Week in Review

Last week was a busy one…….here is a recap of what we were up to:

We kicked off last week with a visit to the Dr. to have a hip ultrasound on Stella. Our pediatrician at our one week check-up asked if either of the twins were breech during the pregnancy. Stella was a little gymnast and although she ended up vertex (head down) when we hit 38 weeks, she spent several times in the breech position. Evidently babies that are breech have a higher likelihood of developing hip problems. To be safe, it is recommended they have an ultrasound done to make sure everything is moving the way it should. Stella was a trooper during the ultrasound and the good news is her hips look great! 

On Tuesday, O & S got to meet their Uncle Jeremy for the first time……he traveled all the way from LA to see them (well, and everyone else in the family too!). We had a great time visiting with him and can’t wait to see him and Aunt Suzette at Christmas! 

Jeremy w/ his 3 nieces (Stella, Anna, Lydia)

We were lucky enough to sneak in a few hours out for a date night without O & S while Grandma & Grandpa C watched them (thank you!!). Of course we spent most of our dinner conversation at Salut talking about the twins, but it was still a great night out!

On Friday, Grandma & Grandpa Krueger and Aunt Sharon and Uncle Kurt arrived for the weekend to get their share of twin time. We appreciated all of their help in holding, feeding, changing, and snuggling with O & S. We even managed to head out for a great dinner at Brasa…yum! 

Aunt Sharon w/ O & S

Grandpa Krueger w/ Oliver

This week dad is headed to IU for a Target recruiting trip so mom is grateful that Grandma & Grandpa C are here to help! We will all head to Wisconsin this weekend for O & S’s first visit to Little Sand Lake…..looking forward to  introducing them to a place where many fun memories will be made over the years!

Tipping the Scales

The most common question we get from people is: "How much do they weigh?". For weeks we have had no answer because the last time they were weighed was at 2 weeks. We made a trip to the pediatrician today for something else and did a 5 1/2 week weight check. 

Drum roll please.......

Oliver: 9 lbs. 14 ounces

Stella: 8 lbs. 9 ounces

If you're wondering how Oliver has gotten to be such a big boy, check out the picture below. This is right after he grabbed the bottle out of the fridge by himself!

Hoosierland Visitors

Many of you have probably heard us refer to our “IU” friends that we met while Chop attended IU for his MBA. We received an email from one of them a few weeks ago – turns out that our friend Patrick wanted to visit Chop for his 30th birthday (Patrick’s wife, Lora, and I are pretty sure that these two would up and leave us to be together). Lora planned the trip without Patrick knowing and we were beyond excited that they were making the trek here to Minneapolis to visit us!

So, this past weekend we introduced them to our “new” life as parents and managed to get out and show them some of what Minneapolis had to offer. They were very patient with working around feedings, people stopping us to gawk at the twins, and were willing to hang out at our house instead of going out.

Rather than writing about what we did, we will let the pictures/captions tell the story. Lora did a great job of capturing moments from the weekend with her fancy camera, so here we go…….

Mill City Farmer's Market

Boys w/ babies

So sleepy.....

Twins meeting twins

Dinner purchase

A natural!

Another natural!

Boys w/ babies......& beer!

Oliver lounging during dinner

Thanks, Kaisers. Oliver & Stella can't wait to see you again and neither can we! Indiana 2011? Argentina 2020 :)?
 

Turning 1....Month, That Is!

It is crazy to think that one month ago we were at the hospital awaiting the arrival of Oliver & Stella! We have survived the last few weeks (with smiles, tears, & humor!) and thought we would share some of the traits of our little ones. 

Stella picking on Oliver

Oliver: 

-Eats (a lot!)

-Loud baby.....including grunts & coos (not helping mom get any sleep on this one.....dad seems to sleep right through it)

-Since he is the big brother, he was demoted to the backseat in the stroller so his diva little sister could get the attention up front in the ride

-Favorite activity:watching Mike & Mike in the morning with Grandpa C

-Favorite lounging spot: swing

Stella:

-Internal alarm clock that never allows us to go past the 3 hour feeding time (hoping this changes at night sometime soon!)

-Likes to "snack" and often demands a bottle between feedings

-Has a "sassy" attitude 

-Favorite activity: shopping at Target

-Favorite lounging spot: bouncy seat

Things they both love:

-Crazy yellow lab Maizy

-Putting up their "dukes" when they eat (see Stella photo below)

-Going for walks at the lake

-Bath time

-Making mom or dad change their diaper multiple times within minutes

A few more recent photos.....

Some styling new kicks from Grandma C

 

 

Stella with her "dukes" up

One month photo

Catching Up.....

Finally finding a little time to let everyone know what has been going on the last week……

The twins were lucky enough to have family visitors for a couple of days last week to help out.  Grandma K, Auntie Joan, and Cousin Alexa made the 3 1/2 hour trip from Plover to spend a couple of days with their favorite twins in the Krueger family!  (j/k Sharon and Shelley!)  We're pretty sure they really enjoyed their time here, even though a couple of them were the recipients of projectile spit-up.  Grandma K was even nice enough to fill the freezer with Chop's favorite...Portesi Pizzas!  Thanks for all of your help!

Grandma Krueger & Stella

Aunt Joan & Oliver

Cousin Alexa & Stella

After the visitors left on Saturday, mom and dad were well-rested and brave enough to make our first trip out for a meal with the twins in tow.  We hit up one of our favorites, the Edina Grill, for a bite to eat at lunch.  Thankfully, our timing worked well and lunch was without issue.  Afterwards, mom decided it was time to introduce her little girl to the world of Anthropologie, thankfully they don't carry kids' clothes!

We then ventured on to visit our good friends Deborah & Dan and their baby Lena. She was born just 3 weeks before O & S and we look forward to many playdates! 

 

 
Sunday we did some major damage at our favorite store, Target. One store didn’t have quite the number of diapers we needed so we hit up two stores for a grand total purchase of 896 diapers (we figure that should last us about 7 weeks......if we're lucky)! 

A funny little occurance that happened this week. A lot of people ask us what our yellow lab Maizy (aka Crazy Maizy) thinks of the babies. All things considered, she has handled the change very well. With two babies we have a lot of baby gear in our living room and it tends to get moved around a lot. Well evidently we shuffled the play mat onto Maizy’s bed. We woke up in the middle of the night to find that she made herself at home on top of all of it!

 
And one last cute picture for good measure!

Multiples Mania

I feel so fortunate to have found a wonderful group called “Mothers of Multiples”. There was a large subgroup of us that were all expecting twins this summer. Throughout our pregnancy we exchanged emails and got together for dinners/gatherings. Slowly our group numbers dropped from “expecting” to “new moms” as each of us delivered our twins.

Yesterday we gathered at one of their houses for our first gathering with babies. Let me tell you, it was baby mania. There were 8 moms and 16 babies in one room……carseats, swings, bouncys, carriers, bottles, pacifiers, and everything baby could be found there!

 

The hostesses’ brother is a baby guru and he joined us to share his expertise. He is known as the Gear Guy for a great website called Stroller Traffic (www.strollertraffic.com) and is also a baby planner – check out his website: www.thebabyguynyc.com. Fun job!

We spent the time sharing tips and stories of the ups and downs of having twins. O & S were on their best behavior and did a great job of staying asleep so I avoided any major meltdowns while there!

The support and advice we all provide each other is so valuable as a new mom. If we ever venture out into public, we will be quite the sight to see! 

How fast they grow up

Dad has quickly come to the realization that financial analysis pays the bills while blogging doesn’t!  Hopefully as our schedule starts to get ironed out with my return to work, I can get back to a more regular posting schedule.  Here is a bit of what we’ve been up to since I last wrote:

Mr. Oliver is no longer sleeping in his carseat!  We discovered that he was a pretty big fan of swaddling and finally were brave enough to attempt the switch on Saturday night.  It worked like a charm, so we’ll go with it until further notice.

Burrito Wrap

Their weights…after the brief scare we had with Stella during week 1 at home, we vigilantly adhered to the every 3-hour feeding schedule.  At their appointment last Friday, we saw the fruits of that labor.  Stella had gained a whopping 12 ozs. in one week to now weigh in at 5 lbs. 13 oz.  She has really been a great eater lately (even better than Big Brother O).  Oliver also had an impressive showing, gaining 11 ozs. to tip the scales and 7 lbs. 2 oz.   It’s been a big relief that they have been such great eaters and are putting on weight so quickly.

We also brought O & S to their first church service on Sunday.  Each year, all of the churches around Lake Harriet host an outdoor service at some point during the summer.  This Sunday, it was our church’s turn (Knox Presbyterian).  We decided that taking them to an outdoor service where there were other noises and easy getaways, was a much lower risk than bringing them to the actual church for their first time.  The twins did great, sleeping through the entire service and pleasing their many admirers!

Knox Lake Harriet Bandshell Service

Stella had her first “real” bath this weekend as well.  She was a real trooper through the whole ordeal (as mom and dad learn how to do this).  Oliver is still on the sponge bath routine though as his umbilical cord stump still hasn’t fallen off.

Rub a dub dub!

It was a big week for our little girl.  Not only did she get her first bath, she had her first “surgery” as she got her frenulum clipped.  We noticed after she had been home for a couple of days that she was “tongue-tied”.  The little piece of skin underneath her tongue that keeps your tongue attached to the bottom of your mouth went all the way to the end of her tongue, which didn’t allow her to stick it out at all. A quick 5-minute procedure at the Ear/Nose/Throat Specialist took care of this and our little peanut didn’t even cry, despite not getting any numbing medication.  Way to go Stella!

We’ve also had plenty of visitors.  Our friends John and Jennifer, Nick and Jen, Kristie and Erin, and Shannon all stopped by last week to shower the little ones with love.  Thanks all!  We have a number of visitors scheduled for this week as well, but Oliver and Stella are really looking forward to seeing Grandma K. again on Thursday!

This guy will have his own soon enough

A two-time visitor!

A couple of other fun pictures from last week:

Big Yawn

Go Gophs!

Frequently Asked Questions

I took this idea from another twin mom's blog (thanks, Megan!). Thought it would be fun to answer some frequently asked questions that we often get. Here we go:

Are you getting sleep?
Lets be honest, this is a silly question. We have infant twins……what is sleep?

Do they wake each other up?
Thankfully, no!  When one is fussy, it rarely seems to bother the other and/or wake them up.

It is July and hot outside, why are they always dressed in long sleeves and pants? (this is for you Lora!)
With newborn babies, you typically dress a layer warmer than what you would wear. Also, they spent a lot of their first week in the house and we keep the AC going and the temperature pretty cool (otherwise Chop complains!). Both of them were also born with lower weights, so they have a harder time regulating their temperatures and staying warm because it takes a lot of energy.

Are you breastfeeding/nursing?
I debated posting this question because it is a very personal decision and a topic that many have very strong opinions on. But, I actually get this question asked all the time so here we go……

The short answer: No.

The long answer (warning: this is long so skip if you aren’t interested!): It has been a struggle. From the start, I wanted to breastfeed. We got off to a not so great start when both O & S had to head to the Special Care Nursery while we were at the hospital. Because they weren’t able to “room in” with us, I wasn’t able to constantly try to breastfeed them when they were hungry and to get my supply going. I pumped right away and also visited them in Special Care and attempted breastfeeding at each visit. But, neither of them latched and little Stella just wasn’t quite strong enough to get a start. My choice was to either allow them to get a bottle and formula supplement or starve them. Of course I chose the obvious and gave them bottles. We also gave them syringes with the small amounts of breastmilk that I was pumping.

Upon coming home, I continued to pump and give them the expressed milk in a bottle. We also continued to supplement with formula. Each feeding session I tried breastfeeding with each of them. However, we continued to have little success. I met several times with a lactation consultant and tried different things without much success.

For those of you who have breastfed or tried to breastfeed, you know that it isn’t easy and doesn’t always come naturally. However, those aren’t always the stories you hear. You hear about all of the wonderful benefits and how great breastfeeding is. I agree that breastfeeding is a beautiful thing, but it is a very individual experience and so many struggle with it.

And so after a few weeks of spending countless hours making attempts with each baby, then bottle feeding them, then pumping, cleaning bottles/pump parts, over and over every three hours. I just can’t keep up. And that is when I have help…..once I am on my own, it is even more unrealistic.

Do I have mom guilt? Yes.
Am I disappointed in myself? Yes.

But at the end of the day, I have finally decided that spending time loving my babies and being physically/mentally healthy is more important than spending time stressing about how we are going to make breastfeeding work or sitting in a chair pumping. There is no guarantee down the road I will have enough supply or that both of them will latch and have success. And I don’t want to look back at the first 2 months of their lives and have the memories be of frustrating breastfeeding experiences.

And, there are plenty of people out there that were formula babies who turned out just fine!

Are they identical?
Yes, we’ve been asked this. Considering one is a boy and one is a girl, no they are not!

How did you pick the names? Are they family names? What were the other names?
Coming up with four (actually 5 by the time we figured it all out) names seemed like a daunting task once we found out we were having twins and decided that we were going to keep the genders a surprise.  Fairly early on in the process (around April I think), we agreed upon one boy and one girl name.  Stella and Griffin were our first two choices.  At that point, we also decided it would be our boy/girl name combo as well. 
Coming up with the first two names took some of the pressure off, so we stopped actively coming up with names for a couple of months.  Around June, we realized we had to get serious and after some searching, and many vetos by dad, Charlotte and Sawyer were chosen as our second set of names.  At this point, Dad thought we were done, but mom had different ideas.  About 6 weeks before the twins arrived, mom said, I’m not sure I like Stella and Griffin together, maybe we should do Stella/Sawyer.  That just didn’t have the right feel to it either, so I talked her back into Stella/Griffin for the time being.  On the 4th of July weekend, Kendra again said, “I’m still not sure I think Stella and Griffin go together well.”  After being told for the second time, dad finally realized we weren’t quite through picking names!
So, the hunt began anew that evening.  Within an hour, we realized we both liked Graham, and were discussing that name when Kendra said, “What about Oliver?”  Looking at her in disbelief, I replied, “You shot that name down months ago when I brought it up.”  She said, “No, you did!”  Within minutes, we had agreed upon Oliver Graham.  We really liked that the boy/girl combo names of Stella and Oliver had a more traditional feel.  One last thing, none of the names were chose were family names.
The final combos were as follows:
Girl/Girl:  Charlotte Claire, Stella Grace
Boy/Boy:  Griffin Maxwell, Sawyer Jackson
Girl/Boy:  Stella Claire, Oliver Graham

Who do they look like?
Oliver is definitely his dad. He tends to sleep with his mouth hanging open and is perfectly content eating, sleeping, and well, that is about it. We think that Stella is still growing into her looks and the verdict is still out on who she looks like. She does have mom’s big feet though!

Did we miss anything? Leave it as a comment and we'll answer! 

And because every blog post needs a picture. This is a favorite of mine from just today when we took a stroll through the neighborhood. A big thanks to Farrell for letting us borrow this wonderful bassinet attachment for our stroller!

Hiccups x2

It has been a crazy (and sad!) week with Dad back at work and that is our excuse for no new blog posts. But to celebrate O & S's two week birthday, here is a quick post. Mom dealt with baby hiccups throughout her pregnancy and O & S have not disappointed with their hiccup displays since making their arrival into the real world. Enjoy! 

And because there is nothing cuter than a baby's butt:

Lazy Sunday

Well, we've enjoyed our last few days of having dad around, but he is headed back to work on Monday.  Grandma and Grandpa C have returned to lend a hand to mom during the week, and we'll have some various Kruegers here to help as well throughout the month of August.  So what has been going on?

We had a bit of a scare this week when we went in and got Stella weighed and she hadn't gained any weight on Friday.  A quick trip to the pediatrician on Saturday morning to get her weighed on the same scale showed that she actually had been gaining the expected ounce per day, which was a huge relief!  It was also good for us to learn that she isn't quite ready to get off the every 3-hour feeding schedule.

While we were in to get the kids weighed at Abbott, they had a chance to meet their future twin playmates.  McKenna and Audrey Delaney came into the world Thursday morning, exactly one week after Stella and Oliver. 

The Fearsome Foursome

Other Happenings:

Multi-Tasking is the New Way of Life

A visit from cousins Anna and Lydia

Oliver matches his sister's floating hat trick

First Shopping Trip!

Some quality time with mom!

Mom tests Oliver in the Moby Wrap

Aunt Shelley and Cousin Hannah come to visit

Family Photo

All in all, everyone is doing great and we're enjoying our new way of life.  We're ready for the next adventure of figuring out how this whole everything happens when dad is back at work.  Mom may have to take over the major blogging duties!