8 Months Old!

Kayla & Tyler are officially 8 months old now! We cannot believe how quickly time is flying by. We recently had our NICU Follow-Up Clinic appointment at St. Peter's Hospital (the hospital where the twins were born and spent the first weeks of their lives). The visit basically is about a 3 hour visit where a team of physical therapists, speech therapists, and developmental therapists sit and play with the babies. They check carefully the motions, sounds, and movements they make to see where they fall on the developmental scale. They want the babies (at 8 months old) to be doing things like they are 6 months old, because they were 2 months premature. The reason they do this check-up is so that we can get early intervention assistance in the event that one or both Twins starts to fall behind developmentally. Kayla & Tyler performed wonderfully for the teams, and they both came through on the 6 month scale. Kayla came through at 7 months in her Fine Motor skills, but all in all, they were both even. Great news...both Twins developing as they should be and no intervention needed at this time!

At 8 months old, Kayla is weighing in at around 17 1/2 lbs. She is still sleeping from 7 or 7:30pm until 6:30 or 7am, and taking two 2 hour naps and one 30 minute nap a day. She eats a good breakfast of fruit, oatmeal, and a 6 oz bottle. For lunch she eats fruit and either yogurt or cereal and a 7 oz bottle, and for dinner she has a veggie, some rice & barley, and a 6 oz bottle. She then take an 8 oz bottle before bed. She even eats some Gerber Puffs! Kayla is officially a sitter...she sits up all by herself now, and can do it for over an hour. She loves her belly and spends most of her time sitting or on her belly. She has been trying to move forward when on her belly, but so far has only become a master at moving backwards. Kayla's favorite things are crinkly toys, laughing at her brother, laughing at the cats, her bottle, & sitting up. She is very talkative, and says things like "ahhh" "yayaya" "dadadadada" and "deedeedeedee" mostly.

Here's Kayla sitting up:



Playing together:



At 8 months old, TJ is weighing in at around 16 lbs. He is gaining weight like crazy, because he eats like a little piggy! TJ would never drink a bottle again if we would let him take all of his meals in solid form. He loves his cereal, fruits, veggies, yogurt...anything you can put on a spoon he will eat! He even eats some Gerber Puffs too! He is sleeping on the same schedule as his sister, 11-12 hours at night, two 2 hour naps and one 30 minute nap a day. He is also eating oatmeal, fruit and a 6 oz bottle for breakfast, fruit & yogurt or cereal and a 7 oz bottle for lunch, veggies and barley/rice mix for dinner, and a 7 oz bottle before bed. TJ is a champion roller now, rolling all over the floor. He even "scoots" in his own way. He is still working on strengthening his neck and upper body, but manages to get his knees underneath him with his butt in the air and pushes forward(face flat on the floor) around on the floor. He loves rattling toys (especially keys), and anything he can bang around. He rolls like crazy, and laughs at just about anything and everything. He loves to kick, to be tickled, loves Mommy's voice, loves grabbing his feet and eating his toes, and loves his rainforest toy that his in his crib (thanks Nina & Frank!). He is also talking a lot these days, saying "ahhh" "dadadada" and "yayayaya" mostly.

TJ with his feet in his mouth:



Kayla & Tyler are VERY busy babies, and keep Mommy on her toes! TJ goes to physical therapy once a week, and to the helmet doctor once a week. They also have a lot of new twin friends that they met through a Moms of Multiples group. We go to playgroups every monday, and have a new group of 6 moms and 6 sets of twins to play with! Kayla & TJ just LOVE being around toddlers! Of course, cousin Penny is just around the corner too...so the twins are quite popular!

More to come at the end of the month when Kayla & Tyler go for their 9 month check up!