An Update of Sorts....

So I failed you all again.  And when I say "you all,"  I mean the three or four people who keep track of this blog.  ;-)  I mostly try to keep up here so that I can look back at the year(s) and remember things that I would have normally forgotten.  The blog, for me, is like my memory book for our family.  So I have been horrible at keeping track of everything these days.  Time to try harder, otherwise, one day I will look back and have trouble remembering all the things I so want to remember about the days/weeks/months of our early family years.  So time to get one it!

So, what are we up to?

Well, both Abby and Jimmy are walking all.the.time now.  It is amazing how quickly they went from crawling to walking.   Jimmy started walking before his first birthday - I believe it was in July even.  So he was tentatively walking by himself around 11 months.  Abby, not to be forgotten, started walking after their first birthday.  She was walking in September for sure.  And when that girl started walking, there was no going back!  She started one day and then decided crawling just wasn't the "in" thing to do anymore.  So now that they are walking, they are climbing onto and into everything.   See below for the proof:

Yep - those are my babes - off to climb Mt. Everest one day. Or maybe just on the counter one day not too long from now.

What else is new... Well, they are sleeping through the night (!!!) now.  Unfortunately, it is the result of some sleep training that had to happen here in our house.  Jim and I really weren't comfortable with doing much cry-it-out, but knew that we had to do something because the middle of the night wake ups (mostly by Miss Abigail at this point) were starting to get out of hand.  Plus with Jim going back to work soon, I knew that I wouldn't be able to successfully rock them both to sleep over and over again for naps and bedtime.  It was just too draining for us all (and no one wants to go to sleep while the see their sister/brother playing in the corner). 

So one fateful day while Jim was at a work meeting, preparing to go back to work, I tried to rock Jimmy to sleep, but in doing so, I had to leave Abby in the game room (she was fenced in) for too long for my comfort level.  So I did it.  I held Jimmy until he was sleepy and then put him in his crib to fall asleep on his own.  Then I did the same for Abby.  And you know what, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  Now, don't get me wrong, it was tough, that first nap, first bedtime and really, that first whole week, was tough and involved some crying on everyone's part, but it worked.  The most anyone ever cried was 45 minutes, but it wasn't straight crying, it was mostly cry/whine/quiet over and over for 45 minutes  And now (two weeks later) Abby usually goes right to sleep at bedtime and will only fuss for a few minutes at nap time.  Jimmy is consistent - he will sit and play in his crib for 10 minutes or so, then lay down and pass out. 

Looking back, I sometimes wish I would have let Abby and Jimmy learn how to soothe themselves to sleep without needing us much sooner, but then I also know that they weren't ready for it yet.  I think it worked out fine they way we did it - and I did (mostly) enjoy the snuggles and cuddles from my babes as they drifted off to sleep.  But now I am thoroughly enjoying having my nighttime sleep back!  Finally.

The naps are still a little bit of a struggle, not necessarily with crying, but because it seems that we are approaching the time to transition from two naps down to one.  For the last week, one or both of them would take a too short nap or refuse to nap altogether.  So I guess it is time to start thinking about going to one lone (hopefully) nap in the middle of the day.  We will see how this works out.

Playtime is more and more fun these days too.  They play independently, they play together.  They play in their little house and they play on the couch.  Abby will grab a little figurine and bounce it around on the ground saying, "hi" over and over again.  Jimmy will "throw" a ball and watch it bounce over and over again all through the house.  They both love to try to get the TV remote, and when they do snatch it without us knowing, we usually will find out that someone had the remote at some point because our DVR will have recorded random shows from earlier in the day.  The hide from each other and chase each other and give kisses and hugs in the midst of their play.  It is so cute. 

Check this out - in the midst of their play, they stopped for a hug:

and then a kiss:

and what's not to love about a little tackle me playtime on the couch:

Abby and Jimmy are awesome; twins are awesome!  It is tremendously fun these days.  Truthfully though, it is still really challenging at times.  Two whining, crying, fighting, toy-stealing, demanding, non-verbal toddlers, dragging on our pant legs randomly throughout the day, is quite challenging, to say the least!  But that is why we always have wine and ice cream in this house!

Where did my little babies go?!

*Pictures to come soon**

Where did my little babies go?  I started this post in December but haven't had time to finish it.  So now I can add even more since Jimmy and Abby keep learning new things everyday and it's so fun to watch them these days!

So what are they up to?  The are both, rolling, sitting and standing - and no longer interested in laying around. Both Abby and Jimmy love to be in a sitting position now, but neither one of them have any balance yet to stay in a seated position without help.   Jimmy LOVES to be pulled up to a sitting position.  It is adorable, he will put his hands out to grab ours, then start to try to pull himself up (like he's doing an ab workout), while lifting his legs off the ground.  Ha! And if we don't catch on quick enough, he will start whining - which will stop immediately after we pull him up to a seated position.  It is quite cute!

They also LOVE to be held standing up.  After I change their diapers, I will say, "stand up" and they pretty much now expect to be held in a standing position.  They get so excited when they are "standing" and Abby will give us the biggest smile ever while standing!

Jimmy loves his paci. When we give it to him, his eyes roll back and he lets out a little sigh of contentment. So funny and cute.  His is ADDICTED - it's basically like baby crack!

They are both smiling and laughing all the time now!  Jimmy all out laughs/giggles now - especially when I sing the Pink Panther theme and trace a path up his body with my hands, ending with a chin tickle!  He loves it and laughs a lot!  Abby laughs too, but she still doesn't all out laugh yet, just usually one or two "ha, has."

One thing I miss: my snuggly cuddly babies that used to lay on their bellies on our stomachs and snuggle up to us, putting their heads tucked under our chins...they don't do that anymore, and it makes me sad.  They are getting too big, too fast.

Abby is still sleeping like a champ, and has gotten even better once we started swaddling her in SwaddleMe fleece blanket. She does.not.move.  - which causes panic and makes me chech on her a couple times to make sure she is still breathing! Jimmy isn't the best sleeper.  He usually will wake at 1 or 2am, then every hour after that...We figure it is due to his paci addiction.

Jimmy rolled over, front to back, on 12/12, but we were unable to get on video.  He doesn't seem to roll front to back anymore, now that he....
Rolled back to front on....12/27!  Jimmy is always trying to roll over, but usually gets stuck on his side.   He fusses non-stop until we help him sit up and/or hold him in a standing position. He rewards us with the biggest of smiles when we help him sit and stand.

Abby rolled back to front on... 12/28 and now she won't stop rolling over.  Apparently she hates her back with a passion now.  When she is tired and cranky, she will get stuck on her belly, so we will roll her back to her back.  Then one second later, she is back on her belly fussing away.  When she is tired, she is TIRED!

We are consistently putting them to bed between 7-8pm.  They should probably go to bed even sooner, but it just seems to work out pretty good for us now to put them to bed then.  They still wake up at 5:30am though - which is torture for me.  When I start back to work, it would be really great if they would sleep until 6:30am so that I could up and get ready before I am up with them feeding them.  But so far, no luck.  5:30am comes all too soon!
Both grabbed frog toy (on their green bouncer) and pulled it to make noise on 12/28/10.  It was so startling and unexpected.  We associated the frog toy music with us pulling it, but all of a sudden, I heard the music go off and was startled - then I look down and see Abby (she pulled it first, Jimmy pulled it later in the day) with her little hand wrapped around the toy with the cute frog music playing.  Awww... no longer will they need me to pull the toy to make the noise. Awww...my babies are growing up! ;-)

Happy 3 Month Birthday!

Happy 3 Month Birthday Abby and Jimmy. Here is my favorite shots from the 3 month photo shoot. And I love this one - Jim was doing all kinds of stuff to get the babies to smile and laugh. And boy did they ever - but catching it on camera was another story.

Anyways... what's new with the babies? Not too much. Except remember how the last couple posts, I have been talking about how easy-going the babies are. Well, I take that back. Okay, okay, I don't really, since overall they are pretty easy-going. But, wow, if they miss their nap, or don't sleep long enough, they are SUPER cranky!

I have been reading up on different techniques to test out here to get the babies to learn to self soothe and thus then eventually they will sleep longer. I am reading all kinds of books to look for different techniques to employ. Ok, I admit, I am not really reading them, as I don't have a ton of time, but instead I shall call is skimming for the parts that apply to me/us.

I am trying to follow the EASY schedule - which is Eat, Activity, Sleep and You (time for me). It is going fairly well, and it makes sense. The babies get up, have a bottle (pretty much drinking 5.5oz now) and then we play together. Sometime they play on the play mat, sometimes we do tummy time and practice rolling on the ground, and sometime they hang out with their favorite friends hanging from the bouncer. Pretty much an hour after they first wake up, they start to show signs of being tired. So, then I start the nap time routine - which is usually a quick book while in the bouncer, then they are swaddled and I cuddle them while singing My Favorite Things from Sound of Music. At that point they look pretty sleepy (or are just pretending to get me to stop singing) and I put them in their cribs. Usually the start of the nap is successful. However, almost always, they both will wake up after 40-50 minutes and will start fussing/crying. I am trying not to rush in there to comfort them and instead see if they will self-soothe back to sleep. Abby is a pro at putting herself back to sleep. Jimmy - well, not so much. So I usually will have go in to give Jimmy his pacifier, rub his belly while shhhhh-ing. It sometimes work, sometimes doesn't.

Nighttime sleep is going great with Abby. She pretty much has been sleeping between eight and nine hours without waking. Most of the time though, I will wake her up when Jimmy wakes to eat, just so they stay on close to the same schedule. Jimmy does not sleep well at all. When we put him to bed between eight and nine, he sleeps great for the first couple hours. But then by 2 or 3am, he is up every 20-40 minutes or so, crying out. And from there, he pretty much fusses every 30-60 minutes until I get up with him in the morning. I have tried feeding him, giving him his paci, rocking him and anything else you can think of - to no avail. So I have no idea what is going on with him and how to get him to sleep better at night.

And now - a cute video to end the post with. Even though Jimmy is a troubled sleeper, he definitely makes up for it with his cuteness during the day! What a cute little guy!

Two Months Old (and a couple days)

I am going to have to say it again... WOW -it is amazing how fast the time passes! Abby and Jimmy turned 2 months old on Sunday, October 24. You know what that means?!? 2 month photo shoot!
Here are the favorites:



And this is what they look like after the photo shoot.


So what are the babies like at 2 months old? Well, they are continuing their easy-going attitudes and are very pleasant. They barely ever cry, unless they are hungry. And usually it is if they are VERY hungry and we pushed the feeding schedule too much! They are still eating every 3 hours, pretty much around the clock. Their pediatrician said that we don't have to wake them anymore during the nighttime to feed them and to instead let them wake on their own. Well, Jimmy pretty much still wakes up to eat every 3 hours. UGH! Abby can go a bit longer, usually she can make it to the four hour mark, but we wake her to eat around the same time as Jimmy so that we don't get too crazy with their schedules (and we get some sleep).

They both absolutely LOVE their Winnie the Pooh crib mobiles. The love to lay there and watch them and we even catch them smiling and laughing (is that even possible this early) when they are watching them spin around. I only wish the mobile's music would last a little longer and the characters wouldn't get stuck while spinning around. Proof is in the pudding...see below!


They also LOVE this toy. They will stare at it for quite some time. I try to have them practice their grip on it, but so far, they haven't been super successful with holding anything.

Another favorite is their play mat. They will lay on the play mat for 20 minutes or so and stare at all the toys. They love to look at the lights and listen to the music! They are adorable!

When the babies aren't playing on the play mat or watching the mobile, they are cuddling with their mom and dad! I tend to try to cuddle them both at once, but it is quite difficult! Check it out... we are quite silly!


Both Abby and Jimmy are overall very happy babies! They barely ever fuss and are pretty easy to entertain. They are smiling more and more, especially in the morning right after they get up. The love when their mommy sings the bear song. Maybe I will take a video of it next time and post it here. Ha - it is quite embarrassing.

More updates and pictures to come later...I'm off to snuggles some adorable babies!

The First Eight Weeks

I haven't had much time to log on here and post - as you can probably guess why! So I thought I would do a general "the first eight weeks" post to let you know how the past (almost) two months have gone. I was in the hospital from August 23 - August 28 (Saturday), so our first night home was Saturday night. My parents were in town for the babies' birth, but unfortunately, they were only here until that Saturday morning. So when we arrived home, it was just us four. It was great to be home. But it was also a bit scary to think that they let us leave with the babies. Ha! What were they thinking, we don't know anything about taking care of babies!

The first day/night was great. It was so nice to be in our own home with just us, a new family of four. Jim and I were excited to test out some of the babies stuff (swing, bouncer, pack and play) and we soon realized that most of the stuff won't be used for a while - the babies were just two small for it all! The babies were eating every 3 hours on the dot, so we pretty much spent the first hour of the three hour schedule changing, feeding and burping them. Then, was the fun part - snuggling them and watching them sleep in our arms. They are so beautiful and precious - and we love them so much! Here are a couple pictures from our first couple days at home! Look how tiny they are in the pack and play (where they slept the first couple days): OMG - so small - cuddled up on the couch: Jim and Abby cuddling - how adorable! To be completely honest, the first 3 weeks were really tough for me. I was experiencing the "baby blues" and would cry at random times for unknown reasons. I know for sure that exhaustion played a big part in my "blues" and the overwhelmed feeling of being a first time mom played a factor as well. I would cry though out the day for short periods, mostly for reasons unknown. But luckily, the blues passed after about 3 weeks. It is completely understandable why I (and any mom) would get them - things change so dramatically, practically overnight, and you are barely getting any sleep and are exhausted. I also felt overwhelmed when Jim had to go back to work and my parents left, which played into it as well. But I am happy to report that now (8 weeks later) I am doing great and am generally feeling really happy! I still have moments of stress, anxiety and sadness (mostly about how fast they are growing), but overall I am doing great!

Enough about me... let's hear about how Abby and Jimmy are doing! Abby and Jimmy have the greatest temperaments. They both are very easy-going (we can thank Jim for passing that down to them) and barely ever cry or get fussy unless they are hungry. Jimmy has struggled (and is still having problems) with gas issues, and would cry out off and on for about 20 minutes about one hour after eating. It is such torture for me to watch him be in a lot of pain and not be able to do anything about it. We eventually switched formula (from Enfamil Premium to Enfamil Gentlease - yep, that's right, I am not breastfeeding) which helped slightly, but the gas pains are still present (even to this day). We give them both the gentlease formula and mylicon gas drops before every feeding. And to help combat the constipation that is present due to the formula change, we give both Abby and Jimmy .5oz of pear juice mixed with .5oz of water. They LOVE the juice. 1oz is not nearly enough in their eyes and they are both so sad (read: fussy) when the juice is gone!

So what are the nitty-gritty details of a twin lifestyle look like here in the Frybarger household...

No sleep. Exhaustion. Felt by all those involved. See below for the proof. Bottles, bottles and more bottles. Washing, drying, filling and feeding...And then all over again. Sometimes we repeat that cycle twice a day since we only have 8 bottles. Formula galore. OMG- the cost of formula is insane and we go through ALOT of it. Yikes! When anyone is home alone with the babies, whether it is me, Jim or a family member, it is quite difficult to feed the babies at the same time. So what we end up doing is propping the babies up in their boppy's to feed them both at the same time. It does get a little hairy when it's time to stop and burp. Quickly, we pop a pacifier in one of their mouths to cause a distraction while we burp the other. But soon enough the one with the pacifier realizes that it's not the bottle and starts to get fussy... so we put down the burping baby, pop the pacifier in that baby and try to burp the other. By the end of the cycle, the babies and the mommy/daddy/grandma/grandpa are all cranky and the bottle goes back in. And then we repeat until the bottle is gone! Whew - it's quite the process.... see for yourself. It's amazing how quickly the time is passing! Before we knew it the babies turned one month old. Where did the time go. Every month on their "month" birthday, I dress them in plain white onesies and add a sticker to it showing off their age. It's actually a ton of fun to do and the babies so far have been very cooperative and tend to enjoy this little photo shoot. Here are my favorites from their One Month Birthday! The next 4-8 weeks flew by too! We a lot of visitors visiting with us and the babies and helping with feedings, changes and other household chores. Thanks to everyone who has been helping - your help has been very much appreciated by Jim and I and the babies love to see you! Both Abby and Jimmy were very close to smiling. I was even able to catch a smile from Abby on tape (Ha- I still call it tape and not video).

Well, that's the first 8 weeks in a nutshell. Having a new baby is such a learning experience and having two, well it's just that much more fun. Things were chaotic at times, and stressful, but also a ton of fun and I wouldn't ask for anything more. I am so in love with our new family!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the first 8 weeks!

The Hospital Stay

Welcome Abby and Jimmy!



We stayed a total of 5 nights in the hospital; from Monday, August 23 until Saturday, August 28. The babies were able to room in with us in the mother/baby unit since, thankfully, they were completely healthy and didn't need to spend any time in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).

Unfortunately, it was a tough couple days since both babies developed jaundice and the doctors determined that they needed to be under UV lights in order to reduce the bilirubin in their blood. So from Wednesday morning until Friday night, both Abby and Jimmy had to lay in their bassinets under huge UV lights and were only allowed out from the lights for a short time to take a bottle.

I initially was attempting to breastfeed, but it didn't go as planned and since both babies needed to eat as much as possible so that they would be able to poop, which gets rid of the bilirubin quicker. So, we fed the babies formula right from the beginning. I still worked with the lactation consultants thinking that maybe I would do some breastfeeding (or at least pumping) in combination with formula, but after realizing how much work it would be to maintain my supply (which hadn't even arrived yet) and feed both twins by myself, both Jim and I decided to stick with just formula. I didn't have the heart to tell the lactation consultants though. :-(

It was quite sad to not be able to cuddle with Abby and Jimmy throughout the days and I was upset to see them under the UV lights. They were unable to lay in any clothes or be swaddled, so they just laid there, with eye masks on to protect their eyes, in nothing but a diaper. I was heartbroken for them. And both Jimmy and Abby, but mostly Jimmy, had bouts of uncontrollable shaking. The doctors explained that most likely it occurred because of an underdeveloped nervous system and it would get better with time. It was so hard to see. Especially since they both would do so much better when they were swaddled and/or were being held- but we couldn't do either.

I won't post many pictures, since it is so sad to see, but here's one just so you have an idea of what they had to go through.



Luckily, on Friday both Abby and Jimmy were cleared to be only on the Biliblankets so we definitely made up time with cuddling them at that point. See below for proof!





Every night Jim and I decided to send both babies to the nursery so that we were able to get a little uninterrupted sleep. We usually would send them around 1pm after they ate and would go pick them up (or have them brought back) around 6 or 7am. Little did I know at that point, that that would be the longest stretch of sleep I would get for a long time!

My recovery from the c-section went well. I was in a lot of pain off and on, and usually it occurred when I forgot to request pain medication. I had a lot of trouble getting into and out of the bed the first couple days and would need Jim to help pull me up into a sitting position so that I could attempt to get out of the bed. So the first couple days, Jim did most of the diapering and bottle preparations since I was kind of tied to the bed.



While we were in the hospital, we had a lot of visitors stop by to meet Abby and Jimmy and check in on us. Jim's mom and my parents stayed at the hospital for most of the labor process (sorry guys, that was a long time!) so they were there to meet Abby and Jimmy just an hour or so after their arrival. Then thoughout the next couple days, my parents (Grandma and Grandpa Balow), Jim's mom (Grandma Frybarger), Jim's dad and step-mom (Grandpa Frybarger and Bubbe), Jenny and Ed (Aunt Jenny and Uncle Ed), Shannon, Andrea and my uncle Tim (Great Uncle Tim) stopped by to visit. It was so nice to be able to visit with everyone and to introduce them to the babies. Unfortunately, most of the time the babies were under the UV lights and weren't able to be held for too long. But we did sneak in some cuddle time for the babies! Shhh...don't tell!

Here are a couple pics of our company:













The last night we were there (Friday), Jim and I took advantage of the education opportunities the hospital provides and watched the "Happiest Baby on the Block" video on the television in the room. We learned all about the five "S"s and how to put them to good use when the babies were fussy. I can't believe how loud they want you to SSSSHHHH in the babies' ears. Oh my!

And then it happened... the day we were released. OMG - I cannot believe they let us take the babies home. We had no idea what we were doing, didn't they realize this?! We are solely responsible for these two little miracles - OMG it was scary, but oh so exciting to be going home!

Here we are on our way out!



Oh and I should mention that it is shocking all the attention that twins create . On the way out we had a ton of people point and make comments about the "twins" and even had people stop us to chat with us about them. It was only just the beginning, I have learned!