20 weeks old

Love these blue eyes...

Happy, happy!

He's wrapped:)

EATING- We are trying cereal!  We started on Tuesday and Mac fussed most of the time and looked shocked when I shoved it in his mouth and Mae spit all of it out with a smirk on her face. She didn't fuss or get upset, she just stared at me casually like she was saying "are you kidding me?"  Too funny.  But, each day has steadily improved and I think Mac "may" actually like it now. The jury is still out on Mae. She was frustrated with it last night, spit it all out and got fussy for her bottle. I'm hoping with adding cereal that we can change up our routine a little and get rid of the 10pm bottle. Our pediatrician says we can't drop it yet but we've moved it up to 9:30pm and after this week, I plan to move it up again and then hopefully just eliminate it. 

SLEEPING- I don't know if our little Mac man will ever be able to go un-swaddled:).  I don't know why it has taken me this long to figure it out but this seems to be the ONLY reason why he wakes up. I have a sleep sack that I've tried him in but he sleeps SO MUCH BETTER swaddled. The problem is, he is busting out of the largest velcro swaddle blanket that I can find. So, we had to get creative.  Now, we swaddle him in a very lightweight summer blanket and zip him up in the sleep sack.  Last night, he sleep until 4:15 straight and then needed his paci but then woke up at 5:15 for good.  Sometimes I think we are doing great because in way, he is basically sleeping from 7:30-5:15 (plus the dreamfeed) with a few early morning stirrings. However, when I talk to others I begin to question it. So, I think I prefer to just live in my own land of oblivion and feel like we are doing well in the sleep area.

Mae is still doing well. Last night she woke up twice but that is unusual for her. She is just so funny--she's a mover and shaker. She moves ALL over the crib. We never know where we will find her in the morning. Lately, she is chilling with her feet on top of the video monitor when we find her most mornings. Sometimes, if she busts out of the swaddle, then she has her arms hanging out between the crib rails. It's really hysterical looking. The best thing is, she is un-phased by any of it. Either she doesn't wake up easily or she falls back to sleep quickly because we seldomly hear from her. And, since she doesn't take a paci, I don't have to worry about that. She's quite the ideal sleeper right now.  

ACTIVITIES- Mac is really babbling a lot these days. Mae doesn't babble as much but she did discover a squeaking sound that she can make so she likes to entertain herself with that. We got the exersaucer out and they both seem to be amused with it so far. They also seem to love being outside. They are both doing much better with head control and they love to smile at you when you talk to them. 

MILESTONES-  Mae laughed!  She is much more subtle in her milestones but she definitely let out a laugh one day last week.  They have been SO happy the last couple of days...it's blissful.  However, last week and earlier this week was kind of an off week for M&M. They seemed more fussy and less pleasant than they normally are and I felt like we were digressing with Mac's sleep which was frustrating since I feel like I really try hard to promote good sleep habits and they are getting older so they should be sleeping better. ANYWAY, awhile back, I purchased the book the Wonder Weeks because I had heard from several friends how interesting it is. So, I decided to pull it out and ironically enough, one of the Wonder Weeks occurs at around 19 weeks (or between 18 and 20 weeks). Since M&M were 5 weeks early, I'm never sure if I should age adjust or not so I'll just see how this correlates moving forward. During a Wonder Week, it says to expect changes like increased fussiness, loss/gain of appetite, less sleep, etc. The basic concept of the book is to be able to anticipate fussy periods in babies during times of extreme developmental growth--whether we can see the signs of it visibly or not. It could be sheer coincidence but I felt like something was off last week and sure enough, they are already better (especially Mac) over the past few days. It will be interesting to see if this aligns for the next Wonder Week which typically occurs around 26 weeks.  

COMING UP NEXT- We are headed to Louisiana!  Family road trip!  We will be like the Clampett's rolling into town but we couldn't miss the Parnell Kids Birthday Bash. We can't wait---we are really excited to see everyone!  But, before we head out of town, we are excited to be having a Memorial Day grill out at our house on Sunday afternoon--we are having several friends over to just hang out, grill and maybe play some cards.