Friday, June 29, 2012

A Few of My Favorite Things

I've been wanting to publish a post like this for a while now.  The purpose is not really so much because I'm a baby expert or because anyone will care what baby products I found most useful.  It's more about me remembering what I found useful so that as friends and family have babies of their own, I have good gift ideas and advice!

Food/Feeding

I love my Dr. Brown's bottles.  They are a pain in the neck to clean with all their parts, but they really do seem to reduce gas.  And, when they did the swallow study on Adrian at Children's Hospital, it was the only bottle he didn't aspirate with.  So, the Dr. Brown's bottles got him home to us sooner. 

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Once they got started on solids, the boys loved Earth's Best.  This brand was recommended by Michelle.  Just as an example, I bought organic peas that were Earth's Best and that were Gerber Organic.  The boys would not eat the Gerber peas!!!  They devoured the Earth's Best.  I don't know why, but the brand made a huge difference!

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Sleep


Halo sleep sacks with wings are THE BEST things to swaddle your infant in, hands down.  No other brand of sleep sack even began to compare. 

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These worked on their own for a while, but then I had to use an Aden and Anaise muslin blanket to double swaddle the boys first. 


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Then I wrapped them in the sleep sack (without pulling their arms out throught the arm holes because they were wrapped up in the muslin blanket) and swaddled them up tight.  Not even Houdini could have gotten out.  The boys slept so well!


The Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper was extremely useful to keep the boys in our room, right next to our bed, for the first few months.  They were practically sleeping in our bed, but they were safe from us rolling over on them.  Added bonus: it turns into a regular play yard after you detach it from your bed!
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Transport

I've loved my Britax B-Ready stroller and the Britax Chaperone car seats.  These were recommended by Michelle who never led me astray.

Child Seat

The infant car seats can be put into the stroller in a way that doesn't make it impossible to maneuver it.  I didn't boy the cow print car seats.  Yuck.





















Then, when they outgrow the infant seats, the stroller uses other seats so that you can use it until they just don't need a stroller anymore.  LOVE IT.




 

Seats and Swings

Bouncy Chairs were so helpful when they were really small for naps and as a way of keeping them in a safe, comfortable position.
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The Nap Nanny was a life saver--it helped tremendously when Adrian's reflux was not yet under control.  He was able to sleep strapped into it at night, so that he was elevated.  A godsend.
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Adrian loved the Graco Infant Swing; Sebastian not as much. 

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A Bumbo Chair is great for when they can ALMOST sit up and you don't want to leave them lying on their heads all day!

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Miscellaneous

Charlie's Soap is great for washing cloth diapers and for baby clothes.  I wash our clothes in it too, and I love it.  I ordered the largest container of it I could find (below).  It will last a loooong time.
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A water play mat was recommended by our Early Intervention contact.  The boys enjoy playing on it and trying to "eat" the fish in the water below them.
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Lamaze toys are great.  The boys love Olivia the Owl (below).  They love to try to eat all the parts that dangle from her.

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Bathing the boys every night is an important part of our bedtime routine.  So, an infant tub has been so important.  This isn't the kind we have, but ours is simple and works just fine. 
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We use LOTS of wash clothes giving the boys nightly baths.  I love these whale washcloths that I got at my baby shower.  Some of the other wash cloths are too flimsy.

Koala Baby 6-Pack Washcloth Set - Whale - Babies R Us  - Babies"R"Us

We have a ton of burp cloths (diapers) and, boy, were they useful when both boys had reflux!
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Every mother seems to have a Boppy pillow, and even though I'm done breastfeeding, I still use it to feed the boys and to help them sit up.
Boppy Bare Naked Pillow
Were were given this play mat from Ikea, and it's been so useful for tummy time.  It's padded nicely, and it has lots of things on it that the boys can play with.
LEKA CIRKUS Play mat IKEA


The boys really enjoy their jungle playmat.  I turn off the lights and they are dazzled by the lights that change color above them.
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I'll keep adding to this list as I think of things, but for now, these are things I'd buy for a friend who was having a baby.  I use them all pretty much on a daily basis.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Growth!

Just playing around with Picture Joiner on my iphone so I can compare photos side-by-side and see how the boys have grown.  Here are a few samples...

Adrian

Adrian again

Sebastian

Sebastian

Yesterday we went to our friend Andrea's house for a Colombian brunch.  The food was delicious, and it was so nice of her, her sister, and her mother to invite people over to meet the boys!  The food was amazing (arepas, eggs, potatoes and sausage, and Colombian hot chocolate), and it was great to get out of the house and see everyone!

Adrian immediately got VERY comfy with Martita....Seriously, I don't know what I'm going to do about that boy!



And finally, just some random shots.

Adrian






Mirror, Mirror, on the wall...

Friday, June 15, 2012

We love our daycare! And it's a huge relief!

Week 2 of full time daycare is over, and I must admit it has gone so much better than I even could have hoped.  And, I hate to admit it, but in addition to my boys' flexibility, adaptability, and good nature, I owe a lot to Carlos's good sense of humor.  He's completely charmed every woman that works at the daycare!!

I do drop off in the morning and don't have a ton of time to sit and chat with the ladies.  It's mostly business: how they slept the night before, food instructions, and stuff like that.  But Carlos picks up, and he sits and talks with them all while playing with the boys for a while.  The teachers even look in to the infant room from the other rooms to talk to him!  The owner leaves her office and comes to hang out with him.  It's so funny!  Sometimes, I can see this all go down on the daycare cameras.  It's really too much.  One day they took a picture of him lying on the floor with the boys in the car seats behind him.  You can actually see a sliver of his big belly showing.  Well, for whatever reason the ladies there LOVED the picture and found it hysterically funny.  They actually blew it up to 8x10 and put a heart border around it and stuck it on their front door.  Sonia, the owner, says that every single parent coming in has commented about it.  And good comments too apparently.  Other parents now want their picture on the door.

For father's day the daycare gave each dad a really nice gift.  They took the cutest pictures of the boys in a "tuxedo."  They got some really nice shots!  Then, they mounted the photo on a paper and put their footprints.  It's in a frame too!  And, because we have 2 boys, we got 2 frames/photos!  Carlos was beside himself.  He kissed every teacher in the place before we left today.  (Sorry, Marcy!)  He's going to put the pictures on his desk at work.  It was a nice touch.

I actually went to see the daycare center at Milton to put down a deposit and get on their waiting list.  I didn't really like it...I went in prepared to love it (I've heard great things) and had my check book and everything.  I couldn't pull the trigger....They would be almost 2 by the time they'd go there anyway because the waiting list is a year long, but it just didn't look as clean or as well kept as where they are now.  The place is really really growing on me.  I like it a lot.  I feel a lot of peace of mind when I drop them off there and go to work.  And that is a great thing!!  We've already met a lot of the other parents too.  And the boys play with Keith, Giordanni, and Olivia....Adrian especially plays with Olivia!  ;)

The only downside is that Sebastian has picked up a somewhat nasty cold.  No fever (knock on wood), but he's so congested and has a nasty cough because of it.  He didn't sleep well there today because of the cold.  But he went right to bed just now.  Hopefully he'll sleep through the night even with the congestion because he needs a good night's sleep.  The only upside to this is that at least they are adapting to daycare germs in the summer and not in the height of flu season.  And I know teaching did wonders for my immune system so hopefully they will develop strong immune systems of their own!

Finally, I've decided to dedicate more time to the photos on the blog.  First, I'll TRY to use our good camera instead of my iphone.  But at the very least, I'll try to take some time to edit the photos before putting them up.  I NEVER edit and it would make the photos so much better....I guess I'm lucky I blog at all though with 6 month old twins.  But this is my goal!




Monday, June 11, 2012

6 Months Old!

Wow.  Time flies.  I can't even believe that the boys were six months old on May 25th.  There have been so many changes for them in the past month, too.  To name just a few:

1. Daycare
2. Introduction of solid foods
3. Unswaddling
4. Dropping the 11pm feed

They have really done so well despite all the chaos and my feelings of guilt manifesting themselves in crazy, inconsistent behavior.  I was feeling guilty about daycare, I think, and was breaking a lot of my own rules.  For example...Adrian was/is waking up in the middle of the night shrieking.  At first I thought something was wrong with him because he's never shrieked like that before!  I would let him cry a bit, but ultimately because it was a new cry, I'd go in and try to console him by patting him.  That would make it worse so I'd pick him up and bring him to bed with us.  A BIIIIIG no no.  Finally, I realized that he's shrieking simply because he CAN now.  He's not in pain at all.  He just enjoys making all sorts of noises with his mouth because he's discovered he can do it.  So I let him cry it out and he's making progress back to his old, self-soothing self.  My poor Sebastian has just slept through it all...I don't know how he can tune out Adrian's shrieking, but he has been able to.  And thank God, because 2 screaming babies at 2am really can lessen your resolve!!!  But in general, both Adrian and Sebastian are sleeping from 7:30pm-6:30am straight through--no more 11pm feed.  It's wonderful!!

Daycare is going well for the most part.  Adrian has settled right into things and already has a girlfriend his own age and every teacher in the school wrapped around his little finger.  He flirts shamelessly.  Check out his daily report card...

hahahaha HATED the Gerber peas (loves Earth's Best peas, though) and "Flirty with the teachers"!!!

Sebastian, on the other hand, is much more concerned with food and eating--ALL THE TIME.  It's his one and only priority.  He was fussy at daycare until they told me to send more solid food with him.  I felt like a bad mom!! But he went from eating nothing to eating a whole jar himself in a matter of a few days!  I should have known, but I didn't think he'd be THAT good of an eater THAT fast!!!  He really is his father's son.  Both boys are, actually!



Daycare is making the boys stronger; I have no doubt.  They get a lot more playtime and stimulation than I can give them at home.  They are interacting with other babies at the center (according to their report cards and what we see on the cameras), and enjoy their time playing.  They are even napping pretty well.  Now the daycare is trying to manipulate their schedule so that they fit with the other babies and the center's schedule.  Fine with me as long as they eat and nap ok.  They are basically on the same schedule at home as at the daycare, although the nap times are a bit different there.  They were trying to get me to implement the same nap schedule at home, but I basically told them I'll do my own thing until at home until the boys demonstrate to me that they have adapted to the daycare schedule and I HAVE to change at home.  Otherwise, I think they can have 2 slightly different schedules and still be ok. Time will tell, I guess.  I'll do whatever I think is best for the boys, but for right now, I think that is keeping things the same as usual at home until they demonstrate a need for it to be otherwise.  But in general, I'm very happy so far with the care they are getting there.  The teachers LOVE Carlos.  He has them in stitches every day when he goes to pick up the boys.

Lastly, today I took Sebastian to the GI doctor at Children's for a follow up.  The appointment was at 10am and we stopped by the Brigham to see Marcy and Judy before the appointment.  We had breakfast together outside of the NICU on the roof patio.  It was funny to be up on the NICU floor again (although not in the NICU).  And as always, it was so nice to see our two nurses!!  We love those ladies!  After a nice visit that made both Sebastian's and my day, we went to the appointment.  The doctor was very pleased with Sebastian's growth and jokingly called us "boring" because he is so healthy.  Going to Children's makes you realize how glad you are that your baby is "boring."  Thank God.

Judy, Marcy, and Sebastian.  LOVE this picture!!


Finally, some random pictures.










Sunday, June 3, 2012

Random photos

Just a catch all for random photos!
Couldn't resist getting these for the boys.  We were at Faneuil Hall last weekend and I went in the Croc's store.  They match their little bathing suits...

So far the boys have tried banana, pear, peas, and carrots!!  He IS strapped in the high chair, even though it doesn't look like it!

Ready to eat!!!  This guy has a great appetite for his solids!  He cries for more, and so far, he likes peas the best!!!!?!


Adrian pulls the flower on his exersaucer down... 
and EATS it!

With Papi before bed

The boys were interacting here.  Fun to watch!

I think he looks like me when I was little in this picture...too bad it's so grainy.





They were playing with each other's hands


Sleeping unswaddled now!  6:30 AM...this is how I found him.

and this is how I found Adrian!  He's a side sleeper now that he's unswaddled.  Not sure I like it, but there's nothing I can do to stop him.



We've had mixed luck this weekend with sleeping unswaddled.  Funny enough, it's Adrian who has had the easier go of it.  He wakes a few times in the night but manages to get himself back to sleep--provided he has that sleep sack on.  If I put him down without it in just PJs he cries and cries and cries because he can't put the sleep sack in his mouth.  Having the material there to suck on or pull at seems to soothe him.  At the same time it makes me nervous that the sleep sack is loose enough that he can pull at it and put it in his mouth.  They are between sizes with those things--the small is too small and the medium is too big.  I finally just cut the "wings" off the old swaddle sleep sack and have them sleeping in those until they grow a big bigger.  They don't like pacifiers, but they like to put cloth, towels, bibs, and sleep sacks in their mouths...

I have to separate the boys for naps or Sebastian wakes Adrian up and then neither one can go back to sleep.  And last night, I didn't sleep a wink.  Adrian kept waking up (but putting himself back to sleep) from 9pm-1am and then Sebastian took over and was awake and crying on and off.  He whined and cried from 3-5am without stopping and finally we picked him up since we weren't sure what was wrong.  Even picking him up didn't soothe him.  He was screaming.  Finally at around 5:45 he fell asleep on me and screamed bloody murder when I tried to put him down in the crib again.  So I broke my own rule and held him until 6:30AM when I normally wake both boys.  It felt nice to have a sleeping baby on me.  Like I said, I NEVER do it because I don't want to make my own life harder.  But I couldn't figure out what the heck was wrong with him!  Hungry, maybe, but I can't start feeding him at 3AM again!  Honestly, I think it's teething.  He's just been so fussy and not himself.  I'm sure our neighbors LOVED us last night.  I did what I could!  I hope tonight is a better night.  It's stressing me out to have no sleep now that I have to go back to work.

Yes, these are winter PJs, but I keep the room cool and they need the long sleeves now that they are unswaddled!

Sebastian

Adrian.  Love his jowls.

Sebastian has been so fussy in the afternoons lately that Carlos had to bust out the Baby Bjorn.  Both of our backs were hurting from holding him.  He cries when you sit down with him!

In the exersaucer.  This is his new beach/sun hat.  The blue ones have to go with them to daycare for walks there.  It looks funny in this picture because the brim is folded up so you can see his face.