Time is starting to go faster. I still feel like we’ve had the twins for a very long time, however now I stop on the spot and think “they are SEVEN months… wow, where has time gone!” I don’t know, it’s really difficult to explain. One of the signs of time passing very quickly is that it seems like yesterday when I was writing their six month blog entry.. and here we are again, so soon!
So yeah, seven months! And here is a summary of the last month.
Feeding.
Milk-wise the quantities have not changed much. They are still taking about 240ml at every feed. The important piece of news now is that we have started weaning! I must say that it is the bit that I am finding harder, probably because I have no idea of what I am doing. I thought I knew (after having read stuff online) but honestly I don’t know what I am doing. And the problem is that I don’t really have much time to sit down and read lots of things about weaning and the different schools of thought out there. I honestly believed that I was going to try baby led weaning and now I am spoon feeding them purées… Oh well.
So what I am doing at the moment is: Full bottle first thing in the morning (around 6:30am), then almost full bottle and breakfast (banana & yoghurt, or muesli and fruit, or porridge) at about 9:30, then another full bottle at about 12:30, then almost full bottle and lunch (vegetables, or meat and vegetables, sometimes just fruit) at about 3:30 and finally a full bottle for bed time at 6:30.
The portions of solid food are still quite small. They make a horrible mess when being fed, especially because they love holding the spoon themselves which makes the whole adventure quite messy. Quite soon, probably next week, I would like to drop a bottle feed and increase the quantity of food. I know this may mess up my perfect three hourly timings, but we need to get them eating properly soon!
They also eat finger foods in the BLW style. We give them pieces of what we are eating and they do quite well, sucking and licking, although I am unsure of how much they actually swallow. And it is messy. Oh my, even worse than with the purées!
Sleeping.
Not much has changed in the last month. Their sleep patterns are still the same, going to bed at the same time and getting up in the morning at the same time as well. Elisa sometimes wakes up two or three times a night because her dummy has fallen off, but she’ll settle straight away when we put the dummy back in.
What I am struggling a tiny bit with is their naps as they are not very regular. I would like them to have just two naps a day; one in the morning and one in the afternoon, but I have been told that this may not happen until they are a bit older. At the moment they nap almost after every feed. That means that, as they have five feeds a day, they have five naps every day! This makes my days difficult as going out can be a challenge unless I time everything to the second.
Development.
The biggest news on development this month is that they are both sitting up unaided! Funnily enough, Elisa was the first one to learn to do this, and she can sit down and play on the floor on her own for long periods of time without falling! She can easily do 30-40 minutes straight. Then she gets tired and keeps falling back or on her side.
Eric can sit up as well, but he is finding it a tiny bit more difficult. Elisa was sitting up for a good three days before Eric could do it for more than a couple of minutes straight. He is getting better and will last longer, but Elisa is the expert in this field. (Jon seems to think that it’s because Elisa is shorter and has got more “paunch” around her to support her). She loves it so much that she won’t tolerate being put on her back now. Even when I’m changing her nappy, she wants to sit up.
I have sat them up opposite each other a couple of times and watching their faces is the most amazing feeling in the world. They stare at each other and they examine each other, they have a special look, like knowingly, and they touch each other. It’s like they know each other but now they are really starting to discover the other one, if you know what I mean.
They are still talking a lot, but their “vocabulary” has not improved much at all. I am still trying to get them to say “ma-ma” but nothing yet. They seem to enjoy simple sounds like “ah” and “eo”. Something that we’ve noticed, though, is that they are becoming louder. It’s like someone turns the volume up to 10 sometimes…
The Boogie Mites class finished and I got to learn quite a few songs. There are two that they especially like and both Jon and I sing them to the twins all the time (Jon came with me to the last class and we also got a CD with lots of songs to practice at home). Eric has learnt to shake a shaker (we made a few with small bottles and rice and lentils) and Elisa kinds of shakes it as well, but it looks more accidental than intentional.
They are really enjoying bath time now. Until only a week or two ago, bath time was a pure step into their bedtime routine. Now it has become a bit more of play time. We wash them first and them sit them up and let them play with they water and some ducks. Elisa especially like it, probably because she is more confident than Eric in the sitting up.
Socialising.
I am back to my old self now and going out as much as I can again. I still find it difficult, when it crashes with feeds or naps, but I try to go out at least once a week. I want to enrol in another free course in the new year as that will force me out of the house more often.
Health.
I am actually weighing them on Wednesday, as I couldn’t attend my regular first Tuesday of the month clinic in town. So I will be going to the one in the Community Centre this coming Wednesday… I am hoping that since it is within walking distance I will find it easier (it’s got to be easier than packing them into the car, driving into Festival Place, setting up the pushchair and going all the way to the clinic!!). So I don’t have a weight update for you… but I believe that they will have put on half a kilo each. Watch this space.
They are both teething. No teeth to show for it yet, but they are definitely teething. They drool like crazy, they chew on everything (EVERYTHING), they rub their ears, their cheeks are red and hot, they cry and are cringy without reason…. All the signs but no teeth. Some days are worse than others and we’ve had to give them Calpol a few times, especially Eric. He seems to be the one suffering the most. I just hope it’s not always like this for all 20 milk teeth!
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And this is it for their monthly update. We had a Christmassy photo shoot at the beginning of the month and they both looked so cute! Unfortunately, Elisa decided not to smile until the very end, so she’s only smiling in three or four photos. But she looks beautiful even when she’s serious!
We’re going to spend Christmas here, only visiting Jon’s family on Boxing Day. We haven’t bought lots of presents for the twins for Christmas, mainly because we know the family will buy some stuff for them, but also because they already have a lot of toys and things (there’s not much more empty space in my living room), plus they are too small to understand what’s going on. We’ll make much more of an effort next year!
So, have a lovely Christmas break, enjoy the food and the lights and the spirit, and read you in the new year!
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