Toddler Bed Update

The boys are getting used to their toddler bed, and the expectation to stay in their bed. Yay!

Now I am starting to really like the toddler bed, because I am able to lay my head next to them on their pillow as part of the bed time routine. Adam will just look at me with love & smile. Matthew loves to put his arm around me and smile. It is the sweetest thing <3

New Challenges

The last (almost 2 years) has been  wonderful, amazing, sleep depriving, and a huge learning experience. But I feel like we are really entering a new phase. Where we always have to be on our toes mentally, not just physically. The boys are getting so smart, even while their spoken language remains relatively small, I am fairly sure they understand the majority of what we say. And they test their limits constantly. 

We made the switch to toddler beds last week. WOW. The first nap time and bed time went great, but then they really started to test us! The second nap time I spend 1.5 hours putting them back in bed before tossing them into this enclosed portable crib we have (where they went to sleep immediately.) I was ready to give up, and for a few days if they didn't stay in their bed I would put them in the portable crib. Then I tried the crib again, but they have become quite the little acrobats. So we knew it was time to really transition to a bed, and so we tried the toddler beds for a second time. On our second try, the first nap and bed times went really smoothly again. That infamous second nap time was today, and again I spent about an hour putting them back in bed (and disciplined them each time). But this time I was determined to make it work, and eventually they stopped climbing out and went to sleep. WHEW. Today at bed time they didn't get out of bed ONCE. (But we did have to go in once for climbing). (And may I just say, "yay! for video monitors). I am hoping the worst is over, but if it's not... I have said lots of prayers for patience!!

They are sharing one toddler bed. I have tried to switch it around so they can sleep on a bigger mattress, but it seems like every time I change their arrangement, it sets them back. So for now this is how they sleep!

In more light-heart-ed news;

*The boys just completed their first week of a two week swim class. Adam loves to jump in the water into our arms over and over. Matthew loves to "scoop" with his hands and kick with his feet as fast as he can! Adam very slowly and deliberately "scoops" and kicks. It is very funny and cute to watch them side by side. They both are hesitant about blowing bubbles underwater (although they will do it in the bathtub) and about putting their ears under the water.

*I have "color-coded" the boys since they were born. Matthew in blue; Adam in all other colors. They wear color coded clothes and cloth diapers. They used to have color coded pacifiers. Even some of their toys, and their sippy cups were blue for Matthew, and often green or red for Adam. Lately I haven't been as consistent with offering the boys their "correct" color of sippy cup. I didn't think it really made a difference. However the boys have started to refuse milk that comes in the "wrong" colored cup! Little stinkers ;)

*I had a mommy thought today. I love seeing my boys (and my husband) scarf down food that I make. When it is hand made healthy food that they are happily chowing down on, it is one of the most fulfilling things for me. It makes me feel like a success as a mom and wife. As a mom, it is actually more fulfilling than breastfeeding, and also hurts less ;)

 

The boys wearing a few of Alan's old outfits.

*When Alan came home today, I was not feeling very pretty. I felt like I got a lot done today, but hadn't done anything to make myself presentable before he got home. I told him I wasn't pretty right now, and he said "I like you". Aww, that simple statement made me feel very loved :)

Growing Toddlers

Adam and Matthew are growing before our eyes. They are 1 year, 9 months and are such sweethearts (well.. most of the time :P).

Matthew has started to be very empathetic towards me. If I get hurt, or something hits me (like a stray ball being thrown), he will come over and rub the area that was hurt. It is the sweetest thing; and it makes me focus on being that sweet to them.

They love each other. Adam in green

Matthew hugging Hobbes

Happy Adam

Our favorite activity - wrestling!

Matthew really enjoys his electronics

Anybody need a plumber? ;) Adam as Mario.

Matthew as Luigi

It is fascinating listening to their language development. So far, they know all of the same words, and they learn the words at almost the same time as their brother. Their comprehension is growing faster than their actual spoken language, but here are the words they know:


Words:
Ball
Keys
Milk
Banana (Butah)
Hi
Bye
Moon
Sky
Done
Please
Cookie
Cracker
Poo poo
pee pee
Boo (to scare us)
boo boo (for a wound)
Yay
No
Bee
Mommy (Also Mama)
Daddy (Also Dada)
Chin
Shoes
Cars
Cheese
"HereGo" (for "here you go")
Go
Two
Three
Hot
Cold
Clock

Animals:
Puppy
Cat
Duck (used for all birds)
Cow
(They can identify many more, but they only say these two)

Animal Sounds:

Neigh
Moo
Baa
Ruff Ruff
Meow
Cluck Cluck Cluck
Quack

Can Idenify:
Hair
Eyes
Nose
Ears
Mouth
Tongue
Cheeks
Chin
Back
Belly Button
Hands
Fingers
Arm
Legs
Feet
Toes
Elbow
Knee

(And many, many objects)

They can also repeat almost all the letters of the alphabet, and say many of their "sounds"
-----
A few "conversations":

Matthew: Poo poo
Me: Do you have a dirty diaper?
Matthew (pointing to diaper): Poo poo
Me: Do you want me to change it?
Matthew: No.

Matthew (building a lego tower; adds a block, claps): Yayy
Matthew (adds another block and claps): Yayy
Adam destroys the tower.
Matthew: Noooo



Adam & Matthew (very excited, also signing and saying please): Coke, coke, coke
(I promise they don't get soda or drugs... this is how they say milk. I just hope they don't say it in front of any CPS workers ;) )

The Twin Connection - Nap time/Bedtime

The boys used to nap in the same crib a lot; but I have always put them to bed at night in separate cribs. When they were little I was worried about SIDS, and as they got older they started crawling over each other and I stopped even having them nap together. Their cribs are right beside each other, so they "talk" and laugh as they go to sleep and wake up. I have always struggled with knowing what the boys wanted -- whether they preferred the closeness with their twin, or if they wanted their own space. I just didn't know, but they didn't seem to mind sleeping in separate cribs, and they just moved so much!

In the past few days though, something interesting has happened. Adam has been requesting to sleep in Matthew's crib. Usually we say, "are you ready to go in your crib" right before we put them down. We ask them, because they always start pointing to their crib when we say this. The last few days, Adam has started pointing to Matthew's crib before nap time and bedtime. I have let them nap together twice this week.

Today at nap time. Adam in orange.

Today at bedtime, when Adam realized we were going to put him in his own crib instead of Matthew's, he had a meltdown. Crying, tears. And he kept pointing at Matthew's bed (Matthew was happily in his bed at this point).  This is the first time Alan had seem this, and he was hesitant to have them sleep in the same crib for the entire night. But we finally decided to go ahead and let them; he so obviously wanted to be with his brother. As soon as we put him in the crib with his brother, he got a huge grin.

Then they looked at each other, smiled and laughed. We told them goodnight and shut the door, and we heard tons of giggles.

I had to check on them a few times because the sounds were so cute. When I first peeked in, Adam and Matthew started playing peek a boo at me through the bars of their cribs. The next time I peeked in, they were both laying down next to each other, looking and smiling at each other. It was seriously adorable.

This is the first time they have really shown a preference to sleep close to each other. I have been worried they wouldn't be close because they seemed to fight more than play. As they are getting closer to 2, they seem to be getting less "selfish" and actually enjoying their twin. :)

Edit**

Alan and I just checked on the boys, and they were asleep, laying right beside each other (unlike the above picture). I love that they have each other. Now I worry about having a singleton in the future. Will he/she be lonely??

Dad-dy!

 (Pictures are of the boys and Alan playing with our remote controlled helicopter. 

Matthew in blue, Adam in orange.)

Today when Alan got home, the boys and I were playing together in the playroom. The gate was closed, but the door itself was open, so Adam saw Alan walk in. He was so excited he immediately stopped playing with me, ran over to the gate and yelled, "Dad-dy! Dad-dy! Dad-dy!"

Daddy didn't hear him right away (or he had to situate himself first), and he walked right past the playroom area. Adam immediate climbed onto the lower part of the gate and cried (literally), "Dad-dy, dad-dy, DAD-DY!" This time Alan walked over, and I have never seen such an excited little Adam. He started smiling, breathing fast and putting his arms out. (Matthew was excited to see Daddy too, he just wasn't as vocal today about it) Then we all 4 played in the playroom; Adam was glued to Alan's side. It was adorable. I definitely felt like I was being replaced as the favorite parent.

When we were all in the playroom, I gave Alan a kiss on the forehead. Adam (who was right there), immediately gave Alan a kiss in the exact same spot. Then (to test it) I gave Alan a kiss on the nose. Adam followed with an adorable toddler kiss right on Daddy's nose. Then I kissed Alan's arm, and Adam followed.

That was one of those moments that make you so happy to be a parent <3 Alan was smiling really big too. He is very loved :)

Alan was making the kids laugh so hard during the kids' bedtime routine tonight. We usually each snuggle with a child before bedtime. Usually Adam wants to cuddle with me, and Alan gets Matthew. Tonight I started to cuddle with Adam, but he wanted Daddy instead. Thankfully Matthew came to me :P As we were leaving the room though, Adam became upset, cried and reached for Mommy. :) I have to say I liked that he still remembered me ;) I cuddled with him for just a few minutes, and he was fine, and laid right down.


Today was just a great day with the boys, and then to see them loving their Daddy so much is just heartwarming!!

---


Also update on cloth diapering : We had been having issues with leaking (with all the kinds of cloth diapers we had tried). We stripped our diapers, which helped but didn't cure the problem. So now we are doubling the inserts and we have had no more issues (I have extra g-diaper inserts I use, and then I also use our old "burp cloths" when I run out of extra inserts.) Our kiddos are "super soakers" (They love their milk, and drinking lots of water out of water bottles.. so lots of pee). I still love my SmartiPants the best!! And a friend of mine let me borrow a ton of cloth diapers, so now I have plenty for during the day, it is so exciting :) No leaks and plenty of cloth diapers = happy Momma. Now that I have extras, I have time to hang them outside to dry more often. In this (almost) summer heat they dry really fast and the sun bleaches out all of the stains. I have a feeling we are still far away from potty training, so I am having fun experimenting with the cloth.

Juggling Work and Mommyhood

21 weeks pregnant in my work scrubs

So this is a blog of a wife AND nurse AND twin mom, and I have been writing about mainly the twin mom part. A reader called me out about that lately, and she is right. So I am going to make an effort to round out the blog a little and write about the other aspects of my life.

I still work one day a week in the NICU. I don't have a set day, I just try to schedule myself when the unit is shorter on nurses. I enjoy my job. The hours are long though. I wake up at 5am the days that I work (on my days off I get up at 7 and the boys get up about 7:30.) I leave around 6:15 with the house completely quiet and asleep. Both grandmas come over to babysit the boys while both me and Alan are gone. They get here at 7:30. Then one grandma will leave when the boys take their nap (around 1pm) and the other stays until Alan gets home at about 5:30. I get home about 8pm. This actually works really well, and I don't feel too guilty about leaving, and I know they are well taken care of.

When the boys were smaller, it was a lot more complicated, and I honestly think maternity leave should be 6-9 months minimum. I knew the boys just needed their momma (they did nurse 12 out of 24 hours!!) I would nurse them before I left, or as they started sleeping through the night, I would pump their morning feed and leave it in the fridge before I left.) When the boys started sleeping longer stretches at night, It was very very hard for me to get up when they were sleeping. Sleep is so precious during that time! When the boys were not sleeping through the night, the grandmas came at 5:30am so both me and Alan could get ready, because sometimes they thought morning was that early. We are very blessed that the grandparents live so close and are willing to help out. Then I would pump 3 times at work (gradually I got down to twice, then once.. and then none at around 13 months). During the early months, I wondered how ANYONE works more than one day a week with kids. In some ways it may be easier, because it truly is like "time off" from your mommy job, but there would have been no way I could have kept my supply up enough to keep exclusively breastfeeding. Kudos to those moms that do that. Also there is no chance to squeeze in a nap at work during those early months either.

I still haven't decided if being a mom of twins has made me a better or worse NICU nurse. I have way more opinions now than I did before, and not all of them jive completely with all of our policies. Also I personally thought twins were very difficult, and I really don't want to scare our brand new twin moms. But I am not as judgmental as I used to be. And I can really empathize more with some of the things the moms are going through. Also if I am having a shaky relationship with a NICU mom, I sometimes mention I am a mom of young twins who spent some time (just about 8 hours) in the NICU, and that usually gets them to trust me a little more. It is kind of cheating, but not really because it does help me understand them better.

My favorite part of my job is being able to support the parents. Also I love positioning the little tiny babies in the isolettes, the ones that are too little for clothes or swaddling (about 28-32 weeks) because they need to be on "servo control", so they have tons of positioning aids to position them like they are in the womb. I love making them all nice and comfy in their isolettes :) I also love cuddling the "chronic" babies that were born in the 20's gestation but are now 32+ weeks and still needing support... They are old enough to really look in your eyes while you hold them and really melt your heart. For all these reasons, and also seeing my fellow nurse/nicu friends, I really like my job.

But I still miss my sweet boys when I am at work. I never see them before I leave for work, and sometimes they are asleep when I get home. (That is really sad). So I try to have Alan keep them up until I get home. They are SO SWEET when I get home from work. They are always so happy to see me, and usually run up to me and give me huge hugs. It makes me happy.

Me and Matthew

Me and Adam cuddling (he is my Momma's boy :))

Sorry for my baby fat belly in these pics... I also need to write a post on post -baby body image ;)

Me and Adam

And here is Adam and his Granny Bee who helps watch him while I am at work.

More Cloth Diapers

I think overnight I may have developed a slight obsession with cloth diapers. I almost want to have another kid just so I can get all the accessories I want. Clothes line, indoor dryer rack, diaper sprayer, wool covers for overnight, more diapers of different brands, etc etc etc. :)

I'm probably done with my cloth diapering purchases though. My boys are going to be 20 months in a few days, which puts then 4 months shy of 2 years. Which means, technically, they could be potty trained soon! (I think they will be late trainers though.. they don't care at all about dirty or wet diapers).

I got 3 Smartipants and a wet bag as my final cloth diapering purchases. So now I have a total of 5 diapers.

Of the two (Smartipants and Gdiapers) Smartipants are definitely my favorite. They are very Very easy to use, soft on the boys' skin and they fit my almost 2 year olds better (they are a bigger diaper). The Gdiapers are slightly cuter though.They are just the diaper (with a pocket) and an insert.
The pocket that holds the insert is open on both ends, which makes stuffing really easy.

There are lots of snaps for different sizes.

My favorite part is the insert agitates out in the wash. So for a wet diaper, you just have to throw the whole thing in the wet bag. Just as easy as changing a disposable. For a dirty, just rinse and put in the wet bag. No digging the insert out, unsnapping the liner or worrying about putting velcro back together.

So, so easy. Wish I could order a ton of these and not have to wash diapers so often. But maybe next time.. ;)

Alan does not understand my interest in cloth diapers, but I am having fun experimenting. Feels good to wash instead of throw away.

Cloth Diapering

My boys are 19 months and 2 weeks, and have been exclusively in disposables for 19 months and 1 week. That means I branched out last week. I have always wanted to try cloth diapering. I brought it up to Alan several times while I was pregnant, but the thought of dirty diapers was already upsetting enough to him, without throwing cloth in (along with most other new dads, and probably plenty of new moms too). Then we found out we were having twins, and we decided to concentrate on just surviving.

Last week (as I was helping my beautiful sister-in-law (who is planning to cloth diaper) register for her baby), I saw some G-diapers at Babies "R" Us. On impulse I bought two of them: blue and green (Green for Adam, Blue for Matthew - have to stay color coded). They can be a hybrid diaper; it has a cloth cover, and you can stuff it with a flush-able, biodegradable liner, or a cloth liner. I decided on the cloth liner, because I wouldn't really be saving any money if I had to buy the disposable liners. Plus I wondered if that was really cloth diapering??

They took their nap when we got home, and I was literally counting down the minutes until they woke up so I could try their new G-diapers on them. I rinsed the cloth inserts 6 times while I waited (per the instructions), and watched tons of videos on how to use them. They looked so cute on the videos, why couldn't my kids just wake up?? (I assure you this is one of the only times I have wanted nap time to be shorter ;) )

They finally woke up, and I got to try them on!!

They were so stinkin' cute! I think this is the main thing cloth diapering mommas need to mention to disposable mommas about the benefits of switching. See how happy Matthew looks:

Matthew showing us where his chin is located:
Adam rockin' his g-diaper:
Matthew showing off his new diaper:
Little G-butts:
So these are the only cloth diapers I have ever tried. But since I really, really like them, and they are not as hard as I imagined (even with dirty diapers, they aren't too bad), I have researched more brands. I feel like all of the cloth diapering jargon can be overwhelming. Having at least tried the G-diapers now, I actually understood what they were talking about. I think I may like other brands even better than these, but I am just going to show you how a G-diaper works.

It comes with an outer cloth cover (left) and a polyurethane liner (middle). Then you either buy a disposable or a cloth insert (right).

Strap the liner to the cover:
Stuff the liner with your insert:
And if you are really scared of poop you can add a flush-able liner on top of the cloth, which will catch most of the poop. Then you can flush that and wash the rest. I used these for the first few days, and I still use them if I think they are due for a major blow out. But they are almost like tissue paper, and it ends up getting wet and sticking to my boys, which I have to wipe off. It doesn't seem very comfortable. And it's not as soft as the cloth:
Yay, we're about to wear our G-diapers again!

I got Charlie's Soap to wash them, and if there is a stain that doesn't come off in the wash, I set them in the sun and that does it (you aren't supposed to use bleach).

So I bought 2 of these diapers, and I have been washing them twice a day for maximum use (because I love them). But my sister-in-law got a pile of cloth diapers from a friend, and she is giving me 3. And I ordered 3 smartipants diapers. That will be a total of 8, which MAY be enough for full time cloth diapering. (They go through 4 diapers a day each, and we may keep using disposables at night). You can actually reuse the cloth cover and the the polyurethane liner of the G-diaper, and just change out the cloth insert if it's just a wet diaper, so that may help spread out the diaper use. I will probably write about those new diapers too when I get them. I know I am trying this way too late, but maybe IF we have another baby, we can start earlier ;)

Tornadoes

So... the bad part about living in tornado alley?

Tornadoes.

Adam woke up from his nap about 2 hours early screaming today. I went in there to comfort him, trying to tell him it was just a little bit of rain, and not to be scared. But then I heard the sirens. The tornado sirens have a way of making me just a little panicky. I grabbed my laptop and checked the weather map long enough to see we were right in the middle of that "red" dangerous area, and there was a report of a tornado on the ground very. close. to. us. I grabbed the sniffling Adam, and his sleeping brother and together we hid out in the bath tub. I went back to grab Adam's mattress just in case. I got in the tub with the boys, and they just thought it was a party. They were smiling, laughing, and cuddling with me in that "I am still a little sleepy, but this is different and exciting" way. I brought the laptop with me and turned it on the live weather updates on our local channel. Yikes, tornado touchdowns in several areas very. close. to. us! (Within 1/2 mile.) We hid out until the all clear was given by the weather guy.

We are all okay and so are all of our friends and family. Tornadoes touched down all over the area all afternoon... it was a little surreal. Thankfully there were not too many injuries, and no deaths that I have heard of. Which is amazing considering how many touchdowns there were.

Thankful for God's protection today!

Two cool toddlers

Small miracle this morning. The boys are excited about the word "poopie". They now associate it with diaper changes. When I saw "poopie" the boys actually point to their diapers, and sometimes also point at the diaper changing station. And here comes the miracle part: if all of this pointing happens, they don't squirm for the entire change. No movement at all! Also means I don't have to chase them down :P Downside: "Poopie" and "puppy" are interchangeable words to Adam... at least we are cat people around here ;)

Another realization this morning: Building a play set in the backyard can be somewhat straightforward (although not exactly easy, we have discovered). But building a play set in the back yard, in the rain AND with two 19 month old "helpers"? Definitely

not straightforward. More like a morning adventure that wore us all out. But it was kind of fun. At least I can blame any discrepancies on the toddler hired hands :)

Love this pic /\

(These pictures were taken at an earlier stage of construction, on a day when Alan was home.. but you get the idea)