I guess I spoke too soon when I said things were going well with whole milk. For Fischer, things are going great.  Addison isn't tolerating it so well. The first day we gave it to them (Sunday) she spit up a little bit in the afternoon, but we thought nothing of it since both she and Fischer have always spit up.  Monday, she got sick in the afternoon, and this time it wasn't just spit up.  The same thing happened yesterday afternoon.  Scott and I haven't changed anything about her diet except for adding the milk, so we think that the milk is causing her to get sick. We don't think it's a bug because she doesn't act sick, doesn't have a fever, and Fischer hasn't gotten sick. After talking to a nurse last night, we decided that it'd be best to take her to see our Doctor on Friday and decide what our plan should be. It's possible we will increase her Zantac to see if that helps, but we will know more on Friday. My main concern about increasing the Zantac is that I don't want the issue to just be masked, or prolonged, so I have a list of questions ready to go for the Doctor! So for now, she's just having formula, but Fischer is still having an ounce of milk per feeding.

Other than that, things are going great. Both babies are diaper-rash free... today anyway. Yay for that... it's rare that they are both rash free!

They both continue to learn and enjoy new things.  Fischer's new "skill" is to put his lips together and blow (sort of like blowing a raspberry).  I hear him doing this at night on the monitor, in the morning on the monitor, and he does it all day long. It's extremely fun when he does it with a mouth full of food!  He is also learning to kiss things. He doesn't kiss me or Scott much, but he will kiss objects when I ask him to. I also noticed yesterday that when I ask him to kiss something, he makes the noise "aaah." I am wondering if this is because I always says "Awww, that's sweet" after he kisses a toy.  Addison isn't into kissing things yet... she will usually just smile and turn her head away when I ask her for a kiss.

Addison's new thing is standing with her back against things. She stands in her crib with her back against the side. She stands with her back against other furniture and walls. It's almost like she's saying "Look at me, I'm just casually standing here." She is standing so much on her own now, without holding onto anything. If we are on the floor playing, she will just crawl over and pop right up next to us, and she always has a giant smile on her face when she does it.

Official Birthday Countdown:  12 Days!!

Last year, the babies were still behaving and staying put! I was 33 weeks and 1 day pregnant. No one could really believe I was still pregnant and holding steady at 4 cm. We were obviously happy though. I was, however, getting more uncomfortable by the day. I had a very quick ultrasound done and everything was looking good... so, we were sent home to wait some more! Here is a picture of their ultrasound from 32 weeks - they are pretty cramped in there, so it's hard to get a good view. It's hard to believe that this was a year ago already!

This year, things continue to change on a daily basis. Fischer's 4th tooth (his other fang!) broke through overnight. That makes 4 (and the same 4!) for each baby. I can see both of Fischer's top middle teeth through his gum, so I think those will be coming any day now.

We also have babies with very unruly hair. Although Addison doesn't have much, she has a patch that sticks straight up in the back, and so does Fischer. You can really see the patches in these pictures because of the way the sun is shining.  Addison continues to be called a boy, even when we have her dressed in all pink. I know people look at her hair, and because she doesn't have much, assume she's a boy. It'd be nice if we could use bows every now and then, although I'm pretty sure Fischer would yank them out.

They are both cruising on the furniture a lot now. I can tell how much bigger they are getting because they can now reach things in the middle of the coffee table, which means we have to hide our valuables. :)

Here are a couple more pictures from last night when we were doing baths.

Official Birthday Countdown:  13 Days!

Just a couple of announcements, then I am going to relax and watch the Super Bowl (or commercials).

1. Addison has her 4th tooth. It's the other side tooth on top (her other fang). We are still waiting on Fischer's 4th tooth to come in.
2.  We started milk today! We replaced an ounce of formula with an ounce of milk. We will do that for about a week, then increase to 2 ounces. So far so good!

Official Birthday Countdown:  15 Days!!

As I said the other day, the babies have been busy.  Yesterday, I was making their lunch while we were all in the kitchen.  Addison and Fischer got very quiet, which usually means they are up to something. So, I walked around the corner to check it out and found this:

Yep, they have figured out how to unlock Bo's crate (as a team, of course), and now know how to get inside. Addison couldn't have been happier. She was laughing and didn't want to get out! Fischer was having fun opening and closing the door while she sat inside. Then, he decided he wanted in but couldn't quite figure out how to get in there so I helped him out a little bit. I guess they don't need any of their toys afterall. :)

Addison has become quite the waver. She has three types of waves: the one where she curls her fingers, the one where she does her hand from side to side and the one where she moves her whole arm up and down.  Yesterday, I was talking to my mom on the phone while holding Addison. I said "say hi!" and she started waving at the phone! In the past, I've had to wave first, then she'd wave, but she did it this time all on her own.  Then today, Scott was talking to his mom and she was saying "bye bye" on speaker phone. Addison waved again, and was whispering the "buh" sound back!  In addition to that, I think she said "hi" to me yesterday. I walked into their room after their nap and said hi to them, and I am 95% sure she said hi back.  No one else was around, and of course she hasn't done it again, but I'm sure that's what she said.

Fischer has crawled on his hands and knees a few times, but still prefers to army crawl.  He is also waving, and is pulling up on anything and everything, except for me! It occurred to me yesterday that he has yet to pull up on my legs. He has also cruised on some furniture a little bit, and is getting steadier on his legs everyday.

In other news, we have said good-bye to the bottles. They are still getting their scheduled feedings, but they are all from sippies now instead of bottles. Wow... I can't believe we are done with bottles. It seems like yesterday that Scott made an emergency trip to Babies R Us after we brought the babies home... they weren't eating well so we thought we'd try new bottles. Scott came home with several kinds since there were so many to choose from. 

Here's a picture of my little man playing:

The babies are busy crawling, standing, cruising and getting into everything. Here are a few pictures, and a video of Addison going after Bo, then "cruising." Notice the one of Addison standing all by herself. She is doing that longer and longer each day. I've tried holding her hands and having her take a step towards me, but she always just sits down. I guess she isn't quite ready for that yet.

Official Birthday Countdown: 18 days!! 

A year ago, I was 32 weeks and 1 day pregnant. We had an ultrsaound to make sure the babies were growing at a good rate. Since I was still on bed rest I was pretty excited to get out of the house and excited to see new pictures of the babies! My contractions were still on the quiet side, so everything seemed to be going well.  At the ultrasound, they told us that Baby A (Addison) weighed 2 pounds 14 ounces and Baby B (Fischer) weighed 3 pounds 4 ounces.  Addison's weight was less than the 10th percentile (Fischer's was 17th), so they were a little concerned about that. They checked her blood flow, my fluid, and I did a non-stress test to monitor her heartbeat over a 30 minute period, and to make sure she was as active as she should be. All of that looked great, so I was scheduled to do another non-stress test and ultrasound the next week.

This year, we are battling Addison's awful diaper rash. We have been so lucky as far as germs go - Addison and Fischer haven't even had a fever yet (I'm knocking on wood as I type this). However, we have not been so lucky when it comes to diaper rashes. Between the two of them, it seems that we are always dealing with one. And they get very bad...I don't know if anything is worse than making your child cry because you are changing their diaper. We have a whole variety of creams that we've been prescribed, over-the-counter creams, and even have some oral medications. I feel like we could open our own little pharmacy with the variety we have. When they have a rash, we do baking soda baths, rinse instead of wipe (which ends up taking about 10 minutes longer than a normal diaper change would) and try to let them air out as much as possible.  Addison's is giving us a run for our money this time - we are trying to avoid a trip to the doctor but it might be heading in that direction.

Other than that, we are gearing up for a lot of changes that will be coming soon. We are well on our way to being completely done with bottles. We will soon start decreasing the amount of baby food they get (currently 42 jars a week!!) and increasing the amount of table food they get. They do love their baby food though, so hopefully that change will go smoothly. They already eat a lot of table food at dinner so hopefully breakfast and lunch will go just as well once we start more of that. We will also begin the transition from formula to whole milk. We will most likely start that this weekend. Much like when we switched to their current formula, we will replace the formula with milk one ounce at a time. By the beginning of April (probably a couple of weeks before) they should be completely formula free! We do it so slowly because of their reflux and digestion issues. Once they have been on milk for awhile and as long as they are tolerating it, we hope to take them off of Zantac.

First birthdays sure do bring a lot of changes! Wish us luck as we start  the process. :)

Official Birthday Countdown: 20 Days!!

Today is the first day of February. That means that Addison and Fischer turn one THIS MONTH.  We have a lot of fun things planned this month...birthday pictures, a birthday party, a possible trip to the aquarium, 1 year well check up (although shots aren't fun), and some other things too!

Happy Birthday Month, Addison and Fischer!!

Official Birthday Countdown: 21 Days!!