Back to Work

Monday marked my first day back in the office, and the twins first full day of daycare.  We all survived, but it wasn't as easy as I had hoped.

There was a full day opening at daycare for Mondays and Fridays in the nursery, so we decided it would be best to go ahead and send the boys all day so I can go into the office 2 days a week.  Sending them from 9am-1pm was nice, but it meant that I didn't really do much before or after that time period.

Sunday Night Prep

In preparation for Monday morning, Kevin and I began packing bags and lunches and bottles on Sunday night.  First thing we did was put all three kids to bed by 8pm.  Once we both got into the kitchen to get started, we determined that the twins would need enough for 3-4 feedings (so we better pack for 4).  I needed to be able to pump at work, so I would need at least 2 sets of pumping stuff and bottles for the milk I pumped.  So here's what all we had to wash Sunday night just to be ready for Monday morning:

• 12 feeding bottles (8 for daycare and 4 for the night and morning feedings)
• 10 pumping bottles (6 for the bedtime/middle of the night/morning pumping sessions and 4 to take to work)
• 5 sets of pumping accessories (all the other pieces required to pump for each of the pumping sessions mentioned above)
• 3 large bottles (for the extra milk I would pump at work)

Let's just say that took a while.

Since I didn't have enough milk pumped in the fridge for the kiddos to take to school, I had to dip into our freezer supply to get us started.  So we put those bags in the fridge to thaw out over night.

We packed my lunch and put it in the fridge.  We packed Grady's lunch and put it in his backpack (with a note to remember and add the 2 cold items in the morning with an ice pack).  Kevin luckily already had lunch at work.  We packed 2 sets of pump bottles and accessories and a sterilizing bag for me to take to work, along with the 3 large bottles for the milk. We put coolers out for each of the twins so we could add their bottles to them in the morning.

I packed my laptop and work files in a bag to carry into the office with me the next morning.  We picked out clothes for the boys and ourselves to wear the next day.  We packed what we have come to call the "night basket". (Night basket contents:  2 pump sets, 4 bottles, and 4 bottles of rice cereal measured out.)  Our bedroom is upstairs, so I don't have easy access to putting dirty bottles and pump stuff in the sink when we finish in the middle of the night.  So we pack a basket to carry upstairs with everything we will need in the middle of the night, and then we bring it back down in the morning to wash everything.  

After all of that was done, I pumped one last time before bed.  It had only been 2 hours since the twins had taken their bed time bottles, and they've been sleeping a consistent 5 hours before their middle of the night feeding.  However, that would put them waking up at 12am instead of the preferred 2-3am (it was only 10pm, so I didn't feel like waking up again in 2 hours to feed them).  So we unswaddled the babies and made them take another 2oz bottle before swaddling and putting them back in bed. (They didn't wake up again until 3am. #success) 

Monday Morning

Kevin and I both got up for the 3am feeding so that it would go quicker.  After feeding Harrison, I pumped and we were all back asleep within 30 minutes of waking up.  I woke up again at 5am to get in the shower. I started getting ready and woke Kevin up around 6am, and I pumped again.  Kevin and I were pretty much ready by 6:30am, and we woke Grady and the twins up to get them dressed for school.  Kevin took Grady and I took H&H.  I had just enough time to start soaking the night bottles in the sink and it was time to start loading up the car.  By 7:05am we were all pulling out of the driveway.

The daycare dropoff went as smooth as it possibly could.  Grady walked in while I carried the twins and both bags.  I sat the twins down in their room and went to drop Grady off in his room.  After that, I went back to the nursery to help unload H&H and get their bottles out for the teachers.  Then my job there was done and I was heading back home to grab all of my bags.  That part won't be happening every morning, but since I was earlier than I expected leaving the house, I decided not to burden myself with 2 trips up and down the basement stairs to get everything loaded up.  I still had to grab my computer bag, lunch box, pump, and cooler with pump accessories and bottles.

Then I got to go to work!

Back in the Office

This week is truly a different kind of week, because my co-worker is out of the office this week unexpectedly and I needed to take over his workload in addition to my own.  So I spent the day busting it to get my job ready to bid, and then started reviewing his to make sure it was complete and ready.  I actually didn't even finish in time, so I had to take it home with me to complete.  

Pumping at work is hard and stressful.  I'm going to have to find a better routine and work out a system, because it's so easy to get caught up in what you're doing at work and forget to pump.  I set alarms to remind me, otherwise I would probably explode before I remembered I needed to pump. But even with those alarms, I missed my 2-3pm pump session. 

What will be interesting is when my co-worker returns to work, because we share an office, and it's just not appropriate for me to kick him out of the office for 15-20 minutes 3 times a day.  We don't have any empty offices, so my three options are going to be the conference room (awkward), the bathroom (just not very appealing), or my car. At least this week I can use my hands free pumping bra and work while I pump, but if I have to go to my car every three hours and then wash my pump bottles and then get back to my desk, you're talking about an entire hour and a half I will lose every day at work.  Which means I likely will be eating lunch during one of my pumps so that I don't lose any more time.

Then I have to remember to pack up all of the milk and ice pack into the cooler to take home with me.  Oh, and I have to make sure I leave by 4:45pm or I will be late to get the kids.  So I'm actually losing an hour and a half of work AND I'm leaving 15-20 minutes early every day.

So while it was nice to be back in the office and feel a little more normal again, it was also still a little stressful because of everything I needed to cram into the day. 

 

Made it through the Day

I made it to daycare by 5:15pm to get my boys (they close at 5:30, so they were definitely happy to see me pulling up).  The babies were finishing their bottles, so I got Grady and we made our way back to the nursery to load up H&H.  We all got into the van just fine, and made it to the house where Kevin came out to help us all unload.

It was a whirl wind of a day, and I'm sort of thankful that we're only doing it on Monday and Friday for the time being.  It will give us some good practice before January when this will become our daily norm. 

Even typing this made me tired just thinking about the fact that tomorrow night we will start that preparation part all over again.  Whew!

Oh, and the boys are 3 months old today.  Seems like a lot more time has passed, but at the same time I can't believe they're already 3 months old.  Perspective is so funny when it comes to your kids.  I will be posting their month pictures and info later this week, because now lunch break is over and it's time to get back to work (from home).

A typical Monday

So, part of this blog is to keep everyone informed about how life is going with the twins, but it's mostly so I will remember this part of my life (that I'm sure will be a big blur even by next year).  So for today's post, I'm going to update the blog throughout the day so I can remember what a typical Monday looks like (with the twins in MDO).

To start, I got a pretty decent night's sleep.  We put the twins and Grady in bed by 9pm (that process started around 8:20pm).  After washing up some bottles and pumping before bed and of course folding some laundry, Kevin and I were actually in bed by 10pm (#winning #teamwork).

There was a moment around 11pm that I thought might break me. H&H have been doing a solid job of sleeping 5 hours between their bed time feeding and the middle of the night feeding.  However, last night, Harrison was up just 3 hours after the bed time feeding (one hour after I crawled into bed).  So I gave him 1/2 an oz of his middle of the night bottle and stuck a paci in his mouth.  That did the trick!  He didn't get up again until 2am! 

I was up at 2am for their feeding and back asleep by 2:45am.  Kevin gets up every morning to feed them and lets me stay in bed to get a little more sleep, so he fed the kiddos at 5:30am and I didn't get up until 6:45am.  (This means I got to sleep solidly from 11pm-2am (3 hours), and again from 3am-6:45am (almost 4 hours)! [insert smiley face])

Let's begin my "Typical Monday" there.

6:45am - Wake up and take bottles downstairs to be washed

6:50am - Grady hears me come back up the stairs and is ready to get out of bed.  I grab a diaper for him and clothes for school today (he doesn't want to go to school...he wants to go to the couch with mommy).  I convince Grady that school is cool and tell him and Kevin goodbye.

7:00am - Time to pump!

7:15am - Now time to wash all of the bottles from last night

7:30am - Breakfast time (and catch up on Quantico from last night)

8:20am - Hudson is awake and ready to eat =/  I go and get him dressed for MDO and then wake Harrison up to get him dressed.  Harrison was in a real happy mood this morning and just kept smiling and cooing while I was getting him dressed (Hudson was hangry and pouting on the chair).

8:50am - Both boys are loaded up in their carseats, diaper bag is packed, and we're heading out the door.  (Something important to note:  For those who don't know the layout of our house, the garage is in the basement.  Usually we pull the van up to the street right in front of the house to load the boys up.  Recently, I've gotten bolder and decided to carry both boys down the stairs in their carseats to save the step of moving the van.  Challenging, but do-able.)

9:05am - Back home  (daycare is ridiculously close to our house) and ready to work.  Let's see what I can get done in these 4 short hours.

10:00am - Time to pump again. (This never ends...well it will end, just not right now)

10:20am - Realize the oatmeal cream pies are gone.  I'm now mad at myself for having 2 yesterday.

10:30am - Just agreed to go to a cardio workout class tonight at church.  I may will definitely regret that tomorrow.

11:00am - I'm hungry.  We have nothing to eat here.  Chickfila? Peanut Butter & Jelly? I know what I won't be eating...oatmeal cream pie (still mad at myself).

11:05am - Decide on eating peanut butter from the jar with a spoon. And work a little more.

12:00pm - Get side tracked on potty training research.  Yep, this is happening soon.  Set a date for first weekend in December.  Let the games begin!

12:20pm - Time to go to Publix and figure out what's for dinner.

1:10pm - Back at home, groceries and twins unloaded and put away.  (Hoping they want to nap for the next 2 hours before it's time to eat again.)  Also, wondering why I didn't get more oatmeal cream pies....

1:12pm - Hudson's screaming...won't stop.  He's been fed, his diaper is clean, and he took an hour nap at noon.  Who know's why he's screaming.

1:19pm - Back to actual work...you know the stuff I get paid to do.

1:30pm - Arghhhh! Forgot to pump, time to do that again.

1:40pm - Making a mental note that I need to buy bigger bottles to pump into.  These 5oz ones are filling up fast these days (hungry/growing boys means more milk to pump and feed/store). #justcallmeBessie

I get really tired of pumping every 3-4 hours of the day (around the clock, no time for sleep).  So it's helpful for me to see how beneficial this is to us financially (because I already know the benefits of the nourishment for the babies, but sometimes it would be nice to dump some powder into water and shake and go.  Tons of babies are only formula fed, and they're doing just fine.).  

So as self motivation, I just checked the stats on my pumping app (yes, I have one of those).  Apparently since November 2nd, I've pumped 48 times for 10 hours and got 3.3 gallons of milk. I just did some math on the cost of formula...I'm saving us $190/month (and that's buying the cheap stuff)! Also, holy moly, my babies drink more than 3 gallons in a week.  Plus, I have just under 400oz in the freezer, but when you do the math (with 2 babies), that's not even a full week of feedings. =/ 

1:45pm - Now, let's find a snack and get back to work.  Babies will eat again at 3pm, so hoping to get an hour of work done.  (Found some Halloween candy! That cardio workout tonight isn't going to know what hit it!)

2:51pm - I'm going to attempt to clean the kitchen quickly before the babies wake up.  That way it's ready for me to cook dinner when I actually get around to doing that. (Besides, my program on my computer isn't working, so I'm having to wait on Help Desk to return a call anyway.  I'm currently ignoring emails, because they're evil.)

3:30pm - Kitchen is clean and chicken is cut up and ready to cook for dinner.  Babies are still snoozing because I cheated and swaddled them to make them nap longer (#mommyhacks).  I also caught up on washing bottles! BOOM!

Kevin and I started a chore chart (lame, I know), but with his study schedule and me being here ALL day but still needing to work, something had to give.  So now I have a board up in my kitchen that lists what we have to do each night.  Monday is my easy night, because I get to go work out.  So now that the bottle washing is caught up, it's less work for me later tonight...I'm on bottle washing duty on Mondays. ;)  I was sweet to Kevin, because I washed all of the dirty dishes (he's on dish duty).  And despite all of the laundry we've been doing lately, we currently have 3 clean loads that need to be folded and put away, one load folded that needs to be put away, a load in the washer and dryer, and 3 more loads that need to be washed.  Laundry is a viscous cycle! #LoadsofLaundry

3:45pm - Time to feed some babies.  Harrison first, then Hudson.

4:15pm - Babies fed and time for a little catch up on work before I start dinner.

4:30pm - Give up on the work (my program I use still isn't working), and start dinner.

I tried a new recipe tonight and it turned out great! :)

5:20pm - Dinner is served

Dinner is a challenging time around here most nights. Grady is a struggle fighting to get him to eat. Tonight he sat in my lap and ate off my plate (at least he ate all of my bread). After the prayer, I got up from the table a total of 6 times before I was able to finish my meal. Once to go "potty" with Grady. Then 5 different times to pacify babies so that I could hold them off to feed them after we were done. 

6:00pm - Time to feed babies...oh wait, somewhere between washing bottles and cleaning the kitchen and feeding babies earlier, I forgot to pump. Luckily, I have enough for 2 feedings in the fridge. Which means we need to warm up some bottles. 

6:30pm - Babies are fed (glad Kevin is home to split duties with). Now it's time to pump again.

7:15pm - Heading up to the church to do a little cardio with the ladies (it feels sooooo good to get out)

8:30pm - Survived the workout! Whew! That was fun.

9:00pm - Arrive home just in time to realize that Grady is still awake and not ready for bed, and that the babies are almost ready to eat again.  Apparently Harrison was crying the whole time unless Kevin was holding him, so Kevin's hands were tied up the entire time I was gone.

9:15pm - Time to feed babies and get them ready for bed.  I take Hudson while Kevin gets Harrison.  Grady sits on the couch with his bop (cup of milk) and toy cars until it's his turn to get ready for bed (he was trying to negotiate for some cookies....ummmm I don't think so buddy.  Should have done that when mommy was gone.).

9:35pm - Hudson is ready for bed, so now I'm free to take Grady to bed.  Against his will (at first), I pick him up along with his pillow and blankie.  We go to bed and read a story and say a prayer.

Every night I ask Grady who he wants to pray for, and every night he thinks for a little while and then says GOD! Occasionally he wants to pray for airplanes or cats, but tonight I asked if there was any person that he wanted to say a special prayer for, and his response was Daddy.  We've been praying for daddy a lot since he's studying for the CPA, so last night we said another special prayer for daddy and Grady was very happy.

10:00pm - I finally make it back downstairs, and Kevin is getting the twins swaddled.  I need to pump again before bed, so I get started on that.  Usually on Mondays, Kevin and I stay up to watch NCIS: Los Angeles, but we were both so worn out that he went on to bed and I came up after pumping.

10:30pm - Successfully in bed ready to sleep!

And so the cycle begins again.....