General Update and Pics

On August 19th we had our one year anniversary. One year ago we had our commitment ceremony and celebrated with about 60family and friends. This year we went to Sydney for the night. We spent lunch time at Tracie's old work, saying hello and showing off our beautiful boys to her colleges. In the afternoon we went to our hotel (the same hotel we stayed in one year ago). We put the boys down for a nap and Sal and Tracie lay on the bed and relaxed and ate chocolate strawberries and fruit from a fruit basket that Tracie had arranged.... Yumm! We ordered room service for dinner. It was nice not to have to cook and clean up.
After dinner we went to the reunion of our birthing class to see our friends and their new twins. Not everyone could make it, which was disappointing, but it was great to see the ones that came. Here's a pic of Sal with the boys in the Hotel.

Today was the first nice warm day we've had in weeks. We decided to go for a drive, and took the boys to the beach for the first time. Ethan wasn't too sure about the whole thing, but looked around with a lot of curiosity and enjoyed rubbing his toes in the sand.
Benji loved the beach, and gave us many smiles. He loved standing in the stand and stomping his feet.
Here's our gorgeous boys sitting on the couch. Ethan's on the left in the darker blue, and Benji on the right.Ethan LOVES his toy bar on his rocking seat. He hits them, talks to them and laughs at them for ages. The toy bar is removable and we take it away when he gets annoyed with them. The next day when he's ready to play with them again we bring it back. Once he sees it he starts smiling, laughing and kicking his legs and waving his arms... it's funny to see him get so excited when we bring it back. Both boys are getting very good at their tummy time and head control. We bought them a tummy time mat that has an elevated bit in the middle. They lie on it and it spins like a lazy susan. They can both spin them selves around and are getting better at playing with the toys on the mat.

Below is Benji during tummy time.

Here is Ethan during tummy time.

Benjamin

As promised about a month ago.... here's the story about Benji. It's not as detailed as Ethan's because we haven't done all the pics yet.... but it's a start. Once again, it's written for a 2yr old!

Here's Benji in his pyjamas about to get dressed for the dayBenji gets undressed.Benji gets a clean nappy.

Benji gets cream on his face and body.Benji puts his shirt on.Benji puts his pants and socks on.
Benji's dressed.... and sits in his chair. He is cuddling his bear 'Rodney'.
One day Benji was sitting in his chair and he said a word that sounded like 'Rodney'. I asked him 'who's Rodney?' and he said another word that sounded like 'bear'. Since that day his bear has been called Rodney. Benji likes Rodney!
Benji plays with his toy bar.
Benji has cuddles with mummy.

Naturopath

Yesterday we went to see a naturopath about Benjamin's skin. She was great. She said she thinks it's a food allergy to the formula and something Tracie's eating. She has recommended we buy a goat's milk formula for Benji, and that Tracie go on an elimination diet to avoid wheat, dairy, soy, peanuts and chocolate. She should also try to minimise citrus and eggs. Poor girl, what will she eat! She has also given Tracie a nasty herbal liquid mix to take, and suggested she take fish oil, evening primrose oil, efamol, zinc and probiotics. She wants us to give Benji a very small dose of fish oil and probiotics too. We are going to try this diet and supplement plan for 3 months. We hope it will work.

Poor Benji's skin is so bad some times, and he gets a lot of indigestion and his milk seems to just trickle up out of his mouth for about an hour after he eats sometimes.... even if he hasn't eaten a lot. He gets very irritable about not feeling well and having itchy skin.

We often don't upload pictures of him when his skin is bad, so you're probably wondering what we're talking about.... here's a few pics of his poor sore skin.

It's usually only on his face, but for some reason it started to break out on his body the other day. It's not as bad on his body, and it's gone now.... but it's come back on his knee's badly this week. I don't have a pic of his knees because it's not red, only rough and itchy (he tries to scratch it, but doesn't have the co-ordination yet.)

Photo time again!

Our little boys are getting so big. They are now 15weeks old (3.5months!) We can't believe how fast the time has gone. They are good boys (most of the time) and are getting good at giving lots of happy smiles. They are getting better at sleeping through the night. Last night they slept from 9pm till 7am!! woooohoooo!!!! In the last 2 weeks, they have slept 8-10 hours per night about 10 times. Us mummies are feeling good about our extra sleep.
The boys are eating (drinking) lots of milk these days. They like to drink about 200mls after their big night sleep, and then will drink between 100-200mls every 2-4 hours throughout the day. We've had to buy bigger bottles! Both boys are still having breast milk most of the time, with a little added formula from time to time when our supplies run low. We still think Benji is allergic to something, because his skin still has eczema in several places. We are going to a naturapath next week to get some advice. We think whatever is wrong with him also makes him feel sick, because he grizzles a lot more than Ethan (especially when his skin looks bad), and throws up a lot too. We hope to get some answers soon. Thanks to the advice of some friends, we have changed our laundry detergent. We're still slowly washing all their clothes, so we're still waiting to see if it will help.

Here are our handsome boys. Ethan on the left, and Benji on the right.

The boys like it when we put them on the kitchen table in their chairs. They smile and chat to us while we make dinner. Benji is giving us lots of smiles these days. He loves to talk, and can tell you any story in many different tones of voice, using the word 'agooo'. Everything is 'agooo' to Benji. Occasionally we'll get a 'bagoo', which is his way of asking for his dummy. If he's mad at us and we're not doing what he wants, he will also add an 'en-geg-an'. He has also made a charming discovery. He now has the ability to say 'agooo' in the back of his throat while gurgling his saliva. Lovely!!! He thinks it's very funny. Cheeky boy. See the videos below.

Here's our cheeky smiley boy. See how his tongue is going towards the side of his mouth. He now has the skill of poking out his tongue while he has his dummy in his mouth. No dummy here, but you get the idea!

Benji smiling
Benji smiling again.

Handsome Benji in his new clothes. We needed to dress him like a little boy because lots of people at the shops keep thinking he's a girl cos he's got pretty blue eyes. Poor boy!

Here's Benji with his toys. Both boys like their toys now. The toy under his right hand makes a crinkly noise when you touch it, he sat there for 10 mins feeling it the other day. He thought it was very funny.
Ethan also loves his toys..... even more than Benji does. He can now pick things up and likes to taste everything! His favorite toy is the puppy on his left. It is very soft, and he will spend ages feeling it. He likes to feel and grab different fabrics and will try to pull his bib, clothes or blanket over his head. We have to make sure his blankets are tucked in well. He also puts his puppy on his head too! He thinks it's funny.

Ethan is beginning to really enjoy his toys now, and will spend ages talking to his toys. He has a toy bar that hangs over his chair and he loves to hit his toys and make them move, then laugh and talk to them. He keeps him self amused for half an hour and has a lovely time. It's so funny.

Ethan again with his puppy friend.
Below is a video of Ethan talking to his toys. Notice he's also pulling on his shirt.

Here's Ethan laying on a blow-up toy. It's like a cylinder and he can stand up and lean against it.

Smiley boy Ethan in his chair, wearing his handsome new clothes.
Ethan's helping mummy with the washing.
Smiley Ethan again.

Below are two videos of the boys talking. They are getting more and more chatty every day and are now starting to make some different noises too. They are both very different in the way they talk. Benji, as you've seen says 'agooo' and Ethan's words are more like 'oooooo'.

Paediatrician

Today we took the boys to the Paediatrician for Benji's eczema and Ethan's reflux. We were a little dissapointed with his answers.
About Ethan - he says that babies get reflux and pain and gas, and as long as he's eating, weeing and gaining weight (which he is) then there's nothing we should do, and Ethan will just grow out of it.
About Benji - Benji's eczema has been getting slowly worse over the past month. We thought it was a food intolerence to something Tracie was eating, or the formula. We took him off breast milk and put him soy formula in an attempt to determine if he's allergic to something. We have read that about 50%of babies who are allergic to dairy are also allergic to soy, so we knew there was a chance he'd be allergic to that too, but we had to try it, because a dairy free soy free formula is only available on prescription (unless you want to pay a fortune for it!). His eczema did not improve on soy, so we were hoping the doctor would give us the hypoallergenic formula, but instead he said that he doesn't think it's a food allergy at all, and it doesn't matter what we feed him. He told us to put hydrocortisone cream on it to treat the rash and feed him whatever we want. We're not happy with treating the symptoms, we want to treat the cause..... we're going to get a second opinion!
If anyone has any ideas or thoughts about this, please leave us a message.

Things are otherwise going well. Both boys are giving us great big smiles many times a day. They both have times throughout the day that they are very chatty. Ethan usually says 'oooooooo' and Benji latest word is 'ahhgooo'.
Benji's getting much better head control now. He's still not quite as good as Ethan, but he's improved a lot in the last 2 weeks.

We weighed (with clothes on) and measured the boys at the Paediatrician today. They were wearing winter clothes, so they probably weigh about 300-500g less.
Ethan: 6.6kg (14lb 9oz) & 59cm long - LITTLE FATTY!!!
Benji: 6.0kg (13lb 4oz) and 57cm long
They are both growing well.

More updates to follow..... good night!