Paul Frank Monkey

The theme of the twins' nursery is monkeys, so we've received a lot of monkey stuff as gifts from our wonderful friends and relatives.  One of my favorites is this pair of Paul Frank onesies which I've been waiting anxiously for the boys to fit into.  I thought it would be awhile, but the boys are growing so fast, and at two months, they're already wearing size 3 to 6 months.  Here are the boys sporting the adorable Paul Frank Monkey...which I recently discovered are now sold at Target!  The clothing line is cleverly called "Small Paul".  How cute is that?

Incase you ever wonder which is Bryce and which is Benjamin...when they're on this leather chair, I always put Bryce on the left.  It's a habit that Evan and I picked up from our hospital days.  To avoid confusion, the nurses always put Bryce on the left in that infamous plastic box all the newborns sleep in.

It's becoming harder to tell the the boys apart now that Bryce is catching up to Benjamin in weight.

They look like they're posing in a photo booth!

The many faces of Benjamin...

Priceless...

Sleeping Through The Night

Well, we just finished our 6th night of the "sleeping through the night" training, and I must say, our boys are doing awesome!  Bryce, our over achiever, is now sleeping 10 to 12 hours through the night, while Ben (who has a bigger tummy and therefore gets hungry faster) is sleeping 7 to 8.  At only two months old, we can't ask for more!  We all feel so much better in the mornings now, and we just hope this continues.  To commemorate this milestone, here are some sleeping pics of the boys...not actual night time sleeping because I don't dare to disturb them with my big old camera during the night, but just some "napping on daddy" pics from this past weekend. :)

It's so unfair when your 2 month old sons have eye lashes longer than you!

These close-ups are of Bryce by the way...

Second Night in Nursery

We can't believe how well the boys did on their second night in their own room.  We put them in their cribs sometime between 8:30pm and 9:00pm last night, and Benjamin fell asleep right away while Bryce cried off and on for about an hour or two.  But, the best part is that they both slept until 3:30am!  We couldn't believe our eyes when we saw the clock.  After a few tears, Ben even fell back asleep for another 30 minutes. That's almost 7 consecutive hours of sleep for Ben and about 5 to 5 1/2 hours for Bryce!  I fed Bryce and he went right back to sleep, then Evan fed Ben and he too went right back to sleep.  Both slept again until about 7am this morning.  If we had known the boys were going to sleep so well, Evan and I would not have gone to bed so late last night.  We missed out on some good sleep!  The boys did not nap so well today, so hopefully we'll have a successful third night.

Here's a picture that I took with my phone this afternoon.  I had just changed their diapers (poor Bryce "sprayed" himself all over his own face.  I was so grossed out.) and decided to give them some bonding time.  Looks like they miss snuggling close to each other.

We had such a good night that we all had the energy to play and do some tummy time this morning...

Benjamin was so happy and peaceful...

First Night in Nursery

Yesterday, the boys had their 2-month checkup.  We were excited about this checkup because we really wanted to know how much the boys have grown.  We weren't surprised to find out that Benjamin is bigger than Bryce because he feels so much heavier in our arms.  The results:  Bryce weighs 9lbs 9oz and Benjamin weighs 11lbs and both grew almost 6 inches!  Our younger-son-by-one-minute is certainly living up to the nick name we gave him while he was still baking in the oven, "Big Ben."

We love our pediatrician because you really get a sense of how much he loves children by the way he interacts with our boys, and he has twin boys of his own!  He certainly understands what we're going through and we take his advice to heart.  We received a big one yesterday which was to move the boys into their own room, don't pick them up when they cry at night and during nap times, and stop the swaddling...all this to start training them to sleep through the night.  So, despite my overwhelming sadness, we put this plan into action last night.  The rule is that whenever the babies cry, we have to wait 10 minutes (15 minutes on the second night and 20 on the third) before going into their room to soothe them and we basically keep doing this until they stop.  The nursery is upstairs, so to keep from having to walk up and down the stairs all night, we also slept upstairs in the guest room. Sleeping next door to them for a few nights also helps me feel better about no longer having them next to my bed :(

Their cribs...

The adorable mural that Evan's mom painted on the wall behind their cribs...

Benjamin gave me a smile when I came to get him this morning...

They did surprisingly well without the swaddling blankets.  Here is Bryce during his morning nap...

Ben paid Bryce a quick visit before their afternoon nap...

Evan's mom in action back in April...

I will miss this view from our bed...

Birth Announcements

Two months after the day they were born, I finally mailed out the boys' birth announcements.  Is that considered late?  These poor kiddos were so sleepy when Evan and I took them outside to do a quick photo shoot in our backyard before the temperature got too hot.  But, I guess it was a good thing they were tired that morning because it made for some very cooperative babies.

They woke up for just a second.  It looks like they're looking at each other and saying, "Is this ever going to end so we can go back to bed?"

The picture at the very top of this blog was also taken that same morning.  Bryce was knocked out again, but Benjamin held on for just a little bit longer...

Oops, there goes Benjamin again.  I think Bryce was trying to tell us he's awake but just doesn't have the energy to open his eyes.

I love it when Ben stares at his brother's face.  He does this almost every time we lay them close to each other.  He started doing this from the very beginning...even before we left the hospital.

Those arms are the reason why we can't have them sleep close to each other anymore!  At around 7 weeks they started breaking out of their swaddle blankets regularly and end up smacking each other awake.

See those little red spots between Benjamin's eyebrows?  Before I was able to tell them apart, this was my saving grace!

Okay, okay, we got the point.  Photo shoot over.

The "test shot"  :)

Happy 2-month Birthday!

The boys turned 2 months old today! They say time goes by so fast when it comes to your children, but, I have to admit, these first two months have felt more like 20. Like I told a friend of mine, maybe it's because we've been awake 20+ hours each day! Can't complain too much though because every time we look at or cuddle with our chunky monkeys, our hearts just melt away and sleep is not so important anymore.

2 monkeys = 2 months ... I think they were both a little spooked out.

I got 2 seconds of calmness...just long enough to get this picture.

1 monkey = 1 month

3 monkeys coming soon...

Interview With Cousin Claire

What's your name?
Claire

How old are you?
5 1/2

How old is Bryce and Benjamin now?
0

How many months were they in Aunt Hedy's tummy?
September
How many months is that?
9

What are you going to teach them when they grow up?
how to sing and learn their numbers and ABCs

When Bryce starts to talk, what do you think his first word will be?
mommy
What about Ben?
dadda

How old do you think they will be when they start walking?
3 or 1...or 2

Where should we take them for their first vacation?
That's a hard one!  Something where they're not scared.  Not the beach because they're going to get scared of the waves.  Some of them are going to be too big. 
Okay, so where do you think we should go?
Sea World!

What do you think Bryce will be when he grows up?
doctor
How about Ben?
dentist

If Bryce didn't have a name, what would you name him?
Bryce
What about Benjamin?
Bryce
You would name them both Bryce? 
Benjamin actually

What do you like about your cousins?
they're cuties

What do you not like about your cousins?
they cry alot

What do you like about having boy cousins?
hmmmm, they're cuties

I think that's it.  Thank you very much, Claire.
I think I'm now kind of hungry.

Football Season is Here

With two sleeping babies and tv remote in hand, Evan was ready for some football!  I was excited to get hours of uninterrupted computer time!

On a side note...my friends keep teasing me because I'm a photographer, but pretty much ALL the pictures I've taken of the twins have been with my iPhone.  I keep trying to explain to them it's all about convenience, and if it weren't for the iPhone and the iPhone Facebook App, no one would ever see pictures of the kids!  But, here you go guys, three pictures taken with a "real" camera...and more to come.

The Escape Artist

Last night when I reached over to pick up Bryce for his midnight feeding, this is how I found him...

(Yes, this picture was taken with the iPhone again!  But, to give the phone more credit, it was taken in the dark then brightened with PhotoShop.)

Bryce, our little escape artist, only managed to wiggle half-way out of his swaddle and ended up looking like he had a turban around his body.  My mom (who stayed the night to help me with the babies while Evan was out of town) and I laughed hysterically!  We probably should've been more concerned about suffocation, but he looked so funny, we couldn't help ourselves.  I was told by our pediatrician that once babies start escaping out of their swaddles, that's a sign they don't want and don't need to be swaddled anymore.  But, without it, I can't get either one of them to fall asleep.  Any advice from my fellow mothers and fathers out there?

First Play Date...Well, Almost

The boys turned 8 weeks old today, and coincidentally, we also had our very first play date.  My friend Windy came over with her adorable baby girl, Riley, who is only 6 days older than Bryce and Ben.  As you can see, the kids were playing really hard...

(Sorry, this picture was taken with my iPhone in a fairly dim room.)

1 Week Old

Written on September 15, 2010:
I was going through old pictures on my computer today and realized there are so many photos of the boys' first few months that never got posted on this blog... probably due to our lack of time and sleep back then!  So, my goal is to post these "forgotten" pictures and manually set the post date to match the date these pictures were taken... just so they'll appear in the correct chronological order when we have this blog printed into a book for the boys.

Here are the first few of our "forgotten" pictures taken on the boys' 7th day... I think this first one is of Bryce with Oma Berg.  What a tiny little angel!  I just noticed his hospital name badge is still around his wrist... I was too scared to remove it because I couldn't tell them apart yet.

They always slept so close to one another...

So perfect... except for the name written in permanent marker across the cap (done out of fear and desperation)!

Look at Ben's chubby cheeks?  How was I not able to tell them apart?  It seems so obvious now!

Oh oh, I spoke too soon!  I'm guessing this is Benjamin with his sleep deprived momma.

Delivery Day and Coming Home

Written on November 25, 2009:
A friend of ours just had twins, one boy and one girl, and seeing their pictures made me think back of the day our boys were born.  Here are the first pictures ever taken of our little angels...

Well, first, I had to include this picture that showed my contractions were 2 to 3 minutes apart by the time we made it to the hospital.  That morning, I was feeling "uncomfortable" but had no idea I was actually in labor.  Evan had to convince me to go to the hospital.  Thank goodness he did.

Less than two hours after the above picture was taken, our boys were born! First came Bryce...

And a minute later, came Benjamin...

This is the first time I got to see my beautiful boys...

Our family...

A very proud dad...

Four days later, we took our boys home...I took this picture while being wheeled out of the hospital!  I think that was my first experience on a wheelchair.

We were so nervous putting them in the car for the first time...

There's Benjamin...

I can't believe how tiny he was!  Since this picture was taken a little over 4 months ago, Ben has almost tripled his weight.

Oh my goodness, Bryce looked even smaller!

We came home to find our house festively decorated and spotlessly cleaned by our wonderful sisters and nieces.  This is the door leading from our garage to the house...the green heart is the sign that greeted us when we got back from our honeymoon just 14 months earlier (it says, "Welcome Home Mr. & Mrs. Berg").  I never took it down, so now this door is like a journal of our lives.  I wonder what will come next?

Well, we're officially home... now what?!

I guess we'll just take pictures... :)