I Will Share My Secrets

As much as I know you all enjoy short, little blog posts with pictures. Today, I decided to share some of the knowledge we have acquired in the past 11 months. So future moms, future moms of multiples—listen up. The following information COULD change your life. Even if it doesn’t, just tell me it did.

Bottle feeding. It’s going to happen. We happen to be a formula family and it works just fine for us. Over time, E and I like to think we have “mastered” our bottle routine. Now, I took these photos before we started to wean the babies off formula, so you are about to witness Operation Twins with Bottles in full effect.

It goes something like this….

At the end of the day, there are 10 bottles to wash…by hand. Santa Paws keeps forgetting to drop a dishwasher off at our house. Be jealous.

Once all the pieces are parts are washed, I allow them to dry on the rack overnight. Back in the day (like, 5 months ago), we used to dry them and assemble at night. Yes, it took us 6 months to realize that we were making more work for ourselves than necessary.

Then, I move out onto measuring out the formula scoopings for the next day. Now, I am not going to name drop, but we use a generic brand formula. It happens to rhyme with Barget. I suggest it if your baby and/or babies have no real formula issues. I don’t remember who thought of it (E, I am sure), but we decided when the babies were newborns that if we had the formula pre-measured, it would make those delirious 3AM feedings better. Pure genius. Who wants to scoop out formula while rubbing one eye? Wait. Do I hear you snickering at my pink kitchen? Came with the house, it is the bane of my existence. Am too lazy to fix it.

Speaking of being one step ahead of the game. During one of her first visits after our release from the hospital, my mom noticed E and I frantically filling bottles with our filtered water. In another stroke of genius, she recommended pre-filling the bottles with water too. Since we didn’t heat or cool the bottles anyway, the babies were used to room temperature water. So alas, we pre-measure the water too.

Now, I am sure you’re asking, “What’s with the rubber band?” That, my friends, is a perfect way to tell bottles apart especially when one person is feeding both babies at the same time. Also, at one point, Olivia would take more formula than Ethan, meaning she had different measurements. Of course, now that the babies are mobile, they will help themselves to any bottle they see bringing the rubber band to a moot point I suppose.

Instead of standing at the sink and precisely measuring water from the filter for each bottle, we fill a jug. Made with real babies.

At this point, I am done for the evening with bottles.

Bright and early the next morning, my helper joins me to finish the bottle process. Cute, isn’t he? Alright, he’s really only there for the Cheerios, but he’s pretty good company.

Then, my friends, the process is complete. Life feels pretty good when there aren’t any bottle duties hanging over my head. The angels sing softly in the background…..

Now, you may be noticing the numbers affixed to the lids of some of the bottles. That is because the babies take different amounts at different feedings. They take 7 ounces each in the morning, 6 ounces during the day and 8 ounces at bedtime. Yeah, I know. Crazy. A lot of trial error with those numbers, but these seem to keep the kids the happiest.    This also leads to separate formula container for special sized bottles of course.

So that’s it. It’s probably the most organization in our lives at the moment, sadly enough. Does anyone have anything to add? Leave a comment! Oh and if you’re an aspiring kitchen remodeler….call me.

Once last glimpse of my helper because I just love his bed head.