My little models

My friend, Cydnie's daughter Lauren has an etsy shop that she wanted the girls to model for. I was excited for my little beauties to have the chance to pose in such cute little headbands. They were a little crazy and hard to work with but I think she snapped some really cute pics! The headbands are so adorable as well. We had a great time. Cydnie and Lauren were so great with the girls and so easy and fun to work with.  

I LOVE my cute girls!!!

Weaning

Well, the time has finally come to officially wean my babies. I have a mixture of emotions. On one hand I'm so proud of myself for making it this long. On the other hand I'm sad it's over. I never produced enough milk for the girls. We had to supplement with bottles starting in the hospital. I was totally okay with that. With having twins through the whole process I've just known I needed to just go with the flow: Do my best but not worry if there needed to be a change of plans. The girls have always nursed so, so well.
It was hard in the beginning when I was nursing, bottle feeding and pumping. After I stopped pumping (except for before I went to bed at night or Sunday mornings) it was much easier. The girls have progressively needed more and more formula. I'm not sure if I would have produced enough for just one baby but I was definitely not enough for twins. I nursed them and then gave them bottles or solids. When we booked our trip to KY in July I knew I couldn't travel while feeding them the way I did (using my twin size breast friend). I knew it was time to start weaning them. I was afraid of the pain, the engorging, etc. The gradual tapering worked very well, however. I had no pain. I'm surprised how quickly my body adapted. Every few days I cut out nursing them from 5 down to two feedings a day until I was just nursing the first and last meals of the day. While in KY I cut out the last feeding as well. Since I couldn't travel with my pillow I nursed them one at a time. For the most part it worked out okay. I wanted to keep nursing them as long as I could. I know that not all women are able to nurse. I've enjoyed it so much and I'm sad to be moving out of this phase.
Nursing twins was such a sweet experience. At first, of course, they weren't aware of each other. As their awareness grew they enjoyed making sounds, holding hands, and reaching for one another. As they grew that turned into poking their sister in the eyes, grabbing clothes and pulling each other off as well. It wasn't just a bonding experience for me and my babies but for them with their sibling as well.
In the beginning it was hard to nurse two babies at once and I'm so grateful for my mom and my sweet husband who were more of a help in the process than they wanted to be. It got easier and easier until they got mobile and started trying to throw themselves off of the pillow.
I'm now entering a new phase where they are no longer dependant on me. They never have been 100% and if they needed always took a bottle if I had to miss a feeding. But I feel nursing gave me a special connection to them. They relied on me. My body was still a tool in providing for them as it had been in the womb. What I did to my body would affect them. I stopped bleaching my teeth, using an eyelash product, using a lotion for wrinkles (don't judge), worrying about taking cold medications, etc. I can now do whatever I want, take whatever I want. I can now fast again after being "off the hook" for over a year and a half. I now have my period again after being "off the hook" for that as well for a year and a half.
I know I am still the main provider and care giver to my babies. I'm just kind of sad to be closing this chapter. I made it much longer than I thought I would in the beginning. 11 months is a good number. It is what it is.
Are these thoughts normal? What did you experience when weaning your babies?
I'm so grateful to have had that experience to nurse my sweet babies for so long. I'm now just moving onto new experiences with my little miracles. :)

baby aven

This cute face is reason enough to travel to KY. He is such a sweetie!!! He loves me too. He has fallen asleep on me twice now. He even felt comfortable enough to pee on me. That's a good sign, right? We're loving KY. Is so cute too see the cousins with the girls. They are so sweet and so helpful. The girls light up when they see them. We're having a blast! More pics to come soon!

traveling to ky

We did it! We made it to ky safe and sound. The girls were amazing! They we so good and did so well. Prayers work!!! We learned a few things along the way so I'll be a seasoned traveler with my sister in the way home. The only downside about the trip was we missed or first flight by five stinking minutes because tsa didn't like our baby food. They went through everything and have chuck a pat down. Five minutes turned into five hours but we made it. Chuck and I were able to sit across three aisle from each other each with extra open seats. The only packed flight I was sitting next a nice grandma who helped whenever I needed an extra hand. Did I say prayers work? We're so excited to be here to see our friends and family!!!!

NINE MONTHS!!!

My babies have officially been outside longer than they were inside. They're getting so big and growing so much, so fast! I just want to remember every moment of everyday. I cherish every single minute I get to spend with my sweet babies. HONESTLY. I know some people either don't or can't believe that. My babies are so sweet and so good. I feel like I can connect with them in a non verbal way. I feel like I can understand them and they can understand me. I look into their eyes and they know I'm good and want whats best for them. Does that sound strange? Is that normal? Do others feel that way too? I believe it's the spirit.
They're growing in leaps and bounds each and every day. It's so, so fun to be their mom!

A day in the life (7 1/2 months)

I cannot get over what good, sweet babies I have! My intention is not to brag, but to express my gratitude and acknowledgement of how very blessed I am. Everyday I'm pleasantly surprised by how good natured and well mannered they are (doubly so). I haven't posted a "day in the life" post since five months because their schedule really hasn't changed. I'm going to post it anyway. This is a general schedule.

7:00 am Wake up and eat breakfast

7:30 am (every other day) Take a bath or play

8:00 am Nap time (I try to fit in a workout and eat breakfast)

9:30 am wake up and eat brunch

Play

11:00 am nap time (do dishes, fold laundry, put diapers together)

12:30 pm wake up eat lunch

Play 

2:00 pm nap time (eat lunch, clean, do yard work)

3:30 pm wake up eat supper

Play

5:30 nap time (I'll make dinner, etc)

6:30 eat dinner

Play

7:30/8:00 go to bed for the night

Feedings: I feed them solids one to two times a day. They gag on their fruits but love their veggies. I mix fruits into their oatmeal to introduce the flavors and they're fine with that. They're cute gagging faces CRACK me right up! The rest of the meals we bottle feed. Charity loves to barrel roll and thinks she should be able to drink from her bottle in any position. She doesn't like it when I try to keep her in one spot. It makes feeding two babies difficult. For the past few months I just set them in their boppies and feed each of them with one hand. Now I've mastered holding a baby on my lap and feeding them with a bottle while feeding the other in the boppy only when necessary. Don't get me wrong. Harmony can be quite active as well. At least they take turns. 

Play time: I love watching them crawl around now that they're both mobile. Harmony's favorite thing to do is sit in a hurkey position or nearly in the splits and play with toys. Charity loves to roll around and army crawl. She'll quit anything she's doing to knock down the cup tower. Harmony loves to play with Charity's hair and just cracks right up. She is so ticklish and will just laugh and laugh. Charity doesn't seem to be as ticklish but she's always full of the sweetest little smiles and grins. They are just the sweetest babies. I cannot get over how lucky I am. They are SO worth the wait! 

We recently purchased jumpers for the girls because of how they act in their exersaucers. Charity would jump and jump while Harmony would rock. It took a WHILE but Charity has caught on to the jumpers and LOVES it. She energetically jumps and jumps. Harmony just kind of dangles there and still doesn't love it. 

We just started showing them "Signing Times" too. We watched the Eating and Drinking chapter today. I was talking about each sign and showing them while it was playing. Harmony mimicked the "milk" sign. At first I thought it was a fluke but she did it again. I thought it was the cutest thing ever. Little smarty pants. I swear Charity said/growled "Mamma" the other day when I took Harmony out of the room first. I'm not claiming it's her first word... yet. :)

The girls also LOVE to go on walks. They love to be out and about. I like to take them out (when the weather cooperates). We also love to read our books. 

I JUST love them so much! I asked Chuck the other day if he ever worries about things happening to them (because I do). He said yes. I was surprised and thought it was just a worrisome mom characteristic. We then talked about what some of our worries were. We both said how messed up we'd be if anything ever happened to them. We are just SO enamored with our little ones. They are such good babies. They'll fuss a little when they know I'm about to feed them and when I lay them down but that is it. They are such a joy. I thank my Heavenly Father HOURLY for them and what sweet blessings they are in our lives. 

Life is so, so sweet. 

What's in a name?

A friend of mine asked me if we were planning on naming our future children virtues as well. Since that was never our intention I decided I would share the story of how we came up with the names Charity and Harmony.
When I was five my mom had a very difficult pregnancy. She was on bed rest for months because the placenta was tearing away from her uterine wall putting the baby at extreme risk. At thirty weeks my mom went into labor. She went to the hospital and while there a nurse took my mother off of the monitors because she was pregnant and wanted to monitor herself. Everything about that is completely unbelievable. It went undetected that the placenta tore away completely from her uterine wall. She didn't make it and was still born. My father had a very sweet spiritual experience following her death. Because of that and our knowledge of the Temple and it's sealing powers we know that she is very much a part of our family now and forever. She was named and buried in the Provo cemetery. Her name is Charity.
I never intended naming my baby after her. In the months of my pregnancy leading up to the birth of the girls Chuck and I poured over baby books and name websites. One night during our search I was resting on the couch while Chuck was making dinner. I read interesting names I liked out loud and he would generally shoot them all down. I came across the name Charity and felt so strongly that was one of the names meant for one of our girls that I cried. I read the name to Chuck and he replied he had always liked that name. We decided unanimously then and there that Charity was one of the names. It is so special to me to remember my sister in such a sweet, touching way.
I wanted the names of our twins to sounds good together. We picked Charity so early on we both thought we were having as boy and a girl. Chuck has always wanted to name his first born son Charles after him, his father and his grandfather. I thought Charley and Charity would be so sweet together. When we found out we were having two girls I thought Charley would still be really cute for a girl but Chuck wasn't interested in that. We were back to the drawing board. With the significance behind Charity's name and my desire to have the names sound good together our choices were very limited. I searched family history books for any names I liked. We couldn't agree on anything. Chuck mostly just shot down all of my ideas. My mother's maiden name is Harman. I thought of using that as inspiration to name our other daughter Harmony but spell it with an o to make it easier on her. I also loved the double reference in her name of a musical application as well. It took a while but Chuck warmed up to it.
Chuck didn't like the fact that each of the names "sounded like a sermon" but he got over it.
There was then a matter of which baby we would give each name. We both thought we would have one red headed baby and one brunette baby. We unanimously decided we would name the red head Charity and the brunette Harmony.
We didn't decide middle names until the hospital. Chuck's grandmothers name is Ruth. We both loved that name and thought it went beautifully with Harmony.It's special to have her named after her great grandmother. Charity's middle name, Ava, had zero significance. We just liked it and it was on our short list of names we both loved.
So there you have it. We never intended on them both being named after virtues so we won't be sticking with that theme in the future.