All about feeding the babies!

I thought it would be interesting for everyone to see how I prepare bottles & how Todd feeds the babies since I touched on that topic before. It is quite a circus when we are all in the room w/ the bottles & babies.

Let's start w/ bottle preparation. I pump every 3 hrs, after the babies eat & store the milk in the frig. I'm not pumping too much but not too little to quit either. I get a good 6 oz every time which gives the kids 2 oz of milk & 2 oz of formula. So, I get all the bottles out of the frig & line them up on the counter. The only time they don't get breast milk is for the 11pm feeding & that is b/c formula takes longer to digest & since we are trying to get them to drop the 2am feeding, this is what we do. Breast milk digests very quickly & we want them to stay full longer. I also line up the bottles in a diagonal. Why? B/c it is easier to pour everything in the bottle. So, the breast milk goes in first & then I go back & fill all the bottles w/ formula.


Then, the next step is to put all the parts together of the Dr. Brown bottles. I put the straw insert for all the bottles & then I go back & put the nipples on. Mind you, the kiddos are using 2 different nipples, yep...a pain in the ass but necessary for them to eat well. Gabi has graduated to a level 2 while Ian & Sofi are still using a level 1 nipple. That is why you see that 1 bottle of the 3 has a cap on it. That tells me & anyone else feeding the babies that bottle is for Gabi.

There are 24 bottles. We have a 2 story. How in the world do I get them up there? Well, I have a box that I have made in to a milk crate. I put 18 bottles in there & the other 6 are being carried by hand. I'm waiting for someone to give me a 6-pack of beer so I can use the holder for the remaining 6.


Where do they go upstairs? We have a mini-frig. I put the bottles in from left to right in chronological order so everyone knows what set of bottles to get. We always take the bottles out about 15-30 minutes before to take the chill out. From there, they get put in the bottle warmer which all sits on top of the mini-frig. We also have some premade formula in the little basket in case the kids want more than their 4 oz.



On to the feedings. I am very methodical about it as you have seen in the picture I have posted before. Todd, on the other hand, is all about comfort. Here are some pictures of his unconventional feeding techniques minus the hat method in which he used a koozie that he sewed on to the bill of a baseball hat & then leaned over to feed the baby. Yes, that is true!