Sonny and Theo 6 Month Update

Sonny and Theo were 6 months old on September 27th! I can’t believe that we have had twins for 6 whole months (fastest 6 months of my life!) I’m a little late (the babies are now 7.5 months!) but here is a 6 month update for Sonny and Theo!

Sonny and Theo are such a joy to be around, they are seriously the happiest and smiliest babies. They are so sweet and so smart, and I am just overjoyed that I get to be their mom. How did I get so lucky? I love how their faces light up when they see me and how they are so clingy to me. They are definitely mama’s boys and I am very okay with that! They both amaze me every day with what they are able to do and figure out. I can’t wait to watch them grow, but time please slow down a little!

We took these photos shortly after they turned 6 months and they are some of my favorite photos of all time. I love this age, I love their little faces, I love their outfits, and I love Fall and the colors. I’m so glad that we got these photos done to remember this extremely happy (and crazy!) time in our lives.

WHAT SONNY AND THEO ARE DOING:

Rolling around like crazy
Lots of tummy time
Taking a few naps in their swings every day
Walks in the stroller and still squeezing into the bassinet attachment sometimes
Sonny got his helmet
Sitting in the bumbo seats
Laughing a ot
Holdings hands with each other
Sleeping through the night!
Moved from bassinets in our room to cribs in their nursery
Sleeping in sleep sacks
Sonny sleeps on his tummy and Theo loves all sleeping positions
Got on a 4 nap schedule
Theo loves his pacifier and sucking his thumb
Grabbing for feet and knees
Holding their own bottles
Loving staying busy with lots of toys and teethers

FUN THINGS WE’VE DONE:

Fun visits from out of town family
First 4th of July
Outings to Mall of America, breweries, county fair, splash pad, zoo, parks, and more!
Big sister Rosie’s birthday party
First trips to Wisconsin Dells, Brainerd, and our friend’s cabin (first road trip and first hotel)
Meeting lots of our friends and their babies
Went to “twins day” at the Twins game
First year at the Minnesota State Fair
Watched their first badger football game
Fall fun at apple orchards
Had a weekend with Dad when I left them for a weekend for the first time!

SONNY’S HELMET

I mentioned in the boys’ 3 month update that Sonny has torticollis and plagiocephaly (read more here!) We decided (along with Sonny’s pediatrician, physical therapist, and orthotic specialists) to get Sonny a helmet. The helmet works to correct the flat spot on his head. He got the helmet at 4 months and will hopefully be done wearing it by 8 months. Sonny wears the helmet 23 hours a day. We take it off once a day to clean the helmet a bit (and clean Sonny too!) The helmet is super smelly! We continue to go to physical therapy to work on the tightness in his neck. Overall, Sonny has done a great job with everything and doesn’t mind the helmet one bit. We are so happy we made the decision to get his helmet!

SLEEP TRAINING

At about 4.5 months old, we did sleep training with the boys. We did the cry-it-out method (which I know is controversial) but has worked well for our family. The boys were so ready, it took just one night and they were sleeping through the night. We decided to make all the changes at once, so we moved them into their own room, into cribs, and also unswaddled them. For this transition time, we used the Merlin suits before ultimately moving them into sleep sacks. For two months, we did a dream feed at around 10 or 11 at night, just to give them that extra little bit to get them through the night. I slowly decreased the number of ounces in the dream feed until we stopped doing one completely. We are all so happy and rested now! The boys sleep 7pm to 7am like champs!

EXCLUSIVE PUMPING AND FEEDING

I am still exclusive pumping! I dropped one pump so I am now pumping 7 times a day. This means I pump every 3 hours all day with one 6 hour stretch at night. I pump for 20 minutes each time, for about 140 minutes a day. The babies each have 5 bottles a day (Sonny 6 ounce bottles and Theo 5 ounces). I use all of the milk from the 7 pumping sessions to make the 5 bottles. I am making the perfect amount right now (almost 60 ounces a day!) but I wish I produced enough to freeze a little! We are still using these bottles, and using the Twin Z pillow to feed them both at the same time.