Sweet, delicious sleep…

…oh, how I missed you!! But I was happy to welcome some sleep back last night, when my wonderful son slept for 10 hours, uninterrupted.  From 9:00 to 7:00, he slept through whatever his sister sent his way (since they’re still sharing a crib, she sometimes screams and kicks in her excitement, frustration, anger, hunger, any number of reasons). But Brady persevered and slept through it all for 10 glorious hours. And to her credit, Rooney didn’t do too badly – only two night feedings, both of which were relatively short and uneventful.

We’ve been hearing from a lot of other parents that 12 weeks is the magical milestone where we should start seeing R&B sleep through the night, and wouldn’t you know it, today is 12 weeks (or last night was depending on if you look at the time difference between Hoboken and Delhi).  But without splitting hairs, Brady likes to be exact (he did,after all, wait until full term for twins - completion of 37 weeks - to convince his sister that they should make their grand entrance into the world).  So, we’re looking forward to a lot more full nights of sleep, though we understand it might be wishful thinking, especially given that Rooney still suffers from acid reflux, but she seems to be doing much better.

The last couple of weeks have been great, with R&B becoming even more interactive and starting to “speak” more. Their voices are developing very well (may a little too well in those moments when they’re not getting their way). Their personalities are becoming more defined. Physically, they continue to grow with Brady tipping the scales at 11.4 lbs (25%) and Rooney coming in at 10.3 lbs (also 25%), both of which are awesome positive trends that their Dr. is pleased with, given where they started. And they continue to get stronger – I swear I had Rooney walking this weekend with just a bit of support for balance. I won’t get into the noises that come out them these days, except to say that I’m often at the same time impressed and disgusted.

Our little thinker, Brady, really enjoys, and gets fully engaged in, being read to, regardless of if it’s Stacey reading them akid’s book, or me reading about the Yankees’ latest trades or the Giants’ Super Bowl match-up against the Pats. Rooney continues to showoff a flair for the dramatic, and making sure that we, and everyone in the building, know when she’s displeased with the speed in which her bottles being prepared, or the position she’s in while being fed or put down for a nap. They both love their activity mat and are more and more enjoying the swing cousin Ben was nice enough to lend them.
But, enough of the ramblings of a proud dad, here are some recent pics of our beauties.

Playing on the activity mat

Holding hands

Rooney telling secrets

Tummy time

More visitors - this time giving the soon-to-be-parents some practice

Liebster Award

We are honored to receive the Liebster Award from the guys over at Just One Out of Seven Billion.   These two great midwestern guys live in Delhi with their beautiful twin boys born only a few days after R&B.  Lee and I were lucky enough to meet up with Doug and Chad in Delhi for a great night before our four little bundles of joy arrived.  If you haven't checked out their blog, I suggest you go do that now!

The Liebster award is given to blogs with less than 200 followers who deserve more recognition. 

The Award comes with a few rules. You’re supposed to:

• Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them
• Reveal your top picks for the award and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog
• Post the award on your blog
• Bask in the love from the most supportive people in the blogosphere – other bloggers
• Hope your recipients pass the award to their favorite blogs to keep the love flowing

There are a couple blogs that I would like to award -

1.  Dreams Come True in India -  Go check out the lovely Milena and Nevaeh at this blog.  These beautiful babies were R&B's first play date and their mom was the first person to hold R&B after they were discharged from the hospital.  M&N were born two days later and we were so happy to meet them before leaving Delhi.

2. Tandoori Baby - Anu and her family are currently in Mumbai picking up the new addition to their family, an adorable son, born with the help of Surrogacy India in Mumbai.  Her son, Erik, was just issued Swedish citizenship so it won't be long now before the blog continues with the family home safely!

R&B

We often get asked if the babies interact with each other and until about a week ago we always answered, "No, they don't even notice the other one exists".

Well, R&B are finally starting to notice each other, but not in the way we expected them to.  You know, smiling at each other or gently interacting on their activity mat.  Nope, they notice the other by laughing as soon as they hear the other one cry.  It is quite funny to have a laughing and crying baby at the same time, but I thought the other one would be upset when they heard the cries, not enjoy it.  God help us when they are teenagers!

This past week their new friend, J's mom took some pictures of the babies during their playgroup.  Check out of her great shots!  Can you tell she happens to be a professional photographer?

 Cuddles

 TO & TT

 I just can't help kissing her:)

My loves!

Two Months

Our babies are two months old today (January 7th)!   While they grew like crazy during the first month it wasn’t very noticeable since they were still so small.  This month, however, they continued the pace and are now weighing in just over 9 lbs for Rooney and 11+ lbs for our big man. We’re now on our third round of clothes, having grown out of both preemie and newborn sizes.  Both R&B seem to have moved out of the newborn stage with each of them able to hold their heads up with limited supported.  The oh-so-sweet cross-eyed stares have been replaced with engaged babies filled with their own reactions, fantastic facial expressions and the sounds of laughter from one special little fella.  They’ve become huge fans of staring at the large map of the Caribbean that’s hanging above our living room couch.   Lee frequently holds them up to the map and asks them to point to the country they want to visit.  Rooney always raises her hand to Cuba (US restricts almost all travel to Cuba) and Brady points to Puerto Rico (direct flights are available almost hourly from our local airport).  So, typical of their personalities, Rooney chooses the most difficult route and Brady seems to choose the easiest!  

We don’t have a set schedule in the apartment, yet.  Both babies have started to take longer afternoon naps and go to bed around 7 every night.  We continue to struggle with Rooney’s acid reflux issues, which means more frequent feedings of smaller amounts and long periods of keeping her upright – not so fun in the middle of the night.  If anyone has suggestions on helping babies with acid reflux, please share! 

This past month, was obviously filled with holiday celebrations. Our first Christmas as a family was wonderful and spent with Lee’s side in Connecticut.  We loaded our entire (rental) car with baby things, seriously I was on a mission to fill that thing with any and everything we may need.  I pride myself on being a light packer, but truthfully that’s only when I’m flying.  Give me a car and I become a hoarder and will apparently pack it with every single bit of baby paraphernalia I can find in our apartment! 

We continue to introduce the babies to friends and family!  The highlight of this month was R&B meeting Grandma and Grandpa Khan.   I don’t know what it is about these two Grandpas, but they seem to think that babies are only supposed to sleep while being held J.   Grandpa Khan definitely logged as many hours holding a sleeping baby as Grandpa Gallagher did earlier in the month of December.  Grandma Khan hung out with the babies a bit longer, got her hands dirty with a few diaper changes and introduced the babies to the sound of  the fire alarmJ  (no, fire, just a oiled pan that got a little too hot while Grandma Khan was making us some delicious aloo parathas).   R&B also had a lot of visitors who have travelled from far and near to see them this month - multiple boroughs of NYC, Hoboken, Milwaukee, Tamarac, Chicago, Thomaston, Mocksville, East Brunswick, Bayonne, San Francisco, and Easton, PA (on their 2 month birthday – thanks aunty Chuck).

Lee’s work schedule should now start to get busy and I will be home solo enjoying the babies.  So far, I love being home with them and have big plans this month to work on getting them on a more regular schedule, but I’ll continue to let each baby take the lead (with a little coaxing from me) on their schedule (not that I’ll have much choice with a certain feisty little gal).

 R&B with Grandma and Grandpa Khan

 Their friend the peacock (I don't know what is so interesting about it, but they both love this bird)

 Smiles

 Brady trying to read Rooney the book, "I Like You"

Brady and Charlsie hanging out