No, we did not have quintuplets, but I could not help but pass this along - it will keep you laughing! I know my goal in life is to keep my girls laughing like this 
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Within the last week, we began to move beyond formula feeding by introducing rice cereal. Signs pointed to this being the right time.
The added benefit, however, has been increased sleep. Isabel, who has never slept through the night, has now gone 2 days in a row sleeping through the night! The introduction of solid foods has helped, but I also noticed that she slept for the first time on her belly last night. For some reason I have it in my head that infants sleep better on their tummies - is it just me or is there some research on this?
Not long after the birth of our eldest daughter we noticed that her pupils were often dilated at two different sizes. We had an initial consultation with her doctor and learned that pupils should dilate equally.
Consequently, we went to a specialist who diagnosed her with Horner’s Syndrome. However, the only symptom she exhibited was a constricted pupil. He then referred her for a brain MRI.
We were nervous as we went to the last MRI appointment of the day on Monday night - concerned for worst case scenarios. We kept Isabel awake from early afternoon on so she would be sleepy. How do you keep a girl from moving her head during an MRI? Baby Benadryl might encourage her to sleep, but I was skeptical, considering she is such a light sleeper. However, the good news is that she slept throughout the MRI procedure! The technician said that in his 11 years, he has never been successful conducting an MRI with infants without some other form of sedation, because the procedure is so loud and noisy.
Better still, the specialist looked at the film the next day and told us that our daughter is fine! He went on to say that approximately 20% of adults exhibit this same symptom without any affect to their vision, etc.
My brother and his wife are expecting their first child…or, should I say, CHILDREN! Yes, they are expecting twin boys to be born sometime mid-August. Needless to say, it will be good to have family to commiserate with.
I’ve posted some long-awaited photos of the baby baptism/dedication weekend. Note: they are not viewable to the general public, so if you would like to see them, shoot me off an email so I can give you appropriate permissions. One way to find out if you can view “special permission” photos is to click on the link above or the photo below to see if you can see the larger version of the image.
I do intend to post some video footage when I get the chance, but life with twins has been rather busy.
Before the birth of my girls, I would have considered myself to be a happy person. In general, my disposition was such that I had a positive life outlook, even if mired by the cynicism caused by the slings and arrows of life. However, even though I considered myself happy, I felt that the greater emotion of joy eluded me. Although not defined as such, I’ve always considered joy to be more of a long-term personality or character trait, whereas happiness can be fleeting.
Now that my girls are born, however, I find myself amazed at what it’s like to behold a face of innocence that transparently reflects a joy that I lack. Interestingly, one look from my girls instantly transfers their joy so that it becomes my own. How can you not look at a face of such pure joy and not feel likewise?
Normally I am not a superstitious person, except when it comes to the sports teams I root for - namely the NY Yankees and the UConn Huskies. We are now in the midst of March Madness - one of my favorite times of the year - and UConn plays tonight.
I happened upon Savage Stories and Lim Twins and determined that there’s a direct correlation between their twins wearing the sporting attire of their favorite college team and their team winning the game. Tonight UConn plays and my girls have nothing to wear! Sure, they did get NY Yankee gear, but that doesn’t help my team right now!
The only answer will be that each of my girls will have to wear Daddy’s UConn gear. Oh, no! I just realized that UConn plays tonight at 10:00 pm! If the girls are asleep, will that negatively affect UConn’s chances? I guess we’ll know tomorrow.
I guess I’ll have to go back to my old reliable ‘Baby Husky’ to help push UConn to victory?
I found yet another social communication tool - not sure how much of a money maker it will be, but I’ll have to check it out to see if the service is useful. Personally, I find that I can get helpful advice and gain social connections using the “Multi-Dad” forum I visit occasionally or through the connections found just by other parents visiting this site and vice versa.
Yesterday Isabel was able to roll over onto her tummy. The problem is, she cannot figure out how to roll back onto her back. After struggling for a while, she starts letting out her death cry so Mom and Dad come running.
We’ll try to record this milestone and post it for you to see - can’t wait for her to be able to completely roll over.
Once again I’d like to talk about the wonders of swings. I cannot more heartily recommend the swing we use, considering it can move forward/backward and side-to-side. I’ve found that the forward/backward motion is not my fav because when the girls decide to fill their diapers, not all of it stays in the diapers due to the motion of the swing. But don’t worry, the side-to-side motion contains!
As I’ve previously mentioned, the swing has preserved our sanity just a bit because we could just “set it and forget it” - that is, the girls sleep and sleep and sleep in those things. Think of this - 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep when they are in their cribs versus 10+ hours while in the swing!
Nonetheless, I think we’re making our move towards weaning them from using the swings at night - instead, getting them more accustomed to the cribs. Plus, we have other contraptions to lull them to sleep.
I’ve learned that nothing (except for Mom and Dad) is as good as the swings. Since we’ve gone back to using the cribs, we’ve gotten a little less sleep. But does it really matter if you get 4 hours or 5?
On an unrelated note, here is a recent photo I really like:
Baby Gift Ideas
