Happy Mother's Day to everyone!!!

Well, I had an excellent weekend.  Yesterday, the weather was beautiful, nice and sunny!! We ended up going to the Elizabeth Shopping Centre and just did a pile of window shopping!  Also, went to Tunza Fun which Michala loves as she gets tickets and ended up we had enough to get her one of those larva lamps! She was so excited!  Later in the arvo, we headed toward Cheltenham and the girls all fell asleep so we just kept driving around close to the beach for a while before heading to one of Michael's rely's 50ths.  We got there quite a bit early but thankfully Shane and Roma were okay with that so we got to catch up which was excellent.  I really enjoy catching up with Roma, as she is so easy to talk to.  It was good to catch up with their daughters also and then the daughters children also. lol.  Amazingly, the girls went to sleep in their pram just as easily as if they were at home, which was great.  Michala enjoyed herself running around with all the kids, then we finally left around 10.30pm as we live just over an hour away.  With everything we did yesterday, the girls feeds were kinda cut down, their milk feeds that is.  They had a milk feed first thing in the morning 9.30am, then they had solids at 12noon, then they started screaming at 2.45pm for another milk feed, then more solids at 5.30pm, then their last milk feed at 7pm.  They didn't like getting shifted into the car then from the car into their beds but they settled easily enough.

Today, apart from getting woken up by Michala at 3.30am wanting to sleep in our bed, to which I took her back to her room and put her to bed again! (for the 6th night now, hoping it will stop when she finds it isn't going to work! lol).  She woke after that at 8am, then Michael took her down the other end and got the girls all dressed and nappies changed.  I got up at 9am when I could hear Madelyn cracking it for a feed, plus Michala had been down a few times anyway.  So I fed the girls and we talked about what we might do today whilst Michala gave me my mothers day card!  Michael booked us into Fasta Pasta, so we headed there and I fed the girls their solids, then got have my lunch! lol.  We headed to Munno Para Shopping Centre, to do some more window shopping! We ended up getting some flannel pyjama's for Michala in her next size and that was really all! Then we headed back home, whilst all the girls slept, the change of routine, plus us being out during it has thrown their daytime sleep out so I'm hoping we'll get something worked out whilst we are home this week.  We stopped at my dad's place, so the kids could all say happy mother's day to nan and give her a card also. Spent some time there talking until the girls started cracking it for another feed.  We went home and I gave the girls their solids, then their bath and Michala's bath aswell, whilst Michael cooked tea for us all.  After tea, I gave the girls their milk feed and then put them to bed, and afterwards Michael put Michala to bed.  Was a great day all in all, beautiful weather along with it all.  So I had a great weekend and am hoping all the mothers, grandmothers, and mothers to be had a great day also, as well as people who had birthdays today along with it all!

Separate Cots, Here We Go!

Wow! The girls are getting so long now, that they just don't fit together in the one cot any more! We finally got around to reorganising their cots tonight so they can still sleep next to each other and see each other.  I'm wondering how they will go? So far, they've gone straight to sleep so we'll see thru the night how they cope.  They do seem to cope on their own tho, it doesn't seem like they need the other one around constantly which is good in a way but I'm sure it'll change as time goes on. :)

I'm still here..... & Things for Sale

Hi all, I am still here.  Have been having a few personal problems recently so am trying to deal with all of that too.  Too personal to write on here, anyway, I've been organising the girls Christening, which thankfully is nearly done.  On Monday, Kendra and Madelyn had their 6 month injections and check ups.  They were really good with their injections, I didn't even think that Kendra was going to cry with the first injection but right at the end she started whimpering but the 2nd injection she couldn't help it.  Poor baby!!

Also, I've added a page on here called "For Sale", soon I will start adding photos of items on here that I want to sell, mostly baby stuff but there might be other stuff too.  Hopefully you keep checking it out regularly to see what new's been added.  Thanking you in advance.

6 Months: Where Did That Time Go?

Six months, hey? Scary! Time flies so fast, I can't believe my babies are six months old!  My heart just fills with joy whenever I see their little faces light up!  Today I started feeding the girls solids again, I started about three weeks ago but Madelyn wasn't interested at all, she didn't like the spoon going anywhere near her mouth and Kendra didn't mind it but she still wasn't at the stage where she really wanted it either.  Today though! Madelyn loved it, was fine with the spoon being in her mouth, she just didn't like me wiping her mouth with the spoon. That's why in one of the photos coming up, you'll see her all upset, poor Madelyn!  Kendra well, she couldn't wait for me to put the spoon in her mouth and kept grabbing her spoon and shoving it in!  Very cute!  They scoffed the mashed pumpkin right down! 

            Little piggies!! : )
                                                      Kendra
                                                 
Madelyn                           

        

 I thought I would compare stats from the girls birth to now.

Kendra

Birth                                                    Now 6 Mths Later

Weight:    2.77kgs                                 Weight:  6.4kgs

Length:    46cms                                    Length:  63cms

HC:         34cms                                    HC:       41cms

Madelyn

Birth                                                    Now 6 Mths Later

Weight:    2.88kgs                                 Weight:   6.3kgs

Length:    49cms                                    Length:   65cms

HC:         33cms                                    HC:        40.5cms       

Wow! They've grown haven't they? They are just about sitting up on their own now! Still can't roll over yet although, Kendra did roll over the other day from her stomach to her back again but hasn't done it since.  I know they are 4 weeks premature and that they take longer to do things but they still look tiny to me compared to what Michala looked like at their age! lol.  They are pushing themselves around with their feet enough to move themselves so they probably don't need to roll over at all.
 
Anyway, if anyone's got some suggestions on how I can pep up this blog, please let me know.  Thanks

Happy Easter & Change of Daylight Savings Time

Hi all, hoping that everyone had a great Easter same as we did! We had and have family staying with us this Easter and caught up with other parts of the family also.  Everything will go back to normal from tomorrow then, all the family head off and we go back to our busy but chaotic life! haha.

I don't like the change of daylight savings back to normal time, I was so used to getting up at 8am with the girls waking then and now they keep waking at 7am which was 8am before.  It's just thrown the babies all out of whack and I'm not quite sure what to do about it yet.  Kendra and Madelyn refused to have their arvo sleep today and were quite grumpy tonight so I ended up feeding them early and putting them down early so I'm hoping they don't wake any earlier than 7am in the morning! lol.  I have to work out whether to keep trying to adjust their time clocks or readjust my day to suit their previous times for everything but unfortunately that means I need to rearrange teatime for Michala also as our normal time is 6pm but the girls will want to be fed then if this is the case! Argh!!! I don't know, I spose I should see how they go overnight tonight as that will make it the 3rd day tomorrow and should tell me if they'll adjust or not.

Are twins really that much harder than single babies?

Last night I was looking thru the blogs that I follow when I came across this one from "Twinkle Twinkle Little Twins..." called "I Don't Know Any Different" dated Sunday March 28, 2010 "While searching through blogs about other mothers raising twins all i could find were blogs saying how incredible insane it is and basically saying how being blessed with two has ruined there lives. Well i would like to inform everybody that i disagree with these mothers. Yes it is quite the hand full and can be very overwhelming at times but i do not feel that my twins have ruined my life at all. A lot of people ask me how i can possibly do it, that it is just double the trouble and the only thing i can say is that it is all i know. I do not know what it is like having only one baby to take care of.. Extremely easy i imagine....."

Now, I have a single daughter and twin girls as you all know but I agree with Jess the writer of that blog, raising twins doesn't ruin our lives and it isn't double trouble. I know my babies are only 5 1/2 mths old but I personally think that my 3 yo daughter is more of a handful than the girls. The girls both feed at the same time, they sleep at the same time for their major sleeps, it's just easier with the twins, they sleep all night and Michala gets up more than they do. I'm sure that the girls will start to become a bit more of a handful when they begin walking, maybe but I'm enjoying every part of their lives at the moment.

The only time for me that the twins might be harder is when they are both crying, depending on why they are crying depends on how hard it is for me. If it's for the reason that they are tired and need a short nap, then it's not too bad currently as I put Madelyn in the electric rocker and then pat Kendra to sleep, the only hard part here is getting Kendra to stay asleep once I've put her back in her pram. lol. Sometimes one might just have to cry a little longer but they cope with it reasonably well.

I had the similar problems with Michala but with Michala I had more opportunity to sit down and hold her than I do with the twins. Yes, I would say that having twin babies are easy, sure they can give you a hard time occasionally but that is no different to a single baby.

As Jess, wrote further on that blog, it's just that you do it twice! She's 100% right there, we do do it twice! My sister in law, who had twins also after a single boy, said that if one baby takes up all of your time, how much extra can two more babies take?

A Quick Photo of Michala and Kendra

As promised from Sisterly Love.

Michala and Kendra (5.5mths)

Teething Troubles - Bad, Bad Teeth!!

Why do babies suffer from teething?! It's obviously, really painful for them and for some babies it starts off so early in their life. Kendra got a cold not long after 3 months old, and she couldn't shake it off, we'd seen the doctor and he'd said it wasn't in her chest so there was nothing he could do, of course! I think it was about 2 weeks later when her cold still hadn't cleared, I was feeling around her mouth and when I felt her top gums I had to have a look! My poor baby has her eye teeth popped right out of her gum but not quite cut through yet!! No wonder she's been upset lately! The cold probably came along at the start of her teething then the irritability as well as the runny nappies but that hasn't changed at all yet since their birth. lol. Her bottom eye teeth are white and raised but I think the eye teeth are just going to give her hell until her bottom and top teeth come thru first! Poor girl! So now it seems I'm putting teething gels (which I can't find any that give her lasting relief!) or giving her panadol at least once a day! Or else I'm rocking and patting her to sleep to give her a half hour break from it! But there is one thing I have to be happy about, so far Kendra's teething hasn't woken her during the night very often, which is excellent for her and for me! :) The cold has since gone, the nappies are the same and her teething is the same unfortunately! Since the start of this month, she's gotten to grabbing whatever she can get her hands on to put straight in her mouth! If she can get your fingers in her mouth she has a good clamp on her!! lol

Our firstborn Michala had her top two teeth showing really well but her bottom two came out first with no problems, it just ended up being the rest that gave her the hassles from then on but nurefon worked wonders for her! :) Madelyn is doing okay, her gums don't look like they are anywhere near ready for teeth yet thankfully.

Everytime people ask me how the twins are going, I'll say good but Kendra's teething really bad. And everytime, they'll come back with "teething already? That's a little early isn't it?". It always makes us mum's feel like we just use teething as the next best excuse but I know that's not the case with Kendra as I can see them! When's it too early to get teeth? Some babies are born with teeth, others get them around 3 mths, the majority get them from 6 mths onwards but each baby is an individual.

♥ Sisterly Love ♥

♥ It is wonderful when you have a new baby and know wholeheartedly that their older sibling was looking forward to meeting them just as much as you were. ♥

Michala is an excellent older sister to Kendra and Madelyn and just loves to cuddle them as much as possible. I love watching her try to involve them in everything she can do, such as dancing, she'll grab their hands while their in the rocker and want them to hold her hand while she dances around or I'll see her go up to them after she's read sleeping beauty and say "it's alright bubby, I won't let the dragon hurt you, see there's no dragon here...". If one of the babies is crying, she'll try to calm them down by patting their stomach as I've taught her, sometimes that can get a little rough but thankfully the twins are right where I am anyway so I can keep an eye on what's going on. If I try and put the girls down for a sleep, whether it be day or night and Michala's not around, she'll get upset saying "I want to say goodnight to my sisters!" and usually she'll run in their room to their cot blow a kiss and say "goodnight Kendra, goodnight Madelyn" then come out all happy again.

It amazes me how unconditional love is sometimes, it's amazing because children don't get the choice themselves whether they want siblings or not, it's just something the parents decide and unfortunately whether the children get along with their brothers or sisters doesn't even come into the decision making to extend your family. After I had the twins, whilst I was still in hospital, everyone including the nurses told me that Madelyn and Michala were going to clash, I certainly hope that's not the case later in life but currently that couldn't be far from the truth. But then, there are others who say that all three of them will have a close bond after they've seen them all together. Who knows, but currently Michala loves her little sisters to bits and I hope that continues forever, oh I know there'll be words and tiffs, etc but I hope in the long run, deep down they continue to love each other and be there for one another as sometimes family is all we have especially when we really need someone.

When Kendra was 12wks old, she had been throwing up and had a high temp, I was going to just take Kendra to the hospital but Michala got hysterical worrying that we weren't going to come home (unfortunately her first time of mummy not being there for a period of time was when I had the twins) and when hubby and I bundled everyone in the car, she kept saying "mummy I'm worried too!" Poor baby, but she was so much better knowing that her sister was okay and coming home with mummy also. It really doesn't take long for a bond to form in a family, does it! It also fills my heart with such joy when I see her sitting where I sit on the lounge, trying to breastfeed two of her dolls pretending to be mummy! :)



This is Michala (big sis) with her newborn sister Kendra, I can't seem to find a recent photo of her holding Kendra but when I do, I'll post it online. Everytime she holds them she says "get the camera, take smiles!" Very cute!!

This is Michala (big sis) holding her sister Madelyn, close on 5mths at this time.

Twin Questions?!?!

Today we had a 3yo birthday party to go to. It's great getting to catch up with people I only see thru other friends especially if they've had new babies or have kids around the same age as mine or were in a prenatal class with me. I understand most people don't know a lot about twins but still..........

"Are they twins?" Hmmm.... really? Sometimes I feel like saying something like "No, I just picked this one up at the supermarket, amazingly they seem to have the same birthdays and were born only 10mins apart! Cool, hey?"

"Boy/Girl?" Two girls I say, but inside I'm thinking, they both have pink long sleeve shirts on under denim dresses, what do you reckon?

"How are you coping with twins? Bet that keeps you busy?" Well actually, currently it's harder with the 3yo than the twins, the only time I get a hard time with the twins is when Kendra is teething and I can't seem to find any teething gels that are working for her even for a short amount of time so I have to keep giving her panadol.

"Are you still breastfeeding? I'm sure that's difficult and takes up a lot of your time." Yes, I am still breastfeeding, I do them both at the same time so it makes it easier on me and only means I'm busy for half an hour at the most so they only feed four times a day now which is good.

"Wow! You look great, what's your secret?" (Not sure if this was serious or sarcastic as they are one of our neighbours) My secret is having two babies at once, feeding them just sucks all the fat out of me! LOL

Some questions are annoying, plain stupid, interesting, self informing but all this usually depends on what my mood is at that time and what sort of day that I've had already.

Where Do I Start?

Well where do I start from here? A bit of background information I reckon to get started.... hmmm..... Well I met my husband about 16 1/2 years ago, got married 10 years ago, shifted from Coonalpyn where were both living at the time to the Barossa Valley where I began to work at Agpoint Australia in Freeling and my husband was working as an interstate truck driver. In 2005, we decided to start trying for a family and within 6 months we found out that I didn't ovulate properly and had Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (POS) so we needed help with getting pregnant. That was a very hard time and very costly also, but cost is nothing compared to the chance of having children. After 6 courses of fertility treatment (approx 6mths), we fell pregnant and after an excellent pregnancy, we had a beautiful baby girl Michala Jade on the 2nd of January 2007 weighing 9pds 2ozs and a 14.5hr labour!!! What can I say about Michala? She was a beautiful baby, so happy and easy, slept thru the night 12 hrs from 8wks old until 9mths when she started teething properly!! lol. We decided to start trying again for another child when Michala was about 18mths old. Finally after another 6 courses (over a period of 8mths this time), we found out we were pregnant again! Yay! Then at our 8 wk ultrasound, we found out we were pregnant with non identical twins!!!! We knew this could be possible as it runs in both our families and Michael's older sister had already had twins one boy/one girl but we were still shocked anyway. We had hoped for twins the first time, but hadn't even considered it the second time. That was quite a shocking thing to get used to especially since we found out on April Fools Day and no one believed us for a bit! lol. We already had everything for one baby now had to get a few extra things for the second baby but thankfully we got given quite a bit of stuff so that was good. With this pregnancy we decided to find out the sex of the babies so we would know what we still need to get and to be able to decide on names, we found out that we were having two more girls! After another excellent pregnancy, I gave birth 4 weeks early on the 11th October 2009 to Kendra Davinna at 7.38am weighing 6pds 1oz and Madelyn Andrea at 7.48am weighing 6pds 5ozs with a 4.5hr labour! What can I say about Kendra and Madelyn? They are now 5 mths old, gorgeous little things, smile like there's no tomorrow and have beautiful laughs. They are completely different and everyone asks me what each of their temperaments are like, the only thing I can answer that with is, one day one is like this and then the next day it'll be the opposite child, they swap constantly and after going to the multiples group catch ups they say that continues to happen to even 4 year olds. So far all I can say is it seems that Kendra is a bit more laid back while Madelyn is a bit of a mummy's girl but we also think that might be from when she was born, her lungs were still a little premature and she got sent to another hospital to get oxygen pumped into her and we couldn't all go as there wasn't enough room there so poor Madelyn was on her own for the first three days of her life! It was a nervewracking experience waiting for her to come back as I'd only got to hold her for a minute before they had to rush her off to the Special Care Nursery. Poor Kendra has been teething for the last month, her eye teeth are right there waiting to cut, grrr! why can't they come in order! Well that's all for now, it's getting late so hopefully you found this interesting at least and I'll keep updating it as regularly as I can! lol