Four Months

It seems impossible that four months have gone by. Harper and Sam are less and less the tiny newborns we brought home from the hospital and more and more cooing, smiling, healthy infants. Time is flying by and most days I find myself wishing it would stand still.

The thing about raising twins, is that you have to make a conscious effort to take it all in...to slow down or the days will pass you by. I want to make sure many years down the road these early days aren't simply remembered as a blur of feedings, diapers and exhaustion. So much of what makes up these early days is about survival, but I want to remember more than those tasks that fill my days because this time is about so much more.

This time, these days...it's about the babies laughter as they lie on our bed, totally enamored with their big brother while they wait for bath time.

 It's the contented sighs as they melt into Chris' arms, completely and totally comforted by his presence.

The way Ben kisses his brother and sister good-bye before heading off to school in the morning and narrates his day upon his return.

It's Ben saying "greetings, Harper. Welcome to Earth."

 It's Jake and the Neverland pirates and how Ben has become Jake, Sam Cubby and Harper Izzy.

 It's hearing "Ay, Ay Matey" when I ask Ben to put on his school clothes.

 It's Sam staring so deep into my eyes while he nurses that I feel he can hear my thoughts.

It's star-gazing on Ben's ceiling before bed at night.

Because amidst the scrambling about of the morning and night time routines, the diaper changes, the spit-up and the half eaten dinners there are moments that must be remembered, because those moments...they are the ones that matter.

But time marches on, and while I have been busy trying to get it stand still, Harper and Sam have been busy growing like crazy. They had their four month well check in the beginning of January.

Harper's Stats:
11 lbs 10 oz and 23.2 inches long

Sam's Stats:
13 lbs 4 oz and 23. 6 inches long

It looks as though Sam has claimed his place for now as the bigger of the duo. Strangers stop and comment on how much bigger he is than his sister and can't believe that he was the smaller of the two at birth. Speaking of strangers...if you ever want to feel like a celebrity for a couple hours, just take a set of twins to the grocery store or pharmacy and see how many times you get stopped!

The babies have both been in good health and their pediatrician continues to be impressed with their weight gain. They are almost exclusively breastfed. Although they continue to pack on the pounds, they are still somewhat small for their age and their pediatrician has us supplementing with higher calorie preemie formula a few times each week if I seem to run low on milk.

We have been treated with more sleep recently and up until the babies received their four month vaccinations they were pretty much sleeping a solid twelve hours every night. We were pretty fearful to even utter these words out loud for fear of jinxing ourselves! After the longest stretch of consecutive sleep for the three months prior being about two hours (on a good night), we were superstitious to say the least! After Harper and Sam had their four month vaccinations they were out of sorts for a few days and had their first fevers. They also have regressed a bit in the sleep department, but we're hoping with a good routine they get back into their old habits!

Here are the little four month old beetles and the big beet brother:) The last picture of Sam deserves some sort of caption, I am just not witty enough to think of one tonight!