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… 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:
*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:
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.
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)
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)
Another great dish brought by another great neighbor as we are learning how to be parents of 3 under 2 years old! It’s easy for larger groups or for weeknight dinners. If you don’t like a lot of sauce check out the original recipe linked at the bottom of this post. If you’re like me and like a some sauce with your pasta then check out my adapted version written below. Thanks Jenn!
Ingredients:
Directions:
Original recipe available here.
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!
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!
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!
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!)
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!
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!
I wish I had taken a picture of this so I could show you how truly awesome and tasty this meal really is. In the last week, since the birth of our newborn daughters, we have been blessed by so many friends and neighbors stopping by and bringing us meals. Food really is one of the best gifts for people post delivery. It really just helps tackle one of those necessary items on your never-ending to-do list that you need to do but don’t have a lot of time to really spend on. If it wasn’t for these amazing gifts of food we would probably eat cereal at every meal until we get past the newborn phase!
Here is a recipe for Baked Spaghetti brought to us by our neighbor Jenny. It really is wonderful! Enjoy!
Ingredients:
1 (16 ounce) package spaghetti
1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (26 ounce) jar marinara sauce
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
5 tablespoons butter, melted
2 cups small curd cottage cheese
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Directions:
Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large
skillet, cook beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the marinara sauce and seasoned salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, Parmesan cheese and butter. Drain
spaghetti; add to egg mixture and toss to coat. Place half of the spaghetti mixture in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Top with half of the cottage cheese, meat sauce and mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes. Uncover; bake 20 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.
Introducing… our beautiful baby girls! Born Thursday, October 1, 2015.
Sloane Anne Harvey
10:05am, 5lb 5 oz, 19in long
Maisie Lynne Harvey
10:06am, 5lb 1oz, 18 in long
They were born via planned c-section (post coming soon on the ins and outs of c-sections). Sloane was “grunting” after she was born and so after a quick introduction she was taken to the “Transition Nursery” which is the level between being in the room with you but not serious enough to admit into the Special Care Nursery (NICU) of the hospital. KH followed her as Maisie and I headed to recovery. After being in recovery almost the full hour, our sweet Maisie started “grunting” as well and had a low glucose (blood sugar test) and so she too was taken to the Transition Nursery. It was quite a wild ride. I was wheeled up to my room, after delivering two babies, and found myself alone which was a completely heart breaking experience as I wanted nothing more than for our sweet family to be all together.
A lot of different things happened (many of which are hard to remember at this point) but eventually Maisie came to join us in our room later day followed by Sloane. I was overjoyed. We spent one night all together in our room until the next morning when Maisie failed a couple of her glucose tests and she was admitted to the Special Care Nursery.
We spent the next several days going back and forth between our room and taking care of
Sloane, and the Special Care Nursery where we could visit Maisie. I wanted nothing more than for our family to be together! One comfort was found in one of our friends and neighbors who is a nurse in the Special Care Nursery. She took care of Maisie all day on Saturday and kept us updated on how she was doing. Maisie was eating well but it was zapping all of her energy so she eventually was put on a feeding tube. Lauren was the first to get her to drink out a bottle but then the following feeding was completely by tube again.
KH, Sloane and I were discharged on Sunday and sadly had to leave Maisie behind. KH and I spent the next couple of days going back and forth visiting Maisie during the day and then heading back to the hospital after Sloane’s 9pm feeding and visiting with her until close to midnight. Each day she was getting stronger and stronger and was eating less and less from the feeding tube.
On Tuesday we went to the hospital to visit Maisie and to our surprise we found out that not only would Maisie be going home- she would be going home with us immediately! We were expecting later that week so it was a complete and wonderful surprise to be able to pack up and get her home so quickly.
And so we made it home and surprised my mom, who was there watching our little man, and we walked up with BOTH babies and finally got our picture of 5 (6 with Toby!)
It’s crazy how recent it all was but how quickly everything is meshing toward and becoming a blur. We feel overjoyed and blessed to have our sweet daughters home together with us. Let the fun begin!
Today is the our last baby bump pic! T-minus 3 days until we get to meet our sweet daughters. So excited and ready!
Well in case you were wondering, life 
is certainly bigger with twins! Today marks 30 weeks
with our baby girls. Here’s a side by side from when I was pregnant with Jude (left) and now the girls (on the right). Today I also hit one of my milestones- I’ve been super anxious, excited and ready to make it to the 30s. Here’s to getting even closer to our delivery date and the arrival of what we are praying will be two healthy babies. Currently no major complaints- I’m getting more and more tired, heartburn is getting worse but i’m managing and moving/walking is slower and more uncomfortable (especially at night after a long day). 6 more weeks to go! Can’t wait!
