8 Months Old!

I'm very belated in getting this posted but things have been a little hectic what with living from one feed to the next.

The boys turned 8 months old on November 30th and they are doing pretty well developmentally.

Cameron is now 12lbs 6oz and performing at the level of a 5 or 6 month old in most things and is almost ready to roll from his back to his belly. He can also lift his head from a prone belly position but not for longer than a couple of minutes. He can hold two objects and clang them together, almost passes one toy from hand to hand, and loves to bang toys against his bottle while eating or on the tray on his swing. I have just given him his first 3" spiked sensory rubber ball and he's almost able to hold it with both hands which is a big deal.

Evan now 10lbs 11oz and is still fairly behind Cameron and doesn't like to hold his head up but can and will do it and will even look to his left which was once almost impossible for him to do on his own. He will tolerate holding his head up for tummy time if he does it on my chest or against my legs or while playing Super Baby in my arms. He can not hold two objects at the same time very well but he's getting there.

As for our Failure to Thrive and Reflux issues I have managed to get us another appointment with the GI specialty clinic at the University of Maryland. I have many choice words for Johns Hopkins GI clinic. We missed the first one last week because the battery died in my car just as we'd piled everyone in to go there. The next appointment was for January 21st but I managed to score a spot that someone canceled on January 5th. I will call every day to see if I can squeeze the boys in earlier. They are still struggling to eat and we have met with a physical therapist who has extensive experience with three children of her own who have severe reflux and she could not find any other tips or tricks we haven't already tried. They eat about 1tbsp of rice cereal mixed with formula, and have made it through YoBaby yogurt with prune juice, and are currently working on avocado. We also use a Nuk gum brush to desensitize their mouths before spoon feeding the rice cereal because they don't like the texture. We are looking at buying their high chairs very soon so we can feed them in a chair other than their bouncy seats. It will be easier on our backs too.

There was a four day period last month where the boys slept from 10pm to 4am but we have since reverted to waking every four hours to eat. We are also struggling to stick to a schedule because feedings throw everything out of whack. Thankfully it is a particularly bad RSV season, so I'm told, so we can't go anywhere. Now I need to work on my personal anxiety because everything seems to get me amped up or set me off and the boys are picking up on that.

We are working on our Holdiay photos but with limited success so far. And we are very slowly converting our den/storage room into a play room but it is posing quite the challenge as the boys are not leaving us much time to get anything accomplished. We are also stimied by the fact that the electric base board heater in that room is not strong enough to warm the room which was once a garage and does not have insulated walls.Aside from that things are going about as well as can be expected. I wish I could say that I have been enjoying this babyhood time of my boys but it just seems like it's one thing after another and I'm so exhausted and ready for everything to catch up to "normal", whatever that means. I feel like our whole household is burning the candle from both ends and from in the middle as well.