Heemstras Lately

I know it's time to update the blog but I'm at a loss for a good topic so I'll just give a brief glimpse into our lives lately.
Andy has been flying quite a bit, most recently he was gone for a week and I did my first two nights alone. I had help from friends/family for 4 of the 6 nights but I'm glad I went ahead and took the plunge into doing a couple nights by myself. Things like that always seem more intimidating than they are don't they? It isn't something I'd want to do on a super regular basis, but I have to say it went well. I just keep telling myself this stage is brief. Pretty soon they'll be sleeping completely through the night and then I won't have to worry about who will be here with me or whether I'm mentally capable of handling a whole night alone!
The babies are doing well at night; we seem to have established a bedtime of 7:30 or 8pm and we've developed a good routine. We start out with a nice bath, fresh (and over-stuffed for duration) diapers and pjs. Then we grab a couple warm bottles of nighttime formula. The nighttime formula is thicker and sometimes a bit for Elijah to handle since we have to use faster-flow nipples, but regardless the effort usually knocks them both out. If we're lucky they sleep until 1 or 2 am, eat, sleep till 5am, eat, then sleep again until 8 or 9am. Ideally we all get up at 8am as this sets us up for hitting the same bedtime that night. The morning nap seems to be getting regular too. They definitely sleep the longest stint of the day at around 9:30 or 10am.
Right now daytimes are still a trick. Elijah is a hot and cold baby- when he's happy he's very happy, when he's not he is VERY not! He also sleeps much less than Evelyn so I'm constantly making him "try" to nap when his sister does though we are largely unsuccessful. Thankfully having just one baby awake allows us to spend some quality time with him and Evie still gets the sleep she needs whether we are in and out of the nursery with Eli or not.
Evie is in many ways the "easy" baby. She usually puts herself to sleep like a dream- put her in bed on her tummy, insert pacifier, cover with blankie, done. As long as she's tired, she'll close her eyes and try to sleep no matter how wide awake she seemed before. A couple days ago she even fell asleep with the hiccups! In fact, if I try to put her to sleep with rocking or cuddling it is actually a more difficult process. She lets us know when she is tired and down she goes. Elijah needs rocking but since we switched him to his belly we've accomplished the "drowsy but awake" approach to laying him down which works most of the time.
Right now my favorite time of the day is bathtime, they love their baths now! Both of them will sit in their little seats and smile away as we pour water over them and scrub them from head to toe. Andy and I both take our time as they seem to enjoy it so much. They are also getting better about lotion applications so I like to give them each a little massage before putting on the pjs. Bedtime is pleasant most nights and since they go to bed at 8 o'clock it seems like we finally have a little time to ourselves to accomplish whatever we can't get done between naps during the day or to just plain relax!
One of the most fun developments is that they are becoming very aware of their surroundings, including each other. If we prop them in such a way that they can see each other they both break out in huge grins. Eli is really finding his voice and getting louder, he'll talk and talk to Evelyn who mainly smiles face-cracking smiles back with the occasional verbal response. They do tummy time together and grab at toys, suck on blankets, grab each other's hands, etc. I forget that being so aware of other babies isn't "normal" at this age- when they see other babies their age they both try to smile and/or coo at them but most babies simply don't respond! Maybe being a twin helps them learn some social skills a bit early??
They've also started "exercising" alot. Until now they were so small and basically immobile that we rarely had to strap them into their swings and bouncies. Not so anymore! Several times they've kicked their way to the bottom of a bouncy and today Evie's little feet were tapping the ground as she swung, she'd worked her way down so far. She also likes to pull acrobatics in the crib: a couple weeks ago I found her in the exact opposite position I'd left her in- feet where her head had been! Since her mattress is slightly inclined right now I think this did not help her congestion :).
As for me, I've started going to TCC's women's Bible Study. I also have MOPS twice a month, and the neighborhood girls and allll the kiddos have been getting together once a week for coffee in the morning. We pass babies around and enjoy catching up. This week we started talking about joining the new Kroc Center nearby so we can work out together and I'm hoping if we join to do the baby swim classes you can start at 6 months. Gotta get ready for summer!!
In short, we've been having a lot of fun lately, I can't believe in just a few short weeks we'll already be able to start "solid" foods in the form of rice cereal! Both babies can sit in the bumbo and love to "stand" on our laps. They are growing in leaps and bounds and we are loving watching them change and learn!
(I'm sorry for the lack of pictures, our camera is on the fritz so I've mainly been taking pictures with my phone and uploading those to Facebook...hope to get our good camera fixed soon!!)