Parenting in 2010 (Part 2)

Or... What else can new parents spend their hard-earned money on?

Bottle Labels

Colette and Janina gave us personalized bottle labels with Aiden and Reid's names on them. Before we received them, we were using the "Aiden on the left, Reid on the right" system of remembering whose bottle was whose. In the middle of the night, I would fumble the bottles and by the time I made it to the fridge, I wasn't sure I had it straight. Now that we have the labels, no more second guessing!

(Of course, no system is fool-proof. Initially, I put a light blue ribbon on Aiden's pacifier and a dark blue ribbon on Reid's. It took a couple of days of continuously retying Reid's ribbon, before it dawned on me that we only needed one pacifier to have a ribbon. Tonight, Eric was searching for Aiden's pacifier. We found it in Reid's mouth. Whoops. At least it took me 9 weeks before I made that error. That's pretty good. Right?)

Monkey Chairs
We refer to them as their "monkey chairs", but I think they're officially known as bouncers.



We're starting to zero in on more of a routine for the boys. Part of this routine is to feed them from bottles before they go to bed. I considered not doing any bottle-feeding when Eric was out of town, but when I heard of some babies refusing to take the bottle after a break from them, I knew we needed to continue. To be able to feed them at the same time when I am by myself, I put the boys in their monkey chairs, sit on the floor with my arms propped on my knees, and they feed away. I do realize that we're lucky to have seemingly non-picky eaters who don't mind drinking from the occasional bottle from a variety of friends and relatives who have helped us out.

BOB Double Jogging Stroller
The boys supervising the construction of the stroller from their monkey chairs. Well... Aiden supervised; Reid took a siesta.

We already have one stroller frame that holds the boys' car seats. However, once they out grow their car seats, we will need a different stroller. Who knew that would be such an agonizing decision. I started researching options in December. I finally settled on a BOB stroller. It was a hard decision because these are insanely expensive. But I felt that it was going to best fit for all of our needs and was lucky to have several Amazon gift cards that I had saved from Christmas and my birthday. It just arrived a couple of days ago and I love it. Eventually, I hope to actually jog while using it.

Our first stroll was over to my parents' house while my dad was supervising the movers.




This morning, we strolled over to the pond. Hello, geese.


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Made chocolate cake tonight. Found the recipe on my cousin's, prom-date's, mom's blog. Easy and yummy.
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Finally... in the "how to comfort two at the same time" category, I present the double-decker hold:

2 Month Checkup

The stats:
Aiden - 22 inches, 10 lbs, 14 oz.
Reid - 23.25 inches, 11 lbs, 4 oz.

Reid may be the bruiser for now, but Aiden is still much stronger.

The boys also endured their first set of shots. The nurse was lightening fast, so there wasn't too much crying at the doctor's office. They were a little bit fussier than normal tonight, but were wiped out when we put them to bed. By the way, this is their 3rd night in their cribs. Now that they're done with the oxygen, no more living room nursery.



Their first doctor's office stickers for being good- Mr. Potato Head stickers.
(I'm collecting stuff to put in their baby books, which I'm hoping to get done before they head to college. Plus, I really want to see Toy Story 3. Yeah, the stickers were more for their mama than anything.)

2 Months Old! (June 23rd, 2010)

The adventures of the Brusven Boys continues...

Snuggling after eating:


Going for a walk and seeing a hot air balloon:






Discovering that couches are best for napping:



Crying:


More crying:


Even more crying:


Post crying:


Tummy time:
(Aiden is still dominating in the strength category, but Reid is giving it a shot.)




2 months old:






Aiden:


Reid:

Happy Father's Day!

[Dad and Marlowe, Happy Father's Day too!]

Thursday II

On Tuesday night we had the boys' pulse-ox levels tested overnight. This meant taking them off of the supplemental oxygen while machines read their levels. When their levels dipped below 88%, an alarm sounded. I've heard of parents having to have their babies hooked to one of these machines for weeks, if not months. That would be hell. Our boys' levels looked great, but if they were too active, then the machines' alarms would sound. I can't imagine going through that night after night.
Throughout most of the night, their levels were between 94-96%. (We know this because Eric barely got a lick of sleep as he monitored the machines. I managed to fall asleep in between the alarms.) Unfortunately, we haven't heard back from the doctor yet with the results.
I guess that hasn't stopped me from being a little rebelious because I ended up not hooking the boys back up to the oxygen. I was going to last night, but forgot to do so before I gave them the bedtime feeding. They looked great througout the day today, so I decided to leave them off again tonight. It can be challenging to manage everything when it's just me and the boys. Having them off of the oxygen over the past 48 hours has been so liberating.
In fact, we even went to watch part of AJ's baseball game. We arrived during the 4th innings which I thought was a pretty amazing feat. Eventually, we'll arive for opening pitch.
Here are the boys sacked out as I stop off to get the mail. (Mom & Dad- more junk mail for you. Although, the other day you did have three letters from Comcast.)

Hanging out this evening... I love that they're now smiling in response to us.
(In the following pictures: Reid, Aiden, Aiden-left, Reid-right)






And finally... Aiden's feet. Awwww! Aren't they the cutest!

Thursday

It is Thursday? Right?
Here are some pictures from the past few days.