Busy time... it was a blur!

With the birth of our twins a year filled with joy as well as a year of extreme emotions began.  It was a year filled with diapers and breastfeeding.  I remember feeling totally overwhelmed with the amount of laundry needing to be done on any given day.  I was grateful when I got disposable diapers as gifts because it meant I would not have to wash so many that week.

Great friends and family helped a lot at times that I probably was on the verge of a melt down.  Having visits with my friend Pearl was always a hightlight because she had twins herself and did not have fantasies of how great it would be to have them.

Nicole made the adjustment to being a big sister really easily.  She loved Christoper and Jocelyn.  She would bring them to me, play with them and help change diapers.

Nicole, herself. was still in diapers for more than a year after the twins were born.  She also let me know indirectly when she felt left out.  She once took the vaseline and smeared it all over my bedroom.  I thought I had got it all cleaned up but then when we went to bed it had got between the covers!  I had missed some.  Come to think of it we had several challenging days such as these but I have blocked all specific details from my memory.

Jocelyn was a good baby.  She slept most of the time into her second year actually.  She was easily over stimulated in crowds but as long as I was willing to nurse her to sleep she would just sleep until it was over.  She would normally feed every four hours with the exception of growth spurts.  She always breastfed on the left side and I would just change positions to make sure eye muscles were developed evenly on both sides.

She smiled at 1 month, rolled over at 6 months, sat alone at 8 months, got her first tooth at 6 months and her first word when she was a year was "mom".

Christopher was also a pretty good baby with the exception of his allergies, excema and asthma which showed up after his first immunization and continued in severity there on in.  His feeding schedule was a bit more demanding.  He fed every two hours and more often when he had  a growth spurt.  He always fed on the right side.  I had started out switching sides but it got too confusing and I had enough to think about without that on top of it.

During Christopher's first year we also saw some specialists because at around 6 months he stopped gaining weight.  We saw a gastrointestinal specialist and a respiatory specialist.  We also saw a dermatologist and an allergist.  They also ruled out CF among others.  In the end he was put on an inhaler, creams, a special diet and a special bath regiment.

Christoper smiled at 1 month (the day after his sister did), rolled over at 2 months, sat alone at 5 months, got his first tooth at 6 months and said his first word at 1 year "mom".

It was a year that required all of my mental and physical stamina to get through.  It was pretty much a blur and I am glad that we have photos or I may well have forgotten the whole time period.