Piper Speaks!

Ok, shrieks is more like it, but she is making noise, and a lot of it! Nothing that we can understand, of course! And in addition to extremely loud shrieking (not when she's upset, she just thinks it's fun to make noise), she's also started laughing which is pretty entertaining.

I know it's been pretty quiet here on the blog - lots going on with the holidays quickly approaching, job hunting, and a nanny that quit (I'll save that for another post!). But we did go to our 4 month checkup and these babies just keep growing! At four months, Knox weighed 13 lbs. 13 1/2 oz and Piper weighed 13 lbs, 5 oz. Crazy! And they seem to get bigger every day :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are four months old!!

Poor Knox!

If you've been following the pictures closely, you may have noticed that Knox's hair is getting pretty thin. Poor guy, he's not even four months old and he already has a "comb-over!" The pediatrician said that they might lose their hair (something about the trauma of being born causing their hair to stop growing for a few months, and so really he's just losing his hair normally, but since there is no new growth, it seems like he's going bald). Luckily, Piper's hair seems to be staying put. Or possibly hers is just thicker so it's not as noticable (poor Knox got mommy's straight, fine hair!). In any case, at first we thought that maybe his hair was just looking thin because his head was getting bigger (and thus his hair is more "spread out" on his head!) But after a bath, the evidence is there...poor guy! Although I can't feel too bad for him because my hair is falling out these days, too. They say that pregnant women don't lose their hair, so 3 - 6 months after giving birth, all that hair that stayed put all those months starts falling out. Luckily I'm not dealing with a comb over (yet), but I do seem to be "shedding" all over my clothes!

Sleep Habits

We've really been working on standardizing our nap schedules for the past few weeks. Some days are better than others, but wow, when Piper and Knox both nap at the same time, it is heaven :) We've also been working on more naps in the crib vs. in the swing or the bouncy chair or on the couch (or on mommy or daddy!) Again with varied success. Piper is a really good napper - in her crib, the swing, even on the mat under the activity gym! And she'll sleep for two hours easily - sometimes even three or four hours.

On the other hand, Knox isn't a very good napper. I guess he takes after his mommy. You can just see on his little face how he's afraid to fall asleep because he might miss something! So he fights sleep until he's overtired, and then gets cranky before he finally passes out. Or I should say, he gets as cranky as Knox ever gets. He's still the smiliest, happy little boy! He wakes up happy and generally stays that way all day, unless he gets really hungry or really, really tired.

Piper is also quick to smile these days, but she is also quick to let us know if she's not getting her needs met! But it's usually just that she's hungry, or gassy, or maybe bored!

We moved Piper into her own crib a couple of weeks ago because the babies were getting too tall to lie cross-wise next to each other in the same crib :) Not to mention that, even completely swaddled, they are both moving around in the crib. Most mornings I come in and someone -often both of them - has moved from lying longwise in the crib to lying almost completely cross-wise. A neat trick without use of your arms and legs (they are still sleeping tightly swaddled in blankets). One day I think Knox completely turned - he started the night with his head at one end of the crib and ended it with his head at the other end of it. We think it shows real patience and determination since they basically make small movements to turn themselves (think of a clock ticking). So this weekend I had to put the bumpers in both cribs because I keep finding Knox with his head right up against the solid side of the crib and I'm afraid he's going to slam his head against it one night in his rotation around the crib!

Here are a couple of pictures showing the evidence (notice how both of them have also worked one arm free of the swaddle!)