Best buds

Anyone who has ever had twins, or is a twin, has told me how great it is to grow up a twin.

They always have a best friend.  

It is true.  I'm excited that they will (eventually) become best friends, then hate each other, then be best friends again. 

As of right now. . I see signs of them acknowledging each other.  They will smile and laugh at each other, and then push the other's face into the ground.  Okay, mostly Audrey.  She's a bully.  

The three of us (four of us when Wes is around) are the best of friends.  

Yup, I can say that these tiny humans I've created are my best friends.  Honestly.  We do everything together. 

We eat meals together.  

Run errands together.

Bathe together.  Okay I bathe them, and they sit in the bathroom while I take a shower.  I should really combine those. . 

Make dinner together.  They sit in the kitchen wooden spoon and measuring cups in hand.

Exercise together. They either sit in the jogger while I run, or sit in the living room while I do yoga.  Audrey is close to mastering "Downward Dog," and Finny has "Happy Baby" down.

We read books, and sing songs.

They help me work by waving and gnawing on my highlighters.

We nap together.

They've even gone in the dressing room with me to make sure I was buying the right outfit.  They're so fashion forward. 

They listen to my problems, and I listen to theirs.  

We laugh and cry together.  

I love them unconditionally, and I'm sure that's returned.  If that isn't true friendship, I don't know what is.

Basically, I'm hilarious. 

Two on two, traveling with twins

In short, we survived.  Barely.

The twins had their first airplane ride to Utah.

It took months to plan, prepare, and psyche myself up for.

We bought tickets, rented a car, and booked a hotel.  There was no turning back.

First hurdle: figuring out how to get through the airport with two suitcases, two car seats, two back packs, two strollers, and two babies.  We didn't want to check anything due to the lame fees for bags, so we decided to drag it all with us.  I'm bummed we didn't get a picture because we were a sight.  Each pushed a baby in an umbrella stroller.  Each dragged a rollie suitcase with a car seat attached to the back.  We turned heads not once, but twice.  Jaws straight hit the floor.

We didn't actually carry them through the airport like this, but just imagine this all while pushing a stroller. 

The kids did great on the plane.  No crying.  No fussing.  Audrey slept during take off, and woke for landing, and Finny was awake (and laughing) during take off, and fell asleep during landing.

Once we picked up our car, after having to upgrade to a bigger car because apparently we weren't going to fit in a Fiat, we headed to our hotel.

Second hurdle: kids got sick.  Awesome.
The twins had a slight runny nose, that eventually turned into a  full-fledged snot attack.  There were a few sleepless nights in the hotel, and I feel bad for the people around us who were probably up with us every couple hours.

The rest of the trip went pretty smoothly.  We had to drive two and a half hours for the wedding on Friday, which seemed to fit perfectly on schedule with nap times.

I was worried about the plane ride home since they were sick, and already cranky. . but they fell asleep as soon as we boarded and slept the entire ride home.  The flight attendants even moved us to the two back rows so we could spread out.  Audrey and I napped, while Finny napped and Wes played Candy Crush.

Things that helped:

1) Umbrella strollers.  I bought 2 $15 strollers from Walmart and they were so convenient to travel with.  We used them through the airport, when we walked through the mall, at the temple, or just when I couldn't carry 20 lbs of baby anymore.

2) Food pouches= awesome.  I stocked up months before we left.  Usually I make the kids food myself, but I didn't think I would be able to travel with all that food, so the pouches were perfect.

3) Bulb snot sucker.  Seriously.  Poor babies couldn't breathe, or had snot running down their face, so we would literally pin them down and suck that crap out.  It was nasty, and the babies cry like you're cutting off a limb, but they can breathe so much better after.

4) Having family around to help.  It was so nice to have someone to help carry/feed/pickup/bathe a baby.  They would always seem to step in right at the point when I was looking frazzled to help.

It was a great weekend filled with family, gushy love, and belly laughs.

Tiredness filled our eyes, snot filled our noses, and love filled our hearts.

Dancing with daddy

Breakfast at our hotel

Yes, that's Finny in the overhead bin.  #parentsoftheyear

They were right

They said to get as much sleep as possible before the baby/babies come.

They said you'll never get to sleep in again.

They said your life will revolve around bedtimes and nap times.

Whomever these "they" are were stinking right.  And I hate them.

Bedfords have been struggling in the sleep department lately to say the very least.
 We have done everything possible to get and get some sleep.  I mean everything.

Take 3 naps instead of 2.

Fan on.

Fan off.

Sound machine up loud.  Sound machine turned down soft.

Extra large amounts of food during the day. (which could be why Finny is a 20 lb. chunk)

Rocking back to sleep when they wake up.

Teething tablets (which Wes thinks I am straight drugging my children to sleep.  Nope.  Homeopathic homey)

Window open.  Window closed.

Swaddling them again.

Letting them cry themselves to sleep.

Sleeping on the floor with them in their room til they fall asleep.

Bringing them to our bed.  (seriously last resort.  I swear as soon as their tiny, little, crying, fussy head hits our mattress, they are asleep)

I haven't gone to Tylenol quite yet, but there's no telling what I'll do in a zombie induced state.

After talking it over with a couple of mommy buddies, praying like it's my job, and having nice, long talks with the babies about the importance of sleep, this is what has been working for us the past week:

1) Sleep train yo!  Sleep train. This infamous "they" told me about this a while back. I read books on it, and was fully prepared to train these little rascals.  I thought that they were because they were sleeping through the night, however we were rocking them to sleep.  It was working up until they were about 7 months.  Then things changed and they started waking up.  3 times a night.  Each.

So at nap time and bed time, I set them in their cribs and let them soothe themselves to sleep.  That way if they wake up in the middle of the night, they know how to fall back to sleep by themselves.  This of course was rough at first, but they got the hang of it real quick.  For the past week they've been falling asleep by themselves.

2) Amber necklace.  Audrey was the main culprit of these 3 am parties, and was fussy almost constantly.  So I decided to get her an Amber necklace.  People swear by these, but I was skeptical.  She has been wearing it for about a week, and is rested and happy again.  Coincidence?  I think not.  She is, however, the only one in our family to have about 5 mosquito bites. . the hippie ju-ju-bees might be making her especially tasty.

Fingers crossed these things continue to work and I don't have to resort to drugging my babies to sleep.  I won't, at least not consciously.

So in short, they were right.
They were also right when they say that it is all worth it.  Even when they've kept you up all night and you want to pull your hair out, they are so worth it.

Finny in a basket

 PS Audrey is on the move.  Help!