twins Archives - Page 19 of 21

How To Manage Bath Time With Twins Part 2 – Transitioning To A Shared Bath

After writing part 1 of my How To Manage Bath Time With Twins series and decided to put my advice into action and move our six month old twins to an inflatable baby bath so they can start sharing a bath (and I can cut down on bathing time). Their full baths every three days and sponge baths in between weren’t cutting it anymore. Let’s face it, sponge baths can’t get off crusted on carrots like a full bath can. Unlike how I would have transitioned my older kids to a bigger bath (one baby at a time), I had to find a new normal. I read lots of advice from veteran twin moms after my first post and there were many creative tricks and ideas. I decided to go with the inflatable tub because of how soft it is and that it would fit my girls in tight, using each other’s bodies to stay put. I decided that sharing my first attempt (in detail) at a shared bath with twins was an important story to tell because if not done right or if distracted this could become dangerous very fast!

Before getting started I prepped three change areas with towels on the floor. One in the bathroom, one in the hall and one in their bedroom. I also placed two bouncy chairs in the bathroom. I looked around thinking this was overkill but boy did I appreciate those areas after when things got a little hairy!

Once set up and I had each twin in their bouncy chairs, I made a game plan based on each twin’s strengths (Everly is steadier when sitting and Mia is more patient).

I then put Everly in the bath first and without leaving her side, I grabbed Mia and placed her in the bath. Both girl’s loved having a bath together. Like always, they kept looking at each other as if to say “isn’t this great”? I started to wash them, initially going back and forth but I kept forgetting who had been washed where so I completely washed Everly and was halfway through washing Mia when things started to get a little scary. Both girls started to squirm and slide under the water! Holy crap!

While holding both of them up under their arms I made the decision to lift Everly out wrapping my arm around her and lifting her wet body out against my body while still holding Mia up. I placed Everly on the change spot beside me, wrapped her in a towel and finished washing Mia. I then placed Mia on the change spot in the hallway. Then proceeded to move Everly and Mia to change spot number three to get them diapered and dressed. See, I told you my over preparing came in handy!

Although some points were touch and go, I would say the overall experience was a success that I will continue to do until our girls can sit in the big bath.

*Important tips if you are going to try this: DO NOT attempt this (at least not for the first few tries) with an older child in the room that you also have to supervise. Be extremely PREPARED ahead of time with change areas and towels. You will probably GET WET. If things are getting too crazy or slippery, be okay with taking them out before you have finished washing them. Remember SAFETY IS NUMBER ONE! If you cannot give your twins your undivided attention, if you forgot something while setting up or if things aren’t going as planned, PULL THE PLUG and finish bath time early.

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How To Manage Bath Time With Twins (And An Older Sibling)

When I was expecting our twins and researching like crazy, one thing I kept trying to play out in my head was how I was going to bath two babies while somehow including our daughter Beau. Initially I had pictured this idealistic assembly line scenario with Beau in the big tub while I bath one twin and then the other switching them out from a bouncy chair. In reality bathing two babies alone is an exhausting task and the last thing I needed to do was add a child to the mix. In the later part of my pregnancy I had my husband Mike take over the big kids baths and that is something he has continued… thank goodness! Here is how I bath both babies while keeping Beau entertained. In case you haven’t noticed yet, I like to be SUPER efficient and I always try to include Beau in the process while Holden is at school and Mike is at work. I typically bath our twins 2-3 times a week with sponge baths on the other days. Like I said doing a full bath is exhausting and a bit of a back breaker. I haven’t figured out any ways to speed up the process much other than staying organized and thinking a few steps ahead. Here is how I tackle bath time. This may seem like a no brainer but I think just hearing how someone approaches it at home (instead of the quick lesson you get in the hospital) could help any new mom.

The first thing you are going to want to do is prepare the bathroom. This includes a changing spot with towels either on the floor or counter top with moisturizer, clean diapers, a clean change of clothes and a brush. You will want to have your baby bath drawn and beside the bath have your cloths and soap ready. You will probably be using cotton balls to clean your newborn baby’s eye’s first so have a couple of those beside the tub as well. A trick to warm the room if its chilly is run a hot shower for a bit first and keep the door closed, just make sure when you fill the tub you check the temperature and keep the water close to body temperature. You can test the water by dipping your elbow in it.

For the first month or so you will want to keep your newborn swaddled without a diaper to stay warm while you wash their face and hair. The other twin can be waiting in the bathroom buckled into a bouncy chair. To keep from cross contaminating, you want to wet and squeeze the water out of a cotton ball wiping the first eye from the inside out, discarding the used cotton ball after. Repeat with a fresh cotton ball for the other eye. Then you will take a cloth and wet the hair, lather with baby shampoo and use the cloth or a small container to rinse the water out. Then you would proceed to un-swaddle, place him/her in the tub and wash the rest of your baby with a cloth.

Once your munchkins are a little older you may want to have the second twin wait near the door on a blanket or if they are mobile continue to use the bouncy chair or a Bumbo chair for safety reasons. Keep that second baby within sight and sing a little while you are bathing their twin if they are getting impatient. Beau likes to pretend she’s a little mommy, so she copies what I do with her little baby doll. I make a little spot out of the way on the floor with a toy bath and I give her some soap so she can bath her doll. This is a great activity for her to participate in without being in the way and you are not waiting for your older child’s naptime to bath the babies. Don’t forget that if your older child is a boy this is great activity for him too! Half the time Holden wants to help Beau bath her baby. Let’s face it, toddler nap times are sacred, the last thing you need to do is use it up bathing your twins. When your wee one is a little older you will put them right into the baby bath and probably just use a clean cloth for their eyes. Remember to start with the cleanest part of the body (their eyes), finishing with the dirtiest (their bottom).

When you are all done bathing your little one, carefully lift your baby out and carry them to your changing spot. Your baby is going to be super slippery so make sure you have a tight grip and be prepared to hold them against your body to carry them, (wear clothes you don’t mind getting a little wet). Dry that baby off, moisturize (if necessary), dress (including a hat to keep them warm when they are brand new) and repeat with their twin. You can start bathing two babies at the same time when they can sit up independently (around 6-8 months of age). A great way to transition your babies is using an inflatable tub you can place both in.

*Twin tip: I have found that it is best to do the bathing process on a full tummy with twins because there is a lot of waiting involved. Yes, you may get a little spit-up but that is better than feeling rushed because the other baby is screaming.

If you have any great tips or tricks you have figured out to help make bath time easier please share them in the comments section!

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Postpartum Depression, Fructose Intolerance And Why I Stopped Breastfeeding Our Twins

I have had a bit of a mental block these last few weeks. I have enjoyed writing about my twin pregnancy and then their birth but to honestly write about life with our girls was going to require a very honest raw post first. So before you think that our lives with twins have been all rainbows and sunshine I will tell you about a major bump in the road that has since put each day in perspective. I was able to bring these two beautiful, happy and easy-going girls into the world as a very experienced mama. I already knew how to bath, nurse, soothe and care for a newborn and I just had to double up. But three weeks into my girl’s lives I entered into three weeks of my own personal hell. I didn’t just experience a few hectic weeks, I experienced three straight weeks of stress so extreme that it can break a person. So here it is, our story of what caused me to experience postpartum depression and make the very satisfying decision to stop breast-feeding our girls when they were eight weeks old.

When Mia and Everly were born, other than Everly’s quick thirty-minute stay in the NICU for in-drawing, everything was going as smooth as a scheduled C-section can be. They each nursed right off the bat and to the amazement of my team of nurses I had them tandem nursing on the first try. I had gone into my twin journey determined to breastfeed but okay with supplementing a little with formula if needed.

When we had our first child, Holden, I exclusively breastfed him until he was ten weeks old and suddenly no amount of nursing was satisfying him. He was a very moody baby and like all four of our kids he had a huge appetite. No matter what I tried to increase my supply I was never one of those blessed woman who could feed a village with her milk. Maybe it was my lack of thyroid (I had a complete thyroidectomy when I was 19 due to severe hyperthyroidism and a hyper plastic nodule), but by the time I had exhausted every trick to increase my supply, postpartum depression had start lurking over my shoulder. So when Holden was 10 weeks old I started giving him one or two bottles of formula a day and still nursed about the same amount as my friends were with their little ones. I was able to breastfeed both of my older kids with a little formula supplementing each day for six months, which was when I was very ready to finish.

On day three in the hospital with our twins the nurses and pediatricians began to become alarmed with Everly’s weight loss. There was a bit of confusion as to if her starting weight of 6lbs 3oz (Mia was 6lbs) was correct because of the commotion going on about her breathing issues. But the scales weren’t lying. Weigh after weigh Everly, although nursing like a champ, was losing weight until the point that she had lost over 10% of her starting body weight. In the hospital you quickly learn that 10% is the magic number for alarm bells to go off as this weight loss was a dangerously high. I was very relaxed about it and quickly agreed with the nurses to start both girls on some formula topping them up after each feed.

We headed home on day four when Everly started to gain a little weight and the following three weeks went by surprisingly well. Although it was tricky at times to find the quiet and keep the older kids at bay to nurse, I really enjoyed tandem nursing and had a great routine of topping them up with a bottle. I loved that I could nurse a twin and then pass them off to a family member to be topped off with a bottle. The girls were sleeping well and I was getting up with them a couple times a night to feed.

Then the diarrhea hit. What I initially dismissed as frequent breastfed newborn bowel movements turned into over forty frothy acidic bowel movements a day from each twin. This caused a diaper rash so severe that it covered most of their bottoms right down to the dermis, bleeding at each diaper change. No matter what diaper cream we tried or amount of air exposed to it, the rash would not improve. We knew that until the diarrhea stopped the rash wouldn’t go away. We switched a couple of formulas, which didn’t make a difference either. They were crying constantly, no really, I mean constantly!

A Video of Mia and Everly Crying That I Sent To Mike At Work So He Could Experience It

During this time we had a temporary nanny to help with our older kids during the summer months and my husband Mike was wrapping up the biggest project of his career. This kept him away from home and he was arriving home late everyday for weeks, which was rare for his job. I was averaging 30 minutes of sleep a night. Although I was getting a lot of help from family members, I could barely string together a sentence. I remember lying on the couch for two minutes while my sister-in -law was over helping me. I was babbling like a delirious sleep deprived lunatic and she was looking at me with very concerned eyes. I eventually stopped the bedtime help because only I could put the babies to bed and the older kids just wanted mom after the day with the nanny and would start acting up if another outside person was there trying to help. If I hadn’t been as prepared and organized as I was for twins I would have completely sunk. It was the perfect storm for postpartum depression. Although I knew a dark cloud had settled over my head I couldn’t stop for a minute, or else my house of cards would come crashing down.

I started to take action carting my girls into the emergency room with the help of my mom. The situation was baffling and taken very seriously. The nurses and doctors couldn’t believe how healthy and hydrated they were despite their chronic diarrhea and contributed that to my sleepless nights of feeding. Blood and stool samples were taken and our girls were misdiagnosed with a dairy intolerance. I was falling apart; I could barely hold it together. I had been through so many stressful experiences in my life but this was the only time that I felt like I was in a pressure cooker and that I might shatter into a million pieces. Mike and I decided that because he was only a week away from his deadline that he had worked so hard for, we wouldn’t pull the plug. I was starting to lose hope and began panicking that no one would be able to figure out what was wrong with our poor babies.

Then a nervous doctor called us back into the emergency room and put us in touch with another pediatrician. This pediatrician dug deeper and asked lots of questions about our older kids including their own diarrhea triggers. I pointed out that they cannot have apple juice without having diarrhea after. He explained that he thought our girls could have a Dietary Fructose Intolerance….. A WHAT?

A dietary fructose intolerance: (not to be confused with a life threatening hereditary fructose intolerance). Fructose is naturally present in fruits, some vegetables and honey. It is also used as a sweetener in some soft drinks and fruit drinks. When the body doesn’t absorb fructose properly, it is called fructose malabsorption or fructose intolerance. Fructose malabsorption occurs when the body is not able to break down fructose during the digestive process. When undigested fructose reaches the intestines, it reacts with naturally occurring bacteria and generates carbon dioxide and hydrogen gases, which can cause bloating, abdominal pain, heartburn, diarrhea and gas. –gastro.org

It’s bizarre and very rare for an infant to have a fructose intolerance, but twins? It was worth a shot. The pediatrician raced around researching and making calls to find out what if any baby formula did’t contain fructose. Most of them do, even many that don’t list it right on the label. Finally, after speaking to a gastro pediatric specialist, he found Earth’s Best organic baby formula.

I left the hospital exhausted and still in disbelief that this could be the answer. After having our girls on the new formula for a few days we saw an improvement. I was still nursing but I found myself feeling like a shell of a person. Between giving so much of my body during my twin pregnancy, my C-section and then the colossal three weeks of stress and sleep deprivation I had endured, I didn’t feel like myself. While nursing our then six week old girls in the middle of the night I suddenly knew that I had to stop breastfeeding. Only trace amounts of fructose if any are in breast milk, but it was acting as a natural laxative for our girls. Between that, me being completely spent and still fighting postpartum depression I made the decision right then and there to stop breast-feeding. I was certain. Not a bone in my body had any doubt. It took two weeks to wean our girls off of nursing. The diarrhea completely cleared up. Our girls were happy, satisfied, content and SLEEPING.

The clouds started to part as my hormones leveled out and I began to feel joy again. The girls were thriving and rarely even fussed. You bet I enjoyed the perks of bottle-feeding. Propping them up for feeds (which they prefer) and watching others feed them including our older kids. I have an incredible bond with our twin girls. Of course it’s different from the bond I have from our older kids, just like my bond is different between my two oldest. Occasionally I’ll feel a pang of guilt as I watch them gobbling down a bottle propped up while I am trying to get dinner on the table for six people. But then I think about how incredibly happy and social they are and frankly much more content than my older two ever were and I know that the choice I made was the right one.

Here’s the kicker: although I am so certain with my decision, I find myself picking and choosing which photos I post, avoiding photos of my girls having bottles in fear of breast feeding bullies coming after me with torches and pitch forks. I have made the decision to post those photos. As many of you know I am very active on social media, especially Instagram. I will be posting the beautiful photos of my girls enjoying their bottles that don’t hurt their tummies and bring them so much joy under the hashtag #thebottleisbeautiful. I Invite you to follow me on Instagram and if you have bottle fed your baby/babies add your beautiful bottle feeding photos with #thebottleisbeautiful. Let’s stop bottle shaming now.

20 Tricks, Items And Life Hacks That Make Life Easier With New Twins

This is NOT a sponsored post, I just really like these items

1. Use toy straps to assign each car seat. I always loved using the the Pippalily Toy Strap with my older kids to keep Sophie in place but I attached different straps to each car seat before our girls were born. Thankfully I did! Our girls are fraternal twins and completely different lengths which means their car seat straps are at different levels and they can’t swap car seats.

2. Get a high chair that you can tilt back. I’ve always started using our Peg Perego Prima Pappa Diner high chair way before our babies were ready to eat solids. I have found it so handy to put our twins in their’s reclined so they can watch me while I prepare meals in our kitchen.

3. Invest in a twin size diaper bag. I had a very hard time convincing my husband that we needed to replace our standard size diaper bag with a larger one made for twins while I was pregnant with our girls. Thankfully my incredible mommy friends pitched in and bought me the Patunia Pickle Bottom Abundance Boxy Backpack – my dream diaper bag! We don’t know what we would do without a bigger bag today! Don’t worry there are also some more budget friendly options too, like the Skip Hop Dual Double Diaper Bag.

4. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. This is a rule in our home. Whoever is crying gets the attention first. Because you are not an octopus and don’t have eight arms there will be many times you have to see to one twin while the other one waits. Pick whoever is fussiest to see to them first. Twins tend to be very patient babies because they learn to wait their turn from a very early age.

5. Assign cribs with each twin’s name. While pregnant with our twins I debated if I should add each twin’s initial or name to the decor over their crib and in the end decided to go for a pretty decal. Although I did it for aesthetic reasons at first, it sure has come in handy. Not only is it helpful for others to know who goes where but on more than one occasion I have sleepily almost put a twin in the wrong crib only to look up to read the name and remember which baby I was holding before correcting myself… oh sleep deprivation, the mean games you play on me!

6. A Blender Bottle makes for great formula storage. You know those protein shake Blender Bottles that are collecting dust in your cupboard because you don’t have time to work out anymore? Well thanks to my husband’s genius idea (yes honey I am giving you credit) they are great for pre-making a batch of baby formula to have stored in your fridge. We will make up two jugs the night before and it saves so much time the next day.

7. Use a pacifier that will stay put. I am a pacifier believer. When our twin’s pacifiers kept falling out when they were teeny tiny I found it was very frustrating putting them back in all the time because I was having to do it twice as much. Solution: WubbaNub pacifiers. They have a stuffed animal on the end that weighs it down and you can tuck into under their swaddler blanket to hold it in place.

8. Use a small white board to let people know what they can help with. We initially had a white board in our kitchen to record the twin’s feedings but I quickly added a section with a list of chores that family members and guests could help with. You will probably have so many visitors wanting to pitch in and help, but when you are so busy and sleep deprived it can be a little hard to delegate. Take a minute each day to write a list on the board and just direct your guests to that list. For example: empty the dishwasher, play with the older kids, fold baby’s laundry, walk the dog etc…

9. Only do baths every few days and sponge baths in between. Bathing 2 babies is an exhausting and time consuming task. Don’t worry about bathing them every day. Today I still only give our six month old twins baths every 3 or 4 days. I get a wet warm cloth and soap and wash their faces, necks and hands every day (bottoms are cleaned every diaper change) and then give them a full bath a couple times a week. Trust me, your back will thank you.

10. Buy two Boppy Pillows. When you have twins Boppy Pillows quickly become that extra set of arms you don’t have. They can help hold a baby when tandem feeding, assist your little ones when learning to sit and even help with tummy time.

11. MamaRoos, better than a nanny. When we had our older kids we used those massive swings that were battery operated. One day I watched in awe as my friend placed her swaddled newborn into this pod-like machine from the future. The MamaRoo is almost a better helper than your husband… I said ALMOST! They are sleek, can be reclined or sit up-right, you can plug your iPod into it to play your music, or you can listed to the sound machine built in. You can set the speed or type of motion, like a car-ride for example. It also has a small foot print and plugs into the wall for power so no worrying about replacing the batteries… amazing!

12. Assign a colour to each twin. Before our twins were born I started to sort out who would get what and I found it very helpful to assign a colour to each of them. Things like pacifiers and pacifier clips would typically come in packs of purple and pink, so Everly got purple and Mia got pink. It even worked well with the toy straps identifying their car seats. This would also work well for boys with green and blue.

13. Designate a laundry area. There’s a good chance that you will never again have every piece of laundry washed, folded and put away. Or at least not in the near future. I have sacrificed our dining room table for our laundry area. This way it is all in one spot and not on the floor in piles. When you have a family member wanting to pitch in and help fold laundry you can direct them to that area and let them get to work.

14. Wake the sleeping baby. Contradictory to the rule don’t wake a sleeping baby, when you have two you have to throw that rule out the window. I would recommend waking the sleeping baby at night so you can get everyone fed at once. Any night I haven’t done that I am kicking myself an hour later when I am up once again. I let our girls nap off of each other’s schedules during the day but get them back onto the same schedule for nighttime.

15. Get a small portable bottle cooler. Anytime we know we are going to be out longer than a quick trip to the store, I pack two large full bottles in the diaper bag and then one of the Blender Bottles in the cooler for refills. This works very well instead of packing six separate bottles. The JJ Cole Collections cooler is a great option.

16. Use cloth bibs to reduce your laundry. We have been blessed with four spitter-uppers… insert sarcasm. I swap out dirty cloth bibs every couple hours instead of getting into the big process of changing them constantly. This also reduces my dirty laundry pile significantly.

17. Keep an open buttonless sweater where you nurse your twins at night. Because it is a lot easier to tandem nurse while topless it is nice to have sweater to throw on to stay warm. A comfortable knit that is open at the front is a perfect option. Try to find one that is buttonless so you are not having to worry about hard buttons pressing against your little one’s faces. This open front sweater from Old Navy would be an ideal option.

18. Call ahead to organize parking arrangements. It is daunting enough trying to get out of the house with your newborn twins without help and the last thing you need is to arrive at your friend’s house and realize there is no room in their driveway or no parking spot close to their home. Call ahead and ask them to leave a space for you and to help you bring everyone and everything in. That little phone call makes a HUGE difference.

19. Set up a second change station near your kitchen. If your twin’s nursery is upstairs it makes life so much easier to set up a second change station near the busiest part of your home: the kitchen. Keep some extra outfits, bibs and lots of diapers there. This is a sanity saver.

20. Don’t forget, your twins can help soothe each other. Right from day one I have noticed a special bond between our girls. If one is being a little fussy try laying her/him down right next to her/his brother/sister with their bodies touching. You may be surprised. Their breathing slows and they become very peaceful.

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Twin Nursery Tour and Tandem Feeding Video Tutorial – How To Master Night Feedings Without Help

Sleep, eat, change, repeat… life with a newborn. Now try two.

When I started to plan our twin’s nursery the first thing I did was research. Aside from wanting a beautiful, serene and airy nursery I mostly wanted a practical space to enjoy night feedings and have that intimate one on one time with our girls. I scoured twin websites, blogs, books and YouTube researching how you can manage two babies at once. I had always prided myself on being very independent during night feedings when we had each of our older kids. Not that my husband Mike wouldn’t get up, I didn’t want him to. I like to be able to handle night feedings on my own. That way my help is well rested and more useful during the day! I tried to picture what nights would be like with twins, and the image in my mind was horrifying. I knew I wanted to be able to feed both girls at once to cut down on time as much as possible and figuring out how to do this meant figuring out how to tandem feed, where to put both babies within arms reach and how to move each to the breast. You would think looking back on my first few weeks with twins would stir up feelings of trauma and the things nightmares are made of. Instead I look back and those first weeks of getting up during the night with our girls as some of the most precious first memories.

All of my research paid off and I was able to master night feedings on day one at home. I took the time and used the help given to me by my incredible team of nurses to perfect tandem feeding while spending four days in the hospital after Mia and Everly were born. Keep in mind I had nursed two babies before our twins so I wasn’t having to learn how to nurse as well. Be patient with yourself if these are your first babies. It will come, it just takes time.

I am really excited about our nursery tour and tandem feeding tutorial because I had a very hard time finding detailed information on how to design a practical and functional twin nursery that supports tandem feeding while I was pregnant. This video is about the logistics of how to move both babies from cribs to feeding and back. I know, I know my acting is incredible! You can have your people contact my people for acting gigs…. ha! I promise you I am not a robot. Here it is: Mia and Everly’s nursery…

Photography by Sarah Martin Photography. I will be blogging shorty about tips and tricks of how to decorate a nursery. Stay tuned and don’t forget to subscribe to Nesting Story and follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest!