Our "Day in the Life" series continues with Nicki's five-month-old twins!
Hello all ☺ My name is Nicki and my husband’s name is Nick…we like to keep it simple for ya! We got married in March 2011. We knew we wanted to add to our family soon after the wedding so we began trying in May’ish 2011. We are pretty young so we weren’t trying too hard to begin with. We thought it would happen pretty quickly. Next thing we knew, 6 months had gone by and then a year! At this point we started to take more drastic measures to make this happen.
Let me back up for a second…we have a 6-year-old son. His name is Camdon and he is truly a joy! When I got pregnant with him, it wasn’t intentional. It happened though and he changed both of our lives the moment he came into this world, for the better ☺
Okay, so we began to see an infertility specialist, who happens to be AMAZING!! Hands down, he is the most kind and caring man I have ever come across, especially, when it comes to doctors. You’re not just another patient to him. He takes his time and works 7 days a week, 24/7, literally! He never once made me feel like a burden and I was in his office ALL THE TIME. And I’m just one of the many, many women he sees. His staff is also amazing. To them, there really is no such thing as a stupid question. Even if he wasn’t able to help us make our dream come true, I would still only have positive things to say about him. Okay, okay I know this isn’t a review on my doctor, where was I? …
It was May 2012 when we started to see him and right away he found some issues that needed attention before we could move forward. I had a teratoma dermoid cyst on one of my ovaries. Within a week, I was in the OR having it removed by the fertility specialist. Once I healed, we had other testing done, for the both of us. There weren’t any other issues found that would prevent a pregnancy. We started on clomid and HCG shots first. After a few months, the doctor upped my dosage on clomid, but still, nothing. Every week felt like a month and every month, a year. The days were long and it was disappointment after disappointment. After about 8 or 9 cycles of clomid and HCG, we all decided it was best to move on. We chose to take the IVF route. On our first (and only) attempt, we transferred 2 five-day blastocyst and well, they both implanted and resulted in 2 beautiful, healthy baby boys! (Side note, we didn’t transfer 2 because we wanted or didn’t want twins. We wanted the highest possible chance of getting pregnant and with my age, we could transfer 1-2. There was no guarantee that both or even one would implant. We made our decision and the rest was up to God.)
They were born on January 08, 2014, 1 minute apart, via C-section, which was scheduled when I was 37 weeks, 1 day. Their names are Easton Ryan and Warren Carter and they are the perfect additions to our family. Easton weighed 5lbs, 1oz and Warren was 5lbs, 14oz. Thank God, the boys didn’t have to spend any time in the nicu and we all went home within a few days.
For the first 3 months, I breastfed and pumped exclusively. I was so thrilled to have more than enough supply to never need a drop of supplementing. This was not easy, I NEED to add. It is by far the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life. I was mentally prepared my entire pregnancy to breastfeed though so I was determined. Both boys seemed abnormally gassy, Easton had troubles latching, they were tearing me to shreds! & Easton was also super fussy, like colicky fussy. At 3 months old, my husband and I decided it was best to try a “gentle” formula. With breastfeeding, we tried gas drops and “soothe” drops for colic babies to try and solve the problems but nothing seemed to get better. We started with Similac Sensitive and that didn’t go well. We then tried Enfamil Gentlease and that seemed to help some. We kept both boys on this until 20 weeks old. Easton was still so so so fussy! It was some of the longest nights and days of my life. I felt awful because he wasn’t happy and as his mother, I just wanted to make whatever it was making him unhappy go away, but I couldn’t figure it out. After talking to a friend about his symptoms (fussy, gas, eczema), I learned about an even more gentle formula called Enfamil Nutramigen. It’s for babies with a cow’s milk allergy. I sent my husband to go get this the very night I was informed of it.
We started it right away and I kid you not, my baby has never been happier. He changed drastically within 24 hours! It makes me feel bad because I was feeding him all this “dairy”, whether it was the breast milk or formula. I am just glad we figured it out when we did and not have Easton live his first year the same as the first 20 weeks. Now that we know he has sensitivity to cow’s milk and it wasn’t just the breast milk, I wish I had continued to nurse Warren. There was a big part of me though that felt like that wouldn’t be fair to Easton. One, I didn’t want to spend more time with Warren than Easton and two, I didn’t want to have a different bond with one over the other. So now they are both bottle fed formula, the two different kinds, but once Warren hits 6 months, I plan to feed him the frozen milk I was able to store up when I was nursing, I want to wait until his tummy can tolerate a little bit more before I switch things up on him.
A day in the life at our house, well, to be honest, no
2 days are the same. I’ll start by saying that. I am a stay at home Momma and my husband is a superintendent building custom homes. He works from 7am-6pm most of the time and every 3rd Saturday, at least. So during the day, it’s just my boys and me! Most days during the week, I go to the gym (but on this particular day I happened to not go). But between Nick playing softball and Camdon playing baseball and the gym, we definitely stay busy…not to mention we also have twins ☺
An average day goes something like this:
3:40 AM: Easton wakes up fussing in his crib, which is in the bedroom the twins share. I change his wet diaper. He eats 5oz. I burp him and he falls asleep on my chest and is back in his crib by 4:10 AM.
4:00 AM: Warren wakes up fussing in his crib and Dadda gets up with him, changes his wet diaper, feeds him 5oz. He burps and lays down in the twin boppy while Nick cleans bottles. Warren falls asleep in the meantime and Nick moves him to his bed by 4:30 AM.
7:00 AM- Nick leaves for work
9:30 AM- Easton and Warren both wake up in their cribs. Camdon also wakes up at this time. I change Easton’s dirty diaper and make 5oz bottles for both boys. Easton eats 4oz and Warren ate the entire 5oz. I feed them in their twin boppy. I burp Easton first and then Warren. They are done eating by 10:00 AM.
By 10:05 AM, I have boys in their bumbo seats to play a little while working on some hand eye coordination at the same time.
I clean bottles, make Camdon a bowl of cereal and drink some coffee and eat a banana.
10:40 AM: I was trying to pay some bills while the boys were occupied playing when I realized I was out of stamps. I called my youngest sister, who is 13 and lives with my parents 5 minutes down the road, to ask if I could come get her so she could sit in the car with the boys while I ran into the store to grab stamps. She said she would ☺ shew! It could have been a lot of work carrying them into the store just to get one thing at the counter! I load all 3 boys up, picked my sister up, got gas and then stamps. I dropped my sister back off and was back home by 11:30 AM.
Both boys were still awake when we got home so I put them in the stroller at 11:35 AM and walked down to the mailbox to mail some bills. It’s also nice to let Camdon get out as much as possible. With the summer just beginning, we are still working on him being home all day long, versus being at school.
11:40 AM: Easton fell asleep. That was quick! We go across the street to visit Granny for a few mins.
11:50 AM: Walking back home and Warren falls asleep.
12:00 PM: We get home and I put Easton in his crib. He wakes up but lies quietly in his crib until he falls back asleep. I discover Warren’s dirty diaper and have to wake him to change him.
12:10 PM: Both boys are in their beds, awake but quiet.
12:15 PM: I make beds, straighten up the house some, do some laundry, make lunch for Camdon and myself and relax!
By 12:30 PM, both boys are good and asleep.
Every time the boys sleep, whether it’s a nap during the day or for bed at night, I try to put them in their rooms. I feel like by doing this every time, they learn that its time to sleep rather than putting up a fight. I have been doing this with them since they were about 2.5 months old. Prior to, boys slept in separate bassinets in our bedroom. As they sleep in their room, a few things are consistent: they always have the same nightlight on if its dark, a fan is always on when they sleep and the same music plays..over and over. It’s Dave Matthews Band lullabies. A friend told me about this and they’ve been listening to it as they sleep ever since. I wish I had gotten it earlier!
3:05 PM: Both boys start to stir. I grab them both out of their cribs and put them in the twin boppy. I make them 5oz bottles and off to another feeding. They finish all of their bottles, I burp them, change their wet diapers and let them hang out in just their diapers for a bit.
3:35 PM: Boys play on their playmats…rolling over and grabbing their toes
In the meantime, I get the diaper bag packed and ready to go for the next outing! Camdon gets his shower and is ready for baseball practice that is later this evening. I “freshen up” myself…let’s be honest, I don’t get a shower every single day.
4:00 PM: I dress boys and allow them to practice sitting up briefly, with some help from their big brother ☺
4:10 PM: I put boys in their exersaucer’s. They love these things! Not only do they have a blast playing with the variety of toys but they are working on their hand-eye coordination and strengthen the muscles in their legs as well.
4:35 PM: I put boys in stroller once again for another stroll on this nice day. We make our way back to Granny’s for another quick visit! (She loves our company just as much as we love hers.)
5:35 PM: Back home and boys go in their cribs for their late afternoon nap
During this time, I bring the monitor outside with me so I can hear the boys if they wake up and I help Camdon practice by throwing and hitting some baseballs.
6:00 PM: Nick gets home from work and he takes over practicing with Camdon and I go inside to prepare dinner.
6:20 PM: Both boys begin to fuss and are ready to come out and greet their Dadda! They sit in their bumbo chairs on the counter and play with Dadda while I continue to make dinner. Once prepared, Camdon eats before his baseball practice.
6:35 PM: I feed Warren some baby food and then Nick changes his wet diaper. I change Easton’s wet diaper at the same time.
6:45 PM: I leave with boys for Camdon’s baseball practice and Nick has 2 softball games this evening so he heads there.
7:10 PM: Easton eats 3oz. I don’t know why he only ate 3oz. Maybe he was too busy checking everything out at the ball field or maybe it was the distraction of everyone else checking him out. But, he only wanted 3oz and was content with that.
7:30 PM: Warren eats 4oz. Again, this isn’t like him but he was content.
7:45 PM-8:30 PM: More “sit up” time as Camdon continues to practice with his team playing baseball. This time, it’s in their car seats that are snapped into the stroller. There was a bit of an obstacle for them as I walked around and it was harder for them to keep their balance.
8:30 PM: I change Easton’s dirty diaper in the back of the jeep before we leave the ball field.
This evening, Camdon is staying the night with his cousin (my sister’s) who lives nearby. The boys nap in their car seats from 8:45PM-9:10PM when we arrive back home after dropping Camdon off. Warren fell asleep willingly and Easton cried for a few minutes until he fell asleep.
9:15 PM: Boys are still tired but awake, which I want them to be for now, so I have them relax and watch some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
We record Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for the boys. Some might frown upon this but seriously, if it gives me 10 minutes of “momma time” to do whatever it is I have to do, I’ll take it. I hadn’t eaten yet (I just made dinner so everyone else could eat) and I needed to. We don’t let them watch it in excess. And they seriously love the show. I still remember the first time I discovered this. The Disney channel was on from something Camdon was watching and when Warren first heard Mickey’s voice, his eyes lit up and he chuckled, an actual chuckle. It was darling. They love all the high and low pitch voices and the bright contrast colors! I had heard from friends that young babies like the show…I guess who wouldn’t?!
9:30 PM: Bath time! I give boys a bath every single night. It is part of their bedtime routine. I bathed Easton first on this particular night. He is a very picky eater when it comes to baby food. He is picky about not only what he eats but when and where. He seems to like eating in the bath so that’s where his meal comes in! Whatever works.
I bathe Warren next.
Every night after I bathe the boys, I give them a massage. I massage Easton with grapeseed oil (for his eczema) and Warren with Johnson’s nighttime lotion. Nick is amazed at how content the boys remain as I rub them. He says “they just lay there and let you do it”. It’s so relaxing to them and gets them nice and relaxed for bedtime.
10:15 PM: Nick and I cuddle with the boys and hang out, catch up on some of our own TV shows and of course Instagram ☺ …until it’s time for their last bottle of the night.
10:30 PM: We make 4oz bottles for the boys, burp them and in their cribs they go for the next few hours.
2:35 AM: Both boys wake up fussing. They each eat 5oz, we change wet diapers and we are all back in our own beds by 3:00 AM.
Both boys remain asleep until 8:00 AM when the next day begins ☺
Like I said before, no 2 days are the same. How boring would that be! We don’t have perfect babies and we aren’t perfect parents. But to one another, we are the best things we could possibly ask for! I am so thankful for all of my boys. I couldn’t pay for a better big brother than Camdon or a better husband than Nick. Easton and Warren are well worth our long wait to have a baby…even better, we got babies! We all learn something new everyday and there is always room for improvements in every aspect. I thank God every day for the life He has blessed me with. His plan is far better than my own. I look back on my pregnancy and look at my boys and realize what a true miracle it is that I carried them as they developed for 37 weeks!
My family brings me so much joy every single day and I am so happy I got to share one of those days with all of you!
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Thanks so much, Nicki! Be sure to follow along Nicki's Day in the Life via Instagram: @nfauver06
Don't forget to submit your 18-week bump picture! Email your picture, name, and the twins' birthday (or due date) to twintalkblog@gmail.com.
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