DoUbLe ThE FuN

Justin's aunt sent us these adorable personalized blankets she made and I've been wanting to get some pictures of them ever since. So we had a little photo shoot. Note to self: Don't ever try to have a photo shoot by myself again! Definitely need two hands for that!

These little munchkins are almost 8 months old. We've been trying out solids for a little over a month now. They're doing pretty good with it, but it can get overwhelming at times trying to bottle feed PLUS try to feed them solids when I'm by myself. Sawyer took a week or so to catch on and Mercedez took right to it, but now Sawyer's doing awesome and she's wanting nothing to do with it. A common saying in our household "If it's not one, it's the other."

These babies are 100% bottle fed with 100% breastmilk. I have been pumping for almost 8 months now. I didn't think I'd be able to last this long pumping, but with the help of the lactation specialist, a hospital grade pump, herbs and a dedicated 2 hour pumping schedule that first month of their life, I was making enough milk for triplets! Seriously, I can fill two 9 oz bottles after a pumping session. I'm sure I could have nursed if I wanted to be a depressed, anxiety nut case for 3-4 weeks until they got big enough to catch on. Mercedez mouth was so tiny she could hardly get any part in and they were just so little. My plan had been to nurse and I remember sitting in my bed with my twin nursing pillow, babies in their bassinets and working with them to nurse. I sat there 3 hours never moving from that spot. By the time I had tried to feed both, neither one had eaten enough and were fussy,and couldn't sleep and it was almost time to feed again! I pretty much had a breakdown and decided I couldn't wait the few weeks it would most likely take for them to get big enough to catch on, but I was determined that they get breastmilk. And here we are 8 months later. Has it been hard and time consuming? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes.

I have the pump for another month so they'll at least get 9 months worth, then I probably have a month or so frozen. I get anxiety thinking about them having to have any formula (I know, weird) but I really am ready to stop this pumping business. Contrary to what 90% of nursing mothers tell me, I am NOT shedding the weight and definitely not doubly so! My body is hanging onto every ounce of chub I have no matter what I eat or do. I'm hoping it will decide to let it go happily when it realizes it no longer has to make enough milk for 2!

I love to pinch these cheeks!!!!!!! We've put them on a schedule from the beginning (also thanks to the NICU for adding to the strictness of that schedule). But occasionally one deviates from the schedule due to the fact that they're two completely different people and therefore have different sleeping needs at times. I'd say those are my hard days, when one wants to sleep longer and the other decides nap time is over and wants to eat. I'm literally feeding one, playing, then putting them down for a nap only to get the other one up and do the same thing. When this happens when do I eat? When do I pump? When do I shower? When do I pee? Pretty much don't have time for those things.

But really it's my own fault. All the books say when this happens you just wake the other baby up, but I have such a hard time doing that. And it's so rare really, that I figure I'm just home caring for babies, let this one sleep if they need more sleep. Also, when this happens I get uninteruppted one on one time with them which is priceless! I'm sure if I had other kids though, I wouldn't be able to let one sleep longer. That would be complete chaos.

So there's their cute faces and an 8 month update! They've been rolling around like crazy and can sit up for short periods of time and love to cruise around in their walkers. I'm happy to let them take all the time in the world to figure out how to crawl! Life might get a little crazier when they're mobile!