I’m calling it. I think my months & months (& months) of breastfeeding two then regularly one are done.
Zach hasn’t consistently nursed in months (March’s end of cosleeping/his crib sleeping & STTN ended our nightly bfing). The last couple months he’s nursed the occasional morning if he’s pulled into our bed, when he’s been home sick or one post-nap nursing session. Last Monday am was what I believe will be my last tandem feed ~ they woke up too early, husband brought them to me in bed when he left for work. And when they both asked for “Mommy?!” I obliged knowing bittersweetly this might be another end of an era. Z cracked me up fumbling a bit as of he’d kinda forgotten how & L acted as if this was a strange treat she wasn’t quite sure about. I thought about fumbling for my phone for a photo but decided to just live in the moment instead.
That evening L nursed on each side for less than a minute before asking for cuddles & bed. Same thing Tuesday, 1 min per side, quick sippy then bed.
No nursing from L for the past week. And this Tuesday night (the eve of her second birthday) as she sauntered on her own down the hall to her crib, she said over her shoulder in response to my asking about her sippy, “no. Finished. Cup. Sink.” Well, ok then.
In one weeks time, she’s gone from a combo of nursing & a sippy cup of organic whole milk before I carry her to bed to being done with pre-bed “mommy time”, sippies & walking herself to her crib!
If you need me, I’m in the corner with my slightly sore, very deflated (yet still rock star because hello 23 mos!) boobs. Both in awed wonder & sadness at the loss of my baby who’s suddenly a growing up toddler.
From Nov 7th 2011 until very recently, I’ve been eating for three {or 14 weeks for four}. At first, that meant pouring through mom of multiples books for sample eating charts, foods recommendations & recipes to try to reach the goal of 3000 {then 2700} calories a day. I was told to add all the protein & fat I could because I was growing multiple babies {who’d most likely be preemies} & needed all they could get before they arrived. I switched to higher fat milk & subbed extra real butter on everything. Gone were any low calorie yogurt, cheese, cream cheese, breads, crackers, etc.
Then Z & L were born & my hard work eating all.the.things paid off as they were huge in comparison to their other NICU residents.
And boom. I was told by NICU LCs & MoM breastfeeding books to up my calories & fat again after L & Z were born to keep up my milk supply. So I was once again eating everything I could plus sticking with my ice cream before bed routine. In about 9 months after they were born, I’d lost the 50 lbs I’d gained pregnant plus 20-25 more. I was wearing clothes I hadn’t dreamed I’d ever fit into again while eating whatever I wanted {pretty cool, right?! Breastfeeding FTW}.
Then even when L & Z started eating solids as their main nutritional source & we started cutting nursing sessions, I kept up my big breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner & dessert routine. It’s what I knew & what my stomach was telling me I was hungry for. I was busy & tired & usually somewhat overwhelmed by life & just doing what I could.
Cue 19 months post-partum. Today. I’m still nursing L before bed & Z during 1-2 dream feeds a night. Yes my 19, almost 20, month old son doesn’t STTN {& nor do I} but that’s a whole other post. I’m still trying to drink a lot of water {although thankfully not the 100 oz I was doing while pregnant & EBFing} & maintain calories of hopefully healthy food to pass through in my milk. But honestly, my eating is kinda of a joke some days. My constant {especially strong post-nursing} sweet tooth & the holidays didn’t help.
I’ve gained back 15-20 of those pounds I’d lost. My post-multiples lower belly is a mess of chub & stretch marks & my boobs will never be where they once were. I do have kick ass arm muscles for someone my size thanks to carrying 50+ lbs of toddlers multiple times a day though. Multi-mom bonus!
I’m okay with my body shifting. Hello, I grew babIES! And at some point, I’ll find time from somewhere to work out & see about tightening up those stomach muscles. But my priority now is relearning how to eat. This might sound crazy, to some, but it’s been 26 months since I was eating for just me & I’ve kinda forgotten normal portions!
It doesn’t help that I’m on my own with getting all three of us up & out the door in the mornings. My prior life breakfast routine of leisurely eating cereal isn’t an option as I’d have L & Z going after my spoon or food while I run around the house. This past weekend, we hit up Trader Joe’s for some quick & healthy week night meals {L & Z like to eat by 6p which makes recipes with a lot of effort or cooking time a non-option} as well as their organic milk & yogurt & breakfast items for me. So I’m going to admit that instead of my usual two bagels with cream cheese when I get to work at 830, yesterday am, I ate a whole wheat bagel with cream cheese at home. While I peed. & L & Z dumped out their sock drawer. Because that’s the 5 2 mins I had to eat.
I bring my lunch to work most days & have started to pack less. And I’m cutting out my mid-afternoon snack since we usually eat dinner early.
Dinner is tough because, like I said above, it has to be made quick & I still want high calorie foods to bulk up L & especially Z. I’m not a short order cook & I want us all eating the same thing.
And I’m not ready to give up my beloved dessert forever but have cut it out some nights this week. I’m motivated. But not that motivated. 😛
So, long long long story short, I’d love to hear how, post-baby{s}, you got back to normal or the new normal.
It hasnt always been easy, but the three of us have mostly had a love-love-love relationship with breastfeeding. But the end is near. I shared my thoughts on slowing weaning & being on the verge of quitting pumping at LWM this week.
After 18+ months of up to 8 times a day nursing & pumping, I’m so close to being done that I can hardly smell the breast milk boob sweat anymore. {TMI?! Please tell this happened to you too?}
We began weaning Thanksgiving weekend cutting out the morning session & no longer offering breastfeeding during the day. I didn’t refuse if L or Z came running up yelling ‘Mommy’ & pulling up/down my sweater, but I wasn’t running around topless like the newborn all-day-buffet-days either.
I thought it was well past time to do another must haves list. I’ve looked back on my newborn list for twins to reminisce & have shared it with multi-momma-to-be friends too. Here’s my favorites for Zach & Lucy from the past couple of months.
Feeding
If you’re still nursing like I continue to do {yay you & us!}, some of the newborn list still applies like a good pump for working moms, nursing pads & the twin version of the mybrest friend pillow. I continue to use the Gerber 9oz bottles to pump into & couldn’t go without mini packit coolers for storing my pumped milk while at & on my way home from work.
Around 11-12 months, Zach & Lucy said goodbye to our beloved bottles. We had a mix of 9oz tommee tippee, 5 oz Medela, & 5 & 9 oz Gerber bottles. I discovered 5 oz bottles will hold almost 6 oz filled so that’s what we used for almost a year. I’d heard to buy a few of multiple kinds of sippy cups because it can be a tough transition & kiddos can be picky. {Aside: we’d tried water or water/apple juice in starter sippys beginning around 8 months with little success.} Zach likes ones with handles.
His favorite are these Nuby ones. Lucy isn’t as picky, so we have a mix of non-handled ones in her daycare milk rotation too.
When they started really eating solids, I purchased some waterproof big bibs online & from Target & Walmart. The bumkins ones have held up better than the others.
Munchin snack cups are toddler stand bys.
Snack took precedence with Lucy & Zach over Nana Sunday afternoon.
We agree. I have 4 & at least 2 are in the dish washer at any one time.
We love our Fisher Price space saver high chairs. They fit securely in our regular dining room chairs & Lucy & Zach eat at the table with us.
Clearly they’re fans too.
Clothing
We tend to return again & again to Carter’s {from their outlet, Target & Costco}, Target’s Circo line & the Children’s Place for our daycare & play staples. I love the quality of Gymboree & GAP Kids when they’re having sales & those are brands I look for first while consignment shopping.
For pjs, I’m a bit of a mixed bag, & I’d say our must haves would include both cotton zippered & snap long-sleeve {mostly} footed pajamas as well as Old Navy two-piece ones. Zippers are quick & snaps work well for getting-to-the-diaper-while-keeping-toddler-dressed for cooler nights, & we like the two piece short sleeve {& some shorts} for mix & match as well as heavy drooling/vomit nights.
I’d be remiss if I left Halo sleep sacks off this list. We love them in both cotton & fleece. Lucy & Zach are about to outgrown the size mediums & we’ve added the larges into rotation while I’m stocking up on XLs for this fall & winter.
Leaving The Nest
We received a Baby Jogger City Mini for Christmas. It stays in the van because we use it that often: for fitness walks & strolls, shopping trips, at the beach.
I also keep one of our Ergo carriers in the van. It continues to work great for grocery or Target shopping with a sleeping toddler.
When Lucy & Zach aren’t in either of the above, we put them in shopping carts with one of our cart covers.
The covers we received at showers are adaptable for restaurant high chairs too.
Toys
There are so many toy options for toddlers. These are a few of my duo’s favorites. {All links unaffiliated from Amazon.}
Standing toys
From their birthday, playing with their ball table before school.
When they first began to pull up, we bought them the Bright Stars ball table. At the time, their hands were too small to palm the balls. Now they’re clanging the balls together & fetching them across the room. Lucy & Zach also have the Fisher Price laugh & learn kitchen. We don’t travel without either of these two.
We have future books nerds on our hands. This could not make my momma heart any happier. This week, we’ve read Owl Babies, Little Blue Truck, Goodnight Owl, Five Little Monkeys, Good Night, Little Bear & Pookie a thousand times. I’d recommend board books for toddlers. We know mine are getting a new tooth when they start choosing on a book & ones without flaps have survived the best.
That’s it off the top of my head for now. Let me know if you think my list misses something your toddler loves. I’d also love to hear what we might want/need for our next stage.
I took Zach & Lucy’s 14 month photos on my cell today. While organizing them for their posts this week, I ran across these photos from this weekend. {Yep, you read that right, thanks to a dead DSLR battery, this months’ will have timely pics!}
I took this nursing selfie Fri evening. I’m still successfully breastfeeding two babies toddlers. If nursing tandem, 99% of the times it’s football hold on our much beloved twin mybrest friend pillow {we’ve gotten every bit of its $60 worth}. And yes, nursing toddlers has it’s own set of challenges- mostly in the form of keeping Zach focused on nursing {instead of running}, keeping them from poking each others eyes/lips/nose/hair & trying to dissuade them from playing with my mouth/necklace/hair. It’s hilarious too when nursing one-on-one the positions they get themselves in while managing to stay attached! I might have future yogis!
Saturday night, I attempted to take a ‘happy almost 14 month day’ group shot of the three of us.
This was the best I could do! Just a glimpse of life with two busy littles at the moment. They’re all up in each others business all the time. Pushing, slapping, & as of Friday {Zach!} biting each other! We say ‘be sweet’, ‘be gentle’, ‘gentle touches’, ‘don’t hit your brother/sister’ only about a 1000 times/day.
You can see how they do & yet don’t play well together in my attempt at a good 14 month group shot Sunday morning before we met my friend Kelly at church. On the chair together, there were a few smiles, but in typical Zach fashion, he was trying to get out if her way & back to reading!
Lastly, once Dada got home Sunday evening, he was reading Jake’s Perfect Day for at least the third time. They’re fairly obsessed with it & a few others {anyone want me to recite Little Blue Truck or Goodnight Owl?!}. The moment was too sweet to not capture. So please excuse the poor lighting & reflect instead on two sweet kiddos nicely sharing a lap for a cuddle-filled book with their Dad.