So happy together....

Here is a pic from last week of the girls swinging together, they love it!

We are all doing well, Maddi and Cooper are getting over a nasty cough. Stephen arrived home last night from Denmark and I am taking off tomorrow morning for a girls night away...I may not come back! Just kidding, I am really excited but also nervous since this will be my first time leaving the girls. I know they will be fine and Daddy can handle it.

We will post more pics later this weekend.

Rule Number One...

Don't let your kids watch TV!!! Okay, okay, we know but sometimes you have to do what you have to do!!! More pics and updates to come.

Four Month Update

Well...it has been a long time since we posted, pictures are getting taken less and there just seems to be less hours in the day. Needless to say the girls are 4 months and doing fantastic. Here are their stats..
Madilyn (on the right) - 15 pounds 12 oz. (90%) Height 23 inches (50%)
Morgan (on the left) - 16 pounds 3 oz. (95%) Height 23 1/2 inches (50%)
As you can see we like big babies!! As several people tell us, wow those are healthy babies. They were both congested today so the doc wanted us to wait on shots until next week just in case they were coming down with something, hopefully they get better soon. Morgan is worse then Maddie but Maddie has NO gag reflex so if she has anything in her throat she throws up everything, like 8 ounces of formula at one time - not pretty. The bad news at the appointment was that since the back of their heads are looking very flat we are going to have to meet with a neurologist to discuss the possibility of helmets for both of them. They both really liked sleeping on their backs and keeping their heads in one position which caused flat spots on the back of their heads. It is purely cosmetic as of now but can become a problem if the ears start to shift, so we would rather get it corrected sooner than later. Now the sleep in several positions but the damage is done and the only way of getting the head back to the correct shape will be with the help of a helmet. We will find out next week when our appointment is but they say there is at least a 6 week wait time. We will keep you all up to date. It makes me sad to think of them with helmets on but then I have to think of how blessed we are with two beautiful healthy girls.
Cooper is doing well - he loves school, asks every day if he is going. He just got his costume for halloween and will be a penguin. He loves it and wants to wear it all the time. He is excited that his birthday is coming and he will be 3! Loves his sisters and makes them laugh all the time, they love to watch him dance and be crazy.
Other than that, Stephen is traveling a lot these days, I am doing well for the most part - ready for a glass of wine around the 2 o'clock hour but other than that not too much is new here. We are getting out more and more which is nice. We will put some pics up this weekend for sure.

The three amigos!

We are home!! Okay about the picture, probably the only time you will see the girls in these costumes(sorry Lisa!) but after we snapped the pics they both had complete meltdowns! If you can't tell what Morgan is supposed to be it is a peanut and of course Maddi as a pumpkin. And Cooper as himself in his new sleeper that he loves. Not sure what he will be yet. We had a wonderful time on the Cape, everyone traveled so well. Maddi had a tough time on the way home but as long as I was standing she was okay, so that is what I did. Everyone was back on schedule the next day which was great since that was a concern of mine. Coop loved the Cape and can't wait to go back, he had so much fun with his Mima and Dida, aunties, cousins and friends. Stephen has him convinced that we should move back.....but mom and the girls have other plans, like spending the summers there and rest of the time in NC. Sounds good huh?
Back to the grind here - Stephen leaves again tomorrow for Brazil for a week. Mom is coming to help so that will be nice. I have things pretty much under control here except for the night routine, that is where I still need a little help so it will be nice to have Mom here. I added some more pics up on the picture page, also Maddi's first laugh which is so cute.

Maddi's First Laugh

She Laughed for Kim in the morning and Cooper and I got here really going at night playing peek-a-boo.

http://picasaweb.google.com/stephenwaite/092107MaddiSFirstLaugh/photo#5113113756280899506

Riding the 11 pound lobster!

We made it to Cape Cod....everything went extreamly well. The girls did great on the plane both drank their bottles on take off then fell asleep for the rest of the flight. Cooper also took a nap so it was great. We did get lots off "geeze I hope I am not sitting next to those people" looks but we expected that.
Everyone is adjusting well and doing wonderful, the girls are sleeping together in a pack and play and doing great, I think the salt air makes everyone sleep better. We took them to the beach today and they both loved it, the took short naps and enjoyed the scenery. We are having a great time and the weather is perfect. We had lobster tonight but could not find anything big enough to cook the 11 pounder in so we are taking it to Lisa's work tomorrow to have it steamed, no worries though we only had about 8 more to choose from(sorry mom and dad I know you are just dying reading this!)
We will try to update the pics each day since I know we will have lots to put up.

Coop's First Day of Preschool!

Happy Birthday Kim

Kim's b-day was on Sunday. It was wild and crazy, but we forgot to take the camera to document it. Actually, it has been a nice family weekend at home.

Sleeping thru the night!

Life is good....Morgan and Maddi started sleeping from 9pm-7am last week and it is wonderful! Except for last night for some reason Maddi decided she wanted to be up around the 2:30 hour, then 3:30 then 4:30 finally at 5 I gave in and made her a small bottle and she sucked it down and went right back to sleep. She slept a ton yesterday so I am guessing she is going through a growth spurt. Morgan on the other hand slept from 8:30pm to 8am last night! So overall they are doing awesome. They are such good babies, it was just figuring them both out that took a while. They will be 3 months on Friday, I can't believe it.
This week has gone by very fast but we are ready for Stephen to come back that is for sure. Coop has been good for the most part but still wants all of my attention all of the time which is just not possible! He met his teachers today and will start pre-school next week so we are both very excited, I think it will be so good for all of us.
I will put some more pics up when I have a free hand!

Cooper's New Tat

The child was not harmed in the process (just temporary).

Happy Birthday Auntie Lisa

Music in Davidson

Last night we took the girls and Coops to listen to a swing band perform outside at the green in Davidson. They all loved it! The girls were so happy to be outside they just looked around all evening. Cooper was so happy just to be out of the house, he had a ball as well. We had a fun weekend and everyone is doing well. Stephen is headed to Brazil on Saturday so we are gearing up for that now, I am going to try to do a few days/nights by myself so I am not quite sure yet if I am ready but I will have to be I guess! I put some more pics up on the picture page, enjoy!

Noah and the chicks!

Last night we had the Diamonds over for dinner - well actually they brought dinner to us...but we did get some great shots of Noah and the girls. Noah is about a month older than the girls so watching them all grow up together is going to be so fun. I am having trouble posting pictures up so go to the picture pages to see the new ones. What else is new around here....let's see Stephen went out of town all last weekend so I was kept very busy around here, my mom was here which was a big help. My sister and Gabby also spent the night Friday and Cooper was in heaven having Gabs around, so she stayed all day Saturday and they played great together. Cooper just adores her. Stephen came home Sunday morning after having no sleep.....so he was pretty out of it until yesterday. From what I hear the Kupinski wedding was a good time, wish I could have made it.
News around here - let's see the girls are sleeping from 9pm to 5am now which is awesome. They sometimes wake up around the 3am hour but we let them cry and usually they fall back asleep until 5 or so. They usually don't cry more than 5 minutes and we know they can go longer without food so we are pushing them to hold out as long as possible. I think within a few more weeks they will be sleeping till 7 or so. They are both doing well, getting big and so cute. Morgan still has lots of smiles and is always happy for the most part. Maddi is smiling a lot more and is a lot happier now that she is getting good sleep. She is cooing now as well. Both girls want to stand on their up all the time, so we have started putting them in the bouncy seat and they both love it. I pray this is not a sign of early walkers since Coop was walking at 9 1/2 months I really would like to hold them out as long as possible. It will be a nut house around here when they both start walking!! Gates everywhere =) For those of you counting they will be 10 weeks on Friday! I can't believe it, time just flies. We booked our tickets for the Cape today and can't wait to get up there. We are going in mid-September and are really looking forward to it. I think the airport people are going to laugh when they see us coming with all our gear, let see 3 suitcases(one for the girls, one for Coops and the other for my shoes, kidding!) 3 Carseats, a stroller, laptop, diaper bag and anything else we can bring. It will be a sight, that is for sure. I will try to keep putting pics up as the weeks go on.

Two Month Stats

Morgan:
Weight - 11 pounds 6 ounces
Height - 22 1/2 inches
Head - 15"
Maddi:
Weight - 11 pounds 7 ounces
Height - 22 1/4 inches
Head - 15"
As you can see they are so close but Maddi feels so much heavier because she is more dense and compact and Morgan is longer so she feels lighter. Morgan is really chunking up in her face though, she has the biggest smiles and is very social. Maddi is the more serious one, her smiles are huge but they are few and far between. She is just starting to coo more but I think her big tounge gets in the way sometimes! They are doing very well sleeping at night now that we have them on a strict schedule during the day - last night they slept from 8pm to 4:30am!!! It was awesome....however I kept waking up just waiting for them! Stephen on the other hand was snoring away....amazing how dads can block out crying babies so easy. Yesterday we celebrated my dad and Gabby's birthday at our house, it was a fun day. Last night we decided to take Cooper out on a date since my parents said they would watch the girls for a while. We selfishly decided to take him to our favorite restaraunt which is kind of fancy - anway he loved it. He dined on calamari, a goat cheese and chutney appetizer, followed by a bleu cheese salad and a filet. He loved everything and ate more than me!! He was very well behaved and I think the waitress had a crush on him! Tomorrow is Stephen's first overnight trip then he is going away this weekend for a wedding. My mom will be staying with me so that will be nice. So overall we are all doing well. I put lots of new pics up on the picture pages. More updates to follow...

Perfect Pair....

Things are really changing around here - we feel like we are almost back to semi-normal!! The girls are doing wonderful on their new schedule. They are taking three naps a day in their cribs, they do cry a little but for the most part they are taking great naps and so much happier! Last night they went to bed at 8 - we did a "dream feed" at 10pm where they don't really wake up they just take the bottle then they slept until 4 and 4:30 so that was pretty good. Hopefully they go longer tonight. The goal is to get them to sleep until 7am so we will see how long that takes. Coop is doing good as well, he has been acting a lot like a 2 year old lately...so he has been spending a lot of time in his room and on the time out bench but he is learning slowly. Hope you enjoy the pics - we take the girls on Monday for there 2 month check up. We will post the stats as soon as we get them.

Senor Cooper

It is all about schedule these days.....we have decided to hire a night nanny for a little while since Stephen will be traveling quite a bit in the next few weeks. They came over yesterday and gave us lots of tips and advice. Last night both girls slept in their own room and did great. We have decided to put them in seperate cribs since they were waking eachother up during the night. We have not really had too much of a problem with the girls doing well at night but they don't like to nap during the day so we are working on that now. So the hints they gave us were, back to swaddling keeping their arms down, using the babywise theory, 30 minutes to feed, 45 minutes of awake time then to their cribs for nap time. Well yesterday was hard they did a lot of crying but today already seems to be going better. They are both taking their first nap as I type this...well Morgan just woke up but hopefully she goes back down. Anyway the night nanny will be with us for the next 3 nights so that means 3 nights of 8 hours of sleep for Stephen and I .... what will we do? Hope you like the new pics, the girls are getting so big, we bring them next week for their two month check up - can't wait to see how much they weigh. Cooper was sick this week but is doing much better, that was a challenge trying to keep him away from the girls so they wouldn't get sick but we managed. All he keeps talking about is going to Cape Cod on a airplane, we are planning on going in September but I think we are going to hear about it everyday until then! Hopefully we will get some movies up later this morning.

Out Hiking

On Sunday we got out for a family hike. We had all three kids on our backs! Thats probably the last time for Cooper in the backpack...whew! The girls slept the loved it and slept the whole time.

We just can't understand these girls. One day they are sleeping great, smiling. The next (today), the are screaming bloody murder.

I'm liking these new picture slide shows like the below.

Pictures

Smilin

Last weekend was perfect. This week....well not so perfect. M&M have been crazy. However, last night was a blessing. They slept from 9 to 1:45 and then back down around 2:30 to 7. Hopefully this is the start of something good.

As you can see we have smiles and even some cues here and there. Morgan was first and seems to have a very flirty with the ceiling fan. Maddie is about a week behind on the cues and just started today. The lack of sleep melts away with just one smile.

Kim is back at the gym and really doing great about getting back in shape. Cooper is glad to be back at the gym too. From what I here he walks in like he owns the place since he's been there since he was 3 months.

Congratulations to Shanti and Aimee with their new baby Serena (http://shantiandaim.blogspot.com/).

We really have ambitions to put more up on the web. It's just really difficult to find time (and a free arm) to take pics let alone put them up. We have a camcorder now too. I hope to figure it out and post video soon as well. I did post some more pics on the PICTURE PAGE.

Look at our dresses!

Well it has been a few days since we posted anything again....time just keeps ticking! Updates - The girls are doing well, we had a rough few nights last week where the girls just didn't want to go back to sleep after their nighttime feedings so we were up for almost 2-3 hours to feed only getting about 4 hours of sleep total for us. That wasn't working for either of us so we decided we were going to have to get "tough" and let them cry a little; well that seemed to be the trick. Friday night we let them cry themselves to sleep which lasted about 30 minutes then they slept for 5 hours. Needless to say we have been doing that for the past 4 nights and have been able to get some decent sleep. We actually kind of feeel like human beings again, key words kind of!
Cooper is doing well, even though he did try to file Morgan's head yesterday with a nail file....hmmm not sure what he was thinking but that was quickly stopped. He called the girls his babies the other day which was very cute. He is taking to them more and more each day.
Stephen is traveling again...today is his first day, he was not that excited about it. My mom is here to help so hopefully things go well. And for me I am doing well, really enjoying so better sleep. I even started back to the gym last week which feels great and gives me some extra energy to make it through the day. Hopefully I will get better at posting since I have been slack lately!

Six hour stretch!

Hopefully things are getting better, the girls did a 6 hour stretch last night which was wonderful. It wasn't that they slept for six hours they slept about five but went six hours in between feedings. We both got about 3 good hours which was nice, however we are both running on low steam these days so we could have used a little more! We are just waiting for the days of 5 hours straight of sleep, man that would be nice. Cooper started sleeping 6-8 hours around 6 weeks so we pray we are as lucky with the girls as we were with Coops. Hopefully when they hit the 10 pound mark they will start sleeping longer. Other than that - not too much new here. Cooper is getting a new bike since he is totally potty trained, he has been for several months now but still used a pull-up at night but we are all done with those now, so his new radio flyer bike should arrive here in a few days. I will try and get some new pics up soon.

Baby Stats - One Month

Maddi - 9 pounds 4 ounces, 20 3/4 inches

Morgan - 9 pounds even, 21 3/8 inches

They are really growing quickly, doc says they both look great and are doing well. Now if we can only get them to sleep longer chunks during the night...

Other news of the day - We are official "loser cruiser" owners, we pick up the mini-van Thursday....pictures to follow!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Yesterday was Stephen's birthday, we had a fun day. Went to the park for coffee and breakfast, went out for gelato and a little shopping in the afternoon then had ice cream pie and hung out with friends last night. The girls have been doing well, they both have decided that fussy time is around 3:30 and usually last until 6 or so. They are enjoying there evening baths and starting to get on a semi schedule as far as eating goes. Usually about every 4 hours or so except for some reason at night they like to wake at 3:30 then 6am, that is always rough! They are getting a lot bigger and fitting into all there clothes, Maddi even went up a size in diapers while Morgan is still so thin that the bigger size falls off her waist. However they are both filling out a lot in the face and becoming cuter everyday. I can't wait for the first smile - hopefully soon. Coops is doing well, he just loves his sisters. As soon as he wakes up in the morning he has to kiss them good morning. The girls go for there one month check up on Tuesday so we are excited to see how much they have gained. We will post the stats on Tuesday. Enjoy the new pics and we will try to keep posting! Oh Stephen got a video camera for his b-day so I am sure once he figures it all out there will be lots of new videos. Stay tuned....

Relaxing with a good book

Happy 4th of July!

Yes - we do have more clothes!

Okay for all those wondering why all the pics so far they have been in the same 2 or 3 outfits that is because that is all they have fit in. We have so many clothes and I try them on everyday but 0-3 is still too big for them. So if you have given us clothes I promise they will wear them soon, they are getting bigger everyday so we will keep trying on new outfits! Here is a matching set that Auntie Lisa sent, they look adorable in them, this was the best pic I got this morning, even though it is not that great. It is so hard to get them to both look at the same time. Maddi is really looking a lot bigger then Morgan these days, even though they are eating the same amount I think Morgan is just going to be more petite than Maddi, but we will see.

3 Weeks Old!

So things have been quiet on the blog lately....it was kind of a crazy week last week. Both girls wanted to be held all day long and that is the only way they would take good naps so I didn't have time to think let alone do anything else. However it looks like things are starting to change - yesterday they slept almost all day in their carseats. They are on a growth spurt I think, they both want to eat every 3 hours on the nose and are taking 5 ounces at a time. The past few days they were going about 4 hours at a time so hopefully it goes back to that otherwise Stephen and I walk around like total zombies. Just can't survive on 2 hours of sleep at a time. Cooper is doing well, he has his moments for sure but overall he is doing pretty good. Stephen is awesome, I don't know how he works all day long after only a few hours of sleep but he does, this morning he counted how many bottles he washed, I think it was 22!! I don't know what I would do without him, that is for sure. I am hanging in there, this is my first full morning with all three kids by myself and thank god the girls are both sleeping so I have hands free for a while. Feeding time should be fun, but I will manage. I ended up at the docs yesterday with an extreamly swollen throat, they tested me for mono and strep but they were both negative thank goodness. They think it is a virus but since my throat was almost swollen shut they put me on a steroid and a antibiotic. I am feeling much better now. We put some pics up from last week and hopefully there will be more this week!

Baby Stats

2 weeks, 4 days:

Madilyn
8 lbs-21 inches

Morgan
7 lbs 6 oz- 20.25 inches

Both gained almost 1 lb in only 1 week.

Never say Never....

Okay...so Stephen finally got me to look at a mini-van or as Coop calls it a "loser cruiser!" I have come to realize that the Volvo is just not cutting it with three car seats - Cooper likes to "help" his sisters and put their pacifier in.....when they are sleeping of course!! Anyway I am not sold yet, still fighting for the bigger lexus but it looks like I am losing the battle. I guess it is more practical but most of you know that I don't like to be practical especially when it comes to cars. Oh well that is too be continued.
The girls are doing well, we go back to the dr today for a weight check. We think they are both getting bigger and the past two days they have been eating non-stop. So we will see, I will post some pics and their weights later today.

Good Weekend...

Well this has been a great weekend. We had the girls out almost all day yesterday doing errands and such. They did great in their carseats and slept almost the entire time we were out. We even got really brave and went out to dinner - they did great. Maddie is still a little fussy in the afternoons but overall they are doing much better. We went to Lowes yesterday and you could not believe all the people that asked if they were boys....first of all their car seats are ALL pink and they had on purple and white. After about the fifth person I wanted to say "would you put your boy in pink?" Maybe it was just the hormones talking...ha ha.
They are both really filling out and gaining weight. We take them on Tuesday for a weight check to see how big they are. We can't wait. During the night they are getting up about every 4 to 4 1/2 hours and are both sleeping in their crib together so we are getting some decent sleep. Coops has been sleeping in the past few days which is nice for us to get a extra hour of sleep. We put some pics up from the weekend and hope to put some more up later.