Month 2

This month was all about family time. Luke's company has a sabbatical program called "just stay away." After 5 years with the company you get to take a month off with full pay. Luke hit the five year mark in December and opted to take the month of January off. He turned in his computer and they disabled the email on his phone so he was able to truly unplug from work for the month. When you combine his leave, the holidays, and saved up vacation days, he only worked 9 days between the time the girls were born and February 2nd. Although it wasn't a terribly relaxing month for him, it was really nice to have Luke home as we tried to juggle 2 newborns. It was hard even having 2 of us full-time watching the girls - I don't know how people do it when one or both parents are back at work.

The girls became much more alert this month and had to be moved into separate cribs at 7 weeks. Somehow they could sleep through each other's crying, but the second we tried to unswaddle one baby, the other would hear the velcro and open her eyes and look at you like "what  about me???"

Despite the distractions, the girls started sleeping longer through the night at around 5 weeks. Luke and I decided we needed to get them into a better routine, so for 4 days we focused on nothing but keeping them on a schedule. Laundry,  housework, and running errands were all put on hold during that time. It was well worth it because afterwards they'd regularly go 4 hours between feedings at night which meant 2 extra hours of sleep for mommy and daddy!

The girls also seemed to have a growth spurt around 7 weeks - they were like bottomless pits. At their 2 month well-baby checkup they had grown to 9 lbs 4 oz and 21 inches long (Alli) and 9 lbs 8 oz and 22 inches long (Dani). Their doctor was really pleased with how quickly they're growing. They're now falling within the full-term baby growth chart. Although they're on the low end of it, it's a big accomplishment because a month ago they weren't even on the chart and could only be measured on the preemie chart. They've essentially had a month less to grow than most babies since they were born early.

Alli - length: 5.57 percentile, weight: 11.24 percentile

Dani- length: 31.51 percentile, weight: 14.81 percentile

The girls' first Christmas was spent at Grandpa and Grandma's house. They were definitely the center of attention for the day - everyone was more interested in sitting and holding the babies than opening gifts. It was a nice, low-key day which we all needed after the craziness of the last few months.

Alli practicing her Baylor sic 'em in her sleep

Dani wasn't really in the mood for pictures...

Both girls

They were each wearing onesies that said "Mommy's favorite gift" and Aunt Sarah made them headbands for the occasion.

Their 2 month birthday was extra special because Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Bill and cousins Katie and Lisa came for a brief visit. They live in California, but Jennifer was about to deploy to Afghanistan and had training in San Antonio before she left. Bill, Katie and Lisa flew out and met Jennifer in San Antonio and drove up to spend a day with us. It was great seeing all of them and introducing them to the girls. We were sad to see them go so soon, but we are looking forward to some more cousin time in March when Katie and Lisa visit for Spring Break. We took advantage of all the extra helping hands and all went for a picnic on Market Street for lunch.  Excluding trips to the doctor and Grandpa and Grandma's, this was the girls' first time out of the house.

We had a good laugh at the girls' expense that day - are big sunglasses still in style? Looks like they might have to grow into these!

We're so proud of ourselves that we remembered to keep up with the monthly pictures with the bear! Now if only we could get both girls to look happy and awake at the same time...maybe next month

Alli

Dani