Four Months

I'm a little late in this post, but my babies turned 4 months old about a week ago! I am still not used to how much can change in their little personalities, appearance, and preferences in just one month. We are having sooo much fun interacting with them now and picking apart their differences that we observe. It is so fun to see how similar, yet different God has formed their little personalities. Here is a picture of my little boy and big girl...keep reading and you'll see why :)




First, to set the scene, their 4 month appointment was an absolute circus. Ryan had a big project come up at work and could not go with me to their appointment. In the short notice, my Dad was able to "drop in" and help me take them for the appointment. While working with the Ped with Jenna, Caden all of a sudden goes NUTS! My Dad can't get him to calm down for anything...I can't hear anything the Ped is saying and Dad is getting tickled at himself. Then, I share with the Ped about Jenna's head-to-the-side preference and he starts investigating. He goes to mess with her head and neck and she goes BONKERS...did not like that at all! So now both of them are wailing at the top of their lungs in this tiny room that felt like a closet. :) The Ped walks out to get their shots ready and my dad and I cant' stop laughing. Jenna had cried and worked herself up so much so that she threw up all over Dad (who had to go back to work after this mind you :) ) Anyway, the crying ramped up even more when they got their shots. By the time we left, Dad was covered in spit up and I was sweating profusely from laughing so hard. Ahhhh good times. Dad magically already knew his schedule for their 6 month appt and informed me he was busy that day :) haha jk. Here is their 4 month bandaid pic :)




The Stats: At their 4 month appointment the inevitable happened: Jenna passed her brother in weight! She also grew more inches overall and is now equal with brother. Caden had previously always weighed more (up to half a pound at one point) and was always about a half inch taller. Well, Jenna Girl said move out of the way! Jenna (12lb 9oz) is now 4 ounces more than Caden (12lb 5oz). They are both 23.25 inches tall now which means Jenna Girl grew almost 2 inches in one month!



and here is our attempt to straighten Jenna's head with rolled up blankets in her bouncy seat:




The Doctor came in and asked me if Caden was more active then Jenna. "Ummmmmm YES!" I said. The Doc said he thought this was the reason why Caden's growth chart took a dip. Caden is burning more calories and has a higher metabolism, so the Doctor recommended we start Caden with cereal! I was hoping to get to 6 months before starting this, but we need to get more calories in my active little boy! Soooo we brought down the high chair from the attic and got Caden ready to start this "yummy" (ick) cereal. The first experience? = epic fail. He was waaaay too tired that night and just wanted to be in bed.

We have taken our time getting used to it and increasing its consistency. He is a pro now and can swallow most of what we give him! Such a Big Boy!




We need to go get Jenna a chair so she can sit with with the family at breakfast and dinner time. Bless her heart, she is usually in the pack n play or in a bumbo seat on the floor :( She is doing just fine in her growth chart (obviously) so the Ped said we could just keep her on Breastmilk exclusively until 6 months. Yea!

Schedule: I thought the introduction of cereal was going to massively mess up our fabulous schedule we had created. For a few days it did throw a kink in things since it took so much extra time to get both babies downstairs, settled, fed, cleaned up, burped, bring both babies back upstairs to change before putting them back down for a nap. There is little play time in the morning since they are tired and ready to be back in bed by the time single me can get all of that done (after nursing them first!) They have adapted beautifully and we are now back on a solid schedule...so much so that we can tell you exactly when they will get tired, aaaand, for about a week now, I can even tell you when Jenna will have her daily blow out :)

Sleeping: They are soooooo great. I'm so thankful for good sleepers and pray every night that the Lord allows us to continue training them to be good sleepers through all of the growth spurts and changes we have coming our way as they grow older. Jenna sleeps the last 1.5 hour of each cycle and Caden sleeps the last 1 hour. They go down so easy for nap time now that we have established our schedule and learned their sleep cue. Jenna is clear as a bell, she will be happy and cooing then all of a sudden...fussy and rubs her eyes. That's your que! Go put her down and she is out. Caden needs to get out about 30 minutes extra activity, then he gets fussy and goes down instantly. We put them down after the 9pm feeding and they sleep, without incident until about 5 am. At this point, it just takes us going in there and putting Jenna back on her side and putting the paci back in Caden's mouth and they sleep until 8 am! Granted, this is not every night...Jenna wakes us up more consistently than Caden...but each time, we are up with her for 60 seconds or less, getting her situated or covered back up or back on her side, then she is fast asleep again. I know we should sleep train her a bit better to teach herself to soothe and go back to sleep...but for the overall hours of sleep they give us, I'll sacrifice 60 seconds 2 or 3 times a night! They are still in the same crib, although I fear the day we split them up is coming soon....Jenna in particular is a traveler when she sleeps. I frequently find her like this when I go in after nap time...maybe she is getting back at Caden for all of the kicks in the womb?




Jenna has jumped on the smile train and is now giving the most adorable smiles. Caden smiles with his entire face. Jenna smiles with her eyes and opens her mouth wide open to smile. Precious! Also, no more crazy Jenna from 8-11 ! Hallelujah! She has really come into a content personality all day and will sit and coo and observe things around her. Hallelujah!

Another HUGE development is that the twins recognize each other now! One night, we were holding them after dinner and they seemed to lock in and focus on each other. They started smiling and cooing at each other...back and forth. Me and Ryan were like kids we were so excited! We will work on getting it captured on video soon. It will melt your heart.

Clothing: We are finally in 1-2 diapers and will make the switch to Size 2 when we run out of 1-2's. Also, this month I just now packed up their Newborn pants. The length was still perfect, but the waist got a bit tight haha. They are in 0-3 month separates and 3 month oneises / footies. Some 3- 6 month onesies fit them.

Activities: We still enjoy our bumbo seats where Jenna has become noticeably stronger. They hate tummy time :( We are going for walks just about any day it is near 60 or higher. We dusted off the jogging stroller and put them in it...they did great! Now if Mama can get in shape to push them while actually jogging, we will be in business! Jenna is getting stronger and stronger! Go Jenna!




Here they are opening their Valentine Cards and enjoying their balloons from Gigi and Papa T:



As I mentioned, we have really started to notice their differences in personalities. I came up with a chart so we could see them side by side. It will be fun to share this with them when they are older to show them how God formed them individually and with unique differences.