It's vaccination time!!

Yesterday Hannah and Scott had their 2-month shots. Jason had to take them to the doctor all by himself; I was at work. They screamed a lot, he said, but they fell asleep in the car on the way home. 1 shot in the left leg and 2 shots in the right leg. Hannah got a Strawberry Shortcake and a Barbie band-aid. Scott got a Spongebob Squarepants and a Wiggles band-aid.

Jason got some major "street cred" with the nurses. They said he was "brave" for bringing them there all by himself. As a man, apparently, he gets credit for even minor things--even, as he says, from the "cute young nurses."

Hannah slept 9 hrs. last night! Well, almost 9. She needed to be changed sometime during the night. But no bottle! Scott lasted 6 or 7 hrs without a bottle, with 1 diaper change. Yaayyy. Tuesday night they both slept almost 8 hrs. Please keep it up, babies!

Today Hannah and Scott's legs hurt from the shots -- it's baby Tylenol for them! Every time I call Jason at home from work I hear crying babies! Poor Jason! My Dad is there helping out; Jason is taking on our messy house today.

Tommorow Jason's Aunt Jackie is flying in from Chicago to see the twins. Yay! And I get to sleep tommorow. Yay! (Plenty of willing hands to hold a couple of babies while I enjoy a much-needed nap!)

-P

Growin'!

The twins sure are growing! We'll get the "official" stats from the doctor's office when we go in for their two month shots on Wednesday, but we did some measuring of our own late last week. Hannah is 22" long, Scott is about 21 1/2" long. We figure they must weigh between 9 1/2 - 10 lbs each now. They're supposed to put on about an ounce a day at first. I would guess Scott's still doing that... but Hannah can go 5 or 6 hours sometimes now without a feeding, so she may have slowed down a bit on the weight gain.

Both are in good health - Scottie still has spit-up problems, but we'll talk to the doctor about that on Wednesday. Hannah gets stuffed up occasionally, but she's had a cold for about 2 weeks now, so that's not surprising. The doctor's office tells us it could last another week.

That's all for now!
- J

2 months old!

Yesterday the twins turned two months old! Sorry, babies, no birthday cake for you yet. I did offer prune juice-flavored formula, but no takers.

Sorry, babies, no presents for you either. But they had presents for us. Lots of presents...in their pants... Every day is a celebration!

Sometimes I think Hannah and Scott are psychic. The second you sit down and get comfortable, then they start fussing...again...even though you just rocked them for 20 minutes...again... What's wrong with this picture?

-P

Fun times

Ok, now a serious post! The twins are advancing so quickly! Hannah rolled from her belly to her back for the first time last weekend. We haven't been able to get her to do it again yet, but she's *very* close!

Scottie on the other hand is getting very good with his hands. I caught him clasping them together yesterday. Sometimes he's able to push his pacifier in with his fist when it begins to fall out of his mouth.

Both are doing push-ups like a marine corp recruit. They are able to pull their legs under their body too! They just need to get it all working together.

I'll bet they're crawling before the first snowfall.

- J
(One proud pappa)

Never plan again

Twins + Plans by daddy = total failure. It can be abbreviated as SMWT + PD = :-( .

I've given up on planning until the twins are at least 36 years old. I love 'em to death, but they seem to take extra pride in ruining any plans I put together for them. I wanted to start putting them to bed around 8 pm, then go to sleep so I could get some uninterrupted sleep before mommy gets home.

It's happened once in the last 3 weeks.

The joy of children... times two! ;-)

- J

Baby Shower -- Meet the babies!

The twins are just under 2 months. Saturday my Mom (Grandma CC) had a shower/open house for Scott and Hannah. It was fun!

Among the visitors were their:
Nana, Pop-pop and Aunt Amy Mueller
Great Grandma Bear
Great Grandma Conrad
Great Aunt Carol Warren (and one of her daughters, Sarah, and her friend)
Great Aunt Patti and Great Uncle Chris Conrad (and their children, Dana Jay and Claire)
Great Aunt Kathleen and Great Uncle Mike Conrad (and their son, Cameron, and his wife, Susie)
Kim Swanson, a long-time family friend (and her daughter, Nicole)
Chris Klema, a long-time family friend
Aunt Jenny and Uncle Scott McGillivray
Auntie Amanda Conrad (and her long-time boyfriend, Rob)
and Grandma CC and Grandpa Conrad (it was their house!)

There was food and badminton and cake and frosty adult beverages!

Thank you to all those who have sent cards and gifts. We have everything we need, thanks to you!
We miss those of you who couldn't make it; the babies send their love.

Scott weighed in at 8 lbs. 11 oz on Wednesday; Hannah would be a little heavier, most likely 9 lbs. My big babies! Everyone says they're still really light, but tell my poor achy arms that! :-)

-P

Back to normal... kinda

Life is slowly going back to normal. I just accepted a job today doing voiceover work for an internet streaming video company. It's just part time right now (so I can be with the kids while Pauline is at work) but should quickly ramp up in the next month or so.

The twins are getting into a routine. They're still not sleeping too long during the night, but they show signs of getting there (sleeping for 4 hours at a time now!)

We get to watch our first Minnesota Vikings game together. Hannah's pretty excited about Randy Moss coming back to the dome - even if he's wearing black and silver. Scott is working on his "Packers PU" sign. I think he's done a great job with it. What do you think?


(click on image to enlarge)

Not bad for a 7 week old, eh??

- J

Video - it's a good thing

Eureka! It works. I was able to add this video to the site tonight. It's the first day Scott and Hannah were in the NICU. In fact, it was filmed about 30 minutes after their birth. It's not too long... just 3-4 minutes. Click on the play button in the box below to see the video. It's about 6 mb, so if you have a dial-up connection it will take a while to load. It's a streaming video, so you can start watching it while the download finishes up.



FYI - Scott is in the isolet on the left (the first baby shown). Hannah is in the isolet on the right.

- J

Studio photos

Here are the photos from the Super Mueller Wonder Twins' first studio sitting...


(click on an image to enlarge)

Hope you enjoy them - we had a lot of fun picking them out!

- J

Needed: Biohazard Suit

Holy cow. You wouldn't believe the kinds of things a little boy can turn formula into when he's done with it! If Scott keeps this dirty diaper thing up, we may have to apply for a permit to store his diapers in Yucca Mountain.

Hannah's no slouch in the dirty diaper contest - but she is at least a little lady-like!

On a side note... I'm hoping to post a few short videos to the site this weekend. I'm going to start putting together a DVD of all the footage we have and I'll put a few on the site when I'm done.

- J

"Will work for formula!"

$27.73 for a 2 lb. 4 oz. can of Similac Isomil Advance powdered soy-based formula at Sam's Club, which will last less than 2 weeks of feedings. There is a Sam's Club generic version for less, but we'll have to ask their pediatrician about it.

And you won't believe how many diapers the babies go through! Well, maybe you can guess... The babies are changed at least every feeding, which is 8 times a day. But little miss pee-pants Hannah and prune juice-assisted Scott go through about twice that amount per day. Pee Yew! At least we can buy Huggies in bulk at Sam's Club -- as well as bulk baby wipes! We have 2 Diaper Genies -- they have to be emptied every few days!

We have about 18 bottles for both babies, which means scrubbing and sanitizing every night when I get home. I've heard of self-feeding bottles...

Life is fun with twins! Buy stock in Sam's Club, I think.

-P

Sucked into another dimension?

Sometimes it's a wonder how much time has passed. It seems like just yesterday the twins were born but now they're already more than 1 and a half months old! I guess time flies when you're not sleeping...? Wait, how does that work?

I really, really intend on getting out those birth announcements BEFORE the twins turn 1, I promise! I just need a few hours to put them together, which, of course, is virtually impossible.

Jason is job-hunting. The company he worked for eliminated his position, so he lost his job on the 18th. It works out okay for us temporarily (although not financially!) because he has the babies while I am at work. We will still be trying to hire a nanny once he finds a job. We have no idea how we're going to make it all work out.

It's nice to be working again, although I had mixed feelings about it. This is my first week back to work, and so far so good. I really need to sleep more, though. I do "first shift" with the babies at night while Jason sleeps, then we switch. But not everything goes according to plan and I haven't been lucky. I work Sunday through Thursday so this Friday or Saturday I may be able to sleep a while while Jason is home with the babies.

We have a tentative schedule planned out for when he starts working and we'll just have to see how it goes. OK babies, sleep through the night so we can sleep too!!

-P

Weekend fun

Oh what a weekend! We had so much fun. My Grandma Mueller, Aunt Linda (father's sister) Uncle Dan and my cousin Shannon all came to town to see the Super Mueller Wonder Twins. It was great to get to see everyone again. They loved the twins - I don't think those two spent a single minute in a crib for 3 days!

We've got a ton of photos I'll post soon. There's more to come too... Pauline's relatives are coming in to town a few weeks from now... and we're going to Chicago to visit more family in early September.

Busy time... now if we can only get the twins to sleep through the night.

- J

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I remember something called sleep... maybe I just read about it somewhere. I don't know anymore! ;-)

Life is going well. The twins had their first "photo shoot" last week. We'll be sending out pictures with birth announcements soon so you can see just how cute they look in a studio.

I'm working on putting a DVD together from all the hospital and just arrived home footage. I think I'll have it done before their first day of school.

aadsfi;jsdljfsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Sorry... I fell asleep on the keyboard. Pauline and I are more then a little tired. She goes back to work next week - so I'll be picking up the slack while I look for a new job. I'm hoping the twins figure out how to sleep through the night soon. There have been glimmers of hope - the other night they slept for 6 straight hours. Now if they can just have a repeat performance!

- J