16 weeks

We marked 16 weeks with our sweet twins yesterday, and they are getting more and more adorable by the day. Barnes is incredibly interactive now. He laughs and smiles and loves to play. When you do something repeatedly, he can anticipate it and gets excited. Frances is our curious baby. She watches everything going on around her and never wants to miss anything. She loves lights and movement, and was therefore fascinated by her first UT basketball game.

Despite their adorableness, life with twins seems to be getting more difficult for me (mom). Since Thanksgiving, B has wanted to be held all the time. With one baby that might be cute...with two, it's impossible. As they get older and more alert, they require more attention. This leaves less time for the tasks required for caring for them.

The biggest time conflict is pumping. While I am proud to say that they are still getting only one bottle of formula per day, I'm not sure how much longer their almost all breastmilk diet will last. When the babies want to be held, played with, rocked, or otherwise interact, I can't hook up to a machine. I've heard about so many supermoms who pumped for 6 months, 8 months, 10 months...then I remind myself that all of these women had one infant. That's half the milk and half the babies. I am not supermom, and I am outnumbered by my babies. Sometimes I just can't make it all work.

My big goal is 4 months (Christmas Eve), which is almost here. After that, I'm trying to give myself permission to pump less and play more. I'm not going to completely give up, just cut back a bit. I think this will lead to better days for everyone involved.

*Special thanks to Aunt Lacy for our adorable hats!*