The McPherson Chronicles

Life is crazy! I imagine some day when all 3 kids are in school and activities this will seem like a piece of cake, but for now it seems like our weekday schedule is already packed. Mondays get us back in the routine. I drop all the kids off at my parents and go to work. My parents get them breakfast and drop the girls at school. After school they pick them up and get them through most, if not all, of their homework. By the time I pick them up and we get home it's time to make dinner, baths, stories and bed. Not so bad to start the week. Tuesdays start the craziness. Same school routine except I pick the kids up from my parents and head straight up to their 1 hour ballet class. Andrew and I hang out in the lobby and he entertains the receptionist and the other moms. After class, we head home to get in a quick dinner before finishing any homework, getting baths and ready for the next day before bed. Wednesdays the girls have minimum day at school. So my parents squeeze in a tr...

There's been a whole new morning and evening routine now that the girls are in school. It was a bit hectic at first as we tried to balance everything and figure out how to fit it all in but we're getting there. The morning's are pretty easy now. We lay clothes out the night before, get backpacks and lunches ready and the girls know everything they have to do as soon as they get up. Andrew's been sleeping in a bit longer which helps us have time to get all ready before we go get him up and ready for the day. Kevin takes Andrew on his way to work and I take the girls which also helps break things up a bit. My parents take and pick the girls up from school. Olivia's having an easier time adjusting to school than Lucy is. They both like school but Lucy is having some separation anxiety in the mornings. She cried at drop-off the first few days and wants my mom to stay at the gate with her until the bell rings and then walk her to class. She doesn't want to go play ...

Andrew is 2 months old now. He is now sleeping 6 hours straight at night, eating/pooping, then sleeping another 3-4 hours before wanting to eat again. He finally loves his swing and play mat and smiles at nearly everything.  He coos and "talks" to his toys and us and it's the sweetest sound. Plus, now he laughs! It's a cute little chuckle. He wears 3 mos. clothes and weighs about 12lbs (!) He goes in for his 2 month check up in a couple of weeks so then I'll know his actual weight and measurements. I'm loving the nice schedule he's got going during the day and hope my transition back to work next month goes smoothly. Happy 2 months little man!

I know I've slacked in posting lately. We've been busy, busy adjusting to a new normal. Kevin got a job (YAY!) so our days and routines have slowly been adjusting. It's great, he likes it and we're very happy and blessed by everything. The girls have been great about getting up a bit earlier, having to get dressed and ready by themselves and be ready to head out the door when it's time. The girls and Kevin both miss their morning snuggle time they have had for quite awhile but they are so lucky they got all that time together for this long. Plus, now they ask for extra snuggles at night, which we never complain about. I'll get back on track though here soon, I promise!

Since the time change, the girls have been sleeping in later- until 7am most days! We love it on weekends, but during the week it makes the mornings a bit rushed and chaotic. Every morning is different and we were battling with allowing the girls independence to get themselves dressed and ready but needing to get out of the door to make it to work on time. After struggling with the girls each morning, we were left frustrated, they were frustrated and there were endless meltdowns which made the mornings miserable for everyone. We decided it was just too big of a switch with no real consistency for the girls (and us) so I made a routine chart for them. We have always thrived on schedules and consistency and this would be one way to lay out exactly what needed to be accomplished. Here is the morning chart I made: Today was day 1. We went over the chart last night at bedtime and the girls were really excited about it. They knew right away what each picture repres...

I've noticed little by little that the girls have started to choose things, sides, people and things that belong to one of the other of them. We have always encouraged sharing and rarely do we go out of our way to purchase 2 identical items for them just to attempt to avoid the inevitable meltdown. Most of the time the girls are really good about sharing. They will ask each other to trade if they want whatever sister has or they will repeat endlessly "when sister's all done" (which is the mantra we've ingrained in them to discourage all out war). This usually works and as soon as one is not begging, crying or chasing for an object, it no longer becomes the coveted object and they both move on to something new. Crisis averted, usually. Some things they have decided belong to one or the other of them: - Cups- they have a mutually agreed upon cup from each of the sets we have (straw cups- by color, princess cups- one the design is mostly faded off= Olivia's, t...

Kevin has school Monday and Wednesday nights which means these nights are girls nights. Some nights are rough and some nights are great. It depends on a number of factors- their moods, my mood, how hungry we all are, how tired we are all, which way the wind is blowing... Even on the hardest evenings I can count on one great time- bedtime. I don't even mean the time when I lay the girls down and come out to my quiet living room. On Mondays and Wednesdays I look forward to doing our bedtime routine all alone with the girls. As bedtime nears, we clean up the toys, put milk cups away and head to the girls' room. There is no whining or fussing and never a tantrum. They love bedtime and are always ready for it. As soon as we enter their dark room the girls go straight to the rocking chair and wait for me to sit down so they can climb into my lap. Olivia's always nuzzles up on my left shoulder and Lucy always on my right. They immediately snuggle in with their heads facing out a...

Some form of this is probably one of the most frequent comments/questions we get about twins. Answer: it's the only thing we know. We didn't have a singleton (Kevin loves when I use that term) before the girls and we haven't had any since, so having 2 little ones to chase after is all we know. We hardly know what to do with ourselves when just one of them wakes up early from a nap and we have to entertain her until sister gets up (or else she will go wake sister up her self). So I figured maybe a little back tracking of how we manage(d) with 2 babies and now toddlers, may be good, at least for our memories. At the beginning we had LOTS OF HELP. I'm fairly certain I've already documented all that somewhere on here so I won't go into details. I can't stress enough how much having help really does allow the mom to re cooperate, especially after a c-section and while nursing. Speaking of nursing I mostly nursed them one at a time, but occasionally for th...

Time change victory!! All the effort we put in to slowly adjusting the girls' schedule in anticipation of time change worked! They went to bed a little after 9 last night and were up at their usual 6:30/7. This is the first time I have woken up before they did AND felt well-rested! So now we're back to their usual schedule.

We're on top of it this year, or at least trying to be. After the time change last year, we quickly learned that just because you're supposed to gain an hour doesn't mean you necessarily will. Babies don't appreciate the extra hour of sleep we're supposed to get and wake up an hour earlier (at what would be their usual time). We're quick learners especially when it comes to our sleep. Now that we're accustomed to the girls sleeping 10-11 hours a night we aren't willing to give up much of our uninterrupted sleep time. So, to try and prepare the girls for the time change we spent the end of last week and this weekend pushing their schedule back by an hour. We actually thought the time change was this weekend instead of next weekend so now we have to keep it up for a week. We're hoping by doing this they will more easily adapt on Sunday night and not be up at some un-godly time of the morning. I'll let you know how it goes. Fingers crossed.

After dinner and baths the girls are usually just silly. I don’t know if they get a second wind or just want to get that last little bit of energy out before bedtime, but they get crazy. Some nights they chase each other around the living room and kitchen, some nights they wrestle each other and us, and some nights (last night) it’s dance party and then books. The best part of the day is laying on the floor with them or even just sitting back and watching them play together. Now that the girls aren’t going to bed until 8 or 8:30 it’s so nice to have that extra playtime that we miss on work days. We’ve worked really hard on bedtime routines from a pretty early age which has really been good for us. The girls know what to expect, we know when they’re tired and we are able to lay them down in their cribs, give them their blankets and lovies and they go to sleep. There have been a few hiccups though since we took away their paci’s. Since they spit them out once they were asleep anyway and ...

As I mentioned before we are pretty set on keeping the girls as close to their schedule as possible. Through trial and error, we learned the girls do best sticking to their usual schedule no matter what day of the week, who is watching them or where they are. Since they get slightly bounced around with a few days at my mom's, a few days at home with Kevin and then my 3 days home with them, it seems to provide them some semblance of normalcy. For quite awhile now their schedule has been: 7 ish wake up- milk 8ish breakfast 9 ish nap- milk 12 ish lunch 2 ish nap- milk 6 ish dinner- baths 7 ish milk 8 ish bed They always know right after dinner is finished it's bathtime and run right down to the door waiting to be let in to the bathroom. They also know where to go when we say it's time for milk (straight to the fridge), bath time (bathroom), and naptime (they go to their separate rooms). It makes it so much easier when they know what to expect. The few times we've ...

Hello! I should be napping right now with my sister Olivia. I actually am quite tired and would love to just go lay in my bed with my paci, turtle square and blankie and go to sleep. That's what I used to do during naptime. But naptime doesn't quite work out like it used to anymore. Sister has always had a bit of trouble going to sleep, but not me, I love it! Now, when Mom or Dad lay us down in our cribs, I try to be a good girl and just suck on my paci, put my turtle square over my face and snuggle under my blankie. Sister on the other hand, is a disaster. She immediately stands up in her crib, throws her paci, turtle square and blankie onto the floor and starts talking, singing and making a bunch of noise. Pretty soon, I can't resist! It sounds like she's having so much fun so I give in and throw everything out of my crib and proceed to yell, scream, play peek-a-boo and just chat away with her too. We must get pretty loud every once in awhile because then all of a sud...

Here's how we manage to squeeze everything in on a typical day 6:30-7am Rise & shine! 8am Breakfast (any combination of cereal, fruit, pancakes, eggs, yogurt) 9am Playtime 10am Naps 11:30am Milk 12pm Lunch (veggies, fruit, cheese, yogurt, meat) 1pm Playtime 2pm Naps 3:30pm Milk/Snack (puffs, cheerios) 4pm Playtime 5:30pm Dinner (veggies, try whatever mom & dad are having for dinner) 6:15pm Baths 7 or 7:30 Milk/Bedtime

Since we're using this blog as a supplement to the girls' baby books (which really need to be updated), we better document how we manage to squeeze in everything for 2 babies on a typical day. I'll use yesterday, Tuesday, as an example of a "typical" day (who am I kidding, there is no such thing). Morning 6am Girls awake- change diapers, clothes and sometimes bedding, depending on how the night went 6:30 Nurse/playtime while we get ready for work 7am Sweaters/sock on, buckled into car seats, loaded into stroller along with milk, lunch, pump, purse, paci's, blankies 7:30 Drop off girls with Mom- unload milk, 2 car seats, set up the stroller with regular seats, unbuckle girls and remove sweaters, put on bibs, switch cars Daytime ** this is an ideal schedule, I don't think any day has actually gone like this yet 8am Cereal & fruit- playtime 9am Naps then playtime 11am Bottles then playtime 1pm Naps then playtime 3pm Bottles then ...

Since the girls were born, we've been blessed to have so much help from our families. They've provided meals, babysitting, clothes, diapers, pep talks and loads of hugs and support. The girls are so lucky to have such a large, wonderful and loving extended family (as are we). We've been fortunate enough to have Aunt Sarah watch the girls since I went back to work in July. The girls are just as comfortable with her as they are with us, and she has allowed them to be in the comfort and security of our home every day. She's spent countless hours singing, tickling, reading, cuddling, rocking, watching Baby Einstein and loving her nieces. We're sad to see her daily time with the girls come to an end. We're so proud of Sarah for getting into her nursing program and can't wait to hear about her new adventures as she continues her education and ventures into a new part of her life. The girls will definitely miss her though we all know she'll be o...

We are often asked about sleep- if we're getting any, if the babies are getting any, how we do it, etc. The babies are on a great schedule now where we get a decent amount of sleep nightly. I almost wrote plenty of sleep and then thought of all the hours of sleep we got prior to the girls' birth, and decided to change that. Their Nightly Routine: The girls go to sleep sometime between 7:30 and 8:00pm after baths, storytime, prayers and sometimes a feeding. We get them out of bed again for a feeding at 11pm (they generally don't even open their eyes for that one). Then it's straight back to bed until they get up in the morning. Lucy usually wakes up sometime between 4:00 and 4:30am to eat and go back to sleep. O livia makes it until 5 before she needs to eat. They're up for the morning sometime between 6:30 and 7:30. So overall, even with a few brief wakings to reinsert pacifiers, reswaddle escaped arms and/or move babies back to the cen...