Clothing Tips: 0-3 Edition

This blog exists to help my mistakes become someone else's gain. Today I'm going to comment on clothing as it pertains to the first three months of life. Many people might disagree with me, so remember that a lot of the clothing decisions I made have to do with the time of year and the climate. That being said, if I could do all my shopping over again, this is what I would do:

1. No shirts--newborns are held so often that onesies are way better than shirts. Shirts ride up and expose bellies constantly, which is especially undesirable in winter months. There are literally 0-3 shirts I bought that I love and never ever put on them.

2. Winter months=boring onesies--we almost always had the boys in one piece sleepers for the first two months. The boys would wear onesies underneath the sleepers, but no one ever saw them but my husband and me when we changed them. If you're eying a funny/clever/cute onesie, buy it in a size that will fit them between April and October. They don't need cute clothing if no one ever sees them.

Brendan at just over a month in a 0-3 sleeper

3. Sleepers--Invest most in sleepers for the 0-3 and newborn sizes. This is what our boys wore 24/7 for the first few months. When buying them, consider the time of year. The soft terry cloth or fleece ones are great for winter, but the cotton ones are also really nice. The two most important things I would look for in sleepers though would be zippers rather than snaps, and always buy sleepers with feet. Sleepers without feet in 0-3 size are almost completely useless, especially in the winter. Zippers may get jammed from time to time, but trust me, snaps at 3am in the dark never end well. Snaps aren't absolutely evil, but I'd avoid them if/when possible.

4. Buy pants with footies--Later on babies will wear shoes, but at first it's easier to just avoid socks by buying pants with footie bottoms.

Malcolm in a NB sleeper at 7ish weeks

5. Newborn Sizes vs 0-3 sizes vs 3 month sizes--It couldn't just be easy. Oh no. That would be ridiculous. In addition to three different sizes covering this short age range, there's also a tremendous difference between brands. For example, our onesies in 0-3 from Cafe Press only fit for the first month, 0-3 size from Old Navy were almost all in the garage sale box by 2.5 months, but Newborn sized Disney onesies with the grow an inch snaps still fit at 2.5 months. Go figure. Once you buy your stuff, I suggest you lay all the clothes out and sort them by size based on looking at them rather than relying on the tag. Another thing to look at is the weight range on each tag. This tends to be pretty accurate in my limited experience. Now how many should you buy of each? It depends on a number of things, but especially on how often you plan to do laundry. I would suggest having some in each of the three different early sizes (NB, 0-3, and 3 months). Many of our 0-3 clothes were far too big for the boys in their first month (when they weighed less than 8.5 lbs). Of course, some babies are born bigger than that, but I'd still strongly suggest having half a dozen onesies and 2 sleepers in the NB size per baby. If you have reason to believe you're baby might be born at a lower birth weight, maybe grab a few more. I really liked the Disney grow an inch onesies since they lasted for a long time, so those would be a good investment.

Hope that helps someone! Happy shopping!

Travels with Twins: Infant Road Trip Edition

We have braved the wilds of traveling with young twins, and I have lived to tell the tale! While traveling might seem like the last thing you want to do with newborn babies, there are some benefits to traveling when they’re still pretty young. For us, we just wanted to take the boys to see their great grandparents in Arkansas before Thanksgiving when they’ll be a year old and that infant cuteness will have almost given way to toddler insanity.

From our trip, here are some tricks that helped us. Please note that this is not “advice” per se. I’m not a travel expert, doctor, parenting expert, or driving expert, so please don’t regard my commentary as such. I’m just commenting on what worked for us.

First, you have to decide when you’re going to go. Many people suggest traveling overnight, but we figured this might make us both sleep deprived and make the traveling unsafe. We wanted to be as safe as possible with such precious cargo, so we decided to drive during the day. Our boys love car rides, even just around town, and they are great sleepers in the car. This obviously isn’t true of all babies, so that could have a big effect on when/if you travel. To make sure the during the day trip would work, we did a “test trip” a few weeks before we planned to take the plunge. We put the boys in the car and drove to a location about 3-4 hours away, and then returned home on the same day. This was really helpful, as it gave us an idea of what to expect and what we could improve about our travel strategy.

As we prepared for the big launch day, we did a few things to gear up. First, we purchased bottled, premade formula. We usually make our formula from powder, but we felt it was worth the extra money to have less hassle while on the road and in other people’s homes. We also purchased an extra bottle drying rack and bottlebrush. In the days leading up to the trip, we tried to use up all the pumped breast milk in the fridge so that we wouldn’t have to take it with us on the road, and it wouldn’t go bad sitting in the fridge during our absence.

My Granny with Malcolm

The night before the trip, we put the boys to bed early so that we could get out in the morning before rush hour. Once the boys were down, we packed up the minivan ahead of time so that we could feed the boys in the morning and get right on the road. The second the boys finish eating, the clock begins ticking down to their next feed, so you don’t want to waste an hour packing up the car. Obviously there were a few things we couldn’t pack ahead of time (their beds, formula that can’t sit out in the cold, valuables like laptops, etc), but anything that could go in, did.

In the morning it was feed, pack the remaining stuff, and go! Once on the road, the boys slept almost without incident for the first 3-4 hour cycle. This was pretty consistent both on the test trip, the trip down there, and the trip home. Once the boys fussed and were clearly ready to eat, we pulled over and fed and changed them.

For feedings and changes, we tried to do everything in the car. Here’s my thinking behind that—gas station bathrooms are unreliable as far as space, cleanliness, etc. The last thing I wanted to do was cart a screaming, hungry baby into the bathroom of the local Citgo just to find a broken changing table covered with years of dried baby poop. While changing the boys in the car was tough, especially when they pooped, it kept us from having to have them out in the February cold, and it sped up the changing process. I just put our travel-changing pad on the driver’s seat and changed them while I sat in the passenger seat. To bottle feed the boys, the husband and I would each take a baby and a bottle, and sit in the front seat with them. It was a little cramped and uncomfortable, but we liked the privacy in case the boys started screaming or spitting up.

My Grandma with Brendan

Once back on the road, the boys were always a little more restless the second 3-4 hour cycle. They’d nod off for a little bit, then wake back up and look around, and then get a little fussy…and this cycle would repeat itself a few times. To soothe them while we were driving, we did a few things. First, we would shake their car seats in the bases. Again, I’m not sure that this is safe to do, but my friend used to do it and it’s remarkable how well it works. We just pushed against the car seat and kind of shook it back and forth. This usually bought us some time. Another trick we used, which was probably awful for our tires and scared the crap out of other drivers, was to intentionally drive on the safety grooves along the side of the highway. These grooves are there to wake up drivers who fall asleep and start to go off the road, but the vibrations they create seemed to be pretty soothing to the boys. Lastly, I played white noise through the car’s sound system as loudly as possible, and shifted the audio to the rear of the car so that my husband and I could still talk. This one wasn’t as effective, but it couldn’t hurt, right?

To pump while driving (while I was the passenger of course), I luckily have a pump with pretty strong battery life. If the battery had gone low, I also purchased on A/C adapter for the car. It was pretty cheap on Amazon, but I never had to use it, so I really can’t review it. When the milk was pumped, I stored it in a Munchkin Cool Wrap bottle bag that I bought at Target. It stores up to three 8 oz bottles, and it kept them relatively cold. I’d use them in the next feeding as well so that they didn’t sit in the cooler for more than 4 hours.

Boys chilling on the passenger seat in Southern Illinois

We shockingly were able to do the 667 mile trip with only two stops, but as I said, our boys love the car. Before babies, this trip used to take us about 10 hours, and it took about 12.5 hours this time. It was a little tough, but not impossible by any stretch of the imagination, and I’d definitely do it again.

As far as the destination itself, we stayed with family, so I have no experience with hotels and babies. Staying with family makes things easier because you have more space and access to a fridge, sink, etc, but it also makes it a little harder because you’re worried about the little ones bothering your family with their fussiness or early morning wailing. Luckily, the boys were pretty obliging and so was our family. The only other struggle about being away from your house with little ones is the lack of swings, bouncers, activity gyms, etc where you are going. We did a lot of blanket-on-the-floor, which was fine. If the boys needed a little swinging, we would put them in their car seat and rock it manually.

Wondering what a packing list looks like with three-month-old twins? Well, here it is:

• 2 Rock n Plays
• 72 count box of diapers
• Extra Wipes
• 6 six packs of formula
• Breast pump and accessories
• Bottles
• Bottle drying rack
• Bottle brush
• Diaper bag
• Suitcase with baby clothes and swaddles
• My suitcase
• Husband’s suitcase
• Jogging Stroller (should’ve left this at home)
• Snap n Go Stroller
• 2 Baby Carriers
• 2 Car seats
• Bottle cooler bag
• Baby detergent

All in all, traveling wasn’t as stressful as I thought it might be. As long as you plan well and have a little help where you’re headed, there’s no reason that you can’t take your little ones out and about, especially once they’re sleeping through the night. Just plan ahead, be flexible, be safe, and have fun!

Our Journey: The Third Month

Malcolm and his attempt at thumb sucking

With each passing day the boys become more responsive, interactive , and just an all around joy. Don't get me wrong, they still do plenty of yelling, crying, and spitting all over us, but it's definitely becoming more manageable.

As the third month began, we started seeing greater neck control, and as a result the boys liked to be held in a sitting position on our legs. This lent itself to more active forms of soothing such as bouncing on our legs, and as a result the pacifier is rarely seen now at the end of the third month. Right now the pacifier is occasionally helpful at night, but around the middle of the third month the boys began to find their hand, and sometimes they even find their thumb. This has helped them to occasionally soothe themselves, although they're not all the way there yet in their coordination.

Also as a product of better neck control, we were able to get the bouncer set up for them around the middle of the third month. At first they really could only use it while we kind of watched their head and neck, but now they're pretty independent with it. They're still too little to bounce with their legs, but they still seem to enjoy fidgeting in it so that they rock and bounce slightly.

Brendan chilling in the bouncer

Smiles are a great benefit of this age. They now smile and coo with remarkable frequency, and it's almost always in reaction to external stimulation. This makes everything that much cuter and that much more rewarding.

As parents, we've been developing and branching out as well. We tried to transition the boys into their cloth diapers, which was a profound failure. They went through about ten outfits in 24 hours, and we put the issue on the back burner until they get a little bigger.

In the later part of the month I did a couple of shorter shifts at work before transitioning back to full time in early March. We also took the babies on a road trip to see their great grandparents in Arkansas. It was quite the feat of bravery on our part, and I'll post something on this specifically later this week.

Our final big milestone of the month is that we got Malcolm to sleep on his own in the crib one night kind of without incident which shocked the heck out of us! We didn't make a permanent transition yet because of the trip, but we plan on getting them both in to their own room in month four. I'll miss them being in our room though. There's something so comforting about hearing their breathing (and mildly creepy sleep-laughing) as you fall asleep. It's weird to think that there are already things that they're outgrowing--clothes, beds, and even titles. At 3 months old and just as plump and bright eyed as ever, they're now officially infants and the newborn phase is over forever!

And then the real one.

A silly one...

Becoming A Parent: How Having Kids Has Changed Me

How many of us have heard the old axiom “having kids changes everything”? Of course you have. It’s chanted by young parents in that annoying, condescending voice that all childless twentysomethings secretly despise. As a childless twentysomething myself, I can remember hearing this one from friends, family, random strangers, and thinking “Give me a break; get off your cross”, but now, standing on the other side, I will say that this common parental mantra isn’t a complaint or an act of superiority-doused condescension…it’s just the darned truth. I always assumed that by “everything”, new parents meant that their sleep schedules, habits, etc were altered, and don’t get me wrong, they are, but I think the bigger point to consider is that having kids changes people in a very personal way, and everyone reacts to it differently. I don’t think that I could have predicted the biggest and most fundamental effects it’s had on me.

I'm even shooshing Brendan! lol.

1. I’m a Quieter, Gentler Me
No one who knows me would describe me as quiet. In fact, anyone reading this who knows me is probably in cardiac arrest at the mere suggestion of me becoming more docile. Someone send an ambulance. Truthfully though, having the boys around makes me want to channel my inner monk. I don’t know what it is; maybe it’s that babies make enough noise at is without me contributing, but I have been so much more relaxed in my behavior since we got home from the hospital. It’s not that I don’t get worked up and loud, it’s just that it happens less often and over fewer things. I guess maybe I worry that the boys will sense my agitation and reciprocate with a little agitation—the last thing this household needs—so I just try to keep it mellow in the hopes that they will return the favor. So, in short, I’m not saying that my award winning moral outrages or high volume tirades are entirely gone, but expect to see them as far less regular visitors.

2. I Don’t Procrastinate
I was the queen of procrastination. 95% of the time things got done on time, but by the skin of my teeth and not without a few sleepless nights. But since November 16th? Forget about it. Almost from the minute we came home, I found myself doing things the minute I got a free…well…minute. The bills? Paid on time. My report card comments for work? Done the earliest they have been in four years of teaching. The dishes? Never sitting in the sink for more than 24 hours. Before babies, I could afford to put things off. If I came home with four hours of grading to do, I knew that I could wait until 7pm to start it. Nothing was going to just come up to prevent me from working on it from 7pm until 11pm straight. Now? If I don’t do the dishes while one baby is napping in the swing and my husband is holding the other baby, when will I do them? I can’t guarantee that another hands-free opportunity will present itself, so I’m forced to seize every free moment and get things done as soon as the opportunity presents itself. I’m really impressed with my ability to kick procrastination to the curb; I just wish I’d done it years ago.

3. I Maintain “Routines”
I always hated the idea of “routines”.  I never understood why people always went to the gym at the same time every single day, or had an order for their morning grooming activities. I just did things as needed, when they made sense, and when I had time. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever had a standard routine when it comes to any aspect of my life. But now, much for the same reason that I’ve stopped procrastinating, routines have begun to dominate my life. When I wake up, I go through the same steps in the same order to get the morning feeding ready, set up my breast pump, grab the remotes, and get the baby on his bottle. After he’s done? I get him down in the pack n play for a few minutes while I wash dishes and eat breakfast. At night? I put the boys to bed after consuming the same amount of formula every night, and once they’re down I do dishes and then sit on the couch and drink a single beer. It’s so routine it’s scary. Sometimes the beer is a glass of chocolate milk, but that’s about as “wild” as it gets.

Now you may be thinking “but I already do all of those things, so therefore this whole parenting changes you things is totally not applicable to me”, but I believe that everyone has their own reactionary changes that they will experience that can be neither predicted nor prepared for. I’d say the same is even true of grandparents. I don’t think my father, who has always been a serious workaholic, had any idea that he would adore being a grandparent as much as he does. I’ve honestly hardly ever seen him value something so much in my entire life and, heck, I’m his daughter.

So, yes, the axiom is true, and I’m sure all my friends without kids who bemoaned the breeders with me at this time last year are all like “you’ve betrayed us! Traitor!”. But changed doesn’t necessarily mean improved, and it certainly doesn’t mean that other life events don’t also have a monumental impact. This is just one of those life events, and once you’re there, I think you’ll be surprised at what you look like in the vestments of parenthood. I know I am.

Bottle Feeding 411

We started bottle feeding exclusively when our boys were 3.5 weeks old and never looked back. If you’re interested in why we made the choice we did, check out the post here.

Since the transition, it’s been admittedly difficult to keep up with supply, but the boys are still able to have around 67% of their diet come from breast milk, which is great. I’ve learned to pump while I’m bottle feeding one of the boys so as to not waste time, and 11 weeks in, I’m still happy with the decision that we made.

Bottle feeding, as much as I love it, just isn’t as straight forward as breast feeding. I read plenty of blogs and sections of books, and grilled my pediatrician with questions. Below I want to give you a run down of how I bottle feed and what accessories I use to make the process easier.

Bottles & Bottle Accessories:

We opted to go with glass bottles because I’m sort of phobic about plastic and chemicals contained therein. That being said, I don’t use exclusively glass. I have a few plastic Medela bottles, and I’m actually glad that I have them because they’re much easier to transport when I have to pump on the go. Also, the one drawback of glass bottles is that they tend to break if dropped, which is super irritating and a pain to clean up when you have a screaming baby/babies. That being said, I still prefer them.

As far as which type, it’s kind of irrelevant for me because I don’t use the nipples that come with the bottles. When I tried to use those nipples, milk poured all over the lower half of my babies’ faces. Instead, I use the Enfamil slow flow disposable nipples and just disassemble and rewash them for multiple uses. I don’t know if this is their intended use, so I’m not condoning it; I’m just saying that it’s what we’ve done and what has worked for our boys.

We have Doc Brown's bottles and Easy Flow bottles. I don’t really prefer one over the other, as I said, but I guess if pressed I would say that the Doc Brown’s 4 ounces are the better 4 ounce bottles and the Easy Flow 8 oz are the better 8 ounce bottles, but honestly, it doesn’t matter. I would suggest getting a number of both 4 ounce and 8 ounce sizes though. I prefer to pump into the 4 ounce sizes because I don’t make enough to necessitate the bigger, more cumbersome 8 ounce bottles. I also liked the 4 ounce better for feeding them when they were little because they only took 4 ounces or less per feeding. Now I use the larger size when mixing formula because I often offer them 6 ounces of formula at formula feedings. I’d say getting 5-10 of each per baby makes sense, maybe a few more if you are unable to do dishes a couple of times a day.

When it comes to bottle care and storage, I use the Munchkin drying rack and the Munchkin bottle brushes. The drying rack is small and functional. My only issue is that because it’s collapsible, the back row for bottles sometimes tilts or falls if I load it up with 8 ounce bottles. You definitely need a bottle drying rack though; bottles and nipples just don’t dry well on a standard drying rack. As far as the munchkin brushes, they’re fine, but if you’re exclusively bottle feeding, they do wear out quickly. When they wear out, be careful because the wire can scratch your bottles. I say just buy about half a dozen and plan to replace them every six weeks.  Also, buy one for your diaper bag. You’ll need it when you go to people’s houses because bottles and nipples are next to impossible to clean with a traditional sponge.

In the labeling department, it’s certainly important to label bottles before you put them in the fridge. You can buy labels, but I find that to be a waste of money. Instead, I just cut up small pieces of paper and attach them to the bottles with scotch tape. I include date and time of pumping as well as amount on each label which makes it easily to quickly grab the amount you need.

Pumping:

To pump, we use the Medela Symphony which we rent from the hospital at I believe $60 per month? I like it because it’s efficient and powerful, but it gets a C- for portability. It has a carrying case that is about the size of a cat carrier, so I’m going to look kind of silly carting it into and out of work everyday. Still, it doesn’t fail for portability because the battery life is pretty decent and it has a handle. I’ve pumped in the passenger seat of the car a few times with no problem whatsoever. For twins, I need the power of a hospital grade pump, but others might find this pump to be more than they need.

As far as breastshields go, I have the one piece shields as well as the two piece shields. At first I liked the two piece ones better because they’re easier to use with a pumping bra, but I’ve changed my tune. The one piece shields are a little more annoying to insert into the pumping bra, but they make up for it by never allowing a bottle to fall off and break. With the one piece shields, you could literally do jumping jacks while pumping and your bottles wouldn’t fall off. To me, that puts them solidly on top. Whichever type you pick, have a few extra sets lying around. This keeps you from having to do dishes every three hours. I have three pairs.

The most important pumping item I have, though, is my Simple Wishes hands-free pumping bra. I have three, and I’ll probably buy a couple more. I don’t know how anyone pumps without a hands-free bra. I was kind of worried about sizing since I have a pretty big chest, but the L/XL/XXL works fine for me, and it could be adjusted to be even roomier.

Formula:

For the first month of bottle feeding, I relied solely on the Enfamil Newborn 2 ounce Nursettes for supplementing. This is what they used in the NICU, so that’s what the hospital sent us home with, and that with which we were most familiar. The benefit of them is that they don’t need to be mixed or measured. They are ready to use—all you have to do is shake them, unscrew the lid, and screw on a nipple. We used them because they’re the safest, especially for fragile newborn digestive systems, but they are also disturbingly expensive. For the first few months, we felt it was worth it because we only needed to supplement 4-8 ounces per day, but now that the boys are older and we need to supplement about twenty ounces a day, this is no longer financially responsible as a daily practice. We do, however, keep a few around for the diaper bag.

We now use the Target brand powdered delicate stomach formula and have no complaints. In order to make mixing and preparing easier, we bought the Baby Brezza water pitcher, which keeps water at a consistent 98 degrees for mixing formula quickly and easily. This is one of my best baby purchases thus far. The device is immensely easy to operate and does what it says it will do. The kettle glows either red or blue to indicate whether the water is ready, which actually kind of makes it a pretty piece of décor rather than a necessary eyesore. It keeps me from having to premake bottles every morning, and I highly recommend it.

When it comes to water for mixing, I’ve been buying nursery water in gallon jugs, but I plan to stop soon and use our Brita filter instead. Nursery water honestly isn’t ridiculously expensive though, so I don’t think it matters either way.