One Month Old!

Chronological Age:  4 Weeks
Adjusted Age:  1 Week
(The babies were born three weeks early, so their adjusted age is one week old).

 

Our lives are so completely different now than they were just four weeks ago and it's difficult to really illustrate just how different.  We have learned so much and know our little ones so much better now that they are four weeks old.

The Fun:

• Both babies are now tracking objects with their eyes
• Both have discovered their hands and arms (our girl discovered hers by week two and our boy just discovered his today)
• The babies seem to talk to one another through grunts (they do this throughout the night)
• We love coming home from an outing because of the "Stretchy Show" we get as soon as we take them out of their car seats and lay them on the carpet.  It's the cutest. I have video of it and may show it soon
• We love feeding them because of the intense eye contact that occurs
• Our girl purses her lips when we go in for a kiss.  We LOVE this!
• Our boy tries to suck on our lips when we go in for a kiss.  TOO CUTE!
• Their heads smell incredible
• Their feet are totally kissable
• I could truly go on and on and on...
  

The Challenges

• Sleep...or lack thereof.  Often, when we finally settle one baby, the other baby will wake and want to have a party.  As well, when we finally settle one baby, the other baby will grunt or make some other loud noise and wake the other.  The lack of sleep wears on a person.  At this point, we are averaging less than two hours of sleep per night.  SO MANY people have said, "You should sleep when the babies sleep." But that would entail the babies sleeping at the same time.
• Our girl is a challenge to soothe.  She dislikes the swing and the bouncy chair and when we finally do find a position or something that makes her happy, she hits herself in the face with her flailing arms and gets upset
• Our boy likes to cry.  REALLY likes to cry.  While it's not a challenge to soothe him, it's a challenge to get anything accomplished because we end up holding him a lot.  He, too, dislikes the swing and will only be satisfied in the bouncy chair if someone is bouncing it for him
• When they are changed, fed, slept-out, and generally well, it's hard to know why they are sometimes not happy
  

A whole month has passed and, while we wish we could slow time just a little, we look forward to the next month and all that it promises.  Happy One Month, Babies!  We love you!