answers to a few questions

In response to a few of your comments recently...

Any advice for maintaining milk supply?
I have been pretty lucky with my supply, but I do have days when it seems to go down. There are a few things that I do. First - I increase my water intake. I definitely notice a hit to my supply if I haven't had a enough water. If I really think it's a problem, then I take some herbal supplements. Fenugreek is known for helping the milk supply. It definitely helps boost me after taking for about two days. I don't take it all the time, but just occasionally when I feel like I need a boost. I also eat a big bowl of oatmeal every morning, as oatmeal is supposed to be good for milk production. Finally - the best way to increase the milk supply is to put the babies to the breast more. Milk production works on supply and demand - so putting the babies to the breast more (or pumping more if you can't do that), will tell you body that it needs to make more milk. This definitely helps me. There are prescription drugs you can get if you have a real problem. I don't have any experience with those.

I also religiously read the breastfeeding forum on twinstuff.com - it's great for inspiration when I get discouraged, and tons of advice from ladies who have been there, done that.

I'm also really religious about tracking my output. I have a small calendar book that I keep in my pump bag. Every day I write down exactly how much I pump, how much we use in bottles, how much we take out of the freezer, how much we put in. This lets me very quickly see whether I'm ahead or behind with pumping each day, and then I can quickly do something about it if I see a downward trend.

Mind if I ask where you bought your little cube-trays? Are they especially for baby food making?
I have two kinds of cube trays. Both are made of plastic that are safe for babies, and both have nice tight fitting lids so nothing spills in the freezer. This one is just for baby food. It works pretty good, easy to fill, easy to pop the cubes out. My only complaint about it is that it only makes seven cubes. I got these at a local shop, but I think they're pretty broadly available. This one is made for freezing both breast milk or baby food. I use these to freeze my milk - it's great because each cube is one ounce, and the tray holds 12 ounces. And I've recently started using them for baby food as well. My only complaint with this one is that you have to fill the tray to the rim in order to get a full ounce in each cube. I got my first set of these from Amazon, and recently some more from a local shop.

Oh, and I would love to see your baby food "menus" :-)
I think our menus will get more interesting in another month or so - the 8 month mark seems to be a time when they can have a much wider variety of foods. Right now it's fairly limited and is starting to seem a little boring (to me, but they don't seem bored with it).

The basic formula for one baby (although I make twice this) is cereal (approx. 5 tablespoons mixed with 1.5 ounce breast milk) + 2 cubes (or 1-2 tablespoons) of veggies and/or fruit for the main course. Plus I usually try to do a second course just some fruit or veggie (and ounce or two) without cereal, as I want them to get used to having the stuff without the cereal too.

Our total menu right now consists of these items:

Cereal: rice, oatmeal, and a mixed grain one that contains rice, oatmeal and barley
Vegetables: carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, peas, green beans and most recently the not-so-interesting zuchini squash (known as courgette in some parts of the world)
Fruit: apples, pears, bananas, mango, watermelon, avocado, peaches
Protein: tofu
finger food: cheerios, teething biscuits, watermelon, cooked carrots, I tried a crust of bread once and will again soon.
juice: prune and pear (I only give juice when I think Danny needs a little extra help moving things through)

All of these things are good individually, but I usually combine things for different flavors. I pretty much just combine different things randomly, but here are a few examples of favorite combinations:

• cereal + peas + carrots
• cereal + butternut squash + applesauce
• cereal + sweet potato + applesauce
• cereal + peas + banana
• avocado (1 quarter of a fresh one, mashed) + banana (2 frozen chunks) + pear (1T)
• mango + applesauce + prunes
• pears + prunes

Danny likes it all. He will basically eat anything. Callie shows a definite preference for the sweet orange vegetables, she gobbles those up much more than the green veggies or the fruit.

Next month I plan to try parsnip, eggplant, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, maybe blueberries. The fruit options will get better when we get into summer and good fruit is easier to get. I think they can also have some other proteins at 8 months - meats, cheese, etc. - but I'm not sure I'm in much of a hurry to try that. we'll see.

Ok, that was a very long winded answer to a simple question. Probably should have been a post by itself.

my body

here's something I've had on my mind for a while.

Being pregnant made me feel proud of my body. It made me love my body. This is a profound change in my life, and worth noting.

I've never had a great body image. Always just a little over weight, always a little self conscious about my looks. I never thought I was particularly attractive, or dare I say, sexy. (My husband - to his wonderful credit - thinks I'm crazy for thinking this). I had freckles, and wore glasses. I was never athletic - always a little awkward. Self conscious about being tall. I slouched.

And then there was the infertility. I don't have to tell you all what this does to your body image. It made me hate my body. It was broken. It didn't work right. It couldn't do the one thing I thought I was always made to do. My body could not make me a mother. god that was depressing.

But when I was pregnant - it all changed. I loved my body, really for the first time in my life. I was proud of how I looked, I was proud of what my body was doing every day - nourishing and growing two babies! I loved looking in the mirror. I was proud to walk about the pool in a bikini, with my big pregnant belly out for all to see. I even said to my husband at the time of the bikini wearing - "hey, I paid a lot of money for this look, I plan to show it off!"

I still feel this way - breastfeeding two babies - the fact that my own body is making the milk that nourishes these babies every day. It is a wonderful miracle that I am profoundly proud of, will never take for granted, and is making memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

And then of course there's the weight loss - which goes a long way toward helping me continue to feel good about my body on the outside as well as the inside. Breastfeeding twins has been the greatest diet ever. I weight 30+ pounds less than when I got pregnant. So I'm pretty happy with the way I look these days (as long as I ignore the mushy and stretched out belly).

It's such a nice change in my life. To feel good about this body of mine. It's about time.

drop dead milk stash

A little glimpse into the dark recesses of my mind for you… I’m morbid I guess.  My husband thinks so.  I told him this little story the other day and he looked at me like I had completely gone off the deep end.  Maybe I have.

 

As of yesterday, I have 792 ounces of my milk in my freezer.  Sounds like a lot doesn’t it?  It looks like a lot – a full size freezer is half full of frozen milk. 

 

But not when you think of it this way:  My babies get an average of 25 – 30 ounces of milk per day – between bottles with the nanny, and nursing with me.  So that’s 50 – 60 ounces of milk per day consumed for 2 babies.

 

Divide that into 792.  You get 13 – 15.

 

So this is where it gets morbid.  Because here’s how I think of my milk stash…

 

How many days of my milk would be left for my babies if I dropped dead? (hit by a bus, asteroid, struck by lightning, kidnapped by pirates, etc.)  Only 13 – 15 days.  Not very long.  And they are only 6 months old.  I want them to have my milk for a year.  So I must keep pumping.

 

Am I sick? 

breastfeeding the twins

Catching up today on a lot of posts, sorry I've been away for a while.

An update on the breastfeeding - it's going pretty good now. I feel like I've finally found a really nice balance. I stopped guilting myself into thinking I should be breastfeeding every feeding, and I've stopped resenting my pump. We have a nice balance now between breastfeeding vs. pumping + bottles. My babies are getting only breast milk, and I feel really proud of that. I have an excellent milk supply.

In a typical day, I pump twice - once when I get up in the morning and once before I go to bed at night. The babies always get at least one bottle in the morning while I sleep a little. Jim takes them both for the morning feeding so I can get a little sleep. By the time I wake up I'm very full, and usually pump 12 - 16 ounces, sometimes more (19 is my record!). And in the evening before bed time (or before we think they're ready to go down for the night) they also get a bottle. This lets Jim share in the feeding, and gives me a bit of a break. If we're home I breast feed all the day time feedings, and when they wake up in the night. Sometimes I tandem feed if they are both hungry at the same time, and sometimes it's individual feedings. If we are going out for the evening I will pump before we go and we'll take bottles with us.

Usually when we are out they get bottles. I don't generally feel the need to breast feed in public. I'm not opposed to it, but sometimes a bottle is easier. But I have nursed them in the parking lot at Costco and the mall a few times - when they were hungry and I was full.

We've got a nice balance where they get about 50% bottles and 50% breast. I feel like this works really well for our lives, we have a lot of flexibility.