A First Haircut

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Ours was full of errands and little things like that that kept us running around and busy. Little man even got his very first real haircut! We were so worried that he would be scared and cry like he does with the doctor, but he did great! No crying at all. Of course the sucker and Micky Mouse on the TV helped a lot with that I'm sure. He's getting so grown up and handsome!

I actually got a lot of cleaning and organizing done too. There's still quite a bit more to go through down in our basement, but it's been a good start! I'm just doing a little bit at a time so it's not so overwhelming. I also got some new jeans yesterday that I'm pretty excited about. Super comfortable so they aren't always falling down plus they are a size smaller than I had before I was pregnant, hooray! 

Now for some cute pictures of the babies eating pancakes:

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We Have Our Bedroom Back!

Yay! Little man is walking! It's so cute to see him walking around the house by himself and getting better everyday at it. He just turned 15 months yesterday and it seems like he is growing up so fast. Having two little babies also helps make it seem like he is older than he really is sometimes. Plus he is such a big boy wearing 2T-3T shirts and 24 month pants and weighing almost 30 pounds.

This past weekend we decided to move the babies out of our room finally. We have a four bedroom house with two upstairs and two downstairs. We are in one upstairs and we have two cribs in the second one for the two babies but of course little man still has to sleep in one of them for awhile. He also wakes up too easily to sleep in the same room as them right now. 

So the first thing we tried was putting the two pack and plays downstairs in one of the rooms for the babies. That's what they have been sleeping in in our room anyways. This ended up not working out very well because going up and down the stairs in the middle of the night to keep giving them their pacifiers is no fun. I also couldn't hear them very well on the monitor we had down there. 

This wasn't working, so Monday night we decided to take one of the regular cribs apart and bring it downstairs for little man to sleep down there. Then the babies would share the second crib in the upstairs room for now. So far it seems to be working okay. Little man is still getting used to sleeping in a new room and the babies are still working on sleeping in their bed all night instead of the swings, but overall I think it will be a good arrangement. It's so nice to have our bedroom back again!

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What is Baby-led Weaning?

 

I’ve been reading a lot about Baby-led Weaning (BLW) lately and I wasn’t really sure what it was. So I decided to do some research to see if it’s something we might want to do with our boys.

So what exactly is Baby-led Weaning? Basically it is skipping the pureed foods and not feeding your baby with a spoon. From what I understand, you offer your baby soft-cooked, age appropriate foods and your baby feeds himself. The baby is in control of what he eats and you don’t put the food in his mouth.

From what I’ve read it works for some people but not for others, just like anything else of course. With my first little boy we started with cereals and purees and he has never been a picky eater (yet) and it has worked just fine. He is just now learning how to feed himself more, so that’s been nice.

My little man when he first tried out his high-chair. He is such a cutie!

One advantage to BLW would be not having to guess or wonder if the baby is done eating or what they are doing. With Jaden, I never know if he is turning his head from the spoon because he is full or because he’s just being difficult (he can be a very stubborn boy, I think he gets that from his mother). With BLW the baby supposedly will only eat what they need to and no more. That is why you do not place food into their mouth for them with this approach.

Other advantages to using BLW that I can see: 

• It will be easier at meal times than trying to spoon feed two babies at once. 
• Easier and cheaper than buying pureed baby food (although I plan on making it myself this time around). 
• It is said to prevent weight problems by giving the baby complete control over the amount of food he eats. 
• The babies will learn independence and be able to explore lots of textures and flavors at an earlier age. 

Some disadvantages: 

• It sounds like it will be extremely messy at meal times for everyone. 
• A lot of food would probably end up being thrown away and wasted. 
• It will take them a long time to eat by themselves, it would be quicker to spoon-feed. 

Babies are ready to start eating solid foods when they start showing these signs, generally this happens around six months: 

• They start showing interest in what you are eating at meal times. 
• They can sit without support. 
• They lose the tongue-thrust reflex. 
• They are ready and able to chew, even if they don’t have teeth. 
• They can pick up items with thumb and forefinger. 

Have any of you used this method for your babies? How has it worked for you? At the moment I’m thinking that we will use kind of a combination. I’ll probably give them some cereals and purees along with other foods as well. I do want them to learn to feed themselves sooner, so maybe I will just give it to them and let them figure out what to do, and be prepared to clean up huge messes! I guess I will see what happens. We still have a few more months before they will be ready, but you know how fast time flies…

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Update on My Babies (Two Months)

My little boys are growing like weeds! Well, technically they are still very small for their age, but they are much bigger than when they were born. They are still wearing a few newborn sized clothes, but are fitting nicely into 0-3 months finally. They are also wearing size 1 diapers. So far we haven't had to buy any diapers for them because of what we had leftover from little man and from what people gave us, which is awesome (since we still have to buy diapers for little man).

At their two month checkup they weighed 8 pounds 12 ounces and 9 pounds 10 ounces. They are still around the 5th percentile for height but I'm not sure what the inches were. Pumping is still going great (although I hate it). I am pumping every 4-5 hours and still getting enough that I can freeze some every day. Which surprises me since they eat every 2-3 hours during the day. At night they generally sleep 4-5 hours. Usually one of them wakes up twice during the night and the other one wakes up once. But they do like to wake up bright and early at 530 every morning just like their older brother used to do.

When they wake up in the middle of the night, one of them usually does not want to go back to sleep. So we usually end up moving out to the living room so that they can sleep in their swings and I can sleep on the couch. I hope they get better about this soon because I don't want them to get in the habit of sleeping in the swings too much. We hope to get them moved to their own room downstairs soon because then we will all sleep a little better I think.

Little man will be 15 months old this month, so he will have his checkup soon too. We will get to find out exactly how much he weighs and how tall he is. Last time we checked he was close to 30 pounds. He's still not walking on his own yet, only when we sit right by him and have him walk between us. He does walk on his knees everywhere, which seems like a lot more work to me.

Here's some cute pictures from the last couple of weeks. If you follow me on Instagram you've probably seen most of them already. I still don't know how we got such adorable little boys!

We were able to take a family picture for the first time since the boys were born:

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A Night With My Dear Baby Boys

Last night was such a rough night. I'm not sure why but these boys are so noisy and last night they decided to take turns being wide awake and refusing to sleep. I think they have mixed up their days and nights. Here is what our night looked like:

10:30pm - I go to sleep after feeding the boys and getting them to sleep and pumping

12:45am - Hunter wakes up and I change him and feed. 

1:00am - Connor wakes up as well, so I wake up my husband to feed him since I'm still feeding Hunter.

1:15am - Time to pump, Connor is still eating.

1:30am Connor doesn't want to eat very much but is still wide awake in his bed. My husband is sleeping again. Connor decides it is time to be awake and have random screaming fits for no reason. This goes on while I try different things to get him to sleep and feed him the rest of his bottle. 

3:30am - Finally I get Connor to sleep and I crawl back into bed.

4:05am - Hunter wakes up to eat again. Now it is his turn to not want to go back to sleep....

4:30am - My husband gets up and goes to work.

5:15am - Hunter and I are still awake and trying to get him to settle down. Connor starts making noises and I am afraid he will be awake again in a couple of minutes. I hear Jaden start talking on the monitor from his room...

5:30am - Jaden has turned from talking to crying loudly for some reason. Normally he sleeps until around 6 and doesn't get upset waiting to get up. I was supposed to pump at 5am so I start doing that and Connor starts screaming. Hunter is still awake next to me and fussy. Connor stops crying and goes back to sleep thankfully. I get up and settle Jaden down and beg him to go back to sleep for a few minutes. I finish pumping.

5:45am Jaden is upset again so I get him up and bring everyone out to the living room. Hunter is finally tired and sleeps in the swing. I feed Connor again and he goes to sleep right away afterwards. Jaden is very tired and fussy so I feed him some breakfast...everyone is finally happy and content (for a few minutes at least!) and look at that, it's morning! 

I can honestly say that this is the hardest thing I have ever done. It is still early though, I'm sure the day will get better! It usually does after I eat breakfast and have some coffee...

How is your Monday going so far?

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Tiny Babies Use Sleep Deprivation to Torture Their Mothers

Well not really of course, but it sure feels like that sometimes! My babies are one month old this past week already and they love to take turns waking up all night long. I can't wait until they start sleeping a little better! I'm pretty sure this sleeplessness has caused my brain to temporarily shut down...as I was typing this just now I had the hardest time trying to spell "little"...(I hope its just temporary at least.)

With the two babies waking up to eat a couple of times a night, plus pumping a couple of times and lately my 13 month old has been having a hard time sleeping as well, I feel like a walking zombie at times. We are all up by 6 am every morning! I've resorted to drinking one cup of coffee in the mornings and sometimes I have one in the afternoon if I can't stay awake. 

My older boy still takes two naps during the day, so that's great and you would think with all the sleeping that newborns do I would be able to take a nap sometimes too...but in reality this happens very rarely. I have found that I need to not even try to take a nap during the day. For one, it makes me even more tired afterwards and for two, it gets really frustrating if I am looking forward to it and then it doesn't happen. So instead, I just stay busy, do some easy work outs if I get really tired and try not to think about it...so far it seems to be working. 

Good thing I'm one of those crazy morning people who can wake up instantly and be super cheerful right away! And like I keep telling these boys..."good thing you guys are so cute!" I love my boys to death though, and I wouldn't want it any other way...I just hope these next few weeks get easier! 

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A Day at the County Fair

Last week when the boys were still stuck in the hospital, we took little man to the county fair. I was very excited to go since I have lived here for over 10 years and have never been to it before. Of course it was really hot out and I had to sit and rest quite often. We didn't do any of the rides, little man is too young for that and we didn't buy anything...not quite as exciting as I was expecting. It probably doesn't help that I was comparing it to the Minnesota State Fair. 

 We saw lots of animals and little man loved that. He especially loved the cows. When he gets excited about something he kind of shrieks and talks loudly about it, which is what he was doing the entire walk through the cow barn. It was so cute! Let's see...we saw some plants and some 4-H stuff. That's about it. Still it was fun and I think little man enjoyed it. 

I can't believe he is 13 months old already! The boys were three weeks last week and will be one month old this Friday. Time sure is flying by. My little boy even took his first accidental steps in the last couple of weeks. I don't think he knew what he was doing. He is just about ready to start walking though! He has been a bit jealous of the babies, especially when I am holding one of them. When I am home by myself he tries to get into things he's not supposed to right when I'm feeding them. Otherwise he has been a very good boy as usual and he seems to be getting more used to having two new babies around. 

My three handsome boys!

As for the babies, they are doing great! Growing nicely as they should be and eating pumped breast milk. I've been working on breastfeeding but Connor won't latch at all and Hunter doesn't seem to eat very much when he does and ends up wanting to eat again an hour later. So I'm still pumping every 3-4 hours, but my supply is great - I get 7-10 ounces each time and our freezer is already overflowing because we don't have much room. A couple of days ago my horrible cat chewed up part of my pump, so now instead of a double one I have a single and it takes twice as long as it did before! I should get the parts in the mail sometime this week though. 

It's going to be hard to tell them apart in pictures

Last night Hunter only woke up once during the night to eat and Connor woke up twice! Which means Hunter slept almost 5 hours and Connor usually sleeps around 4 hours at a time. I think it will get better soon, this past week was pretty rough as far as sleep goes. It certainly makes a huge difference when I have help during the night instead of doing it all myself! I am really going to be looking forward to the weekends for awhile now...

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A Very Exciting Update!

As many of you know, my little boys have been in the hospital for the past couple of weeks. 17 days to be exact. Well, yesterday they got to come home! We picked them up yesterday afternoon. They are so tiny! It's so great to finally have them home with us. 

They have been eating great now that they can eat on their own schedule and as much as they want to. The NICU was so strict about feeding and eating. They were pretty much up the entire night and with pumping it was a very long night. Hopefully they get a little better about sleeping. It's very hard to sleep with a baby in the room, they are so noisy and I worry about them all the time! These first few weeks will be rough, but I'm sure after that it will get better.

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An Update on My Boys

My two little boys are 11 days old today and still in the hospital. They are still doing great, it just seems like it takes forever for them to make any progress. The only thing they are both working on is eating and maintaining body temperature. I'm hoping they can come home this week sometime because they are both eating their bottles great and are being weaned out of the isolette (which controls the temperature) and into cribs. Last night they were even wearing clothes!

Since they are 38 weeks gestational age today, I think they will be able to be out anytime now. Their doctor is very conservative about feeding, which is a little frustrating. I am planning on breastfeeding them, and have been pumping every 3 hours since they were born. I don't know how people pump exclusively for so long sometimes, I already hate doing it! I am getting 6-7 ounces each time though, so our freezer is already full of milk because they have been eating very little amounts. They finally raised the amounts yesterday and they can now eat up to 50 mL. 

My c-section recovery has been great. It is about 100 times better than my first one. I felt completely normal the day after the surgery and went home 3 days after it. I haven't had any pain at all and only have to take ibuprofen because for some weird reason my neck got really sore and stiff a few days afterwards. My legs are still swollen with fluids from the surgery, but I think they might be getting slightly better today. So I am very happy with that whole experience. I just wish my babies were home with me already...

Here are some pictures we took last night when we were visiting, aren't they little cuties!?

Connor

 

Connor was smiling in his sleep

Hunter

 

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My Two Peanuts are Here!

My little boys are here! They are the reason I have been missing the last few days. Hunter and Connor were born Wednesday, June 26th. They are perfect little boys. Connor came out first and weighed 4 pounds 14 ounces and was 17 1/4 inches long. Hunter was born two minutes later and was 5 pounds 7 ounces and 17 3/4 inches long. 

Hunter and Connor

The surgery went great, and recovery is going much better than my first time. I am already at home but my little peanuts are in the NICU for a few days. They are doing wonderful but just need a little help with learning how to eat and keep their body temperatures up. Hunter also needs a little respiratory help as well. They also are on some antibiotics. They are such little cuties! I was able to try breastfeeding Connor last night and he did pretty good. It is too tiring for him to try for more than 5 minutes but we will keep working at it each day. 

Connor

Hunter

 

My other little cutie

So that's what I've been doing these last couple of days! Little man has not met his brothers yet and I'm sure he doesn't really know what's going on, but he will meet them soon. It's nice to be home with him, I have missed him while I was in the hospital. Now to catch up on some of what I missed this past week...Hope you all are having a great weekend! 

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