The Twins Update - 3 Months Old

Constant change is here to stay...

Leo and Zoe have left infancy behind and are solidly on baby ground. I can't believe we got through the first three months already! Unfortunately, things aren't really getting easier at this point. It's more of a mixed bag. Sure, they are cuter and more interesting now, feedings are shorter and less frequent, nighttime sleep is longer, and they aren't so delicate, but the rapid rate of change is often leaving me confused. Should I keep them awake more? Is this a growth spurt or what? Can they handle a road trip? And what the heck do I do when there is no "they," but when one has completely different needs than the other? When things change so quickly, having two babies becomes more than double the work. All the little facts that I need to keep in my head about each baby can be overwhelming.

Still, we love these two little beings. They are each so awesome in their own ways, and they are special as a pair as well. Here are some highlights from the last month.



We finally got Leo's reflux under control and he is a much happier baby! Now we can see which parts of his personality were due to the pain he was in. He is still very physical, but he is not so squirmy anymore. In fact, Zoe might be the squirmy one at this point. He is also not always the first one to cry. Zoe is still the calmer of the two, but I wouldn't call Leo a spitfire anymore. What a relief that he isn't in constant pain! And what a relief that we can put him on his back to sleep again. No more car seat in the crib. That was a huge hassle. Also, how freaking cute is this?



Leo is also a happier guy now that he has found his thumb. I can't believe how cute I find the thumbsucking. It was especially endearing to watch him struggle to get it. Here's a video of him working on it right before he mastered the skill. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I try to keep up with trimming his nails, he seems to cut up his nose and face while sucking his thumb.

Leo rolled over once, from his tummy to his back. Again, it was super-awesome to watch him struggle and succeed. I don't know if he'll be doing it regularly, though. He hasn't been able to repeat it since. I remember Sam did the same thing - rolled over very early but then lost the skill for quite a while.

Zoe, on the other hand, seems almost ready to roll over from her back to her tummy. She likes to sleep on her side, so she can get into that position quite easily, and it's not too much of a leap for her to keep going. Turning over onto the tummy is a more advanced skill than Leo's way, but some babies do accomplish it first. It's all about values!

Zoe's "toaster head" seems to be diminishing. Her skull and face are a bit rounder instead of rectangular. This makes her a whole lot cuter. And I suppose I'm shallow, but the cuter she gets, the more I love her. Hey, they don't do all that much yet so how they look is relatively more important than it will be later, right???

Both Zoe and Leo started out with the standard Caucasian baby dark blue eyes. But Leo's are getting lighter and brighter, and Zoe's are becoming a murky color which sometimes looks green. I'm sure Leo will end up with blue eyes and Zoe with brown. And their hair color seems to have stuck so far: Leo has a dark blond, and Zoe has a rich brown. Oh, they look nothing alike and I love it that way!

Both Zoe and Leo are working with their hands. Leo is a bit ahead, batting hanging objects around with abandon and occasionally grabbing them. Zoe can't grab as well, and you can tell she is less interested in working on it. Her interest lies in the mirror. She can look at herself for an hour and be perfectly content, making her sweet cooing noises. She is also more interested than Leo in other people's faces, and continues to have that searching, questioning gaze that she has had from birth. Only now she'll punctuate her staring with smiles and coos, especially with Sam. Zoe is seriously in love with her big sister. Leo is working on his vision also, be he tends to like the patterns on his mobile more than faces. What do you know, I even have a photo to show the difference between them:



Maybe the most exciting development is that the twins became aware of each other this month! We can lie them down next to each other and sometimes they'll look at each other and coo and make faces. Sometimes they try to touch each other. One time, they were lying this way and I gave Zoe a sucker. As she began to suck on it, Leo started making sucking noises, too. I tried to give him his sucker but he didn't want it. He was just relating to Zoe! That right there makes having twins worth all the extra effort.



Both Leo and Zoe will put a bit of weight on their feet. Leo much more so than Zoe. But they both do it and it's new to me. I don't think Sam did this at all until she was about a year old. Maybe we won't have late-walkers this time around, although I'm not sure that's such a good thing. Sam's way was very pleasant. But who knows, maybe Leo and Zoe will actually crawl. (Sam never crawled, but just scooted on her bottom.) I'd love to have crawlers.

Leo has slept through the night twice, and Zoe has done it once. And I'm not talking about the 5-6 hours that Babycenter.com thinks counts as sleeping through the night. Pshaw. My awesome kids have been doing that for weeks. I say it only counts if the adult goes to sleep and wakes up in the morning without having had fed the baby. To my dismay, Adam has reaped the rewards of all three instances - we trade off babies at night and it was his turn each time. I'm sure my time will come.

I continue to call Zoe "Zo-Zo" and it still fits. Adam calls her "ZZ-Top," or just "Z." Sammy made up the combined nickname of "ZZ-Top and Leo-Bop," but otherwise we don't have any real nicknames for Leo. Sometimes we call him our Lion, but that's more of a term of endearment. And then there are the accidentals. Adam calls me Sam when he is angry at me (ha!). Sam mixes up Leo and Zoe occasionally. I've accidentally called Zoe both "Sammy" and "Chloe" (a friend of Sam's). And Leo? For some reason, I have more than once accidentally called him "puppy." It comes out of me just like Zo-Zo does for Zoe. I think I might just go with it, strange as it is.

Here they are, our emergent children: