Rosie is six months old

Rosie is six months old! Rosie weighs 12 pounds, 5.5 ounces (1st percentile), is 24.5 inches long (5th percentile and 36.6% of the way to my adult height), and her head circumference is 16.75 inches (56th percentile).

I really can't believe we've survived half a year with twins. This month started off with a sleep regression. Instead of waking up once a night, the babies have been waking up to be fed twice a night - usually around 12:30 or so and 3:30 am - and sometimes even more often for Rosie. Occasionally Rosie will stay awake for one to two hours in the middle of the night, seemingly for no reason. She is not a night baby. We hope this means she's growing, but we also hope it ends soon. She is also escaping her swaddle at night! Rosie, our day baby, goes down for naps easier than her brother. She tends to cry when we put her down in the crib but then settles down and sleeps for a bit. She still sleeps in our room at night in the rock and play, but will move to the crib in the other room once this sleep regression is over. Rosie loves to play with toys now. She sits or stands in something and plays with anything you hand her way, but particularly likes blocks. She is also trying to sit up and can do so for a couple seconds with someone being vigilant to catch her for her inevitable fall. She can roll from back to front (and already could do front to back). She also loves to babble and spit. The biggest hurdle we've been trying to get through this month is that Rosie decided she does not like bottles. We hadn't done a bottle in a couple months and she completely rejected it the first couple times we tried to give her one this month. She definitely has made strides in this regard though! She also found her toes!

Rosie at one, two, three, four, and five months old.

Ben and Rosie:

All the kids at six months:

Eleanor at six months.
Jane at six months.
Ben at six months.

Ben is six months old

Ben is six months old! Ben weighs 12 pounds, 7 ounces (less than 1st percentile), is 25.25 inches long (4th percentile and 32.4% of the way to Chris' adult height), and his head circumference is 16.75 inches (22nd percentile).

I really can't believe we've survived half a year with twins. This month started off with a sleep regression. Instead of waking up once a night, the babies have been waking up to be fed twice a night - usually around 12:30 or so and 3:30 am. Toward the end of this month though, Ben thankfully went back to waking up only once a night. While it has been exhausting, we're hoping this just means Ben hit a growth spurt. Ben, our night baby, does much better than his sister during the night and will often be willing to take his pacifier and go back to sleep. He doesn't do as well during the day though and does not like napping! He tends to fall asleep easily in his car seat, but if we put him in the crib, he cries. Once he is a bit bigger, we will transition to sleeping in the crib full time, but for now he still sleeps at night in the rock and play in our room. Ben tends to be very interested in reaching out and grabbing things, but does not play as much as his sister. He also doesn't try to sit up, put weight on his legs, or roll over (though he can!). Ben likes his pacifier but loves to suck on his thumb/fingers. Sometimes I even catch him with his thumb in the pacifier hole, essentially sucking both at once. He loves when Eleanor sings the song "Hair Up" to him from Trolls. He has a huge gummy smile and also loves to giggle and laugh when his sisters entertain him.

Ben at one, two, three, four, and five months old.

Ben and Rosie:

All the kids at six months:

Eleanor at six months.
Jane at six months.
Rosie at six months.

Jane is six months old

Jane is six months old now! At her six month appointment she weighed 18 pounds, 13.5 ounces (87th percentile), was 26 inches long (44th percentile and almost 39% of the way to my adult height), and her head circumference was 16.5 inches (33rd percentile).. She has been desperate to start food for at least a month now. We tried a bit of the baby cereal the last couple weeks which she is not into at all. We gave her a carrot the other day which the jury is still out on. Speaking of food, there are still no signs of teething, except for the fact that she loves to chew on everything.

Jane started rolling over from her front to her back the day she turned 5 months old. A couple weeks later, she started rolling over from her back to her front and now she is occasionally log rolling around the room. I will put her on her play mat and then find her somewhere else (not too far away). She also is enjoying sitting up, but I still don't leave her sitting up by herself because she is not very stable yet. She discovered both her hands and her feet this month, which has been quite amusing to watch. She is also loving grabbing things, particularly rings and rattles. These toys seem to amuse her for awhile each time! She still likes putting her hands in her mouth but in a surprising turn of events, will now take the pacifier when she's tired! She still won't really use it during the day, but at night time she will use it.

Jane is starting to get a little bit of separation anxiety and definitely notices when someone other than Chris or I are holding her. She also talks and squeaks up a storm. Her eyes are starting to show some hints of either brown or green, so we know they won't be blue much longer.

Jane generally sleeps very well in her crib, going to bed around 7:30 and getting up around 6:30. She occasionally wakes up in the early morning, but not always. She also doesn't eat at night anymore, which is good for my sleep! She naps at least twice a day (sometimes three) but naps aren't on any sort of schedule yet so they're not always long ones, though they occasionally are. Jane is very good humored and absolutely loves watching Eleanor and all her antics.

Eleanor at six months for comparison:

Jane at one, two, three, four, and five months old.

Six months

Eleanor is now six months old! At her six month appointment she weighed 16 pounds, 8 ounces (63rd percentile), was 26.6 inches long (82nd percentile and almost 40% of the way to my adult height), and her head circumference was 16.5 inches (35th percentile). She is growing very proportionally and now that she's six months old, we are going to get a little more serious about starting real food. So far we've tried carrots, broccoli, green beans, lentils, and peas. We have started sitting down for dinner as a family on the nights that I'm not working and Eleanor seems to love eating with us, though she is not that adept at actually eating yet.

Eleanor loves to sit and we now only use the boppy for safety while she's sitting rather than support (if her ball rolls away she likes to dive after it with no regard for the floor). Her drooling has slowed down because this past month she cut her first two teeth! It seems that her bedtime is getting earlier the older she gets as she gets more tired from all her activity. She is usually in her crib by about 7 most nights now and up around 7 in the morning. She regressed with her sleep habits over the last month while she was teething and sick with respiratory issues prior to that, but we are now back to feeding only once at night, which we hope to cut out after she gets the hang of eating food a little better. She is consistently sleeping in her crib now that she isn't sick or teething with a visit to our room only once to eat each night.

Eleanor at one, two, three, four, and five months.

Ben is seven months old!

Ben is seven months old today! He still doesn't love to put weight on his legs, but is kicking harder these days, so we know it's coming. He reliably rolls from front to back now, almost every time you put him on his belly. There are no sign of teeth yet, except for excessive amounts of drool! He also has eyes that are slowing changing from blue to brown (I think). Our boy has found his voice. He loves to talk, laugh, giggle, smile, and when he cries now it's not often as soft and pathetic sounding as it used to be. He is letting us know he's there! He is still a great sleeper at night and has spent the last month sleeping in our room. The crib transition is coming soon, but since he's such a great sleeper, we really haven't wanted to rock the boat with him! Ben remains very iffy on his naps. If I get him down right on time, he'll sleep for hours, but if he's not in his bed and swaddled, there is no napping. He takes either 1 or 2 naps a day now.

A big move for Ben this month was starting baby food. So far none of my kids (including Rosie) have liked baby food and have just pushed it all out of their mouth making a huge mess and frustration for me, so we just waited until they wanted regular food and fed them that. Ben on the other had LOVES food. We stick him in the bumbo seat, and when he sees the food come out he starts smiling and kicking. He cries in between spoonfuls as if I can't shovel it fast enough. I'm hoping this will help him catch up in weight gain! Ben is still wearing three month clothes.

Ben at one, two, three, four, five, and six months old.

Ben and Rosie:

All the kids at seven months!

And for fun this month because the big girls wanted to be a part of everything, our best attempt at a picture of all the kids together:

Eleanor at seven months.
Jane at seven months.
Rosie at seven months.

Rosie is seven months old!

Rosie is seven months old today! She is rolling all over the place! I will stick her on the playmat and she will end up part way across the room. She is sitting up pretty well now, but I still leave the boppy behind her so she doesn't hit her head when she falls down. She doesn't have any teething signs yet, except for some drooling, but certainly less than her brother! Her eyes seem to be changing from blue to brownish/green. She loves to play with toys especially blocks and a crinkly giraffe . Rosie continues to be great and happy during the day hours and absolutely awful at night. She has been waking every 3 hours to eat, which can sometimes mean 10pm, 1am, 4am, and then finally 7am. I think we may have to move her to the crib first, and then bring her brother in later after she has adjusted. Rosie takes great naps. She generally takes two a day. We tried to start baby food with Rosie this month and while she seems to enjoy the taste, she just doesn't seem to be into actually swallowing anything. We will keep trying next month and maybe she will catch on. Rosie is still wearing three month clothes.

Rosie at one, two, three, four, five, and six months old.

Ben and Rosie:

All the kids at seven months!

And this month, because the big girls wanted to be a part of everything, a picture of all the kids today...our best attempt.

Eleanor at seven months.
Jane at seven months.
Rosie at seven months.

Eleven months

At eleven months old, Eleanor has learned several new things. First, she can take a few steps by herself, and can stand up from a seated position without touching anything by rocking forward onto her hands and feet and then standing up from a squat. She's gone a grand total of about 3 feet distance-wise and seven steps. I'm not sure I would fully consider this walking, but she's trying. She also has finally gotten some new teeth! She is currently working on her top four incisors. She first broke her left lateral incisor, then her right central, and the rest are still buried - hope to see them soon. It only took about six months, but they're finally coming in. Besides the sounds she was making last month, she can now say the word "dog." Whenever we go out on our walks, she points (another new thing) and says "dog" when we pass one. I would count this as her first real word outside of "mama" and "dad." She's drinking from her straw cup unassisted - she pulls it off the table and holds it herself when she wants some water. She also recently started taking Chris' spoon in the morning when he is done with his yogurt, dipping it into the (empty) cup and then putting it in her mouth. Also, after we get her out of the bath, I hand her her brush while I'm getting her dressed and she "brushes" her hair, though usually with the wrong side of the brush. She turns the pages of her books during story time at night, and she is able to put rings back on her toys once she pulls them off. She can also catch her ball (in her lap) and pick it up and throw it back.

We've got a very cute little lady on our hands and we plan to enjoy this last month before she turns a year old taking a couple vacations with her.

Eleanor at one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten months.