A Typical Day in Our House...

Are you curious about what a day in our life is like? Here's you chance to get a glimpse! 

• 430am - My husband's alarm goes off and he gets up, feeds the dog and goes to work. Sometimes this wakes the babies up, hopefully it doesn't.
• 530am - The babies wake up and I hear them giggling and playing around in their cribs.
• 545am - I finally get up because the babies sound like they are getting a little less happy. Wash out their bottles and give them some milk.
• 6am - I hear Superman waking up and bring him upstairs. Everyone gets changed and dressed. 
• 630am - Breakfast for everyone. The babies throw most of their food on the floor and Superman barely touches his. 
• 7am - I try to clean up the kitchen a bit but mostly I just ignore it until later. The boys play (with things they aren't supposed to)/fight/hurt themselves. This continues the entire day as well.
• 8am - Nap time for the little ones. Superman and I usually go downstairs to play plus he has a snack.
• 930am - The little ones wake up. We go on a walk to the playground if it's nice out.
• 10am - The boys are all hungry already and begging to eat lunch. I try to hold them off until at least 1030 but I am already hungry too. So we end up eating lunch at 1030ish which means we are done by 11 and naptime isn't until 12. So we all play together (all three of them are jealous whenever someone else gets attention, so they all try to climb on me at once. It's pretty funny.)
• 12pm - Naptime for everyone! I usually end up taking one too. 
• 130pm - The little ones are up again. They get to play some more. 
• 2pm - Superman wakes up from his nap. Everyone has a little snack and then I try to entertain them. This is also the time I normally clean up the house. It's amazing how messy it gets in just one day.
• 4pm - The little ones are ready for dinner. Superman also wants to eat with them so he has a snack and watches a show. I start making dinner for everyone else.
• 430pm - My husband gets home from work and normally tries to work out for an hour if he can.
• 530ish pm - Dinner is ready so Superman and I start eating. The other boys are getting fussy so I eat quickly.
• 545pm - My husband quickly eats and we start baths for everyone. We do baths every other day in our house.
• 615pm - The little boys go to bed and we spend time with our oldest until his bedtime. I also clean up the kitchen and living room at this time.
• 730pm - Time to read a story and then bedtime for Superman! My husband showers and I do blog stuff or play video games while waiting for him. (Why does this whole process take him 40ish minutes when I can shower in 5 minutes? And he doesn't even have any hair to wash...)
• 830pm - We watch whatever shows were on that night and then bed time by 10pm so that we can start the process over again in the morning!

I hope it doesn't sound like I am complaining about our schedule! I will admit that sometimes it does get old doing the same thing every day, but I really do enjoy it (most of the time). We are pretty busy just doing the normal everyday stuff, but we try to get out and do some other activities with the boys a couple of times a week. 

Of course things change every day. It doesn't always follow this schedule exactly, but I've always been a scheduler with my babies. Things just work out better for us if they stay on the same schedule every day. The weekends usually mess up our perfect schedule and everyone gets a little off. As they get older now it will get easier to shift things around. My oldest doesn't usually have any issues now, but the little boys are still stuck on their schedule pretty much. 

So I just keep reminding myself that it will get better, we won't always have to have so many scheduled naptimes and soon they will be able to wait longer for meals if they need to and we will be able to do more out of the house activities!  

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We Survived the First Year!

At times it didn't seem like we would make it but we have actually survived the first year with our twins! They are now 12 months old. I think this next year might actually be harder than the first year. They are so much work to keep up with right now! They also like to get into trouble constantly and fight with each other all the time. Some days I feel like I'm literally going crazy and they haven't even started walking yet! 

They seem to be extra mischievous little boys, but maybe that's just because there is two of them plotting together. It's so much fun though, even with the craziness. They really are quite hilarious and even when they are naughty they are so cute I can't help but laugh. (This does not help the issue at all!) They are both little hams and love to have an audience. They crack me up every day but I am also very thankful for nap time and bed time!

As far as development, they seem to be right on track with everything. They aren't walking unassisted yet, but they prefer to cruise the furniture and walls and walk while pushing objects rather than crawling. They both crawl extremely fast. Nowadays when they follow me into a room they aren't supposed to be in, I have to bring one out and then hurry back to get he second one but even then the first one is usually back in the room again by that time. Usually I just have to sneak into the back rooms or run really fast and close the door or I have three little visitors in with me! 

Their favorite toys are pretend dishes and food which they really love, or anything their big brother is playing with at the time. They've learned how to throw toys through the stair railings so we usually end up with a lot fewer toys upstairs by the end of the day. They also enjoy this game during nap times when they throw their pacifiers and blankets out of the bed and then cry when they can't reach them anymore. 

They are starting to use sippy cups more often, but they still have their milk in a bottle for now because they don't seem to drink it otherwise. They are on regular whole milk and have refused to eat pureed baby food for awhile now. They pretty much eat whatever we are eating for three meals a day with one or two snacks in between. It's funny because there are some foods where one of them likes it and the other won't eat it. Batman is a bit more picky than his brother most of the time. When I feed them things like yogurt or apple sauce my oldest usually wants some too so I end up feeding all three from the same bowl. (We've always shared spoons and bowls with the twins, it's easier that way).

We are having a birthday party this weekend for all three boys! It's going to be Curious George themed and I'm very excited to put it all together. Next week I'll share some pictures of how it turned out! Our first year has been difficult and at times seemed completely insane, but we made it and I wouldn't trade any of it. I love these boys so much and I am so thankful every day that we get to experience this crazy adventure!

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Two Very Different C-Section Experiences

 Since tomorrow is my twins' first birthday (how did that happen so quickly?!?) today is the perfect time to share their birth story. It's actually quite uneventful and not very exciting at all. Basically I went in on my scheduled c-section day and had a great surgery. Nothing went wrong, I barely even felt like I had one. The boys ended up in the NICU for 17 days after they were born. Since they were sharing a placenta, towards the end all of the blood started going to one of the babies (Batman) and our other baby wasn't getting any. 

I am so thankful we moved our c-section date up one week because we had no idea this was going on. So Batman was our little reddish baby and Spiderman was anemic and pale for a few months. They thought he might need a blood transfusion but he ended up being okay without one. Our poor babies were poked and prodded and stuck full of needles for those 17 long days but we finally got to take them both home together with no major complications. They were born about one month early at 36 weeks and 3 days. 

I've had two c-sections in the last two years and they were completely opposite experiences. I thought I would share a little comparison of the two. Maybe it will give some idea of what kind of things you might expect if you are facing a scheduled c-section.

My First (Emergency) C-Section vs. My Second (Scheduled) C-Section

1. During my first I was having contractions of course, so I had an epidural put in during this time. During the surgery I was shaking so much I couldn't pay attention to anything else. My second, I had a spinal in the operating room right before the surgery. No shakes. I was able to pay attention and watch everything going on. 

2. The first one I was freezing the whole time and they kept putting warm blankets on my arms to warm me up. The second one, I didn't notice anything like that. It seemed like a normal temperature in the room.

3. With both of them I could feel lots and lots of tugging and pulling as they got the babies out. It doesn't hurt or anything, it just feels weird. And then you feel empty once they pull them out. 

4. With my first, we didn't have a camera and I didn't get to hold him before they took him away. With the twins, my husband took pictures of them being cleaned up and weighed and they let me hold the first one while they were still getting the second one out. With little Spiderman they had to put oxygen on him right away so I didn't get to hold him, but I was able to watch what was going on. I don't remember any of this with my first one. 

5. You can read more about it here, but with my first I had a major ileus afterwards and with my second I had nothing like that. Sure there's always some gas, but I was on top of that with stool softeners and gas-x that I asked for right away. I took these a few days before my surgery as well. I didn't eat for a couple of days because I was afraid of what happened the first time, but when I finally did, everything was perfect. 

6. With the first one, a few days after the surgery, the scar got infected and started leaking pus and blood everywhere. They had to open part of it back up again and stuff gauze inside it. I had to do this for a few weeks afterwards. With the second, the scar healed up very nicely. I think she even cut out some of the extra scar tissue because it's much flatter and smoother than it was after the first one.

7. I used an abdominal binder both times. The first time I couldn't put it on until I got home 9 days later because of the ileus and my swollen stomach, but with the second one I used it right away. It helps with the pain and to pull everything back together. The second day after my surgery (the second one) I felt pretty much back to normal and could walk and move around with no problems. 

8. With my first son I was able to start breastfeeding right away even with all the complications. I did that for two months until I had other complications and ended up with another surgery. I didn't know much about pumping at the time, so my milk pretty much dried up while I was there. With the twins they were in the NICU of course so I started pumping with the hospital pump as soon as possible. I kept pumping every two hours the whole time I was there and my milk came in just fine so they were able to have breastmilk. We tried to breastfeed but they were too sleepy and it tired them out. They never did figure that out. I exclusively pumped for them for the first six months and had an excess of milk, which I am thankful for. It was so much work though!

It's just so crazy to me how different the two of them were. I was so nervous for the second one after my first awful surgery but I didn't need to be, it all went very smoothly. If you have had a c-section, what kind of experience did you have?

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photo credit: Julie70 via photopin cc

My babies are 11 months old!

It's hard to believe but my babies are already 11 months old! One more month until the big party for all three of the boys. They are so much fun to watch and they love playing with each other more and more every day. They are getting to be so goofy sometimes, it's pretty hilarious. 

 My little Spiderman gets so excited that he jumps all over the place and crows. It's so cute! He crawls normally but when he is excited about something he looks like a little frog jumping along. He has 4 teeth on top and 2 on the bottom so far. He's been clingy lately and always wants me to hold him. It's so cute though because he will lay his head down on me. The other two boys aren't cuddly like that, so it's kinda nice. 

Little Batman is always smiling lately. He's also a little mischievous, which is probably why he's always smiling at me, the little stinker! He only has the two teeth on top and two on the bottom still. He likes to try to crawl up on chairs and boxes and scare me. These two boys are very adventurous already. He's still doing the army crawl instead of actual crawling. Both these babies are growing up too fast! In another month I won't really have "babies" anymore, just three toddlers! 

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10 Things Nobody Tells You About Having Kids

You know all the things that people always say about having kids. About how you will never sleep again and your days of privacy in the bathroom are over. Everyone's heard all the usual stuff over and over again. Here are some things that people don't always tell you:

1. You can never completely relax again because you have developed "super senses", hearing every little noise your little one makes while sleeping or playing in the other room. I don't really think this applies to men because in my experience they will just sleep through anything and don't pay much attention to what is happening right next to them...

2. You will find that love this little person and worry about them so much more than you ever thought possible.

3. That it's hard. Really hard. Especially the first few weeks. Somehow you will forget the hard part and only remember the good parts...I don't know how this happens. Then if you decide to have another one, you are like "oh yeah...how could I forget this zombie-like feeling that comes with getting up every single hour of the night with a sweet baby!?" 

4. That there is no one "right way" to parent. Every kid is different. There are hundreds of parenting books out there and everyone always has advice for you but the truth is you'll just have to make it up as you go. 

5. That having kids is completely messy and there's nothing you can do about it. It will also change what you consider to be "gross". Baby barf, poop, snot coming out of their little noses that you have to pick out for them, it's all really not that awful anymore. Now, other people's kids...no thanks, that's still disgusting.

6. That most of the time raising kids is really boring. You have the occasional moments of excitement but otherwise you're mostly doing the same thing over and over and over again. Read the same books every night. Sing the same song hundreds of times. It's especially monotonous with babies who really don't do anything except eat and sleep for awhile. 

7. There really is not enough time in the day to do everything you need to do. This diagram is very true:

(source)

8. That your brain won't work as well as it used to. I don't know what it is about having babies that does this, but it certainly has happened for me. Maybe it gets back to normal as they get older? I sure hope so!

9. That any shows involving children or babies will emotionally affect you much more than they did before. Actually, change that to everything. Everything affects me emotionally lately. 

10. That even with all the worry, extra expenses and frustration there is no way you would change it for the world.

 

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