They're both grabbing things with intent now. Granted, their attempts are tenuous at best, but the desire is there.

Not much multimedia this week.

• Bob "reading" along with Mom in his sling.
• [Video] Drew likes this new "bite the face" game. Perhaps I'll frighten you all by making another video ... from his perspective.

They were a little fussy while lying on the mat this morning, but I was able to get their focus^* with a rousing, whistled rendition of the Scooby-Doo theme song.

To delay retiring the Miracle Blanket for Bobby, Liss had this idea for his nighttime attire - diaper under Blanket under sleep sack. The sack helps keep the blanket from getting too loose, and even if it does, he's still just in his sack, which is better than being completely free. That still freaks him out a bit.

The upshot is that his arms - pinned by the Blanket - aren't in the sack's sleeves, so it looks like he's armless all night long. We have fun with that.

Their lungs are developing, which is both good and bad. Whether it's good or bad usually depends on the time of day. Or night.

We've been trying to figure out day care since before the boys were born. Our grandparental home care ends with the year, so we have to finalize soon. Lots of parents have the nanny versus day care debate, and we're no different. There are enough pluses and minuses to both that we've been wrangling with it for months. Even the pediatrician was non-committal.

There's no way we can afford for either of us to quit our jobs and stay home; we have a Seattle mortgage. We'd budgeted for one kid; twins threw that out the window. Day care for two - including a multi-kid discount - runs about $1500/mo. We might be able to hire a nanny for a little less^*. Even so, it's more than we have to spend, such that we're looking at a home equity loan to cover it. The net effect of that would be to take less out of our pockets every month, but for many more months than they're actually be in care, for the price of [tax-deductible] interest. Of course, that assumes that anyone can get a loan against their house at the moment. Being an adult sucks sometimes.

I'll just warn the family members now - our Christmas lists will pretty much have this one thing on it.

Last night's witching hour was pretty bad, too. I had Drew, who would cry anytime I'd sit down, to the point that I was getting achy from walking around with 12 squirmy pounds for an hour. When they're like this, the idea is to keep trying things until something works, which involved a diaper change, feeding, binky attempts, the swing, the wedge, the play mat, facing over my shoulder, facing forward, and other things I'm forgetting. Eventually I was able to sit down with him calm... outside. So, imagine me and Drew, sitting out on our tiny front porch in a chair I brought out from the dining room, in the dark and rain (but sheltered). If it hadn't been so close to their bedtime by the time I figured this out, I would have fetched a book.

The prolonged fussiness is likely part of the reason he slept so well, though. It's always a tradeoff - Bob slept all afternoon, which may be a direct cause of ...

Bobby was horrible last night. It might have been discomfort from the shots, or that I put him in a sleep sack instead of a Blanket, or a growth spurt, but whatever it was, he wouldn't stay asleep, and when he was awake, he wouldn't shut up.

On top of that, I'm sick again. I just want to crawl back into bed, but I don't have any sick days left.

News from the ped.

After we and the diabetes study people both showed them to be nearly equal in weight, the ped got them at 12/0 (Drew) and 11/9, or seven ounces apart. Oops. They're both 23" long, or 1'11" as she likes to say.

The important thing for us is that they've gained enough to get off the expensive formula. This'll save maybe $200 a month. We still have a couple of cans, which we can use to transition them toward the normal stuff. Naturally, my food tracking spreadsheet is already set up with caloric density as a variable. :-D

The ped also said not to try the cry-it-out method of getting them to sleep through the night until they're six months old, but we were going to try other ways before that one anyhow.

Our plan is that when the twins are old enough to realize that we can somehow tell them apart, we won't tell them how. We can just answer "because we're your parents!" The truth is we want to preserve whatever methods we're using, and mischievous toddlers might attempt to remove or conceal them (we've heard stories).

Currently, we only have two sure ways - a slight difference in their ears, and the nail polish we keep on Bobby's big toes. We can't keep the latter permanently, and the ear thing just isn't pronounced enough for it to be our sole method. Compounding matters is that hospitals don't keep babies' footprints on file anymore, which could have been a backup. (They got them made, and we have them somewhere, but they're among the stacks of random paperwork and knick-knacks they gave us to take home.)

We're paranoid about telling them apart for a reason. While we can generally tell who's who just by looking, a 99% success rate isn't good enough - you only have to screw up once^*. Imagine if I was convinced that one was Drew and she was sure he was Bobby. Unless it's resolved to 100% certainty for both of us, the doubt could haunt us forever.

Apparently most babies don't get moles for a couple of years.

The Miracle Blanket website says a baby will let you know when it's time to stop using their product, which they say is usually around four months. Bobby seems to be doing just that - he's getting better at figuring out how to get out of it, which is a rather complicated feat. It may be time for him, but we don't want to lose the block of sleep they usually have after we first put them down, either. In other words, he hasn't come up with a substitute way of soothing himself consistently. A common refrain during the wee hours is now "I'm sick of this thing! Wah! Oh, crap, I'm free of it! Wah!"

One option is to split them up, with Drew in the crib and Bob in the moses basket or bassinet. Drew seems like he's very close to sleeping through the night, and we think Bob's preventing that sometimes with his proximal blanket-related fussiness. Separating them wouldn't really help us, but it might help Drew.

Of course, all of this is expected during a growth spurt, so at least that silver lining is there.

Pediatrician today. They'll be getting shots, which probably means a long night ahead.

Four months old.

While we'd already decided to start trying for another kid next summer, it only recently hit us that next summer is only about eight months away.

The topic of last month's first-year twins meeting was breastfeeding, which we're not doing. This month it's pregnancy with multiples, which we've already done.^* They've acknowledged this by telling the parents to "come share your experiences," but between the subjects and the meetings starting right when we normally start The Routine, we haven't been going. It's just not worth our time and effort.

They also sent out a notice of three play dates for members with babies. All three are on weekday afternoons. Not only does this assume the mom isn't working (false), but we bet they don't even consider the idea of a dad wanting to come, too (also false). She'd attend one on a weekend - heck, I might even go if there are no good games on. We're gun-shy about bringing it up, though, because we think their response would be "so host one," and there's no way we have the space (or cleanliness) for that many parents and babies.

Just about whenever Liss takes the boys for an outing, she reports back that they were being flirty with the women who flock to the cute twin babies.

My question is, are they also flirty with the men? I'll bet they act the same way, but that she'd be less likely to report it as flirty behavior in that case. However, I'd also bet that many fewer men approach the three of them, and that they're less cutesy about it when they do.

Update: She says men talk to her, not the babies. I guess that means cooing at babies is a feminine trait, in which case I'm a total flamer. Who knew?

Crayola used to make a "Flesh" color, which of course is only appropriate for white people, which means it's not appropriate at all, and was changed (to Peach) in the 60s.

The boys have hair, but you can't tell. It's flesh colored. I mean, really it's light blonde, but the effect is that there is no effect. They're starting to get some fuzz on their eyebrows, too, but you still can't tell. It's like the fuzz on - wait for it - a peach. You know it's there, but unless you're thinking about, you don't really notice.

By last night's overnight feeding, Bobby had loosened his Blanket, so I tightened him up. Liss says that when she woke up a few hours later, he had broken out of it with both arms and was happily sucking on his hands. Perhaps it's time to try leaving them out again. The whole thing about self-soothing by using their hands as binkies hasn't really materialized like we'd hoped, but we might as well try again.

• Drew on my shoulder. They're both getting more tolerant of resting against us like this, which is good for everybody.
• Andi on Bob in his Blanket. She doesn't seem to realize where he "ends;" this is a pretty common occurence.
• Both on the mat, Drew to the left.
• [Video] Me playing with Drewbie while he swings. He's kind of laughing and hiccuping at the same time.
• [Video] Mom learned a new game at her Monday moms meeting - Elevator. Drew enjoys it.
• [Video] Bobby smiling for me, then - as usual - distracted by the world around him. Note the nearly full bottle he didn't have - the stinker.

They've been growth spurting again for the last few days, i.e. consistently eating more per day than before. This means a physical and/or mental change is coming, but you never know what that'll be. It might even be different between the two, but that hasn't happened yet.

They still wake up around 3:00am to eat (sometimes 1:30, sometimes 4:30, etc.), and I still can't get back to sleep once or twice a week, including last night. Liss - bless her - often tries to feed them both so I don't have to wake up, but that requires their cooperation as well. After all, it only takes one crying baby to wake us up, and feeding/burping them both at once is quite the juggling act.

For my part, when I can't sleep, I can take whoever's fussier downstairs and hopefully let her sleep more. But again, that means the other twin has to cooperate.

In an effort to transition Drew to sleeping through the night, we left his right arm out of the Miracle Blanket so he could use it to smoothe himself. It didn't work at all, but I've noticed he favors his left hand for that, so maybe we'll try again with that one.

We had names for the boys before they were born, but not which was which. We assigned them after one day, with Bob being the mellower of the two, befitting his namesakes. In fact, we called Drew the Drama King for the first couple of weeks - we stopped that partially so it wouldn't become a self-fulfilling prophecy, but also because he settled down.

However, in the last few weeks, it's Bobby who's been the King - fussier during the witching hour, first to wake up and demand food overnight, harder to soothe, etc. As a thought experiment, we wondered what it would take to switch them on purpose - the one we call Andrew would become Robert and vice versa. The truth is, it wouldn't take much, especially now that they're the same weight.

We have no actual plans to do it, though.



As far as you people know.

They were weighed at the appointment for the diabetes study, both coming in at 11/8 with clothes/diapers on. We did our own naked weights last weekend, both at 11/6, so it's unofficial - Bobby's caught up. The ped visit next Tuesday will (or won't) make it official. One thing's for sure, though - Bob's face isn't much thinner than Drew's anymore, so it's harder to tell them apart that way.

Part of the diabetes study involves analyzing their poop. For yesterday's first visit, their Granma saved soiled disposable diapers in Ziploc bags to bring in. Because appointments are quarterly but sampling is monthly, they got mailers at the appointment.

That's right - we'll be sending baby crap through the mail.

While the study goes until they're 15, I don't think the sampling does.

The boys are going to their first visit for the diabetes study today, which will include blood draws. They might also get weighed, which would be a bonus.

From Liss:

We're in a couple of small "July babies" online communities.

One of the member moms is pregnant again.

Fortunately for her, her July baby was just a singleton, but still. No, thanks.

We think Drew's ready to make the transition to sleeping through the night; he's practically doing it on his own. However, Bobby's definitely not ready, and we don't want to get them too far off each other's schedules. Plus, doing it with and without the Miracle Blankets are two entirely different things, so that's a major variable as well.

Drew flipped from his stomach to his back for his Granma - twice in quick succession. This catches him up to Bob on this front, though even Drew's still a little earlier than the bell curve would predict.

I just realized that we dressed the boys as fruits for Halloween. I wonder how many people would refuse to do that due to the slang connotation?

Pictures.

• We have them face each other just about every day, which usually gets smiles in both directions, but not always.
• For Halloween, Bobby was a strawberry.
• Drew was a pumpkin.
• And here's a random nap [Drew in foreground]. It didn't last long.

As I'd previously mentioned, we'd been putting the boys to bed earlier and earlier to prepare for the time change this weekend.

The problem with that is - it's backwards. The goal is to put them down at their bedtime of 7pm on Sunday, except this week that's 8pm. We were supposed to be keeping them up later.



I can't believe none of y'all noticed.

We weighed the boys over the weekend at 10/15 and 10/7. I don't really trust the scale's accuracy, but it's better than guessing. They'll get an official weigh-in (and, uh, length-in) at the pediatrician's on November 11.

We're seeing this particular ped because of how small they were when born, but he's at an inconvenient location for us. The one we want for the long term is a general practitioner with a ped credential just five minutes away. This coming visit will probably be the last one at the special doctor, after which we can go to the local one.

They'll also be getting more shots, which means we need to keep the Tylenol and Motrin handy.

Roughly speaking, the boys' development has followed their food intake graph^* - lots at first, but levelled off for a while now.

I post this only as a visual for a shift in my thinking in the last week or so. I was talking with a friend (mother of a grade school boy) about our frustrations at the twins' various regressions and plateaus instead of the notable progress of their first couple of months. She simply replied that she really likes the baby phase.

Those first couple of months were pretty touch and go with their health. The first several milestones and doctor visits went pretty far toward reassuring us that they'd be okay, so each one was celebrated. Plus, they were frequent - now, not so much, but it's not because they're doing poorly. It's just how this age is.

So. The baby phase. It's going to last a while, and the new developments will come. In the meantime, we can just kick back and enjoy our babies. They're not underweight newborns anymore. They're often quick to smile for us and maybe even practice a laugh once in a while. They look us in the eye and sometimes win the stare contest. When we face them toward each other, they'll usually smile and giggle for a while before their brains tire. Something's turning their tiny gears in there.

We're not in a hurry to have them crawl or walk in this House of Death. And when they learn to talk, it means they'll learn to talk back. We can wait for all that. We have babies.

The problem with starting their bedtime routine earlier is that it's working. That is, we're putting them down half an hour earlier, but now they're waking up earlier at night - about 12:30 and 4:30. So, we're having to do two night feedings instead of one (2:30 then 6:00 to wake up), then trying to squeeze in that little extra sleep from 5 to 6:30, which usually doesn't happen for me.

I really shouldn't be allowed unfettered access to technology. Or babies.

With the end of daylight savings time coming in a week, we're moving The Routine back over the next few days rather than jerk them an hour back after the switch. They had a long day Saturday, so we started at 6:30 anyway (instead of 7:00), so we'll just keep doing that for a bit, then 6:15, then 6:00 as the switch approaches.

Pictures.

• Lissa's mother reported that, while Bobby still doesn't care for the bumbo seat, Drew might have changed his tune when some padding was added. However, when Amy tried Bobby in the bumbo, he was fine. Maybe they're coming around. It's like high chair training, so it'd be a good thing.
• We've started reading to them for a few minutes after [their] dinner but before taking them up to bed. You're supposed to even though they have no idea what's going on - they will eventually, by which time it'll be part of the routine and not something brand new we try to introduce at some random time. I try to time it so my dinner-client is ready for story time around the same time as hers (group shot); I figure it's more efficient to have them both hear the same reading. Besides, the stories aren't exactly provocative literature, so I'd rather not hear them twice in the same night. For our own sanity, we switch books every few days. Eventually I'll read them things like the Harry Potter and Master and Commander series-es, but not until I think they can get into it.
• We discovered something disheartening today - Drew has inherited my fashion sense.

After three perfectly fine evenings, the conclusion is clear - I have the superhuman ability to change my boys' behavior by merely complaining about it.

:-D

Of course, after bitching about the witching hour yesterday, last night was just fine.

There's only one explanation.

They're on to me.

I'm officially announcing my Electoral College Pool, though of course I've been bugging people about it for months. Obviously, I wrote it while Liss was pregnant, not after.

We call 5-7pm the witching hour. They are often at their worst during these two hours before bedtime - inconsolable, unsoothable, don't want to lie down, don't want to sit down, don't want tummy time. They're tired but won't sleep, hungry but won't eat. Mostly we walk around with them over our shoulders, try to put them down, they cry, we pick them up, walk around, try to feed them, they refuse, we walk around, and so on. Eventually we'll find whatever it is will sooth them that evening, whether it be the swing, play mat, Gripe Water, singing, playing airplane, TV set to loud static, a diaper change, or what-have-you. Usually it's a combination of things.

Last night Drew calmed down after I laid him on his back and showed him pages of sheet music. Maybe he was just bored. It probably helped that I had the TV static cranked.

Anyway, what this means is that we come home from work and deal with this for two hours before they eat and go to bed. It's hardly a peachy bonding experience. It's also why we don't take them anywhere after 3pm or so anymore - we learned our lesson at Canadian Thanksgiving.

It doesn't quite qualify under the definition of colic, but I'm still calling it Colic Light. If that's the case, colic is supposed to disappear around the fourth month, which might be December for our premiees - it started late, so it might end late. If it's not colic, then hopefully the pediatrician has suggestions, but his focus is on their growth, not our sanity, so maybe not.

Maybe it's our imagination, but the boys seem to have plateaued^* or even regressed in many areas in the last few weeks:

• Eating: same total per day (plateau), more but smaller feedings (regression), prima donnas vis-a-vis formula temperature (regression)
• Sleeping: erratic mid-night feed time (regression), still fighting the blanket (plateau), sleeping better after breakfast (improvement)
• Witching Hour: getting worse over time (regression)
• Weight gain: about what we'd expect given the same food intake (plateau)
• Smiling: about the same - predictable patterns (plateau)
• Recognition of brother: this actually seems to be an (improvement)
• Eye contact: also happening more often, so (improvement)

A study analyzed the boys' blood when they were born and found that they are at an elevated (3%) risk for juvenile diabetes. "They" were invited to join the study, but participating would be a moderate pain for years to come. However, their recent leaky diapers pushed Liss off the fence into enrolling them. Their first appointment is on the 6th; I don't know what it will entail.

One thing I wish they liked but don't is lying on our chests. It gets the same reaction as tummy time, which is a little tolerance followed by "get me upright!" They do like being held against our shoulders, looking out at the world behind us (which is often just the couch), but that requires a hand for stability - two if they're feeling bobbleheady.

I'm about to get a new cell phone, which is compatible with those Bluetooth cyborg earpiece things. Normally I probably wouldn't bother getting one, but it frees up a hand. If the things only came in solid-gold models, I think I'd still consider it.

When the morning comes, there are five people and three cats that need breakfast. Generally speaking, the twins get it first. Is it because they need it more? Are they the hungriest? Most deserving? Most in need of sustinence for the day ahead?

No. They're the loudest.



What are we teaching them, I wonder?

Bonus pseudoautobiographical comics!

• Sherman's Lagoon
• My Cage

Pictures.

• Both on the boppy. And a close-up. Note Bobby's furrowed "you're a dork" brow, which he gets from his mother.
• Speaking of the boppy, Vince has laid claim to it as a cat bed when the twins have outgrown it.
• While eating, sometimes they'll give this tired zombie look, where you might only see the whites of their eyes. It's kind of disturbing.
• Both on the "new" play mat.

Their cloth diapers are leaking more lately. They could just be peeing more because they're growing, but if they're peeing more just because, it may be a symptom of juvenile diabetes. But we're not there yet. It's more likely that they just outgrew the current cloth.

Liss's mom arrived Thursday for a two-month stint. Liss is taking off work for the day to show her the nitty gritty.

She's already paying dividends, as I probably would have been late to work without her.

It feels that the last few days have been a step back. They're not sleeping as long, smiling as much, talking as much, eating as much. One would think that another week would have meant sucking their hands with more deliberation, but that's not the case. Maybe they miss Shirley.

Last night Drew pooped while wearing the Miracle Blanket again, which is inconvenient for us. I asked him to change this and poop at 2 instead.

Today he pooped at 2.

From Liss: There have been moist eyes and small evaporative trails, but this is the first real tear. We're in big trouble now.

I've written as much in the three months since the birth as I did in the six months before it. Crazy.

We got a play mat similar to this one at the club sale. Liss says one of the other moms in her weekly baby group have one for her twin girls, who love it so much that she calls it the Mat of Neglect.

It's nice to know we're not the only ones with a sense of humor about our terrible parenting.

Drew pooped soon before bedtime, which seems to be his MO lately. In fact, they both very rarely poop during the ten hours they're in the Miracle Blankets, and usually once per day. So, imagine my surprise when he did The Grunt a few times during the bedtime feeding, followed by his buns making some complementary sounds that I'll leave to your imagination.

This meant undoing his Blanket and sleeper to get at ... a nice liquidy poop. There must have been something odd going on to (a) produce his second poop in two hours, and (b) the unusual consistency. We'll keep an eye on it.

I know you're all fascinated by this.

We got Drew on the scale - about ten pounds six ounces. That's four more ounces than Bobby, but the gap was eight a month ago, so if you believe the weights of an old mechanical scale, he's catching up.

Here is a video of Drew discovering his feet. I took this after he was a few minutes into it, including making himself smile over it all, but this was the best I could capture.

After last night's shenanigans, we won't be going to tonight's first-years twins meeting. It starts at their bedtime, and we're now gun-shy.

We're also now considering our options for the airplane trip around Christmas, up to and including rum.

Sunday evening we went to Matt and Ben's place for Canadian Thanksgiving. It's an annual "friend's Thanksgiving" we do so as not to interfere with the "family Thanksgiving" later.

We took the boys, who were fine a while, but eventually were overwhelmed by all the goings on, which ended in Drew having the worst fit of theirs lives so far. He was crying and screaming incessantly for a good 15 minutes before Mom had the idea of taking him outside for some fresh air and change of scenery. He was still fussy out there, but manageable. I went back inside, excused us to get our stuff and now-fussy spare baby, and we left. It was almost their bedtime anyway.

The car ride calmed them down, but the real coup was the bedtime feeding, during which Bobby broke the single-feeding record by some 25%. Meanwhile, however, Drew had the worst single-day total in recent memory.

We embraced our lameness and went to bed at 9:15, expecting a hard night of fussy babies. However, except for a Drew binky-popping at 3:15, they didn't wake until 5:15! That's almost ten hours - apparently they were really tired. We asked ourselves if it was worth the incident that made them so tired ... the answer was no. But it's still a step. Just to add a variable, we didn't leave any hands out for sucking this time.

I'm also starting to realize just how coincidental it is that they often wake up at the same times. It's likely that they wake each other up. However, one waking baby is just as effective at waking us up as two, so I think we'd rather keep the status quo than separate them to have them wake up - and therefore wake us up - at separate times.

With two months between pediatrician visits, we'd been looking for a way to weigh the boys ourselves. The idea of using the produce scale at Safeway had gone beyond whimsy into the planning phase. However, this scale magically appeared while people were cleaning out a supply closet at Liss's school. She saw it and grabbed it, since they were just going to throw it away.

Actually weighing took some prep. In that picture, it looks like it says 24 1/4 pounds, but it really says -3/4. That's because we had to tare it based on what would be on the scale with a baby - a fresh diaper, diaper cover, box to put him in, and (it turned out) diaper to cushion his head. All set, we weighed Bob, who came in at about 10 pounds 2 ounces. He was rather nonplussed about the whole thing. Also note the Hand of Motherly Safety in both pictures.

We'll get to Drew when we can.

You're supposed to trim babies' fingernails so they don't hurt themselves with their flailing arms. We've been too paranoid to trim them, because they're so tiny, and we didn't want to miss and cut the quick. However, when we left Drew's arm out of the swaddle two nights ago, he gave his face a few minor scratches. So, Liss broke down and trimmed their nails. Of their 20 fingers, 19 were successfully trimmed. With the other, our fears were realized, and Drew's left middle finger still has blood from the cut.

Videos of talking babies.

• Bobby. Don't watch if you're feeling queasy; he's in the new swing.
• Drew. He's much more talkative in his, though they're about the same overall.

Three months old.

The twins club had their semi-annual sale today, which is basically a huge garage sale of baby/kid stuff. Last time, while Liss was still pregnant, we spent $500 on all kinds of essentials - stroller, car seats, changing table, etc.

This time we were much more subdued at $63, since we had less to get and a better idea of what we actually needed - fall/winter clothes, some age-appropriate toys, lots of the brand of bottle we like, and other small things.

We were also able to score the same kind of hand-crank swing that the boys like - the only one among some 25 swings at the sale, and only five bucks. Now that we have two, they can both swing at once instead of one having to wait for the other. It's one of our best soothing tools, so that was a nice score.

From Liss: For the record, the WDoT specifies that any person counts toward headcount for HOV lanes, including a baby.

Also for the record, I was able to tell which twin was which within seconds. Try it. >:-D

We left each boy's right arm free for hand-sucking last night, which is probably helping them stay calm. I'll try to get a picture of it, because it looks hilarious when they synchronize-sleep that way, but the darkness will make it difficult.

They slept through 'til 3:20am again last night, which makes two in a row. A few more and we might call it the new norm.

This was again after a particularly fussy hour+ leading up to bedtime, which begs the question of whether we should be putting them to bed even earlier, like 6pm. That may make us decide if it's worth the lost time with them. As it is, during the work week I see them for an hour in the mornings and two in the evenings. I'm not too keen on lowering that.

Meanwhile, to get them through the night without waking, Liss's book says to start feeding them less when they do wake. Right now they eat as much as they want - maybe 3 1/2 ounces of formula - so we'd stop them at 3 then 2 1/2 then 2 and so on. I thought this was to make waking less worthwhile to them, but she says it's to encourage them to eat more during the day so they don't need food overnight. Regardless, we won't be doing that quite yet.

Bedtime was quite the ordeal Wednesday night, especially for Drew, who was inconsolable for unknown reasons. Eventually we got them to eat and put to bed, and not too much later than usual - maybe 7:45. The really abnormal part was that they didn't wake up for food until 3:22 instead of 1:30-ish. This also pushed back their breakfast until almost 7 instead of a little after 6.

One night doesn't make a correlation, so it's possible that the extra difficulty tired them out, or it might just be a coincidence. As an added variable, we left Bobby's right arm^* unswaddled so he could find and suck on it. Perhaps he's normally the 1am instigator but was thus waylayed. The late breakfast thing is looking more like a trend, though, as it's been getting steadily later all week.

We were going to wait until around Thanksgiving to try to get them to sleep through the night, but maybe they'll be ready sometime this month. My dad says they did it by ignoring my wailing all night for three nights, after which I slept 'til morning. There are other theories out there now, but there may be some of that, too. That'll take some willpower, especially on Liss's part - her self-proclaimed "mommy hormones" draw her to a crying baby like a moth to a flame.

This might just be the routines talking, but I think it's gotten really easy for us to tell them apart.

Pictures.

• [video] Bobby with the hand-binky. Notice how he'll remove it, but then put it back. This is a new thing over the last day or two, whereas before once it was gone, it was gone, and he got fussy. This morning he was being fussy, then Liss pulled back the sleeve of his sleep sack to give him better access, which worked.
• We've started putting Drew in a bumbo seat once in a while, which is made of a soft-ish rubbery material. It's designed to keep them safe and upright at the same time, once they can support their own heads. However, he doesn't like it very much, and starts fussing after a minute or two. He's much more content to sit on his mom. We'll try Bobby in the bumbo soon; for all we know, he might take to it better than his brother, just like with slings.
• And here is Drew being distracted by the shiny moving images of the television. We probably shouldn't have it within the line of sight of the swing, but it's often the difference between accepting the swing or not, so for now we deal.

Another good thing about having twins is that we can perform our own twin studies. Not sure if a cloth diaper will last overnight? Just cloth one of them. Want to see if they'll still sleep through the night without being swaddled? Just free one. You get the idea.

In theory, we could extend this to just about anything, like leaning them toward opposite colleges, fields of study, or sexual orientations, but we're not that dedicated mean.

Liss joined a summer-babies group that she's attended pretty regularly. Today she took Bobby, whom she put on his tummy and said "Now, he probably won't do it this time ...," at which point he promptly rolled onto his back - much to the shock of the other mothers, who all know not to expect this yet. "Was this his first time?" "No, his fifth."

The best we can tell is that's it's motivated by his hatred of being on his stomach, but they don't need to know that; they can just think that our preemie-cum-savant is developmentally superior to theirs. Yes, we have flashes of being those parents, sorry.

From Liss: The thing is, it's set to when we used to get up before the birth, so we had to cram in what used to be our normal morning stuff along with waking and feeding two babies. In my case, this involved eating a bowl of cereal over a half-asleep Drewbie; if he'd kicked, he'd have been doused. We need more arms.

Both boys are getting better at using their hands for binkies, but it's definitely still in the alpha stage. Hopefully it'll be full-bore by the end of the month or so. We just have to be patient.

Still nothing official, but it looks like we'll try for a third kid starting about a year from now.

Liss had the idea that, if we have a third boy, the three of them could share the master bedroom and we could move into one of the two smaller bedrooms. We don't really use the full space, and this way we wouldn't have to play "who gets his own room."

She thinks she's clever, but if you look under March 22nd, I half-jokingly had this idea back then for just the twins. Looks like she took the bait, if conditionally modified. I want to wake up to that view, darnit.

Of course, if we have a third boy, she might still want a girl and to try for a fourth, in which case we'll probably have twins again and end up with five.

I'm fine with that.

One good thing about having twins first is that we don't know any better. We hear "I can't imagine two!" all the time, but to us it's just how it is. Sometimes I imagine what it would be like if we'd only had one^*, and it's certainly a lot easier in my head, but that's because I've been living with the twin reality. Besides, Bobby's a total bonus - a unique person unto himself - and very worth the extra effort.

Once in a while I'll take care of one of them while she's elsewhere with the other, and it's completely manageable, but that's not the same thing as two parents raising one baby. That just sounds like a frickin' breeze.

I dabbed a touch of peanut butter on my fingertip and put it under Drew's nose. He started sticking out his tongue as though reaching for it.

Not yet, kid. Sorry to tease you like that.

In developing countries, where illiteracy is common, food manufacturers' labels include a picture of what's inside. Canned pears have a picture of pears, pureed beets have a picture of beets, and so on.

Therefore, you can imagine the confusion the Gerber Baby might cause an immigrant.

Speaking of which, the boys will probably get their first try with solid food at Thanksgiving - mashed sweet potatoes.

Halloween is just a few weeks away. I'd soured on it for a few years, but after living in our neighborhood and its high child population, I've enjoyed being the guy answering the door with candy.

With the boys here, people are starting to ask about their costumes. This goes against my whole "let's not add responsibilities to ourselves right now" thing, not to mention that they're in bed by 7:30 as it is. But Liss has an idea that probably won't take too much. We'll see.

Developments are less frequent now - the first few months are new thing after new thing, but it tapers off. By now they're supposed to hit one or two milestones a month instead of five. Between that and the thank-goodness-for-them routines, I'm finding less to write about. I can't imagine much interest in "today they ate, slept, and fussed" over the long haul.

I'm a little bit sick today. This presented a dilemma. Do I:

• Work from home and risk infecting the boys?
• Work from home but avoid the boys?
• Take a sick day, eating into my vacation time because I'm out of sick time after the birth?
• Go to work, risking infecting my co-workers?

The boys' immune systems aren't mature until their sixth month. I came to work.

Pictures.

• A tired Drew.
• An Andy/Andi totem pole. Andi gets pretty pushy about getting attention, and doesn't let a little thing like a baby stop her.
• Bobby is starting to discover that his hand can be used as a permanent, portable binky. However, it's still more by accident than deliberate; he doesn't understand that his hands are his to command. It's a start. Of course, once they're able to soothe themselves with their fingers, do we still swaddle them at night? Maybe we'll try it with one arm free.
• We still use the TV as a white noise generator - it's nice and loud - but thanks to picture-in-picture, that doesn't mean we have to miss the playoffs.

Once in a while, as a reminder of how good we have it, we catch up with this blog. This baby was also due in July, but born in April at 1 1/2 pounds. He's still in the NICU, was denied a lung transplant for being too weak, and today has a 10% chance of survival.

We sucked it up and went to bed at 9:30 last night. This may be our new bedtime until they're sleeping through the night. Old and lame, that's us.

Their bedtime involves The Routine, but there's another one for the mornings: change diaper (from disposable to cloth for now), remove Miracle Blanket, put into sleep sack (blue for Bob, white for Drew), feed. We've also found that they get tired again maybe 30 minutes after eating, or at least calm. We're starting to assume this will happen, and plan our own breakfasts and morning hygiene rituals around it, but once in a while one or both get cranky and it bites us in the ass.

Note that we change the diaper with the Miracle Blanket still on, though partially unwrapped. This poses quite a challenge, but not as much as if we did it all the way; their "I'm Free!" flailings would make it like diapering a cat.

"Good Morning" smiles from the boys are nice, though.

Liss is picking up a used crib after school today, which means we won't have to look for one in the midst of the twin club sale next weekend. We won't even assemble it for months, but at least we'll have it ready. It's the kind that converts to a toddler bed later, and maybe a day bed. We figure between that and the crib we're already using, they're set until bunk bed age, around five years.

Meanwhile, we're wondering about possible future-child scenarios. If we have a girl, she'll have her own room, twins' protests be damned. But what about another boy? Maybe we'll rotate who gets his own room every year. What about one boy and one girl? Okay, then we'll be in a pickle.

Today I realized why I'm the best at getting smiles from the boys.

Out of all the people they interact with, I'm the funniest-looking.

We took the boys to an informational street fair for Seattle's light rail, which opens next summer. The station is three blocks from our house; the train will go from downtown to the airport, including the football and baseball stadia. We can't wait.

One of the city workers there to answer questions asked if the boys were identical, then told us about her identical twin cousins. They're 35 and live together. One just got married, and she moved in. The other's still there. Whatever works for people, I guess.

We've moved their crib from our room to theirs, since they're about to outgrow the bassinet they've been sharing. It's a bit of a to-do, since it doesn't just fit through the doorway, so we had to partially dismantle, move, then reassemble it.

Pictures.

• Drew staring and smiling. Smiles are common now, but no less fun for us.
• Bobby in Mom's lap. The new bedtime routine has allowed her to rekindle her interest in cooking.
• And here comes the cuteness overload! (one, two, three, four)

Bobby's the star this time.

• "Neh" is the universal baby word for food, breast, and nipple, which at first all mean the same thing to them. The boys quickly learned to also use it for binky, which complicates matters. Sometimes they want the bink, sometimes the bottle. Lately, they've been eating at 5 or so, then calling "neh" but refusing a binky around 6. They wouldn't be hungry yet, so I tried an experiment that works, yet looks very silly - using a bottle nipple as a binky. I consider this proof that they can discriminate between the types of nipples each represents.
• Bobby flipped from his tummy to his back again today - twice - so now we know it wasn't a fluke when he did it before. I didn't get a good picture or any video, so this is the best I have for now. Note Mom catching his soft head lest it bonk on the hard table.
• [video] Me playing with The Bob in mockumentary style. Any baby sounds you hear aren't him, but a fussy Drew.

Drew's newest nicknamey incarnation is Drewbie. It may or may not be to rhyme with Bobby, but it's certainly more fun than just Drew. Drewbie doobie doo! Drewbie Tuesday. How's my little baby Drewbie? It also works as a play on newbie.

Last night was another good night by our standards. It might even be getting to the point where we're taking it for granted. We need to remember that it can be worse, but also that it can get better. We're on this new routine because we were trying new thing after new thing to improve a bad situation, and we're satisfied with the new status quo. However, in a couple of months, we'll want them sleeping through the night, which will mean rocking the boat in an attempt to make a good situation even better. When that time comes, we'll have to get over a fear of it backfiring on us.

We've only discussed parenting philosophy here and there, but there's certainly no shortage of literature on the subject. Our general idea is to let the boys figure out who they are, with our guidance and boundaries. I'll read something like this [warning: some foul language] and wonder if it's the right way or not, but I do know one thing: no matter what we do, someone will think we're terrible parents. Heck, we're already hearing it with the formula feeding and disposable diapers. We're learning to just let it go, which thankfully we're both basically good at.

We've restarted the cloth diaper service. So far it's been much better than when they were too small for the covers. We're using them during the day, and the disposables at night, since they go unchanged for eleven hours or so. One day we'll be brave enough to try cloth overnight, but probably not very soon, and definitely on a weekend.

Except for Sunday, which Drew skipped, the boys have each pooped exactly once a day for eleven days.

Pictures.

• [video] Drew smiling.
• Bobby asleep. There's something subtle there - Liss came up with the idea of pinning down an arm to keep them from knocking out a binky. We use the u-shaped boppy pillow for this; he could easily extract his arm if he wanted to, but otherwise it serves its purpose.
• Drew crying. If you think the picture's bad, you should see the video.
• Random Drew look.
• Another attempt to have them notice each other, Bobby on top.
• Someone call the French language people - they used the word for sofa wrong.
• During quiet alert time at this age, you're supposed to use black and white patterns to help their learning. I figured I'd help Drew using sheet music to get a jump on their music education, which I can assure you will be very well-rounded.

The pictures have been pretty Drew-heavy lately. He's just more interactive. Bobby will catch up.

Parent of one baby: "Enjoy the first months. It's going to get tougher."

Parent of twins: "Tough it out the first months. It's going to get better."

We used up that breast milk our doula had given us.

Anyone got any lying around they're not planning to use?

I may not be getting the "Daddy's Home!" leg hugs yet, but I could swear they're giving me "Daddy's Home!" smiles when I come home from work. In fact, I seem to be the best at getting smiles out of them in general, for which Liss is faux-jealous.

We've been packing more formula into the same volume of water at night, to get more calories into them and make them sleepy. However, they're not eating much at other times. Babies' bodies regulate intake by volume, so Lissa's theory is that their stomachs are learning that they are getting more with less, so they don't need to eat a lot. In other words, we overdid it. So, we'll only be overloading during the bedtime feeding and otherwise just doing standard concentrations.

The new nighttime routine is pretty standard now. It kinda goes like this:

• 7:15: Diaper, Miracle Blanket, bottle, burp, take upstairs to bed.
• 8:00: We start to eat.
• 8:02: One baby or the other gets whiny over the monitor. I go upstairs and put his binky back in his mouth. I may or may not turn on a fan for white noise, level one. I come back to colder food.
• 8:10-?: Drew stares at the ceiling, not sleeping but not fussing, so we let him be.
• 8:20-9:50: We try to pretend we have no babies by doing things like watching the previous night's Daily Show. Much of this time is spent talking about the babies, or updating this page, or uploading pictures, or washing their bottles. Dammit.
• 9:50: Doze off on sofa. Go up and get ready for bed.
• 10:10: We're out like a light.
• 12:30: One baby or the other wakes up whiny. I go put his binky back in.
• 1:30: The same baby wakes up whiny. I go put his binky back in, turn fan to level two.
• 2:15: The same baby wakes up whiny. That's enough delay - Liss gets up and makes bottles and we feed them. (They used to fight the swaddle during this, but I've found that making it tighter in the first place prevents this - another Baby Counterintuition.)
• 2:45-4:30: I don't sleep. Actually, this is getting better, too.
• 5:30: One baby or the other wakes up whiny. I go put his binky back in, turn fan to level three.
• 5:50: The same baby wakes up whiny. Liss puts his binky back in.
• 6:05: The same baby wakes up whiny. Liss puts his binky back in.
• 6:08: Both babies wake up whiny. We make bottles, undo blankets, change diapers, put in sleep sacks, and feed.
• 6:37: My alarm clock goes off, and we laugh, because we haven't needed it since they were born - but you never know.

Believe me, this is a vast improvement over a month ago. Simply put, we were doing it wrong by keeping them with us until our bedtime.

The challenge now is getting ready for work (eat, shower, etc.) while they're waking up. That's going to be especially hard if we have to get them ready to take them to day care when the time comes, which is why we're leaning toward having someone come to house instead.

The twins club is having another sale on October 11th. I volunteered last time so Liss could get in early, and we spent over $500. We're not nearly in such need this time, so it's not worth leaving her alone with the boys for a night for me to volunteer again. We'll still go to the sale, though, which means another (shorter) round of sitting down to figure out priorities.

While we were all in the hospital, they drew the boys' blood for various tests. The U of Washington asked Liss if they could use the extra blood for their own tests for a study. Sure.

She just got a call - they're at elevated (3%) genetic^* risk for juvenile diabetes type one. The U would like to have them in a long-term study of the genetics versus environmental factors. Details are sparse for now, but we'll get literature.

There's lots of auto-immune disease in her family - none in mine. We always joke that they'll have to have one, too. Perhaps this is it, but there's no reason for pessimism.

Shirley and Amy gave us a date night, which we used for the usual dinner-and-a-movie.

I had an acquaintance a few years back who would sometimes break lulls in conversation by saying, in a quasi-cheesy voice, "So, how about that local sports team?" It kind of stuck with me.

We went to a bar-be-que place for dinner, and got some packets of honey for our cornbread. There was a warning on them, "Do not feed to infants under one year old." People used to dip pacifiers in honey, which is now a no-no, but we still wondered - why not put that warning on everything else? Steak. Coffee. Vodka. Arsenic.

It didn't me long: "So, how about those not-babies?"

The boys are eating less lately, or have at least plateaued. This doesn't help the underweight thing, but it's not like we can force feed them.

During tummy time, Bobby flipped onto his back. No one saw it. This is a four-month skill, but we're not calling Guinness just yet. He doesn't seem to care for tummy time much, so he might have just been particularly agitated rather than doing anything purposeful.

For the record, we've never dressed them alike. We're too paranoid - plus, there's really no reason other than "OMG Cute!" and they accomplish that without the gimmicks.

Their hair is growing, but very slowly. Eventually we'll dye a strip of Bobby's to easily tell them apart, though we'll have to assume it'll end up in his or Drew's mouth, so it has to be some kind of non-toxic dye.

According to the pediatrician, crawling used to be a five-month milestone, but then the Back to Sleep thing started. Now it's an eighth-month thing, since babies get less leg exercise on their backs.

Now that I'm back at work full time, I have less time with the boys. Right now I don't mind it so much, since they're still mostly eat/sleep/fuss, but eventually they'll have interactive personalities, and that'll be harder to be away for.

A side consequence of my return is that I'll have fewer opportunties to take pictures to post here, sorry. I guess I should show Shirley how to use my camera.

I have to admit I'm looking forward to "Daddy's Home!" leg hugs, but I know they're a long way off.

Other twin parents tell horror stories so often that the rest of us are just used to them: TTTS, born way early, months in the NICU, double colic, mom had a bad delivery and/or recovery, etc.

All things considered, we've been really fortunate with these boys. Even though they were early and small, they were healthy enough to spend their birth night with us and come home with us three days later. They don't have colic. They haven't had to go back to the hospital for something not caught earlier. They're hitting two-month milestones at two months despite being a month early. We've taken them in public with their immature immune systems, but they haven't caught anything. Heck, they didn't even get jaundice.

We tend to forget these things during their day to day care, since it's pretty overwhelming even without the extra problems, but once in a while we remind each other that it could be much worse. Bobby's fever last night became one of those reminders - it was a comparatively minor thing, but it still wears you down.

Bobby got a fever in response to the shots, because he was extra toasty and not eating at 1am, six hours after his last feed. Eventually Liss brought him into bed to sleep next to her, which calmed him down enough that we could all go back to sleep. Meanwhile, Drew had a typical night.

It's only one incident, but it may be indicative of their future health. Since Bobby was smaller out of the womb, he may be less developed in ways we don't know yet, and less able to fend off infections or other maladies. Time will tell.

Liss after the ped visit: So, they'll be on the annoying expensive formula for the foreseeable future. Ugh.

It's a little surprising that they're doing 2-month-old stuff, since they were a month early.

Good news from Tuesday night - they slept from 8pm to 3am, which allowed me to sleep (I went to bed at 9:20 - I'm an old man now). Also, my gravity theory got supporting evidence; Bobby broke his single-feeding record.

I guessed the boys would weigh 9/4 and 9/1 during last Friday's aborted ped visit. They're going Wednesday morning; I'll revise to 9/8 and 9/6.

Shirley (Liss's godmother) has the boys by herself all day for the first time. Heaven help her.

There's an annoying trend that's not going away after a week of the new night routine. The boys will wake up around 1-2am to eat, which is fine, but I can't get back to sleep afterwards. Last night I slept 30 minutes after 2:30am, so now I'm a coffee-fueled zombie.

I have a theory that gravity plays a part in how enthusiastically the boys eat. If there's a lot of food in the bottle, it presents a greater sense of urgency for them, and they run with it. As the bottle winds down, they lose interest; the last third of most bottles takes longer than the first two-thirds.

Tonight, we'll experiment with this by making over-large bottles during the 1am feed.

Sunday night was more like the rest of last week, though perhaps a little fussier.

For a 1am feeding, Liss never woke up, but it was okay; Drew lay there peacefully while I fed Bobby, waiting his turn. Liss fed both of them at 4:30 and I never woke up, so I'm guessing she got similar staggering out of them. It'd be great if that were the norm, since it's not a big deal to feed one then the other, but they don't have that kind of patience. It was just a coincidence.

I'm back to work full time now, and Liss tomorrow except for doctor's appointments and the like, thanks to the arrival of her godmother. We're educating her as best we can before leaving her alone with the boys, but there's a lot of information to absorb. It's basically all second nature to us, because we've lived and breathed it 24/7 for two months, so the challenge is to distill everything down to the important stuff.

Pictures.

• [video] Bobby, who can't control his arms yet, knocks out his binky - then get mad that his binky's gone. If you count these, and add when they spit it out then complain that it's gone, multiplied by two babies, it happens at least 50 times a day. This is not an exaggeration.
• The boys wore shoes for the first time this week, which I have to admit seems a little ridiculous right now. They're a pain to put on, and don't do the job shoes were meant for in the first place. In fact, you're not supposed to put shoes on babies much at all, so they can feel the ground with their feet better.
• There's been some pretty solid eye contact lately, so sometimes when they're both alert we'll face them toward each other. Sometimes they take the bait, sometimes not. (Bobby's the one facing the camera)
• Random Drew stare that I found amusing.
• It's hard to tell from this picture of Bobby, but the boys have some major curly blonde eyelashes going on. It's very Casanova.
• We got a couple of sleep sacks as gifts from Fairy Godfather Frank. Bobby looks like a holy man in the white one.
• You can lead a Bobby to binky, but you can't make him suck.
• Mom feeding Drew. I like how casual his posture is.
• Both asleep, Drew on the left.
• Both asleep on my lap, Drew on the left. And here's a here's a closeup of him. I think their feet are cute as heck.
• Drew asleep - again with the feet, this time curly-toed.
• Bobby on the sofa, for scale.

There are many pictures of the boys asleep. That doesn't mean they sleep all the time - it's just that that's when I have free hands for the camera.

When I took geometry in 9th grade, the first six weeks was a big unit on Logic. One of the basic building blocks of logic is the if/then construct - if x happens, then y will happen. If I feed a baby, then he will pee later.

Just about every time this came up, she'd use the example "If I go to town, then I buy a Coke."^* She did it so often that not only do I remember it to this day, but "go to town" triggers the memory. Lately it's happening a lot, because when one of the boys is downing a bottle with enthusiasm, we almost invariably say that's he's going to town on it. So, either mentally or under my breath, I pretty much have to say "and later you'll buy a Coke."

Early this year, Kohl's had an online sale of washcloths for some ridiculous price, like 10 for $4. Since we knew we'd need them when the boys came, I ordered three bundles of ten, but only got one. When I reported the error, they refunded the difference.

I'd rather have those twenty washcloths right now.

People often ask how we tell the boys apart, but it's hard to explain the number one method - routines. Plus, it's a boring answer.

The red toenails and especially the ear flap are just backup systems. Always putting them to bed in the same spots - that's uber-useful.

So much for consistency - after four nights of decent sleep and predictable patterns, Saturday night sucked.

They were nap-sleepy at 5pm, so we tried to keep them awake long enough to feed them and put them down around 7, but by 6 they were puppets without strings - exhausted. So, we did it early. Then they woke up at 10:30, 1:00, 2:45, 4:00, and 6:15. Liss is ... unhappy with them.

Next time we're not going to try to keep them from napping, even if it's just before bedtime, which goes back to the counterintution of "the more they sleep, the more they'll sleep." That theory now has more of our support after last night's debacle.

Current pee-on-one's-own-face count:

• Andrew: 1
• Robert: 7

Drew breaks the shutout!

From Liss:

Friday night was the fourth using the earlier bedtime. They seem to consistently wake up for food about six hours after their bedtime feeding, which translates to 1-2am or so, and then again about four hours later. Drew seems to be the one to wake up, then start squirming and waking his brother, so I'm calling him The Instigator. However, it helps keep them on the same schedule, so we're not splitting their beds yet - we'll wait until we think one might sleep all the way through the night.

Unfortunately, I seem to have trouble getting back to sleep after the night feeding; hopefully that'll subside.

No new weights. Liss pulled a boner^* and had the wrong appointment time. Rescheduled for Wednesday morning.

Impression from a visiting friend:

There are some substantial things coming up. Friday is the two-month ped visit, where they'll get (four?) shots as well as being weighed. Drew should be past nine pounds, with Bob right around that. If we had a pool, I'd say 9/4 and 9/1.

We should also get the okay to take them off the high-calorie formula and back to the normal stuff, now that they're not low-weight. Besides being much less expensive, the regular formula is less bubbly, so they get less gassy. This change should also hasten retiring the smallest bottles and breaking out the five-ouncers.

We'll be trying cloth diapers again; the service is bringing them next Friday. The theory is that the diaper covers are no longer too big for them, so they won't leak anymore. We may have to continue to use disposables at night if last night's sleep becomes the norm.

Liss's godmother arrives Sunday afternoon, staying with us for three weeks. Liss is taking off Monday to give her a "crash course," and then it's trial by fire. I return to work full time on Monday.

Why is it called a diaper? Does it diap? When I soak up a spill with a paper towel, am I diaping?

The boys only woke up once in ten hours Tuesday night.

This is one time, so we're not getting our hopes up, but we've been reading up, soliciting advice, trying new things, tweaking the routine, and so on. I'm writing it down so we can refer back to what we did.

We'd already been doing a routine for the last ten days or so: diaper, Miracle Blanket, bottle, burp, put to bed. When we were doing it varied based on their hunger. However, Liss heard something counterintuitive from a few sources - the earlier you put them to bed, the longer they'll sleep. So, instead of 9-ish, we put them down after a 7:30 feeding. Since it was still light out, we moved their bassinet into their room, which has dark curtains. Besides the time, this is another variable we changed, so we can't just say it was the time.

At the time, Bobby was out cold, but Drew was awake. However, he didn't fuss much, but just lay there staring at nothing. This is common, and since he was quiet, he didn't mind it. He fussed for his binky a couple of times ("then keep it in your mouth, doofus!"), but I'd pop it back in and he'd be okay. Around the time we went to bed a little after 10, they both were bawling. We figured this was feeding time, and our experiment was a failure, but after more binky replacement, they went right back to sleep.

They woke up around 1:45, this time for food. At the end, Drew was wide awake again, and again occasionally fussy, but not very vocally so. As happens, I was also wide awake, this time until 4. I checked on them periodically, and he was usually just lying there staring again. Their usual behavior after a night feeding is to lie there and whine for a while, so this was a vast improvement.

A funny side note, when I fed Drew, I thought it was Bobby, and even wrote down his food in Bobby's column. When we moved the bassinet, we changed which side faced which way, and at that wee hour, I got turned around. Liss figured it out.

They were half awake at 6, so we got them up so they'd be ready to go with Liss to work on time. After that feeding, they conked out again. It was eerie.

The best part of the whole thing was that we got to be company for each other for a couple of hours, instead of just Team Baby.

And finally, the Miracle Blanket says not to use it for more than eight hours at a time. We say screw that.

Pictures.

• Bobby woke up with his binky on his head (pic, pic). However, it's more fun if you take those two pictures together.
• Drew smiling. And another.
• And one from Bobby

These aren't proto-smiles anymore; they're the real deal. They're still pretty rare, though.

And this video is of Drew with a smile halfway through. The wide-eyed look is their usual response to a raspberry - it's even more comical with both of them together.

You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose.

However, should the situation necessitate it, you can pick your infant son's nose.

Liss has small dimples - the one on her left cheek is much more pronounced than the right. It looks like the boys have inherited this. However, since theirs are also small, pictures have been elusive.

While Liss was pregnant, even when we knew it was twins, we deferred the decision to have more babies. Despite everything so far, we're still leaning yes.

Part of that is that Liss wants a girl, but of course there's only a 50/50 chance of that. That doesn't stop us from referring to this mental image of a person with our previously chosen first-girl name - Ellen. We don't have a third-boy name yet, but we retain the short list from before.

If Murphy's Law takes hold, Liss will eventually end up with four boys.

This page hit 10,000 hits Friday night (counter at very bottom), about 6,000 of which have been since the birth.

Pictures.

• Mom with Drewbie, who may or may not be smiling.
• Drew rather comically engrossed in a makeshift mobile.
• Drew's hand in mine.
• Our friends Matt and Ben are starting the adoption process; as part of their "portfolio" to show prospective birth mothers, they figured it'd be a good idea to include pictures of them with babies.

Liss left me alone with the boys Thursday morning - my first time with both for more than a moment or two. Bobby was in quiet alert, while Drew was sleepier (pic, Bobby on right). Note the time says 8:28am. Now, there are several things going on in that picture:

• They are facing each other, just in case they could see and recognize each other, but they didn't.
• They're also facing each other because both of their seats recline; buffering them against one another helps prevent them from sliding down.
• For warmth, one blanket still covers two babies.
• Binkies - their crack and ours.
• Mobiles are hung for distraction and learning. Note that one is attached to a clip, which in turn is clipped to a five-pound exercise weight. However, the clip exerted a torque on the weight, making it roll, so that's against another weight to provide static friction. Hi, I was a science teacher.
• However, I also wanted white noise. My idea was to turn my TV to a non-channel and crank the volume. You can see it in the upper right of the picture - a very expensive white noise generator.
• Here are the results - time of 8:49.

This is how I coped. However, the calm lasted about an hour, at which time they both woke up Demanding Food. There are no pictures during that time, because I only have two hands.

Amy changed their clothes while I was away; I was able to tell who was who without the red nail polish. It was a relief.

Thursday night was probably the best night yet that didn't involve someone else watching the babies. We've been trying to get them on a nightly routine; maybe these two things are related, maybe not, but we'll take it.

Eight weeks old today.

After several days of "dieting," Drew ate like a monster on Tuesday. This is probably another growth spurt, hopefully mental.

Liss took both boys to school today. It's amazing how much work I'm getting done - more than at work, actually; there are fewer distractions here at home.

We usually have several kinds of cereal in the house. Lately, I've found myself gravitating toward the ones that stay crunchy in milk, lest a baby take me away from it and I have to return to a pile of mush.

Pictures.

• Both on the floor while Mom learns 'em good. Of course, they both have their wubbanubs; we're as addicted to those things as they are.
• Mom holding Bobby.
• I hereby present Bobby's first visible runny snot. I hear it won't be his last.
• Tuesday I had Drew all day. He might have smiled (another). However, he's looking at the couch, not me, so it's hard to tell. I'm calling them proto-smiles - practice smiles, if you will.
• [video] Drew shows us the power of the binky. Before judging our addiction too harshly, turn up the volume on your speakers and play the first five seconds on a continuous loop for half an hour. :-D

We're doing "divide and conquer" again. In the hour it took to feed Drew and calm him down, I had nine new work e-mails. This doesn't help matters, but I'm keeping my head above water.

People instinctually break down long-term projects into sizable chunks. For my pools site, for example, I had to create a login system, then a page layout and menu system, etc. When doing a jigsaw puzzle, people tend to do the edges first to get their bearings. The examples are endless - each milestone lets you exhale in relief and start fresh on the next step.

I have been very frustrated doing practically nothing but taking care of babies, with still no reward or milestones for our constant efforts other than weight gain, which is hardly engaging. Frustration is one of the feelings I hate most - and I consciously avoid the word "hate."

Put this all together with a three-day weekend of Just Babies, and I lost my temper Monday night. This is a very rare thing. I'm not even sure Liss had ever seen it before; I think I scared her. For the record, I lashed out at "the situation," not her or the boys, and it lasted about two seconds, but still. She theorizes that I'd reached the same point that she does when she starts crying, which is also rare. We just react in different ways.

We're retiring more and more clothes, making a pile to send to the eMoms preemie lending closet. For the smallest stuff, I kind of look at it and go "they were never this tiny ...".

For some things, it's not that their bodies are too big - their heads don't fit through the hole.

We're going to Costco Sunday to get more diapers, even though the boys almost fit the cloth diaper covers, and we have enough disposables for a couple of weeks.

Why the rush? My membership expires at the end of August.

Weights at the ped: Andrew 8/4 and Robert 7/13. Bobby's been eating more, hence gained more; he's closing the gap.

Since they got home, it's taken five hours for me to get a free moment to type this - and that's with Amy here to help.

Pictures with deadpan commentary.

• Drew resting on my chest.
• In the same scene, Liss seems to think I've been living with the cats too long.
• While it appears that Bobby is asleep from a combination of a snuzzly position, pacifier, and comfy leather armrest, the truth is that he'd just gotten a whiff of my pit.
• Drew in an angsty pose after realizing what dorky parents he has (close-up).

Music seems to soothe the savage beasts.

That's based on sparse data, but I'll be pursuing it further. What is certain is that it's not easy to play the piano while holding a baby.

Just about every piece of educational literature about babies and sleep mentions SIDS. There are tons of dos and don'ts that go along with it, like swaddling, room temperature, air circulation, bedding, crib bumpers, and hundreds of other things. I suspect that most of these supposed risk factors are scientifically tenuous at best, but that's a whole other deal.

When the boys were fresh out of the womb, I checked "to make sure they're alive" about every half hour or so when they were sleeping. I still do it once or twice a day. If nothing else, we get some morbid humor out of it ("Yep! Still alive!").

It's a little paranoid and irrational, but I think if there's one stage in life where someone can get away with that, it's the New Parent stage.

As noted earlier, my boss's boss is in town. He popped by and asked how it was going, to which I responded that I was awake. His reaction tells me that he probably doesn't even know about the boys. So now I think he thinks I'm an idiot.

After a little initial hair growth, it appears to have stopped for now. They just have a light velvety sheen of head hair. This baldness makes it easier to see how they resemble certain male elders.

Even when it does come in, it's going to be very fine and very light blonde, if Liss's and my baby pictures are any indication.

Liss kind of has a raw deal this week. Since I've had to go to work instead of doing so from home, she's had to take care of both boys. However, she's also had to go to work for lots of meetings and prep work, so she's been taking them with her. Once she gets there, it's not so bad, since the car trip conks them out. Plus, it's an elementary school; there's no shortage of doting women who are more than happy to hold a baby (as long as he's calm).

The bad part is when we're getting ready in the morning. The boys don't care that we need to eat breakfast, shower, get dressed, get our lunch, etc, etc. And when they want something they want it right now or we'll hear about it. And Hear About It. AND HEAR ABOUT IT. You get the idea.

All of this is leaning her toward - when the time comes - hiring someone who comes to the house in the morning, rather than taking them to a day care.

Next week I'll be at home most of the time, and then her godmother comes for a while, then her mother. So, things will improve soon.

Bobby is going to the ped Friday for a followup to his reflux visit. While he's there, he'll get weighed. Liss will take Drew along to try to sneak him onto the scale, as well. I'm hoping for 8/6 and 7/8.

Meta-note for the people using Firefox - external links should now be in white, and internal in green.

We've spent about $500 on formula in the last six weeks, thanks to the need to use the more expensive, higher-calorie stuff. In a month or so, we should be able to start using normal formula again, which is much cheaper.

If Obama is elected, will we be able to write off the formula under the We Wanted To Breastfeed But Couldn't Act?

Drew has had at least one four-hour stretch of sleep for a few nights now, but also a two-hour stretch of evening fussiness. The latter isn't quite the definition of colic yet, but it's still unpleasant. I suppose that's the karmic tradeoff for the longer sleep.

This thing's getting over 100 hits a day now.

Who the hell are you people?

At what point in our lives does it become rude to poop while eating^*? Because that's one of the few skills these guys really have down.

Follow, if you will, this chain of events from 5:30am:

1. Pick up Bobby to feed, but will change him first to wake him up a little.
2. Unwrap Miracle Blanket, unsnap onesie, remove diaper and toss in trash. He's wailing.
3. Baby fountain-pees all over his onesie, stomach and legs.
4. Remove blanket so I can remove wet onesie, partially replace with dry onesie. Dry stomach and legs.
5. Baby fountain-pees again, this time on my shirt and again on his legs. Dry legs. Put on new diaper - quickly.
6. Feed baby (he stops wailing), swaddle, put back into bassinet.
7. Change my shirt.

Note that part 6 takes about 40 minutes.

We think Drew has some constipation, so we thawed out some of that breast milk the doula brought us and fed it to him. He downed it like candy, but still no poop 12 hours later. Meanwhile, we're one step closer to being less freaked out about having the milk of some woman we've never met sitting in our fridge. Not helping: it's dated April.

Speaking of downing, Drew had his first taste of something other than formula or milk last night, as well - I bit a grape and let him mouth it [video]. He really seemed to like it.

Liss took Andrew to school today, and left me here with Bobby.

Divide and conquer? Perhaps - but they may be thinking the same thing.

It seems that some people (relatives) are using pictures I'm posting to have prints made. That's fine, but what I post is greatly reduced in quality to fit computer screens. If you want to make anything beyond about a 4x6, mail me and I'll send you the big original.

Here is a good read on pacifiers, mostly for our own future reference. We're probably overusing them for now, but we have time. The whole "don't use them - they'll need braces!" thing seems overblown from what I'm reading, so that's a relief. Besides, as Liss's mother says, "orthodontia is cheaper than therapy."

We've been using Miracle Blankets (thanks for the new pair, Shawna) on both boys for two nights now; we'd tried them before with some success, but for some reason they seem to take to them better now. They're sleeping for longer stretches - four hours in a couple of cases.

We're also very likely to skip a diaper change during one nighttime feeding, after making sure they're not wallowing in their own poop. All that undressing and nakedness usually wakes them up and makes them fussy. The blankets make it so they wake up just enough to eat and burp, then more or less fall back asleep before we even put them down. If we keep it up, they should also help signal "bedtime" to their brains as part of that routine, which we're still trying to establish.

Also, Bobby's been doing the fetal limb cramp thing less, which is another sign of developmental progress.

But I still feel dumb reading out loud to them.

There have been two three-hour+ stretches between feedings today. I'm really hoping that's a trend ... and that I'm not jinxing it.

A scene like this takes a surprising amount of work. By the time they hit this stage, they've gone through "the cycle" - awakened, changed, fed, burped, calmed, swaddled, and pacified. Each of those takes time, such that the whole shebang takes anywhere from 45 minutes to three hours for each baby, mostly depending on the "calmed" and "pacified" stages. It should be no wonder that we try to keep them on the same schedule. If we (and they) do it right, we might get a two-hour block where they're both asleep.

Then, however, we have other decisions to make. We could take care of:

• Auxiliary baby stuff: wash bottles, do their laundry, log their food, take them for a walk, update this thing, upload pictures
• Ourselves: bathroom, food, showers, naps, snuggles, laundry, actual job work
• The house: feed/pet/clean up after the cats, laundry, bills, vacuuming, trash, recycling
• Or: nothing productive whatsoever.

There's also a quiet alert stage (see video three sections down), which is when you're supposed to play with them. That's when their brains develop the most, you see.

When we choose anything other than baby stuff when they're asleep, we feel a little guilt, but not too much. But we often leave them to their own devices during quiet alert, which is when we really can feel like we're horrible parents. The truth is, we only have so much baby-energy, and most of it is spent on things they think they need right this second - the aforementioned cycle and auxiliary baby stuff.

I know there are parents out there who somehow have limitless energy to devote to their children, but apparently we are not those kinds of people. We need to eat, too, dangit.

Hopefully that'll shift a little when we get feedback mechanisms - smiles, eye contact, etc. If it seems we're obsessing about that, it's because we are.

We've started swaddling Drew again. It works again - usually. My theory is that he was fighting it when we had higher temperatures those couple of weeks ago.

My boss's boss is coming up from California the last three days of the week. I figure I should be there so he doesn't ask awkward questions about my working from home. It's all approved by my boss and HR, but better to be safe. Unfortunately for Liss, with my usual Monday appearance, I'll be there four days this week.

Saturday presented a rare window, where both boys were alert during the daytime, but not fussy. It lasted about 20 minutes. Here's video evidence. Note the flailing of limbs, which is very typical. They don't know their limbs belong to them yet, let alone that they can control them. That's another reason for swaddling - to prevent accidentally bonking themselves and waking up, or from pulling out a pacifier. And here's a picture of same. I'm leaving the "which is which" game to the reader. :-D

Then Later, they were both asleep, which isn't rare, but needs to be less so. I especially like how Drew's feet stick out. Now, one might like to see my hand to show scale, but I prefer something a little more standard.

And finally, a new burping and/or sleeping position for Bobby, on my leg. Personally, I think he looks like this guy in that picture. And by the way, pictures of me in here will be few and far between - consider yourselves fortunate.

From Liss:

A delivery guy just dropped off flowers for "Andrew and Robert." He probably thought I was one, and my partner the other.

Not appropos of the boys, my annual NFL Confidence Pick 'Em pool is now open for people to join in. There's a free version for those who don't want to pay the $51 to enter the for-money pool.

Pictures.

• Bobby conked out.
• Mom attempting to engage Bob with a rattle, mostly for naught. Note his red toenail.
• Drew in my lap. We're putting them in these full-body sleepers at night, now that it's gotten a little chillier.
• Bobby sleeping on his wedge with his arms up in zombie fashion, and again after he moved them into "Praise Be The Lawd!" position.
• Bobby with a makeshift mobile on the changing table. We bought two of the white clips to give us flexibility of where we can hang mobiles.
• We had been told that putting a fussy baby in his car seat and then on top of the dryer would be soothing. We hadn't tried it, but Amy did while babysitting the two. It worked, as Drew proves. This was just a couple of minutes after getting him on there. We tried it with Bobby the next morning, with similar success.

Something "they" tell you about calming fussy babies is to beware overusing any one method, lest the baby become dependent on it to be calmed at all. We've been overly cautious about this - we were almost never using our swing, the dryer, or even ourselves as soothing mechanisms. Now that we've entered this fussy stage, we're turning to these things quite a bit more, though with an eye on not overdoing them.

Amy came over to let us go out and then sleep awhile. It's these gestures and donations of practical help that are the best gifts we can get right now (short of college scholarships).

Liss and our friend Janna are currently on their way to Tacoma with the boys. It's Liss's theory that they sleep better at night if they've been out during the day. I guess that's true, but it also means I can concentrate on work for a while - though half the time I just end up napping instead.

From Liss, with my additions in [these things]:

Their food graph isn't terribly exciting, but there's a new trend. Bobby is now eating more than Drew. Maybe that means he'll catch up.

(Each tic is a four-day average daily intake)

It's never fun to see your wife cry. It's especially hard when you can't do anything about it.

For 40 days and 40 nights, Noah and his family fought the ravages of God's watery wrath while tending to two of every animal.

For 40 days and 40 nights, we've tended to the boys.



Noah was a wuss.

And where's my olive leaf?

Liss took the boys to school today, to get everybody used to them before she tries to do so on the clock on a regular basis.

This is the product of my idle hands.

Bobby had been showing symptoms of increased acid reflux, so Liss took him in Tuesday. They couldn't find anything particularly wrong, so it's either still a mild case, random fussiness ... or perhaps the start of colic.

While they were there, he weighed in at 6/15. He's gained nearly a pound in 11 days. If Drew did the same (we stayed home), he'll be around 7/12.

Eat, sleep, fuss, excrete!
Lather, rinse, repeat!

... sounds like one of those cheers we did at high school football games.

I've given both of them the nickname "Little Dude."

I've realized that I'm not nearly as demonstrative^* with the boys when we have company. I guess I'm too self-conscious about it.

Pictures.

• Sometimes, whilst I assume the awesome responsibilty of taking pictures, Liss will feed the boys.
• Drew asking Mom for help with 33 Down, and again after he learns that she in fact doesn't know the capital of Tunisia.
• The doula loaned us a foam wedge for Bobby to rest/sleep on, to help with his (slight) acid reflux problem. Note the checkered blanket we use for an ottoman.
• Liss's parents and aunt/uncle have been here this weekend; here's grandpa with Drew.
• Since Drew's graduated from swaddling already, he goes to bed in a pajama sleeper. Personally, I think he's only missing a red nose and rainbow wig.
• Both on the boppy, on which they barely fit together anymore. Their limbs are worth noting - generally, Drew (L) will extend his legs further than Bobby, and is less likely to sleep with his elbows up. The bending is a fetal thing that babies grow out of, which is part of our evidence that Drew is developmentally a couple of weeks ahead of Bobby.
• Different view of the same poses.

Earlier I showed this picture of Bobby in the position of a fetus in breech (feet down). As a good little liberal, I felt guilty for not presenting the opposing viewpoint, so here's another picture, this time vertex (head down).

Fair and balanced.

I've been trying to apply this theory [video] about telling what different baby cries mean. Success has been limited, but it's mostly got merit. When they start fussing, the sounds in the video are the first thing I'm listening for, and I'm getting to be right more often than not.

The funny thing is, she sells the information from that five minute video in a two-DVD set that runs maybe an hour between them, for a cool $35. It's clear (to me) that this was one of those cases of a person/publisher trying to squeeze every dollar they could out of an idea, and perhaps no market is riper for plucking than "insecure new parent." I don't begrudge her getting rich from her apparently useful research; I just find the way it's done to be tacky.

Our doula has another client, who was producing too much breast milk.

The surplus is sitting in our freezer, waiting for us to have the guts to do something with it.

Depending on whose definition you're using, the boys might now be considered infants instead of newborns.

The boys have Social Security numbers.

They are now officialy tools of The Man.

Since I don't want no wussies, I'll be buyin' this soon.

It's almost 7pm Thursday. I'm writing this from our bedroom, where we've been for the last five hours. At first, it was to avoid the guy cleaning our carpets (we still haven't seen Andi since he left), but we're loathe to leave, since it's 80 in the house again. The bedroom has a window A/C unit, so we may be in here for a while. We're considering ordering a pizza to eat in here.

The next few days are supposed to be much warmer.

Speaking of the next few days, Liss's parents, aunt and uncle will be here all weekend. We're hoping to take over one of their hotel rooms for the air conditioning, but probably need to be subtle about it - like somehow making it seem like their idea. It's their first time meeting the boys, so we may be able to get away with it in their baby stupor.

;-)

Pictures.

• On the floor together during tummy time.
• Bobby. This is the pose of a breeched fetus. I just like how he has his toes and feet.
• Drew a little more relaxed.

Sometimes, while lying on my chest, the boys will mouth near my nipplar area by instinct.

So far, I have resisted following the lead of Family Guy.

We're experimenting with not swaddling Andrew anymore, since he would often fight it hard - especially at night, which then wakes him up. The swaddle is ingrained as a must for 0-3 months, and lots of parents do it well beyond that.

The first night went fine. The only thing that seemed to bother him was being a little colder, which was easy enough to fix.

We had the second-youngest babies at the first-years multiples meeting. There was a couple there with three-weekers, whom she'd carried to 39 weeks(!).

Some of the older babies were 10, 12, 15 pounds. They looked freakin' huge to us.

There's a joke in the movie Contact that goes "First Rule of Government Spending: Why build one when you can have two at twice the price?"

Getting two babies out of one pregnancy is efficient. You also have a DNA/blood type/organ match, and a built-in playmate.

The rest of it is building two at twice the price.

I'm starting to think that if someone's on the fence about having kids and reads this page, it might push them toward not having them.

If that's the case: good. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who doesn't really, really want them.

It's been two more weeks since I wrote that, and it's worn off. Sometimes it feels like all I am is a dad.

Human babies need to evolve three new mechanisms, ready to go out of the womb:

1. A way of telling what they want. Apparently a parent is supposed to be able to differentiate among cries after a week or so, but we surely can't. What they need is to hold up tiny signs like "food" or "diaper." Hand signals would be fine.

2. A snooze button. We might know what the problem is (hungry), and are actively working to fix it (making a bottle), but that doesn't stop the kid from SCREAMING into your ear while you do it. A snooze button of even one minute would be most welcome.

3. An off switch - or really, a sleep switch. I'd like this one for myself, as well.

I just don't understand the evolutionary advantage of a newborn's tendency to wake up his parents all night long. Wouldn't that make the parents less able to hunt and gather effectively the next day, and thus less able to provide sustinence?

One month old.

Sunday night was pretty bad. Bobby only slept one hour between 11pm to 4am.

Monday morning our doula said that it might be the beginning of a month of similar - when mom's sleep hormones are done being flushed out, but before their own take hold.

Lovely.

Liss and I have spent about 30 hours apart in the last month. Most of the month has been in the trenches, as I call it.

This is what turns weaker couples into headline news.

We were asked to update the registry; I've moved it to a Wish List on Amazon.

They're both getting more adept at passing gas.


Yay.

Pictures.

• Bobby on the boppy. The green thing is a Wubbanub, which we'd heard about during pregnancy. The idea of attaching something helps three ways - the weight on a baby's chest helps calm them, it stays near when they let go, and it's harder to lose.
• Drew making eye contact - with the camera. Eye contact doesn't last for more than a second so far, so it's hard to say it's anything more than checking out one more nearby feature, as opposed to any kind of real awareness.
• Video of Bobby making a sound that we find funny - the combination of his fussy voice while sucking a pacifier.

Monday night is the monthly meeting of expecting and first-year multiples. We missed last month, being in the hospital and all. This time we'll have a pair of babies, which means we probably won't stay long.

I'm putting out the word to see if anyone wants to take my two younger cats. They need to be indoor/outdoor somewhere.

Saturday was their due date, August 9th. That is, if they had only been one, we'd be having him right about now.

It's also Day Zero for adjusted age. We can't assume that, say, a six-week skill is going to come at six weeks from their birth; it might come six weeks after Day Zero. Plus, "six weeks" would just be an average, with nine weeks still normal, so they might not hit this hypothetical skill until they're thirteen weeks old.

However, while they still haven't reached some few-week milestones, they're doing a few more advanced things. Andrew started (limited) self-burping recently, which is a three-month skill. They've both been able to roll from side to side for weeks. They can keep their heads upright longer and longer. They're also fighting being swaddled, which isn't supposed to happen yet, and is a major source of fussiness these days.

They both broke their food record by 10% Saturday, and are continuing the pace Sunday (especially Bobby). Perhaps this is a growth spurt, which is fine, but to us it also means they're being high[er] maintenance.

We're going to try moving them away from the premiee to the newborn nipples. We've already retired a few of the premiee clothes for being too small.

Two of the challenges of getting new entries into this thing are that many ideas happen with both hands dealing with a baby and/or at the wee hours of the morning. By the time I can actually sit down at the computer, the thought is gone.

Current pee-on-one's-own-face count:

• Andrew: 0
• Robert: 4

We may have to declare an early champion.

Fifteen days ago, they weighed 5/3 (A) and 4/10 (R). Today, they're up to 6/13 and 6/0! Huge babies!

Doc said that if they were that weight while newborn ("due date" is Saturday), 6/13 would be in the 30th percentile for all babies. Not bad.

Barring something unforeseen, no more visits (and therefore weigh-ins) for a month.

I haven't been writing much this week, because there's not much to say. "Today they ate, slept, pooped, and fussed." They just don't do much yet.

The same goes for pictures - "Here they are lying around. Here they are sleeping." - but here are a few.

• They both have some baby acne, but Bobby's has been worse. Those bumps on his cheek have been useful for differentiating between the twins.
• When a newborn is alert, you're supposed to play with them. However, at the moment they don't "play back," so we do what we can. At this age, their vision and brainpower don't do colors very well, so black and white patterns are recommended. Those sheets definitely hold their interest for a good five seconds at a time.
• It was hot for a couple of days here, with Wednesday night being particularly annoying. As this says, it was 81 degrees in the house at 10pm. I don't do well with heat and humidity - odd, since I grew up in Houston - so I probably wasn't all that pleasant to be around.

The cloth diaper versus disposable debate envokes rage on both sides. Twin parents sometimes get a pass to use disposables, but not from everyone.

However, one of the major arguments is cost, but they don't include "cost." It's easy to break purchase price down to the per-diaper level, but not so much the other costs, such as electricity for washing, tax dollars toward a landfill, etc.

In our case, we have about a 1 in 3 failure rate - leakage - with cloth. Maybe it's because they're still relatively small babies. Maybe we're installing them incorrectly. Maybe we just have bad diaper covers. We're trying to troubleshoot, but no conclusion is jumping out at us. Meanwhile, those leaks add to the "cost" of cloth. We have to change them more often, which takes valuable time. Changing them may make them fussy when they were calm. Also, when changing a leaky diaper, you normally have to change their clothing and blanket, which is then added to the laundry prematurely. Last night I had to add my soaked jeans.

More than those things, it just adds to our aggravation. Our free time - when neither baby is fussy - is rare and precious these days, and leaks take away from that.

The disposables' failure rate is zero. That difference is tipping the scales in their favor. We've been doing cloth by day and disposables at night (because of cloth's leakage), but cloth may have a short life span in this house.

"Is the temperature of the bottle to your liking, Your Majesty? Is the concentration of formula correct? Does the angle at which I'm holding the bottle meet with your exacting standards?"

Me to Andrew, who's not in my good graces at the moment.

It's supposed to hit 83 Monday and 89 Tuesday. We'll see how the boys react with their new fat - especially if we try to swaddle them.

We think they're making some eye contact, but it's hard to tell. They might just be moving their eyes in the direction of our voices; sometimes it looks like they're looking at our mouths instead.

When that gets more obvious, we'll face them toward each other to help their brother-awareness. We tried this last week - with Drew on his back in the crib, and me holding Bobby over him, facing down. About two seconds after I was done and started moving him away, he threw up.

A year ago, we were on our way to Beijing.

It was okay, but I wish I had that $6000 back.

Sunday night, we received the gift of sleep from our friends Sarah and Ash. They stayed overnight until the doula arrived at 7am. I got up once - to pee.

They hadn't seen the boys for a week, and quickly remarked at how much bigger they are.

Apparently, having friends bring us chili is not without its dangers.

An online acquaintance tested the car seat for his imminent kid - on his cat.

We did not do this.

It's hard to notice day to day changes, especially when you see someone constantly, but it's evident to us that the boys are getting pudgy. Here is Bobby's chin. And here is Mom holding Drewboy; note his feet and arm fat.

They've basically been eating McDonald's five times a day for two+ weeks.

The next ped visit and weigh-in is Thursday. I was thinking before that maybe we'd see Drew at 6 lbs. and Bobby at 5 1/2, but now I don't know what to expect.

Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers.



Fussy Baby Bobby Munger.

The Blue Angels are practicing for this weekend's show. As far as we can tell, their loud engines are white noise to the boys, which newborns find soothing. A couple of times, a flyover has moved one from sleepy to asleep.

Media:

• The boys' hair is getting noticeably longer. Eventually, we'll be able to cut/style them differently as a means of telling them apart. (Can you tell we're big on not switching them?)
• We found an online store that would sell us formula by the case cheaper than the stores. We now have all the essentials we need for the long haul.
• The twins are genetically identical, but not identical in every way. For instance, Bobby poops twice a day, while Drew poops once every two days. For Drew's part, this results in some epic grunting when the big event occurs, as shown in this [entirely work-safe] video. It takes about twelve of these before he's done. All he needs is a newspaper.

I cut off Drew's anklet last night. I hadn't looked at it in two days, at which time I could still spin it around his ankle. I couldn't last night, so off it went, along with it one way to tell them apart.

This morning, I noticed some definite chubbiness in Bobby's face.

Our little boys are growing up.

August 1st.

In a parallel universe - one where Liss's body goes the distance - she would be having the scheduled c-section today, and the boys wouldn't be three weeks old. In the long term, it doesn't make much difference, but it's an interesting thought experiment as to how our July and August would have been different.

"Your milk will come in."

We heard this over and over again before and after the birth. She's done everything she's supposed to - regular pumping, supplements, massage, skin time, etc. - and nothing. Well, not nothing, but not nearly enough for one meal a day, let alone to sustain two growing babies.

We weren't planning to spend $8-10 a day on formula, but here we are. That's only for a couple of months, though, while they're on the high-calorie stuff. The normal formula is much cheaper.

Meanwhile, however, they're not getting her immune system help, so that may delay when we can take them out in public.

The whole concept of adjusted age skews everything. Since the boys were born a month early, it's reasonable to assume that the 6-8 week milestones (smiles, coos, eye contact) won't come until 6-8 weeks after their actual due date of August 9th - that is, when they're 10-12 weeks old.

I really hope that's not the case. One big ray of light is that they never went to the NICU despite being early. So, their age adjustment might not be four weeks - but for now, we have to assume it is.

Despite the cute pictures and dry humor of this page, this month hasn't been all peaches and cinnamon.

First and foremost, the boys seem to have become noctural. They'll sleep most of the day away, and then be awake and alert most of the night. Meanwhile, all we want to do is sleep. I think our best night since they were born is five hours of sleep, with three-four being typical, and two last night. Since we have no desire to become noctural ourselves, Liss is reading up on how to get them sleeping when we want