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!

Did you enjoy this post? Follow me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, TWITTER,

INSTAGRAM and on BLOGLOVIN' to stay updated!

(Parties I link to HERE)

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…

Did you enjoy this post? Follow me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, TWITTER,

INSTAGRAM and on BLOGLOVIN' to stay updated!

(Parties I link to HERE)

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:

Did you enjoy this post? Follow me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, TWITTER,
INSTAGRAM and on BLOGLOVIN' to stay updated!

(Parties I link to HERE)

Helpful Tips For Increasing Your Milk Supply

Tips for increasing milk supply while pumping was supposed to be my "real" post today. I try every night to write up the post for the next day, but most of the time I end up going to bed without it being written and trying to write it the next morning. Which is what happened today. But now here it is: helpful tips I have found to increase my breast milk supply. 

My babies have been getting hungrier every day it seems like. Now they are eating between 3 and 5 ounces each feeding and it's hard to get them to go longer than two hours between feeds. So that ends up being a lot of milk that we need. So far it's been going great. I haven't had any extra lately, but we have had enough. Hopefully that continues. If not here are some things to try:

Drink lots and lots of water. Make sure you are well hydrated. 

Eat oatmeal every day. It has to be the non-instant kind though.

Get enough sleep...this one sounds like wishful thinking, especially for new mamas in the first couple of months. Unless you are one of the lucky ones whose baby sleeps through the night at 6 weeks.

Try not to get too stressed. This one also can be hard with a brand new baby. Trust me, I know. Make sure you ask for help if you need it. 

Some supplements that you can take if needed include: Fenugreek, Mother's Milk Tea, Alfalfa and Brewer's yeast. You could even make some lactation cookies if you prefer.

When you are pumping, increase the amount of times you pump as well as the amount of time spent pumping.

Make sure you are pumping for at least 15 minutes each time. 

Milk production is highest between 1am and 5am...Just when you wanted to get up and pump, right?

Rent a hospital grade pump if you need to. 

You can also use a heating bad and massage your breasts while pumping.

Pump after you shower.

Are the breast shields you are using the right size? That will also help.

If you are pumping at work or somewhere else without your baby, you can try looking at a picture of your baby while pumping.

What else have you found to help you? I've only been pumping for 6 weeks now and it is not fun. I'm hoping to last the entire year. If you were exclusively pumping, how long did you do it for? I am curious to hear other people's stories.

Follow me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK and TWITTER!

(I might be linking to some of these lovely parties)

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?

Follow me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK and TWITTER!

(I might be linking to some of these lovely parties)

Moms of Twins...Superwomen?

To all you mothers out there, whether you have one baby, twins, or more...I think you are all pretty awesome! We all know how hard being a mother can be at times. 

A recent study shows that women who have twins may be even stronger than most. How crazy is that!? So to all you mamas with twins, who have twice as much to deal with at one time, be encouraged! Now you know how special you are!

“We expected that since most humans have one baby at a time, having two would be really burdensome … [Twins] are an identifier of these women who are remarkable, physically exceptional people”

“Moms of twins beat moms of only singletons on every measure. They lived longer, had longer reproductive life spans, needed less time to recover between pregnancies, and had more children overall.”

Read the entire article here: Superwomen: Moms of Twins May Live Longer

This is such a fascinating study! So now we know there must be a reason we were all blessed with twice as many babies at once, we are strong enough to handle it! Now I kind of feel like walking around flexing my muscles randomly. I always knew I would grow up to be a superhero! 

(source)

Follow me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK and TWITTER!

(I might be linking to some of these lovely parties)