High chairs!!

Does anyone have any recommendations for a high chair or booster seat or something that is good for twins in a smaller house?  I just started looking and I'm a little overwhelmed by all the choices out there.

Wow, I can't believe the twins will be in high chairs soon and eating baby cereal and food!!  It's kinda crazy!!

Adventures in Pumping (Part 1)

So there is a lot of things that I have been meaning to write about with regards to breast feeding the twins and pumping.  Plus, I have time while I'm pumping at work to post, but instead I have just been reading everyone else's blog and thinking about how I should post more.

Anyway, breastfeeding and pumping is going well so far.  Here are just some random thoughts on pumping.

Pumping makes me ridiculously thirsty.  I know that it's hormonal, but it's kinda crazy.  I get like painfully thirsty.  However, since I'm not thirsty before I start pumping I often forget to get water.  If I'm at home, CJ will bring it to me even though I do the same thing every time and when I'm at work, I just suffer.  Seriously though, how hard can it be to remember to have my water bottle filled up and ready when I sit down to pump.

Pumping at work is exhausting.  Basically, my daily schedule goes something like this.
1.  Feed the twins when they wake up between 5:15-5:30 until 5:45.  Then, diapers and clothes changed and the twins play in one crib together while I get ready.  Meanwhile, CJ is prepping the bottles for daycare.

2.  If the twins don't eat well, then I try to pump really quickly (like 10 minutes) before I leave for work.

3.  Morning break from the OR (sometime between 8:30-10am) pump x 15 minutes.

4.  Lunch break from OR (sometime between 11-1:30pm) pump x 20 minutes.

5.  Afternoon break in OR (sometime between 2-5pm) pump x 15-20 minutes.

6.  Head home and either feed the twins or pump (sometime between 5-6pm.)

7.  Feed twins last evening nursing (sometime between 7-8:30pm.)

8.  Pump  x 10-20minutes (especially if twins don't nurse really well.)

9.  Dreamfeed (sometime between 10-12pm.)

It's nice to have a schedule.  Sometimes I even get in 4 pumping sessions at work.  My supply is keeping up so that's good.  The only reasons why I pump for #2 is in case I don't get a break in the OR until 10pm so that I can get another morning session in and for #8 because they don't always eat great during the dreamfeed and it helps me from getting engorged overnight and waking up in pain.

Alright, well I'm headed home from work soon to either pump or feed the twins!!  Hopefully, I'll just be able to nurse them, which is one of my favorite things to do.  Plus, CJ is going to need a break after watching the little eagles all day!!

What fun things are you up to this weekend?  Anyone else have any crazy pumping at work stories?  I'm hoping that my next post will describe some of the logistics of actually pumping at work.

The Best Birthday Ever

Yesterday, I entered the 30 Club (which is the new 20, or so I'm told).  As far as birthdays go, it was pretty low-key.  I went to work, came home from work, met up with hubby and some friends for dinner, drank a glass of wine, fell asleep on the couch.  So, you might ask, then how was the this the best birthday ever...

That's easy, I got to wake up to 2 crying and then smiling faces and help get them dressed and loaded in their car seats before hubby and the babies dropped me off at work.  Then, after work, I got to go pick up the babies from daycare and was greeted once again by their smiling (Cassidy) and sleeping (Chase) faces.  It was pretty incredible.

I came a long way in the past decade.  From partying single college kid, to medical student with a serious boyfriend to married to my best friend to resident physician and no kids to mother of one furbaby and one angel baby and struggling with infertility to pregnant with twins!! to mother of twins and awesome family of five (furbaby included!!)  Quite a remarkable journey so far.

I can't wait to see what the next decade brings!!

My favorite baby things!!

I love reading other peoples' posts about what baby things they could not live without so I thought I would do the same.  Plus, it will be nice to look back and see what baby things we used in the beginning.

1.  Convertible Double Stroller - we got the baby jogger city select with the conversion pieces for our Maxi Cosi car seats.  We love the car seats and the stroller is just awesome and totally necessary.  It wheels great on a variety of surfaces, the car seats snap in really easily, it folds down and opens up easily, it's small enough to fit in the trunk of my Mazda 3, it steers great and has a small turning radius.  We use it to take the kids for walks, to the mall, grocery store, doctor's appointments, everywhere!!

2.  Vibrating chair and swing - We didn't get 2 of anything and that turned out to be a good thing because my son really loved the vibrating chair while my daughter loved the swing.  These 2 things saved our lives in the earlier days because the kiddos would take awesome naps there!!

3.  Pack n Play with Changing Table - We got the Chico Lullaby LX.  We set up the pack n play with its changing table down in our family room next to a book shelf laden with diapers, wipes, extra blankets, and changes of clothes and toys.  This saved us many trips up stairs which was especially key while I was still recovering from my c-section.

4.  Swaddle Me and Halo Sleepsacks - My husband got good at swaddling with a blanket, but I never did and these things are perfect to get a nice tight swaddle and keep the babies from having the blanket end up in their faces.  We just upgraded to larger sizes now that the twins are getting so big.  Both styles work for us.

5.  Wannanubs - Possibly our favorite thing ever!!  Each baby has his or her own.  Baby girl has the monkey and baby boy has the giraffe.  So awesome!!

6.  Dr. Brown's bottles - Our kiddos drink really well out of these and they continue to nurse really well, so it's totally worth the extra pieces!!  We recently had to buy a bunch of 8 oz bottles since the babies are now sometimes drinking 5-6 oz at a time at day care.

I'm gonna stop their for now since I'm done pumping for the moment...just got almost 11 oz...yea!!  More to come later!!

15 weeks old already...

And the time has flown by!!  

The babies are doing well.  Little colds are returning after they spent this past weekend with Grandma and Grandpa.  Now most of you are probably thinking that the twins spent the weekend with Gma and Gpa as well as Mom and Dad, but that was not the case.  CJ and I took advantage of a very generous anniversary gift from my parents in which they would watch the twins for the weekend and we took off for a fun, romantic ski/sleep weekend.  It was a little tough leaving on Friday night.  I cried for a little while in the car and I worried for most of the trip, but all in all it was a great weekend for everyone.  

CJ and I totally needed the weekend away.  We were celebrating our upcoming 30th birthdays!!  It was so nice to have time for just the 2 of us and to be best friends and lovers again instead of just parents.  We had a blast.  It was wonderful to sleep without the baby monitors on and to sleep for 6-7 hours straight before I had to wake up to pump.  It was also great to be athletic again and to spend so much time outside.  It really made me want to work on getting back into shape again.  Basically, we spent the weekend eating delicious food, skiing, hot tubing (which was huge because we basically couldn't go in a hot tub the whole time we were TTC), and sleeping.  It was perfect...well, except for the weather since it was about 50 degrees outside.  Luckily, Snowshoe had enough snow from earlier that most of their runs were open and it wasn't too bad and there were no lift lines!!  I'm already excited for our next big ski trip (hopefully next year) and when the twins are old enough and we can teach them how to ski!!

In other news, the babies are still smiling lots, sitting up in their bumbos, trying to roll over, cooing up a storm, and not sleeping well.  My parents keep suggesting that we put cereal in their last bottle for the day, but that's the only chance I get to nurse them and I'm hesitant to give that up.  I just got the Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Baby Book and I'm going to see if any of those tips works.  Babywise may be just a little too hard for us with twins and we are just not quite ready for CIO yet.  

3 months old!!

The little eagles are three months old!!  They are smiling and babbling away.  They have found their hands and love to hold them, hold each others hands, and put their hands in their mouth.  They will also bat at toys in the activity chair and take their pacifiers out of their mouths.  They are sleeping for a solid 5 hours at night, some nights and are still nursing at night and taking bottles at daycare during the day.  They are just awesome and we are so so so in love!!

Happy Friday!!

Happy New Years!!

Christmas and New Years were incredible this year for 2 very specific reasons...my little eagles.  It was exhausting and there were lots of tears shed, but it was just so awesome to have my babies with me to celebrate my favorite holidays.

Here are the bullet points from my week long Christmas vacation and the closing days of 2012.

Getting out of work early on Friday before Christmas to get packed up for our first week long trip away from home with the babies.  Then, being all ready to go, but having to wait until UPS dropped off 2 final Christmas presents.

Spending the week at my parents house with CJ, the little eagles, my sister and her hubby and their 3 kids, my little brother, my little sister, my parents, my grandpa, and 3 dogs!!

Early mornings with the babies and my mom and sister...great bonding time!!

The babies first snow!!

Our first walk with the babies in their snowsuits and Bjorns!!

Lots of shopping trips with and without the babies to Kohls, Target, and more!!

Buying fun Christmas stuff for next year at great prices (Halloween outfits for the kiddos, Christmas placements and hand towels, a table runner)!  My mom and sister and I are awesome at getting great things on sale!!

Christmas morning taking pictures on the stairs before opening presents all day!!

Opening secret santa presents on Christmas Eve...a new family tradition!!

The name game...girls vs boys...hilarious!!

Winning 2 games of Settlers of Catan after I spilled water over half the board and it took us almost an hour to dry off the pieces and resume play.

Eating lots of delicious food!!

Spending the whole week with my twins and getting to nurse them again without being tied to my pump!!

Spending the whole week with my twins!!

Spending the whole week with my husband!!

Getting our babies baptized with their cousin.

And so much more...I'll continue this list as soon as I can!!

Happy 2013!!