Smiles, School, Sweet Meat, and Sayonara

Smiles:  Both girls are starting to smile.  Yippee!  They aren't doing it a ton yet, but each day we can coax a few.  Sometimes, we can even get some coos.  I tried to get some smiles on film but no such luck.  You can be sure I'll post them when I do.  

School:  Jack and I started our homeschool again this week, thanks to our dear friend, Laura.  She has been here since Friday and will be here the rest of the week.  Having her hold babies and clean up some has helped free me to get us back in swing.  So far, it has gone well.  Jack and I started school in mid-summer so that we could afford time off when the babies were born.  So, essentially, our summer is over.  

Sweet Meat:  I don't know if this is a common term or just a Eubanks thing, but "sweet meat" refers to the pudgy parts on our babies, especially the rolls they get on their thighs.  Needless to say, our tiny preemies were not born with sweet meat.  But, I am happy to report that we can now claim some.  I am so excited to watch them plump up and look more like healthy, normal babies.  At the last doctor's appointment, Caroline actually made it onto the growth chart.  As of this week, Caroline weighed in at 9 lbs 6 oz. and Abbey at 8 lbs 11 oz.  

Sayonara:  After weeks of internal debate, decision reversals and much stress, I said good-bye to the pump.  I am glad to have been able to provide these precious ones with the healthy choice for their first ten weeks, but I can't do it anymore.  To keep an adequate milk supply requires 8 to 10 sessions a day.  Between the time pumping, cleaning the parts, and storing the milk, each session was roughly 30 minutes.  So, yes, that means a four to five hour commitment a day.  I do not have that kind of time.  Granted I haven't been putting that much time into it lately.  That is probably why my body stopped producing.  I am very relieved to have that decision behind me.  I really wish that I could have kept it up for them, like I did for Jack and Molly, but it was too much.  So, I celebrated by eating chili.  It was worry-free and that was great!

That is my update for now.  I wish I had time to post more often, especially with pictures.  I am not too fast with that yet.  So, I will leave you with our family picture from Christmas.  If we had done a Christmas card this year, this would have been with it.  Happy New Year everyone.