I have to admit, I was pretty excited about Samantha and Amelia starting solid foods. After all, it’s an important milestone and I envisioned all the fun we’d have taking pictures of the girls’ faces as they tried carrots and apples for the first time. I imagined all of us sitting happily around the dinner table eating together, instead of feeling guilty eating a steak as the girls watched every bite that went into our mouths. The excited feeling quickly changed once I realized starting solids adds a whole new level of complexity to our routine that I wasn’t prepared for. First off, (TMI) the girls’ poop is no longer the mushy, easy to wipe stuff. They are so much harder to clean now and the SMELL! Oh how I miss milk/formula only poop!
Starting solids has also increased the guess work when it comes to the girls’ moods. Last night, poor Samantha had some kind of tummy trouble, whether from her dinner or just being under the weather, I don’t know. She threw up a little bit right after bedtime and then again in her crib a few hours later. Jake and I were up until midnight holding her and making sure she was okay. Samantha took a miracle three hour nap today, but other than that, seemed totally normal. Since her puke was really watery and didn’t have any food in it, I’m not sure if it was a reaction to something she had eaten, or if something just didn’t agree. Poor baby!
Since the girls like to snack on their bottles every two or so hours, our pediatrician said we could start feeding them two or three meals a day to try and extend them a little bit between bottles. So far, it’s really helped regulate their schedules a bit as they are starting to stay up longer between naps and nap at more regular times, hooray!
The downside to this is that meal time is so much WORK. I bring one twin downstairs, strap her in the high chair, give her a spoon or toy to play with, which inevitably ends up on the floor by the time I bring the other twin down and get her set up. Then, I’ve usually forgotten the bibs upstairs, so I run to get those, by which point the girls are getting bored and fussy. I make some oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, veggies and fruit for lunch and veggies for dinner, feed the girls a few spoonfuls in between bending down to pick up utensils and toys they’ve dropped (probably intentionally) and then they are usually done.
The clean-up of the high chairs, girls’ faces/hands, the toys that now have food all over them, and the floor splattered with food, utensils and toys usually takes way longer than the actual meal does. Then, the girls sometimes want a sip of water out of their sippy cups and/or a little bit of a bottle before I take each twin back upstairs one at a time. Once I get organized and start storing bibs/toys downstairs, I’m sure things will go a lot smoother. Right now, I feel like I’m constantly running around with my head cut off!
Today, the girls invited Great Grandpa over to eat dinner with them.
As Jake was blessing the food, we heard a SPLATTER and looked down to see this:
Could have been a lot worse, but it was still a pain to clean up those carrots!
Some of the splatter even got on Bandit, who was happy the girls finally decided to share.
Samantha was very pleased with herself. I have a feeling she is logging this event in that little memory of hers under “Throw bowl of food off table = watch mommy and daddy clean it up = funny!”
On a totally unrelated note, here’s a picture of Amelia surfing the web today:
Lots of love,
