emerson & brooklyn: 7-8 month update

Hi everyone! At this point, do you even remember me? I kind of fell off the face of the earth for about 6 weeks, and I really hope to get to some sort of regular blogging schedule soon. Only 5 more weeks left of school! Because I skipped over the girls’ 7 month update, this post is really their 7 & 8 month update combined!

Emerson

Weight & Height: When we went to the doctor a few weeks ago (see “New this Month”), Emerson weighed about 17 & ½ pounds. She was 27 inches long. I swear the scales are off though. She feels SO much heavier than Brooklyn! This little one is solid.

Eating: Emerson eats like a champ! When she was on one of her medications when she was sick, this girl was eating solids 3 times a day and drinking at least 35 ounces. Thankfully that has worn off since the meds have stopped. (see “new this month”) Emerson typically drinks around 20-24 ounces during the day and eats solids twice per day. She could take or leave a lot of foods!

Sleeping: Emerson’s naps have gotten so much better lately. She’s less of a cat napper, and only takes cat naps around 20% of the time. The rest of her naps are in the 1-2.5 hour range. Thank God! At night, Emerson sometimes wakes up because she wants her diaper changed. She had a rough few nights when she was sick (think: sleeping on mommy or daddy all night long and screaming whenever we put her down), but she’s back to her old self.

Clothing: 9 month clothing exclusively. She’s a little shorter than Brooklyn, but she fills her clothes out so much more. She’s got a belly going on – I love it! I can’t wait for the weather to really warm up so they can wear all their cute dresses they have!

Social: This girl loves to watch. She isn’t really interested in being a part of the rough and tumble that goes on between Brooklyn and John, but she loooooves watching and laughing at them. Emerson enjoys smiling at just about anyone. We went to the museum last month, and someone stopped us and told us how happy she was. I guess she had been in her stroller smiling at just about everyone she saw!

New this Month:

Holding her bottle. She doesn’t like it when we hold her to feed her anymore (unless it’s at night).

Pink eye, an ear infection, Bell’s palsy, and an ear tube. Yes, you read that right! When Emerson gets sick, she really does it well. I originally took her to the doctor for pink eye, and it turned out she had a really nasty ear infection. After a few days on antibiotics, she was actually getting worse (so lethargic, high fever), and I finally took her back to the doctor because one side of her face was droopy. We thought it might be an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin. It turned out her ear infection was causing inflammation and was pressing on a facial nerve which caused her to have Bell’s palsy. Talk about scary! Thankfully, Bell’s palsy resolves itself most of the time. They now treat it with steroids if you catch it early, so that’s what we opted to do. We were sent to an ENT the next day, and the following day he put a tube in her ear. The ENT was nervous about her getting another ear infection because of the facial paralysis, so he wanted to be aggressive with his treatment. It was a horrible week and a half, let me tell you. I hated seeing my baby so sick and not herself! I also hated having her on so many medications. Thankfully she is much better now!

Sitting up. Girlfriend loves to sit up and play with her toys. She hates laying on her back now!

Getting up on her hands and knees. Brooklyn did this first, but Emerson followed suit really quickly! I think they learn from each other!

Sounds. Emerson makes a “ga” “ba” “na” “ya” and my mom swears she heard a “ma” sound the other day. Can you tell she is our Chatty Cathy?

Likes: Being held (by Mommy), Mommy, Mommy (have I mentioned she really loves Mommy?), singing & music, watching Brooklyn playing rough with Daddy, singing, giving hugs and kisses, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, when Daddy comes home

Dislikes: being by herself, being independent when Mommy is around, waiting to eat, a full diaper (in the middle of the night)

Nicknames: Aubrey (because she is sooooo her cousin – needy and all!), Buddha Belly, Chunk a Monk, Baby Girl, Emme, Chatty Cathy

Brooklyn

Weight & Height: This girl is long and lean! Well, she’s pretty long… not quite so lean. She’s got quite a bit of chunk on her! Anyone else just love chunky babies like me? When we went to the doctor a few weeks ago (see “New this Month”), she was weighing in at 17 pounds 13 ounces. I’d say by now she’s well over 18 pounds. 5 pound birth weights don’t have anything on us! As far as height goes, I’d say she’s around 28 inches long – maybe even longer!

Eating: Getting Brooklyn to drink her bottles these days is quite a feat. If we get 20 ounces in her per day, I call that a success. She would much rather look around, touch her toes, arch her back, and try to get away from whoever is feeding her. Don’t let that fool you though – she LOVES real food. She will eat just about anything. Brooklyn is still mainly eating purees as she has quite a strong gag reflex. I’m sure we will move into more finger foods in the next month or so.

Sleeping: Brooklyn is overall a pretty good sleeper! She takes a total of about 4 hours worth of naps a day. I’d say about 50% of the time she takes two 2 hour naps, and the other 50% are two 1 hour naps and one 2 hour nap. During the night, she’s great. Other than when she was sick (which was horrriiibbbblllle at night. Oh my gosh!), she sleeps through the night no problem. We are working on her not waking up before 6 AM… and by working on it, I mean doing nothing. Because really, what can you do?

Clothing: Brooklyn is in all 9 month clothing, and I truly think she will be too long for it sooner rather than later! Thankfully most of our 9 month clothing is spring clothes, so it doesn’t matter if it’s shorter.

Social: This girl is such a ham. She loves making people laugh, and her and Emerson squeal and talk to each other all the live long day.

New this Month:

The “ba” sound. Before, all she did was squeal her little heart out. Now we’ve got some bababa’s going on.

Becoming mobile. It doesn’t matter to Brooklyn that she can’t crawl yet. She will get to where she wants to go regardless! I can’t leave this one alone for more than 5 seconds.

Getting up on her hands and knees. This one will be crawling before I know it. I am not ready for this. My house is not ready for this. My dog is not ready for this. Just aaaagggh!

Kisses. Most of the time when I get her up for the day or from a nap, she comes at my face (hard, I might add) with her mouth wide open looking for a kiss

Sitting up. While this isn’t Brooklyn’s favorite thing to do, she can do it. She would just rather not! She’s too busy!

Pink eye. With twins, if one gets it, you better believe the other one will get it as well!

Likes: Daddy (oh my gosh, she is such a Daddy’s girl), playing rough, Charlie, rolling all over the place, rocking back and forth on her hands and knees, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, oatmeal, chewing on her highchair straps, squealing to her sister

I am telling you - the girl cannot sit still!

Dislikes: Sunglasses, the “man holding her down” (and by the “man”, I mean her not being able to move around wherever she wants to go. )… Brooklyn really doesn’t “dislike” much. She is so easy going!

Nicknames: Party Girl, Nosy Rosy, Goofball, Goofy Girl

And there you have it! I cannot believe how fast the first year of their lives is going. Crazy! I have a post lined up for tomorrow, and I’m really hoping to be back sometime next week to share with you a really fun opportunity I get to have this weekend!