14 Week Review of Juliana and Olivia

Allergies-
 - This past week Mike and I found out that our girls have allergies. As mentioned before in previous blogs, the girls were put on soy formula for supplementing in addition to breastfeeding.Right at three months, we saw a change in our girls. They started breaking out around the mouth and Olivia had a light rash all over her body. Their noses were plugged with clear mucus and we were concerned. We did some research and decided to try a few things. 1) We first tried taking them off of soy and putting them back on the milk base formula. This cleared up the rash on Olivia and around their mouths. The only problem with this that that they were still congested and spitting up. 2) We then tried taking them off of the milk and soy formula and try giving them Alimentum by Similac. This was a hypoallergenic formula that cost $25.00 for 12.9 ounces! Needless to say, the girls did not take it and spit it up more than the milk formula. The taste was awful and it smelled really bad. 3) We took them off of the Alimentum and thought that we were going to be in trouble, but then a friend suggested the cheap Walmart brand for sensitivity. It was lactose free and soy free. So we gave it a try. This was a much better price, $14.00 for about 30 ounces. The girls did really well. They took it down with no problem and did not spit up one bit. They have been on it for about three days now. They have not had as much gas and drink a lot more.

Reflux-
Since we put the girls on the Walmart formula, we had actually forgotten to give the girls their medicine. So far it has been three days and the girls have not spit up once. They have been doing well and we hope that this was the answer for their reflux. 

Hands-
This week the girls have found new toys...their hands. They have been putting them together and gripping things, like daddy's hair. They have found that their hands will fit into their mouths really easily. This makes trying to nurse a battle between the hands and Mama. Mama always wins. We look forward to seeing what other body parts will be found next. 


Swing-
Yesterday as we were getting ready for church, Mike put the girls in their swings so we could practice our special music at the piano. I happened to be in another room when I heard this wailing cry followed by a quick stop of the piano and Mike rushing over to the girls. When I came out into the living room, Mike had told me that Juliana had pushed herself almost completely off the back of the swing and her head was hanging. OH! my poor baby!  

Juliana in the swing

Bubbles-
The girls are staring to blow bubbles in their spit. Whenever they get excited, they move their arms and legs all over the place and blow bubbles and coo. They are becoming more active everyday.

Pets-
Since the girls were born, the cats have nothing to do with the girls. They really stay away and avoid any contact. Precious, our toy rat terrier loves the girls. She already wants to play with them, sleep with them and in general likes to be around the girls. I have caught her, on occasion, licking the girls' ears.

 Precious sleeping with the girls.

So the past 14 weeks has been exciting and a blessing. There has never been a dull moment with Juliana and Olivia. We are proud of them and we can't wait to see what they have in store these next few months.

Freedom!

Playtime!

Here are the girls playing for the first time together! I love it.

Growing FAST!

I have been impressed with my girls and how fast they are growing. This morning Mike and I went to get our babies and feed them. To my surprise, Olivia was turned sideways in her crib and near her sister. She was so cute. She started hitting her sister in the face, which woke Juliana up. After feeding both girls, we put them back into their sleep positioners in their crib. At the next feeding I went back into their room. Olivia again was pushed out of her sleep positioner and next to her sister. I grabbed the camera and snapped the picture below. Needless to say, we will need to get another crib by next month. They are growing so quickly. I love my girls so much.

3 Months Old!

Juliana and Olivia have turned 3 months! What a wonderful milestone they have already accomplished. They both are starting to become more verbal and moving their little arms and legs all over the place. This makes feedings really interesting as they want to touch everything. I quickly found out that I had to cut their nails as they would scratch our chests and that was NOT fun. We invested in the little hand mitts. These are wonderful. They are great for protecting our skin and their faces.

Juliana has learned to roll from tummy to back and is currently working on rolling from back to tummy. She still needs a little assistance, although a full diaper will weight her down making it a little harder to roll.

Olivia has not rolled yet. We are working on this everyday with a little tummy time.

 Daddy and Juliana

The girls have found a new interest...their tongue. They have recently started licking the air and anything that comes in contact with their mouth. We have also enjoyed seeing them smile. Anytime they are content we can get them to smile just by talking to them. For the most part, they are happy babies.

Juliana and her beautiful smile!

We still face a few challenges. Their reflux continues to be an issue. Speaking of which, I actually had to get up away from typing this blog to help Mike clean up Olivia from a river full of throw up. I took her into her nursery and striped her down, started a bath and got her cozy warm and smelling fresh again. They are still taking medication for that.

Olivia after her bath.

Another challenge would be their sleeping at night. We read that breastfed babies usually wake up to feed once in the night between 3-4 months. That is where we are. It is not that bad waking once, but we would love to sleep through the night sometime soon. I am sure it will happen eventually, we just need to be patient.

Our last major challenge would be travel. Since these girls are not on a strict schedule, it has been hard being able to go into town or traveling long distances. We hope this will get better as they get older. We have had instances where I had to get in the back seat and feed them. For those who have twins or two children in car seats...there is only so much room in the back seat. Not fun when trying to feed.

Overall, these three months have been a true blessing despite our challenges. Mike and I have loved seeing these little ones grow and become sweet angels.

2 Month Doctor's Appointment

The girls have reached their two month mark about 4 weeks ago. They were to see the doctors at the beginning of June, but because of their size we were advised to wait a little longer. So here we are on June 22nd, the girls went in for their check up. We knew this was going to be a very eventful day as they were to get their vaccinations. Olivia was first.

We undressed her and took her to the scale. The nurse measured her length at 21.5 inches long and weight of 9 pounds and 14 ounces. We were hoping for 10 pounds, but I would say that was pretty close.

Juliana was next, she also measured 21.5 inches long and weighed in at 9 pounds and 15 ounces. Both girls had a perfect physical. Now for the bad part. Vaccines.

There were two nurses that administered the shots, each girl had two shots in one leg and one shot in the other. To our amazement, they cried for about a minute and then quit and went to sleep. They actually ended up sleeping rest of the day, only waking to eat an ounce of food. It wasn't until the next day that we saw fevers. My heart was crushed to see how miserable they were. They wanted to be held most of the time. They cried when they were awake and when they went to sleep they slept hard. Not fun for our little bambinos.

It has now been two days since their vaccinations and the fevers are gone. We are back to our sleepless nights and many feeding episodes. So glad my little ones smile again.

Juliana with a fever of 99.7 degrees.

Olivia with a fever of 100.4 degrees.

Both girls relaxing on the couch.

Proud Parents

Yesterday, June 14. Mike and I were preparing dinner and had set Juliana on the floor for some tummy time. Olivia was still sleeping from her nice nap. As I looked up from what I was doing, Juliana was on her side! I told Mike to "look!" and just as he did, she rolled over on her back! What an accomplishment for a 10 week old! We are very proud of her.

This morning, Olivia was on her tummy and pushing up on her side. It won't be long before she is catching up with her sister. It is so amazing to see how these little ones grow so fast. Before we know it they are going to be crawling and then walking. So exciting! Congratulations Juliana, Mama and Daddy are proud of you.

Juliana Grace Colburn - 10 weeks old

Double Trouble

Today the girls turn 10 weeks old. So far our days have been really busy and we are quite exhausted. I don't think anything could prepare us for twins. I told Mike that our lives have definitely slowed down. He informed me that our lives have not only slowed down, but they stopped. So far this summer, we have put all of the things we have wanted to do on hold. It has taken me a month so far to read a book that would have taken me a week. Mike is in school right now and taking a couple of online classes. There are some days, I have to take the girls and feed them and entertain them so he is able to get his work done. For the most part, our girls are really good, but recently we have experienced some double trouble.

Juliana and Olivia have started to refuse the bottle. They cry and fuss if they are really hungry and we offer them a synthetic nipple. I even had my first battle with Juliana last night. She fought me so hard...and she won. I gave up trying to feed her from the bottle and decided to breastfeed her. She immediately fed and then went to sleep.My precious baby was exhausted from trying to fight me. I was reading that Mike should be the one to bottle feed them because they have a connection with me. I found that babies can smell their mothers up to 20 feet away....I guess that would mean I would have to leave the house for awhile. I imagine that would be the opportune time to have a little "me" time. We will see. I also read that we should try to bottle feed them three times. If they refuse the bottle each time, wait 5 to 10 minutes and then breastfeed them. This is so they don't see that refusing would be the result of breastfeeding. SO FRUSTRATING.

Juliana

The other issue we are still encountering is their reflux. We started putting baby rice cereal in their formula to help keep it down. This has helped, however, we thought we could take them off of the medicine, we were wrong. They were off of it for about 2 weeks and now we are back to the beginning of the vomit issue. I have experienced a river of formula all over me, twice in the past two days. Needless to say, the girls are back on their medicine. I know that God will get us through this, but it has felt like a never-ending battle. I just keep telling Mike and myself..."not much longer...you can do it!" We appreciate all the prayers that have been made for us. They are very much needed. Many people do not understand the demand and the toll it has on the mind and body. For those of our friends that have twins....hats off to you and thank you for all the advice. It is so nice to have friends that have actually gone through raising more than one child of the same age. It is reassuring that we too can get through this.

 Olivia with Daddy

This afternoon was unbelievably peaceful. This was the first time that we as a family took a nap together. We were washing their car seat covers, due to a massive spit up occurrence, so we were not able to put them to sleep in their nursery.After feeding our little ones we decided to lie down in bed, Juliana on my right side, Olivia on my chest and Daddy, and Precious,our dog, on the left side. It was a peaceful 2 hour nap. A special family memory. These are the moments that Mike and I try to remember when life throws punches at us.

Napping with Mama

After the day is done and the world is whole again, we thank God for our beautiful girls and the unspeakable joy they bring to our hearts.

Olivia

Juliana