Vomit.

I consider us to be exceptionally lucky parents in a lot of ways.  We have a beautiful four year old boy who is the most loving child I have ever known (Yes, I am biased, but still....).  He makes us laugh until our sides hurt and makes us cry with his beautifully perfect little loving heart. 

 And then, we have two beautiful babies who can instantly make us both melt with their beautiful little smiles. 

Another reason I think we're lucky boils down to one word:  Vomit.  We have been parents for over 4 and a half years, and until last night, vomit had not entered our parenting world.  Seriously.  Now, we've had some spit up, even some toddler "spit up" from jumping or laughing or running right after eating.  But true vomit, no.  It has avoided us, and we have blissfully avoided it.

Yesterday, the twins had their 4 month checkups.  We are still making great gains up the charts in height and weight.  These little guys who started out below the 10th percentile (William) and not even on the chart yet (Mary Elizabeth) are now in the 83rd and 63rd percentiles, respectively.  Woo hoo. 
And, I was proud to learn that their little (huge) heads are not so huge after all.  James gives me a hard time about the exceptionally large Redding noggins, and how the twins have huge heads.... But our pediatrician assured us that their little noggins were perfectly proportional! 

Stats at 4 months: 
William weighs 17 pounds, 6 ounces (83rd percentile), is 26.5 inches long (88th percentile), and is in the 72nd percentile for head size.
Mary Elizabeth weighs 14 pounds, 11 ounces (63rd percentile), is 25 inches long (66th percentile), and is in the 79th percentile for head size.

Anyway, the twins checked out beautifully, we were able to ask some questions about sleep difficulties and our upcoming introduction to solid foods (it's amazing what you forget in 4 years), and then it was time for the shots.  This is a whole new ballgame for us.  We did an adjusted vaccination schedule with Robert which involved lots of complicated scheduling and spreading out of the vaccines (the reasons for that would be an entire series of blog posts, so I will refrain).  We had planned to repeat the cycle with the twins, but long story short, it's almost impossible to find a pediatrician in our current area who is willing to bend on the vaccination schedule.  It just becomes too complicated for the office staff to keep up with who's had what vaccine when..... So, we weighed our options (pediatrician closeby or pediatrician 70 miles away in Nashville)..... We finally just gritted our teeth and decided we'd go with the standard schedule.  I tell you this because we never had shot side effects with Robert, I think in large part because he never got more than 2 vaccinations at one time.  We even had them administer the "combo" vaccines separately with him.  He had to endure more sticks, but we never had more than a couple of hours of crankiness.

Back to the twins.  They had this same series of vaccines two months ago, and afterwards they were generally cranky through the night and the next day, but were okay.  So, we assumed they'd fare about the same with this round.   And we assumed wrong.  They ate very little yesterday afternoon, but seemed to perk up a bit in the evening.  The only noticeable difference to me was that Mary Elizabeth was obviously not feeling too great as she was perfectly content to just be held and snuggled (unlike her -- she's usually a mover who would rather be on the floor kicking than being confined in your arms).  Anyway, we played with them, snuggled with them, and then started our nightly routine.  They were in bed by 7 o'clock.

I am really bad at "doing" bedtime.  Really bad.  Although we do not rock the babies to sleep and put them into their beds awake, for the first several months, I have been holding vigil over them in their bassinets until they do go to sleep.  The past week or so, we have been doing some sleep training (of them AND me), and I have been putting them down and leaving the room.  And by "leaving the room," I mean I go as far as the couch that's right outside of the room.  Ha!  I sit right there until I know they are asleep.  Weird?  Yes.  Unnecessary?  Yes.  But it is what it is!  Anyway, during my evening vigil last night, the babies went from being sleepy to being super happy and playing.  I listened to them play for about 15 minutes, and then the crankiness began.  Oh, did it begin.  What followed was about 2 hours of crying/whining/complaining coming from the bedroom.  They would take turns, then cry together.  James and I would go in periodically to pat and soothe, then leave again.  It was obvious to me that they were not wanting us but were rather just generally cranky.  They did eventually settle down but were generally fussy through the night and had even more wakings than usual. 

About 3:30, I heard a loud wail from William.  He did this 2 nights ago after slicing his face with his fingernail.  So, I went in to check on him and found him fussing.  I couldn't find any injuries, so I decided that he must be hungry, since they hadn't eaten much since their shots the afternoon before.  I prepared a bottle and gave it to him.  Poor thing basically cried through the bottle (swallow, cry, swallow, cry).  I gave him just a few ounces and stopped.  I was patting him and trying to sooth him in the crib when all of a sudden there was gurgling..... then an eruption.  All over him and the bed.  Gross.  It startled me so badly that I ran back into our bedroom and woke up James.... Anyway, after the inital panic went away and I realized he wasn't dying, we took his temperature (mild fever), changed him, and tried to soothe him back to sleep.  I finally thought of the carseat (where they take their BEST naps).  I fetched it, James put him in, and within just a few minutes he was back to sleep.  And like a good mom, I left the vomity crib just like it was and went to work.  ;-)  

Anyway, I can now report that thanks to sweet William, we have officially entered the land of vomit.  And it is about as fun as it sounds.  The end.