Establishing a Schedule With Twins.

Many moms (and even some doctors) have commented on how well Aria & Cadence sleep. Ever since they were three months old they have slept through the night, and the stretches get even longer and longer as they grow! When they first slept through the night, they slept from 8pm - 6am. We were very proud of them for that! Now they sleep in until about 8:30 am, over twelve hours straight! We are very spoiled parents of twins, I tell you. If they have an off night and wake up at 6 instead, we wake up really grouchy and complain, but to many other parents that's considered a good night, haha. Well, want to know our secret?

Establish a schedule.

This is the most important thing to do if you have twins. It's also the most important thing to do if you have just one baby or, three, or five. It's equally as important, especially if you want sleep - which as parents, I think we all do.

Now you're thinking "My baby wakes up five times throughout the night and wants to eat every single time - there's no way they'd sleep through the night." (Sorry, I always use "they" because I forget most people don't have twins). Oh, but there is. First, establish a schedule. It's simple. We have them on a schedule and we stick to it. Here is a quick example of what our daily schedule looks like.

8:00 AM - Babies wake up/first feeding
8:15 AM - Babies go back down for a nap
9:30 AM - Babies wake up from nap and play
11:00 AM - Second feeding
2:00 PM - Third feeding, second nap
4:30 PM - Babies wake up again!
6:00 PM - Fourth feeding
8:00 PM - Final feeding of the day, then down for the night

Our schedule keeps to about 3-4 hours between feedings, 2 naps (about 2 - 2 1/2 hrs each), and then they sleep for 12 or more hours! They've stuck to this schedule since they were about 3 months old. Trying to wean them off of their night feedings was really easy too. They had been used to drinking 4 ounces at night, so over the course of a week we slowly lessened that each night. So the next day they'd get 3 ounces, then the next day 2 ounces, etc. until they just slept right through the night and have been doing it ever since.

This principle can be done with every night time feeding no matter how old your baby is. The schedule you keep them to during the day will help them to expect when "sleep time" is. Our girls are like clockwork. If we are a minute late in the schedule, they'll let us know. But man, are they amazing sleepers!

We are truly blessed, and you can be too!

Designing a Play Area for Twins.

This past weekend, as we put away the Christmas decorations, we decided to baby proof our apartment as well.  We rearranged everything and in the process, created a nice new play area for the girls. It is amazing what can be done with just a little moving of the furniture! We have a one-bedroom apartment, so space is definitely limited. However, we found a nice corner for the girls to play in and cased it in with some of their new Christmas toys!

Here is a look at what we've done:

The girls love their Christmas present from their papa and tutu! It's an activity garden!

The girls love their mirror! We bought the mirror at Walmart for just $4!! 

Aria loves the camera!

I think these girls truly love their new space! It's all their own. One thing that I feel strongly about as a mother is letting my babies play. I think with twins it's easier because the temptation to hold your baby is not as strong since there are two of them both competing for attention. Therefore, Aria & Cadence aren't held nearly as much as other babies (but they are still held A LOT, don't get me wrong). They are allowed to crawl around and explore a lot more and for that, I'm grateful. Playtime = learning time. 

If you have a "space" problem as well, try to design a play area that can keep your babies busy. A mirror at their eye level definitely draws their interest and having all of their toys be easily accessible makes for happy babies as well. We tried to close off their play area with the Activity Garden my parents bought off Amazon for their Christmas present! It is the greatest! It keeps the girls occupied for such a long time since each wall has its own activity. You can also rearrange the walls so it is enclosed but we prefer to spread it out to make it easier for both babies to use. 

Click HERE to buy the Little Tikes Activity Garden

On a side note, another small addition to our house during all the baby proofing craziness is our Instagram wall! I have been planning to put these pictures up for months now but never got around to it. It has taken on several shapes since we put it up, but this is the final product and we're happy with it!

 We are loving all the changes in our little place!

Nine Months Old!

In nine months you can grow a baby. In less than nine, I grew two!! And now my babies have turned nine months old today! I can't believe how fast they've grown. It is too fast. They need to slow down!

In the last month, the girls have started crawling like CRAZY! They are still in the army crawling phase, but now they are more mobile than ever! They follow me to the kitchen, crawl under furniture, and we are finding them in the weirdest places! For example...

Huddled under the jumperoo

In the kitchen in front of the trash can.

Under the couch, chewing on the couch skirt. 

It is so fun to find them in all these new places they've never been to before. They are such curious little girls!

They love to try getting at the presents under the tree.
And they sometimes even pull off the ornaments!

Our little Cadence is still the sweetest little baby. She now has eight teeth (just like Aria) and is getting better at army-crawling. She still loves to jump and dance around. She loves to say "mama" and is starting to say "dada." She has a harder time eating now (mostly because she's sick) but she has started to shake her head "no" when she's done eating which is always before the food has been completely eaten. 

Aria is also crawling all over the place. She says "dada" as well, and has learned how to stick out her tongue. She loves to kiss when I pucker my lips. She is always sucking on her index finger and she eats absolutely everything! She loves to crawl over everything (including the base of the exersaucer). She is scared of men with beards, especially Santa. But with everyone else that she comes in contact with, she is very flirty.

Both of our sweet girls can pull themselves to standing and love to stand using the couch to hold themselves up. Unfortunately, the girls have been sick a lot in the past few weeks so we've been cooped up inside for a while, but they are still having a blast despite their runny noses.

I'm a very proud mama, and can't believe the girls have been here longer than I was pregnant with them already! Time sure does fly! We enjoy every precious moment we have with these two sweeties.

Eight Months Old!

Yesterday, the girls turned eight months old! They have changed so much in the last month. I can't believe the rate they are growing! We are so blessed to have two such healthy, strong, and growing babies.

This month, the girls have started to army crawl their way around. It is so cute! Sometimes I like to put them both at one end of the room, put an object at the other end and have them race to see who can get it first. Here are some pictures of today's race:

Ready, Set, Go!

Cadence immediately tried to sabotage Aria.

Almost!!!

Got it!

Cadence stealing it away.

These girls are so funny! I love them so much. 

Aria has become quite the army crawler. She can crawl so fast! And she especially loves to crawl for the Roku remote or for me. She has figured out how to jump in her bouncer and loves to jump like crazy! She sleeps really well and hardly ever needs her pacifier through the night. She sits up well and will probably start to crawl in the next month or so. She eats well, but she grinds her teeth together! I always try to get her to stop, but she keeps on doing it. Oh well. She is also getting two more teeth on the bottom bringing her total tooth count to 8 teeth! She is still our little diva, though and sometimes it drives me crazy but I love her so much. 

This sweet girl is growing so much as well! Cadence is not as good at army-crawling as Aria, but man can she roll! We find her all over the place, in corners, in the dining room, under the Christmas tree - and she just rolls to get everywhere.

Here she is just after the "race" already
making her way onto the hardwood.

Cadence loves to say "mama" and I love hearing it! I am still not sure if she knows what it means but she says it loud and clear all day. She is a shy little girl and loves to give everyone these half-smiles all the time. She doesn't cry nearly as much as Aria does, but she does like to keep us up at night for a good while. Cadence is a master jumper and loves to get into things that she shouldn't. Cadence loves to lie on her tummy and peek over the crib rail at us every morning. She's so adorable!

Both girls have recently learned to smack their lips and do it all the time. It's so cute! They are interacting with each other a lot more as well and like to face each other while in their bouncers and make each other giggle. They are both very ticklish on their tummies and love playing peek-a-boo. They both take two naps throughout the day for about 2 1/2 hours each. Then at night, they both sleep for about 11 hours - having us get up every once in a while to put pacifiers in and then they usually go right back to bed. They eat solids twice a day and drink milk for their other three feedings. They are both in their very own cribs now as well! They are breaking out of their swaddles now, but they still like to be swaddled at least when being put to bed. We are positive that these girls are going to be crawling by Christmas!

We are so lucky to have them in our lives and can't wait to see how much they grow in the next month!

My Post-Partum Cardiomyopathy.

Some of you might have heard about my personal battle with a rare condition called Post-Partum Cardiomyopathy. For a detailed version of my struggle with it, you can read more about it here. Basically, about 2 weeks after I gave birth to Aria & Cadence I started having trouble breathing and would have to sit up to sleep at night. I developed a cough and then one night, coughed up blood. Long story short, I went to the doctor the next day, then to the emergency room where I found out that my heart was enlarged and I needed to be flown to a bigger hospital on O'ahu immediately. I was medevaced on a small little airplane and didn't know whether I would see Aria & Cadence ever again. It was one of the scariest moments of my entire life.

A very tired me awaiting the diagnosis from the doctors.

There, I learned that my heart had become weakened during my pregnancy (something that only affects a very small percentage of women) and that it was working at just 20% of its capacity whereas a normal heart should be working at 55-60%. I was considered to be in "heart failure" because of this.

In the hospital, the Cardiologist told Kurt and I that it is recommended that we not have anymore kids because additional pregnancies could worsen the condition of my heart. This was one of the hardest things I have ever had to hear especially since I'm just 22 and Kurt is 24. I cried a lot for months. I just was blessed with two beautiful girls but the thought that they wouldn't have any younger siblings killed me. Kurt remained very optimistic, but I was in shambles. People would ask when we were going to have more kids and I would have to fight back the tears every time and try to give a vague answer like, "I don't know. Not for a while." Then when I got home, behind closed doors, I would just bawl. Even though my life was filled with blessings, this trial made it hard for me to see that.

However, despite all of these things, I continued to try and take care of myself. I stuck to the low-sodium diet which was also a real struggle for me. I tried to exercise with the girls by going on lots of walks in the park since the doctor was very clear that I should not over-exert myself in any way. I continued to take the medications the Cardiologist prescribed so that my heart could heal and regain its function back as much as possible.

Two weeks ago I received a follow-up echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) to see how these life-style changes have helped my heart heal. I met with the doctor this past Monday to hear the results. I was very nervous. I didn't know whether they would tell me I needed a heart transplant or if my heart had worsened. Kurt took off work so that he could be by my side to hear the news with me.

The doctor informed me that my heart has made a tremendous recovery and is working at 45-50% again! I am well on my way to a full recovery! She also informed us that because of this incredible recovery the possibility of having more children isn't out of the question. It would need to be further down the road after my heart has fully regained its function, and the pregnanc(ies) would need to be closely monitored. Oh my goodness, my heart did leaps in my chest when I heard that!

This has been the most difficult trial I have ever personally been faced with in my life. But there has not been a single instant where I have had to suffer through it alone. I have felt the comfort of my Heavenly Father every step of the way and I know that He had a big hand in my recovery. I have never felt closer to Him than in these last seven months. Through lots of prayers from me, and given on my behalf, I have had an amazing recovery - one that not many women who also have this condition are able to have. It has been my very own miracle.

I am also so grateful for Kurt. He has cried with me, encouraged me, and has given me unwavering strength throughout this entire trial. I am so grateful for him and his faith and support. My family and friends have also been a tremendous support during this time and I am so grateful for that too.

But my number one motivation for changing my lifestyle has been Aria & Cadence.

I want to be here to see them have children, to see them have grandchildren and I don't want to miss anything.

I debated about whether or not I should write about this here, but I knew that someone who might be struggling with the same thing may read it so I decided that I needed to tell my story. For those other women who are faced with this same terrible condition, my heart goes out to you. My battle has not ended at all, and my life will forever be altered by this experience. But we are "heart sisters" and I hope that my story can help you in any way to continue to have hope throughout this difficult time.