12 weeks old!

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Cloth Diapers Part Deux

Pocket diapers are diapers that you stuff with inserts for absorbency. They are great for traveling and for babysitters that aren't familiar with cloth diapers because you just snap/velcro it on and then take it off. Some have to be unstuffed before washing. Pocket diapers are nice because if you have a heavy wetter or are going to be out for a while you can add more stuffing. The downside is that once it's soiled it needs to be washed. Unlike the Flip diapers where you just swap for a clean insert.

Pictured above are the kids in their SmartiPants pocket diapers. These are one-size diapers that don't have to be unstuffed before you wash them. They also come in fun colors! Michael has the flaps overlap because he's so small. You can see Malia's do not overlap. These used to leak when the kids had less chunky legs. They work fine now.

Our neighbors got the kids these shirts. I love when they hold hands.

Malia is sporting the Tiny Tush brand pocket diaper. I love that the snaps match the diaper. Michael is wearing a Kawaii pocket diaper. This is my only velcro diaper. I don't care for velcro; I prefer snaps because they last longer and don't get stuck on anything in the wash.

Recently I experimented with how long I could between washing diapers. I can go 3 days, but probably could go longer using the old school prefolds I have. Here's how I wash them:

Dirty cloth diapers are unstuffed (if applicable) and then put through a cold rinse to get any poo off the diapers. Then washed with a hot wash and cold rinse. And followed up with another cold rinse. Our washer has the option of 2nd rinse, so I only have to tend to the washing machine twice. The inserts can go in the dryer on low, but the outer parts have to be line dried.

Fabric softner is an absolute no-no with cloth diapers. It messes with the absorbency on the fabrics. Most detergents are not good for cloth diapers. I use Rockin Green which was created by a cloth diapering momma. It has awesome scents like Smashing Watermelons, Rage Against the Raspberries, Motley Clean, Lavender Mint Revival, Mighty Mighty Marshmellow, The Plain Green Teas's. They have unscented for sensitive babies too. The soap smells good, but the diapers come out smelling like nothing. If I have a stain that won't wash out, I just set the diaper out in the sun and it disappears!

Snow...again :(

I think Chewy is the only one who is enjoying this latest snowfall.

Extreme close-ups!

Diapers

So a little birdie (thanks Erin!) told me I should post about cloth diapers. All the diapers I will discuss are one size diapers. This means they fit babies 8lbs to 35lbs; all the way to potty training. I'll post more about diapers in later posts.

Here are the kids in their Flip diapers. I love these and they wear this kind when we are at home. You just swap out the insert for a clean one, unless there is poop then the whole thing is washed.

I placed an opened Flip diaper to the side so you can see how it works.

Jenna and Gigi have been making diapers. They need a waterproof outer cover on them, but they are so cute without the cover. These will get more absorbent with use (new diapers usually could use a few washing to increase absorbency).

FYI pregnant ladies: I stole a waterproof blue pad from the hospital and it's under this blanket. That way if the babies pee it won't go on the carpet. You should steal one for yourself too!

Storing the diapers is challenging. I wanted them within reach, but I didn't have shelves up. So I repurposed a toy organizer and filled it with cloth diapers.

I have the ones I use during the day (Flip) closest to the changing table. Then the open red bin is for the flip covers as I use them to put a new insert in as needed. The night time diapers are farthest from the changing table. I'll discuss night time diapers in later posts. The second row has the homemade diapers and the covers and inserts are next to them. Then I have more night time diapers on the right. The third row has socks, bibs, and diapers for traveling. I'll discuss these diapers in later posts. The lowest row has the old school cloth diapers and some breathable covers in case there is a rash that needs to breath to heal faster. I also have some fleece there for when we get to solid poops. I'm still using disposable wipes, so I have a trash can to the left of the changing table. I have a wet bag hanging to the right of the changing table for dirty diapers.

I keep the clothes we wear most often under the changing table. On the bed we have our feeding setup: two boppy pillows for babies and then the twin nursing pillow and stool for me. There are burp clothes everywhere because Michael spits up a lot.

Baby Wearing

These kids are so freaking cute!

Jason and I are getting more comfortable with the carriers we have.

Malia enjoys the moby wrap.

Michael enjoys the Baby Bjorn.

So does Jason! :)

10 week old update

Here is what is new with our troop...

Malia is napping without a swaddle. She has been sucking her hands a lot (self-soothing), so we decided to try her without a swaddle for naps. Michael still has the Moro reflex, which means he spreads his arms out and startles himself, so he will keep his swaddle for all naps and at bedtime for a couple more weeks.

Michael has been trying to sit up. Sometimes when you put him down either flat or reclined, he does an ab crunch as if he is trying to sit up. Malia has been arching her back alot, which lets her be able to rotate herself. The photo below shows how she can rotate. I laid them both down with their heads on the burp cloths and went to make myself lunch. I came back and Malia had rotated 90 degrees. I couldn't believe it!

I busted out the jeans today. It makes me smile to see them in jeans. These are from Uncle Tom and Aunt Kris. I also put the kids in matching buckeye onesies because they make me laugh. This is the first time they have been identically dressed (but not the last). These are not pajama jeans. ;)

Baptism March 6th

If you would like to come to the baptism, here is the information.

I printed these invites at Walgreens and they came out green. I asked to have the photos reprinted after telling the photo clerk that the printer colors must be off, and it reprinted green still.

I will not print at that Delaware Walgreens again!

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day from the Duffys!

Notice our valentines day themed diapers. Pink and red.

This weekend was a rough one. I had pink eye in both eyes, a sinus infection, and a touch of the stomach bug. But through it all I was full of energy and just looked bad. I didn't feel bad at all which was good because moms don't have the luxury of taking a sick day.

The kids didn't get anything that I was fighting, so that's really wonderful. I was concerned when the doctor said I had pink eye(s).

Smiles from both

2 months old!

We had our two month old checkups today.

Michael:

8.97 pounds

22 inches

Malia:

9.47 pounds

21.5 inches

The doctor said both are looking great. Malia has a little eczema on her cheeks and chin, but we just need to put lotion on it regularly and it will most likely go away in a couple months. Malia was smiling and cooing at the doctor and Michael kept a close eye on everything he was doing. Our pediatrician also has twins (6 year old boy and girl) and he said we looked great as the parents of 2 month old twins. He always makes us feel so good about how we are doing as parents. We go in again at 4 months. The kids will be so much bigger at 4 months and it will be springtime!

Ice Ice Baby

Some recent changes that have been happening:

Malia started sucking on her hand.

Michael has been grabbing rings on the playmat and bouncy seat.

Michael started playing with his tongue and sticking it out more (drooling too).

Just this week:

Michael started sucking his hand.

Malia grabbed at the rings on the playmat and bouncy seat.

We have our 2 month appointment on Monday, so we will get the official weigh in and other measurements. There will be two shots and an oral vaccine as well for each kid.

We have been getting between 6.5-8 hours of sleep every night. They wake up for a feeding and then go back to bed for 3-4 hours. Jason and I really like that they do this.

The changing table is now up in the nursery and we are doing feedings in the nursery too. Jason put up some shelves for books and a coat rack for hanging their bath towels. I hope to get some more organization/decorations this weekend so the room will look more complete.

We are waiting for the cribs which are almost finished (thanks PopPop). I have to wait on hanging up some things until we know where the cribs are going to go. We have a video monitor that will need to be mounted on the wall or ceiling too once the cribs are in their places. I'm thinking of hanging the quilts Gigi made for them above each crib so they can look at it on the wall. The quilts have a very interesting pattern and bright colors - so the kids will enjoy looking at them when they are in the cribs.

Once everything is in its place I'll get a picture up for all of you to see.

As for the weather here. Yuck! We had a giant ice storm that made the power go out Tuesday night at 8pm and not come back on until 10am. We changed diapers and fed by candlelit - very romantic. :P We put extra coverings on the babies to keep them warm since the heat was off in the house. They didn't seem to mind the power being off, but it stressed me out. I didn't sleep well at all that night. We ran away to our friends warm house in the morning until we heard out power was back on. Thank goodness for friends and family that live close by. We had many options available to us in case the power stayed out longer.

8 weeks old

8 weeks old! Hard to believe.

Michael being silly.

Malia being sweet.

Gigi and PopPop loving the little ones.

Jason got an awesome dance game for his birthday that the kids just love to watch people play. Check out the video.

Aunt Jami will do anything to get her niece and nephew to smile. Michael was swaying and moving his arms to the beat and Malia was smiling up a storm. Of course they stop as soon as the camera is rolling. These kids must love music already.

Exercising our necks

7 weeks old

Sleeping

Jason and I have been working on getting Malia and Michael to sleep well at night and during naptimes. We seem to have done well with the nighttime sleeping (most important one). We get 4 or 5 hour stretches between feedings at night. Once they are 9 pounds each I will cut back on the amount of time they have at the nighttime feedings in order to completely eliminate the need for nighttime feedings at all. They will help out too, with sleeping for longer stretches. Basically they will get all they need during the day, and then at night just relax and grow.

For naptimes, we are now putting them in their room for naps. We just started this today. I expect there will be some protesting these first couple of days, but that's just how it goes. We have to get the kids to realize what the routine is in order for them to go with the flow. They are napping right now in their room.

I'm reading a book about getting your baby to sleep 12 hours by 12 weeks old. I have to wait until they are bigger before I can start implementing the tips, but I'm excited at the thought of babies sleeping twelve hours at night. The book says they don't need to sleep the entire time, if they wake up early they will lay quietly there either playing with a toy or entertaining themselves another way.

When they are older, we also are going to try and see if they can sleep without swaddles. There is a lot to come in the next month and hopeful it will go smoothly.

Cloth diapers have been going well. I love love love the bum genius pocket diapers for nighttime. I double stuff them so they will soak up all the nighttime business. Then during the day we use the flip system which has a waterproof outer cover and then I just swap out the insert unless it is a poopy diaper. Poopy diapers will have the outer cover put in the laundry. I think my stash of covers is good, and Jenna and Gigi have made some new inserts I'm excited to try. When the kids sleep longer stretches, I think I can do diaper laundry every other day. Right now I do it once a day (one load) in order to get my nighttime diapers cleaned for the next night.

So that's the update. This is an older picture, because I haven't hooked up the camera to the computer. I took a really cute video that I will post later this week of the kids in their bumbo seats.

Do you want to see the placentas?

My doula took a picture of my placentas before encapsulating them. I'm not posting the picture here. If you want to see it, just ask me and I'll send you the picture.

The placentas are what kept our babies healthy and alive for 9 months. It's wonderful and I'm so glad that the placentas did their job. It is very interesting to see the picture, because they are not two separate pieces, the placentas fused together into one.

Internal organs are not pretty looking, that's why they are on the inside of our bodies. A heart is not pretty, but it keeps us alive and we should not say "disgusting" or call it "gross". The same goes for the placenta.

6 weeks old!

Cloth Diapers and Snow

We still don't have our latching and eating totally mastered, but we are doing much better. Michael is a great eater but a bad latcher (he takes three or four attempts sometimes to get it right). Malia latches on pretty well the first time, but she gets lazy with eating and messes up the latch.

Anyway, I think it's time to try cloth diapers. We will start with only the daytime. Then we'll bring them in at night when we are ready. I have experimented with the different kinds of diapers here and there and found that right now I really like the pocket diapers. I put an absorbent insert into the fleece pocket. The liquid goes through the fleece and is absorbed by the insert. The kids seem to like these better right now, I think it's because they don't feel as wet when they do soil a diaper.

So I have 12 of these and we change them five times during the day (we change twice at night). So that means 10 diapers. I should be good for one day with my current stash. We'll do every other day of cloth and then I'll decide to either throw in some other varieties of diapers (Bum Genius Flip) or I might make a fleece pocket for the other diapers to keep them feeling drier. It makes them cry less severely. Or I guess I could do laundry every day - No!

In other news....

We got our first big snowstorm of the year.

Gigi and PopPop gave us their snowblower and we are so happy they did!

Lastly - we have a baptism date scheduled. March 6th. If you are interested in coming - let me know. I'm happy to have anyone come who wants to come. It will be in Hillard at St. Brendan's (same place Jason and I got married).

One Month Old

One month old

(we will use the monkey as a size comparison in all growth photos)

The kids had their one month checkup and they did great. The both weighed in around 8 pounds. Both are in the 50th percentile for height. Michael is in the 10th percentile for weight and Malia is between the 10th and 25th percentile for weight. The doc said that is expected for twins - lower weight. He also said in boy girl twins, the boy usually gains weight slower in the beginning and then it will switch and she will slow down on the weight gain.

We are doing much much better at understanding their needs. And we can tell the difference between a stinker and an actual poop (it's all in the sound of the toot, juicy = poop).

Jason goes back to work next week, so if you are available to visit in the daytime you can come and keep me company with the twins. I did really well on my first day home alone with them. The one hard part was when they both woke up at 4pm very hungry. I haven't figured out how to tandem feed when I am home alone. I'm suppose to practice that. I think the pillow I have is kind of crappy, so I'm going to try out Pam's (she has twins and has let us borrow tons of stuff). So at 4pm when they both woke up hungry at the same time, I had to feed one while the other one screamed at me. It's very difficult. I don't think they ate very well, which was probably due to me feeling stressed during the entire feed. Malia finally settled down to a nap, but Michael was fussy the entire time until the next feeding. Jason came home to Michael screaming his head off - "Welcome home honey!" He reassured me that he knows that will happen sometimes and it didn't bother him. I just felt bad, because we had a great day up until then.

Malia is smiling at us now. It doesn't happen all the time, but its great when it does. Michael is still working on it. He smiles in his sleep (which is how Malia started) and he laughs in his sleep. He should be smiling at us any day now. We can't wait. It's really such a touching feeling when your baby finally smiles at you. Malia is probably thinking "Finally, I'm first at something!"

I want to get pictures printed and put up in frames on the walls. So that is the task I am starting when I have time.

Thanks to all those who have visited and also those who have fed us. We truly needed the help and would not have survived if it weren't for all of our wonderful friends and family. We love you!

Professional Newborn Photos

Ok, Pam posted the newborn photos from Malia and Michael's photo shoot. They are adorable. I can't decide which ones I want to get framed. Check it out for yourselves.

Playtime on the play mat