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This journal is about raising identical twins.4th to 6th month
Previous entries
Thursday, Nov 6, 1997 (92nd day)
Babies are three months old today.
Friday, Nov 14, 1997 (100th day)
Babies are 100 day old today (a significant milestone according to the Chinese culture.)
Saturday, Nov 15, 1997 (101st day)
Babies attended Alan and Wendy L.'s baby shower. They lay on the carrier quietly staring at strangers who overlooked them. They didn't cry a bit during the 2+ hour stay at the party.
Sunday, Nov 16, 1997 (102nd day)
My high school classmate Kwai Lam W. and his wife Noella visited from Tennessee. They brought gifts for the babies. We planned to prepare dinner, but we were hit by a power outage. We went out to buy take-out and we had a candle light dinner with the guests.
Tuesday, Nov 18, 1997 (104th day)
Joanne starts to "talk" to us when we play with her. She makes the "Uuuuh, Uuuuh" sound with a lovely smile. Jasmine has been doing that for weeks now, Joanne finally caught up.We took them to visit Clement in Saratoga today. They sat in their baby carriers quietly as usual.
Tuesday, Nov 25, 1997 (111st day)
The twins are 111 days old.
Saturday, Dec 6, 1997 (122nd day)
The babies are 4 months old today.Joanne recently added much to her "vocabulary". She can babble for up to half an hour before she falls asleep. We cannot figure out what she says though.
Jasmine on the other hand can only do the "Uuuuh, Uuuuh" sound. So Joanne had caught up on Jasmine and passed her by couple of weeks in the sound department. Jasmine spent a lot of her time looking at her own fingers. We predict that she would spend all her allowance on nail polish in the future. Since she looks at her fingers in front of her face, we worry that she would become cock-eyed or short sighted.
Both babies laugh loudly in joy when we imitate their sound.
Sunday, Dec 7, 1997 (123rd day)
Day 123!The babies spent over two hours at Alex S.'s 3rd birthday party. Many other kids were there. Joanne and Jasmine did not join the fun. They just lay in the baby carrier quietly.
The noisier the place, the better they sleep. Perhaps it is because they spent the first 8 days of their lives in the noisy neonatal intensive care unit. In the hospital, seriously ill babies cried non-stop day and night and the alarms on the baby monitoring machines went off every other minute. I guess the babies had learned how to shut off the noise since day one.
Monday, Dec 8, 1997 (124th day)
The babies visited the doctor's office today. Dr. Amy Oro is on maternity leave herself. The babies each had three immunization shots again. They were very brave. They stopped crying as soon as mommy picked them up.Joanne weighed 12 lb. 5 oz. (30 percentile)
Jasmine weighed 11 lb. 15 oz. (25 percentile)
Both are now 23 inches long.Since the babies started sleeping overnight, they have been skipping one, sometimes two feedings in the middle of the night. We have tried to increase the amount of feeding, however, they usually throw up the extra formula. On the doctor's advice, we shall start feeding them 4½ oz. in 3 hours interval instead of 4 hours.
Tuesday, Dec 9, 1997 (125th day)
Jasmine got a runny nose. The water tank of the humidifier dried up and we didn't refill it until a day later. The dry air may be the cause of her problem because the same thing happened last time before she caught a cold. It may be just a coincidence, or the heater and the dry air did trigger a reaction to her sensitive nose. The immunization shots she took yesterday may be the cause too. We just cannot tell for sure.
Thursday, Dec 11, 1997 (127th day)
Joanne also got a runny nose. She must have gotten it from Jasmine.
Friday, Dec 12, 1997 (128th day)
We took the babies to my company's Winter Celebration. The party was intended for employee families so there were a lot of kids and babies. Many coworkers saw our babies for the first time.The place was decorated with the theme of alien encounters and the whole place was very dark. When the huge alien airship flew overhead, just like in the movie "Independence Day" (buy DVD|VHS), the babies were staring at it with not much reaction. I guess their generation is more than ready for the alien visit from outer space. :-)
We wanted the babies to take a picture with Santa. However, the line was very long and the end of the line was near the live band's loud speakers. The music was too loud for comfort. Instead of risking the babies tiny ear drums, we gave up on the photo opp.
We stayed for about an hour. The babies were getting too fussy because of the loud music and the spot we sat was quite drafty and cold.
Saturday, Dec 13, 1997 (129th day)
Winnie, Simon and family came to visit, they brought Christmas gifts for the babies. Great-grandma came too because she wanted to meet Winnie's mom visiting from Vancouver Canada. We had Cantonese style hot pot for dinner. The older generation enjoyed holding the twin babies very much. Great-grandma stayed overnight to help taking care of the babies.
Sunday, Dec 14, 1997 (130th day)
Auntie Jun came help great-grandma baby-sit. We got an opportunity to go out without the babies for the first time in months. We went Christmas shopping at the Valley Fair Mall.Both daddy and mommy got a runny nose too. We probably got it from the babies.
Monday, Dec 15, 1997 (131st day)
The babies have not been eating well since they have a runny nose. The doctor said babies lose their appetite when they are ill. We have a hard time putting the bottle nipple into Joanne's mouth. She keeps turning away or using her tongue to push out the nipple. Jasmine is a little different, she keeps the nipple in her mouth, but she does not suck on it.They used to finish a 4½ oz bottle in 5 minutes. Now it takes over 30 minutes to feed just one baby. Sometimes they refuse to finish the bottle or throw up half of what they have eaten. It does not only use up much of mommy's time. We also worry they are not eating enough.
Sunday, Dec 21, 1997 (137th day)
Jenny, Sara & Simon, Grace, Anita and her children Wayland(6) and Lori (4) came for dinner and they brought Christmas gifts for the babies too.
Tuesday, Dec 23, 1997 (139th day)
Auntie Jun came to babysit the twins. This was a rare opportunity that we could go out for a movie. We watched the James Bond movie "Tomorrow never dies" (buy DVD|VHS).
Thursday, Dec 25, 1997 (141st day)
Babies' first Christmas.We opened babies' Christmas gifts today, they got many new babies clothes.
We took the twins to a hot pot dinner at Johnson's house in Foster City. The twins sat in the baby carriers quietly through out the evening while we enjoyed the meal.
Saturday, Dec 27, 1997 (143rd day)
Jim, Kyoko, Mikki and Koichi came for dinner. They brought gifts for the twins.
Sunday, Dec 28, 1997 (144th day)
Jasmine is not eating well. She moves her jaws but does not swallow. After her jaws got tired she would refuse the bottle. She only took about 10 oz of formula for the whole day.
Monday, Dec 29, 1997 (145th day)
We visited the doctor's office for Jasmine's eating problem. Dr. Oro is still on maternity leave. Dr. Chen said she doesn't see any problem with the babies except their weight gain has slowed down a lot. We have to keep trying harder on the feeding to make sure they eat enough. She recommended Jasmine to come back for an other check in a week.Joanne weighed 12 lb. 7 oz.
Jasmine weighed 12 lb. 5 oz.
Tuesday, Dec 30, 1997 (146th day)
Jasmine started coughing occasionally. We believe she got it from Dr. Chen yesterday because the doctor was coughing while looking at the babies.
Thursday, Jan 1, 1998 (148th day)
Babies' first New Year. Joanne started coughing too. She must have gotten it from Jasmine. Mommy is getting sick too.The babies are eating roughly 3½ oz 5 times a day. The coughing sometimes cause the babies to throw up the whole feeding. It takes a lot of patience and time to feed them again.
Monday, Jan 5, 1998 (152nd day)
We took the babies to the doctor office again for another check up. Dr. Oro is still on maternity leave. Dr. Lobb sees the babies this time. Both babies have been coughing for several days now. The doctor said their lungs are clear and everything is fine. All they got is just common cold. The coughing is caused by the runny nose dripping mucus down to the throat. She prescribed some decongestant for the babies. She suggests we keep the babies in sitting position so the mucus won't go down their throats. When their noses stop running, the coughing should stop too. However, we have to watch for signs of secondary infection, such as fever, change in the sound of the cough etc.Joanne weighed 12 lb. 9 oz.
Jasmine weighed 12 lb. 6 oz.
Tuesday, Jan 6, 1998 (153rd day)
The babies are 5 months old today.
Sunday, Jan 11, 1998 (158th day)
The twins have recovered from the cold. They have stopped coughing but still have thick mucus in the nose. They still don't have good appetite. Sometimes each baby takes over an hour to feed just 5 oz. of formula.Johnson L. and Cindy K. came to visit the twins and brought them some new clothes.
Monday, Jan 19, 1998 (166th day)
The twins have all recovered now. Their appetite have returned, they can regularly finish a 5½ oz. bottle 4 times, sometime 5, a day. They are happy babies.The twins have not grown much hair, their hair are almost the same as they were born, only slightly longer. However, their nails grow very fast. Mommy has to trim their nails at least twice a week or they will start leaving scratch marks on their own faces.
Saturday, Jan 24, 1998 (171st day)
Steve C. and family came to visit the twins and brought them some new clothes.
Monday, Jan 26, 1998 (173rd day)
Jasmine did her first roll over today. We helped Joanne to roll around too, just to give her some hint how to do it on her own.Some babies can roll over as early as two months old, the average is about four months. Since they were premature babies, we didn't expect they reach the same milestone as the other babies. Besides, we didn't give them enough belly time. I read from a magazine that the baby should be on the belly for 5 to 10 minutes 4 to 5 times a day. Joanne and Jasmine were on the belly only once or twice a day. They are mostly in sitting or lying down position.
Jasmine likes to play and blow bubbles with her drool. Whenever we say "Don't do that", she would laugh loudly. I don't think she understand what we say, but she is happy to get our attention.
Joanne likes to twist her tongue and suck on her lips. Sometimes it looks like she is making faces at us.
Wednesday, Jan 28, 1998 (175th day)
Babies' first Chinese new year. We wish them a happy, fast growing, healthy year.Great-grandma, grandma Ling, grandpa, auntie Tina, uncle Ivan and cousin Natalie came to our house for dinner. Of course, as a Chinese new year tradition, the twins received from the relatives Lucky Red Envelopes filled with money.
Saturday, Jan 31, 1998 (178th day)
My high school classmate William W. and his wife Lillian were back from Shanghai, China for a few weeks. They had dinner with CW C.'s family and came to visit the twins afterward.Bonnie and Lillian helped to feed the bottles to the twins. We held the babies while we chatted for several hours. The babies just looked around at the new faces and were quiet throughout the night.
Lillian and William bought the twins each a gold pendant.
Sunday, Feb 1, 1998 (179th day)
As part of Chinese New Year tradition, we took the twins to visit the relatives, in Alameda. Everything went well until Jasmine went into a temper tantrum. In the past, whenever we lift them up, they would stop crying and immediately put on a smile. This was the first time that we could not calm down the baby and we were caught unprepared.While the relatives were passing the twins around for a share of the baby holding, Jasmine started crying at the top of her lungs. Joanne on the other hand, just quietly looked at Jasmine wondering what was going on. We tried to calm Jasmine down, but she kept crying for over half an hour. We tried everything, including feeding her early, nothing worked. She eventually got tired and fell asleep.
Because of her uncontrollable behavior, we decided not to go to the family reunion dinner and cut short our trip. Both babies slept well in the car on the way home. Jasmine was happy after we got home. No more crying for the night.
Monday, Feb 2, 1998 (180th day)
Jasmine had another episode of her temper tantrum in the afternoon. Nothing could calm her down.It is about time for her first tooth to come out. (note: we were wrong, her tooth came much later) If that was the cause, she would have cried more than just once or twice. We are still trying to figure out what caused the crying.
Thursday, February 5, 1998 (183rd day)
Angella L. came to visit. She came to show us pictures from her honeymoon trip to Paris, France. For some reasons, the twins were scared of her. They cried non-stop when Angella was around.
Friday, February 6, 1998 (184th day)
Today is the twins' half birthday. When added together, it is one full birthday. :-)
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