Snow Day!

Just south of us had a blizzard warning today, and with 9 inches of snow in less than 24 hours our winter storm warning meant that both parents had a snow day from work today!  I can't tell you how much this unexpected day off was needed for me, even with only a few days to go until winter break from school.

Our day started with sleeping in until 8 am (considering the day before Sam woke at 6:20 am and wouldn't go back to sleep, I was thrilled with that!)  and then potato pancakes with candy cane shaped fruit.

We bundled up and headed outside for lots of snow angel making, and also lots of flopping down in the snow just for fun.  I didn't take any pictures because the wind was blowing snow everywhere so I didn't want to get it on our camera, and because I was having too much fun making snow angels myself.  When we came back in we had hot (warm) cocoa and Christmas cookies for a snack. What a treat!

Then we made some Christmas cookies wearing the cute festive aprons a student's parent made for me as a gift.

 (They totally held hands spontaneously without prompting from me.)
I was able to get caught up in laundry, clean the house some, changed sheets on beds, wrapped all our presents, and even wrote this post, something I've been majorly neglecting lately.  It's always nice to accomplish stuff on a snow day because no matter what, I feel like whatever you do is icing that wouldn't probably gotten done had the freebie day off not exist.

Despite some not-so-good stuff after that, like the absence of napping times two, I had a wonderful, unexpected snow day off with all of my loves.  It doesn't get much better that that.

Mama Loves Plastic Placemats

(This is not the one we have, but a similar one sold by Amazon.)

Sam and Anna have been in booster chairs for a while now.  For a long time, I used our cloth placemats under their plastic plates at the table for meals, and it was amazing how quickly I'd have to turn around and wash them again because they were caked with food.  (My duo love their pasta with red sauce and tomato soup, which have got to be the two messiest foods for toddlers to eat.)  When I cleaned and organized my classroom at the end of the school year, I came upon a few plastic mats that I never used with the kindergartners in my room so I brought them home with me.  Two of the plastic mats have numbers to 20, while the other two have the letters of the alphabet in order with upper and lower case letters together. 

I cannot believe it didn't cross my mind to use something like this at mealtimes with Sam and Anna sooner!  Not only are they 1.) way easier to clean and 2.) a lot more protective for our wood table (sometimes Sam and Anna are a little rough with their forks and have left marks on the wood in the past) but 3.) they give them daily exposure (3 times a day now that I'm a SAHM for the summer and most meals are at home) to visually see numbers 1-20 and all the letters of the alphabet.

I usually ask my two at breakfast, lunch and dinner if they would like numbers or letters/the alphabet that time to give them a choice.  Doing that also has the added advantage that I'm reinforcing what goes into the catergories of letters and numbers.  I can't tell you how many kindergartners I've had over the years that don't know the difference when the school year begins.  I've definitely noticed a difference with Sam and Anna in the less-than-a-month since we made the switch.  They consistently use the labels "letters" and "numbers" correctly to describe them when we see either where ever they come up throughout our day.

Once they get their mats at mealtime, we do a quick practice of counting to 20 or singing the alphabet song while pointing, usually while finishing the food prep.  This practices one-to-one correspondence too; an important precursor-to-reading skill.  It doesn't take long, but the quick practice for a minute ensures that they are getting daily exposure to all the letters or numbers visually every day. 

Sam and Anna like them a whole lot more than our boring blue cloth ones too.

I am so glad we started using these simple mats a few weeks ago!

(Check out the mat under Sam's plate.)

Wordless Wednesday

Sometimes, you pick your battles with toddlers... and that may mean eating a meal wearing sunglasses.

Two New Changes

We made the switch to booster seats during meal times within the last few weeks.  I actually resold our Space Saver high chairs (which are able to be used as boosters generally, but our table was not high enough for it to work) within days of making the switch, so there's no going back now!  I may have had a little remorse of getting rid of them so quickly, because we have so many memories of Sam and Anna eating in them, but oh well.  I got a good offer that I couldn't pass up! 

Anna and Sam have been sitting on regular chairs during meals at daycare for months and we started having issues getting Anna to sit in the high chair at home.   (Picture temper tantrums at the start of every meal.)  The boosters seemed to work better and still have buckles for the containment factor so we went with it.  I can say it is very nice not to have to wash two trays after they finish eating, but they seem to get a little more messy now overall.

We also switched their car seats around in our vehicles this week.  Sam and Anna rear-faced until past the age of 2.  I realize that generally the suggestion is to rear face as long as possible, but we made the choice we feel is best for our family.  We rear-faced for a lot longer than most people I know.  It is amazing how much more happy and agreeable Sam and Anna are now getting into their seats, getting buckled in, and riding while forward facing!  I'm actually looking forward to seeing the difference it makes during our next long road trip.  And who knows, maybe this will be the trick to getting Anna to be able to sleep in the car again.

Wordless Wednesday- Chopsticks

Sam and Anna's first chopsticks experience... but not their first sushi.  Anna loves miso soup- she ate it all and didn't leave any for the rest of us!

Cookin' With Daddy

Now that Sam and Anna are older, it fills my heart with a special joy to see them help cook alongside their daddy.  This weekend, Sam and Anna helped make homemade pizzas:

One of the few photos I took of their individual pizzas

And they also helped make homemade goldfish crackers in heart shapes for the daycare party:

 Anna LOVED pulsing the mixture

Since I'm the farthest thing possible from being a cook (in the past, I've overcooked mac and cheese, and made a mess of almost everything that is considered easy to make in the kitchen), it warms my heart to see Sam and Anna building memories cooking with their Daddy.  Daddy said it was the best part of his weekend, too.  As they get older, I know that it will be something special that they do with him only.  I can't wait to be on the other side of the counter for every experience... snapping photos and sampling the goodness they create.

Their grandpa is supposedly building one of these helping towers for a birthday gift... double wide for twice the kids.  I am so excited for easy counter-top access (and how much more safe it will be than standing on chairs!) that I can hardly stand it.

 

Monsters

It is not a new thing that Sam and Anna LOVE apples.  We recently started giving them the entire apple to eat, and they will both devour the apple down the the core.  Anna chips away at it like a beaver, while Sam gets impatient in his usual style, bites a big chunk off, and then eats the piece before returning the the whole apple.  They ask for apples or applesauce at almost every meal.  It's a good thing both us and grandma made a lot of homemade applesauce this fall!

Check out Sam's apple monster voice in the videos below. 

Anna doesn't do the monster voice, but you can see her cheesy grin in the last video while Sam responds to our question in the background.

Mama Loves Food Pouches

Mama Loves is a linky party where mamas can share anything that has made your life easier as a mama.

Maybe you've found:

• a toy or book that captivates your child(ren)
• gear you just can't live without
• a recipe your choosy toddler gobbles down
• a parenting book that you've found perspective changing
• an activity that wears your kid(s) out (these lead to good naps, which we all love)
• an outfit that flatters your post-baby body and makes you feel fabulous
• or anything else you're loving--creativity welcome!

To link your own Mama Loves post up, head on over to Julia's blog, Pontifications of a Twin Mom

__________________________________________

 

I've mentioned it before, but I'm gonna mention it again.  I LOVE the food pouches I discovered a few months ago at Target.  LOVE.  So much so that I wish I had discovered their awesomeness earlier.

I stick to only the pouches that have 90 calories or more in them, because my primary reason for including them in Sam and Anna's diet is to keep their weight on their growth curve. My littles have always been, well, little- so we need all the extra boost we can get. I prefer to do that in a healthy way rather than slathering on high fat additives with less nutritional value. These food pouches packed with fruits and veggies do just that.
 
I credit Anna and Sam's 2  lb weight gain from 18 months old to 19 months old thanks to those pouches.  They were also super handy on days when we had to rush to swimming lessons and dinner was always cut short.  I'm excited to use them over the holidays while we are traveling across state lines for long road trips.  Now I can even credit those little pouches for helping me get some nutrition into my little ones when they were under the weather.

Yes, on top of my crazy month solo parenting almost nonstop, Sam and Anna both got sick at the same time, just after my husband left for the third trip.  They hardly ate anything, Sam had diarrhea nonstop, and Anna had a fever.  They would not touch any solid food (besides being sick, they are both cutting canines).  We don't have much wiggle room for days of eating less.  But.... Sam and Anna would eat a few pouches at a meal, so I was able to get a few hundred calories in them each time I tried, plus all the goodness that fruit and veggies provide on top of that.

I also just saw that Target is now carrying pouches in its store brand, Up&Up.

Woohoo for that, because now I can get some varieties at almost half the price as before. 
Double love it!

Mama Loves Wholesomebabyfood.com

Mama Loves is a linky party where mamas can share anything that has made your life easier as a mama.

Maybe you've found:

• a toy or book that captivates your child(ren)
• gear you just can't live without
• a recipe your choosy toddler gobbles down
• a parenting book that you've found perspective changing
• an activity that wears your kid(s) out (these lead to good naps, which we all love)
• an outfit that flatters your post-baby body and makes you feel fabulous
• or anything else you're loving--creativity welcome!

To link your own Mama Loves post up, head on over to Julia's blog, Pontifications of a Twin Mom

__________________________________________

I'm wayyyyyy behind on this, but I thought for this week's Mama Loves, I'd flashback to something I loved a year ago and  would use again in a second if there ever was a new babe in our home. 

I am not a cook.  In fact, when my husband left for a week long work trip today, he left me a detailed menu of dinners for Sam, Anna and I, complete with cooking directions aimed to make mealtimes easier for me.  However, I did make almost all of Sam and Anna's baby food.  Why?  I don't know what really drove me to it most.  I still dislike cooking, and I don't get enjoyment out of cooking my kids regular table food meals.  I know I liked having control over what they ate as their first foods- ALL of the ingredients.  With the issues we had with bottle refusal due to reflux, it was nice to have more control over what went in their mouths.  I loved the cost savings over prepackaged baby food too.  And I thought it all tasted so darn good.  In retrospect, I credit our super easy transition to table foods and Sam and Anna's very varied and healthy current diet to their beginnings in eating fresh veggies and fruits from the start as well.  I highly suggest giving homemade babyfood a try if it has ever crossed your mind. 

What made it possible for this non-cook to cook a variety of baby food was this website:

It was my baby food making bible.  It had a chart for what to introduce when.  It had directions for how to cook each food to maximize its nutritional content.  It told me what things went well together, so when we defrosted foods, we could add different cubes together to make different "meals" for Sam and Anna.  I actually cut and pasted the suggestions onto a word document to hang on our fridge at home to help during dinner prep.  Who would have known that carrots and peaches were a good combo, or  mangoes and sweet potatoes?  It even expanded our food horizons by allowing us to introduce foods not commonly found in the pre-made stuff.  When Sam and Anna tried parsnips for the first time... so did I.

Without http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/, I have no doubt in my mind that I would not have made it past a few feeble attempts at making my own baby food.

Project Fatten 'Em Up

We were able to get 19 month weights for both Sam and Anna because Anna's weight and iron levels were rechecked yesterday. I am very happy to report that both my little peanuts gained a whopping 2 lbs in the last month... which is phenomenal, when you consider that in the 3 months before it, they each gained less than 5 oz. (Maybe the scale was wrong that day?) At 19 months, Anna weighed 21 lbs 5 oz- back on her 5%ile curve (she had dropped off the chart last month). Sam weighed 23 lbs 6 oz, moving him up from the 5%ile at 18 months to between 10-25%ile now.  My little ones are now quadruple their birth weights!

Project Fatten 'Em Up must be working! I am happy to say too, that we have not resorted to pedisure or Carnation Instant Breakfast to get their weight up, as was thrown out there as ideas. While we do include more fattening things in their diet, I'm not one to slather syrup or butter on everything. They have been eating a lot of the organic food pouches in the last month to add some (healthy) calories. I look for the ones that have 100 or more calories, and if they eat a small amount at a meal, we give them a pouch at the end. They love them, so both Sam and Anna just gobble them up. The pouches work great as a snack on the go or in the car too. I've gotten all my pouches at Target.  Gerber has some too, but they are just as much (if not more) than the organics, so I stick to those.

 

We eat Happy Tot

Plum Organics

and Ella's Kitchen.

We've also been putting more effort into getting Anna to eat meat. If that means we have a red sauce (like with spaghetti or ravioli) multiple times a week, so be it!

Anna's iron levels are also going up, so the iron drops are working.  She will be on them for 2 more months, and then we'll get her iron levels rechecked at the 2 year appointment to see how she's doing.

Celiac Disease Update

Our pediatrician called this evening and informed us that Anna's blood sample was negative for Celiac Disease.  Thank goodness.  I had a really hard time wrapping my head around how that would change her diet and affect every thing we prepared for meals, not to mention how that would affect the rest of her life.

The blood sample, however, did show a low blood count meaning that Anna's iron levels were low.  Going forward Anna will be on an iron supplement twice daily to boost her levels.  We are also to get as many iron rich foods in her as possible... along with the high calorie, high fat, high protein foods.

We will do a recheck of both her weight and blood iron levels in a month to see if anything we do has made a difference.  Meanwhile, I'm on a mission to "fatten up" my little girl, stat!

Tuesday Tidbits

Did you get the invite for the party in Anna's crib at 2 am last night? Us either. Sounded like she had a great time though (jabbering away for two hours). I swear, that girl knows when I have to get up at 5 am for work, because she typically sleeps her usual awesomeness on the weekends (12 hours just like Sam does pretty much 7 days a week), on the days I could take a nap if I needed one. Sam slept through the whole thing, although my husband and I couldn't. Let's just say I tripled my typical coffee intake this morning!

*****

Sam and Ann tried fish the other day, and my usual meat-hater Anna loved it. She couldn't shove it in her face fast enough. On the other hand, since being too "grown up" for baby food, Sam has turned into one big picky eater. He wrinkles his nose at most veggies, and sometimes will eat a little finger food only if it is given to him on our fork. I think he thinks he's eating "just like us" then. If we are eating anything he can't (like a salad), then he'll stare at that and reject everything else. Except yogurt. If it is true that you are what you eat, then my son is made out of yogurt!

*****

Current tooth tally is Anna: 3, Sam: 3. Both bottom teeth are in, and both have one top tooth. One of Sam's canines isn't far behind. Anna's smile is so gummy, that you can clearly see the teeth when she smiles. Toofer smiles are adorable, although I miss the completely gummy mouth smiles that I know I'll never see in person again. Sam's teeth don't show as much when he smiles, so we really have to work at it (or trick him) to get a glimpse.

*****

Sam's hair is growing like a weed. I am amazed at the difference in length between photos taken at Christmas and now. Not a day goes by without my husband talking about a haircut for him! I just don't think I can do it before 1 year old though. Especially since Anna has such little hair. My little girl had more hair when she was born. It's growing, just at a snail's pace. It's growing in much lighter now as well, so we're starting to think we'll have two blondies toddling around...

Our Baby Food Adventure

...Or rather, my Baby Food Making Adventure. It has come to a close. I haven't pureed baby food in over a month, and our stockpile of pureed baby food is down to just a few frozen cubes of veggies. Sam and Anna are rejecting just about every pureed form right now, so they are on 99% table food- i.e., eating what we eat. They want to eat like we do. We still heat up about 2 oz of puree every meal, just to try and to use up what we've got. Most meals, we're lucky if they are willing to take a bite off of a spoon for us. Right now, the only food they will accept being fed to by spoon is yogurt. Maybe they know that that isn't baby food, and that adults have to eat yogurt by spoon too? I don't know. Sam and Anna are each working on their third tooth (Anna's just popped through and Sam's is thisclose), but they have been eating just about every form of table food since they had just one tooth. I learned pretty quickly that it really doesn't matter if they have one tooth or 8 teeth- they can get the same job done with their gums.

I never started out thinking that homemade baby food was the path I wanted to take. I remember receiving baby food trays and cubes, cookbooks (totally not needed, fyi), and a food mill at my shower and thinking (hmmm- didn't register for that. Not going to use that.) But then my babies had reflux. We got it under control finally, and then I learned that Gerber baby cereal has hidden milk and soy products in it. We weren't sure if Sam and Anna's reflux was the result of MSPI, but I was very leery of giving them processed baby food. Okay, I was really leery of giving them any food. I had read many times that often babies with reflux will have flare ups with some foods, and the acid in most fruits scared me. I was really hesitant to start giving them something that might make reflux hell return. (Just for documentation's sake- we never had any issues with any food we tried. No constipation, diarrhea, reflux bouts, etc. I was and am so happy about that.)

We started out on Earth's Best cereal (no hidden milk/soy), and Sam and Anna were not huge fans. The thought behind starting on cereal is that you mix it with formula/BM so that the taste is familiar to babies. But my two have never been formula fans. I think months of reflux that wasn't completely controlled left a lasting impression on them. We quickly decided that because a.) they didn't love cereal and b.) cereal isn't that nutritious anyway, we'd move onto something that was more calorie laden for them to help boost their weight (something we've been consciously aware of since they were born). Avocado was a hit with them. And since avocado is pretty much something you have to buy fresh and mash yourself, it was a good foray into my baby food making journey.

I have never been much of a cook, so I was thrilled when I married a big cooking fan. My husband cooks everything, and when he's gone I force myself to make mac and cheese and frozen pizzas. What little cooking ability I had in college when I used to cook for myself every day quickly dissipated after years of mostly no cooking. I was hesitant to attempt to do more than mash avocado or banana for Sam and Anna. Five things spurred me on to homemade baby food making though 1.) knowing exactly what was going in my little ones' mouths with no hidden ingredients to trigger reflux flareups 2.) the much lower cost of baby food when you make it yourself 3.) Having more control over my babies' eating (something I felt was lacking during the months we tried so hard to bottle feed bottle-refusing babies) and 4.) the sense that because I didn't breastfeed them, this was something I could do instead to feel like I was going "above and beyond" what most parents do to meet their nutritional needs. Yes, making homemade baby food in a small way made me feel like a better parent. Go ahead and judge. (However, please realize that I don't think anyone is less of a parent for not making their own baby food. It just made me feel like I was better for doing so.) and 5.) Fresh food with no added anything for increased shelf-life + steaming for retaining the most nutrients seemed healthier.

Once I started steaming veggies and fruit, it seemed so easy. The hardest things at first was getting the skins off of pears and peaches. The hardest thing later on in my baby food making journey was cranberry puree from fresh cranberries (total PITA to press the cooked cranberries to only get the juice and not the skins or seeds for a very very little amount of actual juice). An extra bonus of homemade baby food- it all smelled and tasted so good. I always tried a little of any new food to see how it tasted and make sure it was the right temp. Often, I thought Sam and Anna's food was so yummy, I could have eaten their whole bowl. When we were traveling over the holidays, we decided to buy packaged baby food to use, just to make it easier. I tried a little of that, and yuck- it was no where near as good as the homemade stuff I made. I didn't blame Sam and Anna for wanting very little of the Gerber stuff while we were traveling!

It wasn't super time consuming to make food for two babies either. I work full time, and still had time to do it. Most often, I'd make a bunch on the weekends, but when our supply was getting low, I'd sometimes make a batch in the evenings (usually something that only took a little bit to steam, like peas or green beans).

An added bonus that I didn't realize at first was that the food that Sam and Anna got was closer to what they would be eating for the rest of their life, so transitioning them to table food was extremely easy. They had no problem with textures, because from the beginning, their baby food was not always a completely smooth puree. Steamed carrot chunks taste exactly like pureed steamed carrot; banana chunks tasted exactly like mashed banana and so on.

Seeing them eat entire meals like toddlers with their fingers is a stage in growing up. It is easier now for all of us to eat a a family at the same time. However, now I have new worries that they aren't eating as much as they need because eating involves more work for them to pick up, bring to their mouths, and chew the food before swallowing. I wish I knew how many "ounces" they were ingesting. But I know that these are just things that I have to accept as Sam and Anna grow up. Feeding them homemade baby food is one stage that I will miss. I am thankful that Sam and Anna are open to the tastes and textures of the food we eat every day, even if I am a little sad that my baby food making adventure has ended.

Growing Up and Letting Go

We're in a time of rapid changes. They both have one tooth at last. Sam and Anna are crawling all over the house, and making me fear the day they both are walking all over. Sam is pulling up/climbing on everything in sight, cruising the furniture and doesn't want to sit or be held still for a second. They interact for longer periods of time while playing together - hearing them laugh at each other's antics is one of the best perks of twins. I will have to imprint these memories in my brain to recall when toy stealing and temper tantrums punctuate their playing together more often than giggles.

Both are adding words to their vocabulary- they will say Mama and Dada, and repeat some words we say. Anna's first and most frequent word to say independently is "Bella" while Sam's is "Anna." Anna has learned how to drop food off of her tray to feed Bella. While I miss the days when this was purely accidental, it is cute (right now) to hear her call "Bella" and then uncurl her tiny fist to drop a yummy goodness from the heavens (as far as our dog is concerned) into a waiting mouth. Both babies are starting to show an increasing disinterest in eating "baby food" i.e., the pureed stuff, so our plan is to start moving towards 100% table food once daycare starts back up again next week. I am concerned that they won't be eating enough once we do that since their weight has never had any "wiggle room," but I think it is a step that Sam and Anna seem to be ready to take.

When Sam and Anna hit 9 months, we finally stopped tracking every single bottle amount throughout the day (anal of me, I know- but soooo hard to keep track for two babies at the same time when eating enough has always been one of our biggest concerns). Now this week, we are attempting to wean them off of their 3 doses a day of Prevacid (via Buffer Babies) to see if they have outgrown their severe GERD. To say that this has make me scared is an understatement. I never want to relive the days of uncontrolled reflux for two babies at the same time ever again. But I know that if we are ever to finally move on from their reflux, we need to be willing to see if the medicine is not needed any more. We successfully dropped one dose, and are now attempting to drop another. If all goes well, we'll try to stop the final dose soon, as well.

Sam is now too tall/big for quite a bit of his 9 month clothing. This is the first time that some baby clothes are too small to come in his size. This is somewhat of a milestone to me, because for so long I could pick out anything in the baby departments and it would come in his size. I want to know, though, why is it that it is so hard to find lots of footie pj options for 12 month + sizes? Why all of a sudden do the pjs come without feet at 12 months+? It's not like I can cover him with a blanket yet. While our babies sleep in sleep sacks, I still wonder if his feet will be warm enough at night without the footie pjs this winter. I wonder if I should put socks on his feet when he's wearing footless pjs?

We decided that Sam and Anna's New Year Resolution is to give up their pacifiers for good. The AAP recommends not using them after 6 months, but since our babies didn't have any teeth until this month, I figured it couldn't possibly mess up their bite. They've never been hugely dependent on them- we have just used pacifiers to make bedtimes and naptimes easier to transition to sleep. They haven't used pacifiers at daycare at all. Recently, pacifiers seem to be something that they are more interested in at any time of the day whenever they catch a glimpse of one, so we figure now is a good time to toss 'em, before they get too attached. I definitely don't want 2 year olds walking around with plugs in their mouths! I don't think it will be that big of a deal to them- I just hope that they don't decide a thumb is the new alternative.

Food Transitions

We've made a big jump in the food department in the last couple of days: We decided that since Sam and Anna have thankfully had zero food issues with any of the things we've been slowly introducing (despite their GERD) we would think about relaxing our current practice of waiting 4 days before introducing a new food. According to my go-to source for homemade baby food, www.wholesomebabyfood.com, around 9 months is when they suggest you can stop paying attention to the 4-day-wait rule.

Sam and Anna have had MumMums, puffs, banana and peas for finger food before, and have been doing really well. They definitely have a good pincher grasp and they make a chewing motion with their mouths. So on Saturday, we gave them some pancake pieces after their typical breakfast and they loved it! Encouraged by the start of our new food plan, we gave them some macaroni and cheese noodles after their typical lunch too. Then Sam and Anna had some white potato pieces after their dinner. They are on their way to eating mostly the same food we do.

Last week Sam and Anna tried meat for the first time- pureed chicken. Today we introduced beef for the first time. By the end of the week we'll have tried yogurt as well.

My babies are growing up so fast!

I'm Here! and Latest Happenings

I'm sure my absence in the last week after my last post was misleading- but unintentional! Our router died, and so my internet usage has been minimal for a few days. I am hoping to get back in the saddle and get back to posting and commenting asap!

Latest news:

After my MIL stayed for a week while my husband was gone, my mother came to visit for a few days this week. I am glad that our visitors are over for a while now. My husband's next work trip is in 3 weeks, and I plan on doing it completely solo. I may just take a few days off of work during the week, but I think I can come out on the other side without having a mental breakdown (all bets are off if Sam and Anna are in the thick of teething, which is highly likely).

I signed our babies up for swimming lessons which start in a week, so I've gotten really excited for that! I have a friend enlisted for help during the week my husband is gone, since there needs to be an adult per baby at all times. Just yet another way life with twins is a little more involved than with a single baby- all four of us will be making swimming lessons a family event!

This probably belongs on my still-missing 7 month post, but in the last month we dropped a nap and went down to 2 naps a day, which magically improved the quality of their naps. We had been doing well on 3 naps a day and then they started to turn into short crapnaps again. I took that as a sign that they were ready to transition to 2 naps, and lo and behold- on two naps a day, the actual time asleep during naps ended up longer than they 3 crapnaps they had been having. Right now, Sam and Anna seem to have fallen into a nap around 9 am (usually 1 1/2 hours-2 hours) and a nap around 1 pm (usually 2 hours long, sometimes 2 1/2 hours). When switching to 2 naps, we lengthened our feeding schedule to 4ish hours between bottles, which has also helped them drink better each time.

In the last week, we also added in a third meal. With two meals, Sam had started drinking in the high 30's for ounces on top of the 2 solid meals, and one day even drank 41 oz (which puts too much strain on his little kidneys to process), so we added a meal in the hopes it would drop his formula consumption. I find it incredibly ironic that after our long issues of drinking too little and working so hard to get every little ounce in our babies, that our current problem was that they were drinking too much. Go figure. So Sam and Anna now get a breakfast, lunch, and dinner in between their bottles. They still drink around 6-9 ounces each bottle though. They aren't huge solid meal eaters- usually a little more than 2 oz before they get full/bored. (hard to tell, since we have homemade food and I split the food between the babies. It also depends on if the food is a fav or not.)

This is what our schedule looks like right now:

• 6:30 am wake and bottle (about 6 oz)
• 8:30 am ish breakfast meal: fruit+ cereal
• 9:00 am ish down for nap

• 10:30/11:00 am ish 2nd bottle (7-8 oz usually)
• 12:30 pm ish lunch meal: fruit and veggie (or 2 veggies if dinner is just a fruit)
• 1:00 pm ish 2nd nap

• 3:00/3:30 pm ish 3rd bottle (7-8 oz usually)
• 5:00 pm dinner meal: new food + sometimes something that goes well with it
• 6:30 pm bedtime bottle (9 oz)

Kinda Wordless Wednesday

Avocado was a big hit around here
(the green faces were fun for Mom and Dad)

Sam instantly enjoyed sweet potatoesWhile Anna took some time to warm up to them

A New First!

Just because I didn't think I had enough on my plate right now (yeah, right!), we decided to introduce solid food this weekend. I was more curious to see what Anna would do, because when we tried the added rice formula at 6 weeks with her for her acid reflux, she flat out refused to drink it. Sam and Anna don't meet all the "criteria" for beginning solid foods, but they do meet most of it. Let's face it- it's going to be a long, long time before they weigh over 15 lbs and I'm not sure they'd ever still be hungry after finishing a bottle (ha- in my dreams!). I can tell their tongue thrusting reflex is gone, and they have shown interest in our food when we eat. They have excellent head control and are on their way to sitting unassisted.

It went well! Both were unsure at first and made very serious faces, but did swallow some rice cereal. The second day I think they swallowed more than what ended up on their bibs, so I'm calling it a success! I can breathe a sigh of relief that their formula eating issues are not a by-product of an overall oral aversion created by the reflux that was not completely controlled for so long- which would affect anything we'd try to feed them. I'm a little unsure how to proceed though, because of their limited appetites- I definitely don't want solids to take up important real estate in their stomachs. However I think it is important for them to get practice eating solids at this point, and have positive eating experiences.

First bites
Happy Babies!

(For those of you who are wondering how I had time to create a post after I had a post explaining how busy I am- I typed the whole thing one-handed while soothing Sam back to sleep. Now that he's back down, I'm off to do school-work. Laminated name tags don't cut themselves out!)

The Things I Do For My Babies

Y'all- I don't cook. I worked out a handy (and smart, if I must say so myself) agreement with my husband long before the rings were put on that he'd do all the cooking at our house. He's in charge of the kitchen and pretty much everything that has to do with it. In return for his cooking, kitchen cleaning, dish washing and bottle making, I don't say a word when the kitchen is less tidy and clean than I would personally like it to be. He's an excellent cook, loves experimenting with food and has even reformed me from a very picky eater to a person who loves Indian, Thai, and sushi, among other foods.

Since we've been married for over 7 years, it's been a long time since I've cooked regularly. Let me tell you- when it comes to cooking, if you don't practice, you do forget how to do it; at least how to do it well. I used to be okay in the kitchen- now I have been known to even mess up mac and cheese.

Now knowing all that, it should surprise you that I decided making/cooking baby food would be something I wanted to take on.

For a baby shower gift, we got a electric baby food mill, baby food storage cubes, and baby food cookbooks. I did not register for these, and at the time, I thought: seriously? The gift giver (my MIL, who taught my dear husband how to cook- but that's enough blog fodder for another post entirely) thinks that with twins I'll have time to make baby food? Now that the babies have been here for a while, I may be singing a different tune. Maybe I won't have time to make all the baby food my little ones will eat, but I think it will be a nice effort to make what I can. It will be more nutritious for them, and less expensive. And after paging through the baby food cookbooks- it looked fairly easy and not all that time consuming. So tonight, I attempted making our first batch of homemade baby food.

I settled on carrots for a few reasons: "Yellow" veggies are typically recommended first, after rice cereal. It was a toss up between carrots and sweet potatoes, until I read that the proteins in sweet potatoes are harder to digest and then I read that carrots are one food that is suggested to be organic. Since the formula that has worked best for Sam and Anna has partially broken down proteins (and people, we've tried 5 different kinds of formula before we finally settled on this one), I was worried that the proteins in the sweet potatoes might cause problems if we attempt that first. So carrots, it was.

Now you won't see any pictures for a while of Sam and Anna enjoying the pureed carrots (although I tasted them and thought they were yummy) because we haven't actually started solid foods yet. I froze the pureed carrots, which will be fine for 6 weeks-2 months. We're waiting until closer to 6 months to begin our adventures into solid food. Call me crazy (and I'm sure this is atypical first-time-mom behavior) but I'm really not that excited to start this stage. It's not because I want my little ones to stay "babies," it's partly because feeding them formula is still a huge challenge for us daily. It takes a lot of work to get in as many ounces as they get a day, which is still not as much as they should (damn reflux and oral issues). I'm dragging my feet on adding another eating challenge into our day.

I'm also not enthused about starting solids because some foods can cause reflux flare-ups in babies that have reflux. It varies so much from baby to baby, that we won't know the foods that will cause a reflux flare-up until we try them. For that reason, babies that suffer from reflux need to be introduced foods much more cautiously and slowly than a typical baby.

Honestly, I'm scared of having more trouble with reflux. With every food we try, I'm going to be nervous that my babies will be miserable for days afterwards. I think that may be a subconscious reason why I thought to give making baby food a try: to have some control over the uncertainty that solids will be for us. And maybe even to try to drum up some enthusiasm for the milestone event that is just around the corner. I promise I'll post pictures when that day arrives. :)

Follow Up to My Last Post

This is just a follow up to my last post:

I've been so knee-deep in a twin/multiple pregnancy for the last couple of months I forget sometimes that some of my blog readers might not know some of the ways a twin/multiple pregnancy is very different than a singleton pregnancy. So I just wanted to add to my average daily "food intake" list that I am in no way, shape or form thinking that I eat too much or gaining too much. According to the Go-To book for people expecting multiples, "When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads" by Dr. Barbara Luke:

• "For (expectant mothers of multiples) who have not given birth before, the uterus has not yet been stretched. Higher weight gain will help to ensure better fetal growth. Try to gain an additional 5-7 lbs as quickly as possible."
• If your (multiple) pregnancy was the result of infertility treatments: "you should aim to gain an additional 4-6 lbs during the first half of your pregnancy... evidence suggests that this extra weight can reduce the risk of miscarriage in pregnancies resulting from ART."
• "Your weight gain up to 28 weeks has the greatest influence on the babies' rate of growth (for twins)."
• "It becomes harder to gain weight as your pregnancy progresses- the bigger your babies grow, the less room there is for your stomach to expand... with multiples, the 40-week size arrives much sooner" (leaving hardly any room left for food much sooner than a singleton pregnancy)
• "You won't have a full 9 months in which to gain...(there is) less time you'll have to put on the needed lbs."
• And finally, the weight gain goal by 20 weeks is 25 lbs for twins (more than double the 12 lbs for a singleton, if you are wondering).

So, you see- I'm actually feeling really, really good about the 24 lb gain and what I've been eating to get there. It has been a challenge to find the time during the day to get it all in, and I've really had to work at it. I'm usually the kind of person who gets too busy to remember to eat. But now, I'm right on target for giving my babies the healthiest chance possible. Since I have a few factors against me that put me at a higher risk for pre-term birth (my 8+ hour a day, on my feet, never stop moving job, for one)- I knew this was one area I could really try to do my best. Dr. Barbara Luke says the weight gain goal by 28 weeks is 38 lbs... we'll see where I am around New Year's when I hit that marker!