Poopgate the Trilogy

The Original

One Monday morning, I awoke to the sounds of Adam & Matthew "talking" to each other & playing in their cribs. This is how I wake up most mornings, and since they sound pretty happy most of the time, I tend to squeeze in 10-15 minutes more of lazy time/cuddle time before going in to their room.

Alan had watched them on Sunday for the first time while I worked, and he had even put them to bed before I got home, so he was excited for me to see the babies again. And no doubt to tell him what a fabulous job he did, since the babies were still happy, breathing, etc. He used formula before before putting the babies to bed since I was out of breast milk in the freezer. He had actually gone to the store & bought some because the babies were acting so tired. He had given them 8 oz each, since they had sucked down their 6 oz of breast milk all day.

Back to Monday morning, 10-15 min later I got out of bed & went toward the nursery. With Alan following me, ready for his praise. "You haven't seen them for over a day!" he said. "I put them to bed before you got home!" he exclaimed proudly, "Do you miss them?" We opened the door together, and just looked in horror for a minute.

Poop.

Poop everywhere! In both cribs, on the rails, on Adam & Matthew's hands, their bodies, their faces. Most disturbingly, right by their lips. And Matthew was smacking his lips like he had just finished Thanksgiving dinner.

Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck.

"How could it be this bad?" Alan asked.

"I don't think it was just the formula." I said, "It was the amount of formula." My "girls" may have grown, but they have never had 8 oz of milk in them, ever, I can almost guarantee that.

Alan helped me put the boys in the tub, then just about danced out the door for work (it was time for him to go), leaving both cribs for me to clean.

Later chat between me & Alan:

July 18

9:36 AM Alan: were you able to combat poopgate?

20 minutes

9:56 AM me: haha

the battle of poopgate is complete.. the war for the nap is about to begin..

;)

9:58 AM but yeah I wiped off all the bars and everything

9:59 AM the sheets are currently drying

10:00 AM Alan: cool

and lucy didn't try to spread the madness?

10:01 AM me: nope the door was closed

And so the term "poopgate" was coined. (Lucy is one of our cats)

Poopgate the Sequel:

After naptime, I thought I heard the babies wake up, but then no noise for about 30 minutes. 30 minutes! I assumed they had gone back to sleep. When I heard another noise 30 minutes later, I went in to their room to find:

Poop.

Poop everywhere!

Adam's diaper was off, and both boys were playing in the poop. I think I saw some lips smacking. I refused to think that this could have possibly been going on for 30 minutes. (We really need a video monitor.)

Later email from Krystal to Alan:

July 21

Poopgate the sequel just occurred, even more exciting than the original.

Poopgate 3

That would be this morning. The monitor was turned down so low, I didn't hear the babies wake up. (Who turned it down will remain nameless.) When I woke up at 7:30am, I looked at the monitor, and the red lights were indicating noise, but I heard nothing.

Uh oh.

I turned it up, and the boys weren't happily playing, they were crying. I rushed to their room to find...

Poop!

Poop everywhere!!

(surprised??)

Only in Adam's crib, but his diaper was off, and there was no poop IN his diaper, but there was plenty on the sheets, on the rails, on Adam's fingers & face. Into the bath he went.

Later chat between me & Alan:

Aug 8

Alan: were you able to clear out poopgate 3?

Sent at 10:06 AM on Monday

me: yep

not pretty at all

the diaper actually had no poop in it at all

Sent at 10:38 AM on Monday

Alan: lol

Sent at 10:44 AM on Monday

me: lol

I am actually writing a blog now about the poopgate trilogy

Sent at 10:49 AM on Monday

Alan: possible quadrilogy?

I would like to think not, but probably much, much more to come...

3 Handsome Boys

Love this pic in front of our newly bloomed sunflowers this morning. (This time both sunflowers are bloomed, and everyone is wearing clothes (although Matthew is trying to remedy that ;) )

You Should Read this Book if you Have Multipes, or Multiple Little Ones.

This morning around 9am we received a package from Amazon containing the book Loving the Little Years, Motherhood in the Trenches.

By 4pm I was d.o.n.e. It was that fantastic. Also it was a short, the author does have 5 kids under 5 after all! Including one set of twins.

In a nutshell, it is a candid book full of honest and often funny examples about the challenges of raising multiple little ones at the same time, and she gives great, practical teaching tools for little

ones and ways for Momma to cope with the intensity of it all.

I love this book because it constantly reminds you that your children are your priority (after your husband), not your house, not your perfectly clean floor. Not that I don't care about those things, but when I have swept for the 5th time, and mopped for the 2nd time that day, and the floor gets messy again, I need someone to tell me it's ok, just play with your kids for a minute :) Basically exactly what I need to hear at this stage of my life.

I love this book because it orients you towards seeing raising kids as a spiritual calling, that we are sacrificing our time, our bodies and our restful nights (especially at the beginning!) to bring up these little people. There is no higher calling than laying down one's life for another.

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Here are a few of my favorite quotes (I admit I read this book with a highlighter in my hand):

"The state of your heart is the state of your home. You cannot harbor resentment secretly toward your children and expect their hearts to be submissive and tender."

"We tell our girls that their feelings are like horses[...] But they are the riders [...] The goal is not to cripple the horse, but equip the rider."

(This quote is great for those that have strong willed kids.)

"...lying down and whimpering about the tasks does not get them done. It makes them harder, slower, and more difficult in every way."

(Yep, gotta admit that has been me)

"Sacrifice your peace for their fun, your clean kitchen floor for their help cracking eggs, your

quiet moment for their long retelling of a dream that a friend of theirs allegedly had. Prioritize your children far and away above the other work you need to get doen. They are the only part of your work that really matters."

(This one made me cry. I'm a softy)

"Our essential self is not back in the intro, waiting to be rediscovered. Who you are is where you are."

"Imagine yourself as one of your children. Try to really examine what life for them is like"

"You will not even remember the work of all this planting when the harvest of joy overwhelms you."

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The book really inspired and encouraged me. I recommend it to all moms of one or more little ones!

My 3 boys ;) :

We are at 35 days of 100 + degree temps, so my (little) boys can often be found wearing just their diapers :)

Sharing

To share or not... it seems to be a perpetual inner battle, a recurring question my two 11 month old sons struggle to answer. To share or not to share?

More often than not, the answer is the latter. Especially if the object in question is a bright new toy. Such as their toy airplane, that only one child can (safely) push at one time. It wouldn't matter if we had two, because they would indefinitely go after their brother's toy. So we have to place one child (Matthew,below, being pushed by Adam) on the passenger seat:

Food is no better. If I give one child a bite of watermelon, his brother will soon be upon me:

If I hear a random scream when the kids are seemingly playing together happily, it is often because both boys were pushing around this toy (below), Adam tripped & fell, and Matthew kept going, somehow mowing over Adam in the process. Adam will either be underneath the toy, or crawling after is as fast and furiously as his four little limbs will move him.
This evening, though, was different. As I was putting the boys to bed, I gave Matthew his sippy cup, which Adam promptly swiped and took for himself. Nonplussed, I just gave Matthew the other sippy cup, which Adam swiftly stole as well. Sighing, I took the first sippy cup that Adam had discarded and gave that cup to Matthew. Quickly, Adam took that cup as well! This went on 5-10 times.

I felt sure a breakdown from Matthew was imminent, but he soon began laughing, and actually offering his cup to Adam, which of course Adam took, and I would give the other cup to Matthew. At this point, both boys were laughing (no doubt thinking this was a game).

And then, the unthinkable happened.

Adam (having both sippy cups) offered one to Matthew to drink from.

!!

Matthew drank from the outstretched cup, and then both boys were laughing again. And so was Mommy. So then, Adam offered the cup for me to drink from as well.

Ahhhh, I am just going to let that sweet moment sink in, to prepare me for future challenges :)

Sleep

Sleeping babies are a wonderful thing :) And something we definitely struggled with for months. I am happy to report that nap time & bed time are no longer a struggle, woo hoo!

The key for us was finding a good routine. I finally had Alan burn a CD of lullaby music. I play that every nap time/ bed time, read them a book, and massage their whole bodies when they are laying down in their crib. They seem to especially like the massage part :) We also used a combination of BabyWise/Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child to get their routine down.

They take two naps a day, around 10:30 and 3:30, about 1.5 hours each. Then they sleep from about 8:30pm to 7:30am.

Sleep was about the most stressful thing we dealt with for so long, and now that it is all resolved, I am almost stress free & loving being a Momma more than ever. Someday I might right a comprehensive post, but it took 10 months to get to exactly where I wanted to be with the whole sleeping thing, which is: going to sleep on their own without crying, taking 1-2 hour naps every time, and sleeping through the night. The last thing they figured out was the going to sleep without crying thing. (I gave up on that for a few months, and was taking them on a stroller ride every nap time, and nursing them to sleep at night.) I was scared how they would react when I tried to put them to bed awake again, but since I added the nice music/massage into their routine, they didn't have an issue.) Now that they have it down, I am much happier :) They sleep in separate cribs at night, but for nap times they sleep in the same crib:

They are pretty adorable sometimes :)
Did you sleep well, babies??

Our nap time massage. (The massage here suffered in quality due to me also taping ;)

Firsts

I love all of the firsts in the first year! Sitting up, crawling, pushing up to standing... the list goes on and on. Here are a few of Adam & Matthew's accomplishments while they were 10 months old.

1. Increased interest and playfulness with the cats.

Here is Adam saying hello to Lucy. Lucy is probably purring at this time.And here is Adam going in for the "kiss". Lucy is probably starting to get worried, as things usually progress downhill from here, ending up in "petting" (grabbing) and biting. Lucy is really good with the babies though, and will actually come up to them for attention. Our other cat, Hobbes, hates the babies with a fervor.

2. Climbing

We were eating dinner one night while the boys played quietly around the living room. So well behaved (we thought). I looked up and saw this:

Little hooligan,

We weren't sure how Matthew had managed it, so we watched as he climbed it again. Yep, we definitely have a climber on our hands.

3. Clapping/Signing

Actually Adam has been clapping for months, and Matthew for about 6 weeks, but they have learned one word in sign language, "all done". They either wave both hands or clap when they are in the high chair to signal they are done.

Messy Adam clapping.

Matthew clapping.

4. More Teeth & Brushing
You can see all SIX of Matthew's teeth!
And now those pearly whites are getting brushed every night with a REAL toothbrush.

5. Walking with Assistance & Standing on their own

Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the boys standing on their own. They actually stand up in the middle of the room and just hang out for a while before sitting back down.

Here they are pushing the same toy while walking around the house:
This often leads to one brother falling, then crawling as fast as he can to catch up to his twin.

Working, working, working

There are some days I really enjoy my job. Like today! I am really blessed to have my dream job of a NICU Nurse. AND I'm blessed to work only one day a week, and spend the other 6 with my precious babies. I feel having children of my own really helps me support other mothers better, especially other twin moms. I also really enjoy the interaction with the other NICU nurses (ie: adults ;)

On the downside, my frozen milk supply is completely gone :( There is no milk in my freezer for the first time since the babies were itty bitty. There is only the milk I pumped today. I am okay with supplementing with formula for the two or three shifts we have before the babies turn one. I have finally realized I am NOT super mom, and that is ok :)

We will probably breastfeed for several more months though, because we all love it. Today when I got home from work, Alan had just finished putting the boys to bed. Adam must have heard my voice though, because he started crying. I went in and nursed him, and he seemed to just melt into me. He quickly passed out, and I just stared at his sweet exhausted face for a while before putting him in his crib. :) (They go to sleep on their own really well too... I am working on a post about our experiences with sleep training.)

The NICU is a dangerous place to work though... if you are trying to wait to have children, or trying to space out your kids. I have started getting baby fever again ALREADY because of taking care of those little tykes. Especially those that are close to going home, but are still growing & learning to eat. They just sleep, eat & cuddle. So well behaved and ADORABLE. I was seriously about to come home & give my husband the, "I'm ready for another baby" talk.

Of course our babies were not so well behaved for him today (they had to pick today!), so I postponed that talk :)