Poor Sick Baby

Well, unfortunately I think the virus we all had finally manifested itself in our little Caleb boy. Last night he had a fever around 101, and has been eating poorly as well. I called the nurse to see what to do and she said if he had a fever more than 3 days and/or had a wheezing cough to come in and get him checked out. For now it seems he just has a little congestion, but nothing that seems to hinder his breathing much and no cough. He threw up a good portion if not all of his last feeding and if he continues to do that at every feeding (where he isn't getting the full amount anyway) then we will take him in also as we do not want him to get dehydrated. The poor little guy has been sleeping lots and hopefully that will help him get well soon. Please keep him in your prayers.

Daniel doesn't seem to have it, though he has had more congestion than his usual (when he breathes normally he sounds like a little piggie) it seems to me. He hasn't had a fever though and is eating just fine thus far. Thankfully the Lord had mercy to stagger the illnesses here, otherwise I probably would have stayed sick much longer. I wish Caleb didn't have to get sick, but such is life. I just pray he won't end up hospitalized again, that would be a real bummer!

Fun New Pictures

The first two pictures with the polka dot blankie (thank you Mara) are of Caleb. We have been giving both the boys some tummy time now and Caleb doesn't quite lift his head yet, but he does scrunch up a lot and gets irritated about being on his belly.

Please pray for Caleb as he has been having some issues of which we are unsure of the source. We think his medications are causing some pain (gas pain likely) that wake him up periodically, so the nurse I spoke with told us to skip some doses of the meds to see if it was the culprit. We have done this and so far today he seems to be sleeping more peacefully and is taking more to eat again (he was eating less last night and we were concerned).

Here I got him to sort of smile as he was peeking at me.




Daniel is our smiler of the two for sure. Almost after every feeding he will give a few big smiles for us. Perhaps because he tends to be the bigger eater of the two it is his way of showing his satisfaction?


Here you see Mr. Daniel getting some air time holding his head up. For those of you who don't know, this is a big deal for babies this age to lift their heads, so he is doing good! This was a quick moment that he held it up and I was quick with the camera to catch it!

Josiah handed me the camera and said, "Take picture me...cheese!" He said, "Cheese," again as I took this one to get a sweet little Josiah smile!



Here is a picture of Josiah and Alonna (my friend Melissa's neice). Melissa came over with Alonna the other day and we made cookies and they both sat down at Josiah's little table and I got cute smiles from both of them!

Cute Little Heartbreakers

I finally managed to use a gift card from Old Navy that I received from my friend Darcy and among the things I purchased were these cute little outfits that if you look closely say "Heartbreaker" on them. I thought they were fitting for our adorable little boys! It is getting closer to where they are alert at the same time, but this is usually after one has been fed and the other is hungry. Can you tell who has been fed and who is waiting to be fed? Daniel says "Picture, smicture...I want my food!" Caleb is giving his condolences, "Sorry man, I am just going along with the Momma."

To calm our little crying one down to get a few more pictures, Momma retrieved the pacifer and as you can see Daniel's face is a bit less red in this shot.

It seems that our little ones have been able to stave off the illness we all had and I am thankful for that. They have been a little cranky here and there and we have had some spit up incidents from both that seem more like throw up incidents, but they have not had fevers, excessive nose runs, or refused feedings, so I think we are OK! Thanks for the prayers for them though as I am sure they have helped to keep them protected from this.

Valentine's Day Date!

This weekend we let my parents to take Josiah to their house, so that David and I could have a little respite (at least what we could with 2 month old twins at home anyway) and get away on a date as well. We had someone come over to watch the twins of course, and went out to a nice Italian restaurant that we like called Mama Stortini's (YUM) and also spent some time wandering around the Southcenter Mall as well for fun. It was most excellent to get out and do something adult-like!! We bought a jigsaw puzzle to do over the weekend (something we used to do a lot when we were engaged) and managed to get the 1,000 piece puzzle done by sometime Sunday morning.

I am not sure if I mentioned on the previous post, but after Josiah got sick with a nasty cold, both David and I got it as well. We both had high fevers and sinus gunk for a bit, but thankfully with the extra rest we got this weekend, we are both doing SO much better!

I also have a funny Heather-ism (that is what we call them around here) to share. This is where I combine various sayings that shouldn't be combined. The most famous of these is "I crashed like a light." Of course there are the sayings "I'm out like a light," or "I crashed at so and so's house." However, in my tiredness one day I combined the two and David noticed right away and corrected me, and we laughed about it long afterward. The newest story is below, but first I will give a little background for reference points to the story.

As many of you might know, I have been pumping milk to give to the twins (since they were born so young and had issues breastfeeding at first). Incidentally, I am working on getting them to breastfeed, but they aren't fully there yet, so I still am pumping around 5 times a day usually. A set of parts you use in pumping are called "horns," which have an obvious place to be attached to, and a common phrase for ladies who are stopping the pumping process say they are "hanging up the horns." I tell you this for the punch line later in case you didn't know the term.

I mentioned above that we had all been sick, and I was VERY tired the day this happened and I was so tired in fact that I probably could have fallen asleep pumping (which is hard to do!) As I was washing the pump parts afterward, I was talking to David and below is the dialogue:

Me: "Now I REALLY know what it is like to fall asleep at the horn!"

David: "What?"

Me: (very emphatically) "You know....it is a saying...Falling asleep at the horn!"

David: (laughing to himself) "No it isn't."

Me: "Yes it is....I know there is a phrase with a horn in it!"

David: (goes to his computer for Googling) "No....it is definitely NOT a saying."

Me: (laughing hysterically nearly falling down) "Now I KNOW there is a saying with the word horn in it!"

Later of course we established there are the sayings, "Falling asleep at the helm" or "Falling asleep at the wheel," and also "Going around the horn," which I think is where I got the horn idea. And before I am dubbed the ditsy blonde, I will defend myself in saying that when I am tired I get a little dyslexic, so I would prefer no silly blonde joke remarks please!

The pictures above are of Daniel looking at the rings on his carseat and Caleb "sitting up" or actually propped up in the chair for you to see his cute little self. This picture to the left is of David's work station in our room, where sometimes a crying twin is brought so he can look at Daddy while he works. Sometimes they stop crying by just being near us in their seats and David also plays music for them, which they like a lot too. One of the stories David hears often told about him as a young boy is that he too wanted to be where the action was, and sat in his Dad's office a lot while he was working. Like father like sons I guess!

Making Cookies

Today I was making cookies to take to a friend's house, and Josiah got to help me. I had made him this little apron at my MOPS (Mother's of Preschoolers) group a while back and it was the first time he got to use it. I was hoping to eventually print a picture of Josiah's face on material and glue/sew that onto to the pumpkin on the apron. If you can't read it, it says, "My Little Pumpkinhead" and his face would go in the middle of that if I ever found the time to do it.

Incidentally you can pray for this little guy, as he came down with a slight fever and some sort of sinus/coughing thing this morning. He did much better after I gave him some Children's Dimatapp, but has been very lethargic all day compared to his usual active self. He took an exceptionally long nap, which of course was good for him since he is sick. I am hoping once again that the twins will not get this. For the last couple of days though, I have made sure Josiah's hands were washed thoroughly and have tried to make sure he doesn't touch them, so we will see. I am actually able to reason with him more now. I told him not to touch the babies because he was sick and would spread germs and he said, "OK" and left them alone pretty well today! Also with his nap I said, "You need to sleep so you can get better!" and he didn't fight me as much to sleep this time, which was really nice!

I am thankful that the twins are still receiving my antibodies in their food and I am hoping that will protect them from the majority of illnesses they may be exposed to. Our policy here is that we avoid people that are sick or say they are getting sick, but don't live our lives in fear of possible germs from those people that we do choose to come in contact with. We know the Lord is in control and we just use reasonable precautions against getting sick and hope for the best. Thanks for your prayers!

Funny Wake-Up Call

For my wake-up call this morning, I heard Daniel crying. This is quite unusual because generally it is Caleb who wakes me up because he feeds first. Daniel was making enough of a raucous though that I thought I ought to check on him before getting his food ready. I came in and noticed that he had the blanket over his face because he had shimmied himself down towards the crib rails (we have them propped up at about a 30% grade). At first, I didn't notice that his feet were hanging out of the crib. After I adjusted the blanket, I left the room to go to the bathroom and he was still making noise. So I went back in and then noticed his feet hanging out and almost laughed out loud!

Needless to say, I decided that Daniel shouldn't be propped up as high as I had him before to avoid future incidents like this! Since he doesn't have reflux, for the time being he can be more level with the crib mattress now!

It appears that Daniel really does take after Mommy because when I get too hot in my bed, I too like to have my feet dangle out of the covers. I noted that he managed to get rid of one of his socks as well and I also do not like to wear socks to bed! It is so funny how babies have their own sense of humor even this early on!

Here is another picture of me and the boys!

Two Month Check-Up

Today was the babes two month check-up, and again the doctor was very pleased with their progress. We have determined that little Caleb (pictured above here) does have acid reflux and we got some medicine for him to give him some relief, which I hope will help out! He seems to be sleeping more peacefully now, but we shall see over time if the medicine is working. Caleb weighed in today at 8 pounds and 6 oz. (1 pound 10 oz. gain from Jan. 17th) and was 21.05 inches long.
Daniel is still our little chunky one and he weighed in at 9 pounds .5 oz (1 pound 12.5 oz gain from Jan. 17th) and was 21.65 inches long. Daniel is now in the 5th percentile for other children his age! Caleb doesn't fall onto the chart yet, but will soon I am sure! We got these cute little onesies from our friend Jee (she works with David) and I wanted to get a picture of them side by side in them, but it wasn't to be. Caleb got Tylenol all over his (we gave it before the visit to ease the pain of the immunizations they received) and later Daniel got his drenched in milk from a feeding. Sooo....I was glad at least that I managed to get these photos when I did!

Both babes got their shots today (5 in all-UGH) and neither one of them liked them (hey, would you?) Caleb turned beet red and stopped breathing for a second because he was so mad. Afterward, he just stared up at the ceiling with this numbing look of,"Why did they do that to me?" Then when I put him back in his carseat he let out a pitiful Caleb wail that made us all feel sorry for him. Daniel also turned beet red and did the stop breathing deal while crying as well, but all the while was vigorously sucking on his pacifier. So it went like this,"WAAH, (suck), WAAH, (suck), etc." When he cries his tongue touches the roof of his mouth, which makes his cry sort of muffled sounding. Both boys slept a lot after the visit and didn't have an adverse reactions to the shots.

I might add it is QUITE an ordeal to take the babies AND Josiah someplace! (We were dropping Mr. J off at a friend's house before the visit). I am sure you can imagine. However, I woke up at 3am today to feed the little guys and after pumping and preparing the bottles it was around 5am. Their next feeding was 6am and so I just stayed awake and then Josiah was up at 6am too, so I got him some breakfast and fed the babies again and was done by around 7:15am or so. Then I had to "prepare" everyone for leaving and somehow I still didn't have enough time to get everything ready perfectly on time, but we arrived at the doctor right on the dot at 9am. Sheesh! Quite a production indeed! And for those of you who know me, on time equals early to me, so it raises the stress level a bit to be just barely on time to things. I might add that I would have asked David for help, but this was his shift to sleep (of which he only got 4 1/2 hours anyway) and so I opted to do all the preparations myself so that he could sleep as long as possible before we went to the appointment.

Jaiden's Birthday Party & Visit from Mara

Today Josiah and I went to a birthday party for my friend Tracie's son Jaiden. (She and I were college roommates.) He turned two today and she had a neat Thomas the Train themed party for all the kids and parents who came.

They have this neat train table (pictured here) with a wooden train set and many different engines and freight cars from the show and Josiah had a grand time playing with it. So much so in fact that he became rather possessive of the engines that he was playing with and as the other little boys tried to drive their trains toward him (or take one of HIS trains) he would say, "No...mine!" Sound like a two year old? Why yes he does! A couple times I stepped in and told him to share and he got a big pouty lip and produced a few tears to show his dismay about the whole situation. Overall though, he did share alright off and on and there weren't any bloody battles between the kids, so I call that a success!

After we came home, my friend Mara called (apparently it was the day for visiting college roommates) and said she was in town and wanted to drop by on her way to visit her family. She got to feed our little Caleb and stayed for a couple of hours to visit. It was nice to see her and catch up and I think she enjoyed seeing the newest additions for the first time and also seeing how much our Josiah has grown. She has Daniel on the left and the O.U.T. Caleb on the right in the picture.