Six Months

I’m sure it sounds like a broken record by now, but y’all….babies don’t keep. I refuse to use the phrase “time please slow down” because for some odd reason it just irks me. I can’t explain it; it’s just not for me. So basically I will say everything but that. I’m a weirdo I know.

I don’t wish for this time to slow down, I wish to relish each milestone and soak each second up because the reality is is that we’re not going to get this time back with our girls. This is it. I choose to memorize each facial expression, each sweet sound, and every single second rather than worrying about how fast it’s flying by. Our girls are happy, healthy and growing like weeds. I look forward to each phase and each next accomplishment they make! Some days it’s a bit upsetting that they aren’t those squishy tiny little babies anymore, but then they smile and laugh….and I wouldn’t trade those giggles for anything!! We are so blessed to be these girls’ parents….WHAT an honor!!

We won’t know their official weights and measurements until their 6 month well visit appointment next week, but our guess is Mae Parker is at least 15-16 pounds and Amelia is probably 13-14. She always surprises us, so she’ll more than likely weigh more than that. I started keeping notes on my phone this month for this post specifically. Little achievements and moments about each girl that are worth remembering.

Amelia

This girl….just when she gets over the crud for a couple weeks, she started getting it all over again. Luckily this time, I think we caught it early enough and started medicine early enough that she was NOWHERE near as bad as she was last month. When she’s sick, she doesn’t sleep and eat as well, so the second she takes a full bottle you know she’s starting to feel better! I feel like we’ve got a good sense of her now to be able to tell when she’s about to get sick vs. when she’s just not having a good day. She has the sweetest disposition about her, sick or not. When she smiles, your day is made! Here are some of her 6 month highlights:

-She ADORES her Sophie the Giraffe. I handed it to her one day just showing her different toys and she’s hardly let go of it since. She loves that thing.

-If it’s not Sophie the Giraffe, her hands are in her mouth constantly. Everyone says something along the lines of, “Oh, she’s starting to teeth.” I don’t know…maybe they are maybe they aren’t. They have no other “teething” symptoms, so I don’t know. Either way…her hands are in her mouth all. the. time.

-This month she has finally started grasping for things and holding on tightly.

-Along with the grasping, she’s reaching for certain beloved items….her Sophie and her bottle. Everything else is just chopped liver to her.

-She has seemed to really enjoy watching March Madness. We’re not big basketball fans, but we’re avid March Madness fans every year. If there’s college basketball on tv, she’ll sit and watch intently for a long time.

-She has started rolling over from front to back finally.

-She has a touch of torticollis which means her head leans to one side (the right side) more than the left. Unlike some cases, she is not in any pain or discomfort, she just prefers that side. Thanks to the help of a good friend who’s a PT, we’ve been working with her with different stretches to help stretch those muscles out and help her to learn to use the other side more.

-She is finally starting to accept that Tummy Time isn’t the worst thing in the world. She’ll manage to scoot herself to a completely different direction than from where she started.

-I wasn’t prepared for her to become MORE vocal this quick than she already was, but her constant jabbering has turned into “ba-ba-ba” sounds. I’m trying to encourage that “ba-ba,ba” into a “ma,ma,ma” sound. When she’s mad, she will CHEW your head off with her new sounds. We try not to laugh, but it’s the funniest thing. She’s mad at you and she’s letting you know ALL the reasons why.

-She loves to sing and this by far was the sweetest moment from the month. 

-She has loved all three baby foods we’ve tried so far: carrots, sweet potatoes and squash.

-She’s also starting spitting and blowing with all of her might. When she starts, she can’t stop. She’ll drag it out as long as she can then take a deep breath and start again. It cracks everyone up…except her daddy, when she does it at dinner time and cover him in squash.

-She has started responding to her name.

-She is the best and easiest napper of all time; she prefers a cuddled kind of nap.

-She still loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, seeing people come through the door at our house, and the Very Hungry Caterpillar rings on their activity mat (which we’ve witnessed them fighting over on multiple occasions, I’ve GOT to find another set!), and a small pink Easter bunny my Aunt Linda got her.

Mae Parker

She’s had a touch of congestion and junk this month too. She hasn’t been as bad as Amelia, but still  had a few sick days where she just wasn’t herself. She still loves to be around people and needs to be entertained more than her sister. She’s still the better eater (as is evidenced by the 10 oz of formula Stephen’s grandparents gave her over the course of 1 hour one day this month...yeah. TEN OUNCES.) There is nothing that she gets more excited about than seeing you sit down with her and a bottle in your hand…she just can’t stand it she’s so excited! She’s such a happy baby full of so much JOY!

-She’s learned this new sound which pretty much sounds like she’s gasping for air. She does it when she’s getting excited about something or on the verge of a breakdown. However, we learned at an ENT appointment for her last week, that there is a chance this may be something else. I have to backtrack on this one just a little. Not long after she was born, she was on an IV antibiotic after a small procedure that was done for her lung development. Policy states that at 6 months she has to have a follow up hearing test with an ENT because of this specific antibiotic she was given. Just as we expected she passed her hearing test with flying colors no problems. She’ll be re-tested in a year, but for now everything came back normal. When we were going over the test results with the doctor on Friday, he said “tell me about this place on her forehead.” Dumbfounded, I managed to get out, “um…well, it’s gotten better / lighter the older she’s getting? We’ve heard it called a birth mark, stork bite, angel kiss, etc.” He went into explanation of the actual medical terminology “hemangioma” which basically is just a cluster of blood vessels. In MP’s case, it’s getting lighter and not bigger, as well as the places on the back of her head and neck. THEN, the doctor was telling us how hemangiomas can develop internally and in the throat that are sometimes harder to detect but the baby will make a gasping for air sound regularly. We stopped dead in our tracks and stared at each other. We explained that she made that sound A LOT but it was never in distress only when she was excited. We don’t believe and pray that there isn’t a problem, but nonetheless, she goes back in 4 months for a follow up on that. We just have to keep a close eye on her and her “sound”. If we start noticing her doing it even faintly while she sleeps, we’ll have to take her back and they’ll have to sedate her and scope her throat. Hemangiomas in the throat can quickly lead to closing off the airway. Like I said we’re PRAYING this isn’t the case.  

-She has loved carrots and squash. We feel like sweet potatoes have hurt her stomach or given her gas. About an hour after she ate each time on the “sweet potato days”, she’d scream and cry for a while. So we’re going to go easy on the sweet potatoes with her.

-She fights naps like nobody’s business and often times will go without naps for SEVERAL hours, which isn’t always the most pleasant version of herself to be around, but we play with the hand we’re dealt.

-Bedtime is a different story, she is easy to go to sleep at bedtime. Sometimes she requires no rocking at all and other times she requires very little. She sleeps through the night and we often have to wake her up in the mornings.

-She has slept all night in her crib in her room a couple of times this month, until she started getting congested and I wanted her back in her Rock and Play in our room so I could have her closer to me if she started coughing.

-When she does nap, she does it without being cuddled. You can lay her down anywhere and she’ll sleep on her own.

-She has REALLY started jabbering and squealing this month. Her high pitch squeals will make you squint your eyes. When she gets on a roll, she can’t stop.

-Like her sister, her hands are constantly in her mouth. She also slobbers like it’s her job. I can see her teething sooner than Amelia. She just has more of the classic signs.

-She can get a firm grasp on anything in sight, my hair included. Ouch.

-She’s rolling all over the place. Front to back, back to front…she rolls and rolls and rolls. We’ve been practicing with her by putting toys out away from her when she’s on all fours. Yesterday I watched her rock herself on all four’s and getting mad because she couldn’t get to the toys I had laid out in front of her. I think she’ll pickup crawling pretty quick.

-Every now and then she’ll high five. Although I’m not quite sure she knows what she’s doing. I think she’s just reaching to touch the hand that’s in front of her.

-She's SUPER close to sitting up by herself. 

-Also every now and then she will reach for someone. One of the few things that have melted my heart in a split second was the moment she reached for me when I put my hands out for her.

-She still loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, The Wheels on the Bus, riding in her stroller, looking at books, and her cousins Riley & Colin…girlfriend just lights UP when she sees them!

There are days that we feel like we’re living on Survival Mode and then there are days that it’s just easy. We’re not the only parents to ever have had twins before, they’re not an excuse for us to not do certain things or go places. Yes, it’s harder and more work, but we’re not going to stop life because it’s a little more difficult right now. My motto has been and will be “life goes on”. We’ve got a good system and routine, which I will swear until the day I die is crucial for multiples. Their little personalities are starting to shine more and more each day. I’ve caught myself more times this month than in previous months just stopping and staring at them and telling Stephen, “Can you believe they’re ours?! They’re perfect.” My heart has never been so thankful and full. Happy 6 months Amelia and Mae Parker, we love you more and more every single day!