Holmes Online: Happy Birthday Abigail and the girls are 6 months!

Happy Birthday Abigale Louise O'Brien!! My cousin Kieran and his wife Sandra had their baby girl Aby this morning. She was 6lbs 15ozs and both Sandra and Aby are doing well. Kieran called to tell me the news - he is one proud dad! Once I get pictues I will post them. I was thinking I should start a page for all the friends the girls are going to have in the coming months. The girls are 6 months old (4.5 months corrected) today. It sure goes by quickly. We have been stuck in the condo this week. Yesterday it snowed and today there is freezing rain. It's awful outside. Leah has a tooth! Both girls have been drooling a bit lately and I've been watching for other signs of teething. Today I just happened to feel inside Leah's mouth and she has a sharp tooth that must have cut since yesterday. She's not fussing or anything. Could we be lucky enough to have good teethers???! Why I won't miss the condo reason #2: Fire Alarm Testing. They have been testing the fire alarm since yesterday. When I was working, I used to see the notice and never really thought anything of it. On those days, we would come home to a frazzled cat - now I know why. Each unit in the building is equipped with a button that silences the fire alarm in their living space. Testing of the fire alarm system involves going into each condo (all 250+) and making sure this button works. In order to do this, the alarm is on throughout the ENTIRE building. It has been a noisy couple of days. Surprisingly the girls have been able to nap through it. They are good little sleepers. Now the month in review. The girls are doing very well. This month they celebrated their 4 month corrected age and their visit to the NICU follow up clinic went very well. They are both very happy babies and they don't cry very much at all. They started eating solids this month and so far they have had rice cereal, barley, oatmeal and their first vegetable, carrots. They are starting to go longer between feeds and we just recently cut one bottle out so now they get four a day. They get their last bottle at 10pm and they sleep until around 8am. Both girls (and mom and dad!) LOVE Baby Einstein. If they are fussy they will calm down immediately when you turn it on. They have also started interacting with each other and they are already keeping each other amused. They love to touch each other's faces and smile and talk. They are both rolling but have yet to figure out that they can use it as a way to get places. Emma is a very happy baby. We get big smiles and lots of laughs all day long. She loves to be tickled and told stories. She started to play strange this month and now we know to give her some time to adjust to new situations. She loves her bottle and is definitely showing signs of being able to hold it herself. She's not overly fussed on carrots but she loves cereal. Emma is a wonderful sleeper. We don't need to watch her for naps...if she's tired she'll just sleep wherever she is. Emma recently figured out how to blow raspberries and it's her new favourite thing. Leah is also a very happy baby (we're so lucky to have two!). She is more social than Emma and so far a lot less shy. She loves to look around and see what's going on. Leah is not a good napper unless she has no distractions so she usually has her naps in their crib. She is a good sleeper at night but she is very sensitive to temperature. If she's cold she'll wake up. She is eating well and seems to really like carrots. Leah loves to "talk" especially now that she has realized that lump sitting beside her all these months is her sister! She still loves her soother but she only really needs it for naps. I would also like to add that today marks 6 months of me pumping. I always said I wanted to go 6 months but somedays I never thought I would make it! I am now pumping 4 times a day. The girls get about 2/3 breastmilk and 1/3 formula depending on the day. I have fantasized about being done but I'm not quite ready to give it up. It is a huge pain but the fact that our preemie babies have had one stuffy nose in 6 months inspires me to keep it up. Ideally I would like to get them through the winter but for now I'll just take it one month at a time.