The Gorsuch Gang

What a Week!

// January 31st, 2010 // Gab

I started the week off by putting my foot down and forcing the girls into a four hour feeding schedule.  I was tired of wasting valuable formula when I thought they should be hungry.  I had previously tried varying the amounts of their bottles to see if I could teach them to eat full bottles at main mealtimes, but somehow that ended up with Ava eating nearly twice the amount of food as her sister.  Tuesday we went cold turkey and I gave the girls water if they got hungry between bottles.  Believe it or not the girls fell in line within two days.  I thought for sure Ava was going to be the hard sell because I’d have to convince her that she really could go four hours between feedings, but it was Ella who was the difficult one.  I swear that girl is like a camel, she could go all day on eight ounces of food.  I have to constantly remind myself that even though she eats less, she actually gets more because all of her bottles contain rice cereal to combat her reflux.  She has also developed an attitude when it comes to the bottle.  She likes to either swat the bottle away or grab it and pull it towards her, both are clumsy maneuvers that end with formula all over her face.  Or better yet, she will throw a tantrum, demand a pacifier, and take a quick cat nap before she’ll eat anything.  Part of me thinks she is getting bored with the bottle.  I hope this doesn’t continue when we start solids.   I’m pretty sure Ava outweighs Ella because she is eating every last drop of formula, plus about three ounces of water a day.  It will be interesting to see what their weights are when we go back to the doctor in a few weeks.  By the way, we have retired all of their three month clothes.  We are coming dangerously close to graduating to the next size of diapers as well.

Ella continued her physical therapy this week and she’s doing great.  We’ve noticed that she is voluntarily turning her head to the left more which is a really good sign.  We decided to apply for New York’s Early Intervention program, a state-funded program to help infants and toddlers with disabilities and developmental challenges.  Our physical therapist recommended the program and I have a friend who is currently applying for the program to help one of her twin boys.  Again, Ella’s condition isn’t serious, but we’ve been told it is something we should monitor until she is at least a year old.  If we are approved for the program, the state will pay for a therapist to come to our apartment to work with her which, would help us out tremendously.   More to come on this later.

Yesterday I saw Ava roll from her tummy to her back like there was nothing to it.  I had her on our bed propped up on pillows and while I was tending to Ella, she must have tipped herself over onto her face/tummy.  I didn’t even have time to help her because she rolled within the same moment of me seeing her.  I’ve seen both girls roll from side to side, but I guess I’ve got to watch out for the real deal now.

Lately the girls have started to show their individual personalities.  Ella is a complete ham and she freely lets the giggles fly.  She started squealing this week as you can see in the video below.  She is a natural born charmer too.  One plus to all of her medical issues has been that she’s already been exposed to lots of different people and social situations and everyone she meets just loves her.  The only time I’ve seen her get upset around another person was this past week when the physical therapist took her from my arms so that I could take off my coat.  Ella must have thought I was leaving or something because she went from sweet to panicked in a flash.  A quick, “Mommy’s here, honey.”, settled her down and she was back to smiling.  Also, I noticed the other day that her eyes have darkened to what I’m calling a forest green.

Ava is just pure sweetness – from her sweet little smile to the sweet little sounds she makes.  She is constantly “oohing” or awing” at the TV or the computer screen.  I’ve put on some cartoons to see what she would do and so far she seems interested.  She is our little thinker – constantly analyzing things.  She does have a fun side though.  Ava loves to have her cheeks “eaten”, but beware, she’ll try to eat yours back!  Oh and baby girl loves to be nude!  She gets crazy excited when I undress her for a bath.  Ava’s eyes have darkened too but hers are still brown, very dark brown.

In other general news, both girls have recently started using pacifiers.  I thought we might be the exception because for the longest time, they didn’t want anything to do with them.  However, one day Ava was gagging herself because she was trying to get her whole fist in her mouth so I popped one in and she went out like a light.  I tried the same thing with Ella and it worked so well that she demands one now when she is trying to settle down.

We setup the jumperoo and exersaucer the other day and the girls are in love. Ella prefers the jumperoo and she knows how to really get it bouncing.  We had to put some mats under her feet though because she’s not quite big enough to touch the ground.  Ava favors the exersaucer because there are all sorts of toys on it that she can study and there is a small mirror that really gets her attention.    I also put together the highchairs and gave the girls the first feeding in them on Friday.  It went better than expected, but I’m not sure we will be using them full time just yet.  Our living room is starting to look like a Babies R Us showroom.

I feel like I’m forgetting something, but changes are happening so fast that it is hard to keep up.  These girls are keeping us on our toes for sure.  Here is a video montage for your enjoyment.