Attitude and Earaches...

That pretty much describes the past few days...  Alex has gotten an attitude with us over everything!  He squints his eyes and gives us a mean look.  Seriously?  At 4?  We keep sending him to his room but honestly I don't think it's doing any good at all.  I know he's "starved" for attention since the twins were born but at some point he's got to realize that the world doesn't revolve around him!

Then there the "Diva".  Otherwise known as Caroline.  I swear this child is going to put us into an early grave!  She's learned (at only 4 1/2 months old) that if she cries, we'll pick her up.  Even her daycare teachers have told us she's spoiled!  LOL!  But on top of it all she's had an ear infection in her right ear that won't go away.  She's on her 3rd round of antibiotics (already had the Rocephin shots) and feeling miserable (at least that's what it sounds like)!  Since Thanksgiving it's been nothing but screaming babies it seems!  Will it ever stop???

Happy Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy happy thanksgiving to all our friends and family!  What a beautiful day it is here in TN!  It's a little breezy but it's sunny and warm!  The end of November and the high today is expected to be in the high 60's!  We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!  The turkey is smoking outside, Carter is asleep in the bouncy seat, Caroline is on the play mat on the floor and Alex is out "helping" Dad with the turkey!  We are doubly blessed this year!  With the addition of Carter and Caroline our family is now a family of 5!  When I say that out loud it sounds crazy!  I never thought I'd have such a big family!

I made the decision last night to move all of Alex's toys up to his room.  My living room looks like a mini Babies R Us.  An exersaucer, Johnny jump up, swing, 2 boppies, bouncy seat, Elmo floor toy, 2 bumbo seats and play mat.  Wow.  I was starting to feel claustrophobic!    Anyone want a cat?  LOL!  I'm cleaning out!  I felt bad at first but after getting the opinions of several friends (thanks to Facebook!) I figured I wasn't that bad of a Mom :)  I remember growing up I kept all my toys in my room.  If I wanted to play that's where I went.  Well, there or my brother's room!  Granted we had a 1 story house and now we have a 2 story house with the kids rooms upstairs but still.  With 3 kids under 4 if I don't get ahold of this now it could seriously get out of control and soon!

After talking with Chris last night we made the decision to take Caroline in tomorrow to our pediatrician to see about getting a referral to a pediatric gastroenterologist.  She's on Enfamil AR (added Rice Starch) and we're also adding 1 tbsp of rice cereal to each bottle and she's on 1 tsp of Prevacid/day but she's still spitting up quite a bit.  The babies are just over 4 months old and the spitting up should be greatly reduced by now according to our pediatrician.  I give her the Prevacid 20 minutes before feeding her and they're only getting 6oz (we backed down from 7oz b/c we thought maybe she was spitting up b/c she was too full) and she still spits up.  We're at our wits end.  And the really bizarre thing is that most of the time she spits up 2-3 hours after she eats!

We have so many things to be grateful for this year but first and foremost we are thankful for our families and friends.  We are truly blessed to have amazing friends and families.  Thank you to each and every one of you!

We love you guys!
E

A road trip!

Well, as it turns out it was a bit of an eventful weekend after all!  We started our weekend out Saturday with a trip to the newly renovated Opryland Hotel!  We were hoping for a good Christmas card pic and I think we got one :)  Here are a few of the good ones (but I'm saving our card pic for Christmas!)...

We couldn't get a serious smile out of Alex for NOTHING!  We finally bribed him with gummy worms and chocolate milk!  Ha!

My Brother (Uncle Robo) and his wife (Aunt Jen Jen)

Already a diva :)

So, a fun time was had by all and by the end of the afternoon we were all POOPED from all the walking!  

Love,

E

Finally Friday!

It's finally Friday!  And no one has to work tomorrow!  I think this is actually the first weekend we've had to relax!  No one is sick (knock on wood) and it's just us :)  


The babies slept great last night (of course, it was Daddy duty!) for Daddy and didn't get up until around 4am then were back down once paci's were reinserted!  They were back up at 6am for a feed so that's GREAT!  We are THRILLED with that!  Carter woke up this morning with a 102.3 fever so I called the doc once again.  Apparently that's a side effect of the shots they got yesterday and totally normal.  So, he got to stay home and play with Nana today.  


I'm starting to think about Christmas cards so we'll be taking a trip to the Opryland Hotel tomorrow with Uncle Robo and Aunt Jen Jen in hopes of getting a good family pic for our card this year...  If we're not successful we'll probably just stop by Portrait Innovations...  We'll see how it goes...


I'm including some recent pics of our little ones for your enjoyment!


Love,

E

What a week!

What a week it's been!  Honestly I can't even recall most of it!  We've all been sick over the past few weeks and now Daddy has it.  He starting feeling ill on Sunday and went to the doc Monday.  He's started antibiotics and is feeling a little better thank goodness!

Today I took the twins for their 4 month "well-baby" check up.  The got 2 shots and an oral vaccine.  Carter now weighs 13lbs 10oz and Caroline is 13lbs 14oz.  They are growing beautifully :)  They are both 24" long as well.  We've been given the go-ahead to give them rice cereal in their bottles now as well!  Yay!  Hopefully that will help them sleep better!

He checked their ears as well while we were there and while they are better than before, they still have fluid in them.  So, we'll be back in a month for a re-check (assuming we have no more infections before then).

We were scolded a little :) for not giving them more tummy time.  They should be trying to roll over soon.  They HATE to be on their tummy!  But, we'll start working with them in hopes that they'll be rolling soon!

That's all for now.  Time to wake and feed babies then off to make formula for the next 24 hours then hopefully a good night's rest.  It will be a LONG day tomorrow!

Love,
E

Two fussy babies...

Fun times!

Shot day #2

She has no clue what's about to happen. She's about to get her 2nd Rocephin shot (big needle done intramuscular)... Thank goodness tomorrow will be the last one...

Ugh! Sick, again?!?!

Let me preface this by saying no one in the house has a fever... However, Caroline is still in alot of pain from her ear infection. She falls asleep only to wake up 5 minutes later screaming in pain. So last night was Daddy duty and the twins were a BIG handful. Neither of them slept well so neither did Daddy. And Daddy needs his sleep. Caroline cried so much that she's hoarse this morning.

So this morning, when Alex woke me up at 6am it was game on! After talking to the on-call doc twice last night she suggested we do 3 shots of Rocephin. So, here I sit (again) in the doctor's office waiting...

Elizabeth L. Scogins
"Bloom where you're planted..."
www.scogins.com

Sent from my fabulous iPhone!

Asleep at the table...

Already sound asleep and the day's barely begun!

A sick Carter...

Passed out @ Nana's...

Sweet Carter...

My first blog...

I've decided to start blogging.  I have written journals in the past but they never seemed to last.  I always got distracted with something else and the journal got dropped to the bottom of my to-do list.  I'm doing this for all of my friends and family to keep everyone up to date on our lives as well as for some quiet therapy for myself! 

Over the past several months I've started following several blogs online from other twin Mama's and love how they are able to capture the normal day to day activities and dramas by writing them down...

It's hard to believe but tomorrow the twins will be 16 weeks old!  In some ways it seems as though the time has flown by and in other ways it seems like every day drags by.  Alot of this depends on the mood in the house and how well our kiddos are behaving at the current moment.  The babies have been battling ear infections now for the past 14 days...  They were started on Amoxicillin but that didn't knock it out so now they're on Omnicef.  Hopefully that'll do the trick.  Carter has ear infections in both ears and Caroline has one in her right ear.  It's funny, you can definitely tell the difference between boys in girls in this house...  Carter (throughout most of being sick) has been our happy, cooing child while Caroline has fussed like no one's business!  She is definitely the diva of the house!

Chris and I are still getting adjusted to being parents of 3 kids.  Whew!  What an adjustment it's been!  Most days feel like we're on a hamster wheel and can't get off or that it's Groundhog day all over again...  However, we've started to notice that there are beginning to be moments of calm in our house.  Like right now as I sit on the couch with my 2nd cup of coffee, the twins are napping in their swings and Chris and Alex are installing a ceiling fan in the nursery...  A moment of calm we'll have to try and remember.  It's all to easy to let these moments pass us by and only see the hamster wheel.