Just a quick note on Kendyll . . .she appears to be doing a bit better -- actually she just finished up a full bottle and has yet to spit it up. I ended up taking her to the pediatrician yesterday just to be safe and she said Miss K looks fine, not dehydrated, very alert, etc. Probably just a stomach bug and hopefully things will be back to normal in 3 - 7 days. We are scheduled to take B & K in next week just for a weight check, but we got a small preview yesterday. Kendyll (aka Chunky Monkey Girrrrl) is now at 9 lbs 12 oz!! And this is after SEVERAL days of not eating very well. I'm pretty confident she'll tip at 10 lbs next week.
No new pictures tonight, but I'll try to add more soon. . .
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
Cinco de Mayo (and pictures)
For those of you who need a B & K picture fix (and you know who you are), here are a few new ones, including them in their Cinco de Mayo bibs (thanks again to the Zelasko family for these!!).
Enjoy!!
Enjoy!!
Ugh!
WARNING -- this post may be a little gross for those with weak stomachs! :-)
We officially have our first "sick" baby. We think Kendyll caught some type of a virus. We think it may have started late last week; she has always been our good sleeper and Thursday night she woke at midnight and then again at another point in the night. Then on Friday she had a huge spit-up on our nanny, Becca, and in the middle of the night a HUGE messy blowout (lovely). Totally not like her (she usually has her blow-outs during the day right before I come home from work -- what a good girl!). Then Saturday she started a string of yellowish-greenish poo and over the course of the next 18 hours had 14 (yes, FOURTEEN) #2 diapers. Oh, and she continued to spit up, having one huge one after I fed her a whole bottle -- needless to say, it reminded me of my projectile vomiting days of morning sickness. Yuck!! So we called the pedi on Sunday and as we suspected he suggested it might be a stomach bug. We're trying to feed her less, more frequently to quell the spit-ups and hopefully the poo issue will solve itself. And HOPEFULLY Mr. Bennett doesn't get it, too (he also had a ton of messy diapers, but thankfully hasn't been spitting up -- he is actually eating like a champ these days!).
On a side note (and totally unexpected), they slept VERY well last night; Bennett went down at 8:00p with no fuss, slept until 11:00p, ate (we woke him up to do so), then back down until 4:00a, ate and then back down until 7:30a (again I woke him up). Kendyll was about the same . . . she was fussy between 8 - 11, but then slept solid until this morning (actually sleeping through the bottle at 7:30a -- I could not get her awake enough to eat it). With Kendyll being such a mess yesterday we were SURE she would be up all night, but surprisingly we got almost 6 hours of sleep. Woo-hoo!
That is the best I can do with an update these days -- sorry if it is TMI! Oh, and FYI for those who were waiting patiently for the "professional" pictures from our friend Sarah. Unfortunately we had to postpone to a later time (Sarah -- our thoughts are with you!), so please continue to keep posted for that. :-)
** I forgot to mention that my parents took the brunt of Kendyll's messes . . . they were down for the weekend and watched the babies Saturday night while we attended a Tres de Mayo party. Thanks Grandma & Grandpa Z!!
We officially have our first "sick" baby. We think Kendyll caught some type of a virus. We think it may have started late last week; she has always been our good sleeper and Thursday night she woke at midnight and then again at another point in the night. Then on Friday she had a huge spit-up on our nanny, Becca, and in the middle of the night a HUGE messy blowout (lovely). Totally not like her (she usually has her blow-outs during the day right before I come home from work -- what a good girl!). Then Saturday she started a string of yellowish-greenish poo and over the course of the next 18 hours had 14 (yes, FOURTEEN) #2 diapers. Oh, and she continued to spit up, having one huge one after I fed her a whole bottle -- needless to say, it reminded me of my projectile vomiting days of morning sickness. Yuck!! So we called the pedi on Sunday and as we suspected he suggested it might be a stomach bug. We're trying to feed her less, more frequently to quell the spit-ups and hopefully the poo issue will solve itself. And HOPEFULLY Mr. Bennett doesn't get it, too (he also had a ton of messy diapers, but thankfully hasn't been spitting up -- he is actually eating like a champ these days!).
On a side note (and totally unexpected), they slept VERY well last night; Bennett went down at 8:00p with no fuss, slept until 11:00p, ate (we woke him up to do so), then back down until 4:00a, ate and then back down until 7:30a (again I woke him up). Kendyll was about the same . . . she was fussy between 8 - 11, but then slept solid until this morning (actually sleeping through the bottle at 7:30a -- I could not get her awake enough to eat it). With Kendyll being such a mess yesterday we were SURE she would be up all night, but surprisingly we got almost 6 hours of sleep. Woo-hoo!
That is the best I can do with an update these days -- sorry if it is TMI! Oh, and FYI for those who were waiting patiently for the "professional" pictures from our friend Sarah. Unfortunately we had to postpone to a later time (Sarah -- our thoughts are with you!), so please continue to keep posted for that. :-)
** I forgot to mention that my parents took the brunt of Kendyll's messes . . . they were down for the weekend and watched the babies Saturday night while we attended a Tres de Mayo party. Thanks Grandma & Grandpa Z!!
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Random # 2
I was on my way home from work the other day and for whatever reason I was thinking about a recent visit to Tim's new office (well actually I know how I stumbled upon this thought, but I'm not going to bore everyone with my demented mind these days!). Anyway, Tim was telling me that several people have commented on the picture of me on his desk (honestly, I think it is his LACK of a nice picture of me). He has a picture of B & K from St. Patrick's Day, a picture of Tabasco from our Xmas card a couple of years ago and this picture of us from our wedding day:
NICE & CLASSY!! :-) Seriously, this is actually one of my favorite pictures from that day. Those of you who know me well know that I HATE posed pictures and our photographer that day was all about cheesy poses (good note for those of you not yet married -- if photos are an important part of your big day, spend a little more time interviewing photographers!). Tim's dad snapped this one as we were heading into their house to watch ND football between the church & reception.
** Side Note & totally off topic: So you may notice that the guys are wearing deep red & gray. That was TOTALLY unintentional and NOT for Ohio State -- sorry buckeye fans! I've had people comment upon seeing the few wedding photos we have: "oh, you had a scarlet & gray wedding -- I thought you were Notre Dame fans". Um, well . . . our colors were actually deep red & sage/apple green and in hindsight Tim probably would have worn black instead of gray that day . . . we didn't mean for it to turn out so OSUish. :-)
Ok, enough about me . . . I guess this is Bennett & Kendyll's site now. I have another picture I've been meaning to share. A HUGE hello and THANK YOU to Tim's Aunt Sandy & Uncle Lou for this special gift before B & K were born. My friend Nicole recommended the "Mother's Heartbeat Bear" to add to our registry and it has actually been one of the lifesaving items to get us to a better night's sleep (as well as the swaddleme blankets, but that's another story). Being former NICU babies, B & K really don't like to sleep in the quiet, so the bears provide a nice, mellow "white noise" to fall asleep too. So thanks to the bears we owe most of our sleep time at night to Sandy & Lou -- we love you guys!!! :-) We hope the weather in CA is gorgeous and we wish we could be there with you!!!
Here is B & K with their bears:
Monday, April 28, 2008
Show & Tell
We made our first road trip with Bennett & Kendyll this weekend. Tim's grandma, Mary, turned 80 over the weekend and the family had a big party to celebrate on Sunday. We made the 5+ hour round trip journey to help mark the occasion. B & K were all decked out in their finest and spent quite a bit of time being passed around. It was a big occasion for us, too, because it marked the first time B & K were out and about in a large group of people (yes, technically flu & RSV season is still in effect until the end of the month and we probably shouldn't have exposed them to so many people this early -- we have our fingers crossed that B & K didn't pick up anything while being passed around!). It was really nice to see some of Tim's extended family and we were happy to spend the afternoon celebrating a remarkable milestone.
On another note, the kids have turned a corner where sleep is concerned . . . they slept for over 5 hours straight Saturday night and in several 4 hour blocks over the weekend as well. Whoo-hoo! We'll see if we can keep this up!!
Here are a few pictures from the weekend event (including our first real family photo). We're going to have "real" pictures taken this coming weekend (thanks Sarah!), so keep an eye out for a post about that soon!
Bennett still needs to grow into some of his clothes (this cracked me up!):
On another note, the kids have turned a corner where sleep is concerned . . . they slept for over 5 hours straight Saturday night and in several 4 hour blocks over the weekend as well. Whoo-hoo! We'll see if we can keep this up!!
Here are a few pictures from the weekend event (including our first real family photo). We're going to have "real" pictures taken this coming weekend (thanks Sarah!), so keep an eye out for a post about that soon!
Bennett still needs to grow into some of his clothes (this cracked me up!):
Monday, April 21, 2008
Random
I have wanted to write about a few different things, so I thought I'd put them all here in this "random" post:
Sleep
We are still working on the sleeping in chunks of time thing, but we are cautiously optimistic that we turned a corner this weekend. Friday night our friends Mandy & Chad came over and B & K slept so, so well while they were here. I started to call Mandy the "baby whisperer" and told her if they slept well all night she was going to have to come over every night to put them to bed. :-) And they did sleep very well . . . only getting up for their feedings & then right back down. Score! Saturday we ran a bunch of errands (side note: we are FINALLY updating our kitchen, so keep posted for a blog entry on that . . . the joys of remodeling with infant twins!). . . B & K slept the entire time. We figured we were in for a LONG night, but they went down at 8:00, slept solid until 11:00 and then slept until 4 AM!!! I actually woke them, sort of . . . I shot out of bed and ran into their room -- both were sleeping, but starting to grunt & wake up. We fed them and they went back down until 8 am!! It was awesome!! Last night was a similar story . . . no fussing between feedings and lots of sleep for mommy & daddy! Tonight they went down at 8:00 again, but I've been upstairs 4 times for fussy babies, so we'll see what happens . . .
Eating
Bennett & Kendyll are up to eating between 3 & 4 oz a feeding. The pediatrician told us we could feed them up to half of their weight (i.e. since Bennett is almost 8 lbs, he can have up to 4 oz) -- anything more and they run the risk of becoming obese (a funny thought to me, especially since they were so tiny to begin with!). For some reason our "champ" eater, Kendyll, has been a bit off for the past week and Bennett has become the new "champ" (which is OK with us since Miss K has a whole pound on him!). Burping is a pain, too, and by far my least favorite part of motherhood. I'm proud to say that Bennett has finally gotten with the program and let a belch so loud and hard this morning that I almost dropped him! But Kendyll has now become much more difficult & time consuming to burp. Oh the phases they go through!
Tabasco
My first, furry baby. Everyone has been asking how he is doing and I'm happy to report he is fine. He has adapted to having the babies around pretty well and other than trying to take their toys every once & a while (and who can blame him -- they squeak just like his toys!) he has been very good. He still goes through his phase every night where he wants our undivided attention -- sometimes he gets it, sometimes he has to wait -- but overall he is the same. He is very protective of me & the babies and he still barks a TON, but thankfully it doesn't seem to phase B & K. :-)
Development Stuff
It is still too early to tell how or if B & K will be "behind" at all based on their prematurity. The pediatrician told us last week that their head control is consistent with a baby around a month old, but it really isn't anything to be alarmed about at this point. Kendyll is on the move these days . . . her legs are REALLY strong -- she pushes them on us when we hold her and she uses them to scoot around her crib. Twice last week I found her all the way to the side of her crib with her head near her crib bumper (remember how I mentioned we weren't supposed to have those in the cribs??). Well this morning I found miss on-the-move face FIRST into her crib bumper. Thankfully she was fine, but I spent the next 15 minutes taking down the bumper in both cribs. She was always on the move in her isolett & open crib in the NICU, too, so I think we have something to keep an eye on here! Bennett is finally starting to control his head more, too, and I think it is only a matter of time before he takes off and catches up with his sister. They say boys develop a little slower (especially preemie boys), so we're sure he'll get with the program soon.
Routine
We're still working on a real routine / schedule. Our nanny, Becca, has been trying hard to get B & K into a napping schedule during the day, but honestly they are still a little too young for that. We're trying to get into a new routine at night, too -- we try to fit in dinner, a walk, baby baths (which they are FINALLY starting to not hate as much . . . I won't go as far as to say they like them, but they don't scream like we're cutting off their arms anymore) and then jammies & bed. We try to have this all wrapped up by 8:00 -- oh, and if we're really good we'll fit in a book there somewhere. Hopefully we'll have this all worked out soon, but so far we're managing just fine.
Exercise
Tim & I used to go to the gym together in the morning before work before I got pregnant. Ten weeks of puking, nine weeks of bedrest and now taking care of two babies have caused me to boycott the gym for the past 10 months or so. Somehow, remarkably, I am smaller now than I was before I got pregnant. Seriously, I haven't been on the scale recently, but 2 weeks after my c-section I was 4 lbs lighter than when I started. And now that I'm back at work ALL of my work pants are huge on me. I told Tim I need to go shopping. And if you had told me a year ago that I'd be a mother of twins AND smaller than I was this time last year I would have said you were smoking crack!!!! I can not believe it! Now I'm not saying everything is nice, firm and tight (I did have twins for goodness sake!), but I'm all about my clothes fitting so well (or not fitting for the good reasons in this case). My exercise these days consists of taking walks with the dog & kids (thank God spring is finally here) and running up & down the stairs a million times a night to sooth a fussy baby in bed. Maybe I'll get back to the gym . . . someday.
Last, but not least -- Things I never thought I'd be able to do:
1. Feed two babies at one time (bonus: feeding one while burping the other).
2. Carry both "wet noodles" babies (read: limited head control) at the same time -- and up stairs at that!
3. Pick up a pacifier with my foot while holding both babies at one time and chuck it onto the couch so Tabasco wouldn't get it!
4. Walk the dog while pushing the stroller (especially difficult when there is another dog / animal / human near by because Tabasco goes nuts).
5. Give both babies a bath -- we still haven't tried them both at once, but I have mastered giving them both baths & getting them ready for bed by myself while Tim was traveling.
Here is a picture of the kids in one of their double strollers after our walk yesterday. Yay for spring!!
Sleep
We are still working on the sleeping in chunks of time thing, but we are cautiously optimistic that we turned a corner this weekend. Friday night our friends Mandy & Chad came over and B & K slept so, so well while they were here. I started to call Mandy the "baby whisperer" and told her if they slept well all night she was going to have to come over every night to put them to bed. :-) And they did sleep very well . . . only getting up for their feedings & then right back down. Score! Saturday we ran a bunch of errands (side note: we are FINALLY updating our kitchen, so keep posted for a blog entry on that . . . the joys of remodeling with infant twins!). . . B & K slept the entire time. We figured we were in for a LONG night, but they went down at 8:00, slept solid until 11:00 and then slept until 4 AM!!! I actually woke them, sort of . . . I shot out of bed and ran into their room -- both were sleeping, but starting to grunt & wake up. We fed them and they went back down until 8 am!! It was awesome!! Last night was a similar story . . . no fussing between feedings and lots of sleep for mommy & daddy! Tonight they went down at 8:00 again, but I've been upstairs 4 times for fussy babies, so we'll see what happens . . .
Eating
Bennett & Kendyll are up to eating between 3 & 4 oz a feeding. The pediatrician told us we could feed them up to half of their weight (i.e. since Bennett is almost 8 lbs, he can have up to 4 oz) -- anything more and they run the risk of becoming obese (a funny thought to me, especially since they were so tiny to begin with!). For some reason our "champ" eater, Kendyll, has been a bit off for the past week and Bennett has become the new "champ" (which is OK with us since Miss K has a whole pound on him!). Burping is a pain, too, and by far my least favorite part of motherhood. I'm proud to say that Bennett has finally gotten with the program and let a belch so loud and hard this morning that I almost dropped him! But Kendyll has now become much more difficult & time consuming to burp. Oh the phases they go through!
Tabasco
My first, furry baby. Everyone has been asking how he is doing and I'm happy to report he is fine. He has adapted to having the babies around pretty well and other than trying to take their toys every once & a while (and who can blame him -- they squeak just like his toys!) he has been very good. He still goes through his phase every night where he wants our undivided attention -- sometimes he gets it, sometimes he has to wait -- but overall he is the same. He is very protective of me & the babies and he still barks a TON, but thankfully it doesn't seem to phase B & K. :-)
Development Stuff
It is still too early to tell how or if B & K will be "behind" at all based on their prematurity. The pediatrician told us last week that their head control is consistent with a baby around a month old, but it really isn't anything to be alarmed about at this point. Kendyll is on the move these days . . . her legs are REALLY strong -- she pushes them on us when we hold her and she uses them to scoot around her crib. Twice last week I found her all the way to the side of her crib with her head near her crib bumper (remember how I mentioned we weren't supposed to have those in the cribs??). Well this morning I found miss on-the-move face FIRST into her crib bumper. Thankfully she was fine, but I spent the next 15 minutes taking down the bumper in both cribs. She was always on the move in her isolett & open crib in the NICU, too, so I think we have something to keep an eye on here! Bennett is finally starting to control his head more, too, and I think it is only a matter of time before he takes off and catches up with his sister. They say boys develop a little slower (especially preemie boys), so we're sure he'll get with the program soon.
Routine
We're still working on a real routine / schedule. Our nanny, Becca, has been trying hard to get B & K into a napping schedule during the day, but honestly they are still a little too young for that. We're trying to get into a new routine at night, too -- we try to fit in dinner, a walk, baby baths (which they are FINALLY starting to not hate as much . . . I won't go as far as to say they like them, but they don't scream like we're cutting off their arms anymore) and then jammies & bed. We try to have this all wrapped up by 8:00 -- oh, and if we're really good we'll fit in a book there somewhere. Hopefully we'll have this all worked out soon, but so far we're managing just fine.
Exercise
Tim & I used to go to the gym together in the morning before work before I got pregnant. Ten weeks of puking, nine weeks of bedrest and now taking care of two babies have caused me to boycott the gym for the past 10 months or so. Somehow, remarkably, I am smaller now than I was before I got pregnant. Seriously, I haven't been on the scale recently, but 2 weeks after my c-section I was 4 lbs lighter than when I started. And now that I'm back at work ALL of my work pants are huge on me. I told Tim I need to go shopping. And if you had told me a year ago that I'd be a mother of twins AND smaller than I was this time last year I would have said you were smoking crack!!!! I can not believe it! Now I'm not saying everything is nice, firm and tight (I did have twins for goodness sake!), but I'm all about my clothes fitting so well (or not fitting for the good reasons in this case). My exercise these days consists of taking walks with the dog & kids (thank God spring is finally here) and running up & down the stairs a million times a night to sooth a fussy baby in bed. Maybe I'll get back to the gym . . . someday.
Last, but not least -- Things I never thought I'd be able to do:
1. Feed two babies at one time (bonus: feeding one while burping the other).
2. Carry both "wet noodles" babies (read: limited head control) at the same time -- and up stairs at that!
3. Pick up a pacifier with my foot while holding both babies at one time and chuck it onto the couch so Tabasco wouldn't get it!
4. Walk the dog while pushing the stroller (especially difficult when there is another dog / animal / human near by because Tabasco goes nuts).
5. Give both babies a bath -- we still haven't tried them both at once, but I have mastered giving them both baths & getting them ready for bed by myself while Tim was traveling.
Here is a picture of the kids in one of their double strollers after our walk yesterday. Yay for spring!!
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Yay -- Football!!!
Today is the spring games for Notre Dame (Tim's alma mater) and Ohio State (our hometown school & where Grandpa Z played football). I asked Tim if he thought ND would win their game today -- ha ha! :-) The kids have been all decked out in some of their gear over the past two days (thanks to Nana & Papa and the Moreland family!). Enjoy the pics!
PS -- for my fellow UD grads, they do have UD gear, too (thanks Mindy P!), but it is a little too big . . . we'll save that for the real football / b-ball season.
PS -- for my fellow UD grads, they do have UD gear, too (thanks Mindy P!), but it is a little too big . . . we'll save that for the real football / b-ball season.
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