The Twins: 2 months old

Posted on February 20, 2013 by

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Claire and Edward are two months old today.

We’ve got a nice routine these days. The twins eat every three hours during the day, and at night they sleep longer. Our nights are better than they used to be with tiny newborns. It also helps that Edward will finally take a pacifier. Claire and Edward usually eat for the last feeding of the day at 9 or 10 pm. Five hours later they wake up at 2 or 3 am. At 2 months, they are getting better about going back to sleep quicker in the middle of the night. Usually. Then they wake up about four hours later at 6 or 7 am.

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I keep the twins on the same schedule as each other. Whoever wakes up first in the morning determines the timing for all three of us. When one baby eats, I make sure
that the other Continue reading →

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Eight cousins

Posted on February 3, 2013 by

Tonight at a family Super Bowl party was the first time that all of the immediate Balhoff cousins have been together since the twins were born. The girls were very interested in the twins… especially in Claire.

So the girls were happy to sit together for a few photos.

Each one wanted a chance to Continue reading →

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Twin comic caption contest

Posted on January 29, 2013 by

Caption contest! Ready… set… go:

cartoon

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Attempting a 5-week portrait

Posted on January 28, 2013 by

I’ve decided that the timing has to be just right to photograph twins together.

Claire, Edward, and I have a pretty packed schedule right now. I’m feeding them separately, administering medicine, pumping, and sterilizing bottles every 3 hours while we’re trying to get rid of thrush. In the few “free” minutes between cycles, I’ve yet to get the timing right to photograph two happy babies. Every picture I try to take of them together has either one or both crying. Awe… look at the unhappiness:

It works a little better to give Edward a chance to relax:

And to give Claire some time all by herself:

Patrick likes to photograph the twins as much as I do. I wonder if he captured any perfect shots on his Cars camera?!

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Our twins’ birth

Posted on January 17, 2013 by

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My pregnancy with the twins was relatively uncomplicated. We managed to avoid some high-risk hassles like gestational diabetes, bed rest, preterm labor, etc. I experienced (double?) my share of unpleasant pregnancy symptoms, but the twins were perfectly content and healthy throughout the pregnancy. They seemed in no rush to join the rest of us. At 37.5 weeks it was time to intervene and introduce them to the world.1220_03

Edward was breech, so we scheduled a c-section. I asked if the date could be pushed out a few days from Dec 17 (37 weeks gestation) to be Continue reading →

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2-week-old twin portrait

Posted on January 5, 2013 by

I have a new appreciation for professional photographers who take adorable photos of twin newborns together. It was trickier than I expected. Before I started, I assumed I could get pics of one twin, pics of the twins together, then pics of the other twin. It took so much longer than I expected that I lost the natural light from the window, couldn’t keep the babies asleep, and ran out of time once our 3-hour feeding schedule started over. I was also using Patrick’s bedroom as my “studio”, and he needed it to take his nap. The result was that I had a very short window to try to capture them together. According to the image timestamps, they were together, still, and quiet from 3:23:17 – 3:24:12 pm. That wasn’t much time!

I would have liked to adjust them more, but here’s what I got of my precious babies for their 2-week-old twin “portrait”. Claire is on the left and Edward’s on the right:

Claire & Edward, 2 weeks old

I was able to get several cute shots of Edward before Continue reading →

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Merry Christmas from the Balhoffs

Posted on December 25, 2012 by

This morning under my tree, I found exactly what I never knew I always wanted.

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