This working mum lark really gets in the way of journal writing so here is a round-up of the girls’ news as they reach the five month mark:

1. Nursery still going really well. G managed to charm the life out of the nursery co-owner on Friday to the extent that I’m amazed we were allowed to take her home. R and G both smile and chatter away all day and their daily reports are always glowing with praise. The nursery staff love seeing how they interact – e.g. R fell asleep holding G’s hand and they took pictures and they have bought a new toy that sounds a bit like a play nest for them to use together. R hates the play nest at home but apparently likes it at nursery, contrary child.

I’m so proud of them as they are the youngest babies there by a good few months but they have taken to it so well and seem to be gaining so much from the experience. Apparently G was chatting up a little boy on Friday. We’re going to have to watch her…

2. They have finally had all their injections (for now at least) and dh survived taking them to the docs on his own to get the last set done. The girls were apparently very brave and barely cried at all.

3. Teething! Jeez! If only there was SOMETHING to show for it all. Poor R has been really dribbly recently and they are both chewing ANYTHING within easy reach, from toys to muslin squares to my hands and fingers but they still don’t have a single chomper between them. Everyone says it won’t be long now, but I’m willing to bet that when I do their six month catch-up they will still be gummers.

4. My first week of working at home/going to work/taking the girls to nursery went pretty well. I’m getting into the driving now, although I always have a small internal wobble before I set off in the morning. The girls like the car – I can usually hear R snoring her little head off and G chunters along with Terry Wogan although they aren’t hugely fond of queuing. As they are English, they will have to get used to it.

5. Fast teats. Ruddy marvellous! Feeding times have been reduced again, although R tries to gulp too much in one go and invariably ends up barking like a seal. This coupled with the fact that the girls are now fed every four-ish hours (7, 11, 3 and 6.30) means that we have slightly more flexibility and more time to fill entertaining our hard to please little ladies. The move to four-hourly feeds was prompted by the fact that they weren’t drinking much of some of their bottles during the day and weren’t going nuts just before feeds like they used to, so we tried a four-hour gap and it has worked well so far. We’ve just increased the size of the bottles by an ounce to make sure they take enough in.

6. Daytime naps. Under the old 3-hourly feeding regime, the girls had ‘proper’ naps (upstairs, in their cots) between 8.30 and 9.30am and 1.30 – 3.30pm as well as power naps downstairs when they felt like it. Now, the morning nap has stayed roughly the same, although it sometimes stretches to 1.5 hours and the afternoon nap has been moved forward to 12.30-ish. They power nap a bit but are terrified of missing anything so they are always short-lived.

7. Don’t tell anyone (health visitors look away now) but we tried them out with a bit of banana mashed up with lots of formula this lunchtime. G took to it pretty well and actually seemed to be enjoying it but R was less impressed. In fact, she looked positively INSULTED that we should dare to offer her baby mush when she has seen us eating chicken wings, pizzas and chocolate. However, as G responded well to it we’re going to persevere. Having said that, their first tastes of mush combined with teething led to some very choice bedtime poos. Yeuch!

8. Developmental milestones: G has a whole repertoire of chatty, squealy noises and gets louder by the day. She also loves smiling at anyone and everyone and even flirts with her reflection in the mirror! R has excellent hand-eye co-ordination and is ace at figuring new toys out. They both love their new door bouncer. My little tiggers! They are both better at tummy time and can lift their heads clear of the floor for a long time and look around, They also do mini-press ups. G can roll from side to side (but not completely over) and R isn’t fussed about rolling at all. R keeps leaning forwards in her bouncy chair and it looks like she is trying to escape! She has also discovered her feet. They are fascinated by other people’s faces and reach out and grab out chins and noses. I also caught G rolling on to her side to play with R’s face and she tolerated it for ages.

9. We both read to them and they love it. Dh is currently reading the BFG and I am reading them The House at Pooh Corner. Start ‘em young!

10. They attended their first rugby match (see separate post) and we all survived the experience.

Their high chairs arrived last week in readiness for the baby-led portion of the weaning process (we must be mad!) from 6 months onwards. I can’t believe that it won’t be long before they are sitting up unaided and possibly even crawling. We look at tiny newborn babies and can’t comprehend that R and G were that size once. They are such chunky monkeys now that it seems inconceivable that they were once so small. I’m really enjoying this bit and can’t wait to see what happens next…