Miracle of Miracles...

Date: December 7th, 2008
Place: Our house (specifically, our living room floor)
Time: Not sure, it was daylight (give me a break, I'm lucky I still remember my own name!)
Witnesses: Me, Matt, Grandma & Grandpa H
Event: Both boys holding their own bottles together for the first time!!
Evidence: Photographic (kinda creepy how much that word can look like pornographic if you look too quickly!)


And it has been smooth sailing ever since....now I'm just flat out lying, but the boys holding their bottles is a very momentous occasion, even for a mom of a singleton! Baby holding their own bottle=free hands for all involved! In fact, I didn't even know what to do with myself those first few times in which they were holding their own bottles...I just stared in disbelief, knowing that (in the words of Jack Johnson) I was sitting, waiting, wishing for this day to arrive.

And it seems, just like every other milestone that I look forward to, it actually bittersweet. Because, it is one less thing the babies need me for. Look at these self-sufficient little guys. Soon enough they'll be changing their own diaper (which in reality would be fabulous, especially the really messy ones!), mixing their own bottles, and climbing into their own crib!

As much as I am NOT ready for my boys to up and move away to college...as a mother of multiples, I was more than ready for them to be able to hold their own bottles. As I am sure most people don't think about, the logistics of one person feeding two (or more!) babies is quite challenging, at least bottle feeding. Here's our methodology for feeding twins:

1) You have to find a secure (i.e. buckled-in) place to put the babies - when they were tiny, the boppies worked fine because there was no moving around, then we moved to the swings, because the boys sure as hell didn't enjoy them for the soothing motion, and the carseats were always perfect for this method when out in public, then finally we were using their bouncer seats.

2) When the secured area is located, you then need a prop - which can be a pillow, a blanket rolled up, a coat...pretty much anything that you can fold, roll, or mash up to hold up a bottle.

3) Once the little contraption was set up, you placed the bottles onto said props and then would sit and wait until one or the other's bottle would fall. And then screaming would ensue, especially those extremely fun times when both bottles would fall and you were just NOT quick enough and the world was crashing in because the boys didn't have their bottles.

4) And then you had to burp them, of course one at a time, which doesn't seem like a big deal, but when you have babies with bad reflux, this was a beat the clock kind of situation. Because as you were burping one, if you didn't get to baby 2 soon enough, he would then spit up half his bottle. And then more screaming would ensue (mostly me, as I remember).

So, although bittersweet, it is more so a sweet era in the Gillis household!! Now, if they could only use the toilet....