Christmas in St. Louis

Sorry it took me a while to update the blog. We spent Christmas at my dad and step mom's house in St. Louis. We drove with the girls from Chicago - what usually is a 5 hour drive became an 8 hour trek on Christmas Eve. Between the snow fall, the traffic, stopping to feed and change them twice... it was a long trip to say the least. But once we got there it was well worth it since there was a house full of people to help us out with the babies and give mommy and daddy some time to just relax and hang out. We went to church Christmas morning and were pleasantly surprised that the girls actually slept the entire service! Rob and I were on the aisle seats ready to scoop them outta there at the first sign of a melt down, but we were proud that they were perfect little angels sleeping in their carriers the whole time. Thanks to Grandpa Richard and Grandma Linda for hosting such a Merry Chrismas for all of us!

Here are some pictures from the last few days.

After Christmas Morning Church

The whole family

Daddy and Livi

Livi staring at Grandpa

Mommy and Caroline

Double Trouble

Grandma Linda and Liney

Aunt Nessa

Uncle Jme holding Caroline

My dad and sister

Yeah! Exercise!!!

I made it to the kickboxing class at my gym this morning for the FIRST time since I was about 4 months pregnant. Of course it kicked my butt and I'll be sore for days, but it felt soooo good to be able to do it! Hopefully I'll be able to work this back into my weekly routine. Daddy stayed home with the girls and when I called from my cell to check on him all I heard was crying babies in the background and a slightly panicked voice from Rob. :) Today our mission is gift wrapping and laundry. Tomorrow we'll be heading over to Aunt Kari and Uncle Jay's house to have Christmas with the Krupa side. We'll be sure to get lots of cute pictures of the girls with their only cousins (so far) - James and Katie. Fun!

Pictures & Videos

Olivia always passes out in this positionMommy & Caroline


Smooches

Charlie watching over Livi

Our other child

Not much new to report here. Rob's parents came over to watch the girls on Sunday so we could get out and do our Christmas shopping. This was the first time that I had left my house in 6 days! We were on a mission since this would be our only chance and managed to get gifts for everyone on our list in about 3 hours. Looking forward to Christmas.

A quick video I took of them the other day.

2 Months Old!

The girls are two months old today, adjusted age - 2 weeks. We had our 2 month check-up at the pediatrician yesterday and both girls checked out just fine. They are gaining weight and growing well and had to get their synagis shots as well as two other vaccination shots. 3 shots each! Poor babies. It broke my heart to watch them scream and little tears roll down their cheeks. Caroline is 8lbs even and finally hit the 5th% on the full term charts (she would be at the 50% on the adjusted charts comparing her to other 2 weekers). Olivia weighed in at 9lb, 2.5oz which puts her in the 10th% (75th% on the adjusted chart). I keep asking about the quite noticeable size difference between them, but the doctor doesn't seem concerned. She says they are individuals and will grow at different paces. We continue to add the high calorie formula supplement to Caroline's breast milk bottles and hope that she catches up to her sister soon. Here's a picture of the girls ready to head out to the doctor yesterday. I put them in these warm body suits that are still huge on them even though they are the newborn size! It was hilarious.


And here is a picture of our neice and Goddaughter, Katie. She is just too precious for words! I had to post the picture.

Can't get enough of these babies

My dad and step mom left yesterday morning to head back to St. Louis. It was just a short visit, but great having them here as Rob and I got a chance to get out to the gym a couple times and were able to run a couple errands too. And Linda's cooking never goes unappreciated! Thanks again to you guys.

Grandpa Richard

Just the girls!

Visitors

My dad and step mom are in town for a couple days and are using this time to spend with the girls and give us a break! They are cooking for us and have offered to watch the babies so Rob and I can go to dinner or a movie, we'll have to take them up on that offer. We'll post a few pics that we take.. and here's one of the girls this morning when they woke up.

Update

Our brother-in-law, Jay, came by last week to take some pictures of the girls for us. He did a great job and was super patient with them as they weren't the most cooperative!

This is what they did in most of the pictures...

Finally Caroline fell asleep

Daddy holding a calmer Olivia

I thought the girls were starting to sleep better at night as they slept a full 4 hours straight on Sunday night, which was heaven for mommy. But last night proved that they still have a while to go before we reach that point. Both girls would not fall asleep at the same time. I was up all night with both in shifts - if I finally got Caroline fed and calmed down and back to sleep, then that would somehow cue Olivia to promptly wake up and start screaming and I would then start the same routine with her. This continued over and over. Ugh. They were finally both peacefully sleeping after the 5am feeding and slept for a good 2 hours. Hopefully I'll catch a nap while they nap sometime today.