The last two weeks...

...according to the iphone

There is a beautiful little lake near our house and it's perfect for an afternoon out with the family. Two weekends ago we picnicked there and busted out the inflatable kayak and a good time was had by all!

                                               

Safety First!

Last weekend we continued our adventures by driving to California. My youngest sister was getting married (pics to come) and Rob took a couple of days off of school to make the journey.

Apparently this is the comfiest way to sit in a carseat for

hours at a time

The weather in California was beautiful, as always. We went to the pool one day and the lake another. The water was perfect and everyone got a chance to enjoy it.

Gideon's cousin, Peyton, is a total sweetheart and loved to play with him!

Gideon decided to enjoy some of the book I was reading.

                                                   

   Rob is such a stud!

All in all, the last two weeks have been wonderful and crazy at the same time. Getting out with all the kids seems like a totally daunting task, but it is totally worth it. 

Dear Nurse

*I wrote this after my 10 week hospital stay, while the girls were still in the NICU but I think that Nurse's Day is the perfect day to share it.

Dear Nurse,

I see you.

I see you coming to work early, even though you stayed late last night. I see you clocking off but then returning to a discouraged patient's room just to chat. I see you skipping meals to take care of the needy girl in room 16. I see you brace yourself when you have to enter the room of the not-so-nice-lady.

I see you taking food trays and making beds. I see you cleaning up messes that you could probably leave for housekeeping.

I see the frustration on your face when a doctor won't listen. I see the hours of charting you do on your own time.

I see the pain in your eyes when you can't help a patient.

I see you checking your watch, hoping you can get home in time to tuck your own child in. I see you taking the night shift so that you can make it to your son's Allstar game. I see you rushing from room to room, trying to fill every need you see.

I see you working 12 hours straight with a screaming woman, only to have to leave right before she delivers her baby.

I see you standing there, holding monitors in place in the middle of the night. I know your hands are cramping, and your back is aching, and you wish there was an easier way. I know that there are moments when you wonder if it is all worth it.

But it is.

And you might never see the fruits of your labors, but every day I get to hold them. Everyday I get to love on them because of you.

Thank you. 

Camping with Babies

Camping with babies can be challenging, but my biggest piece of advice is to plan ahead.

I have always been a "fly by the seat of my pants" kind of girl, so planning ahead in detail is something extremely difficult for me, but it certainly paid off on this trip!

Here are my top 5 items*** that I could not live without while camping with babies (in no particular order):

1. Wraps/carriers- This is how we got by while we set up camp. I am wearing my oscha nebula size 6 woven wrap and we also brought a kelty carrier and mei tai for Gideon (not pictured). This is something I cannot stress enough. The ground was uneven and rocky and Gideon often got frustrated and wanted to be carried. There was also a large hill leading up to where we parked the car and a double stroller just wouldn't have been able to hack it.

2. Eddie Bauer soothing comfort bassinet- We got the first one second-hand when Gideon was a baby and used it a ton with him (until he was almost a year!) and I knew that I would need a second with these girlies. It folds completely flat for easy travel and it has a bug screen. I LOVE THIS BOUNCER. It is perfect for days at the beach, the park, or just the backyard. As you can see, it left us plenty of room in our 3 man tent for me and Rob and Gideon. The only problem is that I don't think they manufacture it anymore. I was lucky enough to find our second one on craigslist for only $15! Also, it gets terrible reviews on amazon, but if you are planning on doing a lot of outdoor adventures I would definitely recommend this item.

3. Warm stuff- We have two JJ Cole Bundleme things that we used for sleeping bags for the girls and they worked great! They are actually for car seats and have slits in the back so that the straps can come through but that actually worked perfectly for the bouncers as well! Gideon's sleeping bag is just a child sized bag that we got at Smith's Marketplace. It was a little large for him so we had to cuddle up a bit, but I can see it working well in the future.

4. Bumbos- at this particular site there was no optimal place to lay down a blanket to let the girls play, so we were very happy that we had brought the bumbos. They love to sit in them and hold hands and just watch the world as they relax.

                                            

The Car- I know it seems kind of silly, but hear me out! For your first camping trip with babies I would suggest NOT backpacking a couple miles away from your car. Our car was a nice little distance away which was perfect for when the girls got too hot and overstimulated. They decided they didn't want to take a nap and didn't want to be held but just wanted to scream. I finally gave in and put them in their car seats and drove around for a few minutes and that is all it took to calm them down and set them up for their long midday nap. 

Many people thought that it was crazy to do this trip (myself included) but some of my favorite childhood memories come from camping as a family. 

My biggest advice is to plan ahead, but to not be disappointed if things don't work according to plan. I definitely didn't expect to drive the girls around for their naptime, and it felt a little like cheating, but in the end it was what we needed to do to keep things happy. 

 ***I put links to every item, but we bought every single one of the items listed second-hand. We never payed full price for any of them. Check out Craigslist.com, ksl.com, or facebook for local used items.

Gideon was helping me blow on the fire to get it started

We were so glad we brought Meisje along! She kept Gideon company
and they played all around the campsite together

Gideon had no fear when it came to the snake that we found

Rob's buddies from school were great with the kids!

Things were pretty comfy at our campsite

 

Showing up for motherhood...

...or whatever your calling/occupation in life is

I think that one of the greatest lessons my mother ever taught me was to get up and get dressed.

Seriously though. It sounds super simple, but some days it just isn't.

I remember mornings where she would wake us up at 6am (this was part of the regular routine) and all I wanted to do was lay in bed. My head hurt. My throat hurt. My stomach hurt.

I would proceed to tell her how miserable I was and this was her response:

"If you get up, get dressed, and start moving around and you still don't feel well, you may stay home from school"

I would venture to say that 99% of the time I ended up going to school.

The thing is, I wasn't faking it. I absolutely did feel miserable when I woke up, but by some fancy Mom Magic I always felt better when I got up and got dressed.

Fast forward 20 years and now I'm a mom and guess what?

I still wake up feeling miserable some days and I don't want to get out of bed. And I certainly don't want to think about the pile of dishes sitting in the sink. Or the dirty laundry on the floor. Or the babies that want to suck the life out of me (ie breastfeed). I just want to stay in bed.

And while staying in bed isn't necessarily an option, not getting dressed absolutely is. Being a lazy bum falls in the category of "options" as well. This is where the Mom Magic comes in...

I have three babies. Two of which I breastfeed, at the same time. I stay at home during the day, but I work almost 30 hours every week during the evenings. I think I wake up feeling miserable more often than not. On those mornings I just picture my mom telling me to get up and get dressed and I make a deal with myself----

If I get up, get dressed, and get something to eat and I still feel miserable, I am allowed to get back in my pjs and lie on the couch and not do anything but feed the kids and change diapers.

I would venture to say that 99% of the time that I do that, I end up actually staying moving and getting things done.

Motherhood is hard. I could probably get by on doing the bare minimum, but that's not what I want for me and that's not what I want for my children. I want a life in a comfortable home. I want to spend time with friends and family. I want to go on adventures with my husband. I want my kids to know the joys of good books and great friends. I want my children to feel happy and fulfilled.

And that's not going to happen if I just stay in my pjs and sit on the couch all day. So I decide to show up for motherhood. I decide to get dressed, to tackle the laundry (I leave the dishes for my husband) and to love and nurture those babies.Yes, I have PJ days. Yes, I complain about it more often than I should. But I am so grateful for a mother who always decided to get up and get dressed, because therein she taught me the secret to success and happiness.

So whatever it is that you do---be it motherhood, fatherhood, a full time job/school, or a member of a sports team---make a deal with yourself to just get up and get dressed. Show up for your responsibilities and see what happens. If it doesn't work, I give you permission to go back to bed.

Isn't she the most beautiful mama you've ever seen?

I get by with a little help from my friends...

...and baby gear. Baby gear is a must.

Here are my top six necessities for twin baby life in the first six months (in no particular order)

1.  San Diego Bebe Nursing pillow

I honestly could not have survived without this. I tried tandem nursing without it and you would not believe how miserably I failed! This particular pillow comes with a built in cover, which is great because the babies can't pull it off and there is no awkward shifting around to try and stay covered. Also, when Annelise and Olivia first came home from the hospital we had to monitor how many ounces they were getting, so I was only allowed to nurse once a day and then I bottle fed them (expressed breast milk) for their other feedings. I liked using the nursing pillow to be able to hold them both even when we were just doing bottles. I had one rule in the beginning, and that was "when one baby eats, the other baby eats". I bought mine used at a local baby store.

2. Baby Trend Snap-N-Go

The girls were asleep when I got to the grocery store, so I plopped them in and off we went!

Car seats are an obvious must, so I'm not even going to discuss that. But the snap-n-go? GENIUS. I love this thing. If the girls are asleep in their carseats and I don't want to wake them up to wrap/wear them, I just take their carseats out and go. No juggling babies and unclipping and reclipping. No fuss, no muss. It also maneuvers extremely well, which is important, because I generally have to push/pull a cart as well!

3. Bouncer

All snuggled up in one bouncer! Also, I'm morally opposed to dressing twins the same,
but EVERYONE gets matching PJs on Christmas!

In the beginning I just put both babies in one bouncer, they were happier that way and LOVED to be snuggled next to each other. They don't fit together anymore, but even now when they seem inconsolable I just hold them both real close to one another and they calm right down. I only had one bouncer from when Gideon was a baby (I got it for free at a church swap and shop!), and I didn't want to buy two because I knew that some babies prefer a swing. At this point Annelise is always in the bouncer and Olivia is always in the swing.

4. Swing

This is actually Gideon in the swing, because apparently we have
no pictures of Livvy in it. 

This is the swing that my AK sisters got for Gideon and he spent a lot of time in it. Now it's where Olivia takes most of her naps! Again, I didn't buy two swings because I figured one baby could be in the bouncer and the other in the swing.

5. Baby wraps

The top one is a Free Hand Mei Tai, the dark blue braided one is an Oscha Nebula 6
and the tealish one is a Vatanai Orkney 7

I could not live without these. They have become a bit of an obsession. It just isn't feasible to bring a stroller everywhere you go, and with three children 1yr and younger I just don't have hands enough to carry them all either! This was an absolute MUST for me. I would wear the girls to church, to the grocery store, to weddings, on walks, EVERYWHERE. It also doesn't hurt that I feel like Supermom when I wear them all together. 

6. Medela Double Breast Pump

You get no pictures of me using this item.

A double Breast Pump is a glorious thing. If you are having twins you will need this! Since the girls were in the NICU and unable to breastfeed at first, this was a necessity to build my milk supply. If you have children in the NICU they have breast pumps there for you to use, but it just wasn't feasible to be there every time I needed to pump. For those first two weeks I pumped every two hours during the day and I slept through the night. I figured that I should get all the rest I could while the babes were in the NICU and that my body would readjust its supply for nighttime feedings. *Check with your insurance company to see if they will furnish one to you for free, that is one great thing that has come from Obamacare

There are obviously tons of other items that are amazing to have when you have a baby, but these have been my most used items specifically with twins.

Other items that I would recommend:

Cloth diapers (read about those here)
Dr. Brown's Bottles
Bottle Warmer
Aiden and Anais Swaddles
Bumbo
Exersaucer

**I should also note that because of our transient lifestyle (oh the joys of a husband in school!) all of my children have slept in Packnplays instead of cribs. It is not as aesthetically pleasing, but they get the job done and they are easy to move and fit almost anywhere. For the first 4 months the girls slept in the same Packnplay, but are now sleeping in their own because they can roll over. That means that Gideon got kicked out of his and graduated to a toddler bed (this happened about 2 months ago)!

Looks comfy, eh?

You can't really tell, but there they are in their packnplay!