POM Check-In 12.23

[twobananas]

Happy Hanukkah and merry Christmas everyone!

- 6.5 months, b/g

- just had their 6 month appointment, it was a total s**t show since I also had my son there for his 4 year, who had a stomach bug so was throwing up the whole time and I forgot bottles so the babies were tired and hungry, oh and I was by myself. Needless to say I don't remember much, but I think all are doing okay

- So far im still nursing and pumping work. This is around the time I stopped pumping with my other two and just nursed mornings and night. I'm wondering when I'll get the urge to stop pumping this time, surprisingly it hasn't happened yet.

- this Christmas we are hosting Christmas Eve and then heading to my parents on Christmas Day after we open our presents. I'm looking forward to it!

[requiressnacks]

- How old/combo (gg/bb/bg/etc) are your multiples? 6 weeks B/G twins

- How's it going, any upcoming Dr Appts or milestones you'd like to discuss? We have our 2 month dr appointment in early January and I'm excited to see how they've grown!

- Do you have any questions or concerns that you'd like advice on? None really, I think things are really improving schedule-wise. NTR...I'm disappointed that I'm not in my pre-pregnancy clothes. I can't seem to stick to healthy eating. And the Christmas cookies don't help.

- Any feeding specific questions regarding nursing, FF, solids, weaning, etc? Did anyone have one twin who consistently eats more than the other? DD eats 4 oz, DS eats 3 oz - both on a 3 hour schedule, except at night. Their schedules are starting to get out of sync, especially at night. DD sleeps through a feeding and DS is still getting up to eat every 3 hours. How can I make DS eat more?! He's healthy, it's just annoying to have only 1 that can sleep 5-6hrs.

- QOTW: What are your plans for the holidays? Any especially fun traditions you do with the children?

We split Christmas Eve between mine and MHs family. And then I'm hosting Christmas Day. I'm just excited for our first Christmas with children! Even if they are totally clueless about it.

[nomnom]

requiressnacks R ate way more than G (like 45-50 oz versus 32-ish oz, formula fed), but they stayed on more or less the same schedule. They were born 5 oz apart and are now 7 lbs and 1.5-2 inches apart. Both are healthy. I have no advice on the schedule issue, but I always fed them as much as they wanted.

[requiressnacks]

Dec 23, 2016 18:13:50 GMT -5 nomnom said:

requiressnacks R ate way more than G (like 45-50 oz versus 32-ish oz, formula fed), but they stayed on more or less the same schedule. They were born 5 oz apart and are now 7 lbs and 1.5-2 inches apart. Both are healthy. I have no advice on the schedule issue, but I always fed them as much as they wanted.

Thanks, that's helpful. DD is so much bigger than DS right now I was afraid I was over feeding her! I guess I'll just continue what we are doing and hope that DS can drop one of his overnight feeds soon.

[requiressnacks]

Dec 23, 2016 22:09:51 GMT -5 @feegan said:

requiressnacks J ate way more than L and would've been STTN much sooner if I had had the balls to stop OUBU sooner. L was always smaller and just couldn't take as much and needed more feedings for much longer. I kept a consistent feeding schedule during the day and eventually let them get off schedule at night. I wish I had done it sooner, just because J would've STTN and I would've only dealt with L, who loved to nurse right back to sleep and was much easier to deal with MOTN any way.

I've been a stickler for the OUBU too! I'm terrified of getting off schedule.

[jd]

Dec 24, 2016 6:21:07 GMT -5 requiressnacks said:

Dec 23, 2016 22:09:51 GMT -5 @feegan said:

requiressnacks J ate way more than L and would've been STTN much sooner if I had had the balls to stop OUBU sooner. L was always smaller and just couldn't take as much and needed more feedings for much longer. I kept a consistent feeding schedule during the day and eventually let them get off schedule at night. I wish I had done it sooner, just because J would've STTN and I would've only dealt with L, who loved to nurse right back to sleep and was much easier to deal with MOTN any way.

I've been a stickler for the OUBU too! I'm terrified of getting off schedule.

Not doing OUBU has been really helpful for our nights. My son loooooves to eat and has been happily sleeping through the night for the past 2-3 weeks (they're 14.5 weeks now). My daughter is much smaller, eats much less, and is super fidgety, so she still needs a MOTN feeding. But even she is at the point where she wakes up only once at 6-ish for a feed. My son definitely does not need to be woken up for a feed, and I'm glad we didn't prime him to expect one by doing OUBU. If you follow your son's cues, you may have at least one STTN soon, which feels amazing after the hellish first few weeks!

[requiressnacks]

Thanks ladies! Will try tonight and let you know what happens!

Merry Christmas. 🎄

[schmella]

14m b/g twins

They learned about stairs this weekend? W thinks sliding down on her belly is amazing. A doesn't understand that he can't just step off.

Feeding: well this trip A has decided eating is THE WORST. He had a cup of yogurt melts for dinner last night. All in front of my in laws. Awesome. Both are really distractable - why do people think it's a good idea to try to strike up a conversation with them when I'm obviously struggling to get them to eat?! Then they spit out whatever bite I finally coaxed into their mouths to talk. Ugh.

QOTW: We are just trying to get through this one. Our longest trip to MI so far, I'm chasing my kids around a house that is just one hazard after another with very little help while being told, "there's six adults in this room, relax!" Yeah, 6 adults who watched my son point at an open outlet and didn't think to move him away. A screamed for 3hrs in the car then was so worked up and mucousy that he spent our first night here throwing up. Then MH had either food poisoning or a stomach bug all day yesterday. I'm praying it wasn't contagious. Or that it's rotavirus if it was because YAY VACCINES!
Then A wouldn't eat this morning and MH walked into the kitchen and because I didn't greet him with hugs and kisses he pitched a fit and we got in a huge fight and now I'm ISO an avocado, on Christmas Day, in rural Michigan because A has never turned one down and I just want him to eat something more than Cheerios and yogurt melts.

Sorry for the verbal dump. Merry Christmas?

[requiressnacks]

schmella, that doesn't sound like a very relaxing holiday. Hope today was a little better. 😊

[schmella]

requiressnacks, we left a day early. Everyone slept in their own beds and A woke up ravenous this morning. Hoping for less wake ups tonight and a normal wake up time tomorrow (A has been waking up screaming for 4 days now, at least an hour earlier than usual. I'm so so over it right now.

[requiressnacks]

Dec 26, 2016 9:40:54 GMT -5 schmella said:

requiressnacks, we left a day early. Everyone slept in their own beds and A woke up ravenous this morning. Hoping for less wake ups tonight and a normal wake up time tomorrow (A has been waking up screaming for 4 days now, at least an hour earlier than usual. I'm so so over it right now.

It's amazing how much babies and kids love routine.

[Squishy622]

Happy holidays everyone!!

- How old/combo (gg/bb/bg/etc) are your multiples? 15.5 month ID girls

- How's it going, any upcoming Dr Appts or milestones you'd like to discuss? We just had their 15 mo checkup. All is well except their heads are apparently tiny? Doc wasn't concerned, especially since it's tricky to measure wiggly toddler heads - and they have no other signs of any other issues. But of course I'm feeling a little insecure about it.

- Do you have any questions or concerns that you'd like advice on? I can't remember if I've asked this before. They have really started to beat up on each other out of frustration (sometimes sharing-related but usually not). How do you redirect when they're too young to understand? They think "no" is funny

- Any feeding specific questions regarding nursing, FF, solids, weaning, etc? Nope

- QOTW: What are your plans for the holidays? Any especially fun traditions you do with the children? We do Hanukkah. So fun seeing them mesmerized by the lights and they have been enjoying lots of celebrations with family and friends. Hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

[dream2be3]

requiressnacks have you tried not doing OUBU yet? How did it go if you did? I'm terrified to try. With OUBU I know I'll at least get 2 hours of sleep between feedings.

How old/combo (gg/bb/bg/etc) are your multiples? 5weeks/bb

- How's it going, any upcoming Dr Appts or milestones you'd like to discuss? Pretty good. The boys had their ABR Screen last week. A's right ear failed again so we go back in January to check again. The audiologist thinks there's still probably just fluid in his ear. I hope that's all it is.

- Do you have any questions or concerns that you'd like advice on? Nope

- Any feeding specific questions regarding nursing, FF, solids, weaning, etc? Things are good. We are transitioning from the preemie high calorie formula to the formula of our choice. The 1st formula we tried did not go well but we just started the week of the 50/50 split with a different one. The week of doing the 75/25 split went well so hopefully this week will go well too.

- QOTW: What are your plans for the holidays? Any especially fun traditions you do with the children? We were supposed to go to my parents Christmas Day, but thanks to a nasty storm that didn't happen. Probably won't be doing anything for New Years. DH works all weekend.

[requiressnacks]

dream2be3, yes! I've tried it the past few nights....with moderate success!

DS still requires more feedings, but like PP said, it's always easier dealing with 1 than 2 at a time. Last night was the best so far, here's how it went:

DS gets 3oz, DD gets 4 oz

9pm: bedtime, feeding, both sleeping

1am: DS up, fed (DD did not wake up!!!)

4 am: DD and DS both up, fed

7 am, DD and DS both up, fed



ETA....I call this moderately successful because 2 nights ago DD woke up one hour after DS went back down. So then I ended up being awake for like 3 hours. The way it went above is the BEST case scenario

[piccyami]

- 3 month b/g
- Z and W start daycare next week. Someone hold me. I'm hoping that this will be great for our schedule.
- we're starting to feel like W gets more of our attention these days, thanks to his screaming when anything goes wrong. How do you handle dividing time when you have one intense baby and one more laid back baby?

-We stayed home for Christmas this year because we just weren't up for a trip with babies and dog. We think we'll probably keep it up, especially when the babies are little because it just made everything so much easier. Other than that, we don't really have any traditions yet.

[dream2be3]

requiressnacks glad you are at least having moderate success!

I've been having to feed the boys in a side - lying position so it's been difficult to feed both at the same time. Thankfully this is the last week we have to do that unless of course they have problems with other positions.

Because they were premature and had to learn how to bottle feed I had to wake them to eat. I think they're so used to being on a schedule that we'll be doing OUBU even if not by choice. BUT I think I'll give it a shot and see how it goes.

[schmella]

Dec 27, 2016 22:34:38 GMT -5 dream2be3 said:

Because they were premature and had to learn how to bottle feed I had to wake them to eat. I think they're so used to being on a schedule that we'll be doing OUBU even if not by choice. BUT I think I'll give it a shot and see how it goes.

Mine were on the NICU schedule for a while after we came home and they kept to it for a few weeks after we stopped waking them. You could set a clock by them, it was nuts!

[nomnom]

requiressnacks Change is hard.

Squishy622 On the flip side, my kids have huge heads, like 95% or more (runs in my family). Even Miss G who is under 30% for height.

[dream2be3]

Dec 27, 2016 23:07:13 GMT -5 schmella said:

Dec 27, 2016 22:34:38 GMT -5 dream2be3 said:

Because they were premature and had to learn how to bottle feed I had to wake them to eat. I think they're so used to being on a schedule that we'll be doing OUBU even if not by choice. BUT I think I'll give it a shot and see how it goes.

Mine were on the NICU schedule for a while after we came home and they kept to it for a few weeks after we stopped waking them. You could set a clock by them, it was nuts!

Could definitely set a clock by them! They were on an every 3 hour eating schedule but we changed it to every 4 when we got home. That was working really well (we'd still have to wake them in the beginning) until last week. Now it seems like they're waking up every 3-3.5 hours. We're going backwards instead of forward. Ugh.

[schmella]

dream2be3, mine stuck to every 3hrs during the day until we added meals. And their last 2 bottles of the day were even closer- we had to push for bigger bottles during the day to get longer stretches at night.

[pbandj714]

requiressnacks, I hope the nights continue to get easier with abandoning OUBU. I was a big weenie with that and didn't want to get them off schedule either, but it's true that dealing with one is sooo much easier than two.

dream2be3, I feel you on the feeding schedule feeling like it's in reverse. When they were sleepy newborns, they would easily go 4 hours between feeds if I let them, which I rarely did since they were peanuts. Now they won't go more than 3 (except overnight thank God). I have been wanting so badly to drop from 6 5-oz feedings to 5 6-oz feedings, but when we tried over the long weekend it was a shit-show. DS took to it just fine, but DD would not drink any more than 5 oz per feed, so it just got her off-schedule and she woke during the night for that 6th bottle. Did not work.

piccyami, GL with the daycare transition! Call me cold, but the first day was HARD and I cried. But after that, it was great. I think I honestly needed to go back to work and have that "break" from momming during the day. It also forced us into a schedule and helped make our days more predictable and pleasant. I hope it works out well for you guys as well!

[pbandj714]

- How old/combo (gg/bb/bg/etc) are your multiples? 6 mo B/G

- How's it going, any upcoming Dr Appts or milestones you'd like to discuss? They had their 6 mo well visit last Friday, and they're doing great! L is 15lb2oz and 26 in. G is 15lb14oz and 26 in. They rocked their booster and flu shots, too. I was so proud of them. L is able to sit unassisted now and she has become quite the chatty girl. G is getting better at sitting tripod-style and will now stand with assistance finally. They both love their jumpers and laughing at the dog.

- Do you have any questions or concerns that you'd like advice on? Not that I can think of right now.

- Any feeding specific questions regarding nursing, FF, solids, weaning, etc? We're in the infancy of offering solids and it's just been stressful on me. DH is constantly freaking about the messiness (so far we've only tried purees), and he complains because they don't actually eat much yet (yea, dumb-dumb, they're not going to automatically be in love with food. this is all new to them, it's a learning process. for them AND us). One of the hurdles I struggle with is WHEN to try to feed them. During the work week, the kids and I get home at 5 pm, and they're usually getting tired and grouchy. They usually have a 5:30 bottle and then another bottle at 6:45 before bed at 7. When we try solids just before their bottles, they're hangry and just not in the mood and end up crying. When we try shortly after, they spit up on themselves in the high chairs and aren't hungry. What should I do? L will absolutely not give up that 5:30 bottle for bigger feedings the rest of the day so I feel stuck.

- QOTW: What are your plans for the holidays? Any especially fun traditions you do with the children? We stayed at home and had family visit us. Christmas Eve was MIL, her H, and SIL and her BF. Christmas was FIL, his GF, GMIL, and SIL still. Day after was my grandma and my parents. It was nice not to have to pack up, but by the third straight day of visitors, they were OVER IT. Not to mention coming down with a cold. I'm not sure what specific traditions we'd like to do. I always enjoyed the Christmas Eve church service with my family, but DH and I still don't have a church down here, so Idk.

[schmella]

pbandj714, we did solids only on weekends until they showed an interest. The stress of being on a timeframe is not helping you AT ALL, and frankly I don't think it's worth it. Get them in on Saturday and Sunday, Friday night and maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. Or just offer them a spoonful or two and then leave it alone on weeknights. I SAH and dinner was the LAST meal we introduced, and it is still their worst meal of the day- they are emotional, I'm tired and less patient, and the stress of fitting it all in just ramps us all up.

As far as timing, we fed solids 60-90 minutes away from a bottle so they were hungry enough to be interested but not so hangry they had patience. That won't work with your PM schedule, so instead maybe start with a 2oz bottle at 5:30, try a few bites of solids, and then the rest of that bottle?

As for the mess. I just accepted that the clothing they wore from 6-10m was going to be stained and not salvageable. If baths are a part of your nightly routine, then just feed them naked. Or buy the long sleeved smocks- I love them (they might be too big but who cares?!)
Hugs mama, I was so excited to introduce real foods until it happened. It's messy and frustrating. But it gets better

[schmella]

pbandj714, could that 5:30 bottle move up at all? Could D.C. feed them that bottle before you get there because that might help

[pbandj714]

Thanks schmella. That's good advice with just starting out on the weekends for now. I had planned to try this past weekend but with family at our house I was not about to open that can of worms. I'm sure MIL would have had so much "advice" that I would not have wanted to hear.

The pedi mentioned we should start out with one solids meal/day, get that routine down, and move on to 2 or 3 meals/day by 9 months. It just seems like SO MUCH, so fast. And apparently I'm not ready.

[pbandj714]

Dec 28, 2016 13:14:59 GMT -5 schmella said:

pbandj714 , could that 5:30 bottle move up at all? Could D.C. feed them that bottle before you get there because that might help

Possibly? I guess I could feed them at 5/right when we get home. Right now they eat at 9, 12, and 3 at the babysitter's. On WFH days I pick them up just after 4, office days closer to 4:30. I wish I could get them to eat more like 6, 9:15, 12:30, 3:45, solids when we get home, and then bedtime bottles at 6:30/45, but L will not increase her oz/feed, so I can't cut that damn 6th feeding yet.

[schmella]

Dec 28, 2016 13:24:19 GMT -5 pbandj714 said:

Thanks schmella. That's good advice with just starting out on the weekends for now. I had planned to try this past weekend but with family at our house I was not about to open that can of worms. I'm sure MIL would have had so much "advice" that I would not have wanted to hear.

The pedi mentioned we should start out with one solids meal/day, get that routine down, and move on to 2 or 3 meals/day by 9 months. It just seems like SO MUCH, so fast. And apparently I'm not ready.

Oh I totally wouldn't have started with people around. I'm not sure if our old schedules would help but I can assure you that even at 10 months there were days we had 3 meals and days we had nothing but bottles.

Do you guys have gaining concerns? Because if not, you might consider putting the cart before the horse so to speak and just drop a bottle and let her catch up?

[pbandj714]

Dec 28, 2016 17:03:19 GMT -5 schmella said:

Dec 28, 2016 13:24:19 GMT -5 pbandj714 said:

Thanks schmella. That's good advice with just starting out on the weekends for now. I had planned to try this past weekend but with family at our house I was not about to open that can of worms. I'm sure MIL would have had so much "advice" that I would not have wanted to hear.

The pedi mentioned we should start out with one solids meal/day, get that routine down, and move on to 2 or 3 meals/day by 9 months. It just seems like SO MUCH, so fast. And apparently I'm not ready.

Oh I totally wouldn't have started with people around. I'm not sure if our old schedules would help but I can assure you that even at 10 months there were days we had 3 meals and days we had nothing but bottles.

Do you guys have gaining concerns? Because if not, you might consider putting the cart before the horse so to speak and just drop a bottle and let her catch up?

That makes me feel a lot better. No gaining concerns here. They've been following their curves nicely since about 2 weeks. Although L is sick this week and hasn't been eating nearly as much as she normally does, which is stressing me out, but that's a whole new can of worms.