How I do it. . .

I frequently hear the comment, "I don't know how you do it. . ." (referring to a wild 3 yr old and the 2 2mnth olds). To be honest, I don't do it well. There's screaming, crying and the occasional gnashing of teeth most days at our house. However, there are a few things Ive learned in the past few months that do make things a bit easier. Here's a few of the tricks I've got up my sleeve. . .

Swings: My boys live in these things. We only had one at first because J HATED the swing when she was a baby and there was no way I was going to be stuck with 2 swings if the boys followed suit, but they LOVE them, and thankfully, a friend was needing to get rid of her swing about the same time I was looking for a second one.



Miracle Blankets: The boys are usually swaddled in these fabulous blankets while sitting in said swings (and while asleep at night). It helps keep their wiggly arms and legs under control.


Co-sleeper: This is basically a pack-n-play with an adjustable side and it hooks right onto the side of your bed. Love it, it makes night feedings easier and when the boys are eventually moved to their own room, the fourth side pulls up and it turns into a regular pack-n-play.

Boppy Pillows: We use these to prop the boys up after feedings to help reduce spit up, we also use them for tummy time.

But my biggest help comes from a wonderful husband that doesn't complain when the house is still a mess when he gets home, who stays up until 2am with a fussy baby, and who helps the older sister get to school so mommy can sleep in. And from my BIG helper - BIG sister J. She loves to help get diapers and wipes for me and then take the dirty diapers to the diaper pail. She tries to quiet them down when they're crying and is very anxious for them to be old enough to play with her.

I'll be the first to admit, having twins is hard, it truly is one of the hardest things I've ever done, but it is also one of the most rewarding things. I LOVE all 3 of my kids and can't imagine life without them and so I take it one day at a time, and that is how I do it.

Playing Catch-up

I've finally download the pictures from my camera to the computer so over the next few days (weeks) I'll be playing catch-up. I'll be changing the post options so that things are in chronological order so if you want to read this past posts you'll have to scroll back (the oldest one will be Halloween). Hope you enjoy!

Themes

As the new year dawns, everyone reflects on the past and makes resolutions on how to improve themselves, or dreams they want to see come to fruition that following year. I was recently reading a friends blog and she mentioned a family theme, something the whole family wants to concentrate on for the entire year. I thought this was a great idea, so I decided to come up with our own family theme, something for us to focus on through out the year, something for us to discuss at FHE and work on during the week. My friends theme is "Come What May and Love It" from Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin's Oct. 2008 General Conference talk. While I could have easily piggy backed off her and used the same thing I thought this might have been more fitting for our family last year. As I sat pondering what would help our family this year I realized it was right in front of me (literally). A few years ago for an R.S activity, my mom's ward made tiles with vinyl quotes on them, she made one for me. I have this tile displayed prominently in my home, this is what it reads, "In all living, have much fun and laughter. Life is to be enjoyed not just endured." This is from a talk Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley gave to the Young Women in the April 1996 General Conference. I thought this would be perfect for our family right now, help us to focus on enjoying life not just enduring it. Most days, it feels like we're barely doing enough to keep our head above the water. It's been a struggle to adjust to having 2 infants in our home and when most people ask how we're doing, my answer is "we're surviving". I don't want to just be "surviving" I want to start thriving, and to do that I [we] need to start to enjoy this time, especially since it wont last long. Before we know it these little guys with be full fledged toddlers running all over the place, so I need to enjoy these moments now. As I was researching this theme, I came across another great article from the Ensign that emphasizes this theme. It's called "Enjoy It!" by Geraldine Bangerter. In this article she talks about when her husband was called to be the Mission President for the Brazilian Mission and how she overcame her struggles with the adjustment in lifestyle. Here's an excerpt from the article. . .

". . . Grant took me back inside. He put both hands on my shoulders, looked straight into my eyes, and said, “I know that you are experiencing some hardships, but one of the exciting parts of going to a new country is learning the language. You’ll soon learn it! We’ll find a vacuum and get the washer fixed. Someday, when we go back to the United States, you’ll want to tell people about your interesting times here. And when you do, you and they will laugh about your challenges. Why wait until then to enjoy it? Enjoy it now!”
I felt as if someone had raised the curtain on the second act of a play. I caught the wisdom of my husband’s words, and I began to laugh. “You’re right,” I said. “We should enjoy it now!” "

I've come up with 11 things that we're going to try to enjoy more (this month we're going to focus on the theme itself and then in February we'll start with our sub themes). We haven't decided what order to do these sub themes in (that's the topic of next Mondays FHE) but here they are. . .

We're going to find enjoyment in. . .

Family
Friends
Service
Gospel (general)
Outdoors/nature
Work
Talents
Ourselves
Our community
Christ
Scriptures

Another theme I'd like to talk about is our theme for R.S. this year. Our ward's theme is "What Matter's Most: SIMPLIFY" With each of the letters from simplify standing for something that well focus on each month.

Stillness

Integrity

Mercy

Prune

Let Go

Impossible

Fortify

You

I will try to post my experiences and progress as I [we] focus on these themes and become closer to each other and to the people that our Heavenly Father wants us to be.

Who's Who?

Can you figure it out?

2 Month Check Up

The boys had their 2 month check up yesterday. These visits always have a good and bad side to them. The good is that we get to see exactly how well our little munchkins are growing, the bad is that they have to get shots at the end (3 shots and a juice to drink each). So here's the fun part, their stats:

C:
Weight: 10lbs 7oz (19.69%)
Height: 21.25" (3.18%)

W:
Weight: 11lbs 11.5oz (50%)
Height: 22" (~17% W's stat's didn't print on his visit summary so I don't know the exact %)

We also found out the the boys have sensitive skin, we are to forgo the baby soap and use Cetaphil (an adult facial cleanser for sensitive skin) and that they most likely have allergies to milk proteins (they should outgrow this). The Dr. switched us to Alimentum formula for their supplements (the proteins are completely broken down so they don't bother the boys' tummies) and I am to cut back on the dairy that I eat. If that doesn't help them out then I'll have to eliminate dairy from my diet as long as I'm breastfeeding them. These changes should help with the spitting up, diarrhea and fussiness. The boys haven't reached any "normal" 2 month milestones developmentally (cooing/social smiles) but that's to be expected since they are considered to be only a month old developmentally since they were preemies (they go by due date not birth date for developmental progress on preemies up until their 2nd birthday).

Controversy

As I have read discussion boards, blogs, books and articles about child rearing, I have found that there is a lot of controversy. Breast feeding vs formula feeding, co-sleeping vs not, cloth vs disposable diapers, etc. and most people have strong feelings about one side or the other, but not many people think there is a middle ground.

The biggest debate I've seen when it comes to twins is breast feeding vs formula feeding. There's a discussion board that I use to frequent that's all about breast feeding multiples, but I found that while I was reading these discussions I'd get discouraged, the women on this board seemed to be of an all or nothing mindset. Mothers with infant twins would come to this site and post questions about boosting their supply or how to manage feeding twins while on the go. I felt that the responses they would get were quite discouraging. Things like, if you're supply is low feed your babies frequently until it builds up and NEVER give them a bottle, even if it means they're fussy for a few days. So I'm supposed to sit on the couch (bed, chair, wherever) and nurse my babies 24/7 and still have them hungry? NO THANKS! Though I do have to admit that reading these responses made me feel bad that I was giving my boys a couple of bottles of formula daily for the first few weeks and we still give them a bottle right before bed, it seems to help them sleep a little longer, and my supply tends to be low in the evenings anyway, but I'm over feeling bad about it. I've realized that this is what I have to do and that's life. I also give them bottles (usually of pumped milk) when we go out. It just takes to long to nurse them. I really don't want to spend an hour in the malls mother's lounge. I know there are MOMS (Mothers of Multiples) out there that have quit nursing all together because their supply wasn't 100% where it needed to be, so they thought what's the point and there's other MOMS out there that have suffered through the crying and fussiness of hungry babies because they were made to feel like they failed as a mother if they didn't exclusively breast feed their babies. Now that I've come to accept the fact that I can't exclusively breast feed, I don't feel like a horrible mother for supplementing with formula (nor do I feel that those who opt not to breast feed are horrible mothers). Some may ask why I even bother nursing my little guys part of the time, to them I say I do it first off because I enjoy it, second it saves money. In 2 months, I've only spent $1.00 on formula. We have a wonderful lady from church whose daughter gets TONS of samples of formula from her work but can't use them, and she has been gracious enough to give us some of them. We've also received a lot of samples in the mail. The $1.00 was spent on sensitive formula since regular formula causes C to have acid reflux symptoms (no we didn't buy $1.00 worth of formula, we actually got $42.00 worth, but with coupons we'd received in the mail we only had to pay $1.00 - gotta LOVE coupons).

The second debate [co-sleeping] is a big one for multiples and singles alike. I admit, I occasionally co-sleep, and I enjoy it. It started when J was a baby. I found that I got more sleep if I feed her laying down in bed, that way I could sleep while she ate and then when she was done she'd fall asleep next to me. That doesn't work too well with the boys (though I still fall asleep feeding them) but if one of them (usually C since he tends to be a bit colicky) is fussy at night. I can hold them and we'll both get better/more sleep. If the fussy one falls asleep before I do I'll put him to bed (they sleep in a co-sleeper next to my bed) but if not we sleep next to each other until one of them wakes up hungry. We did this with J until she was sleeping through the night and the only time she wants to sleep in our room (one of the arguments about co-sleeping is that you'll never be able to get the kid to sleep in their own bed) is when she's sick, or scared (ie 4th of July or New Years when there's fireworks going off - she HATES loud noises).

Diapers, diapers, diapers. I use disposable, and yes, we go through a lot of them in the course of a single day. If you use cloth, good for you, personally, I can't. The thought of changing diapers more frequently than I already do (cloth diapers don't hold as much as disposable ones) and doing more laundry? Again NO THANKS! I know some may say, well you'd save money with cloth diapers, but I haven't had to buy diapers yet, and I have a closet full of size 1 diapers now so it'll be a while before we have to buy diapers but even then no thanks on the cloth. Though I do find it interesting how short of a lifespan disposable diapers have had. Most of our mothers used cloth and were so excited about the invention of disposable and now just one generation later many mothers are returning to cloth.

This is where I stand on these issues, this is what works best for my family at the present time. I feel that we should all do what we feel is best for our current situation and not let the opinions of others make us feel discouraged.

2010 Recap

2010 was quite the rollarcoaster ride for our family. We started the year off with a loss (miscarriage #2 was last January), ended the year with the birth of our handsome little men and there were lots of ups and downs inbetween. Here's a few highlights:

E- has been BUSY working both at his job and at home. In the past year he's painted our entire house, built a GIANT table for outside, made a dog house, built a shed, refinished a dresser and laid hardwood floors on our main level. He switched divisions at work. He left patrol and went to an investigative division, he's only been there a little over 3 wks but he he couldn't be happier. E has big plans for 2011 as well. He's already researching how to build built-in shelves and a window seat in our playroom, and he wants to redo the yard later this spring.

A - I've been busy taking care of kids. I had a really rough pregnancy with the twins, but it was well worth it. [LOVE my boys]. Looking back over the year, I didn't accomplish much, no amazing craft projects or large number of books read, my garden failed and J's watched more TV this year than I would have liked, but I was able to keep my boys cooking as long as they needed and now I'm trying to get back on my feet, it's a big adjustment going from 1 to 3 kids. This next year I plan to loose some much needed weight, get my house back in order and work on improving my photography skills.

J - She's still taking gymnastics and is getting pretty good at it. She started preschool this fall and is loving it. I'm going to take a moment to brag a bit here. J starting school was a little controversy since her birthday is after the deadline (preschools around here use the same deadline as public schools which is Sept. 1st), her school let her in anyway but warned us that she'll probably have to repeat the 3's class again next year - yeah right, when school started she was the only one in her class that new all her shapes, colors and could count to 10. She's now learning how to write her name and will start dance class at the end of January. She loves spelling out words that she sees and doing simple math with her fingers.

C & W - I'm going to lump the boys together this year because they've pretty much done the same things so far. They've both over come a lot since their traumatic start to life. Both are growing and developing very well, and so far there seems to be no lasting effects from their TTTS, only slight developmental delay (which is normal in preemies). This next year will bring big changes for both of them. They will go from sleeping infants to full fledged toddlers and I'm excited to watch them grow and develop.

As a family we've gone through a lot in the past year. Somethings turned out as we'd planned, others did not, some for the good, and some for the bad, but we know that things turned out as our Heavenly Father had planned. He knew that we needed these two special spirits to come into our family at the same time and that it was going to be a long, hard process for us to get them here and to fully enjoy the hardships that they brought. We hope that this next year is a little more calm than last, but no less fulfilling and we hope you all have a very Happy New Year!