Hellobee

It’s hard to believe that another month has passed, and our baby girls are growing quickly in front of our eyes! As I mentioned before in this post, the differences in our babies’ development seem pretty vast when they are so young. The differences have continued as Lilly has grown to three months old and Audrey to two months.

Physical

As before, our babies continue to be roughly the same size and they are still fitting in size 0-3 months clothing. However, we marked a new milestone when we recently stocked up on diapers and purchased size 2. We still are working through our last box of size 1 diapers, but probably by next week we will be slapping size 2 diapers on those cute little tushies!

The babies’ control of and interest in different parts of their bodies remains the biggest difference between Lilly and Audrey today. Our oldest is currently really into her mouth. She has been shoving things in her mouth for a couple of weeks now, and has reduced us to crying laughter the couple of times that she got really close to getting her whole fist in there. Drool and spit bubbles also have started to make a regular appearance.

 Lilly gobbling up that hand and grabbing her favorite toy with two hands.

Lilly also is starting to hold things in her hands when we help her out a little; in particular she likes to grab her Wubbanub like a little stuffed animal and also will keep a death grip on a small toy that has some rings on it for her to grab and hold on to.

In contrast, our younger daughter hasn’t yet shown any interest in her mouth and hands, and is not yet grabbing and holding toys. But she has come a long way in a month with much better muscle control. We haven’t seen crossed eyes in weeks, and she loves to sit in her bouncer and furiously kick her legs the way that our oldest did one month ago. She also now routinely sits on our laps and holds her head up on her own.

Despite Audrey hitting all the same milestones as Lilly did a month before, she does them with her own style. It just tickles me how Audrey will sit on our laps looking around with her chill, laid-back, quietly observant attitude in a totally different way than Lilly did a month ago with her giddy, excited, hyper style. It is so neat to watch them hit these milestones with their own personalities and quirks; similar and yet so unique and individual.

Last on the list of physical development is that both girls suffered through their first colds this past month. Let me just give a huge shout out to the Nose Frida in helping us through that not-so-delightful first. Don’t think we could have done it without you, you magical snot sucker!

Social

The biggest development on the social aspect is that we now have two smiling babies, and let me tell you, it is so fun and heart-warming! Our youngest still only smiles periodically and is pretty shy in doling out her smiles, but our oldest might as well be nicknamed “Miss Smiley.” Lilly smiles every time that I read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, every time that I sing The Wheels on the Bus, and she even busts out that adorable smile while getting her diaper changed!

Left: A smile from Lilly  |  Right: and a smile from Audrey 

Our youngest is getting very expressive and we love watching Audrey’s hilarious facial expressions. She seems to react so much to the world around her and with one look, she can perfectly sum up how she is feeling whether that is happy, sad, confused, or disgusted!

 Miss Audrey’s face is so expressive. She can look dismayed and entranced and flabbergasted!

Within the past month, the girls (and their parents) had a big social transition to make as I went back to work and our nanny started full time. I’m happy to report that all of us made the transition successfully and without any major hiccups. Our nanny loves to get the girls out of the house and socializing with other babies in the neighborhood. We’re not quite sure yet if it’s due to age or personality, but Lilly loves all of the activities and pays close attention to story tellers and singers on her outings while Audrey oftentimes sleeps through them or gets fussy.

Classic twinbling outing. Miss Audrey quiet and observant on the left; Miss Lilly excited and hyper on the right.

Another difference is that little Audrey continues to love snuggling and will regularly curl up in the baby carrier while Lilly only likes to look at everyone and everything.

Enjoying some of those amazing Audrey snuggles!

Sleep

Nighttime sleep is still pretty different for the girls. Our oldest daughter has started to gravitate to a bedtime between 6 and 7PM, and is usually very good at going to sleep. We have a bedtime routine that includes one song from the mobile and four bedtime stories, and we then move her to her crib where she falls asleep on her own. She only wakes one time in the middle of the night, usually around 2AM, gulps down a bottle and gets a quick change, and is asleep again quickly. I once timed the nighttime waking for Lilly and it took only 10 minutes, from waking to sleep!

Audrey, on the other hand, is our night owl. Within the past week, we’ve been including her in Lilly’s bedtime routine but she doesn’t usually seem sleepy for at least an hour after her older sister. So we are not able to simply put her down in her crib and expect her to fall asleep on her own. Almost always, we take Audrey back downstairs with us to try to help her get to sleep after we leave Lilly alone in her crib. During the nights, Audrey still wakes 2-3 times and it takes her significantly longer to eat and go back to sleep than her older sister.

Daytime sleep is pretty similar between the two babies, and the biggest development here is that the girls now sleep in their cribs for daytime naps. I credit our nanny with this positive change as she had them regularly napping in the nursery for all naps within one week of starting!

Eating and Diapers

Despite being a month apart in age, the girls eat about the same number of ounces in a day. Over the past month, I weaned pumping and so now they are exclusively being fed formula. We were fortunate in that they didn’t seem to mind this transition at all and it went pretty seamlessly for them (not so much for mom, as I detailed in this post).

We continue to struggle with our older baby’s eating. With her increased hand strength, she now regularly pushes her bottle away with her hands. She doesn’t like to eat very much at all and she will fight us on it. On the flip side, her younger sister is an efficient and happy little eater.

As for diapers, we are all over the place on this one! Some days, the girls will only soil five diapers each and other days it is double that amount. I’ll be happy (and I’m sure the nanny will be too!) when we get those numbers lower and more consistent.

On the whole, it has been a month full of change for the Starfish baby girls – mom back to work and the nanny taking care of them during the day, a transition from breast milk to formula, and new nap routines. I look forward to the next month, and can’t wait to update you all on their continued progress!