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.