The babies have been VERY busy! The most noteable milestone, they are smiling! Sometime around 6 weeks they started smiling when they were awake (there were tons of sleep smiles before). It's truly the most amazing thing to see their eyes light up and a big gummy smile spread over their face!
We've managed to catch a few of Hudson's smiles on camera, though Harper smiles a lot, it's not when the camera is out. :-(
Here are some pictures of our handsome little man:
Another update, Harper paid a little visit to the pediatrician this week in order to get the Pedi's opinion on her eating habits. Harper loves to eat...you can tell by her cheeks. But she is a very fussy eater. Blake and I have her figured out, after many frustrating feeding sessions. She takes the first 1-1.5 ounces without a problem but after that is when we have to start pulling tricks out of the hat. Walking from room to room, bouncing her, swaddling her tightly all seems to work. Even with all of the hoopla, she still acts as if it's tough to take the remainder of her feeding. So, we brought her in and she was prescribed Zantac for possible reflux issues. The pedi thought maybe she takes the first 1-1.5 ounces fine becuase she's hungry and distracted by the hunger. Then when she's satisfied the immediate hunger, she notices the acid in her tummy and becomes fussy. We're giving her a very small dose of Zantac and hoping it works. She was weighed at the Dr. and at 7 weeks on the dot, she weighed 9lbs4oz......so she's definitely gaining.
Here are a few pics of the princess- we'll get some of her smiling soon even if it means I have the camera in hand all day long! She has the most beautiful smile!
Lastly, the babies are SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEPING for long periods of time at night! Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate! Mommy and daddy feel like new people with a solid chunk of sleep! Honestly, what a blessing! We had just gotten to the point, after 2 really hard nights on Monday and Tuesday night where we sort of threw our hands up in defeat. The babies were waking every 2-3 hours to eat throughout the night and not at the same time so it was 6+ feedings throughout the night and we both were just beat.
Then daddy had a great idea! The babies sleep really well in their carseats so Wednesday night we fed them their bedtime bottle and then put them in the carseats and went for a walk. It was warm outside, the carseats were covered in light blankets to keep the babies covered and all 6 of us went for a little walk (Koko and King are our 5th and 6th family members). We came home, put the babies in their cribs and Harper woke up 5 hours later for a feeding and then went right back to bed. Three hours later, after Hudson had been sleeping for 8 straight hours......the babies woke at 6:30am for a feeding. Last night was an exact repeat, though Harper slept for 6 straight hours last night instead of 5. And the little Mr. had a repeat performance of sleeping 8 solid hours.
We're praying that their little internal clocks are being reset to this new schedule because ours definitely are! :-) The sleep has been heavenly.....and the babies seem much more predictable and happy during the day with this long stretch of sleep at night.
So, that's a little report from the Elliott house. We have been enjoying the beautiful weather, introducing the babies to friends, family and lots of new sights and places. Life is so wonderful right now, every day gets better. I'll sign off with a few new pics of the babies in their "activity gym".
