Midnight Serenade

A couple of times now, Ben has made a crying sort of screaming sound in the middle of the night that lasts for about 2 seconds, scares the hell out of us and by the time we've got to the nursery he is fast asleep again.

We can only assume he is having a bad dream ? - But what can it be about, it's not like he has been exposed to scary images or situations for him to dream about them ?

I wish I knew what our babies were thinking / dreaming the whole thing fascinates me, What goes on in their little minds ?

The boys seems to like having their own cots and more space now they are sleeping well and seem to be more settled. I guess Ben is sleeping better now that he doesn't have to put up with Harrys thudding feet vibrating the mattress he was sharing :-)

Me and the boys have just been to Mothercare in Basingstoke to get some supplies for an up and coming trip we are going to take. Carol and I are taking the boys with us when we go to my cousins wedding soon. It is up in the Lake District and will be a six hour journey and a weekend away from home. Our first time away with the boys and planing it is like a military exercise.

Well Ben has just woken up and is crying, I left them sleeping in their car seats in the lounge downstairs. They were fast asleep from the drive back from Mothercare and it seemed a shame to wake them. It is coming up fast to 2pm and their afternoon feed, so I better go and sort that out. No rest for the wicked !

The Great Escape

Harry & Ben were sharing a cot/bed in the nursery. We had an adjustable bar that split the bed into two halves and then both babies could be positioned feet to foot (of the bed) as recommended. Both Harry & Ben had discovered the joys of lifting their feet and banging their heals down hard on the mattress and making a soft thudding sound.

Harry decided to take this one stage further and test the durability of the splitter bar. Now the bar comes in three parts, two outer sections that fix to the opposite sides of the cot and a middle sleeve that covers the two extending outer parts.

Harry had been kicking this so hard that he managed to seperate the peices. He also threw his dummy out and in the dark we couldn't find it. It wasn't until morning that we found it lodged in between the edge of the cot and the wall.

Here is a photo of Harrys great escape attempt. I guess it was kind of sweet that he wanted to break through into Bens half and be with him.



I love Bens expression in this photo, he is all cramped up behind the bashed up splitter bar, as if to say 'What happened to all my space ?'

Needless to say, we had to put Harry & Ben into their own seperate cots. We have two cots next to each other, but were using the second one as a changing table.

Hopefully we will have no more escape attempts now, at least for a little while. The next precaution will be to lower the bed bases down so there can be no 'climbing over the wall' attempts. But at least that will be a little while off yet.

8 Months old !!!

Hi,
Yesterday the boys turned 8 months old :-)
It was Twingos again and I walked them across town only to find that just one other parent had turned up. Still we had a good chat and Carol joined us for lunch, which Ben puked down my front and I had to walk back home across town with a puke stained shirt.

I really hope his reflux stops soon, it is wearing me down and making so much washing, his clothes, my clothes, Harrys clothes (if he happens to be lying next to him on the play matt when Ben hurls), cleaning the play matt, carpet, sofa etc.

Still when you walk into their room in the morning and you are greated by out stretched arms and large smiles it makes it all worth while.

Whilst they slept this morning I saw a program on TV about stay at home Dads, it turns out that there are 189,000 stay at home Dads in the UK and 2.1 million stay at home Mums. Shame really, despite all the puking, I would recommend it to anyone, just think all those Dads who are missing out !

Another interesting fact on that program was that in 1970 most Dads only spent on average 1/4 of an hour per day with their under 5yrs old child. This has now risen to 2 hours per day, that is terrible, they are missing out on so much !

Family day out

My Mum and my sisters family came down on Sunday. We went to Mottisfont Abbey Gardens. for another picnic.

It was a great day out loads of sunshine and a nice relaxing day.

Here are the pictures:
(the boys are wearing some lovely outfits that my friend Claire bought them)



My Mum & Sister with Harry & Ben:

Friday nights not alright !

For the past few weekends Harry & Ben had been great, on Friday nights they sleep through from 7.30pm until their breakfast at 8am ! - They never do this during the week, Ben always wakes up at around 5.30am for a milk feed and wakes Harry up. But for some reason on Friday nights they have been really settled, which is just fantastic :-)

Last night was not a good night however, 3am - 4.30am and 5.30am Ben awoke for whatever reason.

Well that is not strictly true, we are sure that Harry & Ben are well into the teething period now, there is no sign of teeth yet but you can feel them when they bite on your finger and they have little red cheeks and are drooling for England. So I think it is safe to say that they are teething.

This would explain all the crying last Thursday and the general unsettled behaviour.

We are just hoping that it is over soon !

Sorry still no new photos, but my Mum and Sister are visiting soon and I will have new photos then.

Whaaaa

Whaaaaa Whaaaaa Whaaaaa Whaaaaa Whaaaaa Whaaaaa Whaaaaa Whaaaaa Whaaaaa Whaaaaa Whaaaaa Whaaaaa Whaaaaa Whaaaaa

Repeat for about 3 hours, enough said. Not a good day :-(

Daily Routine

Someone asked me what I do each day, so here goes:

05.30 hrs approx - Ben wakes up and wants feeding he normally wakes Harry as well. So Carol feeds both boys before she goes off to work. This was Carols idea, as it means she gets to feed and cuddle them before going off to work for the day and it means I get to have a little more sleep - works for me !

This first breakfast consists of just a milk feed and it is 100mls of Nutraprem 2

08.00 hrs - The boys are normally awake by now, if not I give one of them their 2nd breakfast, which is in two parts. 140mls of Nutraprem 2 followed by either 1 weetabix or Creamy Porridge Oats baby food. Once I have fed one their milk, I wake the other one and give him his milk. Then I give the first one his solid breakfast and then the second little chap.

Sterilize the bottles ready for the next meals

The boys then have a play on their matt and I get my own breakfast. Then I put on some washing, normally all the bibs and muslin cloths and babies clothes used from the day before.

At around 09.30 hrs the boys have their first morning nap. This normally lasts about 30 to 60 mins. By this time the washing has finished and I put into the dryer. If I have shopping to do, then I normally go now, the boys can nap in their car seats / pushchair.

11.00 hrs = lunchtime, 100 mls of Nutraprem 2 followed by a pot full of baby lunch food, either food Carol and I have cooked in advance, or from a purchased jar of baby food.

This normally takes around 45 mins to an hour to feed them both.

12.30 hrs the boys have their afternoon nap, this should be around 2 hours. During this time I get all the drying sorted out and depending on how messy they have been, get another load of washing on, consisting of their bibs, muslins and any clothes they messed up with their food they have had so far. During this time I get my own lunch as well. Unfortunately the boys have started to sleep less and less during this period, average so far this past week has been 45 mins to an hour and a half.

14.30 hrs, afternoon milk feed - 140 mls of good old Nutraprem 2. The boys then have a good playtime and roll around on their play matt. Sometimes I take them for a walk depending on the weather.

Sterilize the bottles for the next meals

16:00 hrs, quite often Harry & Ben will start to have a right monk on at this time, I wish I knew why. Practically every day they get into a right old screaming fit and spend the next hour putting me through hell until Carol comes home at 17.00hrs. This is the worst part of the day and a real trial. It's not every day and sometimes I can get them to have a little nap between 16.00hrs and 17.00hrs. But unfortunately this does not all ways work.

17.00 hrs, Carol comes home from work and we both feed the boys their evening meal, this is a solid feed no milk. Again this either food Carol and I have cooked in advance, or from a purchased jar of baby food.

18.00 hrs, Bathtime ! - The boys love bath time and have a right old splash about. Great fun.
Once they are bathed and put into their night clothes they then get their evening milk feed, this is a large milk feed to see them through the night.

19:00 hrs - as above this is their evening milk feed, Harry has about 8 fl ozs of Nutraprem 2 and Ben has 7 fl ozs.

19:30 hrs, all being well the boys are in bed now and asleep. I crash out on the sofa and relax with Carol. We sort out what we are having for our own dinner and then the rest of the evening is ours.

During this period we sterilize the bottles ready for the next day.

Next day I start all over again !

I haven't mentioned nappy changing etc, because the boys get through loads, a recent survey stated that twins get through approximately 120 nappies each week, enough said......

In case you are wondering, Nutraprem 2 is a special Cow and Gate milk forumla specifically designed for premature babies, it has extra protein and vitamins to help their development and what is even better is that if your baby was born premature then this milk is on the NHS ! - They will continue to have this milk until they are totally weaned onto solid food.

It's your birthday and we'll cry if we want to

It's my birthday ! - 37 years old :-(
Didn't really start off as I would have liked because Ben puked a large portion of his breakfast down my front.

Whilst I was feeding Ben, Harry decided to scream his head off, just to let me know that he was there and wanted feeding as well.

As the top I had on was the last clean top that was ironed, it was out with the ironing board and iron a clean top to wear at 8am this morning.

Breakfast over with the morning wasn't too bad, Harry & Ben's grandparents came over and we had a lovely time entertaining them. Nanny helped with the lunch time feed and when the boys were put into their cots for their mid day nap, Nanny & Grandpa left. The idea being that I could have a couple of hours time to myself, get my own lunch and generally relax.

Well that was a nice idea any way, Harry slept for 40 mins, then woke up crying. I brought him downstairs and tried to calm him down. Ben woke up about another 40 mins after that.

I decided to take them for a walk to try and get them to go to sleep, fat chance !

But at least they weren't crying any more.

3pm came and Ben went into a major hissy fit, no idea why, he was fed, clean nappy, wasn't too hot/cold, was getting attention. He was just crying because he could !

So he cried for an hour, despite my best attempts to calm him down, at 4pm, Harry decided to join in, so I had two screaming red faced babies hell bent on making my ears bleed !

At 4.30pm Carol came home early to surprise me on my birthday ! - I think the surprise was on her when she opened the front door and was greeted by all the drama at home.

Shortly afterwards both babies were calm - Obviously it was the Monday without Mummy syndrome as discussed in a previous post. Mummy had the magic touch and calmed them both down. At 4.40pm - our sister in law Karen came over with her daughters, Amy, Emma and Heather. Needless to say the boys loved seeing their cousins and were good as gold.

As I am writing this Carol is just bathing them and we are both about to give them their night time feed and then off to bed they go. Hopefully without any further drama.

Happy Birthday Simon !

Here is a photo of Harry and Ben in full on paddy mode:

I've got toes !!!!

So far it's been a busy week, on Tuesday Harry, Ben and I took part in a survey of Andover Town Centre with the local council. The council wanted volunteers, parents with double buggies, Shop Mobility users, Wheel Chair users etc, to join them and make our way around the town to see how easy it was to get around, if there was street furniture, (lamp posts, road signs, bins etc) that caused problems or prevented us from accessing all areas of the town.

It was a pretty productive morning and a nice excuse for a walk in the Sun.

Wednesday, our friend Kirsty and her twin boys, joined me and we walked across town to the Twingos group. Carol met us there on her lunch break and we enjoyed our bi weekly twins group meeting. Andover Health Centre (where Twingos is held) is on the far side of the town centre from where we live, so it is a good 2 miles there and 2 miles back.

During the meeting we were talking with the Midwife about Harry and Ben. We discussed the fact that Harry is turning himself over and having a real attempt at crawling (despite getting nowhere so far) and the fact that Ben is making no attempt at turning over or trying to crawl. The midwife said not to worry about it and that Ben would do it when he was ready.

Well I guess he was listening because about half an hour after getting home, without any warning he just decided to do it, rolled over onto his stomach and rocked back and forth on his tummy with his legs in the air like Harry has been doing ie getting no where fast.

Then the race was on ! - they were both at it, on their stomachs desperate to be the first one to crawl. Furious efforts and no movement forward at all, it was a very funny race



On Thursday, it was the Health Clinic day at the Andover Health Centre and I decided to walk it again, so off we went to get Harry & Ben weighed, again they were the same weight and right on the correct weight gain curve on their charts, so they are just right. They both weighed in at 14.5 lbs !

During this last week Harry discovered that he had toes, which is great as he has always got something close by to play with now :-)

Harrys toe discovery is of huge importance to him, apparently toes are the funniest, most interesting thing in the known Universe and so far have kept him amused for hours.