4th of july

what another great 4th of july. we spent our holiday in hudson on the st croix. the beach was really just a sliver this year because of all the rain and flooding down south so the dams have kept the water levels really high. it was probably a good thing because with all of the new babies this year we spent most of our time in the house using the upper deck. still beautiful. we all still got out on the boat and charlie and bill went to the afton parade. charlie also had his first tubing experience. sadly I didn’t get to witness it, but apparently bill was with him and they were going in and out of the wake.

ellie and claire spent a lot of time in the bouncy chairs (normally – not together).

we were able to catch up with ryan, kate and their two girls – eva and elise. always fun to hang with them. although I have to say that this year I didn’t do much socializing with anyone. whenever we get in a new environment the girls get off of their little schedules and I spend most of the time on baby management duty. next year though we won’t be sitting at all with a 3 yr old and 3 – 1 yr olds running around (the girls and paul).

lynn with claire and ellie.

charlie catching up on some george after a busy busy day. ellie was not happy about it.

the girls chillin with paul. paul is a perfect angel!

bill’s uncle bill was there taking pictures. here is claire’s close up. gorgeous!

the girls both had their first measurements taken. ellie…

then claire…

then both…

Ellie the show off

ellie rolled from her tummy to her back tonight. we had just arrived home from green bay and they had been in their car seats for 4.5 hours straight so I had the girls laying under their activity mats to stretch out. I have been horrible at having them do “tummy time” because I always forget about it and when we were in green bay they had not done it once so I flipped both the girls over and propped them on their forearms. then ellie just rolled right back onto her back! I thought it was a fluke so I propped her up again and she did it again. I was so proud of her! she is just 12.5 weeks (not sure if it is early or not to do this – can’t remember). I had bill come in and verify that I was not losing my mind. I do think propping them up on their arms gives them an advantage, but this is where having twins is convenient. when I prop claire up on her forearms she doesn’t make any effort to really arch her back and move her head to the side which helps them roll over. in fact, she just lays her head on the mat and starts fussing! so it confirms for me that ellie really can roll over. way to go eleanore! I will post more about our fabulous trip to green bay later, but I wanted to get this on the schmitt family record books.

big brother

charlie continues to be a fantastic big brother. he always wants to help me with his sisters. once I get them into their car seats (he would love to put them in their car seats – but that is something “only mom and dads do”) he will rock the car seats for me to keep the girls from screaming (sometimes the rocking becomes extreme rocking, but at least they can handle it more now). charlie will try to replace their pacifiers any chance he gets (often when the girls don’t even want them).

when ellie or claire are on the activity mat or doing tummy time he loves to show them what they should be doing.

the bouncy jiggle chair is now another place for charlie to hang. the angle of the chair has drastically changed since he has been laying on it, but oh well. still works!

normally the girls take their evening bottles after charlie has gone asleep, but earlier this week they were a wreck so we gave it to them early. charlie loved this because he was able to help. he did such a good job giving ellie her bottle. he was so proud!

ellie and charlie hanging out together on the couch.

here is a picture of claire and ellie this past weekend.

then ellie lost it.

sam & charlie

my wonderful friend kacie drove to rochester from eau claire with her almost 3 yr old son sam to visit me and charlie and meet ellie and claire! she also decided to leave her 1 yr old little girl Lena at home with her husband so she could spend some time with the girls and we could chat. we had an absolutely great time. thank you kacie for taking the time to drive her and visit! can’t wait to do it again.

 

we had a heat advisory and the temps reached 100 degrees so we couldn’t really do much outside. after naps charlie and sam had a blast playing in the little pool on the deck.

a little downtime on the couch watching “finding nemo” before dinner.

here is the crew (missing lena!). bet we could not have predicted this scene when we were in high school!

tandem nursing

the past few weeks I have started almost always feeding the girls at the same time. it has been great and saves me lots of time. I don’t use the classic football hold, but instead let them sit up/lay up at me. what has also been great is that the girls are eating a lot faster – I don’t feel like I am spending most of my day nursing anymore. yeah!

when it is just me and the girls we spend a lot of time like this. I recline back in my rocking chair and the girls eat and then crash out, which means I can nap too. I love it. cuddling with sweet newborns is such a treasure.

sleepers are for babies

probably 99% of the time the girls are in sleepers. today I put them in real outfits so when they were awake I tried to snap some shots.

claire giving us her toothless grin.

ellie’s smile…I wasn’t able to catch it just right.

best friends….ok –having twins is the best! it is so sweet to see them together.

“hey! you look just like me!”

stunned but both looking at the camera.

and just for fun. this was ellie and claire about one month ago.

I much prefer this!

2 months!!!

claire and ellie were 2 months old yesterday! our two little beauties are growing and developing perfectly. we had their 2 month well child appointment today and here are their stats…

ellie weighed 8 lbs 4 ozs (4% on the regular growth curve, rocking the preemie growth chart) and was in the 5th percentile for height (52.4 cm). as typically with our kiddos her head circumference was in the 28th percentile (charlie was always in the 90th percentile)!

claire weighed 9 lbs 5 ozs (16% on the regular growth curve, really rocking out the preemie growth chart) and was in the 21st percentile for height (54.5 cm). her head is almost the same size as her sisters and was in the 21st percentile.

it is no surprise that claire is bigger than ellie because she continues to be a better eater than ellie. we also think ellie spends more energy grunting than claire, which has to burn more calories.

the girls are now smiling like crazy and beginning to coo and “talk” cry to us. we just love it!

they are sleeping like champs and we have some rough nights, but they do give us consistently one 6-7 hour stretch. I just wish I could pick the hours that they slept those hours in a row. the last couple nights they were really fussy between 8-11pm and then slept until 5 am. not too bad ladies!

prior to the last two nights, our routine was that they would usually eat between 6-7 am and then went back to sleep until around 10-11 am (sometimes charlie and I can get to the RAC and they sleep while I workout). then they eat again between 10-11 am and then fuss and eat until around 1pm. between 1 and 2 they fall back asleep until almost 4 pm (which means I can get something done or sleep during charlies nap). they eat again at 4 pm and continue to eat until around 9-10 pm. we usually give them a bottle around 8 or 9 pm to stock them up for the night. then they get up around 3 am and we give them bottles (and I pump) and then the cycle repeats itself.

on a separate note, I had a great friend, kris, and her kids down to hang out for the afternoon last week. sadie, her daughter, has been dying to meet ellie and claire and it was just precious to watch sadie soak up the time holding them. she held claire for the longest time and claire just slept peacefully. what fun it was to watch sadie delight in the girls.

charlie instantly wanted to “hold hold” when he saw sadie holding claire. so charlie is holding ellie and sadie is holding claire.