Babies' first tailgate and Auntie Paula visits!

We had a great weekend here - Chad went out of town for a couple of days but luckily Auntie Paula came to fill in while he was gone! Check out the cute onesies she brought for them :)

The babies made it to their first tailgate. Sadly, no photos were taken (bad mommy and daddy!), but they got to make a lot of new friends and see the setup for our tailgates. Although it was much cooler than the game two weeks ago, we still had the fan going and Piper absolutely loved the air blowing on her. We think this bodes well for her future career as a supermodel. Knox didn't like the fan, so I guess he won't be modeling anytime soon! Luckily that game ended well and UT beat Texas Tech (although we were long gone by then).

Sadly, Knox got his first major disappointment when his beloved Steelers lost on Sunday. Here is a photo of the happy fans at the beginning of the game!

Links to photo albums

Ok, for those of you with time to kill, here are the links to the photos of Knox and Piper during Months 1 & 2!



Month One http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1160188012/a=100051087_100051087/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/



Month Two

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1157494012/a=100051087_100051087/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/



and these are the professional photos that were taken in the hospital

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1159993012/a=100051087_100051087/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/



Some of these have been posted in the blog, but of course, there are MANY more photos to document their first few weeks of life. Enjoy!

Two month checkup

Well, Piper and Knox went for their two month pedi appointment yesterday. I can hardly believe it - Piper weighs 10 lbs, 1 oz!!! And Knox has almost caught up - he is 9 lbs, 15 oz and only 1/2 inch shorter than Piper. It's crazy how fast they grow - that's 5 lbs that Knox has gained in 2 months - more than double his birth weight. So that's great news - the pedi is thrilled with their progress. They also got the dreaded first shots yesterday. We are doing an alternative vaccine schedule so they had their first two immunizations yesterday and will have 2 more in a month and so on. Basically, because they are so small, we are spacing these first ones out monthly vs every two months. Yesterday's vaccines were one shot and one liquid to drink. They cried out at the injection, but both quieted right down afterward like little troopers! And although they were a little uncomfortable that afternoon, a little (infant) Tylenol fixed them right up and last night they were totally back to normal. So we have passed a big right of passage!

I haven't posted on the blog for awhile, but I did spend a lot of time organizing our photos from these first two months and I've posted them all on snapfist (and ordered print copies for my "brag book"). I spent a half hour on Snapfish yesterday trying to figure out how to generate a link to the photos to post in the blog but I couldn't figure it out. I'll get a link posted ASAP, though!

We've had a great couple of weeks - we had a really fun visit with my sister-in-law, Mary, and Lindi and Austin. They were here for a long weekend over Labor Day. Knox and Piper were barely put down all weekend - we were afraid they were going to be totally spoiled after all of the attention! But they spent so much time cooing and smiling at them that Knox and Piper have become much more interactive and we've gotten some great smiles and funny faces over the last couple of weeks! Austin and Chad had a great time - they played golf and went to a rock concert and the UT game. So Chad had lots of fun "playing" for the weekend and everyone even got out on the boat one day. And I got a fantastic weekend of rest - Lindi and Mary played "night nanny" all weekend and let me sleep all night! Related to that - Knox has slept 6 hours straight at night twice now! Piper is still waking up much more often, but having one hungry baby at night is easier than two, so I'll take it!

Here are some photos to tide you over until I can get that link up! The opening UT game was Labor Day weekend so you can see the twins showing their spirit! With the Michigan win over Notre Dame last weekend, we might break out the maize and blue gear this weekend though!

The beard is gone

Well, nearly 7 weeks after the babies' birth, Chad finally shaved his beard off yesterday. He kept a mustache for one day - doesn't he look funny?

But now it's all off and it's back to preppy Chad.

The babies are great - they are changing all the time and definitely developing their personalities. Piper has become the "easy" one - she is mainly interested in eating and sleeping these days. She only eats a little at a time (dainty little girl), but that means she wants frequent snacks! On the other hand, Knox eats a lot at a time, and sleeps for longer during the night - but during the day, he fights to stay awake. And when he's awake, he wants to be held! Preferably on my shoulder. Yesterday we broke out the Baby Bjorn. They are supposed to be 8 lbs before they can use it and I don't think we're quite there yet. But since it keeps Knox upright better than the other sling, I decided we'd try using it around the house now. He wasn't quite sure about it at first, but now he seems to like it. As I expected, having twins in all about "containment," - you can't hold them both at once, so it's important to have things/places to keep them contained and occupied. That's where all of our gear comes in - swings, slings, bouncy seats, boppy cushions...nothing really entertains them for a long time, either, so it's good to have an assortment! Of course, nothing beats being held - so I'm always trying to figure out how to hold both of them at once :)

Best Week Ever!

Our nanny started this week :) Wow, I can't believe it's been two whole weeks since I last posted! Sorry - a bit hectic here as you might imagine. Even with the nanny here three whole days this week, I've been sooo busy - just trying to catch up on everything (sleep included). And it didn't help that my car battery died one day (66 days of 100 degree heat will do that!). On the plus side, I did get my teeth cleaned.

Ok, enough about me! I know you only really want to hear about the babies :) They are doing great! Growing so fast - each day they look bigger. And I know why - they eat CONSTANTLY! But it's a good thing - just keeps us on our toes, especially in the wee hours. We had a few rough nights this week but the last three or four l have been pretty good. Sometimes they even go four hours between feedings. Of course, that's four hours from when they START feedings, so it's not like we really get a four hour break. And sometimes it's only 2 1/2 hours. So we're all still a little sleep-deprived. But things could be worse - and we are managing to get out occasionally. We've taken the babies out to restaurants twice now (they slept in their car seats both times) and Chad and I have managed a couple of date nights. Not bad for the first six weeks!

Four weeks old!

It's soooo hard to believe, but the twins turned 4 weeks old on Wednesday. Today is their actual due date (if they had gone full term - 40 weeks). Here are some pictures we took on their one month birthday!

Today we had our one month visit to the pediatrician and we were really hoping that Knox would be up to 6 lbs (he was 5 lb, 5 1/2 oz at his two week visit). Not only is getting bigger a good thing overall, but the pedi said that once he got to 6 lbs, we could go to feeding them both every four hours (vs. every three). Not that they will always wait four hours for their next meal (or even three), but in the event that they're still sleeping (e.g. the middle of the night), we can let them keep sleeping. Which of course means that Mommy and Daddy can also keep sleeping :)

So we went today and Piper weighed in at a whopping 7 lbs, 7.5 oz! Not bad considering that 2 weeks ago she was at 6 lbs, 2 oz! We could tell she was getting bigger and especially today when I went to put her into her car seat to go to the pedi and she wouldn't fit! I had to figure out how to adjust the harness in the carseat so we could leave (seriously, not an easy feat!) And today Knox weighed 6 lbs, 13.5 oz!!! So we are all thrilled that this seemingly constant feeding is really paying off!

A Few More

Knox' first bath at home and three generations of the Meley Men :)