Preemies Break the Rules!

Preemies Break the Rules! We have two preemies! Preemies are NOT newborns.

Our twins were born 7 weeks early and thanks to my 6 weeks of mostly hospital bedrest prior to their arrival both Mike and I, and the twins, were prepared for the best case scenario if they did come early…. Which they did!  I received steroid shots for their lungs and two doses of magnesium for their brains.

When they were born they had no health issues. The only thing they had to do to come home was gain weight and develop their suck and swallow reflex.

There were so many times when family members and friends questioned how we were caring for our babies. BUT our babies were NOT newborns they were preemies and this is how we were taught by doctors and NICU nurses to care for them.

I found this article on babycenter very informative and it would have been nice to send out to friends and family so they would understand why we were doing the things we were. For example why were we waking a sleeping baby in the middle of the night to feed them, why was I giving my breastfeed babies a bottle, etc!

So if you are a preemie mom or think you may have preemies, multiplies increase your risk… you should read this!

http://www.babycenter.com/101_5-newborn-rules-preemies-break_10371225.bc?intcmp=promoslice_pgmg_pos6prl

Hope this helps,

Heather

Some Fall Photos

As I sit here and wait for hurricane Sandy to knock our power out. I will share some fall photos :)

Happy Fall Y'all!

xoxo,

Heather

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from my sock monkeys! My mama made these for them!

5 month old schedule

TWINS’ SCHEDULE

5 months old

·         6:30 am - change diapers, clean Presley’s ears and give Noah his Iron (.033ml), feed each baby a 6oz bottle.

·         7-8/8:30 play mat time, bouncer, soother time

·         8:30- 10/10:30 – nap (10:30 is a stretch they are usually waking around 10 and then ready for a bottle)

·         10:30 am -  change diapers, dress each baby for the day, feed each a 6oz bottle

·         11:00 -1:00  – play time

·         1:00 – 2/2:30 – nap time again they have been waking before 2:30

·         2:30 – change diapers, feed each baby 6 oz bottle

·         3-4:15 – play time

·         4:15 – 5:30 – Nap time

·         5:30- 6:30 play time

·         6:30 – feed 6oz bottle

·         7-8:30 – play time

·         8:30 – baths, pjs, clean Presley’s ears, bottle, story, bed!

·         9:00 – bottle 4-6oz (as much as they will take, will eliminate with time) bed after the bottle 

We moved to a 4 hour feed schedule because Presley was starting to reject bottles due to not being hungry yet. Noah has a hard time making it to the 4 hour mark. Both have a hard time finishing the 6oz every time. But we are working up to it. They almost always do 5 oz and sometimes do 6oz. This is why we are still giving them a bottle at 9pm to make sure they are getting enough ounces for the day as the doctor says they need to be taking 24-32 ounces a day. As the twins get used to taking 6+ ounces in a feed we can eliminate the 9pm bottle.  Since the bottles are 6 ounces of breast milk we are now adding two teaspoons of enfacare to their bottles.

The naps are scheduled around feeding times to make these times easier to deal with since you are feeding one baby while the other is sleeping. The 6:30pm is a little different because usually both my husband and I are home so we can both feed one baby. The 8pm is a little different because no nap before bed! But if they are getting a little fussy/tired we just start their bath a little earlier than 8:30 and give them their bottle after then lay them down for the evening.

What is “play time”?

-          This is just time frames when I would ideally like the twins to be awake. Since they are still wee little babies (plus add in their adjust age) this doesn’t always work out. So if you think they really need a nap first try to put them in their swing and let them sleep. If they are still fussy lay them down for a nap. But usually a pacifier and the swing will do the trick.

What to do with them during “awake” time?

-          Cuddle, hold, love time

-          Tummy time on play mat

-          Story/books time

-          Bumbo time –sit them in their bumbo seats they love to look around. They can usually only do 10-15 minutes at a time before they start to get fussy. I think their head gets heavy!

-          Mirror time – they love seeing their self in the mirror. I just hold the hand held mirror for them and they love it! There is also a mirror on the play gym you can lay them by.

-          Music class– play music for them in their bumbos seats, sing, clap their hands and kick their feet. THEY LOVE THIS!!!

-          Play gym time – just lay them under the play gym

-          Floor time – let them roll around on the floor, you can also lay with them, do baby yoga… stretch their arms and legs, baby massage, they love having their feet and head rubbed.

-          High chair time – nice to put them in it when you eat. But also great (some people may not agree but when you have twins you keep your arms free and your baby happy in as many different ways as much as possible.) to incorporate more play time. Our high chair have three positions so it sits them upright but supports their head (different than the bumbo) lay toys, rattles, etc on table and show them to babies. Or have story time. They love it.

-          They can swing when they get tired of the above. As they get older I am trying to eliminate the swing time because they fall asleep. BUT THEY LOVE their swings especially the mobile. You can put them in the swing and turn on the mobile and not the swing since this will keep them stimulated but will not put them to sleep.

Note: This schedule is working well but the twins are still adjusting to the changes. Everyday can still be different as they are little babies and some days they just aren’t having it! As parents of twins we also try to be flexible since schedules and flexibility are the key to being happy, keeping our sanity, and still having a life.

Fun easy craft

Thanks pinterest. Found this idea for an easy DIY project to organizer all of baby girl’s bows (well it holds maybe half of them). It is a great nursery enhancement as well.

I used an old gold mirror frame, sprayed painted it pink, and then hot glued the ribbon down and BAM done!

So you may not have an old frame laying around to use… well you can pick out any wood picture frame and spray paint it any color you want.

Or you can use a cork board and take out the cork and make one. The only reason I suggest this is because a cork board is much cheaper than a larger picture frame.

I had fun making it and I am happy with how it turned out!

Again follow me on pinterest J

Follow me on Pintrest

Pinning away money saving tips, recipes, parents tips, dyis and many cute crafts! I don't just pin for the sake of pinning! I pin things I have tried (many things on this blog) or I pin things that I will try.


http://pinterest.com/hhmcmunn/


Happy pinning!

Xoxo,

Heather

Book Recommendation: 12 Hours of Sleep by 12 Weeks

Every mother should read this book! Even if your baby is already older than 12 weeks it can still help you make sure your baby is sleeping through the night!

            The author is a mother of five including, a set of twins. She also has sleep trained several sets of twins and worked with a M.O.M group of triplets in Washington DC.

            As with every book on sleep training and schedules you will have to tweak it to what works best for your children since every child is different.

Why I recommend this book

·         Easy read. I read in a couple of hours with breaks in between to care for the babies.

·         It starts with what to do from day 1 to eliminate habits that may be hard to break later down the road. But can also be useful to a mother at any stage of sleep training your children.

·         Discusses habits that may lead to a child not sleeping through the night

·         Discusses age and weights of when a child is ready to sleep through the night. I really like this since my twins are preemies. It was nice to know when they weigh 10lbs then you can try these methods vs. when they are blank age try these methods.

·         Discusses schedules and nap times.

·         Lastly, because it works! It has worked great for both of my twins. Both sleep through the night without waking every single night and can sleep for 12 hour stretches. They are happy well rested babies! I have read and heard the horror stories of one baby sleeping through the night and the other baby being a wake the whole night!

As I said earlier you may have to tweak some things (as with any book) to make the “plan” work best for your family. For example: my babies can easily sleep the 12 hours but I wake them after 9 hours of sleep to feed them and put them back down for the other 3. I do this so when the nanny (our moms) walks in the house she will have an easier transition and so I can have some mommy time with them before I go to work.

So we put the babies to bed at 9pm and wake them at 6am to feed them. When they are done feeding we put them back to bed until 9am.

Another tweak to the plan is we feed the babies less and more often this the book’s schedule recommends. Right now we are feeding ours twins every 3 hours/ 4oz/6 times a day…  the book says 8oz bottles 4 times a day. Our babies can’t finish an 8oz bottle in one feeding and if they drink much more than 4oz at time they spit it all up. This is still a total of 24 ounces.

The last tweak … the book suggests a 1 hour nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. We do three 1 hour naps instead. So they are still having 3 hours of nap time a day. But three 1 hour naps just works better with our feeding schedule and the twins wouldn’t nap much longer than 1 hour when we tried to do a 2 hour nap.

So as a wrap up this book is great but you may have to tweak some of the tips for your children! As a first time mom it really helped me to get an idea of schedules, sleeping patterns, and naps.

Again my twins sleep through the night every single night! So I recommend this book!

Buy it here:  http://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Hours-Sleep-Weeks-Step-/dp/0525949593/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350488491&sr=8-1&keywords=12+hours+of+sleep+by+12+weeks

 Hope this helps someone like it did me!

XOXO,

Heather

Working M.O.M Recipe - "Power House Quiche"

Working M.O.M Recipe

            This recipe is awesome because it can be breakfast, lunch or dinner. It’s easy to make, cheap, fast, keeps and reheats well, and of course it is delicious.

            I like to call this a “power house” dish. Breastfeeding (twins) is hard work and leaves me hungry all the time. So I have started to learn how to make and eat “power house” dishes they are high in protein and keep you full and satisfied between meals. 

This dish does wonders to control my hunger!

            This meal is also a low carb option.

This dish was inspired by my Aunt Darlene who makes a fabulous Crab Quiche.

 

Mrs. McMunn’s Crust less Power House Crab Quiche

·         5 eggs

·         ½ cup of milk

·         ¼ cup of water

·         ½ cup of cheddar cheese

·         ½ cup of parmesan cheese

·         2 slices of chopped bacon

·         1 can of crabmeat

·         Handful of diced onions

·         Handful of diced green peppers

·         Salt and Pepper to taste

 

1.      In a medium bowl scrabble eggs with cheeses

2.      Add milk and water

3.      In a frying pan fry the bacon, onions and peppers

4.      Combine crab meat, and cooked bacon, onions, peppers, and bacon grease to scrambled eggs

5.      Add salt and pepper to taste

6.      Transfer to pie pan

7.      Bake at 350 for 45 minutes

And Yum!

Don't like crab? Add more bacon instead! It will still be loaded with protein.

Xoxo,

Heather

Working Mom Dinners

Being a working mom is hard. When I come home my work day is far from over. I have to master feeding the family. Because eating out is expensive and not so healthy and the process of going to get food takes away time that I could enjoy relaxing at home with the twins. So I am starting another “topic” to this blog which will include easy, fast recipes you can prepare with in 30 minutes or recipes that can be prepared the night before and tossed into the oven the next day. As a home ec teacher a lot of this comes naturally to me, but as a new mom planning out easy not so over the top meals is something I am learning! I am spending time browsing the internet and reading through my stack of cookbooks to discover my favorites. I will document them here to hopefully help others and to keep track of our favorites.

This dish, Baked Ziti, can be prepared the night before. This dish takes about 20 minutes of prep time which includes boiling noodles and browning ground beef. Then an additional 30 minutes to bake dish. The total recipe time is roughly 1 hour.

Mrs. McMunn’s Baked Ziti

·         1lb ground beef

·         1 box of Ziti noodles ( I usually use 3/4 of a 16oz box)

·         1 jar of spaghetti sauce (I prefer tomato and basil)

·         ¼ cup of diced onion

·         1 minced garlic clove or a teaspoon of garlic salt

·         2 cups of Mozzarella cheese

·         1 cup of Ricotta Cheese

·         1 cup of Parmesan Cheese

Like spicy? Add ½ teaspoon of crushed red peppers.

·         In a pan pour a small amount of olive oil. Add onion, garlic, and crushed red peppers (if like spicy) sauté for 1 minute then add 1 pound of group beef, brown.

·         Boil noodles following packet directions

·         In a bowl combine 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, and spaghetti sauce. Mix together and then add ziti noodles and ground beef.

·         Transfer the pasta to an oiled 9 x13 inch baking dish. Cover the top of the pasta with the remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

·         Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

The best part of this dish is that it feeds my family for two nights. So you can eat it later in the week or you can freeze for the future (it freezes well). Or have it for lunch. Or have friends or family over for dinner.

Yum! I serve this with a garden salad.

XoXo,
Heather

4 month old Schedule

TWINS SCHEDULE

AS OF 10/3/12

Twins 4 months old

·         6 am - change diapers, clean Presley’s ears and give Noah his Iron (.033ml), feed each baby a 4 oz bottle. Put back to bed until 9am.

·         9am -  change diapers, dress each baby for the day, feed each a 4oz bottle, play time until 10:30

·         10:30 – 11:30 – lay down for hour nap. If they will sleep a little longer let them. It will make the 12 feeding easier. I would love this nap to be 11-12 but they are usually falling asleep by 10:30. You can wake one at 11:45 change, feed and then wake the other. So you don’t have two fussy hungry babies at 12.

·         12 – change/feed time

·         12:30- 2 – play time

·         2-3 – Nap time

·         3pm – change/feed time

·         3:15ish – 4:15ish – play time

·         4:15ish – 5:15 – nap time. This nap is a huge help to me, gives me time to get organized after coming home from work and get dinner started.

·         6pm – change feed

·         6-8:30 – play time

·         8:30 – baths, pjs, clean Presley’s ears, bottle, story, bed!

The naps are scheduled around feeding times to make these times easier to deal with since you are feeding one baby while the other is sleeping. The 6pm is a little different because usually both my husband and I are home so we can both feed one baby. The 8pm is a little different because no nap before bed! But if they are getting a little fussy/tired we just start their bath a little earlier than 8:30 and give them their bottle after then lay them down for the evening.

What is “play time”?

-          This is just time frames when I would ideally like the twins to be awake. Since they are still wee little babies (plus add in their adjust age) this doesn’t always work out. So if you think they really need a nap first try to put them in their swing and let them sleep. If they are still fussy lay them down for a nap. But usually a pacifier and the swing will do the trick.

What to do with them during “awake” time?

-          Cuddle, hold, love time

-          Tummy time on play mat

-          Story/books time

-          Bumbo time –sit them in their bumbo seats they love to look around. They can usually only do 10-15 minutes at a time before they start to get fussy. I think their head gets heavy!

-          Music class– play music for them in their bumbos seats, sing, clap their hands and kick their feet. THEY LOVE THIS!!!

-          Play gym time – just lay them under the play gym

-          Floor time – let them roll around on the floor, you can also lay with them, do baby yoga… stretch their arms and legs, baby massage, they love having their feet and head rubbed.

-          High chair time – nice to put them in it when you eat. But also great (some people may not agree but when you have twins you keep your arms free and your baby happy in as many different ways as much as possible.) to incorporate more play time. Our high chair have three positions so it sits them upright but supports their head (different than the bumbo) lay toys, rattles, etc on table and show them to babies. Or have story time. They love it.

-          They can swing when they get tired of the above. As they get older I am trying to eliminate the swing time because they fall asleep. BUT THEY LOVE their swings especially the mobile. You can put them in the swing and turn on the mobile and not the swing since this will keep them stimulated but will not put them to sleep.

Note: This schedule works well. But everyday can still be different as they are little babies and some days they just aren’t having it! As parents of twins we also try to be flexible since schedules and flexibility are the keep to being happy, our sanity, and still having a life. What is NOT flexible is the feeding time they have to eat every 3 hours or we have a bad day! We are flexible with nap times as they will not always sleep for a nap or stay awake during play time. On weekends they are out and about with us and are sometimes napping in the car or stroller. We are lucky that they sleep through the night every single night! Naps are important but if they still have a good amount of awake time they still will sleep at night!

Twins pictured below are NOT my twins. Just a picture of twins sleeping peacefully.





I feel like this is a master piece and I am sharing it with the world :)
I hope this helps someone!
Heather