14 weeks

Kaden and Kaleiah are 14 weeks old this week! I can't believe they will soon be 4 months old!!!!! Because they are preemies they are still very much like new borns so I get to keep them as babies longer than most mommies do with theirs :) Developmentally they are about 9 weeks old.
New years eve they dropped a feeding all by themselves. Normally they would eat for example, at 3,6,9,12 etc and that night after their last night time feed we put them to bed and as usual settled in for our 2 hour "nap!" To our surprise we both woke up 4 hours later! We immediately went and checked on them and they were sleeping peacefully. Every night since then they have slept 4-7 hours in the middle of the night! Last night they were in bed by 10:30 and did not wake us up until 5:45! Randy and I both got a solid 5 hours! And the good news is it's only going to get better!

Also, they have both started to hold their heads up and it's so cute. We practice strengthening their necks with "tummy time." As you know, Kaleiah smiles all the time for us!! She recently starting cooing and it's soooooooo adorable!!!! She tries to imitate what I say like a little baby talk like "a goo!" Kaden is starting to do it as well! He is not as easy to get smiles out of yet though but when he does it's heart warming! They are getting so fun! But it also reminds me how fast they are changing which means they are already growing up! :(

Today was their second round of RSV shots to protect them from the nasty and potentially deadly respiratory virus that preemies are very susceptible to. I HATE when they have to get shots. There they are sleeping and warm and I have to undress them to get weight, temp taken and heart and lungs listened to. Then as they are laying on the table, content and just looking around, they get stabbed in their leg and totally caught off guard! Their faces turn purple and their cry is heart breaking :( Luckily it's only a moment or two and at least it's to protect them. Today we found out that Kaden weighs a hefty 10.07 lbs and Kaleiah 9.08! Here are some recent pix of our little blessings:
Oh and last week Randy and I went on a fabulous date while my mom and
grandma watched the babies:

More smiles for Mama!

Kaleiah is perfecting her smile by practicing :) Today when I was talking to her, she gave me about a dozen smiles and every time, my heart raced and felt like it was going to pop out of my chest! It's such an incredible feeling when you are talking to your baby and she lights up and smiles because she is starting to recognize you! It's so awesome. Kaden has only smiled a few times and I haven't been able to capture it yet! Enjoy the pix, they are soooooooo cute!

Christmas part 2

Christmas day is always spent at my parents in the morning and then Randy's parents in the afternoon. This year was the first time that we had every single child and grand child there all together at my parents. Inevitably someone is always missing so this year was extra special. There are 6 of us kids and we have 8 kids between us that have them. Also, my grandma was out from Iowa, we only see her every few years. It was a wonderful Christmas, not because of the presents but because of family. Because that's one of the things it's about. Here are some pictures from my parents Christmas, unfortunately we forgot to take any at Randy's parents :(

Christmas part 1

Every year Randy's family celebrates Christmas on Christmas eve in L.A at his grandparents house. We have not been able to go for the past 4 or 5 years because Randy works on Christmas eve. So this year they moved it to the 21st so that we could go and the babies could meet their Great Grandparents, great Aunt and Great Uncle for the first time!
It's quite a task to get the babies fed, changed and get everything packed up as well as try to find time for ourselves to get dressed but for something like this, we wouldn't miss it. Family is of the utmost important to us and even though the drive was far and the babies are still so young, we don't see that side of the family but a few times a year. It was so neat to see them with their great grand parents :)

Babies' first Christmas

Here are some cute pix we took for fun!

Smiles!

Today my baby girl smiled and it was the cutest thing ever!!!! I was able to get a video of another smile but it wasn't as big as the first! I can't wait until they smile all the time! They are 11 weeks and 1 day (Developmentally they are only about 6 weeks old so they are going to be behind on things for the first year bc they are preemies.) Along with starting to smile they are starting to try and hold their neck up. It's very cute. We are looking fwd to when they start sleeping longer than 3-4 hours at a time! That should be soon too.

Christmas Time

The babies are doing great. Kaden weighs 8.12 and Kaleiah weighs 8.4.



We got our first family Christmas tree last week!