5 Months!!!

I looked up and my kids are practically teenagers. I mean 5 months going on 15 at the rate these girls grow and change. Every week brings something new...a new skill they mastered or a cute new personality trait that is starting to show thru. Life with these girls is busy busy but we have lots fun. We have had quite a big month we got Baptized and celebrated Easter. We also got our cranial bands put on and hopefully in a quick 6-9 weeks we will be done with them. Yesterday on the day they turned 5 months we dipped our feet in the pool for the first time. The water was still a little cold but you can tell they were intrigued by the water and Sloan kept wanting to put her hands in and touch it. I can't wait to get these water babies all the way in the pool. 

These pictures aren't the greatest but I try....I need two or three people really to do a proper photo shoot and we don't have that many extra hands around here. 

 Sloan smiles all the time....like huge toothless grins and today....nothing.

Sloan: You are still a very happy girl but you have started to exert a lot more personality and you want attention! You love to be held but when we aren't holding you you are on the move....you roll every which way and on your activity mat you can pull yourself to the different animals. You love to sleep mostly on your tummy. You don't miss anything that you try and grab for and you are strong. You put everything in your mouth that even comes close to you. You can sit up for a few minutes at a time with the boppy around you to support you and you watch a conversation like a tennis match looking back and forth at whoever is speaking. You still are not a good napper but at night you seem to just have given up fighting going to bed and you are out like a light in less than 10 mins. You are still the voice we hear on the monitor at night though....sounding the alarm almost like clockwork anywhere between 3:15am and 4am. I am wondering when we will sleep train you not to eat in the middle of the night anymore BUT I feel like you make it for 8-9 hours without eating so a small 15 min session in the wee hours isn't going to kill me. (Yet....it may soon.)

Riley: You are a happy girl and for the most part very laidback. You seem to let your sister do most of the talking/squawking but at bedtime you like to let yourself be heard....you have been fighting going to sleep these last 2 weeks.....sometimes your dad and I have to go in there 3 or 4 times before you finally calm down. I think you are just mastering some new skills like rolling from back to tummy and trying to sit up so this may be making you a little more irritable lately. You are a good napper for the most part and still a good eater. You are so smiley and you love to talk on Facetime....you start smiling when you hear it dialing people. My Riley you are so sweet....and unlike your sister you will stay still and let me hold you for a while or you will fall asleep in my lap when I rock you. 

Right now a typical day goes like this:

7am: I wake you both up to eat, I bring you into my bed and BF you at the same time and then we head downstairs.

7:45am-8:00am- You eat oatmeal like big girls. 

8:30amish: 1st nap lasting anywhere from 30mins to 1.5 hours

10:30am: 1st bottle of the day usually consisting of 6-8 ounces

11:00am-11:30amish: playtime

11:30amish-1:00pmish: nap (becoming more difficult)

1:30pm: 2nd bottle 6-7 ounces

2:00pm-2:45ish: play, walk, tummy time

2:45pmish-4:00pm: Nap (never actually happens like this)

4:00pm: I BF you both again for anywhere from 10-20 minutes depending on how distracted you are but you seem to get a full feeding in a lot faster these days.

5:00pm-7:00pm: you usually take a quick catnap 20-45mins, fuss, play, and now with our new "fascinators" we take a bath every night

7:00m-7:30pm: Last bottle before bed consisting of 8 ounces and then we read a few books and its lights out!

Anywhere from 3-4am: you wake up to eat, we do this in the dark, we don't talk too much and we keep it very quick and boring in the hopes you will both grow out of this or just sleep right thru which you have a few times. Dad and I are just waiting for you to be ready to sleep all night consistently....these teaser nights here and there just get our hopes up. I think once you get closer to 6 months I may man up and try to sleep train you out of this feeding but for now I just can't bring myself to do it. 

Likes: Johnny jump up, exersaucer, being held under your arms so you can stand up, blowing raspberries, peek a boo, chewing on anything and everything, bath time

Dislikes: evening (WHEN DOES THIS END?), being left alone for more than a few minutes,  being bored

Under Construction

Excuse us McGowan twinks for a few weeks we will be under construction......we are fixin' our flats around here. Flat heads that is. Today the girls started their journey with the not so cute Doc Band's. We have to do roughly 6-9 weeks hard time but I am confident we've got this no problem. (Although I was bawling in the doctors office this morning. You just hate to see your kids have to have anything done to them or put on them that may make them remotely uncomfortable. I can't even imagine what I'll be like if they have to have braces..)

The doctor's office Cranial Technologies couldn't be nicer and more accomodating. They have cute toys in each patient room. Today we played with a car!

Our cute new outfits from Bebe.






Please note the thighs on these chicas. I am very proud to have chubbed these girls up and we aren't stopping until we look like the marshmallow man.


















Riley

Sloan


Here we are eating our oatmeal at home with our new "fascinators" on. (I think we need a cuter name than helmet or doc band so let's just refer to them as "fascinators" the Duchess of Cambridge would approve.) Don't worry these "fascinators" will not stay white and boring for long. Stay tuned.

Happy Baptism & Happy Easter

We had a pretty eventful few days here at the McGowan house. Matt's parents arrived Wed. from Kentucky and his Uncle Dave and his girlfriend Melissa came in town as well from Freeport, TX to see the girls. Matt's parents hadn't seen the girls in person since they were 3 weeks old so they were shocked at how big they are getting. We had a few nice days hanging around the house it's always nice to have a few extra sets of hands. The girls got to take naps on peoples shoulders instead of in their cribs and we went out for dinner Thursday night to The County Line.




Friday night I drove solo to Corpus with the girls.....I was terrified but we MADE IT. We did the usual bedtime routine and then put the girls in their car seats and before I was out of our neighborhood they were both asleep. I am so glad it went well...now I have a little more confidence I could do this again on my own. My mom has friends that live in San Antonio and in George West so I had places I could stop should things have come up but luckily they slept the whole way. Now once I got to my parents house they didn't sleep thru the car seat to pack n play transfer and that night was a little rough being in a new place but that is to be expected. I ended up putting Sloan in bed with me and my parents took Riley to their room....she apparently stayed awake chatting with herself and blowing bubbles (her new trick) for about an hour. We quickly realized after one night that these girlies are too big for one pack n play even if it is the twin size. So they made their first trip to Wal-Mart for Bebe to buy us another one.



Here is a cute video of Sloan in the car....she was in a really good mood.

Saturday Matt and his parents made the trip down since Casey had come out of surgery okay and the vet said she needed to stay another night in the animal hospital to recover anyway. We took them to eat at Water Street and the girls were just not having it. One of the 4 of us basically ended up walking around pushing the double stroller around most of the meal. I have learned with babies and especially with TWO babies you just have to be flexible and realize when you have asked too much of them or pushed them too far for the day. I could tell they had just hit their limit....with a bad nights sleep the night before and we are pretty sure Sloan is teething we headed back to my parents house and put them to bed. They had a big day the next day and needed a good night sleep.....miraculously they slept from 8pm to 6:30am even in the new pack n play and in an unfamiliar place.



Easter Sunday and the girls baptism days will go down as one of the most special days yet for me as a mother. I was baptized in this church, married in this church, my husband was baptized himself on Easter Sunday when he was young (his mom told me that during their visit...he didn't even know, I love that random coincidence) and my girls were baptized with all the people who love them most in the world watching. They did great Sloan was cooing and very happy during the ceremony and Riley was very calm (until the preacher tried to show her off to the congregation....she didn't like all those people looking at her.) Sloan however just like her Uncle Bubba loved all the attention.

Sloan and her Uncle Bubba








Aunt Lo making the girls laugh

Sloan and Mama



Pictures from the ceremony















We didn't stay for the whole service because these girls needed a nap before we went to brunch at the CCCC. Lunch was fun but chaotic which is probably the way our life will be for a few more years trying to eat sit down meals with twins in tow. Luckily there was lots of helping hands around and we even managed to survive the day car ride home with minimal drama. Just a few diaper blow outs but thats par for the course around here. It was a great holiday weekend and visit with Matt's family.

Poor Casey

Our precious baby Casey was under the weather and it got pretty serious she wasn't getting better. She ended up having surgery to remove a corn cob she couldn't seem to pass on her own. She has a few rough weeks recovery ahead of her. Here are a few pics of her incision.








Here's hoping she'll be back in fighting shape in no time.













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Routines

One of the routines we are getting into each night with the girls is we read books each night before bed after they finish their bottles. They do seem to semi pay attention and I love watching them look at the pages and listen. My grandmother always read to me and I love to read still to this day so I hope my girls inherit this trait as well. Even though their books will probably always be on iPads or kindles :)

Riley getting read to by her daddy





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Cranial Band Appointment

Well it looks like both the girls are going to be fitted for cranial helmets. Being twins, being born early, and with today's recommended back sleeping for babies the girls were highly likely to need these. We are sad but know it's just a short time and it will help so much with their head shape.

These girls are so cute no helmet is going to change that.

























Sloan was not very pleased with her bow.











The many faces of Riley Aileen























Baby's first laptop.





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