Where does the time go?

OK a gap of a couple of months between posts is probably acceptable since we're dealing with baby twin girls as well as a particularly sprightly Gemma at the moment. But I do feel a little sad, as when Gemma was a baby I was pretty good at posting her milestones and what we'd been up to on a regular basis. We have now updated lefthandedmonkey.com with new photos and a slight re-jig given that we now have 3 gorgeous daughters to take pictures of, but blogging has kind of fallen by the wayside a little.

Tamsyn left, Martha right; at 14 and a half weeks

So what have we been up to? Well, Martha and Tamsyn are now 15 weeks old, 3 and a half months and little wonders. At last weigh in Martha was 11lbs 4oz and Tamsyn 12lbs 6oz, Martha tracking just over the 9th centile and Tamsyn just over the 25th. At 14.5 weeks Gemma was 12lbs 7oz so in terms of weight Tamsyn is very similar and has the same chunky thighs too. I also think she's going to have curly hair like Gemma, although it's a little early to tell. She has gorgeous large deep blue eyes like Gemma too. Martha on the other hand although more petite has more of the facial expressions Gemma had. She has poker straight hair, very sticky-up especially after a bath, and lots of cheeky looks. She'll look you straight in the eye and I'd swear she is thinking up no end of tricks to play on us when she's older. Tamsyn is mostly in 3-6 month clothes now whereas Martha is still making use of the 0-3month ones. It makes for a chock-full wardrobe and mountains of laundry... They are both in cloth nappies too, a mix of TotsBots and Bumgenius, and are getting on brilliantly with them.

It's been lovely to see the girls develop over the last few months and while things are still very full on, we have got into some sort of routine. They are exclusively breastfed (tandem, rugby ball style!) now, and are very efficient at it, so feeds are very quick. They are 3 hourly during the day and anything from 3.5 hrs to 7 hrs at night - the bedtime feed is around 7pm after which I settle them in their cot (they are in together, top to tail after Martha's restless flailing around tended to hit Tamsyn in the face and wake her up. Martha screaming blue murder doesn't seem to rouse her though, bless her).  Then they go a bit longer and tend to wake around midnight-ish and again at 4ish, though each night is slightly different. During the day, after nursery run in the morning I will either leg it back home for the next feed or feed them singly out and about. Then it will depend on what we have on and whether Ali is picking Gemma up or not, as to what we do during the day. They'll nap sporadically, always in the car on the way to nursery, generally more in the morning than the afternoon, and mostly always a small catnap at least between feeds, though occasionally one or both will be awake from feed to feed.

They've been in the same cot since about 8 weeks old - we moved them out of the same moses basket at about 4-5 weeks old, and by 8 weeks they were starting to look a bit too snug even in separate baskets. Sleeping together or apart was one of the areas I was most anxious about before they were born but actually they settled equally well in either case and are currently fine apart during the day (mostly in car seats / pram / bouncy chairs) or together at night. Reading Gemma's blog from around the same age there is a lot they have in common, and I don't think we can expect any sleep miracles at night any time soon. Both girls are OK with being on their tummies, whereas Gemma hated it - but we haven't tried either in a door bouncer yet, as their heads, Martha's especially, are not quite as stable as Gemma's seems to have been at 14 weeks. Daytime sleeping patterns are fairly similar as is the fist sucking and early teething drool...

Personality wise, Tamsyn seems to be a sweet one and Martha a cheeky madam. Martha will scream at night times or whenever she thinks no-one is paying her any attention,  but calm down as soon as you lift her up. She loves to be on the move and if you hold her so she's looking over your shoulder and walk around a bit she will almost always instantly calm down from whatever paddy she's in. She's got a very knowing look in her eyes and an absolutely gorgeous big grin when she sees you. She'll coo and burble adorably too. Tamsyn is lovely, you can get a lot more smiles out of her just by talking to her and she loves being sung to. She settles wonderfully at night, after a feed I can just plonk her down in the cot wide awake and she'll chew on her hand for a bit before going to sleep, unlike her bigger sister who needs a lot more cosseting to go to sleep. Tamsyn also gurgles a lot. She does unfortunately seem to have more wind problems than Martha, maybe due to the fact that her tummy is huge, so sometimes is very screamy at the bedtime feed. She also loves being in her bouncy chair and the look of fierce concentration on her face as she strains to reach a little toy to bat is hilarious. She will totally go for it on a playmat too, kicking and waving her arms around like anything.

Gemma has been very up and down, though in the last week or two seems to have settled a bit more. We were so impressed with how good she was when I was in hospital and immediately afterwards, and she has taken to her sisters so well - she clearly adores them and nursery tell us her role play is all about mummies and babies and the babies are all called Martha and Tamsyn :) However since Easter week she has given us some very whingy, tantrummy days and bedtimes have regressed to the pattern we had 12 months ago - we have to stay in the room with her until she falls asleep at night, and she is waking one or two times at night too. She has now officially dropped her daytime nap and that was hideous for a week or so but her body clock seems to have adjusted now. We're not sure if it's terrible threes or delayed jealousy but I am trying to have more one on one time with her and not tell her off so much - hard when she's being a right little b*gger or when she's being rather too boisterous around her sisters. Hopefully she'll even out soon. She loves being on her new buggy board and I have become something of a celebrity around Wantage for the two carseat and buggy board combination on the buggy, as it is bloody huge. Can't wait until the girls are big enough for the buggy seats to be attached.

Reading lefthandedmonkey again over the past few days I think updates like this will happen there in future - mostly baby and milestone related rather than stuff about me. I may or may not update here too - past experience leads me to think those posts will be few and far between - but we'll see.