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