11 months

Another month has come and gone and Jack and Maddy are now 11 months old.  This time of year has brought on a mix of emotions as I remember what we were going through last October.   October 5^th  was the day I was first admitted to the hospital in preterm labor and spent several uncomfortable nights in the hospital on IV magnesium.  For anyone who has been on IV magnesium, there is no explanation needed.  For those who have not—it makes you feel hot, itchy, nauseous, and a little absent.  On top of that, I wasn’t able to eat or drink because both babies were breach and if they would need to be delivered it would have to be by C-section.  So I was also starving, and thirsty.  The twins had to be monitored constantly, so I needed to lay on my back with monitors strapped around my stomach.  There are two problems with this scenario—any pregnant woman will understand that laying on your back while you have a giant stomach is VERY uncomfortable (feels like you are suffocating).  The other thing is that attaching two flat monitors to a round stomach does not work well either—they were constantly falling off the monitor which meant I had a nurse entering my room every 5-10 minutes to put them back on.   I wasn’t getting much sleep to begin with, but this sealed the deal.  This was how we spent Brad's birthday last year! 

Despite their complicated pregnancy and birth story Jack and Madelynn have more than made up for their early entrance into the world.  They are growing, they are healthy, they are happy and they are thriving. 

The past several weeks they have both started to stand on their own briefly, they continue to babble and say “mama,” “ba ba,” and “da.”  They play with each other—chasing each other all over their play room laughing and giggling.  They are continuously getting more teeth.  Jack now has four top teeth in addition to his two bottom teeth.  Maddy has her top two and bottom two and is working on two more top teeth and one more bottom tooth.  They have started to cling to our legs and try to climb up them when they want to be held.  They have started to become more interested in their books and pointing at things.  Maddy can recognize pictures of things and point to them in books.  Jack really likes his “touch and feel” books where he can pet the animals and feel the wheels on the cars. 

They are so much fun, so much work!  The benefits far outweigh the challenges, though there are times when Brad and I look at each other and wonder out loud—are we crazy!?