6 months going on 7

So I am a couple weeks late with the update on Sam and Will for their 6 month stats.  The babies are great, and they are just as sweet and fun as they can be right now. 

6 month stats

At our doctor visit they did weigh in on the light side.  They went up in the percentile charts around 3-4 months and have since dropped back down again.  Sam is in the 10th percentile and Will is in the 5th.  Our pediatrician says not to worry, this can happen when they make the move to baby food.  Although not worried, he did encourage us to get them up to 3 meals a day on baby food before the end of December.  We are up to breakfast and lunch and will likely add dinner next week.  We already sit them at the table with us playing with a toy or something just to keep them busy, so the transition should not be hard other than I only have so many hands to feed babies and myself...

Like I've said before, the boys are both sitting very well on their own.  Will rolls everywhere and I really have to watch him now.  I get nervous every time I leave the room and he is in the hearth room on the rug.  More often than not I come back and he's rolled himself, or scooted, onto the hardwoods.  The other day I found him trapped under one of the chairs to Lilli's mini cafe table.  Sam is still not rolling.  Again the pediatrician says not to worry.  Some kids I guess skip this step altogether.  Their main concern is not if they are rolling at 6 months, but if they have the muscle tone in order to do so.  Sam is a strong baby, sitting well and scooting, so I too am not really concerned about the rolling.  Really its easier on me to not have to worry about two babies rolling away on the hardwoods.  Sam is quite mobile though, he got stuck under the piano yesterday, it just takes him a little longer to get somewhere.

Over the last week we've had a few little incidents with Will.  I've weaned them from their bedtime feeding and I don't know if he reacted to that or he's just going through a phase but he's been waking around 4am or 5am and just crying.  We believe in the cry it out thing, but the first night after 45 minutes he was in hysterics and we could not take it, so I fed him.  The next night he cried for about 30-45 minutes.  We tried to give him a bottle because I can't start feeding the little guy at 4am at 6 months!  Well, he would not take the bottle from John, so we at least knew that he was not waking out of starvation.  We just put him back down and after about 15 more minutes of crying he went to sleep.  Though only for an hour and was up screaming again, I think until it was just time to get up for the day...its hard to remember now.  So over the weekend we did have a couple of good nights, he slept through again.  Then the last couple he's been waking but not crying for too terribly long.  I can't figure out if this is teeth or growing or just a baby being a baby (meaning a total flipping mystery wrapped in soft skin and snuggles).  His brother is a rock, sleeps through most of it, thank God.

Really Mom?  I know I'm handsome.

I'm smiling at you behind this toy!

Sam is generally a more docile baby.  He has his moments, especially right now because he's teething.  But he is my more serious soul.  He seems more introverted and very laid back.  This is not what I've been expecting for my A baby.  I hear the A baby is always the more dominant kid.  Will is a goof ball.  This kid has the biggest grin and will smile at you pretty much on demand, where Sam just kind of looks at you with this "what the hell do you want?" look.  Will is wirey and perceptive and interested in everything.  The two guys play together quite nicely right now, though Sam is starting to show a little of that baby A syndrome and stealing toys from Will.  Its pretty funny right now, but I'm sure in a few months it will become super annoying for me to try to appease both kids while also refusing to buy two of everything.

All in all, things are going really well around here.  They are learning to nap better every day and waking quietly and happily on their own.  Happy babies, happy Mommy.  Healthy babies, happy Mommy!

A day in the life

John and I managed to get a sitter this past Saturday night so we could attend a friend's Christmas party.  John has a super co-worker that likes to do the job for us and she only asks for payment in dinner.  How incredible is that?  Anyway, good party, couple of drinks, nice to see old friends I hardly ever get to see anymore.  Wish we could have stayed longer or had more drinks, but we all know what that means in a world with small children.  While at the party I was asked many times how things are going (very well, thank you), and a couple of times people wanted to know what a typical day was like for us.  This one was a little harder to answer.  I don't think I've ever gone through an entire day moment by moment, so here goes...

6:45am I wake hopefully on my own, maybe due to babies talking, and hop in the shower.  John gets up 5 or 10 minutes later and starts good mornings with Sam and Will and gets them into new diapers.

7:00-7:15am Nurse both babies together.  Lillian usually wakes from commotion and John gets her diaper taken care of and starts a TV show for her.  Gotta love DVR!

7:15am John showers and gets ready for work.  I finish feeding boys and move them to the living room.

7:45am John and Lilli eat, sometimes I can join them, sometimes I have to wait, sometimes I have to feed babies, and on rare days we can all eat together

8:00am John leaves, if he's on time, and I am on my own.  Gasp!

8:15am Finish breakfast, clean up Lilli, Sam, Will, the table, put everything away, get all babes down from their chairs and head to the living room floor.  At this point the kids are clean, but I am usually covered in some type of food which I will wear for the rest of the day.

8:30-9:15am  This would be when we try to all play on the floor for a while.  I also change the babies into their day clothes and try to get the two year old to agree to wearing daytime clothes as well.  What usually ends up happening is I end up going from one kid to the next changing poopy diapers for an hour straight.  This morning for example, I think I had changed (with John's help at wake up time) at least 4 poops by this time.  And a compromise was made with Miss Lillian - You can wear your Dora pj's all day if you choose, but that means you cannot wear them again to bed this evening.  So Dora's now or Dora's later?  Dora's now of course.

9:15-9:30am  Get babies down for nap.  If its a good one they will sleep until 10:30 or 10:45.  During this time Lilli and I might color, play puzzles, watch Sesame Street, or do some type of craft if I'm in the mood.

10:45am Boys are up and play in excersaucers for 15 minutes while I start to get lunch prepared.  Early I know, but this is the only way it works.

11:00-11:15am  Nurse both boys at the same time.  Lillian watches a DVR'd episode of Word World.  Sometimes this feeding will go until 11:30ish as the boys like to lollygag.

11:15-11:40ish  I can now leave the boys on the floor, either sitting or laying, and they will play contently for a while.  Lilli finishes her show while I get lunch finished and on the table.

11:45 or Noon  We all try to eat together.  At first I was waiting until they nap to eat my own lunch, but really, its PB&J or leftovers for me most of the time, I can eat that and feed two babies, its not rocket science.  Its not very enjoyable, but its nourishment.

12:30pm  I clean up the kitchen if I can while the babies play on the floor again.  Most of the time they start to fuss or Lillian gets quite needy at this point.  So I usually can only get leftover food into the fridge and trash into the can before I have to sit and hold babies and play whatever I can possibly play that is quiet and entertaining to Lilli.

1:00 - 2:30pm  I get all 3 kids, if possible, to listen to a book or two.  Sometimes babies are too fussy or sometimes Lilli doesn't want books.  Lilli will sometimes even sleep until 3.  Or sometimes she will be up at 1:45 because her brothers woke screaming and there is no way to stop them or ignore them.  Today it was a bit of both.  The boys woke after HALF AN HOUR, cried for a little until I finally decided they were not going to get back to sleep.  They did not wake Lilli today.  This sucked for me though because I was actually trying to nap while they did today.  I had chills and a fever - some sort of flu I guess.  Regardless, the half hour nap thing is about to send me over the deep end some days.  Then other days they will nap until 2:30.

If the boys wake early, I try to keep them occupied and not screaming until Lilli wakes up.  Some days this is really, really hard because holding them at the same time is hard, and until recently, it was nearly impossible.  And sometimes not even this calms them down.  If they wake early and are crying, they are downright pissed, and there is no relief until I nurse them at 3pm.  And no, they are not mad because they are hungry, I can guarantee it.  The nursing at 3pm sometimes only lasts a few minutes, but the act calms them, nourishing or not.

3:00-3:15pm  Nurse the boys for snack time.  Lilli watches another show and will get her snack after the boys nurse.

3:15-4:30pm  I play with the kids.  This can be hard some days and not so bad on others.  It really depends on how everyone slept and who might need more attention  - the babies or the two year old.  If everyone took a good nap, and the weather was nice, this might have been when we would take a walk or go to a local park.  In the cold we go nowhere.  I have yet to leave the house to any other venue with all 3 of them by myself.  It 100% freaks me out.  I have a hard enough time leaving the house with just Sam and Will.  If I add Lilli to the mix, I might end up on the evening news as the lady that lost her baby in a Target.

4:30pm If the babies took short naps I try to put them down again for a cat nap.  Today they cried for 30 minutes.  It was awesome.  Then one of them slept for about 20 minutes and I have no idea if the other one slept at all.  I also try to get dinner started at this time, if I have not already done this during the 1pm nap.

5:00-5:30pm  I wait in anticipation for my husband (and help) to get home.  Sometime ago we started giving the boys a bottle at this time to get them used to formula and to learn to hold their own bottles.  Its working.

6:00pm Dinner and clean up.  Most of the time John or I or both of us are holding a crying, overtired (not for lack of trying!) baby.

6:45pm Start babies' baths or bedtime ritual if no bath.  Try to wrangle the now crazy two year old and plop her into the tub as well.

7:00-7:15pm  Feed babies.  As of yesterday, I am weaning them from this feeding.  It is sad.  It is a hard one to let go of because its very relaxing and sweet for everyone involved (except maybe John who has to chase a naked two year old around the house to get her pj's on).  I wanted to wean this feeding first though for a couple of reasons, mostly selfish ones.  I want to go out to dinner with my friends from time to time, and the babies need to get used to someone else putting them to bed once in a while.  Not to mention the fact that they both have teeth now and have taken up biting me.  Not pleasant.

So up until yesterday John was always on Lilli bedtime duty while I fed the boys.  Now we have switched in order to get the boys used to taking a bedtime feeding from someone other than me.  The first night we had to put Mr. Will down without food.  He refused the bottle (but remember he just ate at 5:30 and is not starving - this is what I had to tell myself over and over again...).  But tonight they both took the bottles from Dad no problem.  One day we will be able to sit them next to us, read a book while they hold their own milk!  The beginning of self sufficiency is a thing of beauty.

So that's it in a very, very tight nutshell.  I don't deviate much from this schedule.  We run a tight ship around here, we have to.

We had the boys 6 month doctor visit and we've been decorating the house for Christmas, so I will hopefully get to those updates next...

Thanksgiving and 6 months

We hosted our very first family Thanksgiving here at the house over the last weekend.  In my opinion it went quite well, even if I did hear the phrase "that's just not how my mom's turned out" several times (Its OK, honey, sentimentality between a son and mother is endearing).  I wasn't very stressed because I was very well prepared.  It was a bit easier because we didn't have our meal until Saturday, so I had help from the hubby for a couple of days before his family arrived.  I was able to plan a few things in advance, get the house the cleanest its ever been, and set my table.  I was so busy the day of however that I only had time to take some very poor pictures of my table and none of the food or people.  The whole event can sometimes be very anti-climactic, much like my photos.  You cook all day, sometimes for days at a time, and then you shove it all down in a matter of minutes.  This year John and I let everyone else eat while we each fed a baby, and then we got to our own plates.  Oh well, I am thankful for the babies and that's really what the season is about anyway.  We were grateful to see John's family in good health (with the exception of some coughs and sniffles) and to spend some much needed time with them.  Though short, the visit was pleasant and we are excited to see them again at Christmas.  Here is a very yellow lit shot of my white and grey table using my own dishes, my Great Grandmother's art deco china and my Grandmother's crystal.  Finally a reason to get this fun stuff out!

We are thankful for milk and bananas.  Oh and our fingers.

The Friday before we had the big meal Samuel and William turned 6 months old.  I can't even begin to believe that they are 6 months already.  Only the fact that they both are getting huge, sitting on their own, one is rolling and the other one has just started (as of today) scooting backwards reminds me of how much time has passed.  People say it is the first 6 months that is hard with twins.  I would say this is true.  Things are getting easier, but are by no means easy, especially with a needy two year old.  Now the boys are up to two meals a day on solid foods which makes meal times rather hard - and I once thought nursing was bad.  But the fun things and the milestones can now outweigh the hard stuff.

Happy Samuel

Happy William

They are so very happy (again - when they sleep well) and the best part of my day is going in to get them after a good nap and to get that big old gummy grin from both of them.  I didn't get this stuff much with Lillian, only on the weekends, and I forget that sometimes.  I have to check myself on a daily basis to take mental pictures of the good things because this will be the last time I get to see this stuff from my kids.  At least that is the plan.  John and I have had some bittersweet conversations lately.  This is just the time when babies get so stinking cute and fun that they make you kind of want more.  But then we have to remind ourselves of the plan, and that one more means we won't retire until we are 85 AND we could end up with 5 (incidence of twins increases if you've had them once).  Although it is sad this is the last first smile, last first giggle, last first crawl, last first walk we may get, we are so darn in love with all three kiddos that I think we are completely fulfilled and so incredibly lucky that we would rather just move on and enjoy every beautiful moment of growing up these kids are going to give us.

It took me 3 days to write this...

The weeks are flying.  It is almost Thanksgiving - the twins will be 6 months old!  This blog is supposed to keep people updated on our life, but I can't even keep up on our life.  I get about 30 minutes to myself on any given day, and sometimes writing is just not what needs to get done.  I have my time with John after the kids go to bed, but frankly, I'd rather spend that time with him.  Not simply because he is my husband, but because it is about the only adult interaction I get.

So since so many weeks have flown by, and I have so much to write about, I thought I would just make a general list of what is going on with the family since the end of October.

What is going on with Samuel and William:

Does it get any cuter than a sitting baby?

William is a rolling pin. Skinny, cylindrical, and all over the place with his little (or shall we say big - for his size) bobble head.  He rolls all over his crib and eventually ends up sleeping on his belly.  Will is also sitting pretty well unassisted for a minute or so at a time, but eventually topples onto that noggin.  He has suddenly become the more vocal of the two, screaming in glee when he wakes up.  It is so loud that yesterday I had to take him downstairs so as to avoid waking the other babies.  And we discovered two days ago, my littlest baby cut his two front teeth.  I've always been such a fan of the gummy Muppet grin.  Lillian had hers until 8 months, I thought for sure the boys would follow.  But here we are at 5 1/2 months with our first two teeth.

Sam is only rolling half-way.  He can go from belly to back, but the back to belly thing hasn't started yet.  Though I did catch him arching around twice yesterday, so he'll likely start soon.  When he rolls from belly to back, he gets very mad because he can't get his arms out of the way and ends up in this funny downward facing dog position with his butt in the air and then heaves himself over butt first.  Sam is also sitting extremely well, but I don't have a good photo of him yet.  We keep taking guesses as to who might crawl first and every day a new development causes the tides to shift.  Mainly, I just hope they don't crawl as early as Lilli did - two months from now.  I need more time!

They like to hold hands when they can catch each other.

Both boys are happy as can be - when they sleep enough.  They both laugh and smile a lot.  They've even started to notice their sister and at times think she is hilarious.  They still sleep great at night, though daylight savings recently took a chip out of that.  (I won't get started, but I would rather wake in the dark and have an extra hour of daylight at dinner time.  Who wouldn't?  The whole idea is illogical.)  Napping is another story.  These guys like to nap 30-45 minutes at a time.  Just in the last week they started to get a good hour and a half morning nap.  But the second nap has yet to follow.  Every once in a while they will go longer than 45 minutes, but it is usually only one of them.  So I get to spend some one on one time with the baby that gets up early.  I just have to be patient and believe that someday they will sleep when their sister does, and I can get something done.

Sometimes it is like feeding a drooling octopus.

The boys started on solids about a month ago.  A little cereal once a day.  Now we are through all of the plain veggies and I can't wait to start fruit!  They love their green beans though and I should probably just keep doing veggies for a while.  Needless to say, lunchtime is a bit crazy now and most of the time I have to eat after all the kids go down to nap, which most days, doesn't leave me much time before they wake up again.





What's going on with Lillian:

Does this kid look like trouble?

We now know what TWO means.  Every update I get from Baby Center is my two-year old child to a T.  She is as normal as she can be.  Smart as a whip, defiant, challenging.  She whines, she throws tantrums, she is mommy's little helper, she follows directions when she wants to and ignores them when she doesn't.  We've tried potty training a couple of times.  She clearly isn't ready.  In fact, I almost think we may have ruined it for ourselves by pushing a little too hard too soon.  She will be two and a half on Christmas day and we are not any closer to using the toilet than we were last Christmas day.

Now that we are stuck inside during the cold weather, I find that she is getting a little better at being able to play on her own for 10 or 15 minutes before she might need some attention from me.  It's rare, but it's starting to happen.  The other thing that cold weather brings in this house is more television.  I hate this and really don't want it on around the babies so much, but at the same time, she doesn't play well on her own yet and I have two babies I have to feed and diaper and entertain in addition to doing these things for her.  I think it likely won't ruin her as long as we get into some sort of preschool program next year.

What's going on with Monica and John:

Lillian's homemade Crayola costume.

Halloween was chaos this year.  Fun, but at the same time, a total pain in the ass.  We went to the annual neighborhood bbq and bouncy house thing up the street around 5.  Then we ran home just in time to meet the first trick-or-treaters.  At which time the headache I'd been nursing for a couple of hours became almost blinding.  John took off with Lilli to go trick or treating with the neighbor girls, while I attempted to change Hanz and Franz for bed and get them fed without passing out.  I nursed and put they boys down.  I threw a small bucket of candy outside on the steps and it was demolished by the time the boys went down.  John came home, and I took Lilli out for a few more houses (I was feeling better by this time).  She did pretty well for herself, but now I remember my parents' dismay every year at the end of October.  I understand why they would have rather ignored the day altogether.  I hate having that much candy around for her to eat.  She loves it.  That apple didn't fall far.

John thought of Hanz and Franz.  I think it is hilarious.

John and I made it out again just about a week and a half ago while my mom was visiting.  We went to El Patron, our favorite Mexican place.  We like to think we helped this restaurant survive because we discovered it when they first opened and frequented for happy hour when we were first together.  Best margarita's in town.  And as of two Saturday's ago - still the best Mexican food in town in my humble opinion.  Needless to say, I had me a couple of those margaritas.  Which I then topped off with a whiskey drink at the Tavern in PV when meeting my brother and sister-in-law for some much needed social interaction without kids.  It was nice to actually talk to them (or slur to them) without being tugged on by a child.

We got family photos taken during the colors this fall.  We think they turned out really well, considering...  Lillian is a ham, but the boys don't have a clue what's going on yet.  So we'll have to wait until they are 9 or 10 months and get them photographed again.  We had a friend of the family do the photos, J Robert Schraeder Photography.  I'd put some up, but I don't have permission and I also wouldn't want to spoil our Christmas card...

Long ago I wrote a blog about me and was supposed to follow up, if not just to hold myself accountable.  Just in time for the Holidays, my post-pregnancy body is just getting worse.  For a while there I felt pretty good.  I'm down to about 4 pounds less than my pre-pregnancy weight, and my clothes fit only ok.  Great right?  Well, I have no muscle tone left and haven't obviously worked out in what seems like a lifetime.  I have no color, my hair is still falling out in sheets, I have a terrible skin rash that I get when nursing, and my belly is, shall we say, NEVER going to be the same.  Oh well, I got two healthy babies out of it right?  My point here is, I'm starting to feel just a little bit run over by a truck.  The fatigue of having infants is just replaced by the lack of time or energy to do anything for myself.  And as much as I love nursing, I don't think it's helping me.  Great for the babies, but depleting my body of what vitamins and calcium I might actually have left.  It won't be too much longer before I wean them.  And after the Holidays I must stop eating sugar.  I think I've probably said that before...

John and I are hosting our very first Thanksgiving this year for his family.  Instead of trying to travel with all the kids, we are having everyone here.  I am very much looking forward to it and can't wait to set my first fancy table.  But I am a little apprehensive about my first turkey and getting everything hot at the same time.  I guess if it's terrible, we always have alcohol!

So I think that's mainly everything of late.  I'm sure a lot will happen in the next month or two and I will try my best to keep up with it all.  Happy Holidays everyone!

SAHM vs Working Mom

So like most people I did not know what "SAHM" meant until it became my occupation.  For 5 months now I am a Stay at Home Mom.  Prior to bedrest (which was a glorious 9 weeks of worry, constant contractions, Sex and the City reruns, a boatload of HGTV and any kind of food I could get my hands on) I was a "working mom."

Now that I am home with the kids, I've come to discover that I have a problem with these two terms.  "Working mom" isn't bad until you face it up against "Stay at home mom."  "Working mom" makes the term "Stay at home mom" seem like a sugary piece of holiday pie that we all want a piece of.  Sure, in the 13 years I worked in an office, I always dreamed of the day I had kids and could afford to stay home with them.  I was part of the misconception.  The misconception being that SAH mom's don't work very hard.  Shoot they don't even deserve the word "work" in their title.

I call Bullshit.  This is the hardest job in the world.  Well maybe not the world.  But it's certainly the hardest thing I've ever done.  I am just one opinion, and my situation isn't particularly the norm.  That being said, I would never judge a stay at home mom of one or two children, no matter the child's age or disposition, and assume that my job is harder than theirs.  Being at home with small babies or children is A LOT of work.  Different kind of work, different kind of brain power, but easily the most work I've done in years.

I also have to take into consideration that I never worked particularly hard.  I had my days, and I definitely pride myself on being extremely efficient, so I think sometimes I made certain things look easy.  I always managed to get my work done in a timely manner and get out the door at a very reasonable hour and get my baby home from daycare in enough time to make dinner or help with dinner.  However, I never really went above and beyond in my work.  I was not motivated enough for that.  Part of the reason is I think I was not working in the right field, I was not inspired by my jobs.  I was also never particularly challenged in my jobs.  And in my mind challenges produce.  Not being challenged produces apathy. And lastly, I wanted to get home to my family and my new baby girl.  After all, I was still a mom and had responsibilities at home.

This job leaves no room for apathy.  It is impossible to shut your brain off.  I find myself staring into space a moment or two during the week, mostly when the boys are napping and I am outside with Lilli and she is playing on her own (which is SO rare).  These moments I consider sleeping with my eyes open, this is not boredom.  This is me getting lost for a minute, taking a rest, only to come back to the world because my child has covered her own face in sidewalk chalk.  And I'm back in the game.

So I am taking it upon myself to change the phrase "Stay at home mom".  It irks me, and I will not label myself as such.  I am too brain fried right now to relabel myself, but believe me, I will think about this until I find something perfect and all of you who agree with me can join my club.

Homework

Obviously we have a lot going on here.  So the work we want to do on this house has taken a back, back, back seat.  We have managed to make a little progress on the kids rooms, but they still are not complete.  There are little things here and there that I would like to finish, but either they can't be done due to the stage the kids are in, or I'm just not sure yet what I would like to do.

This picture is where we started with Lilli's room.  It used to be an old office I suppose.  This is at the stage where we ripped down the old chair rail all around the room and filled in the gap with dry wall mud.  The walls had been papered and painted many times to the point where the chair rail left about a 1/8" to 1/4" ridge.

Once the walls were cleaned up we painted them a bright pink.  And all the trim and doors painted a clean coat of white.  Then we ripped out the nasty carpet.  The closet had this lovely puke yellow colored carpet that I'm sure was about as old as the house.  Why someone would leave that nasty carpet and put in new carpet in the room is beyond me.  What is a few extra square feet really?  This is Lilli's book nook.

I hung a canvas covered in chalk board paint in the corner opposite the book nook.  It's low enough for Lilli to reach, but I have not come up with a cool storage system for chalk yet.  I'm thinking a coat rack with buckets hanging from the hooks placed below the chalkboard.

Lilli was always our little birdie when she was a baby.  So I designed her duvet cover fabric and had it printed at a little website called www.spoonflower.com.  I love the way it turned out, but I have yet to finish it.  First the bedrest put it on hold, and now Lilli has bedrails on her bed that don't allow us to make her bed, so I figure, what's the point?  It will get done soon and her bed will be all fresh and pretty when she no longer falls out of it.

This is the wall hanging I also designed, had printed, and sewed together above her bed, matching the soon to be duvet cover and pillow shams.  I happen to love the way this turned out.  The birds hang from little silver clothes pins and can be removed to play with.  I have come into the room at nap time to find the little one with a birdie in her bed.

And my favorite piece...John snagged this dresser off a moving neighbors' front lawn.  It was the right size for a room as small as Lilli's, so we thought a nice paint job on the worn out wood finish would turn it into the perfect piece.  I sprayed the entire thing with silver spray paint, then rubbed it with a charcoal paint.  I left the handles original at first, but decided I thought it needed a little oomph.  Hot pink handles did the trick.  I love how it turned out.  And the mirror is hung just perfectly to catch the sparkling, girly, chandelier on the ceiling.

This was Lilli's room before we learned we were having twins.  When we moved into this house, we didn't bother doing her room because we knew we wanted to start trying for #2 (and #3).  We thought we'd just make it function long enough to get pregnant and then make it into a big girl room when the crib was needed elsewhere.  It is the biggest room on the main floor.  So once we learned of the boys, we had to move her to the smaller room next door, which I just detailed.  This room also had a fair amount of chair rail, which was removed and the walls cleaned up.  Thankfully the previous owners had already taken care of the carpet in this room.

I wanted to make the boys room fairly simple because we have to load it with furniture.  Two walls are painted a nice mid-tone blue and two are white.  I think it brightens the room.  At first we just kept Lilli's crib in the room and moved a full size bed from one of the upstairs bedrooms.  The babies slept together in the one crib and the full bed came in extremely handy for overnight feedings (you can't nurse twins tandem in a rocking chair) and long sleepless nights.  The twins started sleeping through the night about the same time they got big enough to separate into their own cribs.

Now Lilli's old crib is Will's crib.  No bumpers, no blankets, just as simple as it can be.  A few pieces of fabric hung over the bed and a new rug and the room is starting to take shape.

Sam's crib was his cousin's, given to us by John's sister.  Thankfully we had this gift because when faced with having 3 children and losing an income gifts are graciously accepted.  She likely knows how OCD I am and let us know that we could paint the crib to help it match the other one a little better.  Four coats of paint later, and I think it turned out well.  The mobile is also a hand-me-down from Lilli and the boys hang out under it together when mom is putting away laundry or getting the bath ready.

And these have been posted before.  Hanging next to Sam's bed we have their little chalkboards, which will one day be hung at their level.  For now, I keep them up to date with the latest stats.  I can't believe we are already up to 4 months and these babies are starting to do such fun things.  Twins are really an amazing phenomenon.  I look at them everyday and wonder how they got here.  I wish I could get more done around the house, but I couldn't ask for a better distraction than my three kiddos.

Vocabulary

I just think she is so pretty.  I know I'm her mom, but she is right?

So finally a post about my sweet, sweet Lillian.  I love this girl so much I want to squeeze her face all the time.  I don't know how most two year olds are, but this girl is seriously the sweetest, most generous thing I could have imagined.  Sure she gives me trouble from time to time, but over all, she is just a really great kid.

She's been chatting us up lately.  It is amazing how much she absorbs and one day she starts spouting off full sentences of words you have no idea where she's even heard this stuff before.  I should be writing it all down because I know I'm only going to remember a few of the best moments here.

Discovering markers and how fun they are outside of their normal use.

The other day her new friends, our new neighbor girls, were outside the house lurking on their bikes waving at her through the front window.  I am trapped on the couch with my twin breastfeeding pillow strapped on and both boys filling their bellies.  I cannot move, nor do I particularly want to get up and flash the 5 and 8 year old girls outside the house.  She says "Mommy, Margo! Eva!" and points outside.  Over and over again.  And John is in the twins' nursery putting together the second crib (Yes we separated them and they are doing great!), so he's up to his elbows in balancing 4 crib sides trying to attach them together.  "Mommy, Margo! Eva!  Outside!! Go!"  So I say "Lilli, sweetheart, Mommy cannot get up right now, please wait a few minutes."  This is the best part, "Mommy, I hep you.  I hep you get up.  Get up Mommy.  Hand.  Hand.  (She takes my hand and pulls it.)  Get up, Mommy."  This breaks my heart, but amazes me at the same time.  Where did she learn this?  That taking my hand would help me get up?  And all the sudden she's able to express this with her own words?  I'm amazed.  The story does not end sadly. John finishes the crib and is able to take her outside with the girls.  We are not quite comfortable letting our two year old across the street on her own, though we know the neighbors, parents of 3, 5 and 8 year old girls, are perfectly capable of watching her for a few minutes.  We just aren't there yet.

Hiding in the bushes.

So then yesterday I am in the living room diapering the babies in a pamper before their second nap of the day.  Their cloth diapers need to be changed about every hour and a half and I'm getting the feeling their heavy diapers are waking them from naps.  Its probably just the fact that they are not yet 4 months old and just don't sleep all that long yet, but my hope was to get them to sleep for more than 45 minutes for this nap.  Anyway, I get one boy done and Lilli is diapering her duck with the other diaper.  "Lilli, Mommy needs that diaper for Sam."  "No, Mommy, no."  "Yes, Lilli, give me the diaper for Sam."  She runs off down the hall.  So I get up after her and realize I am halfway back to their room, I'll just get another diaper.  She thinks I am after her to steal duck's diaper, so she screams and throws herself on the floor (If only it were appropriate for me to have screamed and thrown myself on the floor when she first stole the diaper from me...).  I pass her and just get another diaper.  At which point I tell her she is spoiled and that when Mommy says she needs something from her, she needs to follow my directions.  Sitting back on the living room floor, she walks over to me, bends over and places the sweetest little kiss on my arm.  This is her, "I'm sorry Mommy."   I cannot resist but giggle and give her a big squeeze.  She can make me so mad in one moment and completely make up for it ten times over in the exact next moment.

This morning she runs into the living room, as I am again trapped on the couch feeding the boys, and tells me "Daddy hit head.  Light.  On light.  Daddy hurt."  I said, "Uh oh, Daddy hit his head on the light?"  She nods.  I know this probably doesn't sound like much, but she is getting out full sentences all of the sudden (this is my idea of a full sentence).  We seem to be able to converse now.  Its crazy.  You go so long trying to figure out what these little babies need or are trying to tell you, and then all of the sudden, they are just little people and able to tell you pretty much exactly what they want.

Picking her nose.  Ladylike.

Running to me after the hide.

Yesterday we were outside in the morning during the boys' first nap and she wants to play hide and seek.  She goes out to the same large tree in the yard she always goes to and points to the bushes and says "Mommy, hide."  Puts her hands over her eyes and says "One, two, five, six." (She's still learning to count, we have no idea where three and four go...)  I'm standing in the bushes saying "Lilli, you already know where I'm hiding!"  She'll get there.  Right now she's just a tad bit bossy, so I kind of go with the flow, mostly just asking her to say "Please" when she tells me to do something.

Lilli's new favorite show on TV, which I am not ashamed to admit I let her watch whenever she asks,  is called Word World.  It is on PBS at 10:30 CST.  It is a show about words and phonics and I think it is brilliantly done.  The characters are all made up of the letters in their names, and it is so creative.  As a lover of art and graphics, I am fascinated by it and become just as engrossed in how they do it as my toddler is in the story they are telling.  If you have a toddler, I highly suggest it.  I think she is actually learning a lot about letters and words, in ways that are much more interesting than anything I could accomplish on my own. 

She doesn't watch TV all day long, though that would be really easy for me right now.  We do spend a lot of time reading, coloring, talking about letters, numbers, shapes and colors.  Oh and picking up random pieces of Play-Doh all over the house (NEVER buy Play-Doh if you can help it.)  She is learning something everyday and it is the most fun to watch her light up with discovery.  And to feel myself light up when she expresses what she's learned.  Being a parent is cool.

Sleep, Sleep, beautiful Sleep

Its been a long couple of weeks since my last post.  I boasted that the boys started sleeping through the night, and not just a few days later we hit a speed bump.

Rough-housing already.

Around 3 months old babies are usually ok to stay up until 9, 10 or 11 o'clock.  But somewhere shortly thereafter, they want to go to bed earlier.  With Lilli, she just gradually moved her bedtime earlier.  And it didn't start until after she'd been at daycare for a while, so if I remember right it was closer to 4 months.  So she just moved her bedtime feeding earlier and earlier and remained a solid sleeper through the night (though I'm pretty sure we had to get up and help her from time to time.) And then she found those fingers that she still sucks on and that was it - 11 1/2 hours solid from 7:30pm to 7am.  So as of about 10 days ago, maybe a bit more, the boys started falling asleep on their own, wherever we would lay them, right after their 7pm feeding.  Suddenly, we are looking at a 3 hour jump in bedtime.  And not wanting to be the parent that wakes their kid to eat when we go to bed at 10pm just so we can sleep longer, we started putting them down between 7 and 8 and letting them go.  We know this could mean trouble.

Needless to say, we've had some challenging nights.  Reverting back to early infancy feeding times at 1am and 4am.  Despite the early challenges and the middle of the night cursing, we stuck with the program.  Sam is a super sleeper and makes it through most nights with barely a peep and mostly only needs to be fed around 4 or 5am.  Will, being smaller, is a bit of a challenge.  He still consistently wakes at 1am, though he's slept through this feeding enough that we have to try to put him back to sleep without feeding him.  He very rarely cries at 1am, he just wakes and makes a lot of noise, so I firmly believe he doesn't need to be fed.

It may sound cruel, but I am of the mind that if the baby is gaining plenty of weight and has slept through a night feeding once or twice, they do not really need to be fed when they wake at the same time on other nights.  To me, its like when Lilli asks for a cookie after EVERY meal - she wants the cookie, but she doesn't actually NEED the cookie.  Some mothers would probably be appalled by this and can't believe I don't want to just cuddle my baby and feed him.  Its not that at all.  We all run much, much better in this household on good sleep (not to mention what it does for the babies' learning capacity).  So my goal, before anything else, is to get these babies to sleep solid.  It may take a few weeks of interrupted, crappy sleep, but in the end its SO worth it.  And I will cuddle my guys at any other time during the day.

Even though the last 10-14 days have been very tiresome with getting up several times a night, to feed or sooth back to sleep, we are really starting to see some results.  Last night the boys both found their thumbs whenever they aroused and got themselves back to sleep, and they slept through the night completely from around 8:15pm until their 7am feeding.  Glorious.

I am not expecting this to happen every night.  Though if it does, I will take it.  But we are getting there.  We are savoring now the couple of hours we get to spend in the living room, just John and I, while the kids sleep between 7:3ish and 10.  This time is important to us, and our marriage.  We missed it over the last several months.  We just grab the monitor and head to the couch and relax after long, long days.  This time is such a benefit of sleep training, I can't even explain.

So I mentioned the monitor.  Oh, the monitor.  I should give more reviews on baby stuff in this blog so I can save people the pain, or give them the pleasure, when purchasing items for their own family.  We got a new monitor because our old one from Lilli's infancy basically burned out and would only hold a charge for about 20 minutes.  This old monitor, which we liked a lot, is no longer available so we went for a new one that seemed similar.  We are not fancy monitor people, no videos or mats under the mattress with alarms when the baby gets too far to the crib rails.   It is just a digital monitor that can go a decent distance (though not as far as the neighbors' swing set - learned this the hard way!) This one is the Summer brand, it is white with blue lights, not sure of the model name, and we got it at Target.  The thing about this monitor is that it blinks when it is charging.  I suppose so you know that its charging?  Because you wouldn't actually know that just by the fact that you've plugged it in?  Well, if you are like us, or most parents, the monitor is mainly used at night when you are up and the babies are not.  So we take it off the charger, take it with us around the house or outside, and then plug it back in next to the bed when we want to go to sleep.  So remember that I said this thing has blue lights?  And it blinks when charging?  At 10pm our room looks like Studio 54 (minus a lot of obvious extras).  There is no way we are sleeping with this strobe light.  If it dispensed cocaine and played ABBA, it might be worth the money, to someone in a different stage of life than we are in.  This is the most horrendous design for a baby monitor that I've ever seen, clearly designed by someone who hates children, or more accurately, parents.

Lillian finding her own way to slide down the slide.

This probably seems like harsh talk for just a silly monitor, but our lives are crazy.  We don't need any other crazy adding to the chaos.  The simpler things are, the better.  I don't find comfort in things, or people, that don't make my life easier.  The days go so fast, and I feel like time is passing at warp speed.  We are coming up on 4 months for the boys and Lilli is starting to grow into a little girl, there's not much baby left there.  It is amazing, fun, and incredibly sad all at the same time.  Which is why (back to my original purpose for this post) I need my sleep.  If I am tired, I sleep walk through my days, and I miss too much.  I can't let that happen.

Milestones

Big sister and the little brothers she is so very proud of.

One of these days I will write a post strictly about Lillian.  I feel bad for her sometimes because she's at a point where things are slowing down as far as her growth, her milestones are spread out more these days, and she gets passed over in the blog quite often.  The milestones for Sam and Will are much more frequent and easy to update, so once again this post will be about the boys.  However, Lillian never fails to make me proud, laugh, or sometimes angry on a daily basis.  She loves her brothers dearly, which is fun to watch because it seems to just grow within her and come out in the form of kisses on the head and little tiny hugs. She is so proud of them and makes sure when we have visitors that everyone knows their names and that they are her baby brothers.

3 month stats

 This week we hit several milestones at once.  Wednesday marked 13 weeks.  Thursday marked 3 months.  Last weekend marked the boys first head cold, thanks to sissy and mother's day out and those tiny little kisses she gives.  Thursday marked the end of their first full round of vaccines, the first portion they received at 2 months (I spread out each round of vaccines over a two month period for personal reasons).  AND, most importantly, this week the boys slept 8 or 9 hours straight through the night four out of the past five nights... or maybe its 5 out of the past 6.  Regardless, I am ecstatic.

"Through the night" means different things to different people.  Some think its 6 hours, some think its 8.  For us it means sleeping when we sleep.  Lillian slept through the night at 10 weeks, from 9 or 10 pm to 7 am.  When 10 weeks came and went, we kind of shrugged it off but were secretly disappointed.  We hoped to not compare our kids and expect too much from these little boys, but its hard not to sometimes.  I've realized through some reading that Lillian is what they call an "easy" baby, but we didn't really know it at the time.  We thought 10 weeks was early, but really pretty normal.  The kids pediatrician says you really can't help them through the night until 4 months or after.  So we thought we'd cut the twins a little slack.  Plus there is two of them.

But then they got the cold.  And they were so tired.  So for two nights we comforted them through the night when they were uncomfortable, but they slept solidly through their normal 4am feeding and kept going until 7am!  I kind of expected the 4am thing to start up again after the cold went away.  And it did for one night.  Then the last couple they've surprised us and slept straight through again from their 10pm feeding until 5:30-6:30 and some mornings we've stretched them until 7.  Now maybe its because they are still catching up from the cold, or maybe its because they got shots yesterday, but the point is, they've done it most of the week, and we know now that they CAN do it.  So now when they wake up, if they wake up, we just train them to go back to sleep if they aren't screaming to be fed (which they've never really done).

I cannot explain how nice it is to sleep solidly for more than just several hours before getting out of bed only to see if they are still breathing and then go right back to bed.  Though I am sure all of you parents out there already know what this feels like, but with twins, I just never dreamed it could be this early.  I hoped, but did not have serious expectations.

Will finding his thumb and Sam drifting with binky.

Although we can't expect all of our kids to need the same kind of sleep, they are showing signs that they will be a lot like their sister.  If they keep this up, John and I dream of the day when they will move their 10pm feeding earlier and earlier until they go to bed with their sister at 7:30 and sleep through until 6:30 or 7.  This will hopefully only take another month or two.  This late evening time is our mommy/daddy time.  This is the time when we can go back to just being "us" for a couple of hours, and it is sorely missed right now.  The only sad part of this is that when the boys do get to bed earlier, this only means these precious infants will not be infants anymore and toddler years are on the horizon.

Other than the fantastic sleeping, Sam and Will are starting to get little personalities.  They talk and giggle all the time.  Will is a night person and likes to be social in the evenings and after he's had some good sleep.  Sam is the jokester and likes to be social most of the time.  Right now I am listening to Will try to talk to his brother while his brother seems to be telling him to buzz off.  They both know how to roll over from front to back, but they both only choose to do it from time to time.  And Sam is actually getting worse at it because he is so big, but he is showing signs already of wanting to roll from back to front.

All of this is coinciding nicely with my decision to paint and ready the second crib for the nursery.  Right now they are both in one crib and it is getting pretty crowded.  The space in the room for the second crib is currently occupied by a full bed which I sit on with my giant pillow for night feedings.  If we cut out the night feedings, we can rid the room of the adult bed.  And if Sam starts rolling over, its time to set up the second crib.  Thankfully Grandma Mary is here for the third visit in 3 months to help out, and I've been able to almost complete the crib painting task.  Its been quite fun really - and no worries, the paint is just fine if the babies should start chewing on the crib later on.

Grandma Mary is here only until Tuesday, and she is missed between visits.  Help is tremendous in our situation and cannot be taken for granted.  Neither can the fact that she is capable of watching all 3 kids while John and I go out to eat.  I think we've left these kids more in the first 3 months of their lives than we left Lilli in a year.  But after one child we've realized how important it is for us to get out, and somehow its a lot easier the second time around.  We don't worry as much. 

So John and I get to have date night tonight - where we are going is still up in the air, but I'm sure there will be alcohol involved.  Which the cynic in me wants to reluctantly state that this will also be the night the boys decide they want to scream to be fed at 3:30am when my 3 drinks have produced a hangover.

What it means to Want

Websters dictionary definition of Want: the state of not having; the condition of being without anything; absence or scarcity of what is needed or desired; deficiency; lack

I am a firm believer in the power of words, one's own words and the affect on one's life to be more specific.  The power of positive thinking (or talking).  I read a book in college that very eloquently stated you should never use the word 'want'.  Such as "I want a job"  or " I want money" or " I want a spouse and kids"  The use of the word in such a way means you will forever and always be in want of whatever it is you desire.  I bring this up now because John and I are struggling a little with this concept right now, and I'm starting to find that we are a bit ridiculous.  We have everything we could ever need, and more, especially with 3 healthy kids, and our own good health and sanity.  But still we daily find ourselves wanting for things.

Mainly our want for things falls within the realm of this house.  We bought this house knowing we would fix it up.  Lately though, we've found ourselves looking at the Reece and Nichols website to see if there is something out there that suits us better, or would make our lives easier.  I don't think we are serious, we are just frustrated.  For John and I both, we spent all of our twenties and our early thirties doing whatever we wanted with our resources, time, and talents.  Now with 3 very young kids, we live on someone else's clock and every dollar has its place.  We barely find the time to shower and brush our teeth, muchless completely renovate and furnish at least one room of this house.  And we're one less salary to boot.  This is not an easy adjustment. 

P-nut finding new ways to make me laugh every day.

We have 3 bedrooms started, but none of them finished.  Our kitchen and dining area is in a state of confusion and does not accommodate for the 5 people that will soon be needing to sit at one table together.  Our "hearth room" has no furniture in it with the exception of the messy computer desk, my old piano, and a pack and play.  We have a finished basement that we don't even want to use because we find it gross, but it would be such a great place for kids.  I know as I write this I sound terribly selfish and ridiculous.  We want a new house in an old neighborhood, and it's going to take time.  We knew this going in, but we didn't know we'd have three kids 23 months apart and the cost of daycare would negate a salary.  And really, everything we want, well, it's fluff.  It's not necessary for a healthy life, and we know it.  And the kids, they are our life now.  That old life doesn't really mean much anymore.

It shouldn't be hard to live in the moment.  This is likely the last time we'll have snuggly, fuzzy newborns.  Our little girl won't stay an innocent, yet ornery, two forever.  But at the same time, I have to reluctantly admit, it is hard to live in the moment.  Believe it or not, John and I already talk about retirement.  Not in the sense of saving for it, but in the sense that we anticipate it.  This is unhealthy, I realized, after a comment from a retired neighbor.  He said "I'll trade you retirement to be 30 years younger again."  Duh.

The odd couple lounging after a meal.

So it is my goal of late to stop myself, or John, whenever one of us says "I want."  Its an empty statement and will never get us anywhere.  In fact, I hope to also cut down on the phrase "I need."  I need nothing.  I have 3 beautiful babies, an amazing spouse, a house large enough for 3 families (in my opinion, I am not one for gigantic mc mansions), and we are living within our means.  There really is not much else we could hope for except the continued health and happiness of our loved ones.

10 weeks young

It was recently brought to my attention by a close family member that my posts may sometimes appear to be sort of dark and possibly worrisome.  This was coming from someone that knows me very well and knows that my sense of humor is a bit off.  I am a cynic by nature.  Most of what I write about is from this point of view and written through a very, very dry tone.  I hope I don't come across as an ingrate or someone who might be severely struggling with their current situation.  If you know me very well, you might find my posts kind of funny.  My mother giggles.  But if you are a friend from my past that I haven't seen in a while, or maybe someone I don't know at all, I may come across a little sad.  Believe me, I am not.  I am enjoying every minute of this adventure, but I find sick humor in all of it.  I have to, or I probably would not survive it.  We don't cry all the time in this household.  In fact, I think it's been since the incident with my mom in the last post that I shed a tear.  Usually the only tears involve Lillian falling down the stairs (that was a fun afternoon!) or crying because she doesn't want to pick up her blocks.  We are all ok here, besides the adults not getting near the amount of sleep they would like, things are not as bad as I may make them sound sometimes.

I am currently nap training the boys, and they are taking 3 naps a day in their crib fairly consistently.  They all vary in length, but the main point is they are going down to sleep at the same time (almost - its almost quite impossible to get them down at the same time with one of me and two of them), in their room, in their crib, and they do it with almost no help from me.  This is how to train twins.  You cannot rock them to sleep, they have to be laid down just when they start to show signs of fatigue and you just leave them and hope for the best.  Sam is not quite as good at it as his brother.  He is currently fussing, while Will sleeps, which means he is either over tired and I missed his window, or he has to take a giant poo.

FuzziBunz

We've made the leap this time around to cloth diapers.  I wanted to do this with Lilli, but since she was going to be in a daycare system, I just decided to forget it.  Most daycare people do not want to deal with cloth diapering.  Some people think I am crazy for attempting this with twins, but so far, it is going really well.  We waited until a couple weeks ago to start it because the boys were small and mainly still pooping in every diaper we put on them.  I know this seems counter productive as far as helping the environment by using cloth, but we figured 8 weeks of disposable can't be as bad as 3 years of disposable.  The cost savings is tremendous.  The price of a day or two worth of diapers is a large up front cost, but assuming we will be in diapers until around 3 years old, we will in the end save at least a couple thousand dollars.  Plus Sam and Will's poo won't be sitting in a landfill for 500 years.  The system and the diapers are quite perfected these days.  The poo doesn't go into the washer with biodegradable liners and the leaking is really quite minimal.  We've had a few pee leaks, but we've had a couple of #2's that no Pamper or Huggie would have contained and these diapers did.  We will still keep disposable on hand for emergencies, long nights, and babysitters.  But we are feeling quite pleased about the switch and wish we'd been able to do it with Lilli.  Maybe she would by out of diapers by now (word is kids train earlier when using cloth).

Latest stats

The boys were 10 weeks this past Wednesday and we had a slightly late 2 month check up for them and a slightly late 2 year check up for Lillian.  Everyone checked out great.  The boys each gained the average weight in ten weeks - half a pound a week.  Sam gained a few ounces more, but Will doubled his birthweight.  Our Peanut is all the way up to 25.5 pounds and 1/2 and inch shy of 3 feet tall.  She is tall and thin, a good way to be as a kid these days.  We were told not to worry about how she eats until she's almost 6 or 8 years old.  Kids between 2 and 6-8 are just crappy eaters, and if they get all the food groups in several days, they are good.   I don't want my kids to have to fight their weight or have crazy body image issues, so we just have to offer a variety of food, be good examples (not the best at this right now since with breastfeeding twins I'm STARVING all the time) and keep the junk out of the house.

So at ten weeks old I finally found the time to announce properly the birth of the twins to all our close friends and family.  The announcements went out today.  Lillian's went out when she was 7 weeks old, so I guess I'm not that far behind with these guys!  I like to do these things myself so it took a little while to get to it.  And its nothing terribly special or time consuming, but they're mommy made them and that's what makes them special, to me anyway, and hopefully later in life the boys will appreciate these things that make up their baby books.

Blink - did I just lose 3 weeks of my life?

Holy crap.  Where does the time go?  I haven't made a post in 3 weeks and there is so much that has happened.  I probably won't begin to talk about everything that I would like to.

Big Sam

Three weeks ago John had the week off work to help me out with all 3 kids at home.  It went fairly well other than the constant crying (the babies and myself).  Then John went back to work and my mother arrived for a week's worth of help.  I think she thought I was being a little overly dramatic when she would call and I'd tell her that I was just crying or had recently thrown a large object across the house.  Then after two days here, in the midst of a witching hour feeding that always goes awry when trying to latch two screaming babies at the same time, she also started crying and said to me "I don't know how you are doing this."  Ultimately I would say that has to be our motto right now.  How exactly are we doing this?  Day by day, I guess.  Today, hour by hour.  Everyday is different, some good, some super good, and some just plain rotten.

Sweet Will

The twins are 2 months old today.  They are two days shy of 9 weeks and coming out of the colicky stage.  Things are getting a little bit better, but still very rough and moment to moment.  Lillian is still a great big sister, but she's gotten used to the babies being here.   And I think she is used to seeing how her mom handles them.  She is starting to get a little too rambunctious, getting in their faces and putting toys and food on them.  We have to keep a constant eye out, which is virtually impossible if you, god forbid, have to ever use the toilet and don't want to take a kid with your for once (nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, is sacred anymore in this house).

And speaking of bathroom, a couple days before my mom left last Monday, we started to realize a slow down in Will's bowels.  Both boys had been going several times a day, which is what I am used to with breastfed babies.  We started supplementing their 4:00 bottle with formula about a week and a half ago because 4:00 is hard around here.  The babies struggle latching at the same time and staying on long enough for a full feeding.  Lilli is reaching the afternoon crazies, and I am supposed to be trying to cook dinner.  So it's much easier to just drop a feeding and start formula one bottle a day.  Well, I think the finicky kid is protesting.  He hasn't pooped in a week.  My neighbor is a PA and she gave me a natural remedy of a 50/50  molasses/milk enema which I attempted to perform this morning.  No poop yet.  I have a feeling that I didn't use enough and what I did use ended up coming back out on the paper towel under Will's butt.  But the kid was screaming, his brother screaming in the crib across the room, and big sister was flipping Cheerios all over the nasty shag rug in the nursery that sheds everywhere (Now she is going to need an enema from eating too much carpet fuzz), so I just decided to give up, try again later.

Right now I am able to write this post because for once, all 3 kids are sleeping at the same time.  I am trying to get the boys on a nap schedule.  I know I'm crazy because they are very young, but it can't hurt to get them used to the house being quiet between 1 and 3.  The only issue is I have to put them each in a vibrating chair to get them to sleep at this time of day.  This may bite me in the ass in about 4 weeks when I try to train them to their cribs.  Thankfully they are tired and drifted off quite easily after a morning of screaming.

Cute cousins.  Lilli did everything in her power to keep up.

I thought maybe today would be a good day because I made the mistake of assuming everyone would be fatigued after a long weekend in Grand Island, Nebraska for John's brother's wedding reception.  You would think after having one kid that I would know that kids, at least our kids, don't slow down when they are tired.  They gear up and they run twice as fast.  Which is pretty much how our entire weekend was.  The 4 1/2 hour drive up took us 7 hours.  We stopped at a McDonald's in Seneca, KS for lunch, and I tandem fed the twins in the back of the van in the midst of 113 degree heat.  What else do you do when you have a hungry toddler, hungry babies, and your only food option in 30 miles is a McDonald's attached to a gas station that even if they did have a changing table, I wouldn't want to use it?  You nurse, diaper, and shove down french fries in a parking lot for all to see.  Thank God our windows are tinted and I'm so used to sweating 24 hours a day that the heat doesn't even phase me.

One hot little girl and her sweet daddy.

The babies and Lilli really did quite well during this long drive.  And most of the weekend was good as far as the behavior of all the kiddos goes, so we had that going for us.  But unfortunately, this is a terribly difficult situation.  A toddler and 8 week old babies on a road trip for a wedding reception?  What are we thinking?  Its family and we didn't want to miss it, but I didn't even get to speak to the bride and groom other than an exhausted "Hello" on my way to the bathroom to diaper a baby in a chair and relieve myself with him in my arms, and a sweaty goodbye hug three hours later.  Lillian spent a good hour running up and down the courtyard outside with her cousin Connor, scaring me to death by the color of her skin and the sweat pouring off her forehead.  She'd had some M&M's from the candy bar earlier in the night and it was like she was on crack, you could not contain her.  The only time she sat still for 3 hours was about 20 minutes on her grandpa's lap so John and I could eat a meal (while holding babies of course).  I'm tired again just writing about it...

I try not to be a martyr with this situation we have because we realize how very lucky we are.  But we've realized a lot of late that people forget very easily how hard newborns are.  Shoot, we had forgotten.  And to have two of them at the same time?  Well, there are only a select few people out there that can understand this.  A good childhood friend of mine who knows dropped by with lunch last week (Thanks Karen!) and I told her that I have so much respect now for parents of multiples.  Its not something I thought much of before having them myself, but it takes a certain kind of person, it really does, and we were chosen for this.  It is an entirely different world than only having one baby.  Very soon it will get much easier, I remember just loving the 3-6 month stage with Lilli.  In fact, both boys gave me real big gummy grins last night after our 6 1/2 hour drive home, and I started crying.  There is gratification at some point, we just have to wait for it.  And remember that even when the babies are screaming their heads off during lunchtime and I can't leave Lilli alone to eat, that she will say or do something funny later in the day that will totally make me forget my stress 3 hours prior.

Well, just as I finish this up, Sam (also known by his daddy as "Tons of Fun" - he's a big boy!) is waking up from his very long 20 minute nap and his shrieks just woke up Lilli.  Hopefully I'll get another 20 minutes in the next 2 months to post another update!!

**Update to this post  - the 2nd molasses and milk enema worked like a charm.  The boy pooped within minutes.  I had to be more forceful to get it up there and keep it up there.  Sorry for the detail, but maybe this will help someone someday.