Our 2 Little Turkeys

Well, I must say we had the best Thanksgiving with our 2 favorite little turkeys. How is it that having kids makes the holidays so much more fun? Ellie & Audrie had a big day!! I woke early, fed them & then started preparing dinner. As I was making the sweet potatoe casserole I soon realized I had way too many sweet potatoes. Lucky day for the girls!! I decided instead of waiting until next week to start them on cereal, they would get their first taste of "real" food on Turkey Day!! I was able to freeze 4 trays of sweet potatoes for the girls from the extra that I had. I had so much fun, I think I'm really going to dig making baby food for them.

They did SO good with their first meal...yes, it was a bit messy; but I think they managed to get some food in their bellies. Ellie started opening her little mouth and slurping down the orange goo right away. Audrie, on the other hand had a little more unique way of eating. She opened wide and then would try to lick the food off of the spoon. Both ways seemed to work for them though!! Oh what fun!!

Their bellies were full & they went for a nap. When they awoke, Dad had brought back the Christmas tree. We turned on some Christmas music and decorated their first tree. Their busy day much have tuckered them out because they had their best night of sleep yet. Normally we put them down at 8:30 and they wake up a couple of times throughout the night. Last night....not a peep until around 6:30 this morning...YAY!!!

AND can I just say, I think I have the BEST husband. He kept the kitchen clean while I cooked, cleaned up dinner and kitchen, put away left overs & wrapped packages. What a man and what a great Thanksgiving!!

The Greatest Gift

Well, now that I can truly look at nursing twins as the "Greatest Gift" I've given my girls; I'm going to blog about it. My hope is that maybe this story will help any mother who is getting ready to start nursing or maybe having a hard time with breastfeeding and is ready to stop.

My goal from the moment I found out I was pregnant was to breastfeed exclusively. Even when I found out I was having twins I never waivered on this. People said it would be difficult and it might not be the ideal situation with twins; depending on if they were born early. Boy, were they right!!

I had read every book and I had decided NO bottles or pacifiers would be given for the first 2 weeks until they were established nursers. HA!! With a picture perfect start, your baby would be put on your chest after delivery and you would be allowed to nurse within a very short time. This was not the case for us. Because the girls were born at 34 weeks they were taken straight to the NICU. My first trip into the NICU and they already had binkies in their crib and were started on bottlefeeds. I about flipped but then realized they were doing what they had to in order to care for the babies. So much for that idea...at this point I knew it was going to be a struggle to nurse them later, but the nurses assured me it could be done.

Preemies are born without a good suck reflex and for this reason I wasn't allowed to try and nurse them until day 5 to make sure they were getting the nourishment they needed. Let's just say it was a long road...I was engorged like you wouldn't believe and was pumping 8 times a day to bring milk for them into the NICU. Once they came home I was pumping, allowed to nurse them a few times and day and then also bottle feeding. Every feeding took about 2 hours, so basically by the time I was done it was time to feed again. I thought I would never make it!! Many days I wondered why I was trying and thought about how easy it would be to just give them a bottle of formula.

Now, granted every mother doesn't have all of these challenges and setbacks. Preemies can be particularly difficult, but I know many mothers who struggle to nurse only to eventually resort to bottle feeding. I can't tell you how glad I am that I stuck it out. In the beginning it was so painful..everyone who says it isn't is lying. I used to dread every feeding, but then eventually it just got easy!! Now at 5 1/2 months it is a piece of cake. I look forward to every time I get to nurse the girls and now dread the day when they no longer want to nurse. To this day, I am proud to say they have not gotten a single bottle of formula!!! I truly feel like I have given them the best start to life!!

Well, this post turned out to be much longer than i planned, but I wanted to share my story. Who knows...maybe it will help a first time mom who is ready to throw in the towel!!!

5 Months ( 3.5 Adjusted)

Well, last week was another week of firsts. Both girls have been rolling over from their tummy to their back since they were just a couple of weeks old, but they've now mastered the "full roll over." Usually when they tried to go from back to tummy they would get an arm stuck and just couldn't "quite" make it over. On Thursday of last week Ellie was the first to do it and by Saturday Audrie had it down too. I love that they are rolling over, but it makes nap time a little hairy sometimes. Now that they are good at it, everytime I lay them down on their back; five seconds later they have rolled to their stomach...then they get mad until I roll them back over. Fun times, HAHA!!

Also, it's been really fun having Audrie find her voice. All day long she talks just to hear herself. She'll squeal and draw out all of her sounds, just to test out the old vocal cords. I was thinking it was extremely cute, however her dad was trying to get some work done so I knew he wasn't quite as amuzed. Oh well, squeal on Audrie!!