First Kiss

Today I witnessed one of the sweetest moments I have seen in a long while.

While I was changing Sydney's diaper on the playroom sofa this morning, Payton came toddling over and leaned over and kissed Sydney on her forehead. I was so touched by this little display of affection between the two. Sydney looked up and acknowledged her sister with a cute little smile. It was just so precious to see Payton display her love for her twin like that. It surprised be because Payton isn't a big kisser - she rarely kisses anyone!

Well don't you know that is got even better? Moments later as I was changing Payton's diaper, Sydney cruised on over and returned the little kiss right on Payton's forehead.

How sweet is that???

Payton takes a bath

All of my girls haven't been feeling that great in the last few days. They seem to have been passing a fever around and yesterday was Haley's day to be sick. Today she was feeling better and wanted to have a nice warm bath this morning. The twins were in having a nap when she finished so I dried her off and got her dressed.

Payton and Sydney woke up shortly afterwards so I went to get them and nurse them in my room. Payton always finishes first and was toddling around in the hall and my room while Sydney finished up. I was still in my bedroom tidying up when I hear the very distinct should of splashing! I dash to the bathroom to see this:

Thank goodness I was just in the next room! (Mental note... don't leave a full tub of water.. duh!! Surely I know better than to do that!)

I guess Payton thought she needed a bath!! So she took one! LOL

Of course Sydney wanted in on the action too so they both got to take a nice bath right before lunch! Silly girls!

Day Two

Well cloth diaper day two went even better than day one. The girls woke up with wet diapers but dry pjs - success!! The poos were pretty messy today and I has me re-thinking some of the foods they eat! Ha! I do need to make my fleece liners a bit bigger especially in the back. The covers and fitteds do seem to be ok. It is funny how differently they fit on each girl. Payton is in the size L diapers and Sydney in the M. I have been putting them both in the M covers which seem to fit them both pretty well. I even put on pfs with snappis under their lined bathing suits today. They stuck out of the side but seemed to work just s well as the little swimmers.

Payton and Sydney crawled all around the back yard and in and out of the baby pool before I took them in the bigger pool with the other kiddos. We all had a nice time swimming together. Colin was so cute swimming and playing Sydney while I swam with Payton. There is something so endearing and sweet about watching the bigger kids caring for and lovingly entertaining the little ones. :)

Cloth Diaper Day

Today has been cloth diaper day #1... So far so good.
I have managed to diaper my girls all day with no leaks!
I even survived the 3 poos... pretty messy but not too bad. I do think there might be a diaper sprayer in my future! LOL

I also got two more diaper packages in the mail... 10 litewrap covers and 2 Happy Heiny fitteds, 1 Little Beetle Fitted and a Liz Cloth fitted. Oh boy, more to try!! LOL

I am hoping to find dry and happy babies tomorrow morning... :)

Playdate for all

My twins club - Jersey Shore Mother's of Multiples or JSMOM for short - hosted a play date for all the families at The Little Gym. It was great fun! It was the first time that Payton and Sydney got together with other babies their own age. It was so cute! Two of my JSMOM friends with babies close in age to my girls brought their twins to the play date. It was so funny to see all 6 of the babies interacting and also not interacting. Each twin set had one outgoing baby and one shy baby. Sydney is my shy gal and Payton is the one that prefers to be the center of attention. Despite thier differnces, both of my girls had a great time crawling around and listening to the music and watching the other children play.

My 'big' kids had some organize activities to participate in too like walking the balance beam or doing turns on the uneven bars. There was musical play with balls and a parachute too!

Our next play date is scheduled for the 26th. I am sure we will be there again!

iBert Review

I wanted to post a quick review on the iBert bike seat that I purchased from Amazon a few weeks ago. My first attempt at biking with the twins failed horribly when I blew out my back bike tire... but what do you want from 20+year old tires??

Anyway, I love my new iBert!! It is so easy to use. Sydney has become my front of bike passenger and she just loves the view. I can pedal easily without the seat getting in my way or banging my knees into it. Getting her in and out is a breeze with the little lift up bar on the bike and the seat belts are just right to keep her in place but were super easy to adjust to keep her safe. It is so nice to be able to ride with Payton in the regular bike seat and Sydney up front. Now I can keep up with my other kids and we can all enjoy a nice bike ride! I definately recommend the iBert for twins or singletons!

Cloth Diapers

I have decided to give cloth diapering a shot. With twins, it seems that I am always running out of diapers. I head to walmart or target almost every week to pick up another case of diapers. I guess my girls are real poopers!! LOL In all seriousness, I have thought about cloth diapering for quite a while and wanted to try it when the twins were on the way but after they came, I am glad that I didnt start right away. I am just now starting to feel in control of our household and I know that extra laundry would have put me over the edge even just a few months ago.

A cloth diapering friend of mine turned me on to a site called DiaperSwappers. (Thanks Nicholle!!) And as the name says, it is an online community all about cloth diapering. I just love it! The Moms that are there are so helpful and friendly. I just love how welcoming they are to a newcomer. I have been able to purchase many different kinds of diapers to try with the girls but more than that, I found a place to ask the questions I have and get support as I try something new.

I have now purchased some Swaddlebees fitted diapers as well as a few Bummis and Thirsties covers. I can't wait until they get here!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY PAYTON & SYDNEY!!

I can't believe that today has come! Can it really be a whole year since I delivered my two precious daughters?

What a wonderful year it has been.... what an incredible blessing to have twin daughters! Having the girls has been so much fun, and a lot of work too. Of course it is the best kind of work! I remember those early days of round the clock feedings and being up every hour to nurse someone. Even not remembering which baby woke up when because I was so tired. A few times I accidentally putting one baby down on top of the other sleeping baby because I didn't remember which one I was nursing! LOL.

It has been an incredible first year watching with wonder as they grow. Those early bleary eyed days of watching for that faint first smile or a small coo of happiness. How quickly they blossom from these tiny needy swaddled caterpillars to wiggly giggly crawling beings in your home. It' now almost like having two little doggies on the floor.

Some of my best time with the babies have been while nursing them. The first time they were brought to me in the hospital I had them both latched on and nursing. It was glorious! Early nursing twins was a bit of a challenge mostly because it was an around the clock venture. I still have the little memo note pads that have long list of P & S with feeding times and L or R. I had to write it down or I would totally forget who ate when.

I am not a schedule type person so I did most of the early feedings one at a time allowing each girl to follow her own biological clock. Finally toward 2-3 months I nursed them together more frequently and now tandem nursing is all I do. It was during one of these nursing sessions that they noticed each other for the first time. It was an amazing moment! They were just 3 months old and Sydney unlatch after suddenly seeing Payton for the first time. She kind of cooed at her. Payton didn't respond. The very next time I nursed them together again, she did it again and Payton unlatched and cooed back as the two locked eyes for the very first time. It was beautiful and amazing all at once. These two little beings had shared a womb, shared a bassinet, and had been sharing a crib for 3 months holding hands most of the time yet they hadn't even consciously known the other one was there. This simple first acknowledgement was so precious to behold that it brought tears to my eyes.

I am proud to say that I have breastfed these babies for an entire year and they have not had one drop of formula! I was so worried in the beginning. I wondered if I could possibly make enough milk for them both but that proved to not be a problem. Not only did I make enough, I made too much!! I was even able to pump enough so that each time they had infant cereal, it was mixed with my milk too. At one point I had over 1 gallon of milk in my freezer for them. I was so worried that I would get called away for an emergency and not have enough for them so I pumped and froze milk frequently. We still enjoy our quiet milk time together.

My girls are growing into active and happy little souls. Payton is definitely the dominate twin. She is bigger and robust. Her personality can be summed up nicely with the word gregarious. There is always a huge beaming smile on her face. She is content and silly too. She tends to be a bit rough with her sister and thinks nothing of pulling Sydney's hair or biting her. Poor Miss Sydney. Payton likes to be the center of attention and will shout out "Hi Ya" to everyone we pass in the stores just trying to get some attention - as though being twins wasn't enough to stop every shopping old lady!

Sydney is shy and a bit reserved. We call her our drama queen. Everything that happens to Sydney is a big deal and she usually erupts in tears. Just putting her in the car seat can be a personal offense to Syd. She is very sweet and silly too and loves to laugh and play peak-a-boo. She looks at things with an intensity and really likes to study her surroundings. A smile from Sydney in public is a real treasure as she only gives them out sparingly. At home they come easily but are often a bit shy and coy.

It has been so neat to see these two little personalities develop as they grown up side by side in the same atmosphere. It is an neat and special joy that mother's of multiples get to witness and treasure. As a mom to many, I often wonder if the situations of a child's early days have made that child who they are or if it is more a product of their personal identity. With twins, you get that unique ability to watch as two totally different little people blossom out of the very same set of situations. It has been really marvelous to watch.

I guess with time being short and things to do, I will end this entry with a slide show of the last year... I hope you enjoy it!

The Birth Story of the Twins.

Here is the birth story of Payton and Sydney: On Friday July 11 my doctor called to tell me that he wanted to bring me in for delivery on Sunday. I was kind of surprised but very willing at that point to get the babies delivered. Due to my 3 blood clotting issues and the lack of heparin, we needed to have a delivery under controlled circumstances. My doc wasn't comfortable allowing me to go into labor because of that. So it was going to have to be C-section. I had really wanted a vaginal birth but baby B had historically been breech or transverse so the doc wouldn't go for it. I was a bit disappointed but just wanted the babies to have the safest delivery possible. They then told me that because of my blood issues I would have to have the C under general anesthesia. I was so disappointed because that would mean that Bill couldn't be in the room and of course the recovery period would be much longer. So on Friday night I did my last shot of Lovenox (long acting anti-coagulant) and we showed up at 7:45am Sunday morning for a C-Section. After reporting to L&D, they drew my blood to run clotting tests and of course started and IV and monitored the babies for a while. We just waited for the 10am scheduled start time. It was then that we got some great news, my blood panels were fine and I could have the spinal instead of general! I was so happy and relieved. DH was given the paper scrubs to change into and we were ready to go. The actual surgery got pushed back to 11am and at about 11:10 I walked into the OR. They did the spinal and layed me down. Because my belly was so big I immediately started to feel sick and like I couldn't breathe. My pressure fell but was ok. Eventually they got me stable and DH came in. It felt so good to have him there holding my hand. They started work and at 11:45 Payton was born followed a minute later by Sydney. Payton had some trouble transitioning, that made me so scared... I didn't hear her crying! Sydney was yelling right away and they gave her to DH and I got to kiss her. It was beautiful moment. I was still very worried about Payton but after a few minutes and a bit of suctioning, they had her breathing just fine and we were able to see her and hold her. Dh followed the babies to the nursery to be weighed and cleaned while they finished up my surgery . He met me in recovery a few minutes later. After the hour in recovery I was moved to my room and they brought us the girls and I was able to nurse them right away. It was wonderful. We were on cloud nine for sure!