March of Dimes – March for Babies

Each year, more than half a million babies are born prematurely, and more than 120,000 babies are born with serious birth defects. Too many babies start life in the newborn intensive care after they were born too soon or very sick. We can change that.

As many of you know, Wyatt & Colton were born prematurely at 35 weeks 5 days, which is a little over 4 weeks premature of a normal 40 week due date (although the exact gestational period when twins are considered full term is a much debated topic). The boys both weighed less than 5 pounds but we were truly blessed that neither of them needed any special medical assistance, special care nursery or NICU time.

The annual March for Babies event in our area will be held in May. My company has sponsored a team of walkers for quite a few years. The girl that normally takes on the captain position has decided to step down this year so I decided that this was a great opportunity for me to step in to help rally support for a cause that I am very passionate about.

My personal goal is to raise $200 by May. I know it might be a lofty goal but I’m hoping I can pull it off.

If you are interested in joining me at the walk or would like to donate towards my fundraising goal – please email me and I will send you more information. Every contribution is tax deductible and is going towards such a great cause!

Homemade Baby Food – Attempt #2

My second attempt at making homemade baby food for the boys was just as easy as the first time; although I believe the results were much better because they received two thumbs up from both boys. I started out with fresh sweet potatoes and cooked them in the microwave.

I scooped out the insides and put them in the food processor, with some added water, to puree.

It again was very quick & easy and was much for of a success than the peas.

 I left a little bit out to mix in with the boys’ cereal/veggie supper that evening and they LOVED it! Success!

On another side-note: I am still having an issue with the freezer containers popping open if there is nothing placed on top of them to hold the lids down. If I set something on top of the tray of containers, the lids stay down much better. However, I think I’m going to use ice cube trays (& then pop them out when they are frozen into a freezer safe bag) for anything I do in the future.

38 Weeks Old

As March comes to a close we are anxiously awaiting the nicer, warmer weather we are hoping the month of April will be bringing us. The temperatures are slowly rising this week, which is a move in the right direction!

The boys’ 9 month birthday is sneaking quickly up on me next week – I know I say this every month, but I just can’t believe that they will be 9 months old already, which puts us just 3 short months away from their 1st birthday. I have to schedule their 9 month professional pictures to be taken sometime in April and, more importantly, find some cute outfits for them to wear in them.

We’ve had a busy couple of weekends lately. Cory & I joined our “softball group” of friends out for dinner two Saturdays ago. It was a nice night out – great food & good company! Last Friday night we went over to another friend’s house for their monthly FFF (Friday Food with Friends) – it’s a themed potluck group of families that get together monthly – this month’s theme was “Breakfast” which made for fantastic food and a really fun time for the boys. There are a total of 11 kids under the age of 5 when that group gets together, so needless to say it is very crazy, but loads of fun! Last Saturday I headed to a Moms of Multiples sale with my mom & sister. The boys spent the day at home with Cory and had a blast…and cooperated really well for him by being awesome nappers. I really enjoyed shopping for the boys and having a little time out of the house.

The boys are sleeping around 10-11 hours each night. They fall asleep somewhere between 6:45-7:15 PM and don’t wake up much for their last bottle around 8:45 PM. They are sleeping in their cribs for the night around 9:15-9:30 PM. They sleep until around 5:45-6:30 AM. They have been sleeping a little bit longer since Daylight Savings Time a few weekends ago and I’m really hoping that continues.

The boys are still moving through more new foods – banana/mango, garden veggies with spinach and chunky turkey & veggies have been their newest combinations. The chunky turkey & veggies did not go over so well – the boys just did not seem to like the texture of the chunks of veggies (which were mostly potatoes). Cory & I tried to mash the chunky parts of it up but that really didn’t make much of a difference for the boys. We’ll wait a bit and try some more “chunky” textures again a little later.

Wyatt
Sleep – Wyatt is a cat-napper. His average nap during the day lasts 30-40 minutes. There are times where he has slept for an hour or more but I’d say that’s more of an exception. He is normally pretty quick to fall asleep and rarely puts up a fight, unless he is really overtied. Wyatt does not sleep straight through the night. He goes in waves of getting up only once a night all the way to getting up 3-4 times a night. It’s not that bad though because he does not usually wake up but just cries and needs a simple nuk replacement. That is usually enough to get him back to sleep again for a while. We’re still trying to figure out if it’s something else that’s bugging him & waking him up like teething or gas troubles but since it doesn’t take much time to replace his nuk – we’ll deal with it as it is.

Colton
Sleep – Colton is a champion sleeper! He naps very well during the day – averaging around 1-2 ½ hours per nap. It usually takes him a little bit longer to fall asleep but it is pretty rare for him to put up a fight, unless he is really overtired. Colton sleeps straight through the night – it is very rare to hear a peep out of him until 5 AM or later. He is usually the first one to wake up in the morning but if it’s before 6 AM we can usually wrap him back up in his blanket and turn on his seahorse and he’ll either fall back asleep or be quietly content for another 20-25 minutes.

We have a crawler…

…an army crawler that is. Wyatt.

Way to go Wyatt – we’re so excited that he has reached this awesome milestone!

He has been on the edge of trying to inch his way forward for a week or more but on Saturday morning (of course while I was gone to a Moms of Multiples Consignment sale!) he finally took the plunge and put a few movements together to creep himself across the boys’ room. He inched his way from the middle of the room over towards the Swiffer Sweeper we have stashed in their room for which we use as a very handy nuk retrieval tool (when nuks are lost behind the cribs).

He’s continued a combination of crawling and rolling all weekend so I’m sure he will just continue to get more & more efficient at getting into things around.

First Homemade Baby Food

Last Sunday was my first attempt at making homemade baby food for the boys.  I have wanted to try my hand at it since I received my new food processor at Christmas.  I started out with frozen peas which I steamed in the microwave. 

I put them in the food processor, with some added water, to puree. 

It was very quick & easy and appeared to be a success to me, although I did notice that I was not able to get the pea skins as finely pureed as the store-bought peas.  I put a majority of the pea puree in freezer-ready baby food storage cubes which I purchased at Babies ‘R Us. 

I left a little bit out to mix in with the boys’ cereal/veggie supper that evening.  I found out then, that was the real test of my success.  The boys’ were not very fond of the texture of my pea puree at all!  I am planning on mixing the peas in with other veggies so, hopefully, the texture is masked a little bit more.  Even though they were very easy, I’m not going to attempt to do peas again for a while.  My next project: sweet potatoes.

On a side-note: Since my purchase of the Babies ‘R Us brand containers, I’ve read a few reviews which complained about the tops of the containers “popping open” while in the freezer.  I did experience this with a couple of my frozen pea containers.  The other method I have read about & am going to try out is freezing the puree in ice cube trays and popping the cubes out and storing them in a freezer safe bag.

New Stroller Test Drive

After our very successful first restaurant experience, the four of us headed over to REI to look at and “test drive” the new 2011 BOB Revolution Duallie…the jogging stroller we have decided to purchase. We loaded the boys up in our current tandem stroller, which is a workout itself to push & maneuver around, and hit the store. The BOB is extremely easy to push & steer and is so light compared to our current stroller. We decided to hold off on buying it until the end of this week because we can use a 20% off coupon, starting tomorrow, to help us save some money on this purchase. I am already so excited to get it home and for the spring weather we’re experiencing today, to stay so we can start going on family walks/runs.

Some pictures from our REI store trip:

We were bumping up against nap time...Colton was not so happy!

Wyatt

Colton

First Restaurant Trip

During our family day last Friday we took the boys out to eat at their first restaurant – Don Pablo’s.  The boys did a great job and we all had a good time and really good food.  The restaurant was extremely warm inside, very busy and we were sat at a table which they did not allow high chairs to be put up to – so with all that said, I don’t think we could have asked for things to go any better.  We had each of them sit on the bench beside us to eat their lunch (cereal & fruit) and then lay down for bottles.  Cory & I ordered our food and ate (which is a little difficult with an 8 month old on your lap!) while the boys played.  Based on a fellow MoM (Mom of Multiples) blogger’s recommendation, I had bought some disposable placemats that stuck to the table at Target – they worked great!

Here are a couple of pictures from our lunch:

Cory & Wyatt

Me & Colton

Daddy & his boys

36 Weeks Old

We are now half-way through March and the weather is slowly feeling a bit more like spring this week.

We went to my niece’s 9th birthday party a couple of Sundays ago – the boys had a blast helping celebrate but didn’t get to enjoy a cupcake – maybe next year.  We had a family day last Friday, the boys and I went to my cousin’s baby shower on Saturday and we celebrated Bailey’s 5th birthday on Sunday.

I will have some more detailed posts to come in the next few days.

The boys are sleeping around 10-11 hours each night.  They fall asleep somewhere between 7-7:30 PM and don’t wake up much for their last bottle around 8:45 PM.  They are sleeping in their cribs for the night around 9:15-9:30 PM.  They sleep until around 5:30-6 AM.  This past weekend they both slept in until around 6:30-7 AM each morning – which meant we got to “sleep in” too!

The boys are still moving through more new foods – apples/blueberries, sweet potato/corn and pear/mango have been their newest combinations.  They both continue to have practice sippy cup time and do pretty well.  They love getting ice cubes in their mesh feeders but make a soaking mess of themselves by the time they are all gone – luckily it’s just water.

Wyatt
Sitting – Wyatt has been sitting up assisted pretty well for about a month now.  I use the Boppy pillow to surround him with a little bit of support.  He does really well until he sees a toy that is out of his reach that he wants….then, he gracefully leans forward until he tips onto his belly & hands and then continues to roll over to the toy.  Other times he gets bored or lazy with sitting and just lies backwards.

Colton
Sitting – Colton also has been sitting up assisted pretty well for about a month now.  I use the Boppy pillow to surround him with a little bit of support also.  When Colton starts tipping to one side, there’s no stopping him.  Usually, he’s like his brother, and is trying to reach for a toy that is just out of his reach….but he usually just ends up lying on his side.

8 month photo session

We had a great extended weekend together as a family – which included the boys’ first restaurant experience, test-driving strollers, my cousin’s baby shower, 8 month photo session and my first attempt at making my own baby food. I’ll be creating a couple different posts to show all the fun we had!

I was only a week behind this month on taking the boys’ 8 month pictures – I’m getting better! Here are my favorites.



Wyatt




Colton

Colton

Wyatt

Destroying the 8 month sign...it's become a monthly tradition.

34 Weeks Old

Welcome to March! March is coming in like a lamb this year – average temps & sunshine forecasted for today. We have a busy month of March planned already. We will be celebrating both my niece’s 9th birthday and our dog Bailey’s 5th birthday. I have a cousin’s baby shower to attend, as well as a couple’s dinner night. I am also looking forward to a Mom of Multiples consignment sale at the end of the month.

We’ve had another pretty mellow couple of weeks. We did attend a friend of mine’s surprise 30th birthday party last Friday night with the boys, which was fun. There were a ton of people there, including a bunch of kids and the boys did really well. We had Cory’s cousin, wife and their two kids over for pizza on Saturday night. It was fun to see the kids – their little girl is almost 2 and their little boy is two months younger than the boys, but just as big. We also attended church for the first time, as a family, since we had the boys baptized. The boys did awesome there as well. (I have really been meaning to start getting back into going to church weekly since the boys’ feeding schedule is a bit more predictable now, but we just had a busy couple of months – so I finally just set the plan for Sunday & we went.)

Last week I had a “snow day” morning with the boys; this week I had a “sick day” morning with them. My mom was not feeling well this weekend and just did not feel good enough to watch the boys yesterday so Cory and I slip up the day. I stayed home with them in the morning and headed into work around noon and Cory went into work for the morning and came home to spend the afternoon with them. It worked pretty well so that neither of us had to miss an entire day of work and we each got some fun time with the boys.

The boys are sleeping around 10 hours each night. They fall asleep somewhere between 7-7:30 PM and don’t wake up much for their last bottle around 8:45 PM. They are sleeping in their cribs for the night around 9:15-9:30 PM. They sleep until around 5:30-6 AM. The past two weekends they have been waking up around 4:45-5:15 AM (like they do during the week) but if we put them in a bouncer and bring the bouncer into our room they usually go back to sleep and we can get a little more sleep – at least until around 6:30 AM. They both slept until 6 AM in their cribs this morning!

The boys are still moving through more new foods – squash, peaches and chicken have been the latest additions. According to my mom – peaches have been their favorite! Chicken was the first food that did not go over very well with the boys. They both ate it but they would spit it out, not seem interested in eating and generally, just “choked” it down. We tried it two nights in a row so I think we’ll take a break away from that and try it again down the road.

Wyatt
Rolling Over – Wyatt has been rolling over both ways (tummy-to-back & back-to tummy) for some time now but he hasn’t really utilized that talent much until this weekend. Beginning on Saturday (although he’s done this randomly a few other times), he no longer stays in one spot. He keeps rolling & rolling & rolling……until he runs into something – then he gets mad! It’s so fun to watch and just so amazing the amount of mobility this has given him. I know this is the beginning of the end of the boys staying where I put them.

Colton
Rolling Over – Colton still just rolls over from this tummy to his back. He is really, really close to rolling from his back to his tummy…but hasn’t quite taken the leap yet. I know it’s not far off! He spends a lot more time on his tummy. When he is on his tummy, his arms & legs are just a going so I know it’s just a matter of time until he puts them down on the ground and actually uses them the crawl.