The twins are seven months old today.

People always ask me, with pitying smiles on their faces, "Are things getting any easier?". And I always respond, "It depends on the day."

Luci and Nicholas are improving. Things are getting less chaotic here, albeit not enough for my liking. But the progress is painstakingly slow, and it often comes in the form of two steps forward, and another step back.

For example, last month, I wrote of how they were finally on a nap schedule. That's still true. But what's happened now is that Nicholas initially will fall asleep while I'm nursing him and stay in his crib for mere minutes before waking up and being unable to go back to sleep on his own. This happens at night too. He will begin to fuss and cry, at which point we immediately transition him to the swing, where he spends most naps, and every single night. This means the hubs has not slept in our bed in over a month (he sleeps downstairs on the couch).

I really want to allow Nicholas to try and put himself back to sleep, but with Luci in the room with him, this is impossible. I've sought input from other moms of twins who have suggested putting the pack-n-play back in our room for Nicholas or simply letting him CIO, so he and Luci get accustomed to eachother's cries. Because we are spectacular procrastinators, we've so far chosen Option 3: Do Nothing. However, a change is imminent, because it's not fair to Isabella to constantly shush her in the mornings because her brother is napping on the first floor of our house.

Behold, our brand new swing, which the hubs had to run out and buy at 8pm one night last week after Nicholas burned out the motor in the old one.



Moving on!

Nighttime sleep is vastly improving. Nicholas will generally sleep through the night after a late night nursing session (somewhere between 10 and midnight) and Luci sometimes does as well, although she's up in the middle of the night more often than she's not. But, it's only once, which is a HUGE improvement.

Nicholas is loving solids, but Luci wants nothing to do with them. She started off liking them, and then basically quit. So, each day I try her on tiny bits of whatever I'm feeding Nicholas and mostly she refuses food and cries. Her pediatrician isn't concerned and basically said she's getting all her nutritional needs met via breastmilk, and to try again in a few weeks.

The twins are still not babies that you can leave on their own for even a few minutes. And by this, I don't mean that I'm surprised they won't sit in their bouncy seats while I run for an hour on the treadmill. If I lay them down on their playmat or put them in their exersaucers, they generally begin to cry immediately. As soon as I pick them up, they're fine. It is massively frustrating because I can't unload the dishwasher, check my email, pick up toys, or even leave the room unless I'm willing to listen to two babies wailing in unison. It's especially fun listening to 20+ minutes of screaming when I'm nursing one while the other waits. One or both of them is screaming every night during dinner. This aspect of their personalities is what's most difficult for me to deal with lately.

I like to tell them that they arrived 2.5 years too late to receive undivided attention.

Nicholas has discovered his feet over the past month, and loves playing with them. He's also taken to grabbing my face and giving huge, slobbery kisses. He is constantly chewing on his hands, rattles, and anything else he can get his hands on. It appears as if one of his incisors is coming in, but I can't be certain.


Luci has shown great improvement in grabbing for toys and handling them. She's still behind Nicholas in the motor skills department, but she's getting there. She takes fantastic morning naps and mediocre afternoon ones, but she no longer seems to fight sleep, which is a huge relief. She's even able to put herself back to sleep sometimes in the middle of the night with no little or no crying. In general, she's a lot less fussy than she used to be. Nicholas, however, seems a lot more fussy than he used to be. Such is life with twins, I suppose.


They're about to move up to Size 2 Huggies, and their six month clothing fits them very well now. Neither baby is able to roll from back to tummy yet, but Luci seems very close to achieving this.

It's still utter chaos at my house most days. They still cry a lot. I'm still in pursuit of a peaceful dinnertime. But we're better. We are better because I am ever so slowly learning to roll with it. I am not a roll with it person, but as most things are with twins, it's trial by fire.

And fortunately for them, when they're not screaming at full volume and making me wish I had soundproofed at least one room in my house, they're pretty cute. And they seem to know exactly how to work that to their advantage.