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Three Months!

Posted on January 1, 2016 by annettelharvey

Happy New Year and Happy three months to these two little ladies! They weigh about 12.5 and 13 lb, eat every 4 hrs during the day and we just stopped their last (5th) feeding of the night and now they sleep 11+ hours! Thank you Moms on Call! They are wearing 3 month and 3-6 month outfits and 6 month pjs (they are too long for 3 month pjs already!

Screen Shot 2016-01-07 at 8.14.13 PM

They are growing and changing so much. My goal in 2016 is to finally get a pic of both of them smiling at the same time! I love these sweet girls!

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 7:30pm*

*When we bathe them we do it after this last feeding and then “top them off” if needed to get them sleepy again and ready for bed. Ideally you would bathe before their last bottle but we can’t make it work with big brother’s schedule.

*Awake time usually involves, eating, tummy time, fun under the play gym or going for a walk outside. The most active they are during their wake time the better their naps are.

*When we put them down for the night they sleep all the way through until they wake up at 6am. They are great sleepers!

*At three months the girls were still in size 1 diapers. A week after writing this we moved them up to size 2 diapers.

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.

Two Months!

Posted on December 1, 2015 by annettelharvey

Our little loves are officially two months old today! They are growing so fast! They are in size 1 diapers and wear 3 month clothes. Sloane weighs 11 lb and is 22 in long. Maisie weighs 10lb 14 oz and is 22.5 in long. They sleep swaddled, side by side in one of their cribs. They are sleeping roughly 10pm-6am but we are working on getting them both to consistently sleep through the night each and night. We are in love with our little angels 🙂

Here is their current 2 month schedule:

6am- wake and eat 5 oz
7-9am- nap
9am- eat 5 oz
10am-12pm- nap
12pm – eat 5 oz
1pm-3pm – nap
3pm – eat 5 oz
4-6pm- nap
6pm- eat 5 oz

After the 6pm feeding I’ve tried a couple things.. at first we were consistently letting them nap until 9pm and then feeding another 5 oz and then bed from 10pm-6am. However I really wanted to work on dropping that 9pm feeding and getting closer to them sleeping 12 hours so I also tried feeding them a little more at 6pm and then putting them to bed for the night. They woke up a couple times but I never had to feed them. Just gave them their pacis, changed diapers if needed, and then back to bed.

Diaper Diaries for Twins

Posted on November 18, 2015 by annettelharvey

So with our first child I tracked the size and number of diapers we used each month. With the girls we are definitely flying through diapers MUCH faster! And so far staying in smaller sizes a lot longer.. Obviously size depends on the weight your little one is born. Our girls were 5 lb 5 oz and 5 lb oz when they were born. Here is my running list of our diaper diaries 🙂

Diapers by Size:
Size N (Our girls: 0-6 weeks)
Pampers Size: Up to 10 lb.
(5lb 5 oz and 5lb 1 oz – 7lb 13 oz and 7lb 12 oz)
Total: 942 newborn diapers for the first 6 weeks

Size 1 (Our girls: 6 weeks – 14 weeks)
Pampers Size: 8-14 lb.
(Roughly 8-13lb)
Total: 980 size 1 diapers

Size 2 (Our girls 14 weeks – 24 weeks)
Pampers Size: 12-18 lb
(Roughly 13-15lb)
Total: 1106 size 2 diapers

Size 3 (Our girls: 24 weeks- ?)
Pampers Size: 16-28 lb
(Roughly 15lb- ?)
Total: ?

Diapers by Month:
1st month: 657 diapers (newborn)
2nd month: 550 diapers (newborn and size 1)
3rd month: 581 diapers (size 1)
4th month: 533 diapers (size 1 and size 2)
5th month: 486 diapers (size 2)
6th month: 221 and counting… (size 2 and size 3)

18 Months!

Posted on November 15, 2015 by annettelharvey

Our boy is 18 months old! Jude loves to play outside, especially with his Little Tykes car (his favorite toy), he loves Elmo, Toy Story, throwing balls, his cars and trucks and is still a big Daddy’s boy. He is an incredible big brother to his sisters and now in addition to patting their heads he likes to give them kisses and hugs and likes for his stuffed animals to do the same.

Jude’s favorite words are “hi,” “uh oh,” and “no” and his favorite animal sounds are “roar,” “moo,” and “woof woof.”

He wears 18 month and 18-24 month clothes, and size 5 shoes. His favorite foods are fruits, especially peaches and strawberries and apple sauce. He also loves meat. He is not a big fan of veggies but we are still working on it. Here is his usual schedule:

7AM – wakeup, breakfast with milk
9:30am- snack at school
12:00pm- lunch with milk
1:30pm-3:30pm- nap
3:30pm- snack at school
5:30pm- dinner with milk
6:30pm- bath and brush teeth
7:00pm – bedtime

One Month!

Posted on November 1, 2015 by annettelharvey

Our little loves are one month old today! I can’t believe how fast time is flying by with these two! They still sleep between each feeding and wake up only once in the middle of the night. Sloane weighs 7lb 13 oz and Maisie weighs 7lb 12oz! They gained over 2 pounds in a month! Unbelievable! Diaper count for the first month is 657 diapers! And they are still wearing newborn diapers and newborn clothes. Love these two!

Lactation Cookies

Posted on October 27, 2015 by annettelharvey

Lactation Cookies… sounds kinda weird right? I don’t know how I had never heard of these with our first but they seem to be all the rage this year… a healthy cookie that you are encouraged to eat (like I need encouragement to eat sweets!) and it boosts your milk supply. Yes please! As I’m still trying to build up enough supply to feed our twins I’ll take all the cookies I can get- and in the meantime I’m also trying the fenugreek pills and Mother’s Milk tea.. I’ll let you know what works after I give them a couple of days to “kick in.” Meanwhile here is one recipe I’ve tried for the lactation cookies. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups unbleached organic all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons brewers yeast
3 tablespoons ground flaxseed
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons organic unsalted butter (1.5 sticks)
4 tablespoons unrefined organic virgin coconut oil
1 1/2 cups organic cane sugar
1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips

*I was able to find all ingredients at Publix except for the Brewers yeast which can be purchased at a health foods store like Whole Foods or I bought mine off Amazon.

Directions:

Preheat the oven the 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, yeast, flaxseed, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and salt.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the butter and coconut oil on medium speed until creamy.
Add in the sugar and beat on medium to high speed until fluffy, about 4 to 5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl if needed.
Add in the egg and egg yolk, beating until combined, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Add in the vanilla extract and beat until combined again.
Gradually add in the dry ingredients, beating on low speed until just combined and mixed.
Stir in the chocolate chips with a spatula until they are evenly dispersed.

Scoop the dough into 1-inch rounds* and place on a baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 14 minutes, or until the bottoms are just golden. Let cool completely before storing in a sealed container.

You can also easily freeze this dough – scoop the rounds on a baking sheet, place the sheet in the freezer for 2 hours, then place the dough rounds in a ziplock bag and store in the freezer. Bake at the same temp – they may or may not need an extra minute or 2 – your preference!

*Note: these cookies do not “expand” like regular cookies/cookie dough.. so the scoop size you use will yield the exact size of your cookies. I used a small cookie dough scoop and ended up with small cookies. Next time I’ll probably try using an ice cream scoop to get more “normal sized” cookies.

Original recipe available here.

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

Two Weeks!

Posted on October 15, 2015 by annettelharvey

Our twins are officially two weeks old! Currently we average about 19 diapers per day, 8 feedings which are all about a 45-60min process, a total of 5-6 hours of sleep in a 24 hr period (but at no more than 2 hrs at a time), 2 loads of laundry per day, countless dishes, and at least 1 major blow out of some sort. Who knew two tiny babies could create so much mess and yet win over our hearts so much more. We are all loving the joy they bring to our family. Jude and Toby have both become attached to their baby sisters as well which is priceless to watch and be a part of. I love his little family of ours!

Favorite Baby Products Part 2

Posted on October 9, 2015 by annettelharvey

Last year after our son was born I wrote a blog post about all of my favorite baby products and “Registry must haves.” While I still love and agree with all of those products here are some new favorites to add to the list (in no particular order)..and stay tuned as this is a growing list!

Basq Stretch Mark Butter

I used this cream with our first and had zero stretch marks. Awesome! However what sold me on this product was being pregnant with twins and still getting zero stretch marks! I also got the pregnancy rash pups on my belly. After using this cream for a couple days it went completely away. One jar lasted my entire singleton pregnancy and then I use 1.5 for my pregnancy with the twins (i.e. bigger belly!) I love this stuff!

Ubi Diaper Pail

I originally wrote about the Arm & Hammer Diaper pail which is great however the Ubi is definitely a step up. There are no special bags you have to buy – you can use regular trash bags – or if you really prefer you can buy their bags. There is no smell and you slide open the pail to reveal a hole to drop the diaper in. Completely one handed – and you don’t have to physically push a potentially squishy diaper into the pail like you do with so many others. Just drop and go. This is definitely a new favorite! (oh and it comes in lots of different and fun colors- enjoy!)

Lollipop Labels

One of my neighbors is super talented and owns her own Etsy shop called Lollipop Labels. She makes labels that are super cute and durable! My favorite is her “back to school”
bundle which includes labels that are dishwasher & microwaves safe, iron on, laundry care labels for clothes and shoes and 2 bag tags. It is the perfect set for daycare or school. I already put in my order for labels for the girls so I can start labeling some of their things (like pacis) that I want to keep separate. You won’t be disappointed!

Wow Cups

So this isn’t something you will need right away but the amount of slippy cups options available is a bit daunting. Especially when you finally choose one or two or serval to try out and they ALL leak. It’s so frustrating. These cups are the only ones we have found that are essentially spill proof. They are awesome. So easy to use, dishwasher safe and no spills- even when our little man drops it on the floor, bangs it on the table or throws it in his toy box. Note- these are pretty expensive ($10/cup) at the baby stores but you can get them for less than $5/cup on Amazon. Enjoy! 🙂

Simple Wishes Hands Free Breastpump Bra

I wish I had found this pumping bra with my last pregnancy. I ordered about 6 of the medela hands free pumping bras with my first because the zipper kept breaking and because my size increased as my supply did. The Simple Wishes bra is SOO much better! It has a zipper front but velcro on the back so you an adjust as needed as your body grows or slims and changes. It also has more coverage in the front and can be used with or without straps. This is a must buy if you plan to pump!