Parenting Twins - The First Year (Month 4)



Growth and Development:

The boys turned four months old on Tuesday!  They had their four month checkup yesterday and are doing great! Ethan is in the 5th percentile in growth and Aaron is in the 15th percentile.  That's a good jump from only being in the 1st percentile at their two month checkup.  They can still wear 0-3 month clothes, but 3 month clothes fit them best.  They quickly outgrew size one diapers.  They were in them for less than a month and are now wearing size two diapers.  Other than growing like weeds, they are very alert and enjoy focusing on their surroundings.  The baby cooing has turned into full baby jibber-jabber!  Aaron really goes to town "talking" to us.  We always knew he was more vocal of the two!  They love it when I lay them on my bed and sing all sorts of children's songs to them.  Aaron will often chime in, as if he is singing right along with me.  While they still have their bouts of crying, they are pretty happy babies at home and can often be found with smiles on their sweet little faces.  Ethan laughed out loud for the first time this week.  Out of nowhere he just started chuckling very loudly while Daddy was talking to him.  It was the cutest thing ever!  Aaron has still not cut his first tooth, even though the doctor told us several weeks ago he was starting to teeth unusually early.  We can still see the white buds and his teeth appear to bother him off and on, depending on the day.  Ethan is also a drooling machine and puts anything he can find in his mouth, especially his hands.  The boys love their baby equipment, which is awesome for Mommy.  The days of holding them all day in my arms while they sleep are long gone, and I am now able to get things done around the house. They love batting at the toys hanging from their baby gyms and grabbing the toys on their bouncy seats.  They also enjoy dozing off in their swings for an afternoon nap.  They're not big fans of tummy time.  They prefer sitting up in their bumbos for play time.  We are very pleased that they are meeting all of the appropriate developmental milestones for four month old babies. 

Weight:

Birth – 5.7 (A) 6 (E)

Home from Hospital– 5 (A) 5.8 (E)

One Month – 6.14 (A) 6.12 (E)

Two Months – 9.4 (A&E) 
11 Weeks - 10.1 (Aaron)
Four Months - 13.13 (A) 12.13 (E)

Feedings:

This month the amount of food the boys eat has increased to four ounces every three hours during the day.  At night we let them wake us up to feed.  They have also started taking rice cereal in their night time bottle this month.  My breast milk supply has dropped.  I never really had much to begin with, so the babies are now only breastfeeding at night and occasionally snacking in between daytime bottles if they seem a little hungry. 

Sleeping:

They are still eating every three hours during the day and napping anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour in between feeds.  Ethan has been sleeping through the night for over a month.  He occasionally wakes up for a feeding, but it is very rare for him.  Aaron has never slept through the night.  He wakes up at least once, if not twice to be fed.  This explains why he is a pound heavier than his brother.  Those extra 4-8 ounces of milk are going straight to his chubby little baby thighs!  For the most part, not waking the babies up to feed them at night works for us.  The only night's when it is challenging is when Ethan wakes up to be fed, because it is never the same time as his brother.  For example Aaron might wake me up 12am, then just as I get back to sleep Ethan will wake me up at 1am, and then Aaron again at 3am, and then they will both be up by 6am ready for their day.......yeah, those night's are no fun!  Most recently, Aaron has decided that he not only wants to wake up to eat, but he wants to wake up to play!  This is so NOT ok with Mommy!  After about three nights of getting maybe three hours of sleep total, I decided that instead of putting the boys down for bed at 7:30-8pm, I was going to change bedtime to 9-10pm.  Matt and I don't go to bed until 10-10:30 anyway, so now if Aaron wakes up it is around 3am instead of 1am, giving Mommy a little extra sleep.  It was really nice to have a couple of hours to ourselves at night when the boys were going down earlier, but I'd rather have a decent night's sleep than have time to myself.

Mommy and Daddy:

Life gets a little easier each month.  It is still difficult to take time for ourselves, but that is to be expected.  We are just in baby mode all the time, and life revolves around their needs.   I  am making time to keep up with managing the home, as well as making time for my blog.  When they are napping, I am accomplishing my weekly to-do-list.  It feels pretty great to be able to get things done for me.  And as silly as it sounds, I enjoy managing my home and keeping up with my blog, so yes those things are for me.  Being the mom of twins is a ton of work, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't completely wear me out most days.....BUT they are so worth every bit of the work!  We love them to pieces!

Week Fourteen

Week Fifteen

Week Sixteen

Week Seventeen

Week Eighteen

Little Boy Bathroom

Today I’m finishing up my blog series about our twin nursery.  I thought I’d finish things up with a post about the bathroom off the boys’ room. 

First, we took down the light fixture and the mirror, filled the necessary holes and painted the bathroom “hearts of palm” by Sherwin Williams.

Then, we replaced the light fixtrure with an updated fixture that I found from Goodwill.  I kid you not, it was only marked $10. And even better is that I only paid $5 for it, because I purchased it on the first Saturday of the month when everything in the store is half off.

Next, we replaced the mirror with a $30 oval mirror found at Kirkland’s during their mirror sale.  I really think the updated fixture and mirror give the bathroom a lot of character.

Lastly, I spent less than $50 to decorate the bathroom by adding a shower curtain from Target, rugs from Wal-mart, little ducky soap dishes from the Dollar Tree, a red storage bin from Hobby Lobby, and a fun life boat décor for the door.

And that’s it.  I hope you enjoyed this blog series.  Check out my project gallery page to find all of the nursery projects and more!

Upcycled Nursery Dresser

AFTER

BEFORE

Like I said in yesterday’s post, I’m a big fan of finding old pieces of furniture at yard sales and thrift shops, and then refinishing them for a new purpose in my home.  Yesterday, I shared how I refinished a $25 Goodwill dresser and re-purposed it for a changing station.  Today, I want to share with you the other dresser in the nursery. 

This dresser was also a Goodwill find.  I actually purchased it a few years ago for $20 and was utilizing it in the guest bedroom.  I moved it to the nursery, because it wasn't really getting used in the guest room.

I refinished this piece the exact same way that I refinished the other dresser…..

1)    I started by cleaning the dresser with TSP cleaner. It can be found at most hardware stores.  I buy mine in a powder and mix it in a spray bottle. 

2)    Using a foam roller I primed the dresser with Zinsser Cover Stain primer.  It took two coats to fully cover this piece of furniture.  I keep this paint on hand for when I find furniture to refinish.

3)    I had leftover navy blue paint (“seaworthy” by Sherwin Williams) from the accent wall in the nursery, and applied two coats of paint to the dresser for full coverage.

4)    I updated the hardware with nickel knobs from Lowes.  The hardware cost just about as much as the dresser, making this dresser cost about $50 when it was all said and done.

5)    Tip:  Always take out the drawers when painting and let paint dry completely before applying a new coat.    

The only problem that I ran into with this dresser is that it had a laminate finish.  This was the first piece I had ever tried to refinish with laminate.  I found it more difficult for the paint to stick to the laminate, but after taking my time and making sure each coat was dry before applying another coat, I finally finished this piece.  I will say, that unlike other pieces that I have done, the paint is more likely to peal off on laminate.  I haven’t had any problems so far, but my kids are still babies.  It will probably get more wear and tear as the boys get bigger.

Re-purposed Goodwill Dresser - Nursery Changing Table

AFTER

BEFORE

I’m a big fan of finding old pieces of furniture at yard sales and thrift shops, and then refinishing them for a new purpose in my home.  Take a look at my project page, and you’ll see that I accumulated a lot of the furniture in my home by doing just that.

Both dressers in the nursery were Goodwill finds.  Today, I want to share a dresser that I purchased from Goodwill for $25.  The dresser is solid wood, and it serves as a duel purpose in the nursery.  It not only stores the babies’ clothes, it also works as their changing table.  I bought a changing pad from Once Upon a Child and found a changing pad cover that I liked from Burlington Coat Factory.  I added a lamp from Goodwill and a cute bin from Home Goods, and I had myself an inexpensive changing station.   And the best part is that when I no longer need a changing table, I can still use the dresser in a little boys room for years to come.

The original dresser was in decent shape, but I really wanted a navy blue dresser.  And because I only spent $25 on this piece, I had no problem feeling bad for giving a perfectly fine dresser a new look.

I refinished this piece the way I refinish most pieces with no sanding required……

1)    I started by cleaning the dresser with TSP cleaner. It can be found at most hardware stores.  I buy mine in a powder and mix it in a spray bottle. 

2)    Using a foam roller I primed the dresser with Zinsser Cover Stain primer.  It took two coats to fully cover this piece of furniture.  I keep this paint on hand for when I find furniture to refinish.

3)    I had leftover navy blue paint (“seaworthy” by Sherwin Williams) from the accent wall in the nursery, and applied two coats of paint to the dresser for full coverage.

4)    I updated the hardware with nickel knobs from Lowes.  The hardware cost just about as much as the dresser, making this dresser cost about $50 when it was all said and done.

5)    Tip:  Always take out the drawers when painting and let paint dry completely before applying a new coat.  The primer and the sponge roller are key to getting a streak free finish without needing to sand, so don't skip those steps.  

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Spray Painted Picture Frames & Photos as Wall Art

Framing photos can be a really inexpensive form of wall art.  Today, I want to talk about how I used photographs as décor in our nursery.

I’ll start with the three photos that I used above the changing station.  The photos were from our newborn photo session with Kingfish Photography when the boys were two weeks old.  I actually had the photos taken purposefully to fill these three frames.  I wanted a picture of both babies in the middle frame and their individual pictures on the left and right frames.  We received a CD from our photo session with permission to print the pictures.  I printed three 8x10 photos from the Wal-Mart one hour photo lab for $2.99 each.

The frames were from Ikea for only $2.99 a frame!  They are a light-weight frame with plastic instead of glass.  When I purchased them they were red.  I took the plastic out, and spray painted the frames white.  Then I turned the paper insert backwards, so the white part of the paper was facing out. Using double sided tape, I then centered the 8x10 photos on the white paper before putting the frames back together and hanging them on the wall.

The pictures on the shelves were from our maternity sessions with Kingfish Photography.  We took pictures announcing we were having twins at 12 weeks, pictures announcing their genders at 16 weeks, and pictures of my big baby bump at 30 weeks.  I printed a few of my favorite pictures from those sessions from the Wal-Mart photo lab for $.15 a print.

The frames were from the Dollar Tree.  Just like the Ikea frames, I spray painted the small Dollar Tree frames white.  They were black when I purchased them.  I found the shelves from Ikea for $10 each.  I love having pictures displayed underneath the “for this child I prayed” wall decal purchased from Amazon.

All of the frames, the two shelves and all of the printed photos cost less than $50.  I love using these photographs as art.  They are a beautiful reminder off how blessed we really are.