The girls have settled into their formulas (which by the way, my insurance pays for 100% of Melia's formula!! I thought they'd pay the same 90% that they are paying for Madison's, but apparently there is more coverage for a specialty, non-prescription formula - go figure). Madison is taking between 90 and 110ccs, depending on her mood and Melia is taking between 100 and 120ccs, depending on her mood - but she usually takes a whole 120, which is 4oz - I think we'll be moving to bigger bottles with her very shortly. They're both still having reflux episodes here and there. Melia seems to be having more episodes, which is out of the ordinary. I'm thinking that their Pepcid dosage might need an increase since they've each gained a couple pounds since their last increase. Our next appointment with the specialist is at the end of the month. I'll call him if I need to before that, otherwise, I'll talk to him about it then. I'll see how things go over the next few days.
Now that the formula issue seems to be settled for the time being, of course another issue must arise - constipation. Both girls have been having poop issues. Melia has been having problems for a while now, but Madison always did pretty well in this area - until late last week. Now they're both pooping once every few days - and at times, it gets ugly. I actually had to stimulate her yesterday to get her to go and when she did it hard and she had so much trouble getting it out. So today I gave them both a bit of prune juice in their afternoon bottle. It seems to have worked well for Madison. About 3 hours later she was, um, in a word, explosive! ;-) I haven't seen a change in Melia yet, but we'll see what happens.
Mike has been working more lately, picking up landscaping shifts with a guy from firehouse. So with him gone more and more, I've been flying solo a lot during the days. And naturally, to coincide with my flying solo - the girls have learned to tell time. Ah yes, they are little time-telling geniuses! Every 3 hours, they begin to stir, knowing that feeding time at the Marcino zoo is upon them. With that, and the fact that I only have 2 hands, I've been relying on bottle proppers to help me out. These are like my new best friends these little wonderous creations. A friend of mine who also has twins suggested them to me - she called them a "lifesaver" - so I figured from one twin mom to another, it was worth the $14.95. All I can say is thank you Deana!! When the girls are double teaming me, screaming like they weren't fed 3 hours prior and may never get fed again - I just sit them each on either side of me on their boppies and set them up with these bottle proppers. I watch them to make sure that they don't choke up - and I pick them up for a quick burp as needed - but then I put them right back down and watch the forumla disappear right before my very eyes. Deana, you are correct, these things are lifesavers! I recommend them to twin moms everywhere! I don't use them all the time, because I enjoy the bonding that goes along with holding them close while feeding them - but when the situation calls for it, these things are a dream come true for my ear drums! 
In other very exciting news, the girls have slept through the night 3 times in the past week! Not three consecutive nights, but three nights nonetheless. We've been feeding them at 11pm and giving them a few extra ccs to try to fill their tummies to hold them over through the night - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't - but it's a start. On three nights we've had 6-7 hour stretches of sleep overnight! WOOHOO!! I forgot what it was like to sleep at night! It's quite refreshing!
Don't get me wrong, there is still some stirring here and there requiring me to reach over into the bassinet and put the binkies in the their mouths, but nothing that requires me to actually get up. They probably won't be on the apnea monitors much longer. The monitor company came to the house yesterday to download the memory off the monitors and they'll send that info to the apnea clinic - once the clinic gets that info I'm guessing I'll get the call that they can come off the monitors because they really haven't had many episodes lately - and the ones that they have had, I don't believe they were true events. So while I still have the security blanket of the apnea monitors, we're going to finally make the transition to the nursery. So tonight is that night. Wish us luck! By the way, Melia says Hi! ;-)
