Chuplicates: 6-9 unedited

Wow, this is a lot busier than I thought! Now, before you say "duuh", I knew it would be busy, but underestimated my ability to do other things while caring for two babies. Maybe that's something that a mother of twins develops over time? I'll keep my fingers crossed (until a baby cries, then I need all the digits I can find!).

Penelope has been getting a little better every day. She's up to 7 lbs 15 oz and is getting bigger every second it seems. She's still been having trouble with overstimulation, diaper rash, congestion due to unhumidified home oxygen, feeding due to the congestion, and now it seems like reflux is causing trouble too. Of course she's never been one to take the easy route so we're not surprised. The more time we get to spend with her the more we're learning her signals and how to respond to them. Praise the Lord for a medical team who are also personal friends and respond to text messages! It's been such a blessing of comfort to have good counsel so close at hand. On the positive end of things, Penny loves her panda mobile and even smiles at it when she thinks we're not looking. She's starting to vocalize more and connect visually more. This makes for some precious time in the rocking chair. She's learned to love her bath and tolerate her g-tube dressing changes, especially if someone will hold her steady and keep her paci in while the other person does the dressing change. We're all figuring it out together and even though it's really frustrating at times, it's even more gratifying when we finally get the hang of it or make a decision that improves things. I imagine this will not be the last time we feel that way as parents.

Lydia is bigger everyday too. She's 13 lbs 15 oz and covered in rolls. She's generous with her smiles and her laughs and also is a huge fan of pandas. All the panda toys we have make music or cricket sounds so we've joked that the girls will be disappointed the first time they see the pandas at the zoo and all they do is sit there and eat. Speaking of sitting, Lydia is trying to sit up by herself too. I caught her looking like she was doing crunches in her little bouncy chair! Hopefully this was a developmental thing and not a product of us calling her "big fatty" all the time. I swear we'll stop before middle school.

At the moment it's just Jonathan and me and our little girls here at the house. Although I do miss our extra pair of hands (moms, aunts, friends etc) that we're used to, it's nice to sit in the quiet of naptime, no matter how short it may be, and just feel like a family.

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