Julie and Brayden Update: 2 Months

I am stealing this idea from another twin mom blogger, Mandy at The Fabulous Baby Striblings - tracking certain things each month in an update to see how my little ones are progressing.  One of my biggest regrets in mommyhood so far is not taking an official "One Month" picture (although we did take tons of pictures) so we're a little behind.  We'll catch up for sure though. :-)

Feedings:  Babies are drinking about 4 ounces of milk, about every three hours (with the exception of our recent overnight improvements).  We do one formula bottle every night as well, and mamma is still exclusively pumping every four hours.  We've just started adding one tablespoon of rice cereal to our midnight bottle which seems to be helping extend the midnight hour just a bit.  We've given up on overcoming the frequent spitups and don't really bother with the Zantac since it didn't seem to help, nor do the babies seem to be in pain.  The doctor's perspective is that the breast milk is probably worth it to hang in there and keep our "spitty babies."

Daytime: The babies still spend most of the day snoozing away, but will sit contently in the swing, or in the bunny chair on the kitchen table for stretches of time.  Brayden especially loves the "play gym" on the floor where he can look in the mirror and kick the whale hanging by his feet.  Julie enjoys tummy time, although we need to work at finding more time for this.  A favorite game we play is "buzzy bee" where I pretend the bee is buzzing and lands on them.  Julie loves to follow my fingers!  Favorite toys include the Swing, the Play Gym, the crib animation toy, the Winkle and the Glow Seahorses.  We typically feed around Midnight, 5 am, 9 am, noon, 3, 6, and 9.  As the picture shows, Julie still sleeps a LOT.  Probably around 15+ hours a day?  It's great to catch her when she's awake though. :-)

Nighttime:  We're finally getting a good stretch overnight where we get five+ solid hours of sleep.  The babies don't like to sleep in their cribs - at all - and so we're co-sleeping with one sleeping with Grammy in the guest room, and one in our bed.  Hopefully we'll be making some improvements here soon.  Our biggest problem is that because the babies won't sleep in their cribs, we can't put them to bed until we're in bed -which means midnight (especially since I have to pump as well).  If we'd move their bedtime back to, say - 10:00, we'd be back to feeding at 3 am.  It may not be the best plan of action, but this is "working" for the time being.

Schedule:  There really is no schedule.  This is rough and certainly not a recommendation to any other parents out there...  Yes, I realize to some, this looks like a wild mess - but, for us, it's the best choice for the moment.
5-6 a.m.: Bottle then back to sleep(Dan feeds whoever is in our bed, Grammy feeds whoever is in her bed, Heather pumps)
9ish am: Bottle then back to sleep
11ish am: Wake Up, change, and start the day.  Typically the babies spend some awake time here until their next bottle.
Noonish: Bottle
3ish: Bottle then typically some more sleep
6ish: Bottle
9ish: Bottle - then colicky crying time
11:30: Get ready for bed, then bottle
12:30 a.m.: Feed and Sleep

Outings and Events:  So far we have ventured out on numerous occasions to the doctors office, multiple trips to Target, a visit to TJ Maxx, the scrapbooking store and the craft stores (Grammy's favorite).  Brayden has had two "lunch dates," once with my former co-workers at Buffalo Wild Wings, and once with Grammy and her friend Charlene.  We've also all gone out to visit Great-Pap at Aunt Kim's House and Great-Nanny at the Assisted Living facility.  One of our most memorable experiences was Julie's diaper explosion at the Scrapbook store that left us on the ground with a blanket, and ended in her spending the rest of the afternoon pantsless.  What an adventure!
 We do try to make frequent outings out of the house (for our sanity and mom's practice), but those are pretty difficult maneuvers.  Typically, I pump, we dress the babies, then feed the babies, and by now - an hour and a half has gone by and it'll quickly be time to pump again.  I'll try to pump again right before we leave to extend the time we're able to be away.  This typically works, except when babies spit all over their outfits and need changed again before we leave, and have empty tummies that need re-fed.  There have been days, we just give up and stay home.

Milestones:  The babies are both right on track for their milestones according to the doctor.  Julie has an exceptionally strong neck, and can turn from side to side while on her tummy.  Both are pretty strong overall!  Brayden's great at following things with his eyes.  Both babies have begun smiling a lot the past few weeks and are generally very pleasant during the day.  They've also begun "talking" to things like the birds hanging above their bunny seat and swing, the crib animation, themselves in the mirror and family.

We're so enjoying this special time!

Beach Babies

When I first saw Adele Enersen's photographs at Mila's Daydreams I was completely in love.  They featured a peacefully sleeping babe, with an intricate scene created by blankets and fabric.  I just could  not get enough of her images, and am looking forward to purchasing her book soon.

In the meantime, we've decided to create our own pictures in the same style.  Hopefully with a little creativity, we'll be able to incorporate both babies in the pictures with some creativity - and even get them to stay still long enough to snap a picture.  Our first attempt is a beach scene, since our family loves beaches of all types and it seemed like a perfect "dream" for a mid-February afternoon.

Julianna - with brown throw (sand) blue bedspread (sky), brown dress (tree trunk)
two green sweaters (palms) and  yellow t-shirt (sun).

Our next project will most likely be a rainbow for St. Patrick's day because just as much as we love our beach - we love being Irish too.  Wish us luck!

Oh Make Me Over

I've been spending more time in the world of blog-land, and am so jealous of all of the super lovely (professional, put-together, appealing) blogs out there and figured "I'm computer savvy - how hard could it be?"  After a week of obsessively scouring vector graphic databases, reviewing blogger tutorial forums, and struggling with HTML caos, I've decided it's pretty tough.

I'm such a perfectionist, and have an addictive personality when it comes to overcoming a challenge.  It's an asset when it means being committed to success (which explains why my twins are still getting breast milk despite two months of challenges), but that drive is also detrimental when it becomes an inability to "leave well enough alone."  My blogging goals aren't to monetize and make tons of cash, nor do I expect to be a famous blogging celebrity someday.  I don't even have the ego that needs fed by having 1000 subscribers.  I just like to reflect, and think that recording my thoughts through this journey will be fun to look back on.  It might entertain family and friends, or encourage another twin mom in her journey.  So I have no need to spend our limited budget on a blog designer.

I have done my little blog make-over myself.  And while it's certainly not perfect, I wanted to provide credit where credit is due.  I did find it pretty difficult to find the information I needed to get the job done.  Most tutorials I found were either so basic (as in "here's how to start a new post with blogger") or so advanced that there were completely unhelpful.  The few places that were helpful were amazing though, so perhaps these links will help someone else who finds themselves in the same predicament I did.

Banner and Widget Title Graphics: http://dryicons.com/free-graphics/category/frames-banners/
Customized myself in Adobe Illustrator (boy did I learn a thing or two playing around!)

Social Media Icons: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/04/24-free-exclusive-vector-icons-handy/ found http://bestdesignoptions.com/?p=13779
Created the matching Pinterest Icon since that wasn't included in the set.  Not too bad if I do say so myself!

Coding, Spacing, Etc: http://www.projectalicia.com/2011/01/idiots-guide-to-adding-social-media.html
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=5ec0a6e5c8b8c95f&hl=en
http://www.geekytricks.com/2011/08/how-to-increase-or-reduce-space-between-widgets.html

Still a few little tweaks I can make, but hoping I can let go of my perfection obsession long enough to enjoy my accomplishment in the meantime.

A Tale of a Poopy Princess

There once was a perfect little princess named Julie who liked to snooze without worry and spend her days lounging in pink.  She was particularly excited one evening when her Daddy came home, cuddled her in his lap, and fed her a bottle of milk.  Little Julie was enjoying her late evening meal, when all of a sudden, her Daddy exclaimed  with terror "Oh God!  She's pooping on me!"

Julie's Grammy sprang into action to pick up Julie from her frantic father. Grammy was shocked to discover a poopy puddle on the ground!  Amazingly the poopy little princess had managed to poop out the top of her diaper, and onto the floor - thus sparing her precious little polka dot pants.

 The Poopy Puddle

Princess Julie's Shocked Reaction

 Brayden - Unfazed

The Frustrated Father with his Carpet Steamer

Snugglin' Up Close

I'm quickly learning that one of the biggest challenges as a parent is the sincere desire to do what's best for your kids, even when what's best isn't clear.  We've been having some nighttime troubles with the babies which we think are due in part to their acid reflux and gas.  Sometimes it seems that nothing will soothe them other than cuddling with their exhausted mamma.  Even from the very first few nights home, I often felt as if I was doing sit-ups to replace a spit out binky into the mouth of a wailing Julianna in the crib near our bed.

So we bought a "co-sleeper."  This little contraption fits between Mom and Dad in the bed, and allows our baby to rest soundly on a firm mattress, surrounded by a railing to prevent any dangers such as pillow suffocation, or parental roll over.  The challenge though, is that this isn't a very big sleeping space, and doesn't offer much in the way of providing warmth comfort and intimacy for my fussy babies.  Plus, as a mamma of two - there's no room even in a King bed for two of these plus parents.

I've been stuck with such a fear of SIDS, and rightly so not wanting to put my babies at any unnecessary risk.  There are though times that when at your wits end, there don't seem like many other alternatives than bringing baby into the bed.

Our cuddle sessions began (and have largely remained) in the mornings.  After Dan leaves for work at 7, and babies are wide awake, they join me in the bed to extend our morning sleep until at least the next feeding comes.  Lucky for me, this time is some of the most solid sleep I get!  Of course I knew to remove any blankets or pillows close to the babies and to keep them on their backs, but I wanted to do some more research on safe "co-sleeping" as I know many people do this full time with their babies.

I was so surprised to read, after a quick google search, the very credible research done that indicates that co-sleeping actually reduces the risks of SIDS by providing babies with deeper sleep - which allows them to arouse more quickly when dangerous breathing patterns occur in their immature respiratory system.

Doctor Sears, a well known and respected pediatrician gives his very positive perspectives on co-sleeping in a Parenting.com article.  The University of Notre Dame's "Mother Baby Behavioral Sleep Lab" also has research that shows many benefits of co-sleeping for breastfeeding mothers, but sets some limitations for those who formula feed their babies.

For our family, I'm not sure of how often and to what level we'll engage in the practice of co-sleeping, but I was relieved to hear that I'm not putting my children at danger when following basic guidelines for their safety in bed.  It's also so lovely to snuggle close with them, and feel them relax as they're comforted by my presence.  I think that's really what all mothers want - to gave their babies what is best for them.  Whether that's in our bed or out, what's clear as that what's best for them is to be close to their family.