August 23, 2009

update


Evangeline and Mikayla are now almost 7 months old. We haven't blogged for a while because things have been busy - bit of an understatement.
We moved house at the end of June, thankfully only a few streets away. It was insane! Apart from the packing and unpacking, moving day itself was the most full-on with John and a couple of guys moving the big stuff in while Bek sat on the floor in an emptying house all day with two very tired babies. Anywho, it's done, and we're in, and finally have the internet and phone, and are very happy in our bigger new place.
The other challenge we've faced in the last few months is both girls' severe reflux. After their surgery, Mikayla's really flared up and she screamed endlessly for several days. We ended up in hospital on mother's day and she is now on medication which finally settled her down. Evangeline was diagnosed with silent reflux (silent as in no vomiting, not no screaming!) 2 months ago, explaining her screaming and sleeplessness. She is on different meds but is taking a bit longer to get back to napping properly during the day.
Despite our lack of sleep (we still average 5 interrupted hours a night, and no day naps), we are finding the girls a delight.
In the last couple of months they have become more aware of each other as separate people and more interested in one another. This has its pros and cons: Mikayla rolls onto Evangeline, to her annoyance, and frequently pulls her hair or bites her feet. She is also good at taking the dummy out of Evie's mouth and putting it in her own (sometimes this means throwing away her own dummy first). Mikayla is annoyed by Evie crying or taking her toy. Sharing is already becoming an issue, with both girls wanting whatever toy the other one has. BUT their interest in each other far outweighs all their annoyance in each other in the moments of cooing to each other while feeding, or rolling towards each other and playing and chatting away when we put them in the same cot when they wake up in the morning.
Individually, we are finding them to be quite different in personality, just as in looks they are continuing to grow more different. Blonde fair-skinned Evie is quite gentle and quiet. She likes to wait until she can do something perfectly before trying it. She sits on her own now, but doesn't like being on her tummy or rolling. She loves books and has really taken to solid food. Dark haired olive skinned Minky is a little gymnast and won't be still long enough to learn to sit. She rolls everywhere and is trying to crawl. While Evie will sometimes chat away, Minky never stops talking, often loudly. Both laugh a lot and love songs and stories. We're really looking forward to them laughing at each other and to some of their getting up to double mischief.

Their differences in personality are also reflected in their sleeping and eating habits, which has really showed us how little the benchmarks that people compare mothers by (such as the holy grail of 'sleeping through the night'!) have to do with actual parenting as a child's individual personality and developmental readiness.