Dear Rowan and Scarlett,
I decided to switch up your names on the letter every month because it doesn’t seem very fair that Scarlett’s name should always come first! Will it be that way for your entire life? One of you will come first? It’s hard to say!
The second month with you was better than the first – you both are starting to interact with us more and give us big smiles! Rowan started smiling around 1 month and Scarlett didn’t pick it up until a couple weeks ago. Rowan smiles so easily – usually all it takes is for you to lock eyes with her and smile at her and she’ll give you a big, toothless grin! Scarlett is a little tougher but it makes it all that much more heart warming when you get a smile from her. Rowan will occasionally give us some cooing noises as well which is very sweet! You’re both making eye contact now, following us or an object with your eyes as we move back and forth, and are able to hold your heads up a bit better when sitting up in our laps. Rowan rocks tummy time and can get her head really high. Scarlett is still working on building those muscles up, but both of you are surprisingly calm when on you bellies (compared to your sister who really disliked tummy time).
Your personalities continue to be unique, though Scarlett has actually calmed down a bit and is a little more mellow than previously, and Rowan seems to be a little more needy/fussy in the evenings – I think she just likes to be held! Rowan is more sensitive to your sister’s tempter tantrums/crying and seems to get upset by the sound of her crying (it’s one of the only times that Rowan actually cries). I wouldn’t say either of you are fussy babies generally though – as long as Scarlett gets fed and Rowan gets her snuggles, then you’re both happy!
We had your two month check-up today and you both did great. We have been wondering if Rowan’s head wasn’t growing enough because Scarlett’s looked SO much bigger, but turns out that Scarlett’s head is just very large. As we suspected, Scarlett (who as born 6 oz smaller) now weighs a full pound more than Rowan, at 10 pounds 13 oz (37%) compared to Rowan’s 9 pounds 13 oz (14%). Scarlett’s head is in the 93rd percentile and Rowan’s is 27th, which seems normal compared to her weight. You’re close to one another in height, 75th for Scarlett and 64th for Rowan. Our tall string beans, just like Siena!
Breastfeeding continues to bring challenges. Around six weeks I pulled back on my around the clock efforts to try to get my milk supply up and became accepting of the fact that we’ll be supplementing indefinitely. With that, you got more bottles and less breastfeeding time and ultimately it seems like you guys prefer the bottle to me (tear). You both still nurse in the middle of the night and in the mornings when the flow is really good, but if it’s not as strong, you’d rather just have the bottle (Scarlett seems to prefer the bottle more than Rowan, which makes sense given her voracious appetite). That means I’ve been pumping more often and for longer sessions to get as much milk as I can for you. In addition to the nighttime and morning nursing, I’ll usually nurse one of you 1-2 times throughout the day for a little while before you lose interest and for the bonding of it. (Speaking of your differences, when you both get a bottle, Scarlett almost always drinks more, sometimes up to 1-2 oz more – that’s probably why she’s so much bigger!)
There are pros and cons to this situation. The nice thing is that I can pump whenever its convenient for me (but no more than 3 hours between pumping sessions ideally) so I don’t have to work around your feeding schedule so much. I pump throughout the day while I’m working or eating a meal (your dad barely notices now haha) so it doesn’t feel inconvenient most of the time. That means I can pump before we go out in public and then just quickly feed you both a bottle while we’re out if you’re hungry. Breastfeeding twins in public is NOT easy and even when I tried breastfeeding one of you and bottle feeding the other in public, it took a very long time and left me very little time to actually enjoy the activity we went outdoors to do (i.e. a playdate or the park for Siena, date night, or a walk and lunch with a friend). It’s also nice because other people can feed you – your dad, your grandparents, a friend of mine, etc. so not all of it is on me.
The cons of mostly pumping of course are that on the rare occasion we’re actually out of the house for longer than 3 hours, I have to find a place to pump or do it in the car. Another con is that I do enjoy breastfeeding for the bonding and I’m a little sad that we won’t have that relationship as you get bigger and easier to nurse (I nursed your sister until a year old and despite drinking bottles, she never stopped loving nursing). But who knows, maybe you guys will come around. I really don’t like tandem nursing so that is a major pro to not nursing so much. I don’t tandem nurse at night anymore – instead I pull one of you in bed and nurse sidelying and then I wake your dad up for him to give you a bottle while I nurse the other one of you on the other side and then give you the rest of the bottle. Keeping both of you fed and happy is an around the clock job that’s for sure!
Speaking of around the clock, this month you both started sleeping better at night. You’ve been pretty good night sleepers since the beginning but around 4 weeks you started giving us a 5 hour stretch at times and as of the last couple of weeks you consistently sleep around 5.5-6 hours (a few times you’ve even slept 7 hours!) for the first stretch. It takes Scarlett a little longer to settle back to sleep and Rowan just passes right out without any rocking or anything (Scarlett also tends to make more noises in her sleep). After the first long stretch you’ll usually sleep another decent stretch which means you really only wake up once in the night. Bedtime is usually around 9-9:30 for you two and I don’t get to bed until 10-10:30 after I pump and get ready for bed. We’re usually up between 7-8 a.m. for the day. I still try to take a nap a few times a week to help keep up with sleep. Your poor dad gets up very early as your sister Siena has started waking up as early as 5 a.m. some days!
As of now, you both primarily nap in the Rock n’ Play/swing or on the go in your car seats, though I try to get you down for at least one nap upstairs swaddled in your bassinets with the white noise on, just like at night. I find you sleep the longest in the bassinets for nap, as your sister or some other noise inevitably wakes you up when you’re downstairs. We aren’t on any kind of feeding or sleeping schedule yet, but we do have a general routine and I see patterns emerging in your sleeping and eating schedule. For example you like to eat about 2-2.5 hours after the first feeding instead of 3, you usually take your longest nap in the early afternoon and you tend to eat frequently, but not a lot at once, in the evenings.
This month you went on lots of walks, to the beach, and had your first visit to your Nana and Boo’s house, where you slept the entire time that we were in the pool. I even got out with you and your sister for our first playdate alone and our first trip to the park alone (without your dad that is). We’ve continued to take you on our weekly date nights and despite the looks, we roll our giant double stroller right into all kinds of places. Our latest favorite is a new beer tasting room that opened up in Leucadia. I’m not sure when exactly you’ll be too old to go on our dates with us, but for now we’re enjoying getting out with you.
I can’t wait to see what the next month holds for both of you! I love you very much!
Love,
Mama
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