Pacifier Weaning

After the twins first birthday I wanted to wean them from the pacifier. I allowed them to have their pacifiers at nap and night time since my main reason for wanting to wean from the pacifier is because I didn’t want it to interfere with their communication skills. You can’t talk with a pacifier in your mouth!

I thought the weaning process was going pretty well. Then we had two vacations where other babies had pacifiers and it drove the babies crazy. They were trying to steal everyone’s! So I gave in and let them have theirs.

Since returning from vacations, I feel like am fighting a useless battle. P is the main one who is addicted. N doesn’t really care as much. When P gets up from a nap, I’ll try to take her paci and throw it in the crib. Sometimes she goes crazy…. When she stuck her thumb in her mouth instead, I decided fine, have the pacifier! Since I can’t take her thumb from her!

So… we are still working on pacifier weaning, and while I am not being that strict about it right now. I can usually distract them from the pacifier but when they truly refuse I give in.

Oh well!  Looks like the paci is here to stay a little longer!

Hashimoto hypothyroid

My life with Hashimoto Hypothyroid disease.

I found out that I have a hypothyroid in 2011, while pregnant with my twins, during my 1^st obgyn appointment where they drew blooded and tested me for it. This is a standard test during pregnancy because during the first trimester low thyroid can cause miscarriages and mental handicaps to the developing baby.

At this appointment I learned that my TSH was a 5.0. This level was right outside one thyroid standard that says your levels should be no higher than a 4.5.

My first question was is this because of the pregnancy. It was not because of the pregnancy meaning I have been struggling with the thyroid disease in the past and the pregnancy just brought it to the surface.

I did not handle the news that I had a “disease” well at all. I was used to having a clean bill of prefect health. I seriously have never had anything wrong with me in my life. The idea of taking a medication daily was foreign and scary to me.

Hindsight is always 20/20 and looking back over the college years I think I struggled on and off with my hashimoto. I remember one time going to the doctor and complaining about extreme exhausted and crazy weight gain… and the doctor checking my iron levels because she assumed I was anemia and when they came back normal she had me convinced it was in  my head.

Having your thyroid levels tested is not a standard test. And it should be.

I have researched my heart out on this disease and joined countless support groups and online forums to discus symptoms and treatments opinions with people similar to me.

My symptoms have included: extreme brain fog, weight gain, memory loss, achy body parts, headaches, exhaustion, and the inability to adjust well to temperature changes.

Since the twins were born I have had my blood levels checked every 6 weeks. It is just now that I am starting to feel better. If I hadn’t have been pro-active and passionate about getting better I would still be feeling like crap.

So I will continue with my story.

I was given synthyroid in 2011 right after finding out that my thyroid levels were low. I tested normal the rest of my pregnancy. I never felt “normal” during my pregnancy… but I was pregnant with twins so didn’t know what I was supposed to feel like!

10 weeks after the twins were born, I had my levels checked and my levels had flew to a 17! Normal 0.5 – 4.5. Besides the normal emotional aspect of having preemies, at the 6 weeks post partum I was feeling pretty good. I had lost a lot of weight and was starting to feel normal.

Then I started to tank. I had experienced a very typical post pregnancy thyroid issue. I swung in to a hyperthyroid phase. My levels went super high, I had energy, and lost weight. This happens because your body is use to making for you and baby(ies) and then post pregnancy your body has a hard time switching gears. Well this caused my body to overwork itself and kill off the rest of my thyroid gland completely--- this caused my TSH to shoot up to a 17, weight gain, exhaustion, and aching body parts.

My doctor changed my synthroid from 50 mcg to 150mcg… and in 6 weeks my TSH dropped down to a 4, right inside “normal” limits. But here’s the catcher… I felt NO different.

I wondered how I could have such a huge dosage change…my levels drop that much… and I felt NO different.

My doctor’s answer was you might just need to have lower levels to feel better… so I got another dosage increase. My levels got down to a 2.5. I still did not feel any better or different. The doctor told me if I still had symptoms since my levels were normal… than they were no longer related to my thyroid disease… she told me something else was causing the symptoms.

My favorite is when the doctor would use my twins as an excuse to why I was feeling crappy! This always pissed me off!

All the time these test where going on and medicines dosage changes were happening I was researching… information on thyroid disease and treatments.

I asked my doctor do you think, I need T3 replacement? The answer no your levels are normal. But you didn’t test my free T3. The answer I did a conversion. I asked the doctor can I try natural medications verses the synthetic. The answer no, natural medicines are bad. We can't control them the same way and they are harder to regulate. 

After this conversation… I knew it was time… for a NEW DOCTOR!

GUESS What the new doctor tested my free T3 and my levels were wacky!

My body was not converting T3 to T4… so basically in  a nutshell I had a lot of TSH in my blood, but my body was not able to use it!! Doing me no good!

The new doctor let me try Armour thyroid a natural thyroid replacement. 6 weeks later I felt better than I had in almost 2 years!

So why is Armour so much better? Because it is natural! And contains both T3 and T4! So your body can recognize and use the hormone.

Synthroid is only a T4 replacement and this is why many people never feel better taking only synthroid. Your doctor may try to brain wash and tell you everything is “fine” because your levels are “normal” but don’t give up.

You have to be the driving force of your health care. If you have hypothyroidism do your own research on some of the things I have mentioned and as you read and learn, I bet you are going to be mad at your doctor and yourself for letting this go on for so long!

This makes me laugh and was so true in my case and any many people I have talked to as well.

Why so quiet?

I have been quiet with the blogging recently because I am not really ready to announce this news. Since I told a friend today, who really didn’t say anything, I know there is only a matter of time before this information leaks. Especially since most of my friends will be at a wedding this week. I won’t be there because I went to a different high school and don’t really know the person.

So anyways… I am pregnant again! I am totally excited but have a lot of mixed emotions about it. This was not exactly planned. We knew we wanted more children and we knew we wanted them sooner than later, and we talked about trying late summer/early fall. So this this is only a few months off the plan.

I am a planner. So this surprise has been a little challenging for me. I was finally starting to feel like myself again, after a crazy twin pregnancy, 10 months of breasting feeding, 2 months of extreme medication changes to help get my thyroid controlled, 6 weeks of dieting and losing 9 pounds.  Basically I felt like myself for about a month and bam… pregnant!

Secondly I have mixed emotions and haven’t wanted to tell people because I feel like they will not be excited for us. I know this sounds horrible. But every time we would talk about wanting more kids people would tell us we were crazy. You have a boy and a girl… what else could you need? Then they would say you better wait a long time because you have twins.

Okay I have ALWAYS wanted a big family, and I have ALWAYS wanted my kids close together.

So went I told my friend today. I wasn’t ready to tell her. But Mike came home and brought me lunch… and of course she asked… what happened to nutrisystem… so I ended up telling her.

It caught her so off guard she didn’t know what to say.

The first words out of my mother’s mouth were what were you thinking…. Well if you must know I wasn’t thinking at that moment!

So I have thought about posting about this many times.,. but kept stopping, since I think it is too early to tell. But on the other side if something bad were to happened I would have to express my feeling here. So here it goes…

I am 6 weeks pregnant. I know exactly when and how it happened because it is the only time we did not use a condom. We were on vacation in Carolina Beach and forget them. I have calculated my due date as March 15, 2013, hoping for 1 full term baby that would make the twins 22 months apart.

            My first doctor’s appointment is August 1^st… so I will know more then.

For now I hope that you can be happy for my growing family, wish us congratulations, and send us prayers as I am a nervous wreck!

Excited and nervous for what’s ahead!

Thank you!

Heather 

The Beach with Twins

So we have had a couple of beach experiences with the twins this summer. The first was at the end of June in Wilmington at Carolina Beach. The second was in Jacksonville, Fl at Neptune, Beach. Both were for family reunions. The first was with Mike’s side of the family. The second was with my side of the family.

When we were in Wilmington we had an ocean front condo so going to the beach with the twins was pretty easy. The second time since were staying in a condo about a 20 minute drive from the beach, that was a lot harder.

In Wilmington, even though Mike’s parents were there, we ending up taking the babies on the beach each time by ourselves. Two parents with two non-independent walking babies and all their crap is a lot of work. We did so without question because we knew when shit hit the fan we could easy walk back to the condo since it was so close.

In Jacksonville, we knew we needed all hands on deck, since we had to drive, find parking, and hike to the beach with all our stuff from the car. So we did not make it to the beach as much as I would have liked. But we did spend two full days on the beach with the twins with the help of my parents! I thought the twins would only make it a couple of hours because of their nap time schedule but they were able to make it the whole day.

We brought the pack in play to the beach with us. (I said I would never do something like that… and while in FL I did a whole lot of things I said I would never do.) The pack n play was a huge help at nap time. However our twins are not use to sleeping together. P went out first and we tried to but N in with her and instead all he tried to do was wake her up. So he took his nap in the stroller… and it worked perfectly!

Schedules are amazing. But is nice when children can learn flexibility as well. They still took a nap but where able to do it out of their element and off schedule… and I was one proud mama. We had a great two days on the beach!

Here are some pictures of our set-up.

N, asleep in the stroller

Eating snacks

I am ready to go back to the beach! 

The best and cheapest way to get your diapers and wipes

I have had a lot of people ask me recently… “How do you get your diapers and wipes?”  Since I haven’t posted on this in a while I thought I would do a big long post on the best way/cheapest way to get your diapers and wipes.

The best and cheapest way to get your diapers and wipes from my experience of couponing and stockpiling for twins!

I have learned so much since I started my stockpiling journey in Feb 2012. I find that I have started to get things cheaper and cheaper! 

Tips

1.      Create a Stockpile… But do not over buy on certain sizes this will take away from your overall savings. Estimate how many you will need and know how many you have in your stockpile. A stockpile makes it possible to wait for SMOKING HOT DEALS before buying diapers and wipes. See this link

2.      Know the everyday prices.

3.      Know what a good, hot deal price is.

4.      Unit price… the cost of the case or pack does NOT matter! How much does one diaper or one wipe cost? This is how you know if it is a good deal. Simply divide the cost of the pack by the quantity. $8.99/31 = 29 cents per diaper. The price of 1 size 3 Pamper Diaper from Target with no coupon and no sale.

5.      Use coupons, but remember just because you have a coupon does not mean your purchase is a good one… this is when unit pricing is very helpful.

6.      Do not be a brand snob! Try different brands, use the coupons… especially if you can get them cheap! I tried CVS diapers because with coupons they were 4 cents a diaper!

When I first started my diaper savings research I priced checked diapers everywhere… Wal-Mart, Target, Grocery stores, Drug stores, you get the picture. I had to know where diapers where cheapest on the spot with no sale and no coupon. Well Target and Walmart are the cheapest… but Amazon Regular Price (Amazon Prime Mom is a different Story) has both Target and Walmart beat.

Amazon Prime combined with Amazon Mom you can save 20% off diapers and wipes when you enroll in the subscribe and save program. Amazon Prime with cost you $79.99 a year, which doesn’t seem like a deal, but  you get free 2 day shipping on most purchases, free video streaming, kindle books, and the 20% discount. I was very hesitant about spending the $79.99 a year for the membership, but have to say it was a lifesaver this past year with twins. You can literally order anything from Amazon, and often times I found myself ordering things from Amazon because I found with the 2 day shipping things got to my house faster then I could make it to the store. For example you can order paper towels, toilet paper, dish and laundry detergent, etc…. and most products are cheaper than in the store.

So diapers through Amazon Prime are on the high end of the cheapest diaper price.

So let’s talk about tip 3, what’s a good deal/price for a diaper?

First off it depends on the size of the diaper, as your child starts to wear bigger sizes, less diapers come in a pack but the cost of the pack generally stays the same which means the price per diaper goes up.

Here is a list of good diapers prices! If diapers are this cheap BUY THEM! If they are cheaper than this that’s a SMOKING HOT DEAL, buy as many as you can for your stockpile.

Newborn: 10– 16 cents per diaper

Size 1: 11 cents to 14 cents per diaper

Size 2: 14 to 16 cents per diaper

Size 3: 16 to 19 cents per diaper

Do not pay more than this per diaper. These are good deals on diapers, anything less than this is what I like to call a SMOKING HOT DEAL. There are lots of ways to get smoking hot deals on diapers or wipes – drug stores like CVS have lots of rewards programs, and places like Target where you can stack coupons and wait for sales to receive gift cards when you buy X amount of packs. Target has sales where when you buy 2 or 3 packs you get a $5 gift card… this sale comes around about every 6 weeks.

What’s a good deal on wipes?

Anything 2 cents or less per wipe is a good deal. And I personally think it is pretty easy to get wipes for less than 1 cents. I have come across many wipe deals recently. Plus my local grocery store doubles coupons so I can get a 64 pack of wipes for $1 there.... which is 1.00/64 = 0.015 cent a wipe. 

So in short how do I get my diapers and wipes… I started by using Amazon Prime/Mom/Subscribe and save.

Through Amazon you can get your diapers on the high end of the good deal prices, wipes will run you 2 cent each, diapers will also run on the high end of a good deal price.

Each month I had one box of diapers and wipes delivered to my house, this helped me start my stockpile. I started while I was pregnant. I was then able to wait for sales and coupons to buy smaller packs for hot deals. I have never had to go the store because I was about to run out of diapers or wipes. Instead I go to the store when I am excited about getting diapers and wipes for a good deal!

My above pricing is based off of Pampers since they are my favorite. But like I said above I am not a brand snob and when I get other brands cheap I buy them. I do want to talk for a second about store brands, while their everyday price might be cheaper, since they are little coupons for them they are usually not cheaper…. I cringe when people think this. 


Last year, August 2012



Today...

Tons of wipes and size 3 diapers (what my twins are wearing now!).  I am currently starting to coupon for size 4's and it wont be long before I will have enough to get them through potty training.

Hot Wipe Deal at Target

This week at Target they have Pampers and Huggies wipes for $2, when you buy a second pack it is $1. So basically they have wipes for 2 for $3 or a $1.50 a pack. I can get wipes any week at Martin's (local grocery store) for $1, since a 50 cent coupon doubles to a dollar and their everyday price is $2.


So what makes this deal so HOT?


There are Target coupons floating around out there for Pampers and Huggies wipes.... stack this with a manufacturer coupon and you've got yourself a hot deal.


These are the coupons I have...

Two manufacture coupons for 75 cents off that can be use in combination with the Target coupons for 50 cents off.

So I will save a $1.25 off of each pack.... making each pack just 25 cents!


That's a 128 wipes for 50 cents or 0.003 cents a wipe.... smoking hot deal!

10 hour car trip with two toddlers = Success!

My family went out of town this past week for a combination of a family reunion, beach trip vacation. I feel like I have a million post to write about since then and I am not sure where to start so I am going to start with what is freshest in my mind… the car trip!

We drove from our home to Jacksonville, Florida. MapQuest timed the trip at 9 hours and 40 minutes.

Now remember we were traveling with two babies/toddlers (they are 13 months so they are still babies to me!), so we were unsure what the best approach to the road trip should be.

We have traveled several times with the babies since they were born, evening doing a 5 hour trip when they were just 10 weeks old. 5 hours is the longest trip we have made with them.

So of course a 10 hour car trip is a totally different ball game.

I think the best tip I can give is not to think or care how long it takes to get there!  Know that it will take as long as it takes to get there safely and happily!  Be prepared to stop whenever you need to, but try to make the most at each stop…. food, gas, potty, diaper change all in one.

So on the way down, we decided to leave at bed time! This worked way better than we could have hoped for! We left at 6:45pm (twins normal bed time 7-7:30), and planned to drive until we got tired. We planned to stay at a hotel off 95, I preplanned and had several picked out in South Carolina and Georgia since we wanted to get at least that far. The car ride was so smooth we arrived in Jacksonville at 4:30am. We did stopped twice, the first was a 45 minute stop, for bathroom breaks, food, and gas, the second when we were almost there and it was just long enough to fill up the car with gas and for both Mike and I to take turns and run in to use the bathroom.

So leaving at bed time was great because the twins slept the whole way and needed nothing from us. They did wake up both times we stopped and seemed pretty confused but both went back to sleep no problem.

As long as you feel safe driving at night I think traveling at night with babies/toddler is a win!

Okay, but traveling, driving at night is HARD, YES! So we did not come back at night. We got up yesterday morning and I did our normal routine with the twins, while Mike packed the car, and then we left a nap time. This worked prefect. The twins woke from their nap about 1 ½ hours in to the road trip. I was able to keep them happy for another 1 ½ half by passing back snack cups and ready to drink milk sippy cups to them.

Then about to 3 hours into the trip they started to get really fussy. So we knew it was time to stop. We stopped at Cracker Barrel to eat, let the twins get out of the car walk around the store, etc, and to do diaper changes! We were there for about 1 hour. We got back in the car and drove. The twins were happy for about 1 hour and then it was regular nap time and they feel asleep for about 2 hours! So about 3 hours later they were awake and I kept them happy again by passing back a snack cup and some milk. About 30 minutes after that we decided to stop for dinner. We stopped at Moe’s for again about 1 hour to eat and potty and get gas. When we got back in the car it was about 6:30 so shortly after that it was regular bed time and the twins went to sleep for the night.

We got home at 9:45pm. It took us 10 hours and 45 minutes, with two stops, and two toddlers. I think that is pretty dang good!

Our babies were super troopers.

Here are my must haves for a car trip…

1. Music duh … this helped keep the twins entertained, went it was sleep time we put on classic music and it worked like a charm.

2. Snack cups and lots of them, they dropped them a number of times and while going down the road I wasn’t always able to get them so I had extra!

I prefer this nuby snack cup as the lid stays on well. 

3. Ready to drink milk, no need to worry about a cooler.

4. Sippy cups lots of them, same reason as above 

Here is a  family beach picture :)

and a few others !










This thing is a must have on the beach for babies/toddlers! Everyone keeps asking me where we got it from... well we got it last year at a beach store in the OBX, we went in September while I was still on maternity leave so it was post regular beach season, the beach store had everything in the store for 50% off so we scored it for just $12.50. They do have some that look similar on Amazon, search beach canopy or click this link. 












Look at that hair... what a mess!







Happy as can be!

Diono Radian R120... HOT Deal!

I have had my eye on Diono Radian for months now. My twins still meet the weight and height requirement for their infant seat so at the moment are still using those. I knew I want the Diono for several reasons. Of course I researched every car seat out there and these came out the winners in my mind! The steel frame and the fact they are slim and can fit 3 across a back seat in a sedan. Important for my sedan driving self and important for adding more children to our family. Also they come with a 10 year warranty versus 5 year, and they convert into a booster seat. They are actually a 3 in 1 and can be used as an infant seat as well.



So like I was saying in the beginning I have had my eye on them for a while. They retail at $309. You can easily get them on Amazon for around $250.  Right now it doesn't look like Amazon has them in stock... and the cheapest price I am seeing is $279.95.

I just got them from Khols for $188 each! Yes that's right, smoking hot! Here's how, right now at Khol's they are already on sale for about 10% off and are listed at $278.99, but you can save another 20% off with code FLAG20, for every $50 you spend you earn $10 in Khol's cash (money you can use on future purchases at Khols), combined with shopping through ebates to save another 3% off my purchase and you get a final price of $188 each! (Your out of pocket with be more but this is counting the khol's cash and ebates rebate.)

Code for 20% off ends on July 7th and Khol's cash offer ends on July 10th!

This is the only deal I looked into but with the 20% off code and Khol's cash deal, combined with ebates, I bet Khols has a bunch of smoking hot deals right now!


Happy Shopping!

Heather

Nutrisystem Week 5

Nurtisystem is going well and has gotten pretty easy to manage and keep up with. At the start of the week I was down 8lbs. Not much more to say about it. But haven't posted about the process this week.... so HERE  ya go!

Ham and Spinach Mac and Cheese

I made this up for the twins, adding some protein and nutrition to this classic. This will last at least a week for them as long as I can keep my husband away!

What do you need?

• 8 oz of macaroni noodles 
• 3 slices of deli ham
• 1 cup of spinach
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese 

I put the deli ham and spinach in the baby blend to chop so it will mix well in to the dish. Boil noodles according to package. In a separate pot, melt butter, and in milk, then cheese and stir until melted together. Add spinach and ham to cheese mix and pour  over noodles. Bake in oven at 350 for  30 minutes.

13 Month Schedule

I haven't done a schedule post in a while and that is because their schedule hasn't really changed much. The twins have been on a schedule since day 1 and it is my number 1 recommendation for having children, especially twins! It is such a life saver to know what comes next for both me and them! Recently we have been running into a little trouble with the schedule when out and about. But I think this is good because it also teaches the twins flexibility. When we are at home the schedule pretty much stays the same every day give or take 30 minutes.


8/8:30 - Twins start the day with a diaper change and a 6oz sippy cup of whole milk, followed by breakfast. Breakfast usually consists of the following some type of fruit usually a combination of blueberries, bananas, strawberries and either oatmeal,  greek yogurt, or quiche/scramble eggs.

9-10:30 - Play time. Consists of independent play, story time, and dance parties. Seriously dance parties are so much fun! I have sippy cups of water on the floor with them during play time. They can drink their water as wanted.

10:30/11:00 - Morning nap. I know when they are ready for this nap. Usually its right at 10:30 but recently they have been going strong until 11.

12:00 - wake from nap, diaper change, usually this is when they get dressed for the day. Lunch time! Lunch time consists of a 6oz sippy cup of whole milk, some type of fruit, depending on what they had for breakfast, they may have greek yogurt, oatmeal, or eggs, some type of meat usually small pieces of lunch meat, cheese toast with spinach, or grill cheese with ham/turkey and spinach. These are the typical foods of course we are still trying and exploring new foods all the time.

1-3 - Playtime or afternoon outing. We will also have snack time around 2pm, with a sippy of water/milk, usually goldfish or cheese squares and fruit.

3/3:30 - 4/4:30 - afternoon nap

5/5:30 - Dinner.  I make sure the twins get a ton of vegetables at dinner time. Maybe some meat like chicken, or mac and cheese, or quiche, or a cheese and meat toasted sandwich, it just depends on what they had for breakfast and lunch. I have been making them own dinner food since I am on nutrisystem.

6-7 - play time, evening walk, outing to the pool sometimes we may do a quick shopping trip.

6:30/ 7 - bath time

7/7:30 - sippy of milk, story time (if they are not to fussy... they are usually SO ready for bed), and bed time!

So this is our schedule and like I said in the beginning it has pretty much been the same for months now. In  mid August I am going to try to cut them down to one nap. My sleep training books say do not worry about 1 nap until they are around 16 months. But I am going to try about a month early just because I want to be a part of it before I go back to work and MAINLY because my little monkeys will be going to 1 day a week morning preschool in September (9am -12) so the morning nap will not work well with that.