10weeks old!!

Our sweet little boys are 10weeks old and getting bigger, stronger, smarter, funnier and more grown-up every day.

EATING:
Both boys are little piggies who SCREAM bloody murder when they are hungry and have to wait for their food. Ethan eats about 130mls (4.5oz) at each feed and Benji eats about 150mls (5oz) at each feed. They feed about 6-7times in 24hours. Sometimes through the day they prefer to graze and will eat half as much twice as often..... little terrors are very time consuming when they do that!
They are both being bottle fed breast milk through the day and having 1 or 2 formula feeds at night (depending on how much breast milk Tracie has produced that day). They still like their own bottle, and will make a funny face and spit out the bottle if you give him the wrong one!

PLAYING:

• Ethan is starting to discover that his hands can do things. He sits in his chair and can now hit the toys and likes to watch them move. We also bought the boys a toy that's like a piano for your feet. They lie on their back and kick it and it plays music and lights up and stuff. Ethan really likes it and smiles lots when he plays with it. Benji has been a little tired lately, and hasn't shown much interest yet (we only bought it 2 days ago). Benji likes to lie in his chair and look at the toys.
• Both boys ABSOLUTELY LOVE the Winnie the Pooh stickers that are stuck on the wall next to the change table.... they always look at them and give great big smiles when they have their bottoms changed.
• The boys like to listen to music and smile and dance when we play the Wiggles. They like it when we talk and smile at them, and reward us with great big smiles many times every day.
• Both boys love to go for a walk in the pram, and will now stay awake a lot longer and look around at the sights.
• The boys like to look at bright coloured pictures and toys and they like toys that make noises and are discovering different textures.

SLEEPING

The boys are getting better at sleeping at night. We try to keep them awake for a couple of hours between about 7-9pm. We feed them at 7pm, have some play time or have a bath and then feed them again at about 9pm and put them to bed. If they tolerate this routine, they seem to be able to sleep for 6-8hours. They have had big sleeps like that about 5 times in the past 2 weeks. We are getting closer to sleeping though the night. The other night they slept between 10pm and 6am. Benji often wakes after about 4-5 hours and has a little cry. We put a dummy in his mouth and he falls asleep again.

Through the day, the boys are spending more time awake, and having shorter naps between feeding and play time. They seem to think they need to feed when they wake up, even if they at an hour ago (hence the grazing).

HEALTH

The boys had their 8week vaccinations last week. They had all the shots on the Tuesday morning and Sal had to work Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning. We took them to the local community health centre for a free vaccination clinic. Sal held the boys while they got their shots (medicine in the mouth, and one needle in each leg - poor babies). Both boys cried, but we had a nice warm bottle of milk ready, so they settled pretty quickly. On Tuesday evening they started to get a little sick and generally unsettled. Tracie had to deal with two crying babies at once while Sal was at work. On Tuesday evening they had a mild temperature and Tracie gave them some Panadol (same as Tylenol in the USA). Tuesday night they slept well but woke early and spent most of Wednesday being very unsettled for Tracie while Sal went to work and worried about what was happening at home. They cried and whinged all day and Tracie spent the day with 2 unhappy boys in her arms. Ethan had diarrhoea and both boys had high temperatures. Tracie gave them Panadol every 4-6 hours through the day with a good effect on lowering their temps and making them feel a little better for short periods. Neither boy got much sleep that day, and got very overtired by the evening. In the evening both boys had very high temps, and one hour after Panadol and being very unsettled they both still had high temps. We decided to take them to the medical centre as the information from the immunisations said we can expect unsettledness and low-grade temps.... but these were high temps and Ethan was off his food. Benji was eating fine. The doctor took their temps (which was totally normal in his office) and both boys were very well behaved in the office so he was of the impression that they were fine! He checked them out anyway, and said he was confident it was a reaction to the immunisations and we should continue with the Panadol and give them a luke warm bath to settle them if they get high temps again. We took them home and Ethan cried for about an hour and still had a temp! Poor babies.

They had a good sleep Wednesday night (that's the night they slept from 10pm-6am) and woke up happy and healthy and smiling. They have been fine since then and don't even have a mark on their little legs from the needles.

Things have been better since they got better and they have been very happy and smiling the last few days. They continue to LOVE having a bath, and the other day we took them in the big bath with us again. Ethan loves to float in the water and Benji likes to lie on his back and kick his legs and splash with his arms like crazy in the water. Benji often kicks Ethan between the legs with his enthusiastic swimming techniques...... Poor Ethan (but don't worry, Ethan got him back a few times too!)

Sorry about the lack of new pics, it's hard with Sal working full time. We'll get some new ones up soon.