7 Weeks (39w1d Yesterday)

Yesterday started off easy enough. Marcus went to work and both babies ate well for me their first two feedings and Eli was awake for quite awhile so I attempted to 'play' with him. I'm not really sure how successful that was since I have no idea what to do, I tried to get him to track a rattle, I talked to him, I put him on his stomach, he seemed pretty much uninterested in all of this. Although at the suggestion of my Aunt I put Eli on his stomach on the boppy and he managed to pick his head (although really briefly) but a lot better than ever before. Here he is 'exercising'. This was his homework assignment from his physical therapist, tummy time to work on the neck muscles.



Doesn't he look like he's working hard. (And it looks like he held it up but in reality his little head slammed right back down I was just quick with the camera but it's progress.)

All was going well, until about 2:30 when both babies had meltdowns of epic proportions. They both just started screaming for apparently no reason. Both had just been fed, so they weren't hungry, they had clean diapers, but they decided at the exact same moment that they wanted to be held and nothing else was going to appease them.

This unfortunately didn't work out so well for me because when I'm alone I can't hold and pick up both babies at once. Believe me I tried everything in my power to do so yesterday and failed miserably. So instead I would hold one while the other screamed their head off, and then switch which resulted in the formerly held baby screaming their head off. And this was full out screaming, not crying, just mean, angry, screaming. I kept waiting for someone to knock on my door to investigate exactly what I was doing to them, because it was so loud and awful. At one point I did manage to put a baby in my lap and hold the other one and this worked for about 20 minutes until I couldn't feel my legs and made the mistake of trying to lay one of them down. This then started the screaming all over again. I also tried a sling but again I couldn't figure out how to hold more than one at a time. I really need to work on that during a time when they're not throwing a fit.

This screaming lasted for 2.5 hours. At one point I had to put both babies down and go and cry in the other room. I also called Marcus crying because I just didn't know what to do. It was one of those moments when I really wished I lived by family. My husband and I moved 3000 mile away from them so I could go to grad school and I am so fully affirmed in the decision to do so even though the distance is hard. However yesterday I would have given anything to be in my hometown so my mom, my aunt, a sister or a cousin could have held a baby because that's literally all they wanted. For some reason they just needed to be held at the exact same moment. Marcus finally came home and rescued me.

I have since decided that the babies conspired against me because they are always so good when there's more than one person here to help, however when I'm alone it's a whole other story. We all survived and all of the screaming exhausted them so they slept pretty well for the rest of the evening. Crazy, exhausting, kids...