A Good Night's Sleep

Monday night was our best night yet!!! Last Friday night, we moved Mark to his own bedroom. Until then, he and Jack had been both sleeping in Jack's crib. We had noticed the past week or so that the boys seemed to be waking each other up at night. When one would cry, the other would sleep through the noise, but be woken up from being kicked by his brother. So, we decided that it was time to separate them. Friday night was a lllloooonnngggg night. When we started the 4am feeding, Craig and I had only had one hour of sleep. (not exactly ideal!) On Saturday night, Jack did a lot better and Mark did just slightly better at sleeping in his crib. Sunday night, we saw a little more improvement in Mark's sleeping. And the Monday night, was a break through! Jack and Mark slept through between each feeding all night and slept until 7am in the morning. It was wonderful. So, Tuesday morning, Craig and I were just so proud of them and were talking about how nice it was to get some sleep...we got about 5.5 to 6 hours of sleep when we added it all up! I wanted to do something to reward the boys, but what do you do to reward 9.5 week old babies??? They aren't interested in toys yet, etc. So, we decided to take them out to dinner to celebrate our good night. We went to Red Robin (decided to choose somewhere a little loud and kid friendly in case there was any crying). They both did excellent at dinner and we enjoyed going out! We are hoping this is the beginning of a new trend that will become a routine...hoping it wasn't a fluke night! Here's to more sleep filled nights!

2 month checkup

On Wednesday, we took the boys to the pediatrician for their two month checkup. The bad part of the checkup was that they had to have some shots, although they are needed and are so glad that they will be immune to some horrible diseases. The good part was that they received a clean bill of health. Here are the measureables for the boys:

Jack

10 lb 1 oz 20th percentile
21 3/4 inches 20th percentile
Head circumference 25th percentile

Mark

7 lb 14 oz <3rd percentile
19 1/2 inches <3rd percentile
Head circumference 3rd percentile

We are so proud of the boys. They did so well. Even though our appointment was at feeding time (why did Mommy and Daddy set that up? What were they thinking?), we were able to feed the boys between getting measured and the doctor coming in. We still aren't able to let the boys sleep through until they wake up because of hunger. Jack is at a weight where the doctor would allow that but Mark isn't yet. Therefore, we are going to go back in a month for a weight check and see if we can get off of setting the alarm every four hours.

They are now on some new reflux medicine, Prilosec. We are going to see if that helps contain their reflux.

Sneak Peak at Jack and Mark's 2 month pictures

One of my college roommates, Emily, is now doing photography and takes the most adorable pictures of children. I was so excited to have her come to our house and take pictures of Jack and Mark for their 2 month pictures. Emily's website is www.emilycollinsphotography.blogspot.com Check out the sneak peak that she has posted on her website. Go to Photo Archive, 2009, September, Sneak Peak. These are just a few of the shots she took. She did an excellent job. Thanks, Em!

Jack is smiling

Heather was able to get Jack on video showing off his pearly whites...OK...not yet. She was able to get him to smile frequently on this video:

Watching our two favorite teams

Last Saturday, Jack and Mark were able to watch their two favorite football teams:

NCSU

and

Tennessee

at the same time. Check out this video:

2 sets of parents + 2 sets of twins = Table for 8

Last Friday, the four of us met some friends who have twin boys who are 5 weeks older than Jack and Mark. So we went to La Rancherita at the Crabtree Valley Mall. The Geddies, John, Carrie and their boys, Henry and Matthew, met the four of us there. We ate upstairs away from the rest of the restaurant. It is a loud, Mexican restaurant that served good food. We were at a table for 8. All 4 boys sat in their car carriers on the four corners of the table while the parents sat in the middle four seats. Each parent was in charge of one kid.

After dinner, we went to pay. Well, we walked downstairs and the entire restaurant just stared at us. They had never seen so many car carriers in one place at one time. It was funny.

Upon leaving the restaurant, we continued talking for a few minutes. We put the carriers on the sidewalk in a row. It looked like this:



We had several people ask who was the mother of the quads!!! Can't imagine quads. We all had a good time and are looking forward to doing it again.

No more help at home

As of the day before Labor Day, the DeVaults became parents without any help from any grandparents. We had a week with just the four of us. It was a good week, but a challenging week.

Next week, Grandpa will be here to help Heather as we have a couple of doctor appointments for the boys, including their 2 month checkup.

2 months, are you kidding me?

The boys first tailgate experience

Last Thursday, was the opening of the college football season. What a great time of year it is. This new year is even more special because this will mean the first time that Jack and Mark are going to go tailgating. Jack and Mark were very excited to go see their Wolfpack beat up on South Carolina and the Ol' Ball Coach. We went and had a tailgate with our usual group. A good time was had by all. Even the boys were able to have some tailgate food...OK it was a concotion of breast milk and formula. They were probably some of, if not the youngest State fans at Carter-Finley Stadium. To get prepared, the boys had watched the State-UNC game from last year as well as they have been studying the pregame notes that Daddy found for them on the internet. Thanks, Dad.

Now unfortunately, the Wolfpack once again failed to seize a golden opportunity to make our football team nationally relevant with a 7-3 loss to the Gamecocks. Maybe we will be able to win the rest of our September games before the ACC season begins the first weekend of October at Wake Forest.

Here are some pictures of the boys at the tailgate:

Growing boys....

On Monday, we took Jack and Mark to the pediatrician for a couple of reasons. Jack had been bothered by constipation, continued and increased gas and reflux. Mark had the same reflux issue. At the dr., Jack weighed in at 8 pounds 13.5 ounces and Mark weighed 6 pounds 13.5 ounces. The dr. was so pleased with their continued weight gain and how well they are both doing. To address the constipation problem, the dr. told us which kind of suppository to get for Jack. We used one Monday night and within about 45 minutes, we had a mess to clean up and Jack was feeling lots better. For the continued and increased gas, the dr. suggested that we take Jack off of the formula and give him 100% breast milk now. We will soon see if this helps. This makes fixing formula at night SO much easier. For the reflux for both, the dr. prescribed Zantac for infants. The dr. said that Zantac helps 2 out of every 3 babies with reflux. We are sure hoping we have 2 of those 3!!