Leah, Emma and Claire (and Jen and John)

Leah slept 7 hours and Emma slept 8!!!

A few days ago I read that if the babies are well fed/well rested during the day they sleep better at night. I decided to increase their feeds during the day and be a little more concerned about napping. It seems to be working but only time will tell.

The girls were very well behaved today which was good because I had to get everything ready for our first family vacation. We are leaving tomorrow morning for a week at the cottage with John's parents and Drew. I don't really want to have to find a laundrymat during the week so I think I have every single piece of clothing the girls own packed. Add to that diapers, blankets, pack and play, pumping equipment and bottles…it's hard to believe two little babies come with so much stuff. I don't know if there is going to be any room for our clothes!

So we won't be updating this site for a week. Hopefully I've posted enough pics over the weeks that you all won't go through complete withdrawal! See you in a week.

LEAH SLEPT 8 HOURS AND EMMA IS SMILING!!!!

Last night John fed Leah at 10 and Emma at 10:30. There was not a peep out of their room until 5:30 am - and it was Emma (7 hours - very exciting!!). So I fed her and put her back to bed. Leah was still sleeping so I decided to pump. At 6:15 I was all done and had everything washed so I went into their room and Leah was just starting to stir. Not wanting the girls to be really off schedule I got her up and fed her. I was so excited that she slept so long…it was actually daylight when I went back to bed!

So at around 8:30am Emma started to fuss a bit. It was too early for her to be hungry so I just brought her into bed with me and gave her the soother. I drifted off to sleep but she was wide awake and making all sorts of cute little noises. When I opened my eyes she was looking right at me and she smiled! They have both been smiling for a couple of weeks now but it hasn't really been consistent so I was a bit skeptical. For the next half hour I lay there with her and she just kept on smiling like mom was the funniest person in the world. Of course when John got home from work I tried to make her smile and no go but as far as I'm concerned she's smiling!

Everytime we see Granny or Nana they go on and on about how perfect and well behaved the girls are. I usually laugh and say they are biased but today I would have to agree with them!

Well I have survived two days by myself with the twins. They both have their moments but for the most part they behave. I try and get out with them everyday. Yesterday we went to the mall and today I was going to walk to the library but Emma was fussy so we just went for a walk around the neighbourhood instead.

I have given up on trying to exclusively breastfeed them during the day. It was getting to be a challenge even with my mom's extra hands because the girls are just so impatient. It is not a relaxing, bonding or fun experience for anyone. I am trying to feed one and give the other one a bottle (both at the same time). So far so good. I already feel like I have much more time to spend with each of them. I am trying to keep an open mind and do what is best for everyone. If that means exclusively feeding them breastmilk in a bottle and supplementing every once in a while with formula I'm not going to walk around feeling like I have failed as a mother!

We had a very eventful weekend. Yesterday we went to Oshawa for the day. John's mom and I were at a bridal shower while the girls spent the afternoon with their Dad, Grandpa and Great Grandpa Holmes. From what I hear they had a pleasant afternoon showing the girls off to Great Grandpa's neighbours.

So on my last post I neglected to mention that John and I bought a house! My mom planted the seed a few weeks back and we had been thinking about it more and more. As much as I think I would like to have the girls confined to a two bedroom condo, I think in a couple of years we will all appreciate having a yard. The house is a Mattamy home (Deercreek model) in the north west end of Oakville. We are both very excited and relieved that we got it - it was the last good lot left! The closing date is the end of April and hopefully we'll have no problem selling our condo.

So my mom and dad left this morning and we took the girls to the sales office to sign all the papers. We then headed over to the latest Mattamy homes and walked through a house just like ours that had the drywall up. After staring at the floorplan for so long it was neat to get an idea of what the house will actually be like inside. On our way home, we stopped in at the design center where we will eventually choose all the stuff for the house. It was very overwhelming and thankfully the babies needed to be fed so we couldn't stay too long.

I haven't taken any pictures lately so I have none to share. Tomorrow is the official start of me and the babies all on our own so I'm sure I'll have some good stories…

I'm sure most of you remember how we used to call Emma our peaceful baby and Leah was given the nickname 'demando'. Well sometime over the past few days there seems to have been a role reversal. When Leah wakes up she is content to look around. If she starts to fuss she'll take her soother (her precious!) and calm right down. On the other hand if miss Emma is hungry there is no consoling her.

Today my mom and I went to Ikea and silly me left the bottles in the car because they weren't due to eat for 2 hours. Well halfway through Ikea Emma started to fuss and it quickly turned into full on screaming. The ladies on the twin message board call it a meltdown - I now know what they're talking about. I had her out of her carseat and was carrying her but there was no consoling her. Of course once we completed the Ikea maze and she got the bottle everything was fine and our peaceful Emma returned.

So tonight my mom, John and I spent some time trying to figure out why she is soooo hungry. She did sleep two 6 hour stretches in a row last night so we think maybe it's her body trying to catch up for only being fed twice in 12 hours where she would usually get 3 feeds. It's either that or she's trying very hard to catch up to her sister! We've upped her bottle amount tonight so we'll see how it goes. If she keeps this up I don't know how I'm going to keep up with her!