The Lights are Turning On

The Twins are 29 Weeks Old

The boys continue to sleep well. I am inexplicably tired, though. I slept for 10 hours last night (with two quick feedings in between) and I’ve felt like I’ve had to pass out all day.

I wonder if mentally I’m more relaxed at night, knowing that I won’t have to continually wake up. If I have to wake up from a relaxed state, I’m startled out of my peaceful slumber and therefore more tired than if I was woken up from a light sleep. It’s just a theory. Hubby wants to get checked out by a doctor to try to understand why he’s always so tired. I try to tell him that it has to do with only getting a few hours of sleep at night (he’s been working all hours on a project for work), but he doesn’t seem to believe me.

J-Man is developing at an alarming rate. I had a dream recently where he just got up and started running around everywhere, hands flailing, eyes looking wild, going in all different directions. In this dream, he skipped rolling over, crawling, sitting, etc. It was the first nightmare that I’ve had in quite some time.

Development happens slowly enough that the first time for certain actions or milestones can’t always be pinpointed, however sometimes I wake up and realize that the boys are doing things that they didn’t really do before. Take grasping at objects, for instance. Over a month ago, J-Man was occasionally punching the toys on the bouncer and I couldn’t tell if it was voluntary or not. Now, J-Man is clearly reaching out and grasping the monkey and parrot and spinning them around. I don’t know exactly when he started grabbing at things like that, but it’s very cool. And when did J-Man’s eyes and hearing focus so that he follows objects and voices?? He’s even responding to his name!! It happened but sadly I can’t remember when. He’s so interactive now and being a documentation junkie, I feel like I dropped the ball.

I’ll be sitting at the table with J-Man in my lap (my favorite way to hold him) and he’ll grasp things that are directly in front of him. He’s even starting to reach for things that aren’t right in front of him, and lately he’s taken a liking to feeling different fabrics, namely my jeans. When I burp him, he no longer just lays on my shoulder – he pushes away and tries to look around the room. He hasn’t rolled from tummy to back in months, but he’s starting to push himself up with his hands, but only a little bit until he gets frustrated. He’s putting his butt up in the air, trying to scoot across the floor. Who’s heard of a baby that tries to crawl before pushing himself up or rolling?

These days I dress J-Man in two layers of clothes and a bib to catch all of his drool and spit up. I swear that all of the fluids that go in him come right back out. Where oh where are those first teeth so that I can feed him a French fry? Hubby’s heard him babble, but I’ll believe it when I hear it. When I sing to the boys, I repeat sounds like “ba”, “ma”, and “ga” to encourage them to talk.

Hubby says he saw a “light go on” in J-Man a few weeks ago, right before J-Man went through his difficult phase. G-Dawg is not far behind and Hubby thinks that the light went on for him a few days ago. G-Dawg is looking more like a little boy every day and has the cutest little curl at the top of his head. His coos and sounds are the cutest in the world, so admittedly I’m not looking forward to when his voice matures. He’s definitely trying to communicate, and “talks” a lot more than J-Man does.

G-Dawg continues to try to roll to his belly, even though he hates being on his belly. We had to put the crib tent on his crib because he moves around so much that he winds up with his legs sticking out of the slats (the crib tent has mesh that goes around the crib).

I’ve been able to carry J-Man at my hip for several weeks now. I realized yesterday that I can now do that with G-Dawg because he can hold himself completely upright. G-Dawg is starting to push away from me when I try to burp him too so I’ve resorted to burping him in my lap.

Poor little G-Dawg had to have both sides of the nail on his big toe clipped yesterday by the podiatrist. His toe was still red and swollen from his in-grown toenail. The redness should go down in a week and we have to soak the toe once a day in Epsom Salt. Surprisingly, G-Dawg didn’t seem as bothered as he does when he has his shots.

The boys love their crinkly Lamaze toys. I gave my mom a hard time about buying them but I’m so glad that she did. These Lamaze toys bring hours of enjoyment, and are one of the few toys that G-Dawg takes interest in. He’s not grabbing at things too much but it’s coming soon. Instead, he gets excited and kicks his feet and makes big cooing noises when something excites him.

We have to strap the boys into their Nap Nannies now because they scoot down. J-Man got a new big boy infant car seat this weekend, which can hold up to 35 lbs. It looks so warm and cozy, I’d love to be toted around in it myself.

And last but not least, I’ve been a hypocrite. I swore that I wouldn’t let the boys watch tv until they’re 2 years old, yet I’ve heard so much about these Baby Einstein videos that I had to pull one up on YouTube to see their reactions. They were mesmerized! I was a bit mesmerized too, watching so many seemingly random video clips of toys coming to life. I’m not running out to buy any, but I swear that big purple dinosaur will not be making an appearance any time soon!

I’m sure that there’s more to report, but I wanted to get all of these things down before more progress goes undocumented. I’m so curious to know what’s going to happen next. 6 months is the best age!!