The post with no name

I started this post a week or so ago and just haven't been able to finish it. So I figured I would try to finish it and get it posted. Here goes:

It's been too long since I posted. For some reason I can't seem to find anything to post about. Actually that's not true, There's been stuff to blog about. But I get writers block every time I try to start. Here's our life in bullet points:

• 
  
  Will has 6 teeth now.
• 
  
  Ellie has 4 teeth.
• 
  
  Will can pull himself up on furniture and cruise around.
• 
  
  Will can also crawl on his hands and knees. Up until today he would just do the army crawl.
• 
  
  We've all been sick. Jim got it first, then Ben, Will and me. Ellie barely got sick at all. Jim got it the worst.
• 
  
  Jim almost lost his job but it seems pretty ok now.
• 
  
  Will bit me three or four times while nursing and my right breast was so painful that you can barely touch it. It made me almost cry to nurse on that side. There were two little holes where he bit me. It looked like I was nursing Reneseme (LOL that's for Twilight fans. - I just reread Breaking Dawn) The pediatrician (I mentioned it during an appointment for Ben and the ped knew we were in between primary care doctors so he checked me out. AWESOME DR! ) gave me an antibiotic to cure the infection which took away the pain. Will hasn't bit me in over a week thank goodness! I would cringe every time I'd go to nurse him because I was so scared of being bit again. It was REALLY Painful!
• 
  
  Ellie knows how to clap when you say "Yeah!"
• 
  
  Ellie will copy me and Ben when we shake our head and say "No! No! No!"
• 
  
  Ben had a horrible rash. On his front and his back. I took him to the doctor and it turns out his excema has returned. He gave me a prescription for a cream and told me to coat him in lotion. ( should have remembered that's what we had to do when he was little)
• 
  
  Ellie can pull herself up to standing. We had to lower her crib on Monday. She was still at the highest setting until then.
• 
  
  Ellie can't resist a laundry basket. If there is a full one near her she has to empty it. There's one next to her crib and today when I went in to get her up from her "nap" (she didn't sleep) There were two towels and two sleeper jammies in her crib.
• Will said "Mama" today. (I can't say for certain that he knew what he was saying but I was down the hall and he saw me and started crawling to me and he said "MaMa"
• We went on a  tour of a preschool the other day. Ben will be going in Sept. I think he's pretty excited about it. (Not that I think he's really aware of what preschool is. He knows preschool is learning and fun but he doesn't understand this preschool isn't at our house and Mommy isn't going to be there. )

I think that is our updated life. Now for the part you are really here for - PICTURES:

Standing in their crib (no he's really not THAT much taller than her. I think he's on his toes)

Ellie's stink face

Will trying to watch tv over the table

Ben's monster face

Will's First mohawk

Ben

Ben's rash

My Boys

Ben painting a volcano

Jim and Ben ( I LOVE THIS PICTURE)

Ellie with her crazy smile in the laundry

Potty Training, Teeth and Weaning

We've been working on potty training Ben which hasn't been fun. All week I've put him in underwear. If he had two accidents in a day I'd put him in a diaper. So everyday this week he ended up in diapers about noon (one day he made it until 2). I haven't been able to figure out any that would work to get him to pee in the toilet until today. On my friend's facebook page she talked about these bullseyes for the toilet. I though to myself maybe that would work for him. So what I did was found a bullseye clipart. I printed up probably 50 of them. So today he peed in the toilet all day! He stayed dry until 6:00. We had people over, he was watching tv and I forgot to ask him if he needed to pee so I can't really blame him. I am so thrilled! He loved peeing on the targets.

More good news Will has a third tooth! This one is on top. I think he's going to wean himself soon. He will only nurse for a few minutes and then is horribly cranky. I just don't think he's getting enough. I nursed him this afternoon for about 5 minutes then he refused to nurse anymore. He was still so cranky so I made him a 6 ounce bottle and he downed it in minutes. Then he was really happy.

Ellie however wants nothing to do with a bottle. She would rather not eat and wait for me to get home than take a bottle. It will be weird to have one on a bottle and one nursing.

Anyone else wean one and continue to nurse the other?

Mastitis (TMI)

Thursday night I started feeling a little pain like I had blocked duct. This is probably the 8 or 9th one I've had since I started nursing the twins. I never got one with Ben but now I get them constantly. This time it actually is Mastitis not a blocked duct. Yesterday was horrible. I felt awful. I had a constant headache that wouldn't go away and a temperature of 100.9 I couldn't wear a bra. You couldn't even touch my boob, it was so sore. I called my doctor to make an appointment. The only one they had was in 15 minutes and there was no way I was going to get there in time. They told me to go to Urgent Care so after Jim got home from work I went.

The doctor said it was Mastitis but it wasn't horrible. He was glad I came in when I did. He put me on an antibiotic and told me to follow up with him on Tuesday.

So today I started feeling better except I could still feel the blockage. I took a hot shower this morning and tried to express some milk. What came out was gross. It looked like pus. It was stringy and thick. This evening I sat on the couch and tried to express some more. Nothing would come out of the one blocked "hole" So I kept squeezing. I felt a little pop and a tiny ball of milk came out. Then when I expressed, pus just poured out. It's really gross. I just expressed more and its still stringy and I've had a couple more "pops" then pus/milk pours out. The pressure is lessening. I'm still taking the antibiotic to clear up the infection. Hopefully it will go away soon.

Give me Five Monday

So I was sitting here thinking about what I could blog about today. I could blog about the fact that I have to eat Skittles in a certain order (green, purple, yellow, orange, red) or

that I am stuck on the Twilight Saga books (I just finished all 3 books in less than a week or that I can't wait for the 4th book to come out! Aug 2nd.)

or that my c-section incision is almost completely healed! (YEAH it only took almost four months. I still have one part that is still open but it's getting shallower - is that a word?)

But I didn't figure any of that was really blog worthy and I didn't have too much more that was even worth mentioning.

Oh Wait - I did go to a breasfeeeding clinic today and they said we are doing great. Will is now 12lbs .09oz and Ellie is now 9lbs.09oz. So things are looking good in that regard.

But I found this blog Give Me Five Monday today. Each week, she will put out a random topic from a list of topics and the readers share 5 answers of their choice on the given topic and link back to her. I thought it might be fun so here goes....

Today's topic

Give Me Five fun summer vacation memories from your childhood.

1. Ferrell's - We were all swimming in our doughboy pool and my parents called out for us to come inside because they were taking us to Ferrell's!

2. Family Reunion - Every year we would go to a huge family reunion. It was with my dad's side of the family and there would be about 150 people there. I used to love going and hanging out with all of my extended family.

3. Girls Camp - When I turned tweleve I was allowed to go to Girl's Camp with our church. It was from Tuesday through Saturday and I loved it. I would get homesick at night but it was so much fun. We would do crafts and sing songs and go to classes and build friendships and our testimonies. I always hated coming back to the 'real world'

4. Birthday Parties - My sister Amanda and I have birthday's that are 3 days apart so we always shared a birthday party. We would have friends over for a sleep over and play games and eat cake.

5. Sleeping on the trampoline - During the summer we were allowed to sleep on the trampoline in the back yard. We learned quickly that you had to make sure that there were blankets underneath you as well as on top of you or else you would freeze. Sometimes I'm tempted to sleep on it now (except it's broken and I'd be sleeping in the dirt and I'm WAY to old for that) But I wouldn't mind spending the night on the trampoline again.

Hope, Hopefully

So today was yucky as well but last night was good. They slept from 10:00pm to 3:00 am. It was bliss. Will screamed for alot of the day today. poor baby. I made an appointment with the pediatrian for tomorrow. Hopefully he will be able to do something for my poor baby. I sat on the couch this after noon and just cried with both of them. (poor Ben was trying to watch "backnonigans" - Backyardigans. He was standing right in front of the tv with his hands over his ears) I have to do something to solve his problems.

I went to a La Leche League meeting tonight. It went really well. I talked to the leader of the group and she said she doesn't think they are starving. She told me she wants me to go to the breastfeeding clinic and they should be able to help me. It's on Monday morning so we are going to really try to get there. Everybody loved the babies. They did really good. Neither cried for very long. Will cried for a little while but he ate and went back to sleep. They have meetings every 3rd Wednesday so I think we may continue to go to them.

I really feel better tonight (even though today was really hard) Hopefully the Doctor can give us some ideas on how to help Will. I love that little guy so much and it's so hard for me to see him in pain.

Hard Day

Today was a really hard day. Will was up a ton last night and then didn't sleep worth crap today. He napped for a total of about 3 hours for the whole day. I broke down and gave him a bottle at 9:00. He nursed at 7:17 - 7:25am and then at 9:00 he was SCREAMING so I just tried the bottle. He downed it and then he was a totally different child. Happy and smiling. So I figured maybe the problem is he's starving. But I can't get him to nurse for longer than about 10 minutes at each feeding. He wants to eat every two hours and acts like I've never fed him before if he goes any longer than that. Today he ate 9 times. (plus two 4 ounce bottles) The longest was 15 minutes every other time was under 10 minutes. He spent quite a bit of time just screaming today. I can't put him down but even when I'm holding him he will scream. I felt horrible today I just wanted to shake him. I really do understand how people can cross that line shake their babies. Thankfully I have that support system and I know what damage shaking a baby can cause and I would never do it. But there are times that I just want him to. shut. up. When he has been screaming for 20 minutes and Ellie starts crying and Ben wants to be held I just about lose it. I hate that feeling. I don't want to feel that ovewhelmed with my children. I adore them and would never ever hurt them.

I am going to a La Leche League meeting tomorrow night to hopefully get some help with dealing with Will. I just have no ideas on what to do. On top of everything I have a blocked Milk duct which is SO PAINFUL! (I think it's because they don't nurse for very long) I definately don't want to give up nursing them and I don't want Will to get too used to the bottle. If he gets a significant amount of bottles he gets lazy with nursing and only wants a bottle. I just wish I had the answers as to how to help Will. I hate that he's so unhappy. I hate that I don't know how to fix it. Hopefully they will have some answers tomorrow night. I really do need some help.

I think it would have been easier to deal with if I had gotten some sleep or if my house wasn't a complete disaster. I really wanted to clean the living room today and go through Ben's toys(He has so many and I need to put some in storage) but I couldn't do anything because Will needed all my attention. When he didn't need me it was Ellie or Ben. I'm really trying to be a good mom I just feel like I'm failing. I feel so overwhelmed sometimes. There is so much that I want to do and don't feel like I can get to anything. I would love to have one day that I could just be childless and clean/organize my whole house and take a really long nap (except it would take more than a day and I'd have to stop every two hours to nurse because I don't want them to not nurse) Sigh

Please pray that tonight will be better. I need some sleep if I'm going to deal with this again tomorrow. Good night all :)

Eating and Sleeping

Things are going really well . Most nights are pretty good with sleeping. The babies go to bed about 9:30 -10:00 and don't wake up until 1:30 -2:00. The second half of the night is a little rougher. Actually they sleep until 4:30 or so then they are up at least every hour until 7:30 or 8:00 when they go down for a nap. (I say "they" but I really mean Will) Ellie will sleep almost all night. I wake her up at the one o'clock feeding and the 4:30 one but let her sleep for the rest. She barely nurses at the 4:30 one but I'm still too nervous to not wake her up. I'm not nervous about her starving (I know she won't) I'm nervous that as soon as I put Will back in the crib Ellie will wake up and want to nurse or even worse she will wake up a half hour after I put Will down. I'm contemplating trying to let her sleep through the 4:30 one tonight. Wish me luck.

During the day is kinda hit and miss. If I can get them to sleep in their beds they will usually sleep for a little longer than they do in the living room but not always. Will still prefers to be held even while sleeping which is so sweet but so hard to accomplish anything. So we're still working on daytime sleep.

Nursing is going well. We have pretty much cut out all formula. Some days they get 2 ounces but not usually. They are beginning to nurse longer but still have quite a few times where they nurse for 10 minutes or less. I am no longer stressing over it and I figure if they are still having a ton of diaper changes and growing we are doing good.

Ellie Smiling

Will Smiling (this is the first picture I've ever gotten of him smiling)

And Ben Sleeping (He was watching TV and I looked over to find him sleeping like this)

San Diego County Fair

Thanks to Jim's work we got tickets to go to the San Diego County Fair today. We left at 10:00 and all three kids slept in the car pretty much the whole way there. We had alot of fun. There was a kid area that had lots of little rides. Ben had a blast! First thing he did was ride on a jungle train with Jim.

(this was the first time Ben has been on any type of carnival/fair ride) There was a motorcycle ride next to the jungle train and Ben LOVES motorcycles so he wanted to go on that one. This one Jim couldn't go on with him so Ben had to go alone. He started out ok

But that changed very quickly

I just wanted to jump over the guard rail and save him. My baby was terrified and needed his mommy. Jim came to the rescue by asking if the attendant if he'd stop the ride and let Ben off. The guy said that was fine. We tried a safer ride next.

Still not too sure with it

But any ride that Jim went on with him was fine.

He played one of the carnival games. The object of the game was to throw one of the balls into a red cup to win a prize. The cups were floating in water. 90% of the cups were white. The woman running the game said it was 5 balls for $5. She initially gave Ben 10 balls and then she just kept refilling his basket. (She said he'd get a prize even if he didn't get one in the red cup.) But he did!! So he won a stuffed dog.

Then she told Jim if he played she would upgrade the dog to the bigger size even if Jim didn't win. Jim didn't win but Ben still got the bigger dog.

After that we went over and saw some birds. Ben was a little unsure about having them on his stroller.

Will and Ellie did great. They basically slept the whole time.

Ellie at the fair

And Will

Poor little Ellie Belly. She got a mild sunburn on her nose. I didn't think to put sunscreen on the babies because I knew they would spend most of their time in the stroller. Well Ellie wanted to be held for a little while and she burned. So many people stopped us to tell us how cute Ellie was. I think someone even took her picture.The little girl already has the paparazzi after her.

The only hard part was nursing in public. I'm not very good at it. I ended up giving them both a bottle because neither would nurse for very long. They just kept getting so frustrated. It's really hard to keep them covered and nursing. I guess I'll just have to practice more.

Overall it was a great day. I love spending time together with my family.

** I have to show you a close up of his sunglasses because they crack me up. I got them at Target. The lenses lift up. Ben will open them and say "Hello" then close them and say "goodbye!"

Swim Lessons and Colic (and advice wanted)

Ben is taking swim lessons now. He is doing great! He is learning how to float on his back and hold his breath under water. If you ask him about them he will tell you he hates them. He never wants to go and protests all the way to the pool unless you are talking about what he does during the lessons. He will tell you about all the games he plays and what he does. He loves the "Froggy" game and the "Humpty Dumpty" game. I think that one involves falling into the water. He cries when I leave but has a blast the whole time.

On a less happy note - both Will and Ellie have colic. Oh the Joy! 5 pm to 10pm is quite noisy in our house. Most nights we go through our whole bag of tricks, which include - bouncy chair, swing, bath, walks, nursing, bottles, mylicon, laying on the floor, outside, and swaddling. Each thing only lasts for a few minutes which makes for a very tired Mommy. The hardest part is one is usually calm while the other one is fussy so there isn't a break. Or at least there isn't much of a break. Ellie loves to lay on the floor but Will doesn't. Will likes the swing and if he's wrapped in his fuzzy blanket with his pacifier he will usually sleep for a little while (until the pacifier falls out) Hopefully it won't last too much longer. I think colic only lasts for about 4 months give or take and they are just about 3 which means only a month left unless you go by adjusted age which means 2 months left.

Here is where the advice is needed - Quite often they want to nurse every two hours but a lot of the time they won't nurse longer than 10 minutes (sometimes they will go longer but a lot time it's 7-9 minutes) I would love to lengthen how long they go between feedings and how much they eat but I don't know how. They tend to FREAK out at the 2 hour mark and not much calms them down except nursing. Sometimes they won't even go two hours they want to nurse every hour. It's hard to get anything done. They also don't nap for very long. They will take one long nap in the am (roughly 1 - 2 hours) and from then on they sleep in 1/2 hour to 45 minute increments. Then they barely sleep at all from 4 - 10. Will sometimes falls asleep at 9 and will sleep through until 1am but Ellie won't go to bed before 10:30. HELP! Any advice would be great.

Life with Twins and a Two Year Old

My three babies





I'm going to try to keep this updated but I'm not making any promises. My hands have been really full lately. Go figure.

This is what a day looks like in our house

6:10 both babies awake

6:19 -6:30 feed both

6:30 both asleep

7:20 - both awake

7:30 - Ben awake

7:27 - 7:34 feed both

7:30 - Ellie asleep

7:45 - Will asleep

8:00 - get Ben breakfast

9:51 - Ellie awake

9:56 - 10:07 - Feed Ellie

10:00 - Ben snack

10:05 - Will awake

10:08 - 10:15 - Feed Will

10:36 - 10:47 - Feed Will

10:47 - Will asleep

12:00 - Ben Lunch

1:14 - Both awake

1:28 - 1:46 feed both

1:59 - 2:04 feed Will

2:15 - Ben Snack

2:45 - Ellie asleep

3:00 - 3:14 Feed Will

3:35 - Ellie awake

4:00 - Will asleep

4:37 - Will awake

4:34 - 4:41 feed both (will started at 4:38)

5:00 - Jim home - Jim makes dinner

5:00 - give both babies a bottle

5:30 - Ellie asleep

5:47 - Will asleep

6:00 - both awake

6:10 - take everyone outside to play/visit with Grandma and grandpa

7:00 - bathe both (They gets baths on Sun, Tues, Thurs, Fri and Ben gets one on Mon, Wed, Sat. Jim gives Ben his baths and I bathe the babies with my mom's help. They all can get baths on other nights too if needed.)

7:11 -7:21 - feed Will

7:24 - 7:46 - feed Ellie

8:00 - take both babies for a walk

8:30 - Jim puts Ben to bed

8:45 - both babies asleep

9:15 - both awake

9:42 - 9:48 feed both

9:50 - give both babies a bottle

10:19 - both babies asleep

10:30 - Jim and I go to bed

1:26 - both babies awake - actually Will wakes up and then I wake Ellie (if not I'm up even more)

1:40 - 1:47 feed both

2:05 - both asleep

3:30 - both awake

3:32 - 3:45 feed both

3:45 both asleep

then it starts over at 6:00

The twins are growing so big! They were born at 35 weeks 6 days. Will started out at 5lbs 2oz and Ellie was 4lbs 10oz. Two months later Will is 9lbs 9oz and Ellie is 7lbs 14oz. It's amazing to see the size difference in the two babies. Will is HUGE compared to Ellie.



This is just home from the hospital

And this is at two months.





In the two months they have been alive we have gone through 1184 diapers between the two of them (actually more than that because I've been keeping track but I'm missing 2 1/2 days of information) This doesn't include diapers for Ben. We really need to buy stock in Huggies.



We are getting the hang of breastfeeding. Wow it's alot harder than breastfeeding just one. Will fights it sometimes. I asked the pediatrition if he thought it was reflux but he said no he thought Will was just being lazy. We have been supplementing with 2 oz of formula after every feeding since they were born. Will stopped nursing as long and just wanted a bottle. I'm trying to completely cut out the bottles. There are times that they will nurse for 20 minutes but more often than not they only nurse for >10 minutes. I was really worried about it but they are having the appropriate amount of diapers per day (they have on average 8 diapers in 24 hours) and they are gaining weight well. I'm trying to not worry.



I've come to the conclusion that you need one more arm than the number of children that you have. So I need 4 arms now. Ben is having a rough time at times. He has a hard time when Mommy is holding both babies. He says "Mommy you want to hold 3 babies?" and then he will try to climb on my lap too. I'm really trying hard to give him a lot of attention as well.

It's a lot harder than I imagined to raise 3 kids. I knew it would be hard but I really don't feel like I have any time to myself. Like right now - I really should be - making my bed, doing the laundry, doing the dishes, doing the bills, etc. But I'm slacking on all of that to start this blog. One more thing I've just added to my plate - silly me. I must be asking for punishment.

Well I'm going to actually go start some of the things I need to get done before one of the babies wake up. Wish me luck!