Erin and Elise turn 4 months old

The babies are so so sweet these days!  They are just full of smiles and laughter.  Our favorite thing to do is to sit and look at them and laugh "back and forth" with them.  If you make a fake laugh, they will laugh back, and it gets louder and stronger until it is a full out belly laugh.  They love to sit and look at each other too.  They spend a lot of time in the jenny jump up or exersaucer when awake. They both drool a lot and are starting to gum things. Both are great tummy to back rollers, and they (esp Erin) try really hard to roll from back to front if you start to help them out a little.  Elise weighs 15 lb. 6 oz (82nd %ile) and is 24.5 inches long (55th %ile).  Erin weighs 15 lb. 3 oz. (79th %ile) and is 24.75 inches long (65th %ile). This is their routine on a daily basis (times are definitely not set in stone):

Between 7am and 8am: Feed them one at a time in bed with me (breastfed--the rest of the day is pumped milk in a bottle).  They hardly even wake up for this feed.

10am Wake and eat

11:30-1 naptime

1:00pm eat (they eat 6-7 oz. each feed)

2:30-4 naptime

4pm eat

 4-6pm awake time

6-7pm nap

7pm eat

Between 9 and 10 pm: Eat again.  Sometimes they take a little cat nap again before this feeding.  And the naps earlier in the day can last up to 3 hrs. sometimes, but not consistently

Between 10pm and 11pm: Asleep for the night (They have only woken up randomly maybe a handful of times at night where I had to feed them during month 3, which I attribute to a growth spurt.  Usually if they do wake up, a pacifier puts them back to sleep).

I am now almost exclusively pumping, which isn't what I had hoped for, but I guess it has its benefits too (being able to have others feed them, ease of feeding both in public places at the same time, etc.) It does take up a lot of my time though since I pump prior to each feeding for 20-30 minutes.  So far, my supply is still great, for which I am thankful.  Ryan complains that all I do is pump, and I feel the same way.  It does give me the opportunity to sit and relax for a bit though!

I feel like I spend more time caring for the babies than for the older girls (which is natural, given that they are babies), but it makes me feel like I am neglecting the older girls.  If I do spend time with the older girls, then I am inevitably neglecting cooking or cleaning, which are also important for survival!  I know everyone says to not worry about cleaning and just enjoy your kids, but realistically, you can only do that to a certain extent or else you might find yourself on an episode of Hoarders.

If you remember my post about what my day looks like, it has smoothed out a lot since them.  Things feel less anxiety-inducing (for the most part).  I have learned to multitask a little better to meet everyone's needs at once, and the babies eating/sleeping is a lot more predictable than it used to be.  Ryan and I feel overwhelmed a lot by the piling up of responsibilities around the house, but I guess that is just our season of life right now.  My dear friend Sarah helps alleviate that load on a weekly basis.  She has been the greatest gift to our family.  She comes on Mondays and Wednesdays for the better part of the day and helps with anything and everything.  All out of the love of her heart!  She also keeps me from going crazy by providing me with friendship and fellowship during the week when I would otherwise be with children only.  Things are hard sometimes, but I have to remind myself to look around and be thankful for all the wonderful blessings around me.