Where in WA are you headed?
We are moving to Ft. Lewis. It's in the Tacoma/Olympia area. We obviously don't know the area at all but we'll be house hunting whenever our house here sells. And speaking of that...
How is the house sale going? Well, it's not. We aren't having many showings and our neighbors have had their house on the market since April with no interest. We've got a lot of things that they don't have (like a yard) so we are still hopeful. Maybe we'll get more interest in the spring. We have had 2 offers fall through because of their financing. Not a good sign.
How's the tandem nursing going?
It's going great aside from these persistent latch issues with the babies. They are definitely having trouble latching properly. It's not related to my letdown and it's not thrush. It is most likely a result of the tongue-tie so I'm still trying to get in touch with the IBCLC to see what she thinks.
How do you breastfeed 4 babies?
It's quite a sight actually! I have these extra breasts... Ok, just kidding. I have no nubbin, no triple nipple. What I usually do is nurse the babies as they wake up in the morning and then nurse the girls. Sometimes I nurse one of the girls at the same time as the babies but I usually try to make sure both babies eat first. This means tandem nursing the babies and then tandem nursing the girls. I do have a few pictures of me nursing one baby and one big girl at the same time but they were taken at 7am and I'm just not going to show you what I look like that early in the morning.
Have you started potty training your older twins yet?
Ha! If you only knew the hoops I have been jumping through while I try to convince these girls to use the potty. We introduced the potty early (as we did with M & J) but aside from some early interest they have refused to use the potty. Just today Leila took off her diaper and was completely dry last night. She sat on the potty for 10 minutes and then got up and peed on the floor. I know they are capable of using the potty but they don't want to yet. Despite the new Carebears they were promised. Despite the offer of M&Ms. Despite me losing my mind with all of the diapers.
I had it so easy with M & J. They both started using the potty very early and were completely trained and wearing underwear within days. They were both 2 1/2 years old. The girls turned 2 1/2 last week. I thought girls were supposed to be easier to potty train? I guess my girls didn't get that memo. They much prefer the diapers right now.
My question is how do you maintain your energy and stamina?
I would love to say it's because of my age. Instead I'm pretty sure that my body has just adapted to sleep deprivation. I function best on 5-6 hours of interrupted sleep!
And I must say I found this question totally amusing since it came from Michele. I read her blog and always ask myself "How does she have so much energy?" She's always taking her kids everywhere-school, activities, parties, and my favorite-Starbucks. I think I need to be asking her for tips.
Do you have any tips for doing laundry? What about for accomplishing housework?
Now this is my area of expertise. I am the laundry master. I probably do as much laundry as the Duggars. My secret is that I do laundry throughout the day. Every single day.
When I get up I start a load of laundry. When that's done I do another load. I always have a load in the dryer. I don't take anything out of the dryer until I can fold it. I fold it in the laundry room as I pull it out. Otherwise I'd have piles of clean laundry all over my house! This forces me to fold it right away so I can keep the cycle going. Remember, we use cloth diapers so there are a lot of loads right now!
Housework is pretty much the same as laundry. I do it all day. I vacuum once a day unless there is a mess that requires immediate attention. I've got the older boys in the habit of putting clean dishes away. I do 2 loads of dishes each day. We hired a cleaning lady when I was pregnant and she comes once or twice a month to do the things I don't have time to do such as dusting and scrubbing bathrooms.
