So Much Bigger than the Bunny Giveaway!

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So Much Bigger than the Bunny Giveaway!

I have some incredible friends at work who have a devotional once a week and one week a friend leaf the group by talking about raising children.

It was impacting as she explained ways and ideas to bring God into everything in life. She did this as almost a gift for me when I was pregnant to prepare when I have kids of my own.

I did already start having ideas as to not let the worlds idea's of Holidays and it's entertainments cloud the beauty of Lord and the reason for Holidays like Christmas.

& here is this wonderful book written by a member of my church!

It is a great way to explore and learn together as a family what Easter is really all about.

It brings quality family time as you learn, grow and understand what the miracle of Easter it.

I have not yet read it, I hope to WIN it, but regardless I will get this book and share it with my two baby girls and make holidays like Easter much MUCH more exciting than just a bunny.

Sleeping, who does that?

I was not prepared.

You can think about it all day long, "I am going to be a parent, I am going to have a child."
"They will cry, they will poop, they will be up at night."
But thinking it doesn't do the real thing a lick of justice.

Having two babies who wake up into this world even though in the same womb were in very different worlds of sleeping habits.

I couldn't tell a newborn to sleep and teach them how to sleep or sleep train them.

I can imagine a new mom's heart drop when they think their child has fallen asleep and as they crawl exhausted back into bed hearing the croak of a cry peirce the air.

I am the same way except when I finally get one to sleep the other seems to not want to anymore and it's this game of trying to get two babies to fall asleep at the same time so they wake at the same time. Otherwise I end up with one baby always awake, always.
So my heart may drop but it's more of me stressing out to get the other to hurry back to sleep otherwise my other daughter will be waking up by the time this one falls asleep.

So in the beginning... Sleep was none existant, NONE.
My husband and I were up with one constantly and it was a miracle if they both slept at the same time for at least 5 minutes. 5 glorious, precious, sweet silent minutes.

I read everywhere I could, asking everyone I knew with children, when?!
WHEN?!!!
When can I start sleep training? When will they start moving towards some sense??

Everything and everyone had a completely different answer from the other.
No one answer, the conclusion, is there isn't really one. We make our own.
Each baby is different, with their habits, feeding and awakefulness.
So the answer is different and it's own for every baby.
The only thing is I had TWO different babies at the same time! & these were my first.

I was so overwhelmed and anxious, when and how will these two fall asleep together at the same time?? I did try feeding them at the same time, but Rosalee sucked her bottle up like it was her last meal or like she's never eaten before and Lillianna seemed like she enjoyed the simple things like the taste of each drop squeezing through a warm bottle of milk onto her newly aquired tastebuds.
So I had Rose winning the race and having her lay milk drunk and ready for sleep while trying to get Lilly to stop admiring the bottle and actually drink it.

(slightly off topic) I also didn't think much of it till I compared back to when I tried breastfeeding, they were taking 1 to 1 & 1/2 hours to drink their milk. While breastfeeding they were on for 15-30 minutes.
I suddenly realized something wasn't right, why were they taking so long?
I felt maybe the 0-3 month nipple was too slow for them, the next size up was 3+
they were only about 6 weeks old. But I got the bigger nipple anyway, they'd be 3+ eventually anyway.
It took a few times cause the milk came so much faster for them that they gagged a few times, especially Lillianna who held milk in her mouth like swishing fine wine in her mouth and would forget it as there as she sucked again.
But after a couple tries they were drinking milk like champs and within a reasonable time.

With that changed feeding them at the same time and speed seemed easier, and them getting sleepy at the same time seemed much better as well.

The best part was at night when they woke to feed they both started to wake at the same time and drank so much faster it helped them back to sleep.
I figured them taking so long prior helped them to fully awaken and thus made it hard to get them back to sleep. We were up 2 to sometimes 3 hrs trying to get them back to sleep and by the time they did they were hungry again and ready to feed.

(back to the main topic)
I have found over the last two weeks that the girls didn't really need me to set them a schedule, they needed to set me my schedule.

I followed their lead.

I was constantly out and about. I'd have my mom or people come here or go to my parents, or out to the store. I thought the drive would help them sleep or the buggie ride would help them sleep. But all along it was interupting what long sleep they could be having.
Also being at my parents house was too busy and they were too overexcited to sleep.
They would get overtired and extremely fussy.

I began to stay home alone all the time in hopes it would make a difference.

& it surely did.

I was more focused and they were more at ease. I saw when they were tired and when to prepare them for sleep.
Suddenly before I knew it they had this routine, I just had to get on it.

I sleep train them my way, at my pace as well as paying attention to their ways to fall asleep and their pace for it.
A different baby, with a different answer.

It's still a struggle, one always wants to fight sleep.

But they are learning so quickly (though going through it daily seemed like a long process) how to sleep on their own.

The joy of having a long gap of sleep again can't be described.
I have found them moving quickly into a longer sleep period at night and less naps during the day. From 2-3 hrs to 4-5 hrs and now to 6 almost 7 hrs stetches. Yes I know a mother would be overjoyed for that amount of sleep, but me... I'm TWICE as much. To get two babies to do that together is nothing less of a blessing.

My lesson to learn, keep watching them, learning about them, and try as best I can to be patient. There are good nights and there are still bad nights.

All good things come in time.
Like sleep...

Your Face is Colic

So... apparently babies cry.
& apparently out of the many babies in this world, some seem to cry a lot more
& even still out of the babies that cry a lot more there are those that cry even more still…

I found that my youngest by four minutes Rosalee seemed to be a baby that cried a lot, lot more.

It’s a natural things, for a baby to cry. How do they express discomfort? Hunger?
There is only one way. If they cry it’s for a reason, why else would a baby cry? Just because they feel like it??

Well apparently since it’s so common and so many mom’s want a quick answer as to why their little one is in distress and crying so much it just about drives the mother to madness, there was the scientific conclusion that it was something; so for sure it could only be defined- by a definition.

A definition of a number... 3
3 + 3 + 3 = the answer to a crying baby, which in conclusion the result and answer to this number riddle is- there is no answer at all!

Genius!

Since there is no answer, yet so many women want an answer and weren’t getting it they came up with an answer that really wasn’t an answer at all! It’s mind boggling yet brilliant.

If your little one cries for 3 hours or more, 3 times or more a week starting around 3 weeks of age then your child is that! A child that cries for 3 hours or more, 3 times or more a week starting around 3 weeks of age! That is the answer!

Circle Of Loss In Crisis
I like that…

It’s called Colic---- 3
My thoughts’, 3 + 3 is 6 which is the devils number
6 + 6 = 12- which can be thought of the 12 days of Christmas
12 + 12 = 24.… my favorite number
24 +24 = 48 which 48 hrs is 2 days
2 divided is 1 and 1
And add the 1 and 2 together and what do you get….. 3 that’s right a circle of nonsense.

Well anyway!
Rosalee’s crying for over three hours more than three times a week - every night actually and started at around two weeks was terrible. Her crying was so bad it seemed like she was almost hurting herself, I think she was.

The crying she did wasn’t like her usually crying in the day, she’d fuss and whine but then it turned into what seemed like torture for her.
It was so hard to listen to.

I finally called the doctors office (they must be so sick of me calling haha & I work there) and told them that it has to be something, why would she cry like this everyday??
I went in and saw someone. They listened to my story and decided it could be milk protein allergy. Her body couldn’t and wasn’t breaking it down properly and was causing her pain. I was given formula that had the proteins already broken down for her and was sent on my way.

It was only an assumption but at least an answer rather than a circle of loss.

The first night was still bad, the second night was much less bad and after that… magic… a miracle. Since then she hadn’t done her ‘colic’ crying.
There was an answer. She didn’t just cry because - she cried for a reason!

My baby was in pain and all I could find when I looked up extensive crying was a circle.
An answer or threes.

I believe that colic is only a method of trying to explain away what people don’t have the answer to. It’s a quick and easy out.
It is also a snazzy way of getting retailers to sale their products in mass.

Stamp everything they have for babies with ‘helps with colic’ and a desperate mother who wasn’t given an answer dives in.

Go ahead, walk the baby isles in the stores, so many products use colic as a means to sale.

It’s a win for everyone. Except the baby. I urge any mother with a child who cries and can’t be soothed for hours to push for an answer. Give yourself and your baby rest!

This is all my opinion of course and of which I think I am right >:-P

Enjoy and hope you all find your answer!!

Breastfeeding

I didn't quite experience a lot of hormonal emotions during pregnancy, I guess it waited to come out like a flood days after they were born.

It's a sudden smack in the face becoming a mother, and I got slapped twice.

These little people are unpredictable. I didn't know what they wanted and when they wanted it, they didn't know what they wanted and when they needed it. It was a huge guessing game while having books and people tell me what is right and what is wrong.

Breastfeeding- apparently is the only right way- correction, it WAS.
That was my biggest battle, it was enchanting and beautiful to breastfeed as well as exhausting and much much more painful than labor.

There is so much pressure on the issue of breastfeeding. I was well aware that there is nothing better and it served many purposes for them and me, I was also aware that almost every twin mother I knew/met (which is many working at a Pediatricians office) had done it.
So why couldn't I?
Because I just couldn't. & it made me angry to think people would judge me for it. It was hard enough to feel like I couldn't be the sole nourishment to my children as I also wasn't producing enough and had the guilt that I couldn't handle the pain, discomfort and was feeling the loss of intimacy with my girls- there were people and books attacking people like me.

I am so happy I had friends who breastfed exclusively and friends who didn't who encouraged me to do what was best for the three of us. What a blessing! I'm sad for mothers who don't have that.

Books get around to talking about doing formula, but it's a small portion and they start out by saying it's not the best. Perhaps it's not written intending to hurt and fuel a guilt trip but it does! There are no books that start by saying, 'Hey, it's okay if you don't breastfeed only or at all, there are millions or mothers who don't and millions of children who grow up just as healthy as a breastfed child. You're not alone. You're feelings of guilt and sadness as you lose your milk supply is okay to have. It's hard, but you do what you know is best for you and your little ones."
What I would pay for a book that reads that!

Mothers need constant encouragment! It's easy to feel down, exhausted and wonder if what I did was best, did I do right, am I doing right?

If you are a mom or are becoming one and need it.... you are a great mother, you do what you can, you do your best and take it one day one moment at a time. Continue to strive to be what you want to be as a mother, after a long difficult day, pause and love yourself for the mother that you are.
NO ONE is a better mother for your baby(s) than YOU.

I should write a book entitled, "You Are An AWESOME Mom"
I'll be rich

Welcome- Blog Post #1

Well here is my first attempt at starting a blog again, a very different blog where I am now older, married and recently added to my portfolio a MOM.

I still don't feel like a mother, but I feel like my girls are my daughters.
I love them, without a doubt more than I have ever loved anything in this world- besides my husband & God.

It truly feels like a new view of the kind of love God has for me, and for my girls. It's hard to imagine anybody loving my girls more than I do so trying to think how God does love them more than me and He has that same love for me is remarkable.

My little girls were born on December 26th of 2010, Lillianna was 5.11, Rosalee was 6.9, they are currently a day away from 8 weeks of age.
Incredible how time flies, but it has been the hardest 8 weeks of my life! Emotionally, physically & EMOTIONALLY.