1 4 W e e k s, they're such a treat!
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| Spit. Up. Always. This is right after baths, of course. |
The babies are 14 weeks old this week and we have started our new way of life with my first week of my new position coming to a close! It's been a great week so far... we are settling into what looks to be our new routine, which for those of you who care, I will outline below! :)
M i n i U p d a t e...
So this week Emmy and Bennett have been practicing holding onto things! I can't wait until my teething little girl can take full advantage of her teething toys...
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| We got this new toy... It lights up and rattles... They both have been able to hold onto it for little bits of time. |
It's incredible to watch these milestones creep up on us. Im working with them to try and hold onto things and shake rattles right now... The longest we've gotten is about 3 minutes...
Emmy has been rolling to her side more! I have a feeling she will roll over first. B has a little more girth on his side so it may take him a few more weeks...
D a i l y S c h e d u l e...
I'll use military time because I have always been using it since nursing school- it drives Alex nuts I think but he'll get used to it eventually ;)
The babes wake up between 0700-0730 and depending on the night feedings I feed them or wait until they're ready to eat. After they eat, we turn on some baby einstein or Winnie the Pooh and I grab a few minutes to make something for breakfast. I used to just not eat breakfast sometimes and I found that I make for a very grumpy mom around lunch time so it has become a must for me, even if it's just some dry cereal.
They will be awake and active until around 0930/1000 and then they typically wear themselves out and nap for about an hour. I'm able to get a few things done in that time, like laundry or blogging :)
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| Napping at Great Grandparents house... He only lasted like this for about 2 minutes... |
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| Bennett LOVES this swing. The kid will sit in it awake for hours and then drift off to sleep... this is his normal pose. |
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| Emmy loves the activity mat (from PBK) and will absolutely wear herself out and end up falling asleep on it. |
After this feeding, I'll try and do some reading to them. The most books we've completed was 5 before I lost their attention. I try to choose short books with lots of big pictures and colors. It's my "teaching" part of the day. Yesterday it hit me. Not only am I their mom, but I'm their first teacher! Alex and I are responsible to teach these guys to talk, crawl, use their hands, have manners, etc... and the sooner I start the better, right? It'll be absolutely incredible once they start talking and responding to me with words (Bennett already tries, it's mostly babble but it's adorable). But I will stop rushing time. I will miss these days once they are gone.
Other things we do to fill our day: activity mat time, tummy time, swings, music, walks in the park, running errands with mom...
The 1500 (3pm) feeding creeps up on us faster than any other feeding. Typically they have had another nap before it. I don't force them to stay up during the day. I also don't try to get them to sleep. My methods have been on their time tables during the day, as far as sleep goes. My thoughts are, they are growing so much and it's got to be exhausting.
Alex comes home around 1545/1600 (3:45-4) and if they've been fed, it's perfect time for them to interact and play with Alex. He's so incredible with the babies. He talks to them, plays with them and even sings to them. He has absolutely exceeded my expectations as a dad. I never had doubts, but watching him with the babes absolutely makes my heart melt.
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| Auntie Anna got them some cool accessories for summer! Bennett will grow into his hat.. but it's a good sign he wore it until we took it off! |
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| Emmy got a headband! As you can tell from pictures, we are a headband set of girls...Like mother like daughter. |
Back to the schedule...
The last feeding is between 1845 and 1930 (6:45 and 7:30) depending on the day. After that feeding, we have been solidifying our bedtime routine. We give baths (about 2 per week), change into PJs and stretch out on the ground to kick out their last energy. My mom taught us that putting them to sleep immediately after a feeding will only result in longer "putting to bed" times and she was right! If we let them kick out on the floor and get out energy, they go down much easier. After they are done, around 2000 (8pm) we take them up stairs, say our Guardian Angel prayer, rock them until their eyes get heavy and put them down.
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| Little B... He LOVES bath time. |
Last night was also great as far as the babies sleep goes. The babies went down around 7:45 pm and didn't wake until 5:15 AM!!!! I was ecstatic! It was absolutely unreal. For those of you out there that have little ones and are still not getting a lot of sleep, please believe me THE DAY WILL COME! I promise you. I remember I used to think I would never sleep again. Hang in there. It's all about survival the first 3 months.
N F P...
I wanted to touch on this subject just a bit. Before I was discharged from the hospital, the resident came to my room to talk about discharging me and asked our form of birth control. When I told her NFP (Natural Family Planning) she sort of looked at me and then said, "Oh. Okay," and moved on. I have been met with that many times when people ask and I tell them that's what we are doing.
For those of you that don't know, NFP is a natural way of charting out your fertile and infertile days in order to achieve pregnancy or avoid. The Catholic church recommends this as the only form of birth control and for me, it works so far. I have been using it since being released from the hospital and it's been a challenge but I am glad we've chosen to do it.
DISCLAIMER: please skip this part if you don't care to know about charting and how it works... I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable with it...
Things I love: it's natural and I get to know my cycle in and out. The way it works is the woman charts her cervical mucous each day and depending on that, you can tell if you are fertile or infertile and which day you ovulate on. Based on that, you know when and when not to have sex. It's a beautiful program and I am happy to give anyone advice or support if you need. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me if you need! My email address is: laurenp.west@gmail.com I am always open to chatting and having conversations about all things baby, mommy-ing and just life in general.
Thing I hated: It took some time and getting the hang out it was frustrating. In the beginning I hated charting and feeling like every time I went to the bathroom, it was a chore. I also felt nervous about mis charting and having a pregnancy! I have two 3 month olds right now and the thought of throwing in another unplanned pregnancy scares me a bit. Actually quite a bit! Now that I've been charting for about 2 months and am starting to get the hang out it, it's way better. We have a coach and she came to our house every 2 weeks in the beginning to help us learn the system and now we see her monthly. She makes sure we know exactly what we are doing and that we understand it fully.
One of the things I have heard from people when they see we have twins is: "Oh wow! Boy and girl! Now you're done!" And it irritates Alex and I. We want more children and we are excited about having a large family! (If you have said it to me, don't worry... we don't take it too seriously.) But really, I think that large families are rare nowadays and I can't wait to see our family grow over the next few years, but with appropriate time in between. Time for us to get used to being parents and for the twins to get older! I would love to have the twins fully potty trained before having our next baby (or babies ;) )
Well I'm going to get some things done! The weather in KC is absolutely incredible. We will probably head down to the plaza to walk around. See you guys next week...
Lauren, E&B
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| Their opening day outfits! The Royals started out their season this week and Em and Ben are super excited! |
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