Teething Troubles

Little man and little miss have both been drooling and chewing for about two months now. The first day I noticed little man soak the front of his outfit I got really excited (terrified) about the possibility of teeth (I also bought a bunch of bibs). I waited and nothing happened. The drooling subsided and things went back to normal. This would happen on and off for a month and a half. I thought I was just being over excitable (terrified) for new milestones, especially when my pediatrician laughed and said "babies drool." Then, on one of little miss's many doctor's appointments over this past month, the PA looked in her mouth and proclaimed that the indents of teeth could be seen and I should expect a tooth (or two) to be popping up soon. Back to excited (terrified). And I waited and waited and waited. Then it happened. I was playing on the floor with the babies one day, getting lots of gummy smiles, when I noticed just a faint bit of white on the gum. WHAT IS THAT?! Excitedly (terrified) I examined the speck and upon prodding it... yes, it's a tooth! Little man has his first tooth. Wait, that's not right. Up until now little miss has hit all of her milestones usually about two weeks before little man. Little miss was examined by a medical professional and was told to expect a tooth soon. But, here is little man proudly showing off his new pearly white.

That was over two weeks ago now. Little miss continues to drool and soak many the bib and somedays less so. But, still no teeth. Meanwhile, little man's tooth is working on slowly emerging from his gum. I think it's about a third of the way up at this point. Now, I know I have a bad memory, especially after having the twins, but I did not remember teeth taking so long to come in. I know you're probably laughing at me, but I seriously thought it took a few days, maybe a week and there would be a tooth. I would only have to deal with teething in short bursts as each new tooth erupted. Another hope dashed.

One baby tooth down (almost), another 39 to go.

Product Review: NoseFrida Snotsucker

Basically as soon as I finished writing last week's post, little miss came down with my cold. And then a few days after that, little man caught it as well. It was a pretty miserable week+ and I have a new-found appreciation for my ability to take cold medicine when sick. I spent a lot of time feeling useless as we comforted them as best we could. Since they're not quite six months old, we don't have a lot of cold-fighting tools at our disposal. One thing that has been recommended to us repeatedly, though, is the NoseFrida Snotsucker. I first heard of this disgusting tool when my sister had her first baby three years ago. It is exactly what it says: you use it to suck the snot out of your baby's nose. The fan-base is sizable, with almost 6,000 five star reviews on Amazon (https://amzn.com/B00171WXII). 

I've used the Snotsucker several times now and my husband used it once. He says he's afraid he'll suck out their brains. I think he just finds it super gross, which, it is. The first couple times I tried to use it, I was not impressed. I think this was when the twins were congested, but not necessarily snotty. When we got to the mucus running down their face phase of the colds, the Snotsucker worked like a charm. I especially liked to use it before feeding time so they could breathe through their noses better when sucking on their bottles. Little miss got used to the sensation, but little man never warmed to the idea and still cries when he sees the contraption coming.

The best aspect, in my mind, is that this replaced our nasal aspirators from the hospital. I've heard that even when cared for appropriately, these bulbs can grow harmful mold inside them. I like that the Snotsucker is completely clear, so if it ever did start to grow something, I would immediately see it and be able to take action. Also, I could never seem to get the bulbs to work like how the nurses showed me.

My one complaint about the Snotsucker would be the filters. They are seemingly cheap foam that you're supposed to change after each use. I never saw the snot get anywhere close to the filters, so I did not change them as often as the manufacturer suggested. With two sick babies getting suctioned a few times each every day for several days in a row, we would've burned through them very quickly. A pack of 20 is less than $4 on Amazon right now, so it wouldn't have been expensive per se, but it would've been annoying (plus I didn't have the foresight to order more filters before the colds hit). I believe I bought my Snotsucker at Target and it came with some spare filters in the box, so we just used those.

In summary, the NoseFrida Snotsucker is a great product. It does what it says it will, but is still super disgusting.

The Joys of Parenthood

*not my actual children

I have a cold this week, so this is going to be pretty short. I actually think I caught this particular illness at PAX last weekend, which would officially make this "PAX Crud". It lasts longer and is more contagious than your normal, run-of-the-mill virus. In any case, I was going to title this post "The Joys of Motherhood", but then I realized that my husband was probably going through the same thing (I haven't actually asked him though). So, without further ado, the joys of parenthood include getting:

- Head butted
- Punched in the throat
- Kicked
- Hit
- Barfed on
- Pooped on
- Peed on
- Screamed at
- Scratched
- Pushed
- Pinched
- Hair pulled

At the end of the day, though, what makes it all worth it is the smile they give you when you walk into the room. I know people say it gets better, but I'm not sure I truly believed them until now. Yes, things got better, but then new sucky things started happening. I don't know if I'm just so entrenched at this point that even a single sunbeam seems like a radiant glow, but I will continue to do some pretty silly things to see those smiles over and over.

Thanks for sticking with my cold medicine ramblings. See you next week.

Losing Nanny

This was our last week having a nanny. Back in May I felt like I was falling apart. The twins were two months old and from 7am to around 5:30pm I was alone with them. Over ten hours every day, every week. My anxiety was through the roof. I resented my husband for being able to leave and he, in turn, felt horrible leaving me. I spoke to other twin mommies and learned that many of them had hired nannies in the first few months of having twins. It was like a light had finally turned on. I could get help. That isn’t to say that I didn’t have help before. My mom drove over the mountains several times and stayed whole weeks to help out. My mother-in-law took off from work in the afternoons to come over and help. But here was someone I could have every single day for weeks on end. I could teach them the routine and possibly get some time to myself.

Fast forward three months. I’m still anxious about what the day holds, but now the kids are so much more stable. We’re working on setting a schedule for naps, so I have downtime that I can look forward to almost every day. (I’m finding time to write this blog, aren’t I?) I won’t have a nanny to help in the afternoons anymore, but I’m hoping the truly rough newborn days are behind us. I’m looking forward to the tumultuous teething/crawling/solid food days ahead.

Poop-mageddon

My poor little miss has been sick with a staph infection and has been on antibiotics. Antibiotics, as you may know, destroy little tummies and their digestive tracks, leading to unpleasant diapers. But, today's story is not about little miss. Today's story is about little man.

So, twin A is sitting in his chair (we actually joke that it's his poop chair, because that's what he so often does while sitting in it). He's been playing for about 20 minutes and starts fussing. Everything good so far. I go over and sit down next to him to see if he just wants some company for a bit. The smell hits me and I know the famous chair has done it's job again, so off we go to the changing table. I set him down and go for the leg snaps on his brand new pajamas thinking I didn't remember the fabrics being so dark when I put them on him. Unsnap the first snap and yes. It's all down his leg. It's a miracle it hadn't soaked through the fabric yet (a testament to the new pajamas). I start to peel the fabric off and the extent of the mess makes itself known. I am honestly impressed little man wasn't more upset. He's usually very picky about having clean diapers. In any case, realizing he's getting his diaper changed, he gets very excited and starts kicking, sending the poo in all new directions. Now here's where the experienced moms will shake their heads: I decided the best way to deal with this was to put him in the bath. So, stripped down to nothing but the leaky diaper, I took baby boy by the armpits to the tub, laid him down, stripped off the soiled diaper, and turned on the water. The babes are used to getting bathed in their baby bathtub, but there was no time for that. Little man thinks that I am trying to drown him, so he starts screaming. The screaming wakes little miss who was sleeping in the living room. As the water rises, it takes the poo from his legs and bum and floats it closer to his head. BAD IDEA. BAD IDEA. I turn off the water. My brain is almost completely shut down now as the panic rises. I've got one screaming baby, one crying baby, and instead of getting cleaner, the poop has now spread. I'm sure everyone will now recognize my folly as I got out the baby bathtub. As I put little man into the tub and ran water it quickly dawned on me that now I was just making poop soup. But at least his head was above the muck this time. I eventually got everything sorted but suffice to say next time I will be using a bajillion wipes to clean up the mess rather than trying to wash it off in the bath. At least until he's old enough to stand on his own and I can just spray him down.