seems like they have had another developmental leap forwards. If we ask them where something is, they look around. Now don't get to excited, they are not looking for the object we asked for but they are aware that we want something. They also both clap their hands and wave, as well as show us how tall they are when we ask them to. I've been trying to teach Ciara how to be gentle by stroking her with the command "mach Aii" ("make nice" is a fairly close translation), when I say the words she now strokes her own head. Now I just have to teach her to do that to others instead of hitting them or pulling their hair!

Enya calls me "meme" and Z is "dadee", she also says some other words like "heiss" (hot), "Eya" and "up" although they are not often used in context ("up" is being used more and more in context which gives you some idea what today has been like).
Ciara calls me "mama" and Z is however as yet unnamed, she also said "heiss" for the first time yesterday but is more interested in babbling than talking. They are both very vocal and babble all the time, just the connection with words is not quite there yet.

We knew they were likely going to be late talkers as we are bringing them up bilingual but it's still nice to see that some things are clicking in the speech works.

She walks

Well that happened faster than I expected! I was sitting on the floor playing with the girls yesterday when Enya stood up by herself and took off. She walked/ran 6 or 7steps before I caught her and would probably have done more as she was perfectly balanced. I should have let her do more but I was just so excited that I didn't stop and think.

Then yesterday evening she did it again 4 or 5 times, standing up alone and taking off I mean. Once she even managed 8 steps before she fell! The best thing is we are doing nothing, she is initiating everything, we don't even have to hold out our hands.

I was contemplating buying Ciara her first proper pair of outdoor shoes but I think I'll wait a little bit longer and get them both a pair when Enya's walking improves.

Wow, 2 walking babies!

*The picture is Enya cuddling her Tssszzzz

Enya walks

I think the title says it all. Ciara practiced her standing for at least a month before she took her first step, Enya started standing alone last week and this week she's achieved her first proper steps alone. She managed 4 steps from the sofa to my arms today and she keeps on trying. She amazes me (they both do). I got to walk from the lounge through to the kitchen today, about 10m, with both girls walking with me, only holding onto one finger each for balance. Another parental milestone ticked ;0)

I find it particularly fascinating how their different temperaments affect how they develop. Ciara is super cautious and waits until she has absolutely perfected a position/technique before she moves forward, where Enya just throws herself into everything without caring if she mastered the stage before. It makes it scary sometimes, but that's Enya. I think she's going to give me heart attacks when she's older!

I discovered today both girls like scrambled egg. I was having a late lunch and Ciara came begging when she saw I was eating (I swear she could eat all day if we let her!) I gave her some of my potato and she spat it back at me but my egg she ate. I thought I would then try Enya expecting her not to like it but she also swallowed it down and begged for more.

Operation Christmas Dinner didn't happen last year, they kept crashing before dinner was ready, so instead we had a Christmas Breakfast of waffles which was magic!), I'm now pushing normal solids so we are at least on "adult food" in time for our all inclusive holiday in June (I do NOT want to lug my blender stick overseas).

It would of course help if Ciara wouldn't spit out all unpureed fruit and veg straight back out at me. Even using the mesh feeder didn't fool her, I gave her some banana in the feeder yesterday and she chewed quite happily on the mesh but then let it dribble out her mouth when she'd gnashed the banana up (she loves mashed bananas on the spoon). That being said she does like dried fruit, our latest treat after dinner is prunes. She loves them, I just need to cut the skin off (a story in itself) as she can't chew it small enough to swallow, Enya loves prunes too. I'm really hoping this solves with Ciara's "regularity" problems!

Happy New Year

I hope you are all feeling better than poor Z today. Silly thing sat up with his best friend drinking until 5:30am this morning. Mean wife that I am, I dragged him out of bed to give C and E their bottles at 8am, although I did let him off giving them their cereal. Poor man was green by the end of the bottles and I don't think he would have survived the morning solids, he barely managed the midday solids. Let us just say he did not enjoy the 2 hour drive back to our home from Muenster.

As you may have guessed some of us had a very festive New Year. The girls faded at 6pm as usual and I was also in bed well before midnight (Ciara has had a couple of bad nights in a row which leaves me wrecked), however Z and our friends more than made up for us faders.

We've had a great start to the New Year with Enya standing up straight, without any support or pulling up on anything, twice today. She can only hold her balance for a few seconds but she is trying really hard. Ciara has set a new record of 22 steps in a row without falling down as well (Z was counting!).

Ciara also mastered the stairs while we were at our friends, she even did more than half the stairs unsupervised while I was bringing Enya back to bed after breakfast. The stairs had no gate on them and I was alone. I thought she was distracted in the kitchen but when I came back to fetch her she met me halfway up the stairs - that got my heart rate going. After that every time she saw the stairs she headed straight for them. Thank goodness we don't have any stairs at home!!

Progress and setbacks

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The girls helping me with the ironing

Both girls are doing fantastically on the mobility front. Ciara is now constantly standing up alone and maintaining her balance for anywhere up to 30 seconds before she falls/lowers herself down to the ground. She also thinks its a great game to stand up and then fall onto mommy when mommy is on the floor- we can play that for 10minutes before I start to get sore from having 10 kilos landing on me! Enya usually comes to cuddle when we play this game which makes the game even more complicated for me! Enya is walking up and down the passage with either the lion or a chair and she is now managing it with mostly flat feet although we still notice that she is going up onto her left toes occasionally, usually when she is feeling off balance.

Enya walking with her lion, she gets really cross when she hits an obstacle which with her poor steering is often! Blast wouldn't you know, she's on her toes in this photo!

On that note I must say we had our appointment with the neurologist yesterday, the EEGs of both girls came back normal but then the doctor started going on about how could we stop Ciara's physio as she wasn't walking yet. Although Ciara is showing no abnormal reflexes and development is on target, she should still be getting physio until she walks!?! It got even better when she looked at Enya, suddenly she had high extensor tone in the legs and as she was standing on her toes (on an unstable surface I hasten to add) she required urgent physio and under no circumstances was I to think of stopping physio until she walked, probably longer. I had just told this doctor she stood on her toes when she was uncertain and when she was on the floor playing in standing a few seconds previously she'd had both feet flat on the ground but no, now she has to try make me panic. Needless to say I'm taking her words with a pinch (large handful) of salt and will continue to follow the advice of my paediatrician who is specialized in the development of children especially preemies. The EEGs were normal and that is all that counts.

Now I have to go make a pumpkin pie for the Halloween party a friend is throwing tonight and decide what I'm going to make out of the second half of the pumpkin -bread, soup or baby food. Before I go though I promised to post a picture of Enya's weird way of sucking her dummy so here it is:


Enya sucking her dummy her way, yes her lower lip is hooked over the dummy otherwise it doesn't stay in!

Computer trouble

sorry I've not posted in so long but my computer is in the process of dying. It refuses to recharge on occasion or when I plug it in the mouse goes wild! Today it is however cooperating so I can update;0).

Both girls have got a third tooth now, Ciara is proving to be a bit of an exception and has got a top lateral incisor instead of a central one (at least I hope so or she is going to need lots of expensive orthodontic treatment). She is also starting to let go of support in standing and can maintain her balance for a few seconds before falling over. On Friday I even saw her stand up completely unaided in the middle of the bathroom mat, she immediately fell over but she is trying!!

Enya continues to be unsteady in standing, and is not attempting to cruise on the furniture. The physio remarked to me last week that we're going to have trouble with her as she is "hyperactive" i.e. unable to be still for a minute. Both Z and I have noticed this already, even when she is eating her feet are drumming on the stool. She loves music and I was wondering if I should register her for music classes in the hope that this will help soothe her down. She only has three teeth but has started grinding them none the less, it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I can't stand that sound or the sound of people chewing food. as you may have guessed the radio is on during mealtimes in my house ;-).

I have started researching Kindergartens in our area, we're hoping to start them when they turn 3 but as the places are hard to come by you have to register early. For at least one of the local KG we are already too late to get places to start in 2 years time! I had briefly thought about registering them to start next year but none of the Kindergartens in our area take children from 2 years. In a way I'm glad about that as it gives me a good reason for staying home and spending time with them!

Other than that we had a couple of firsts last week. First time on a train and let me tell you german punctuality is not a myth but they need to think about disabled access a bit more. We landed lifting our twin buggy about half a meter down to the platform on the way home. They also only have one coach where you have room for a pram. Unfortunately on our way home from Cologne we were late so we had to jump into the first coach and the wheelchair/pram coach was the last coach in the train. There was no way to go through the train with our pram without taking the girls out and collapsing it and there was no way I was going to let my girls crawl on the filthy floor while I carried the pram through. We didn't want to get off and swap at the stations as they didn't stop long and as I mentioned lifting the prams in and out was difficult. In the end my mom landed up with spectacular bruises on her arms from manhandling the pram in and out the train and I spent the next 2 days with a nasty headache from stress! Another first is the girls had their first go in a swing, I took them for a walk yesterday to get them out the house so Z could finish doing our overdue tax return in peace and we went past a park. I saw the swing and thought we could try it, the girls LOVED it. I'll have to start taking them out for more walks along that route, maybe it'll help with my weight loss as well ;0). We have also gone back to our original pram where they sit next to each other as our home pram as the borrowed pram where they are one behind the other does not work for us. Whoever sits behind always kicks the back of the seat in front and leans over the side of the pram so she can see what is ahead. I'm glad we borrowed this pram and didn't buy it!!

I said I would publish a few pictures of Enya in her new shoes but given the computer problems I'll just post a link to where I bought them.

If I don't post in the next few days please forgive me, my computer will have completely given up the ghost (or I'll have chucked it against the wall in which case it will be beyond resurrection).

PS Enya has nearly cracked 8kg :0)

The tale of two sitters

You know for non indentical twins C and E are on very much the same schedule! On Monday we caught Enya up on her knees (M-sitting), not holding onto anything. Not quite the classical sitting position but she had none the less got herself in this position without any help and was using both her hands to play, so I'll take it as independent sitting. Ciara took the classical route, we've known for the last few weeks it was coming as she was propping herself up in sitting but her hand was getting ever nearer her bottom. Surprise surprise on Monday evening she managed to sit without her hands as well.

Both girls have been able to sit if placed for a while already but I was waiting for them to be able to get in this position by themselves (in Germany we are discouraged from placing children in sitting, when the back muscles and balance are strong/good enough they will do it themselves).

I'm dreading this weekend. I'm going to be all by myself with the girls for the long weekend. Z has to go help his father in his home town about 2 hours drive away. Z's dad is having an Oktoberfest at his restuarant this weekend and as Z will be pulling beer the whole day (and night) and won't be able to help with the girls, I've opted to stay home where everything is set up for us. This is the first time I'm going to be alone with the girls overnight without any possibility of help (the old no family near by, and friends all working or with their own families), I know it'll all be fine the girls are not difficult but I still dread the mealtimes where they get both bottle and solids!

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.

blogging hiatus over again

Sorry that it's been so long since I've updated. I've been enjoying the first few weeks of the girls' second year. Z has paternity leave for the next while (gotta love the German social system!!) so I've got help at home and things are finally getting done.

We've changed the girls to only 3 bottle feeds a day (170ml ~8oz a feed) which seems to be agreeing with Enya. She is not fighting the feeds at all right now and has put on a grand 280g this week. Ciara as always gobbles down her feeds both solids and liquid and is heading for the 75th percentile weight wise (Enya is heading away from the 3rd percentile towards the 9th!!!). I should add the percentiles are for their adjusted age.

We had our one year assessment with the paediatrician last week and he was astonished by Ciara. She is crawling and climbing everything. She even demonstrated bear walking (walking on hands and feet) over a meter for the doctor. He said she has no abnormal reactions anymore and has given us the all clear to quit physio with her. I think he was quite shocked when I told him she was crawling everywhere, I had to put her on the ground so he could see for himself- she is in the normal range for crawling for her corrected age which he said given her extreme prematurity was surprising.

Enya is also doing well, she is army crawling around. Today for the first time she army crawled the whole way down our passage to find us. OK, I admit I was sitting at the end egging her on, but she still covered the whole distance (~5m) by herself. We have caught her a couple of times making the motions of crawling properly, however the most she has managed to crawl up to now has been about a meter. The important bit though is: she is trying to crawl and I doubt it will be the 2 months the doctor suggested before she is crawling all over. I have to admit as much as I've bitched about the Vojta therapy it has been worth it (but I still can't wait to quit with Enya too!!)

Both girls are pulling up on everything, Enya onto her knees, Ciara all the way onto her feet. Their favourite pull up objects are my legs or the musical table they got for their birthday. Unfortunately with our tiled floors they can only pull up when supervised but they don't seem to understand that ;-). The toy therefore spends most of the time turned on it's side and we can no longer leave them in a room unsupervised (so much for my babyproofing- who knew they could pull up on pot plants!) even for a minute.

Now you are all generally up to date with the happenings in the House of Z so I wish you all a good nigh and I'll continue tomorrow.

Next installment includes a 14 hour sleep story.....

A year ago today.....

I was 24 weeks pregnant and lying in hospital, hoping beyond all hope that we would get at least another 4 weeks before the girls came.

We'd had a ultrasound 3 days before and everything had looked fine, although the girls were small the doctors were pleased with the placental function and confirmed we were having 2 girls. They didn't check my cervix as they didn't want to risk introducing an infection, and I wonder now if they had if maybe they could have done something. When I was admitted to hospital that Thursday night, I was 2cm dilated and they ascribed the bleeding due to the dilation.

Right now I'm gearing up for the girls birthday and it will be a happy day but I'm finding the lead up difficult. All the what ifs and what could have beens...

We got the reports from the last neurodevelopmental follow up and for once they were IMO relatively accurate. I was criticized for putting too much pressure on myself to ensure Enya drank enough, but I knew that was coming. Ciara now is described as only having mild tone and coordination problems although Enya is astonishingly still classed as at risk of cerebral palsy! I think if we had the appointment tomorrow we would get a completely different description as Enya is now doing everything Ciara was at that time and more!

I'm off to go and organise my new bookcases now and enjoy the Olympic Games so I wish you all a restful Sunday

stormy weather

I'm not going to have to worry about the girls getting sunburnt again under the sunsail as we had a terrific storm during the night and it ripped. In fact not only did it get ripped but one of the metal poles bent in half! There we were at 3 am this morning trying to cover our garden furniture and pull the rest of the sunsail down so it didn't do anymore damage. Needless to say we didn't have a very good night sleep after.

On to other news! Enya has started pulling herself forward in leopard crawl, I'd joked about this with Mrs W last week saying Enya would be crawling before Ciara and it looks like I may be proved right. Now if only this child would drink, I would be a very happy mom.

I know recently most of my posts have been about Enya so a little post on Ciara will be coming shortly (when I'm more awake) ;-)

Rocking babies

I now have 2 babies that are up on their hands and knees and rocking wildly. Enya started yesterday afternoon and now there is no stopping her. She only holds the position for a couple of seconds but is so proud of herself. Needless to say every time she does it I'm cheering like a mad woman. Ciara manged to lift her hand while on her hands and knees for the first time yesterday, up till now every time she's lifted her hand she has slid down onto her tummy from her knees. Ciara also sat onto her bottom from her hands and knees yesterday- she was still weight bearing through her hands but she got her leg out the way to sit on her behind ;-). PROGRESS!!

I honestly can't wait for them to be crawling as they are now too heavy to carry together and the one left behind always throws a wobbly. Please remind me of this post when I start whinging about them being too mobile!!!

PS a nice positive post for my 100th don't you think *lol*