unsupervised children

I never thought that nursing twins would beso difficult. Yes, the act itself is trying/tiring/taxing, but the real issue here is what to do with the 3 yr old( well almost 3). I've cut back on her television watching, and tried getting her to play in her room. She usually ends up climbing in the pantry or refrigerator and coming out with 'snacks', or in her closet throwing every article of clothing out.

Today has been no different. The sun came out after snowing this morning, so I opened the patio door and let her play while I nursed. Its enclosed and has a tall banister all around. So I figured all would be fine. I could hear her talking and playing with a little girl who was in the yard. Then she came inside, completely naked from the waist down. She had an accident. And showed the entire world herself. That was the first incident on the patio. The second came when I was finished nursing, and stepped outside to find her perched precariously on the edge of the banister. Super freaked out mom mode!
Later that day, after far too long of silence from her, again, when I was done nursing, I found her in the bathroom sink, flossing her teeth.

Oh this girl

Coho Coffee Company - regular coffee

Today I stopped by my first coffee shack. Coho Coffee Company in Eagle River Ak. This one is the closest to my house, located in a dirt/gravel parking lot next to a consignment shop and internet gaming place :-)

They sell their own beans and several Starbucks drinks copies. The barista, I can call her that right? It isn't reserved for Starbucks workers right? Well she was super nice. A regular coffee was $1.25. Not bad for plain coffee.
I need to come up with a rating system for these places.

For regular coffee, I'd give Coho Coffee Company a 4. The coffee was good, hot, and flavorful. I'd get this again, it wasn't the bees knees of coffee but its definitely better than what I make at home using the cheapest beans we can find. I'll have to stop by again and try a specialty coffee.

**update - Google taught me some coffee tasting terms. It also showed me a coffee tasting flavor wheel.
*** I'd say this coffee is mild/mellow and borders on nippy/acidity :-)

I need to educate myself on the ins and outs of coffee so that I can better evaluate what I'm trying.

streamline

After 3 weeks of nighttime feedings that lasted around an hour or more, I needed some relief. Morgan still hasn't mastered nursing, so breastfeeding isn't doable when I'm half asleep at 3am. We do bottles, with formula to help boost their weights. After weeks of Mike saying that I needed to feed them both at the same time, it finally clicked. I knew how to bottle fed (until they become master nursers) two kids at night. When one wakes up, I change them and get them started on their bottle (which is now 3oz!!) Then place them in the boppy with a blanket to hold the bottle, while I wake the other, change them and hold them while they eat. The process then switches for their next feeding so that one kid isn't always on the floor. This cut my nighttime feeding in half! Oh it felt so good to get an extra hour of sleep last night.

In other good news, Morgan and I have been working really hard at nursing. She woke up first this morning, so for an hour we worked on it. She git better with each attempt. And I'm happy to say that she did even better the next feeding. It still takes her a bit to latch on, but once she does she goes for it. She isn't eating everything, and cries for more anhour later. Which by that time, I've spent a great deal nursing her ans her brother,so I hate to say, but I give her a bottleof expressed breastmilk. I'm hoping that after some time she will eat more and we won'thave to use bottles anymore. And maybe even drop the pumping habit. I've already got 100 oz of frozen breastmilk in the freezer, and there's usually between 20 and 40 oz in the refrigerator.

Oi nursing two babies wears me out!


In living in Alaska news, we took a drive down to Seward yesterday, about two and a half hours away, through the Chugach National Forest. Beautiful beautiful beautiful. When we got there the twins were ready to eat, so I was confined to the car (which I forgot to say, we traded in our Camry for a Yukon). I was totallyok with this arrangement, since I've been working so hard at nursing, I wasn't going to let a sleepy seaside town ruinit for me. It had a quaint downtown strip and a few other shops, but this really was a seasonal town, and being as its October, it was pretty empty. Mike and Adi walked around, visited a,park, watched a boy practice riding a unicycle, and get followed then attacked by a throng of ravens and sea gulls. In the end we decided to come back in the summertime,camp along the water andwatch the whales, sea otters, and bald eagles.

This state really is something. Its really sparked that adventure, and desire for peaceand outdoors.

nighttime

It is officially 12:02am. I just changed and fed both babies, one of whom lost their belly button stump today, and the other hadn't pooped all day until just now. Now I'm pumping. Since both kiddos are still struggling with latching without a nipple shield and usually fall asleep after 5 minutes, I formula feed at night. Its just easier right now. Those three pictures, taken today, well yesterday, are the reasons why I'm exhausted.
But I love them and feel amazingly blessed to be their mom.