The boys are 8 months old!

I apologize now for this loooong post......The boys turned 8 months old on Wednesday, which is really hard to believe. This time last year we finally told our parents we were expecting, and expecting TWINS at that! My what a difference a year makes :) On Wednesday the boys also had an appointment with a pediatric development specialist and an occupational therapist in Roanoke. This appointment was made before the boys even left the NICU and the purpose of it was to gauge if the boys were developing according to their adjusted/corrected age, as opposed to their actual age. The doctor (ie. the developmental specialist) said their adjusted age was only 4.5 - 5 months, or something like that. I always assume their adjusted age is only 2 months short of their actual age, so I figured it was 6 months instead. She must use some crazy age calculator because when you plug my due date of August 9th in an age calculator it says they are 5.7 months, but nonetheless it is good to be reminded that they are not the same as full term 8 month olds, so that we can temper our expectations as to when they may sit up, crawl, walk, etc. The OT got down on the mat with both boys and worked with both individually for several minutes. She made sure they could track objects, follow sounds, see how well they could roll, prop themselves up on elbows, etc. While the OT worked with the boys the doctor observed, asked us questions, and made notes on what we said as well as the OT. We are VERY glad we kept this appointment instead of just assuming the pediatrician would assess their development, because these ladies were MUCH more thorough. They said both boys weights were excellent - Brandon was 17.5 lbs and Colin was 17 lbs even. They commented on Brandon's cute little pot belly too, heehee. Brandon "scored" at the 5 month level on pretty much all tests. They said he is right on target for his adjusted age. Colin scored at mostly 4 months with one or two 3 month and 5 month scores. That is because he has low muscle tone according to the OT, which is not so much muscle STRENGTH as it is the amount of tension or resistance to movement in the muscles. They said a good way to think about muscle tone was how we use it to defy gravity. For instance, when the OT would lift Colin up with her hands under his armpits, his arms would go straight up and he would otherwise slip through her hands to the ground if she didn't have a tight grasp. Brandon's arms, on the other hand, would stay more out to the side. Also when she sat Brandon on his bottom he leaned forward a lot but then put his arms out to his side to catch himself, whereas Colin was more of a limp noodle and nearly leaned all the way to the floor and he did not outreach his arms much either. The doctor was also clear that developmental milestones such as sitting, crawling, and walking have ZERO to do with intelligence. Some babies are just late crawlers/walkers, etc and that doesn't affect their intelligence at all. It is nice to be reminded of that because I know on my twin forum that some moms brag on their early walkers/talkers like its a competition (of course, its also just natural to be very proud of your babies when they meet new milestones too!). Anyway, they said they didn't see any red flags with Colin and that they really didn't see a need for Early Intervention at this point, but left it up to us if we wanted to contact them. They said most likely Colin will just learn to sit, crawl, and walk a little later than his brother. Which surprised us because so far Colin has been the first to do most everything! Colin was the first to reach up and grab toys, smile/belly laugh, roll from tummy to back, and he just started rolling from back to tummy (something Brandon still hasn't quite mastered). We have noticed that here lately Colin's tongue seems to slightly protrude and hang down some, which looks awfully cute, but does get in the way of him eating solids. They said that was likely just a side effect of his low muscle tone, which they think will correct itself over time as he gets older and stronger. We also pointed out that Colin likes to squeeze his hands a lot, way more than Brandon. They said they weren't sure why Colin was doing that but that they didn't think it was anything to be concerned about. Even though both boys got a good "report card", especially Brandon, I still was a little bit worried about Colin's hand squeezing and tongue hanging, so I emailed my sister-in-law, Becca (who is a speech therapist and also has a background in recreational/occupational therapy) asking her if I should be worried about Colin. Okay, I was a bit more upset than I sound now because I made the mistake of googling hypotonia and came across articles that apparently don't apply to our boys at all, though it was obvious that hypotonia is VERY common in preemie babies. She basically talked me off the ledge, heh, and told me not to worry and that she would be happy to do an assessment of Colin. Also, her friend/coworker is an Early Intervention specialist and she said she could do an assessment of Colin too if I wanted. Yay, it's nice to have such family connections! :) Long story short the boys are doing great and there is nothing to worry about but if Colin were to need any kind of help (unlikely according to the specialist and OT) then Becca and her coworker would get us on the right track!

The only other news is that the boys are KILLING us with their nighttime wakings and waking before 5am. Aaaack!! We will no sooner lay our heads down after dealing with one night waking when the other boy wakes/stirs too! We've moved their bedtime later to 8pm over the past week...and this morning both boys woke at 4:45am simultaneously in spite of that (and they were in separate rooms at the time!). Brandon is also fond of waking anywhere from 12am to 2am and demanding a little bottle before going back to sleep. It is now to the point that it is completely habit and has nothing to do with him being hungry. Last night he could barely finish the bottle he was so sleepy, but darned if he would go back to sleep without it! However, I want to hold off on making him cry it out without a bottle until we can get in SOME kind of predictable (and NORMAL!) bedtime/waking routine.

Okay, on to the pictures! Last Sunday we needed groceries really bad and decided to load up the boys and take them to Walmart with us. It was a dreary day and pretty chilly so we put their little "court jester" hats on them:



The developmental specialist and doctor recommended Bumbo seats, for Colin especially, and we already had 2 of them (thanks to a coworker with older twins who loaned them to us). Here is Colin sitting in his Bumbo. I just bought the tray for it Friday, but so far he seems to only want to throw all of his toys OFF the tray...



Here Colin is just eating some cereal with pears in it Saturday, and he actually did really good eating that morning. Some days though he just wants to smile and let the food gush out of his mouth so that mommy has to "recycle" that spoonful about 5 times before he actually swallows it...



The boys LOVE to look at our black and white cat Charlie. When he walks along the back of the couch they just stare at him, especially his tail which just mesmerizes them. Well Charlie also happens to be extremely sweet and he will often times "head bonk" the boys. He was doing that earlier today to Colin who would smile and close his eyes as Charlie's soft fur brushed his face. It was too stinkin' cute!


Lastly we got about a foot of snow Saturday morning and we wanted to take a picture of the boys in it. So we put them in their warm "coveralls" and then placed them on a sled for some pics. After that we then let the boys ride the sled down our steep back yard all the way to Ellett Road.....nah! But we look forward to sledding with them next winter :) BTW, you can see in these pictures (and the ones above) how Colin likes to let his tongue hang down. And you can also see that both babies have some super chubby cheeks! :D