happy.harvey.home.

1 Year!

Posted on October 1, 2016 by annettelharvey

I can’t believe its already been a year since we welcomed our sweet baby girls into this world and our family! Happy Birthday Sloane and Maisie! Seems like only yesterday and forever that we were in the hospital holding our precious and tiny babies.

Sloane Anne. Born first but I had to wait to hold you second. It’s so funny how I originally thought you were so “laid back” and then quickly realized you have a little bit of sass in you. I love how you go after what you want and lead the pack in what the next adventure is going to be. I love how you throw your head back when you want us to throw you in the air. You steal toys and pacis like you’re the boss but only with your sister. You are content to play on your own but only as long as someone else is close by, especially your brother or sister. You are big talker and love to squeal, talk, dance and laugh. I love how you suck your thumb when you’re tired and hold your wubanuub’s left with your hand. I love how you will eat anything we put in front of you – as long as we feed it to you. I love how you say “mama” and clap when we say “yay”. I love how you keep us on our toes and always seem to find a piece of dog food on the floor to nibble up. I love how much fun you are. And I love that you are ours. I love you Sloane Anne. Happy 1st Birthday!

Maisie Lynne. Born second but I got to hold you first. You gave us a little scare those first few days but I love how you quickly bounced back and made it home in record time. You are a fighter and adventurous but you are also so snuggly and sweet. I love how you laugh- big, loud, belly laughs. I love how you always have to be moving and doing something. I love how sweet you are and how you always try to hold your sister’s hand (which she doesn’t like). I love how you love to explore and how much you stand and travel from the couch to table. You are so close to walking! I love how you want to be in the middle of all the action and have everyone around. I love how you only cry when you’re tired and want your paci. I love how you eat everything we put in front of you (including what’s on Sloane’s plate) and want to do it all yourself. I love how you try to mimic what we do and clap when we say “yay”. I love how much fun you are. And I love that you are ours. I love you Maisie Lynne. Happy 1st Birthday!

Our baby girls transitioned from formula to whole milk over the past 1-2 weeks. Mainly because we ran out of formula and didn’t want to buy anymore. They have no problem drinking milk however we are having to work with them to get them to drink out of a hippy cup instead of bottle and cold milk instead of warm. We are working on it though! Their sample food schedule is below.

1 Year Schedule:

6:30am – 7oz bottle of milk (working on transitioning to sippy cup and cold milk)
6:45am- Breakfast
- Eggs, Oatmeal, Cheerios, Fruit smoothies, etc
11:30am- Lunch
- Milk
- Finger foods including meat, cheese, veggies, fruits
- Pouch or Applesauce
- Cereal bar or other teething foods
3:30pm- Snack
- Milk
- Yogurt
- Pouch
- Baby food if needed
5:30pm – Dinner
- Milk
- Samples of whatever we are eating for dinner!

We find out their weights at their doctor appointment on Tuesday. They currently wear 12 month clothes and 12-18 month pajamas.

10 Months!

Posted on August 9, 2016 by annettelharvey

Happy 10 months baby girls!

Sloane is crawling all over, has 0 teeth, loves all foods and is a master at pulling herself up to her knees. She loves to be where everyone else is, loves to be held and is an expert at crawling over most things in her path. You know she’s tired when she lays her head down and sucks her thumb. She is a big talker and her favorite thing is her silly big brother and all of his toys- especially the box that holds his choo choo trains. It’s her favorite!

Maisie is crawling all over, has 2 bottom teeth in the center, loves all foods and is a master at pulling herself up to her knees. She likes to be held but also likes to explore. She is an adventurer – she wants everyone close by but wants to see what’s around that she can get her hands and mouth on. You know she’s tired when she starts to get fussy. Her favorite toy is her paci or anything her brother is playing with- especially his trains. She gets super excited when she is being held to stand.

Both of these girls love the water and love swimming. They also love all veggies and fruits but aren’t huge fans of meat yet. Their newest trick is getting up on their knees and trying to reach for each other through their cribs. We often find them squealing and laughing with each other. We love you sweet baby girls!

Sloane and Maisie are currently wearing 12 month or 12-18 month pajamas. They still fit in some 9 month clothes but they are definitely getting tight. We mainly only wear 12 month clothes at this point.

Here is their current schedule:

6:30AM – Wake and eat 8oz bottle
7:00AM- Eat oatmeal (about 4 oz)
8:00AM- Nap
10:30AM- Eat 6oz bottle
11:00AM- Eat yogurt (4 oz)
12:00/12:30 PM – Nap
2:30PM – Eat 6oz bottle
3:00PM- Eat pureed baby food (4 oz combo of veggie and fruit)
5:30PM/6:00PM – Eat pureed baby food (4oz – 6 oz) and 2-3 oz bottle
6:00PM – Bath
6:30PM- Bed for the night

We are starting to work toward a 10am and 2pm nap for school so the 10:30am and 2:30pm feedings will soon be at 11am and 3pm instead with 1-1.5 hour naps beforehand.

9 Months!

Posted on July 1, 2016 by annettelharvey

The girls turned 9 months old today! We are pretty sure Sloane will be the first to talk and Maisie will be the first to crawl. Maisie has learned how to pull the tabs off her diaper and Sloane is an expert at stealing toys and pacis- even though Maisie is quick to steal them back. Sloane loves to wave and Maisie loves to be held. Both girls are doing great with all their puréed fruits and veggies and have enjoyed everything except black beans. They still have “stranger danger” but are quick to warm up to anyone who talks in a high pitched voice and makes them laugh.

Sloane weighs 16 lb, `13oz and is 27.5 in long. Maisie weighs 16b, 12.4oz and is 27.25 in long. They are both true to size in clothes except for pajamas. Most clothes are size 6-12 month or 9 month. The only exception is pajamas due to their length. They both wear 12 month pajamas.

Here is their current feeding and nap schedule which we transitioned to between 8-9 months old. (Still hold onto 3 naps which is amazing!)

6:30AM – Wake and eat 8oz bottle
7:30AM- Eat pureed baby food or oatmeal (about 4 oz)
8:00AM- Nap
10:30AM- Eat 7oz bottle
11:00AM- Eat yogurt (4 oz)
12:00/12:30 PM – Nap
2:30PM – Eat 7oz bottle
3:00PM- Eat pureed baby food (4 oz combo of veggie and fruit)
4:30PM- Nap*
6:00PM – Eat 7oz bottle
6:30PM – Bath
6:45PM- Bed for the night

We love our sweet baby girls. 9 months. Can’t believe it! ?? Happy Birthday girls!

*About a week after our girls turned 9 months we dropped the last nap of the day. They started to take a long time to fall asleep at night and weren’t as tired anymore. Once we dropped the third nap they were back to their usual selves and fell asleep almost instantly once we laid them down for the night.

Battling Reflux

Posted on May 29, 2016 by annettelharvey

This has been a pretty incredible week- life changing to say the least! If you’ve ever dealt with a baby (or babies) with reflux you can certainly relate!

When our girls were born they started Similac NeoSure to help get their weights up. After about 2 months we went to Similac Advance. We quickly then switched to Similac Sensitive. Why all the changes? REFLUX. It really is one of those things that makes you feel helpless, frustrated, sad and overwhelmed all at the same time. There are different types of reflux. Our girls started with the spitting up phase (which basically resulted in one or both throwing up their entire bottle immediately after finishing it) and then silent reflux where they would constantly push away their bottles and struggled to even get 2 ounces down at each of their feedings.

After trying two different medicines and switching formulas I went to one of my mommy boards (twin moms to the rescue!) and begged for help. The result.. Similac Alimentum. It’s a different formula I hadn’t heard of .. more expensive and it definitely has a different smell to it that reminds you that your baby is drinking something man made but IT WORKS. It works! After a week of mixing it with their previous formula (so we could slowly get them used to the new taste) our girls are finishing their bottles and wanting more. With over 4 months left of formula this has already become a game changer for us. (Not to mention the girls also started holding their bottles on their own this week as well!) I can’t get over the difference and in just a short time. We’ve even stopped their medicine completely. So if you’ve got a baby with reflux give Alimentum a try – it just might change your life.

6 months and solids

Posted on April 1, 2016 by annettelharvey

Happy 6 months to our sweet baby girls! Wow! I can’t believe 6 months has gone by already! These two are so sweet! They smile and giggle and its so much fun when they recognize our faces. They love Jude and love watching him play around them. He also brings them toys from time to time and more often will lean over and kiss or hug them! One of my favorite things is how they greet us in the morning- every day when we walk in to get them out of bed we gently wake them up and they will look up at us and instantly smile. It is so sweet!

Sloane is still pretty laid back. She likes watching everything around her. She can roll all the way over now! She loves to smile and giggle and sleeps on her side most of the time but always start with her right thumb in her mouth.

Maisie is our wiggler. Always looking to move around and look around however possible. She can roll halfway and loves meeting new people. She falls asleepon her back with her right hand over her face, usually with her wrist over her mouth!

Oh how I love our sweet baby girls!

When I first started this blog I had two goals in mind. 1) Help other moms who are just trying to figure babies out and 2) Help myself remember what do! I’ve definitely accomplished the 2nd goal and I hope from time to time I’ve accomplished the 1st as well. Today was one of those days where I was so thankful for writing things down. The girls turn 6 months today which means its the start of solids in the Harvey Home. Goodness I’m so thankful for all the posts I wrote on baby food but most importanly Introducing Solids and a 4 hour feeding schedule with solids. Our girls are on a 4 hour schedule and have been since they were 3 months old. With 3 children under 2 years old the move to a 4 hour schedule quickly was not only out of sanity but our girls were just honestly ready and not hungry anymore at 3 hours. As a refresher here is their current (non solid) schedule:

6AM – Wake and Eat 7 oz
8–10AM – Nap
10AM – Eat 7oz
12PM-2PM – Nap
2PM- Eat 7oz
4PM-6PM – Nap
6PM- Eat 7oz
In bed by 6:30PM

And here will be their revised schedule starting tomorrow. We will start with introducing the morning solid feeding and then after about 2 weeks or so will add one afternoon solid feeding and then finally the last afternoon feeding.

6AM Wake him up and Eat – 7 oz bottle
7AM – baby food (usually 1 fruit and 1 veggie)
9-10AM – nap
10AM Eat – 7 oz bottle
11AM baby food
12PM-2PM – nap
2PM Eat – 7 oz bottle
3PM – baby food
4 –6PM – nap
6PM Bath, Bottle, Bed – 7 oz bottle

Lastly, the actual order of solid foods. Some recommendations include starting with cereal then fruits then orange and yellow veggies then green veggies then meats. Others recommend doing all veggies first then fruits. I do some alternating and I plan to skip cereal this time around. Jude didn’t love it and I’d rather give them some fruits and veggies over a cereal.

Here’s our order of solids to start with the girls. I’ll be adding in how they react as we try each!

Carrots
Bananas
Butternut Squash
Apples
Peas
Pears

Five Months!

Posted on March 1, 2016 by annettelharvey

Happy 5 months baby girls! You are growing up so fast! This last month really flew by. The girls are getting more and more expressive, constantly smiling and giggling. Sloane is the first to smile but Maisie finds the simplest things to be the funniest. Yesterday they moved classrooms to the “older babies” room and are no longer with the new babies. Maisie is working hard to roll from her back to her belly but she can only make it halfway so far. Sloane loves to suck her right thumb at any given moment no matter if she is awake or sleeping. Both will still take a paci but only on occasion.

The girls are on the same feeding schedule as they were at 4 months so no changes there. Still sleeping great and all through the night around 11.5 hours every night. They are still wearing 6 month pjs and 3-6month onesies fit them the best. We still have them in some 3 month clothes but we are about to retire all of those. Their pants range from 6 month to 9 month pants depending on size and if they were bought new or are hand me downs (I believe the hand me downs must have shrunk some already).

I’m constantly amazed at how much joy these two bring to our family of five (six with Toby!). We are beyond blessed!

Four Months!

Posted on February 1, 2016 by annettelharvey

January flew by and the girls turned four months old today. They have done a great job their first month at “school” and have also survived their first colds. They both weight 14lb and are still sleeping about 12 hours every night. They are wearing size 6 month in pjs (due to their length) and in their pants (due to their bellies!) but still can wear size 3 month in onesies and tops. All of their dresses are size 3-6 months. Our girls love to smile and laugh. Sloane is more laid back and Maisie is the first to giggle uncontrollably and already more opinionated. They love to look at each other and smile when they see each other. They also love watching their big brother. Most of all they love to be held but we can’t complain because we love snuggling them.

Here is their current schedule:

6AM- Wake and Eat 7 oz
8AM – 10AM – Nap
10AM – Eat 7oz
12PM-2PM – Nap
2PM- Eat 7oz
4PM-6PM – Nap
6PM- Eat 7oz
In bed by 6:30PM

(Side note: The struggle is real to get a picture of these two. These pictures were taken one after another in a total of about 30 seconds. Now you can see why it’s so hard to get them both smiling!)

Getting Ready for Weekday

Posted on December 11, 2015 by annettelharvey

It’s time for another transition for the girls. As soon as we get used to one routine its time to change again. I go back to work in January and so its time to start getting the girls on a schedule that will work for them being at weekday (my work’s daycare program) and traveling back and forth each morning and afternoon.

The girls have also not been very hungry every 3 hours and are still really sleepy when its time to wake them up to eat and so I decided they could definitely go longer than 3 hours for each feeding. Ideally I would move them to a 3.5 hour schedule next but with driving to and from work and pick up at weekday that schedule just won’t work for our family. So yesterday they turned 10 weeks old and today I started them on a 4 hour schedule to see how things go.

Here is our new schedule:

6AM- EAT 5.5-6 oz
7AM- Nap at home, then in the car and drop off at daycare by 9am
10AM- EAT
11:30AM-2PM – NAP at daycare (swaddled in a Woombie)
2PM – EAT
3-4:30PM- NAP at daycare, I pick them up at 4:30, ideally they will nap in the car and at home
6PM- EAT
7PM-8:30PM NAP
8:30PM- BATH
9PM* – EAT

*Definitely hoping to drop this last feeding eventually, especially once the girls start solids and are getting enough calories during the day.

Newborn Feeding Schedule

Posted on October 19, 2015 by annettelharvey

I wish that I had done a better job of tracking the early days with our first as it relates to feeding schedules and how we slowly got rid of that middle of the night feeding and eventually got our son to sleep through the night (12 hours) before he was 3 months old (the actual date is hard to remember but it happened somewhere around 8-10 weeks).

When our daughters were born (just a little over 2 weeks ago!) I originally had them on a 2.5 hr feeding schedule in the hospital because I wanted to get their weights up (they were born at 5 lb 1 oz and 5 lb 5 oz and at 36 weeks). But when one of our daughters had to go to the special care nursery the nurses put her on a 3 hr feeding schedule. And so I considered it crazy to have twins on two different schedules and wanted that extra 30 minutes between feedings and so I realized every 3 hours would be just fine for both babies.

At our one week pediatrician visit our doctor gave us the “ok” to let the girls go for 5 hours at night before we needed to wake them up for a feeding. In order to maintain the same schedule I opted for two 4.5 hour stretches instead of one 5 hr and one 4 hr. Once we go back to the pediatrician in a couple weeks I’m hoping we get the “ok” to let them completely sleep through the night.. in which case the sleep training to stretch them to an eventual 12 hour sleeping period at night will begin! Sample schedules are below :).

Newborn Schedule 1 (Started immediately in the hospital)

6am
9am
12pm
3pm
6pm
9pm
midnight
3am

Newborn Schedule 2 (Usually ok to start once your baby reaches their birthweight or in this case since they were premies- once we got the “ok” from our doctor)

6am
9am
12pm
3pm
6pm
9pm
1:30am

15 Months!

Posted on August 15, 2015 by annettelharvey

Our sweet boy is 15 months today! He is growing and changing so much its hard to capture it all! He currently weighs 21 pounds and is about 30 inches tall. Despite his dad’s 6’3″ height our little man is hanging in right around the 25th percentile for his size. He is finally growing out of his 12 month clothes and now wears 12-18 month (Old Navy and Gap) and 18 month clothes (Carters).

Jude is running all over the place and prefers to walk into school instead of being carried. Still no definite words but the closest is when he holds a phone, remote or anything else up to his ear and says “hi!” 🙂 He can say please, more and all done in sign language and also waves bye and night night.

He still loves his paci and also enjoys playing outside with his Little Tikes car, as well as playing with balls, cars, trucks, books, Little People playsets and any boxes, bags or anything else random laying around the house.

This boy is keeping us running around and on our toys but we are loving every minute. He’s a handful and tons of fun all at the same time 🙂

His current schedule during the day is..

7AM: Wake and Breakfast with Milk
9:30AM: Snack at school
12:00PM: Lunch and Milk at school
1:30PM-3:30PM: NAP
3:30PM: Snack at school
6:00PM: Dinner and Milk
6:30PM: Bath
7:00PM: Bed