If you're sending your kids to daycare like we did, they need to have all the bottles made and ready for the entire day. This meant 2 kids, 6 bottles/day while at school = 12 bottles to make. Every day. Just for school.
So don't kill yourself making each bottle individually. Go get yourself a couple of pitchers. You can get them anywhere. You used to make strawberry daiquiris in them before you had twins, remember?
Make sure each child has his own pitcher and write his name on it so there is no confusion. The last thing you want to do is mix up the formulas. We had 1 child with a milk protein allergy so he was on Neutramegin, which was one of the most foul smelling odors I've ever smelled. I still can't even believe he drank it, but he did. The other one was on Enfamil AR, which is pretty common.
Mix the right amount of formula with water so there is enough for all 6 bottles. Do this the night before and put it in the fridge for the morning. Pour the bottles in the morning and you're good to go. Before going to bed that night (obviously after washing all 12 bottles and the pitcher), make the pitchers again and put in the fridge.
While it doesn't seem like much time is saved, believe it or not making the pitchers and not the individual bottles saved enough time for us to maybe eat breakfast in the morning or perhaps snooze once or twice.
And in the world of having children, not just twins, those two things are gold.
Rock Fists
Showing posts with label feeding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label feeding. Show all posts
Monday, February 25, 2013
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Feeding, at the same time
When I tell you that trying to feed them at the same time is a disaster, I'm not kidding. But, then that little lightbulb goes off and you think you're a genius. You're not, you've just had more sleep that day than previous days..
Step 1: Get a boppy. 2 if you can, but one will suffice.
Step 2: Please the boppy to the side of you, whichever is your dominant hand so the open part of the ring is facing you.
Step 3: Put 1 kid in the boppy leaning the head against the middle of the ring so they are slightly upright.
Step 4: Sit up against a pillow, wall, etc so you are upright and place your other child on your lap with your knees up so they are upright.
Step 5: While making sure both kids are within arms reach, feed. You don't have to hold either kid, they are being help upright by either the boppy or your knees which will help with swallowing and digestion and you can feed both at the same time.
If your first question is about burping after, well that goes to another lesson you're going to learn. Well, more like your twins are going to learn: You won't always be first and you won't always be last. Burping at the same time is ok, but I found you were never really able to get a good one because of the lack of control. So pick one up, burp them, put them upright on the boppy or the bouncy seat and then burp the other one.
Once you've mastered this, you will drastically cut down on the feeding time for each kid and you have more time between feedings.
Step 1: Get a boppy. 2 if you can, but one will suffice.
Step 2: Please the boppy to the side of you, whichever is your dominant hand so the open part of the ring is facing you.
Step 3: Put 1 kid in the boppy leaning the head against the middle of the ring so they are slightly upright.
Step 4: Sit up against a pillow, wall, etc so you are upright and place your other child on your lap with your knees up so they are upright.
Step 5: While making sure both kids are within arms reach, feed. You don't have to hold either kid, they are being help upright by either the boppy or your knees which will help with swallowing and digestion and you can feed both at the same time.
If your first question is about burping after, well that goes to another lesson you're going to learn. Well, more like your twins are going to learn: You won't always be first and you won't always be last. Burping at the same time is ok, but I found you were never really able to get a good one because of the lack of control. So pick one up, burp them, put them upright on the boppy or the bouncy seat and then burp the other one.
Once you've mastered this, you will drastically cut down on the feeding time for each kid and you have more time between feedings.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Feeding
So I'll be switching gears a bit and delving into some tips for dads of twins.. I wish someone had been there to help me with these things along the way, but hey, sometimes you gotta just do it yourself and figure it out.
So we had a lot of feeding issues when the boys first came home (not to mention in the NICU). I mean, 45 minutes for one of them to take about 1-2 ounces, only to have them throw it all back up. Yeah, and at 2am it pretty much meant that life sucked.
So we invested in some bouncy seats, but they were more upright and we didn't utilize the bouncy function. We were sleep deprived, but not idiots.. So after feeding one, we would him hold upright for about 10 minutes and carefully burp hopeful not to bring up everything that was just consumed, if that was anything. Then, carefully put into the bouncy seat. This allowed the baby to be help upright as much as possible to help with digestion while we fed the other one. Then, when the 2nd one was done, we would switch them, wait another 10 minutes or so and then put the second one back in the crib.
It definitely worked.. It took a little more time overall, but it got better as time went on because they would be eating more and puking less as their stomachs grew. So if your twins (or singletons for that matter) have reflux issues, try holding upright for a bit after eating and then place in a more upright bouncy seat to let everything settle before putting back down flat in the crib. That will hopefully work as well for you as it did for us.
And this is not a one way street. If you have tips that you think other parents would benefit from, please feel free to post in the comments as the more information the better!
So we had a lot of feeding issues when the boys first came home (not to mention in the NICU). I mean, 45 minutes for one of them to take about 1-2 ounces, only to have them throw it all back up. Yeah, and at 2am it pretty much meant that life sucked.
So we invested in some bouncy seats, but they were more upright and we didn't utilize the bouncy function. We were sleep deprived, but not idiots.. So after feeding one, we would him hold upright for about 10 minutes and carefully burp hopeful not to bring up everything that was just consumed, if that was anything. Then, carefully put into the bouncy seat. This allowed the baby to be help upright as much as possible to help with digestion while we fed the other one. Then, when the 2nd one was done, we would switch them, wait another 10 minutes or so and then put the second one back in the crib.
It definitely worked.. It took a little more time overall, but it got better as time went on because they would be eating more and puking less as their stomachs grew. So if your twins (or singletons for that matter) have reflux issues, try holding upright for a bit after eating and then place in a more upright bouncy seat to let everything settle before putting back down flat in the crib. That will hopefully work as well for you as it did for us.
And this is not a one way street. If you have tips that you think other parents would benefit from, please feel free to post in the comments as the more information the better!
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