6 month checkup: Stats update

Austin and Malia went in for their 6 month well-check today, and here's the breakdown:

Austin:

• Weight: 17 lb., 3.5 oz. (25-50 pctl for 6 month chronological/actual age)
• Height: 26.5" (25-50 pctl)
• Head circumference: 42 cm (15th pctl)

Malia

• Weight: 11 lb., 15 oz. (1st pctl, finally on the charts!)
• Height: 23" (1st pctl)
• Head circumference: 41.3 cm (10-15 pctl)

So their pediatrician was pleased with their development, even calling Austin's growth ridiculously good.  We would agree.  And little Miss Malia is looking and doing great given the numbers.  It doesn't always seem like they're catching up, but in fact they are!  Haven't had a chance to shoot their 6 month picture yet, but will probably edit this post later if we can squeeze it in.

That's all for now!

Half a year, already??!!

Austin and Malia hit the 6 month milestone on Sunday, and they are developing such unique personalities.  Now stretching out the sleep interval at night, we are finally able to get a little more sleep, and usually wake up only once in the middle of the night to feed.  It's nice to have them in a predictable diurnal routine, and lots of sleep makes for two pretty happy babies when they're awake.
We won't have any data to report until next Monday when we take them in for their 6 month checkup, but we expect that their growth is still moving along in the right direction.  Both are hitting new milestones and getting quite strong, and this time Malia has passed her brother on some of the physical milestones.  While she can easily roll over from tummy to back, she seems to be close to being able to roll from back to tummy.  Yikes!  She's a strong and determined baby, and loves to practice pushing herself up onto her feet (with a little help, of course!).  Austin is strong and robust, but also contending with the forces of gravity against his bulging physique.  He loves to kick and move while on his back, but definitely is not as far along as his sister in supporting his own weight with his legs.
Both kids are happy and having a good time, especially when interacting with people.  Austin is belting out high-pitched humpback whale calls, which to the untrained ear might sound like distress - but then we'll check on him and he's having so much fun with himself that he's sounding it out emphatically.  Malia demands a little more stimulus to evoke the happy face, but once you get her started she laughs uncontrollably, like in the video below with Lolo Manny.

As you might also see in the video, Malia got her ears pierced.  We wrestled with the decision for awhile, but finally decided it was a good time to do it since she probably wouldn't remember.  Definitely a cute touch to her adorable face, especially with her big, gummy smile.

We recently shot some family photos, and dressed the kids up for the occasion.  Here are some of the highlights...

Austin's GQ pose

Not many good shots from this sequence, as you can see Austin was over it here

Cute little munchkins

Malia wasn't letting the photo shoot interfere with her beauty rest

They also experienced their first Halloween, which isn't very exciting for babies of this age.  Our attempts to capture some good shots of them in their costumes were pretty much unsuccessful, but here's what we ended up with:

Snow White and Dopey Dwarf

Austin reached his max for costume time... that's a wrap!

And some random other pics...

5 Month update

We got some of the proofs back from their photo shoot back in August, so I thought we'd start off this blog post with a few of them

Totally staged cuteness

Austin and Malia passed the 5 month mark on 10/11/12, and both have been doing well on their quest to catch up to their true age weight figures.  This Monday they went to the doctor for checkups and weigh-in, and Austin weighed in at 15 lb., 8 oz. and measured 24", and Malia weighed 10 lb., 12 oz. and measured 22.25."  These assessments put Austin at the 25-50 pctl and Malia at the 1st pctl for weight, and this is based on their true age - Not bad considering their corrected age is about 2.5 months old!  The doctor was pleased with their progress, yet still recommended we continue their higher calorie formulations for formula to ensure they keep pace with the growth charts.  Their eye checkup last week also checked out well, with their vision seemingly unaffected by their prematurity, what a relief!

Malia has nearly caught up to Austin in her feeding volume, taking about 130 cc's (or a little less than 4.5 oz) to Austin's 150 cc's (5 oz) a feeding.  That works out to about 75 oz. of formula a day, which means the formula mixing and bottle cleaning sterilization is definitely in full swing.  It also means that we're going through the formula tubs like they're going out of style.

Malia has definitely found her smile by now, and is showing her silly personality more and more every day.  Unlike Austin, she usually only smiles when she's interacting with you.  Austin is a ham like always, smiling and enjoying everything, especially people... unless he's hungry or tired.

We bought a couple of chairs for them, and here Cheryl was training Austin to support the weight of his head.  He's not quite there, but he'll be upright pretty soon!

Cheryl goes back to work this Thursday after almost 7 months after she was placed on bed rest.  There will undoubtedly be some apprehension and anxiety to leaving the babies for that many hours each day, but we're glad that they're doing well enough to pass their care to our family who will be watching them during the week.

We attempted to take some pictures for their 5 month milestone, but as usual when one of them was cooperating, the other was doing their own thing.  They're pictured in the outfits that we pulled out for their "gender reveal" during Cheryl's pregnancy.  It was hard to picture how they'd fill out these outfits, but I'd say they make a handsome pair!

4 Month Update

So the last month has been a busy one for us, mainly because we moved closer to Cheryl's parents in Long Beach.  When Cheryl goes back to work, the child care will be left to her Mom and Aunt, so we initiated the move to make the logistics of offloading our babies on the work days is a little faster.  Our move was a tough one, not only for the fact of having to do it while taking care of twin newborns (often with the help of her mom), but also because we reduced our living space by nearly half.  By now we're mostly settled in and liking our new house, but we still have a ways to go on some projects needing the final touches.  I have tried to take as much work off as my work will allow, and Cheryl is keeping herself busy with the twins and getting back to the gym.  She's going to return back to work sometime next month, so we're trying to take advantage of the opportunity to get as much bonding with the babies as possible, as well as prepare for the rigors of full-time working with 2 babies.  
The grind continues at home with Austin and Malia thriving like normal month-two month babies.  This is roughly their corrected age figure, but we often see them hitting milestones much earlier than their corrected age would dictate.  So they are staged somewhere between their corrected and true age, due in part to the fact that they have been accelerated on calories (and also fighting gravity since May 11th, which plays into their muscle development).  We took the the babies in for their 4 month checkup on September12th, and Austin weighed in at a hefty 12 lb., 15.5 oz.; Malia was 9 lb., 1 oz.  Despite the nearly 4 lb. difference in size, they are both doing well in the doctors' opinion.  Austin finally made the growth charts for his true age, meaning that he ranks among the statistical percentiles for babies his age, and yet he is really only about 1.5 months old in corrected age.  So his catch-up calorie plan is working quite well, but the doctors are going to continue his formula regimen through at least 6 months.  Malia, despite not making the charts quite yet for her true age, is doing well for her corrected age.  She has grown in length quite clearly, and is a mere 2 inches shorter than her brother.

Austin is a smiley boy...

...and an entertainer too!

What we have seen in the last couple weeks is a noticeable increase in responsiveness to visual stimuli for both twins - one of the benchmarks for a 1 to 2 month baby.  Austin is a little ahead of his sister in this department, and he frequently smiles back and is generally curious about his surroundings.  Malia started smiling back at us sometime last week, but still occasionally prefers to gaze intently at lights and other inanimate objects rather than us.

Malia's first bikini, bright-eyed and ready to show off

Cheryl has amassed a huge collection of headbands and bows for Malia, so she accessorizes her all the time

We took the babies by to see their great-grandmother again this weekend

The babies are catching lots of ZZZZZZ's these days

Our little chubster, Austin, has grown so much, that he's now nearly outgrown 1-2 sized diapers, so we're upgrading him to size 3.  He's filling out his 0-3m clothes, so we have his next sized box on deck.  Malia is filling out her newborn clothes and is close to wearing her 0-3m sizes.  She's still a skinny-mini... but it's nice that she's filling out more these days.

If it weren't for her brother, I think Malia would be sleeping through the night already.  Must be growing!

The nights have gotten easier, somewhat.  We're seeing the babies stretch out longer intervals between night feedings, sometimes as much as 5 hours (although rare), but usually we're only waking up to feed about twice a night.  This should improve with the next couple of months, but compared to the 3 hour routine, it's refreshing.  During the day, Austin is like clockwork.  Every 3 hours on the dot, and he's pissed if you don't have his food ready.  Malia is usually a little slower coming around to the feeding interval, but she's usually belting it out once her brother wakes her up.  And if only I could convey the urgency of hungry twins crying in unison...

With the heat wave earlier this month, it became abundantly clear that Austin is not a fan of the heat.  Poor guy isn't built for those extremes; he's built like Pavarotti and overheats like a Pinto heading up the Cajon pass in mid-summer.  But when he's not sweating it out, he's a happy kid!  It will be interesting to see what kind of personality emerges in the next few years.

I tried to snap this picture in the dark, but unfortunately I couldn't use a flash.  Nonetheless it was too cute to pass up.  Malia was sleeping while signing the "double shaka," the ultimate sign of surfer stoke.  Maybe our little wahine will become a surfer like her namesake, Malia Jones...

Finally... An update!

Perhaps there's no blog post title more befitting of a long hiatus than, "An update from sleepy parents."  As you can imagine, the last few weeks have been busy, and perhaps the previous post title could still describe our status!  In the time since our last post, Austin and Malia turned 3 months.  They are both doing very well and staging at the pace that the doctors had hoped for.  So let's start with a few pictures of their 3 month milestone.

They weren't really up for pictures that night, but we had to get a shot somehow 

Malia enjoying her camera time

Austin, on the other hand, not enjoying the camera so much

A shot I was able to grab on their true 3 month mark

So health-wise, everything is going pretty smoothly for both of them, but the doctors would like to do surgery on Austin in a few months for his inguinal hernia.  He's not quite old enough for them to clear him for the surgery, and still the problem isn't serious enough to warrant immediate intervention.  So it's not a fun thought, but when he's old enough it should be a simple procedure to correct the issue.

Malia has fallen behind in the growth compared with her brother, but the doctors seem to have little concern for this as an indicator of a problem.  She's always been different from her brother on feeding, and has only increased her feed amounts marginally since coming home.  She still struggles with keeping her feeds down, which is always frustrating.  We've tried to makeup her caloric loss by taking her to a 2 hour feeding interval (instead of 3), but having the babies on different intervals for daily routines is a huge challenge for Cheryl.

I have been working very early mornings to try and free up my availability to help Cheryl for the rest of the day, but we still double on the night shift - meaning neither of us are putting in too much sleep time still.  The babies occasionally spread out their nightly interval, but we still hold them to a pretty strict schedule to ensure they get the daily caloric intake that the doctors recommend.

Pretty face

Seeing if some music could calm him down, apparently I wasn't good enough for his liking

Austin, lucky photo grab by Cheryl, looking like a rock star

One of our favorites of them together

Cheryl had to fend for herself this week because I was out of town for a work conference.  It proved especially challenging to get through the 24-hour rigors of feeding and other routines with half the personnel. Not that there was any doubt, but this is definitely a job that takes at least two people working around the clock.

Seems like there should be a good caption here, you could almost imagine their conversation

Angelic face

This is how they bed down after a feed

So that's it for now, I mainly wanted to share some pictures and let our followers know that everything is going as well as can be expected.  Also, I hate ruthless plugs, but this one is different... I came across the Facebook page of a friend of a friend who's son is fighting pediatric brain cancer and is likely end-stage.  Landan is a courageous fighter, and his family is pretty inspiring in documenting his fight.  Check them out and like their page: http://www.facebook.com/TeamLandan

That is all for now!

An update... from sleepy parents!

Well life trucks on with Austin and Malia at home, and the learning process continues.  I think we both expected to have this little sleep, but I think there was some disconnect as to how hard performing the rest of our daily tasks would become as a result.  Inherent to baby care is a lot of cleaning/hygiene-related tasks, which on top of all the diaper changing and feeding schedules is a whole bunch of laundry and a ridiculous amount of bottle washing and sterilization.  Perhaps if this were our second go-around with the second kid, having been through it all with a first child, we might have a better order for all of this.  But since we have to learn it all in one shot, we're just treading water with the rigors of parenting twins.  Honestly, we're doing just fine with it, but suffice to say, it's a little busy around here!

But the kids are doing great; somehow managing a normal infancy despite our flailing.  Austin is getting so big that he no longer fits in his preemie clothes.  Malia is doing great, but still not quite increasing her appetite at the rate her brother did at this size, so her weight has increased a little slower we think.  She tends to be a bit finicky with the formula feeds; either spitting up because she can't expel a burp, or falling short of completing the feed because she's tired.  We'll have a better idea of where we stand at her checkup with the docs next week.

Cheryl and I decided to hit the road and join the Nodalo family last weekend out in Palm Desert for a couple of days at their timeshare.  It was worth the long-haul, but it was our first overnight roadie with the babies.  We had some good quality time, but nights were crazy trying to get the right formula concoction.  Once we figured out that the babies like Similac a lot better than Enfamil, we had happy babies and parents.

   

Nana Rose with Austin

We got good use of our stroller's bassinet conversion, which served as their travel abode in the desert

Talen, crazy hair, and holding Miss Malia

The twins with Lolo and Nana Nodalo and their cousins Talen and Avery

Naptime side-by-side

On the way home we stopped by my grandmother's house for her first introduction to the babies.  She's waited anxiously for months to meet her youngest (and probably last) great-grandchildren.  We were thrilled to bring them all together.  My parents, brother Kurt, and niece Rylan also stopped by, and it was Rylan's first time meeting the twins as well.

Popo with Malia

Nana Vlasich and Austin

Cousin Rylan with Malia, thrilled for another girl playmate in the family

Popo with Austin

Uncle Kurt with Malia

This week the babies seemed proficient enough at the bottle feedings that we could attempt to tandem feed them occasionally.  Since I'm back at work for a morning field route, she's on her own for a least one, sometimes two of the feeds.  But it actually works pretty well, and it's nice to knock it out in one shot.

Cheryl with the tandem duties

And... my turn

And finally, we took them to the final Long Beach concert in the park of the season.  Cheryl exploited the chance to dress the babies up in some stylish gear, so here are the pics:

"Um, I have a question... Can you get me the heck outta this thing??!!"

Dressed up for the concert in the park

Chillin in his fleece zippie vest

Sleepy eyes

Malia with Mommy