8 Months with E & E

The little E's turned 8 months this week. For the first time since having twins, I can honestly say I am well-rested and completely, blissfully happy. This past month has been a dream.

After sleep training the first week of July, our lives completely changed. The babies sleep like champs and only occasionally wake up in the middle of the night for a feeding. The past two nights, the little guys slept 14 hours solid! Naps are a different story, but I have no complaints as long as the babies sleep at night.

Ezra still only has one tooth, and Elliott remains toothless. They crawl all around the place, but neither of them can sit for very long (which I find pretty amusing). They are the happiest babies and only seem to cry when they are being fed solids. These tantrums occur because Ezra and Elliott are so impatient to eat and they hate taking turns. Watching their brother get a spoonful of sweet potatoes is torture! Ezra typically screams the most, while Elliott kind of stares at him, as if to say, "What's the big deal!?" This problem is easily solved when we have two people feed them at the same time. 

 Ezra is our little spitfire. When I say that, I mean he is spunky, but he also loves to spit. Anytime we feed the twins, we expect to be covered in baby food at the end of the meal. Ezra just cannot stop from blowing bubbles and spitting--even while eating. It's cute because it is typical Ezra behavior, but it is also quite messy. Ezra enjoys scrunching his face up when he is excited and breathes rapidly. It is adorable. Despite being the "little" brother, he seems more interested in being the leader. He wants to constantly move, he wants to play with every toy, and he always wants to make noise.

Although Elliott looks identical to Ezra (for the most part), he has such a different personality. Elliott is very laid back. His facial expression seems to constantly say, "I'm here. I'm happy. I'm chill." 

He cannot get enough of Ezra! Elliott will watch his brother move around with a huge smile on his face. He is fine playing with one toy, while Ezra performs his various tricks. Just this week, Elliott learned how to protect his toys from his curious brother. For a few weeks, it seemed like Ezra always took the toy Elliott was playing with. Finally, Elliott decided he had had enough and started rolling (with the toy in hand) away from Ezra anytime he tried planning a sneak attack. 

I love how the predictions I made during pregnancy were mostly accurate. I felt like Ezra would be our feisty baby, while Elliott would be our pacifist. These conclusions were based on the final months of pregnancy, where I would lay awake for hours as Ezra furiously punched and kicked inside of me. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of my stomach, Elliott lay so still that I often worried about him. Every ultrasound, I almost cried with relief when the technician told me that he was just as healthy as his brother. In fact, Ezra was so active in utero that he switched from being Baby A to Baby B (Baby A is alway the presenting baby (the one closest to the cervix) and the other one is Baby B.) 

Somehow, we've lasted 8 months of nursing and pumping. I say "we" because I could not have done it without Nathan's support. Only four more months until I reach my new goal of a year. 

I'm excited for the rest of twin life. I know there will be difficult hurdles, but I feel like most things will be pale in comparison to the past few months of stress and sleep deprivation.