A Milestone Acheived: Our First Social Smile!

The girls have been "smiling" since they came out of the womb. But never on purpose and we both figured it was probably gas pains, even though we were in denial about it. We also haven't been able to prod smiles out of the girls...until now!!

Jared was able to get Jenna's first social smile today. Here is the video...we were only able to get a couple smiles out of her and still no giggles, but they are sure to come! We are still working on getting smiles from Jilly.

Jared and I have also been trying to figure out what entertains the babies best. Both babies, especially Jenna, love to look at lights; whether it is from the TV, the ceiling, window, etc. They would look at the TV for half an hour if we let them...but we don't because we have heard that TV is bad for young babies and especially bad for their eye development. We have noticed that both girls like looking out the windows of the house. They don't necessarily want to be outside (they close their eyes when I take them out there) but looking through the windows is mesmerizing for some reason. Here is a picture of Jillian; Jared was holding her and couldn't get her to tear her eyes away from the window...so we just propped her right up in the couch to give her a better view.

We have also figured out that the girls like to take showers! Last week the weather got really warm here and both girls were just really hot and fussy. Grandma Cyndi suggested taking a luke warm shower with them to cool them off and she said the skin to skin contact would soothe them. It worked great! The shower did the trick body temperature wise but also they enjoyed just sitting in there with me. They didn't fuss at all which is neat because during bath times they usually fuss a little- especially in the beginning.

I had to take a shower with Jenna last night at about 10 o'clock, too. I had fed her and burped her and then she pooed. So instead waiting the whole 30 minutes before laying her down, I waited about 15 and when I couldn't stand the smell any longer went to change her. Tisk, Tisk...I got my punishment: I got her changed and her PJs all zipped up and no sooner did I sit back down with her to rock for a minute when she threw up all over me...and I mean ALL OVER ME. I had wiped up Jenna so she wasn't dripping but we were both covered so the easiest thing to do was take a shower and get both of us clean at one time. The shower also put her right to sleep.

The acid reflux is still bothersome for us. Jillian and Jenna have less "heart burn" types of pain but the doctor says the projectile vomit doesn't go away completely until their muscle covering the top of the stomach grows stronger. Until then the vomiting is a 2-4 times a week kind of thing with each baby.

For those of you who really know me and know how I feel about throw up (is there one of those phobias for vomit?)...you would be proud to know that I cleaned up Jenna, the couch and floor before I started to wipe myself off. That is something, huh?! People always said it would be different with your own kids. I never believed them but they are right. Of course, I would prefer to have no vomit on me at all, obviously; but when it's your kid it is like it doesn't even phase you. This actually makes me feel good because I have been worried for a long time how I would handle the throwing up. In fact, throw up was one of the reasons I put kiddos off for so long. I guess I am just glad to know that I don't throw up with her. :)

More to Come...

Jessica