The Doctor That Will Never See Us Again

Ok first some pictures and things and then the crazy doctor story.

 

This is Olivia (Livvy!) from next door. She is about two weeks younger than the girls but if you can't tell, she's about twice their size. LOL That sweet girl is a chunk! Livvy's mom Leah has been super nice to us. She came over and introduced herself right after we moved in and she invited us over for lunch last week. We didn't get to stay long because, 3 babies. But I think its going to be nice having a friend right next door. As you can see, Claire was not too sure about Olivia. She kept looking at her like "Ok, I know that's not my sister... so who is it???"

Steve won't use a baby-carrier. I guess he thinks this is an acceptable alternative...

This is all we see of Amelia lately- her little butt. She has rolled over one way and she is bound and determined that she is going to do it the other way. Soon. Immediately.

This is a total How-Do-You-Do-It picture. I should carry it around with me for when people ask me "What do you do if they're both screaming at the same time?

Three out of the four Harmon girls. Colorsticks isn't usually interested in the babies but every now and then she gets a wild hair and decides to come check them out. Amelia is already learning to use the internet. She's smart like that.nagis to prevent RSV

Ok now about this awful doctor. The girls get a shot every month called Synagis to prevent RSV. This is not something that doctor's offices have in stock and its very expensive. The girls needed to have their next shot pretty soon after we got here as well as their regular 4-month shots and check-ups. So when Steve was in-processing on post, he got the list of pediatricians in the area that we could go to. This was before we finally got our internet so we couldn't do any research and had to pick one off the list. Their appointment was yesterday and Oh. My. God. I felt like I was taking my daughters to the free clinic in a bad part of town. The office was scary. The other patients in the waiting room were scary and the doctor? It was like talking to someone's old grandpa in the nursing home. You felt bad for him but he couldn't really hear anything and kept asking us to repeat everything. More than once. And he was screaming down the hallway at his nurse "MONO TEST IN ROOM FIVE!" That really happened.

Anyway. This doctor gave us this long, weird lecture about how we need to treat the twins differently because they're individuals and they need to be in different classes at school. Um. They're 4 months old. They don't go to school. They don't even go to daycare. Then, he proceeds to have a duck-fit because Amelia weighs 2 pounds more than Claire. She always has though and our other doctors said it was fine. You know, because they're individuals. Yeah. Also he asked me if they had separate placentas or not. That bothered me so much because fraternal twins ALWAYS have separate placentas. So this "doctor" obviously is not up on his medical stuff. Also he told us how "I start babies on rice cereal at 4 months old..." First of all, I'm pretty sure that I'm the one that feeds them. Secondly, the AAP recommends breastmilk or formula only until 6 months of age. I know people don't always stick to that but I feel like a pediatrician should at least toe the party-line.

Next it was time for shots. The nurse informs us that "Dr. Cohen is old school so we don't do combination shots." So my poor babies had to get 5 shots when they could have only gotten 3. I should have listened to my gut and bolted the minute we stepped into that office. It was AWFUL! We have an appointment at a new/different/hopefully better doctor's office tomorrow to see about getting their Synagis shots. Ugh. So disgusted... If you've ever been to a health department, this was way worse.

Yay Girls!

Well, Amelia might have started sleeping through the night first, but Claire does it better. That girl will sleep until 7:45 a lot of days. I only wish her sister would do that too! That would make some nice mornings for mommy.

Amelia rolled over today! From her tummy to her back. She's trying so hard to do it the other way too. I think Claire will roll over sometime soon. She's really trying to roll from her back to her tummy too. So proud of my girls today!

I'm not sure if I wrote it on here or not but I definitely told someone- On another twins blog a while back, someone said that she felt like she was so busy managing her twins that she couldn't enjoy them. And I said that my goal is not to be like that. I want to enjoy them. And I finally feel like I am there. Four months is SO GOOD! I love love love 4 months old. I wish I could freeze the girlies right where they are. They are both so smiley and cute and SWEET! I know one day they are going to be embarrassed of me and tell me to stay out of their business and stay out of their room! But for now, oh, they are the best! I don't think I knew I could love anyone so much and so thoroughly. I bet I spend half the day kissing them and hugging them and telling them I love them. My girls are amazing. Happy days.

Pregnant! (Not me!!!)

I can finally say- My best friend is pregnant! Congratulations Heather and Jarod! As depicted, she is only having one baby. LOL How much do you love this picture?

We moved! Successfully!

We managed to move ourselves (with some help! Thanks Dad, Ron, Chris and Jen!) and the girls were even good for the car ride. There were a few exciting minutes when I thought I was going to have to turn back halfway through the trip but it wasn't because of the babies. It was because of the parents. I left a few hours ahead of the moving truck (and the husband) because the girls were in their happy place and it was a now-or-never type situation. Anyway, halfway here I realized, I don't have the key to the new house! I managed to get in touch with our realtor who sent someone over to let me in so crisis averted! Anyway, we are in and settled. Steve isn't loving the commute but you can't have everything.

Life is going pretty well for us. Claire has had her first real hair-do. A whale spout-

and I have discovered that I can put bows on it too! So freaking cute! I want to eat her with a spoon! (Except that as I'm typing this I can hear her waking up from her nap and she's only been down for 20 minutes! Naughty!)  Ok, now that Claire is back to sleep... my jogging stroller came! Isn't it pretty?

It was much much much cheaper than the one I had my eyes on. I hope it's not a "you get what you pay for" kind of situation. It seems nice enough. I just need to inflate the wheels and we'll be ready to roll!

Ok, in other news, the girls are growing like weeds. They are both trying so so hard to roll over. I think they're not too far from figuring it out. Amelia is talking our ears off (hopefully we'll have some video up soon but our internet here is not the greatest) and Claire will talk to us when she can get a word in edgewise. I will distract you from the lack of videos by showing you pictures of my beautiful girls! As always, you can click on them to make them bigger.

Both smiling again! The girls' favorite thing to do right now is what we call "sister stuff." Really that just means laying on a blanket together and being silly.

Claire is still our little sweety. She is perfectly happy to just 'nuggle all the time. She likes to play too but she is pretty happy to lay on your chest and gaze at you and snuggle a lot. Especially if she is sleepy or just woke up. The new favorite toy around here is the jump-a-roo. The girls just love it. Although only for a limited time. I think it makes them tired. This isn't it-

This is the Jenny-Jump-Up. Which was NOT a hit. They are still too little for it. Haha but it did make for a funny picture. And the last picture is just typical-

Beating each other up already. Well, hopefully soon I will have pictures up of the new house. We are decorating the girls' bathroom and I think its going to be really cute. We are painting it light blue and I am having a ridiculously hard time deciding which shade of light blue is the right one.

Yay Amelia!

Amelia slept through the night- almost 12 hours! She is now playing (very loudly) with her baby gym. Love her! She and Claire make me feel like I could have 10 more kids.

Onward and Upward

We are moving the day after tomorrow! I'm very excited although part of me is sad to leave the house that we brought our girls home to. This will be our FOURTH house since I got pregnant. Yeah.

Today I was reflecting on how much easier our lives have gotten. I mean, for about the first 2 months, I thought we were doing great. We were in Survival Mode but we were handling it. Now? I just can't believe how much easier it is. I didn't want to write this because I'm afraid I'll jinx it but, we are SLEEPING! At night even. We put the girls to bed at around 6:30 and most nights we don't hear from them until about 3:30. That is heavenly. And they are getting closer and closer to sleeping all the way through til wake-up time.

Feeding time has also gotten a lot easier. For one thing, the girls are taking their bottles a lot faster now (plus we've moved up to medium nipples). Claire is still a slow eater but even she's improved. Also, about a month ago I gave up on nursing and pumping altogether. The girls were getting more active and I didn't have the time for the pumping. And since neither girl ever really figured out the nursing thing, I decided it was time. I could get them both to nurse some, Amelia more than Claire, but neither one ever actually figured out that that was a source of food. Steve asked me the other day "Do you feel like your life is better now that you're not doing all that pumping all the time?" And you know what? I do. I'm still sad that we couldn't nurse but I'm learning to let go. I'm glad there is an alternative that is letting my girls thrive and letting me enjoy them. Plus, daddy can feed babies too which is huge! Speaking of which...

My husband is AWESOME! Steve said that at Christmas people kept asking him "You feed babies? You get up with them in the night? You change diapers?" like they just couldn't believe it. (Show me a mom of multiples whose husband DOESN'T do that...) But really, he always just jumps right in. Which honestly, is what I expect. They are his children too. But now that other people think its such a big deal, I wonder if I'm wrong. I mean, its 2011. Surely dads have realized that doing some childcare won't turn them into a woman. But I digress. I never hear a word from Steve about changing diapers (other than poopy ones and I don't want to do those either!) or getting up in the night. It has been wonderful to have him basically off work since the girls were born. That's about to change. But I feel confident that I can do it. I was alone with the girls all day today and it went fine. We even made a little trip to their doctor's office to pick up their medical records (which did not go fine). I have to say though, I was glad when Daddy got home!

This move has already been a nightmare. First it was the problems finding a house. Then they changed our closing date. Now its been changed again (we're doing temporary occupancy though so we are still moving the same day). Plus trying to pack and move and clean a house with two 4-month-olds.

I really wish people would remember that while my girls are 4 months old (almost), they were 6 weeks premature so they are really 2.5 months old. I keep hearing things like "Well, they are almost 4 months old, they should be..." or "Well at 4 months old, they can have some rice cereal..." or whatever. But they can't. Because they aren't. Its a good thing their mama knows what's up. Honestly. Also some people should probably realize that its not the 50's anymore. Just because your doctor told you something 60 years ago, it might not be accurate nowadays. Maybe. Times change. Roll with it. I always say we're not going out in public anymore.

And speaking of going out in public, people freaking love them some twins. I think my girls are cute. Actually, I think they are gorgeous. But are they THAT much cuter than one baby just because there's two of them? Somehow, when I'm out with just one girl, we don't get near the attention. Today, we got another drive-by. I was trying to put the girls in the car after going into the doctor's office to get their records. So I've gotten Claire out of the stroller and back into the car (and she's screaming because I accidentally poked her in the eye) and I'm trying to get Amelia into the car and deal with the diaper bag and fold the stroller and deal with her getting upset because she can hear her sister and its cold... When this lady drives by, rolls down her window and says "Those are soooo precious!" First of all, "those?" Really? But second of all, not a good time lady. So now is the part of my blog where I remind you, if you see someone with little twins, its NEVER a good time people. Do not talk to them. They don't care that your friend/sister/cousin/granddaughter/whoever I am to you has twins. Trust me. They are busy. They want to get home as fast as possible. Don't talk to them. Don't.

Well, this is super long. Who knew I had so much to say? I hope all my readers (haha) are doing well. I hope that my next update is me saying "We're all settled in our new house!"

2010 in Review

January

We got 3 inches of snow in Texas! Poor Steve was out in the field in a tent getting snowed on.

February

In February, we found out we were expecting (and showing so quickly...) and I took a trip to Chicago with my office. Needless to say, I froze my rear end off!

March

We found out that our baby was actually babies! Two for the price of one! After that, we couldn't wait any longer and told everyone we knew about the pregnancy.

April

We moved from Texas to Alabama and into this fabulous house.

May

We celebrated our 7th anniversary by eating shaved ice like little kids.

June

I got bigger. 'Nuff said.

July

We moved again.

August

Baby Shower!

September

Babies!

October

Halloween Babies!

November

In November, we had Steve's family here for Thanksgiving and the girls wore the Thanksgiving Turkey dresses that I made them.

December

This is my favorite picture from 2010! Two happy girls! I love them so much and I'm glad every day that I get to be their Mommy.

2010 was a great year! It brought us our girlies and changed out lives in so many ways. I can't wait to see what happens in 2011!