Week 3 down and going so strong!!

As we enter our fourth week as a family of four, I am certain, now more than ever, that parenting is not for sissies! Learning to operate around feed times and exist on a few hours of sleep in a week is actually possible, now that we've had both of our beautiful children home for almost a week. It's amazing how much love GOD gives us, even when screaming her head off at 3am, all we want to do is kiss our little Gracie and tell her how wonderful she is. Even when I'm changing Eli's nappy, for the second time in a row and he jet-propels poop into my hand, I still think he's the cutest little guy ever. And a little note to whoever said that breasmilk poop doesn't smell... it does.



Feeds at 2am seem to work best in the lounge with a hot cup of coffee and the movie channel on in the background. We tried doing the graveyard shifts in the bedroom, but wow, trying staying awake in a dark, warm, sweet smelling room with soft baby music on... not going to happen. Hence, lots of light, lots of action and we live through it. The best is when we've finally settled them, so chuffed that we've done everything in under an hour, slither into bed (because only two muscles are still operational) and then hear Grace or Eli start their pre-cry sob (which sound identical, by the way)... then race to the room to get the responsible child out in time before they wake their sibling... However, we have found that they seem to be resilient to one another's cries. It's almost like they lie awake in their cots planning who's turn it is next to get mom and dad to come racing through the door. We will look back and laugh, one day.



Whenever we wake them, which we actually try really hard not to do, both Grace and Eli have their stretches to do... it's important, you know. Generally they're really good about having their nappies changed but Grace likes to let you know if you've woken her too early. Eli normally just lies there and stares philosophically at the ceiling. One day he may actually define the meaning of life.






Eli is really enjoying his bathing, we wish Grace would too, but she'll get there. We keep telling her that one day we won't be able to get her out of the bathroom, I don't think she believes us, she's not really too responsive. We have put Eli into size 1 nappies now, they're still a little too big, but at least he's well covered!




After dressing them only in pink (just Gracie...), green and blue baby grows, we decided to venture outside of the cottage with them and took a walk around Clearwater mall in search of some cute clothes. Eli's new blue vest was modelled very nicely, Grace refused... hence no nice pic... The trip was a great success. We got to use our turbo pram and really turned heads. All the ladies stopped to comment to Ella and try peek at the twins (who were safely covered in blankets!). The guys were all impressed with the steering wheel of the pram, my favourite part. However, even with a steering wheel, I still managed to hit a few isle displays.



They sleep in their own cots, but when Grace came home on Wednesday, we put them in Eli's bed for a little while. He smiled (probably just a wind) but she didn't look too impressed.

Today we made a second trip to the shops, this time we needed to start buying Christmas things. We bought an awesome tree from Pick 'n Pay Hyper and will be following our family's cue and setting up our house this evening - our first Christmas in JHB and our first Christmas with the twins - AWESOME!

We stopped off at the Woolies cafe for some coffee and had a moment to feed the twins, they were so well behaved! We need to keep them wrapped up because people can't resist the urge to try and touch them, something we were warned about in ICU. Either way, we're getting more and more confident in taking them out on trips. We're going to try some more shopping on Thursday morning - will let you know how that goes!