(play) More Tiny Love love

One more thing about Tiny Love mobiles and their greatness... When the boys were newborns, we had a night nanny who specialized in multiples come a few times a month so we could get some sleep. She showed us that you could take the Tiny Love mobiles apart - leaving the music box attached to the crib, but removing the fun parts that dangle over the crib. This was especially important to help them sleep. She wanted to remove any distraction. And when they are older and can reach the toys, you can completely remove that section and just leave the music box for the babies.

So now, we still remove the top half of the mobile at bedtime and put it back up in the morning. The boys have become so conditioned that every morning once they are all in the party crib where the mobile is set up, they look behind them at the music box and wait for the mobile to start. This morning, one of the them even learned how to turn it on and off. Fun for them...not so much for me!

(play) Tiny Love mobiles

Our lives changed the day we put up our Tiny Love Symphony in Motion mobile. The boys would scream, and I mean SCREAM, as they waited for all to get changed prior to getting their bottles. You can't explain "patience" to three newborns. So we put the mobile up (they were all sharing a crib at this point) and they were instantly mesmerized by the motion, colors and especially the music. They hang at an angle and contain pieces that fall, rotate, etc. The mobile technically goes from 0-5 months, but they are now 7 months old and still love it. I'll put them all in one crib (what we've dubbed the party crib) to hang out while I change diapers. They now roll on their bellies and stare at the music box, or try to reach out for the moving pieces (they can't reach them). It will be a sad day when they start sitting up on their own and we have to remove the mobile for safety reasons.

Even better, Tiny Love has a fantastic multiples program. If you buy one of their developmental toys & mobiles (through them), they will give you another for free. FREE! This link to their site outlines the details of the program. One thing to note: I sent in all of the necessary information, waited the allotted time and never heard from them. So I called their customer service and my information was in the system and they processed the order right then and there. The mobiles arrived within just a few days. So the key is to be proactive.

http://www.tinylove.com/multiple_births_program.aspx

If you do not have multiples, I still highly recommend the Tiny Love mobiles.

Purchase a Tiny Love Symphony in Motion mobile

(top5) Things I learned today...

* Apparently fistfuls of my hair tastes yummy.
* Fun with solids means more food in = more food out.
* I filed the boys' nails and it would seem that although they are shorter, they are much sharper. Mom and baby now have matching scars on our foreheads.
* Strained carrots stain indiscriminately: faces, bibs, sleeves, bums, etc.
* Not all babies crawl forwards! One of the boys started "crawling" today - backwards!

(clean) Fun with boys

Little boys have the wonderful ability to spray you (and the wall, themselves and the plant behind them) when you are changing them. One tip that we learned in the NICU was to cover their piddler with a gauze pad. The trick is to order the gauze in bulk, as opposed to buying the small packages from the drugstore that only contain a handful of individually wrapped pads.

The gauze pads are also great to have around the nursery to clean up any small spit ups, use with water for make-shift wipes, etc. Just check out how many come to a pack and figure out how many you may need for the next few months when ordering. Or you will end up with 15 packs of 200 gauze pads each like we did.



Purchase Gauze pads

(eat) Warming bottles

Many people find bottle warmers to be a waste. I am not one of them. Our bottle warmers ease our (necessarily) meticulous process. But I must say, I was hesitant. Then we were given one and found two on Craiglist from a mom of twins. Because we make all of the bottles ahead of time, all you have to do is turn them on, put the bottles in, set a timer, and then go change the babies.


Purchase the Avent bottle warmer on Amazon

But there are other options. Here are a few I've heard of:
* Microwave (I know, I know, everyone says you should never do this. But it's quick and easy. The microwave creates hot spots, so all you need to do is make sure you swirl the milk around to stabilize the temp. And this is why I love the little infrared thermometer - so you know the exact temperature.)

* Set the bottle in a large cup. Fill around the bottle with warm water. (I tried this but our tap water wasn't warm enough, so this took way too long. And it was hard to find a large container that would hold three bottles upright.)

* Mix the powdered formula with warm water. (This is great for all you folks who can actually mix up formula on the fly. Make sure to test the temperature. Some babies do fine with room temperature milk.)

* Keep bottles with concentrated formula in the fridge. When needed, fill bottles with very hot water. (The cold and hot water should give you the perfect temperature, but it may take a few tries to get the right temperature. This is what we do when we travel. We keep a cooler filled with bottles that have the full amount of powder, but only have the water needed. We also have a thermos filled with very hot water, so all we need to do is fill each bottle with the rest of the needed water and swirl!)

* Crockpot (Keep a crockpot/slow cooker filled with water and leave it on low all day & night. When bottles are needed, put them directly in the water. I'm sure this works, and I love the idea that the crockpot serves an unintended purpose. But I remember my husband telling me the story of his sister's crockpot melting and nearly catching on fire while she left it on to cook one day. I can't seem to get that image out of my head, so I never felt comfortable doing this...)

What am I forgetting? Leave your experiences as a comment.

(mom) Kellymom

Founded by a lactation consultant (named Kelly, of course), Kellymom offers everything you could ever wonder about breastfeeding. The site contains up to date research, often from La Leche League, American Pediatric Association and other medical professionals.

Not breastfeeding? Want to know more about starting solids? Want tips on pumping at work? Want to learn more about postpartum depression? It's all here.

(top5) Things I learned today...

* Never give the boys prune juice with their formula on the day you're completely on your own. It really works.

* It takes all of 30 seconds in a clean diaper for a baby to have a blowout.

* Never leave the camera on the corner of a low dresser.

* The boys apparently find the quiet nap time routine to be the most amusing show they've ever seen and end up kicking so hard hey bounce themselves in their bouncy seats so hard that their heads actually slam against the back of the chair. Much to their amusement.

* They truly think they are great singers.