Making diaper changes easier…

Changing baby’s diaper can be a favorite or dreadful experience. Babies go through phases, many, many, phases. Some of these phases are giggly, smiley phases and some are stiff legged, back twisting, poo smearing phases. Many of you know just what i’m talking about!

When your baby is an infant you get the hang of learning his or her personality and because they don’t have motor control there aren’t many entertaining items you can give them. They will enjoy hearing you sing and seeing you smile. You can put a wrist rattle on their wrist for some entertainment but at this age it isn’t really necessary. Diaper changes aren’t terrible challenge since they aren’t strong enough to overpower you.

When they get to be a bit bigger and stronger they like to flip flop all around. I found that giving baby a small toy was great entertainment. I had the changing table attachment on our pack and play and in the pouches next to the changing table I would keep diaper creams, wipes, as well as a couple toys that made crunchy noises and had a baby safe mirror. When the babies out grew those toys we moved on to board books. It really helps to keep one or two books only at the changing table so that they are a special treat the baby doesn’t get to look at anywhere else.

There are times when I really enjoy diaper changes. I get to have one on one time with baby. I sing (they have started to join in, which is lots of fun!) and tickle to get them in a good mood, in hopes that they will cooperate with me. No matter if you have a “good” singing voice or not, I encourage you to sing to baby. Diaper changes are a perfect time. There were times when one of my little ones would be having a huge fit and would immediately quite and smile when I sang “the itsy bitsy spider” or “the wheels on the bus”. They also got a kick out of the oldie “Sherry baby” when I replaced Sherry with their names.

I know this isn’t a revelation post but if you have been struggling with diaper changes these are just a few ideas that might help! It sucks to wrestle through 8 or more diaper changes daily (or for us mother’s of multiples, 16 or more)!

How to bottle feed two babies at the same time

This is not as easy as it seems…. As I remember those bottle feeding days I shutter just a bit. THAT was a LOT of work. I remember counting down the days until the babies feedings would be just a little farther apart. I would beg to get help to come over, and time it just right, so that they would be there when it was time to feed the babies! It’s not that putting a bottle in their mouth is all that hard. It’s just that feeding two at the same time gets…. complicated.

When the babies were small enough to need to be burped during each feed (this stage seemed to take forever to grow out of) I would strap them both into their bouncy chairs. All safe and secure and only slightly reclined, it was a great comfy seat for them. I would sit on the FLOOR with my back against the couch. (Not so comfy for me but who’s thinking of themselves when trying to feed hungry babies, right?) The bouncy chairs would be on each side of me, with the babies facing me at an angle. It only got complicated when it was time to burp them. That meant, I had to stop feeding both babies, burp one, console them both (babies don’t particularly like it when you take their food away), then switch babies and burp the second baby. Then we started the process over again. I got really good at singing for their entertainment during burping sessions. As I recall the “oldie but goodie” “Sherry Baby” was a hit with both of them. I would swap out Sherry for their names to make it a custom tune. (Occasionally they would take 10 minutes or more to get a good burp out and I was so concerned that they would be screaming 20 minutes later, with an aching belly, that I very rarely gave up on getting a burp from either one of them.)

Flash forward to this last weekend. I am a garage sale moocher. I leeched onto my friend Chris’ garage sale (I’m not allowed to have a garage sale where I live – boo hoo) and brought a bunch of my infant items over to sell. Of course, we talk about all the equipment we used for our twins. She shows me a Bottle Snuggler. A what? A bottle snuggler.

And to think, all my burping induced nerve wreckage could have been prevented if I had just learned about this simple device. Well, at least i’m telling you…. So, visit the bottle snuggler website and learn all about how helpful they are. Oh the things we learn after the fact….