G’s latest noise (or attempt at talking) is DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA, which is going to be Dada and then Daddy eventually.
I reckon R’s first ‘word’ will be MA-MA-MA-MA-MA, at which point I’ll get all excited and then it’ll become MA-MILK!
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Biggie smalls. And vice versa.
@ 02. Jul 2008 – 13:38:21
Initially, R was my bigger, more robust, less prone to ailments and illnesses baby. G was smaller and somehow seemed significantly tinier than her sister even though there was only ever a couple of pounds between them. R has always looked perfect. G went through a scabby and perpetually snotty phase.
I remember a lad in my class at school, a runty little thing who had incredibly bad skin and always seemed to be scratching himself. A few people mocked him and said he had fleas. Everyone gave him a wide berth. I worked myself up into a hysteria that G would be like him and had already mapped out her traumatic journey through school in my head before she could hold her head up.
Over the last couple of months their roles have reversed. Suddenly, R seems like the more vulnerable, daintier baby of the two and weighs almost a pound less than her sister. G is taller than R. G will eat anything but R is more picky with her food. R is more prone to tummy upsets and nursery bugs. R seems to be suffering more with the teething, but G is better at making a bigger fuss about it! G is extremely adept at rolling over and can sit up without support for several seconds. R has only just started rolling properly (and gets really angry when she does it) and still has a whole ‘gangsta lean’ thing going on when we prop her up. During play time, G steals R’s toys while she is still weighing up which one to play with.
My fears for G were unfounded. I don’t have any particular worries about R at this stage but I hope that the height/weight disparity won’t be a feature of their growth. I don’t want a ‘big’ twin and a ‘little’ twin.
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The phantom raspberry blower
@ 02. Jul 2008 – 13:13:20
As a child I remember being mildly traumatised by The Phantom Raspberry Blower sketch (penned by Spike Milligan) on the Two Ronnies show. 20-odd years on, it appears that I have given birth to its daughter.
R LOVES blowing raspberries. Especially during feeding time. More particularly, during feeding time involving vegetables. Now, I feel her pain. I’m not exactly a lover of anything green and leafy myself. Or green and stalky. However, (here comes the science bit – concentrate!) it’s important during Stage 1 of weaning (aaarrrgghhh) that she gets a variety of ‘tastes’. Woman cannot live on porridge and fruit alone. So we persevere through the whole raspberry-blowing, food spitting process.
I blame myself (of course). I started blowing raspberries at the girls a while back and they made R dissolve into giggles every time so I did them more and more. She started doing them back at me (I can tell you there’s nothing lovelier than a large collection of foamy spittle on a tiny chin), which was fine pre-food but now it makes such a mess. Tiny little globules of food everywhere. All over the high chair, all over her and all over whoever is feeding her. Dh laughs at this, which just eggs here on and makes her do it more. I try not to encourage her but how can you tell a 6 month old baby that what she’s doing is slightly rude? You can’t really can you?
Hopefully she’ll get bored of it soon and find a new trick to work on. Hopefully it will be something that doesn’t involve food. Or mimicking bodily functions. Sigh.
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Our little toothless vampire
@ 25. Jun 2008 – 13:46:19
G has developed a new trick. When I hold her, she grabs my face with both hands and leans in as though she is going to give me a kiss. I bet you’re all thinking ‘Ahhh, bless’. Er, not quite.
At the very last second she opens her mouth and bites down on whatever facial feature she can reach with the intention of having a good chew. So far she has had a go at my nose and chin.
Thankfully she is still a gummer (yes, they are still toothless) and doesn’t do any real damage but it HURTS! She caught me unawares the first couple of times but now I know to pull away. I wonder why she does it? I suspect that she has teething pains and just wants something to gnaw on. That, or she’s mimicking what we do when we lean in to kiss her but gets it a bit wrong at the end.
I may see if I can get a muzzle because she’s going to be lethal when the elusive teeth finally make an appearance…
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"Roll up! Roll up! Come and see the freak show!"
@ 25. Jun 2008 – 13:45:26
I watched (as I’m sure many others did) a TV programme on triplets the other night. For anyone that didn’t see it, the programme featured four sets of identical triplets, all living in the UK. While it was fascinating, the underlying tone seemed to be ‘Look! Look! There are THREE PEOPLE and they look EXACTLY THE SAME!’ Isn’t that WEIRD?! We should POINT and GASP at them!’.
Yes, identical twins and triplets are absolutely fascinating but not necessarily in the ways the programme chose to highlight. As a mum (and a mum of multiples at that), I was more interested in finding out how the parents coped with the shock of a triplet pregnancy, how the mother coped with the birth, how they dealt with three tiny babies that looked EXACTLY THE SAME (see? They’ve got me at it now), how the siblings coped as they grew up together, that sort of thing.
Instead, they participated in a series of not very serious or scientific ‘tests’: can boy triplets fool girl triplets into thinking they are the same person and are they competitive with each other, for example. The old chestnut about ESP or a ‘sixth sense’ was revisited. The test they did (all wired up to sensors, one got an electric shock, the other two were blindfolded and their brain activity was measured) showed there was some form of reaction from the other two when one received the shock, but it wasn’t explored in any great detail.
I’m not convinced that the programme did much to alter the perception of multiple births. The science behind identical triplets was given a cursory glance and didn’t differentiate between other types of multiples. The sameness of the triplets was highlighted over and over again but they didn’t talk enough about their possible differences, e.g. relationships, ambitions, qualifications, values, etc. One of a set of girl triplets went to Australia for several months, leaving her sisters behind. This should have opened up a discussion on separation and development away from the sibling group. Instead the (undeniably beautiful) girls were filmed being photogenically sad at the airport.
I feel it was an opportunity wasted. The subject of multiple births was given a prime time slot and the programme makers failed to see the potential of the subject. There are very few programmes on multiple births in the UK (most I’ve seen are American) and aside from a series on satellite TV from five years ago (the wonderful ‘Baby Baby’) and the inevitable media scrum when quads or more are born, few people understand what a multiple pregnancy/birth is like. Identical triplets are worthy of discussion but only when the subject matter is treated sensitively and with respect, not like bearded ladies or two headed goats at the fair.
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Hospital drama
@ 22. Jun 2008 – 17:12:10
I was having a fairly normal day at work on Thursday until 4.30 pm when my phone rang. I rattled out my usual greeting in a cheery sing-songy voice and got the following reply: “Jo? Hi it’s the nursery here. Ruth isn’t very well – can you come and collect her?”
I dashed out and practically run over to the nursery building. Inside, I was greeted by some very worried carers and R wrapped in a towel, puking every so often, completely white and listless. Apparently she had eaten and drunk as normal, but at 4pm had been napping, woke up and promptly projectile vomited. In fact she vomited another 7 times in the space of 90 minutes.
I don’t remember much about the drive home, apart from calling dh to ask him to get an emergency appointment with our GP and realising that I was doing about 45mph in a 40 zone.
Dh had managed to secure an appointment. I collected him from home and we dashed round to the surgery. We had to wait half an hour to be seen, by which point I was going slightly mental. R hadn’t been sick for about three quarters of an hour by this point, but she was still very pale.
The GP eventually deigned to see her and promptly told us to go to paediatric A & E at the hospital. After a quick detour home to pick up the changing bag and a feed for G, we went to the hospital. We were seen pretty quickly by the triage nurse and given a solution that I had to administer to R every ten minutes by mouth with a syringe.
By the time we saw the doctor R’s colour had returned and she was enviously eyeing up G’s feed. She even laughed as the doctor examined her. R was diagnosed with a severe stomach bug/virus (she hadn’t eaten any ‘new’ foods and no-one else at nursery had the same symptoms) and we were sent home with a bottle of neurofen.
It’s amazing how quickly babies go down with an illness and equally amazing that they can recover so quickly. Once again I had cause to be thankful that the girls weren’t born early as they may well have admitted R and put her on a drip had she been poorly as a newborn. I’m also grateful that G didn’t catch the bug. In fact, I was expecting to have a bad night with R after such a horrible day but after a small feed and the neurofen she passed out and it was G that decided to wake at 1, 2.30, 3, 4 & 5 with teething pains.
On Friday R was back to normal and wolfing down food and milk as if nothing had happened. I had to work at home as R couldn’t go to nursery and that obviously meant G couldn’t either but I was just grateful that she was ok.
It’s funny how you go through the motions at the time and deal with the situation but afterwards you reflect and think ‘Bloody hell!’. I guess something like this was bound to happen at some stage. Babies and children get ill, it’s an inescapable fact and there’s no point blaming anyone or trying to trace it back. These things just happen. -
From 0 to 3 meals a day – how did we manage that?!
@ 22. Jun 2008 – 14:26:51
To think that just a couple of weeks ago I was in weaning despair: the girls wouldn’t eat, weren’t interested in eating, it was all pointless, blah blah and now we’re on three meals a day. Baby porridge or cereal in the morning, savoury at lunch and fruit in the afternoon.
Admittedly they don’t always eat very much but at least some food is going in their mouths and out the other end in a variety of delightful nappies.
As I predicted, my plans to be a puree-ing earth mother have gone to pot. The AK specially-designed ice-cube trays are sitting in the cupboard, unopened and unused. We are a packet porridge, jars and fruit-pot family with the occasional organic rusk thrown in.
I justify this in my head by telling myself that they have freshly prepared and cooked food at nursery so this takes some of the burden off me when I’m at home. When they are eating more ‘interesting’ good I’ll blend up small portions of what we have that therefore they will get proper home-cooked food then. Also, I’ve bought some veg that I can steam and cut into finger foods for them. It’s not like I’m blending up a happy meal and mainlining sunny d into them is it?!
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Go-go-gadget babies
@ 18. Jun 2008 – 13:24:28
There appear to be two types of manual for toys: 1. So woefully inadequate that the mangled carcass of an electronic thingy ends up being thrown in the corner because tube A DOES NOT fit on to tube B and connect to part C, or 2. So ridiculously comprehensive that you put the toy together and wonder why there are 17 steps left in the assembly instructions booklet.
You may have gathered from this that the low-tech toys of the first six months are out and the 6+ month all singing, all-dancing, musical, whizz-bang, thingummygig toys are in. After consulting with my wonderful ‘virtual’ twin mum support group (cheers POTOMS!) R and G are now the proud owners of a walker that plays dance music (one of the songs sounds like a 2 Unlimited track from the early 90s – I think it was called ‘Are you ready for this’??) and a very hi-tech push-along thing with piano keys and lots of buttons on the front with an incredibly patronising (thankfully English not American) female voice that says ‘Heeeloooo Baby’ in a sickly sweet voice. They also have a cookie jar shape sorter that plays a tune when you stick your hand in the top and says the names of the shapes when you put them in the right slots. R and G look slightly unimpressed by it all at the moment but dh and I are having hours of fun with the new gadgets.
You can always tell the people that have had babies because they ALWAYS supply batteries to go with a new toy. As a novice, I had to pop out and buy a variety of oddly shaped batteries when the new toys arrived at the end of last week. I’ll learn.
We’ve done some re-arranging in the dining room as the super-huge playpen/ room divider I ‘won’ on a well-known auction site arrived yesterday and is now in situ. I just need to buy some tumble mats or a thick playmat to put in it as I still have the vapours about the girls rolling about and hurting themselves on the wooden floor.
As a result of this, plus all the toys that were already there and all the changing paraphernalia, the dining room looks like a reasonably well-stocked crèche. Add to that the fact that computer lives in the same room and I work from home a couple of days a week, I’m starting to feel a bit crowded out. I’m thinking of asking work if I can have a laptop so I can escape dh and the girls and make the most of the Wi-Fi broadband and escape to the living room or bedroom to work. That, or they can have the run of the house and I’ll work in the playpen…
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We love baby porridge!
@ 18. Jun 2008 – 12:58:36
As the title suggests, we’ve finally found a foodstuff that R and G absolutely love. In fact, they lap up big bowlfuls of it. Having tried it myself, I can see why. It is delicious! One of the more interesting aspects of the weaning saga is trying out baby food. Most of it is absolutely disgusting so I’m not surprised they’ve been rejecting it!
From despairing about weaning and wondering if they will still be drinking formula when they are 18, the girls are suddenly on two meals a day, a third to be added at the weekend. R seems to have a sweeter tooth, while G prefers veg (strange child!). They will at least try most things now, although a pasta, tomato and cheese mush jar didn’t sit too well with R the other day (don’t blame her, it tasted horrible!) and she spent most of the afternoon throwing bits of it back up. Nice! Won’t be trying that again for a while.
Once the third meal is established, I need to have a rethink on timings of food and milk. At the moment, they still have their milk feeds at 7, 11, 3 and 6-6.30 and food at 10 and 2. This means that I spend most of the day (or so it feels like) feeding them. From Saturday I’m going to try giving them food at 7am followed by their milk and see how it goes.
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Party girls
@ 15. Jun 2008 – 16:41:09
We had our ‘Welcome to the world’ party (in lieu of a Christening) for R and G yesterday. Approximately 25 friends and family came round for an afternoon barbeque and drinks and a good time was had by all.
I don’t know why, but whenever we have a party (pre girls we used to have lots and our annual Christmas bash was mildly legendary) I have this horrible fear that creeps up on me about three days before and only abates when I hear the first knock on the door, that no-one is going to turn up and we’ll just be standing there for hours surrounded by mountains of food and drink, sad music playing in the background. This never happens. When will I learn?
R and G were absolute stars, although they were so excited by all the people, attention and fuss that they absolutely refused to have their afternoon nap and were pretty grumpy by bedtime. They look gorgeous in their little dresses and shoes and I took tons of photos. Everyone wanted to hold them and play with them (although curiously I still ended up doing all the nappy changes!) and it was great to catch up with people we hadn’t seen for ages.
I think a true measure of a good party is that food and drinks start to run out. We bought loads of everything but ran out of beer and burger buns and there was almost a crisis with the tomato ketchup (yes, that’s its proper name, not “red sauce”, grr!!!) until I found a new bottle in the cupboard. However, I find with parties that some things you lose and some you gain because we bought six bottles of wine for the party and there are now about 10 in the kitchen so that’ll keep us going for a little while….or about a month depending on how things go!
I can’t imagine that a Christening would have been as much fun. It would have been such a faff finding a church, getting everyone there and then back to our house and food. Hosting the whole thing ourselves was hard work but it meant that everyone came to us and it was really informal and relaxed. People mingled and chatted, new boyfriends were vetted (and heartily approved of) and gossip was exchanged. All that coupled with the very pleasant weather made for a lovely afternoon.The very best thing about daytime parties is that we were able to go to bed at 9pm after seeing the last guests off and clearing up – bliss!
