Picture update... and the 8 month milestone!

Though it may look like two posts in such a short interval would resemble some sort of New Year's resolution, we're actually posting this because we have some more cute pictures taken with the new camera we finally figured out how to use.  Cheryl was out of town for a bachelorette this weekend, so I had to fend for myself with the kids, and they couldn't have been better.  With the help of some rice cereal added to their formula, they're putting in some solid sleeping hours.  I think Saturday night was a new record; at least 10 hours uninterrupted for the both of them!   Malia is feeding very well these days, taking down full feedings nearly throughout the day - must be a growth spurt.  Austin, too, is feeding well like always, which bodes well for his helmet therapy.  

They're now past the 8 month mark, but the corrected age/true age gap is still difficult to decipher.  They are still a ways off from sitting up on their own, but their personalities are definitely coming through.  Malia discovered her tongue for the first time a few weeks ago, and loves blowing bubbles and making whoopie cushion noises.  She rolls over prolifically, which adds to the challenge of keeping her out of trouble.  Austin is still a bit of a blob, still burdened by the effects of gravity on his burly physique, but is now starting to roll over more regularly and pick his head up.  

We spent Sunday up at my brother's house, and got some cute pictures, so here you go!

Malia bonding with Nana

I helped my brother setup a new backyard playset, and Austin and I took a swing together

Perhaps it's a little late in the game, but we're finally getting the highchair feeding going. They're only taking rice cereal "paste," but they both did pretty well for their first sitting.  And Austin, of course, was amused.

Malia, wearing about as much food as she was swallowing

Austin made a mess too, but was digging the opportunity to sit at the big boy table

Happy boy, as always!

A long overdue update... Happy New Year!

A lot can change in a little time with babies, and I didn't even realize it had been before Thanksgiving since our last update!  So here's a rundown of the developments for Austin & Malia since we last checked in.  We have been keeping their weight tracker up-to-date, and at their last weigh-in, Austin was a hefty 18 lb., 5.5 oz., and Malia was a dainty 12 lb., 6 oz.  Not bad for 7 months, and as you can tell the size gap between the twins is widening, but both are progressing within the range of their doctors' expectations.  Shortly after the Thanksgiving holiday, both kids came down with their first cold, which may have been the result of kissing overload from all of our families.  Malia came down with symptoms first, and we were naive enough to think that we could keep Austin from getting it, but within 24 hours he was showing the same signs of onset.  A doctor's visit gave little more than a confirmation of the symptoms, and an assurance that the cold would run its course, likely getting worse before things got better.  By the weekend, as Malia was passing her peak symptoms, Austin was concerning us with signs of respiratory distress - rib retractions, wheezing, and visible discomfort.  Upon the recommendation of a callback nurse, I ran him to the ER at his old home at CHOC, and they agreed he was in need of some intervention.  They administered an albuterol nebulizer treatment to relax the airways and ease his breathing, but they wanted to admit him for observation since his oxygen levels were teetering in the low range.

Not happy, Austin in the ER

Getting a breathing treatment

What looked like a precautionary night in the hospital actually turned into 2 nights, which began to feel like the old days when the kids were still in the NICU.  Cheryl and I each took a night's stay in the hospital room with Austin, so we were glad to have him finally home and clearly getting better by the second day.  So with that behind us, we were glad to have our first bout of illness behind us - what a doozy!  

We upgraded their stroller from the bassinets to the "big boy" toddler chairs.  You can't really tell the difference from before in the photos below, but they seem to like the new position and being able to sit upright and see everything going on around them on walks.

Dressed for winter on an afternoon walk with Daddy

Malia's peanut head still barely fills out her winter cap

Playtime

The Christmas holiday was a whirlwind, but we tried to keep it simple by not shuttling the babies around to too many places.  Christmas Eve was spent in Lake Forest with Cheryl's brother and extended family, and Christmas day was spent in the IE with my brother and his extended family.  Here are some pictures of their first Christmas.

Austin was spiffed out and having fun in their new walker

Impossible to get a decent shot of these two at the same moment, but this is as close as we got

Since we skipped seeing the mall Santa for a photo, we were fortunate that he made a house call!

No smile, but at least looking in the right direction

Austin and Lolo Manny

Malia testing out one of her new toys, the kids made out pretty well this Xmas!

Partial Family photo

Now that the holidays are over, it's nice to settle down and get back to a normal pace.  Austin had been diagnosed with positional plagiocephaly, a head flattening due to favoring one side during sleep, and was recommended for a band/helmet that corrects the issue before the skull thickens and hardens.  He's only been in the helmet for a little over a week, and the adjustment has been difficult at times.  The helmet makes is head extremely sweaty, and since it is contoured to the shape they hope his head will ultimately take, his head is fighting it out with the helmet in the early stages.  We are told this process is to get easier with time, but since he has gone to 23 hours a day with the helmet, it has been a challenge getting him down at night.  We'll get through it, but our little man is not too thrilled about it in the meantime.  Here are some pictures of our little helmet boy, and a few of his sister recently taken.

Still a cutie with his stunt helmet on

Malia has started to grow a little more hair recently.  She's looking like a fluffball the longer it gets

She loves to flirt.  Different personality from her brother but still a character!

That's all for now!  Happy New Year, and thanks for checking in!

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...