The biggest twin problem yet.

As you all remember, about four months ago I had a giant meltdown when I didn't get any sleep for a couple of days. Anyone would. Not sleeping for that long is not healthy.

Husband and I were not on the same page about how to sleep train the twins. He was in favor of a more gentle mode of training, rocking them to sleep at night and then trying to put them down without waking them. I was in favor of balls to the wall, aggressive, letting them scream it out until they got used to it and fell asleep kind of training.

In an earlier post, you've figured out that I believe marriage is all about compromise. So, through my tears, I managed to explain to him that I was willing to do a modified kind of sleep training as long as he could give some from his end too. So I found a book, by a pediatrician, explaining that it was ok to let babies cry it out.

Long story short, we compromised and it worked. Nothing since has been as difficult. I've been blessed with easy babies.

Also as you all know, the babies turned 1 about a month ago. They are starting to walk. They crawl really fast. They're talking right on schedule; they both have lots of words. They're sleeping 12-13 hours a night. They love to snuggle with us. They understand the word no and are incredibly well-behaved 1-year-olds.

The only problem, the only hang-up, is that we are struggling through the eating part of things.

When they got out of the hospital, they ate like champs. Actually, as soon as they got out of my belly they ate like champs. They gave them two ounces of formula right there in the OR to make sure they ate well. And boy did they ever. They both sucked it down in seconds.

At their one-week checkup, the doctor said they were't gaining weight fast enough, so she had us put them on Gerber Good Start. They ate it like it was the best thing they'd ever tasted and both shot up in weight really quickly. The only problem is by about three weeks, they were seeming hungrier and hungrier.

Most docs won't advise solid foods until six months, based on the American Pediatric Ass.'s guidelines, but all three of my babies had to start rice cereal before they were a month old. We put it directly in the bottle.

With the twins, by three months, they had to have baby food. We tried with a spoon at first, and they just weren't coordinated enough to eat it, so we put it in their bottles with their formula. At first, we only did it with the morning bottle and the night bottle, but as they got older, they needed it constantly. By four and a half months, they were eating it in every bottle. We went on like that, adding as much as we could fit in a bottle, until they were around six or seven months old. Then we just started feeding them baby food outside of the bottles and increased their bottles to eight ounces with rice cereal.

In short, they've always eaten a lot, so when we tried to put them on table food and they started to stall out, it frustrated me. For the last couple of months, we've been fighting to get them to eat. Harry is starting to come around and eat pretty much everything we give him. Hank is more picky. He cries and turns his head and screams.

When he does this, it affects Harry. Harry gets upset, and it keeps Harry from eating. WIth one baby, you can negotiate and find things for one baby to eat. With two, by yourself, you have to make sure they're both in a good mood and eating, or one affects the other.

So I haven't figured this whole thing out yet. I've looked for books about this, like I found a book on getting twins to sleep. If such a book is out there, I surely can't locate it. If any of you knows of such a book, I'd owe you eternally for finding it for me!

If I figure this whole thing out, I will, of course, write about it. If any of you other moms of multiples out there knows what to do, please clue me in! This is a serious cry for help. I'm tired of seeing my babies so frustrated with their eating. And I'm tired of being frustrated about their eating. With one baby, I know it's just a phase, but with two, they just feed off each other, with their attitudes, their likes, their dislikes.

So any tips would be appreciated. And if you're not a mom of multiples, don't tell me it's just a phase and they'll get over it! Please! I'll get mad at you. And I don't like being mad at people.

Are Republicans and Democrats like Husband and Wife?

Early in my current marriage, I remember late nights - we're talking 2 or 3 a.m. - fighting with my husband. We had serious things to fight about, as most married couples do in the beginning.

I won't go into the problems, but they had to be resolved in order to make our relationship work. Our relationship was something we were working on together, to make stable, to make emotionally profitable and to sustain the people within it.

So, obviously, this is an analogy. My marriage is only five years old. The United States government is 235 years old, and the people we have put in charge of making it work are not making it work.

They've had 235 years to bicker, to argue and to get over it, but instead of doing what my husband and I did and working through our problems, they continue to fight.

They continue to fight to the detriment of the people who depend on them. And they don't care. This blows my mind. I figure, as long as they're still getting paid, they don't care. They have no stake in this. Money and pride seem to be the main motivators.

I remember those late nights fighting with my husband. I was RIGHT. And I was going to stay right no matter what the cost. I would be tired to parent effectively in the morning. My head would hurt from the lack of sleep. My throat would hurt from the screaming. My eyes would hurt from the crying. But none of that mattered as long as I was right.

Our country will suffer. People will lose jobs. But gosh darn it as long as the Republicans win, or the Democrats win, it'll all be alright.

In Texas, our educational system is on the verge of collapse. Teachers, who used to have the most job security of all, are wondering how they'll feed their families when they lose their jobs and take pay cuts. Parents of special needs children - I am one, so I know - are having a hard time figuring out how the schools will continue to take care of their children. Parents should be worried enough, seeing the product that is coming out of Texas schools right now, but now they have to worry even more when almost everything is taken from their children.

When this is on the verge of happening in Texas, though, you look at the political agenda right now and have to wonder what the heck people are thinking. They're actually fighting about abortion. They're doing this at the national level, too.

Why?

In my mind, this is like my husband's and my fights early in our marriage. We had big issues on the table, and we had small issues on the table, but all of them were important when we just had to be right.

Is abortion as important as saving our government right now? No, not to me it's not. And I'm guessing to the many federal employees who will lose out on a paycheck starting tomorrow it's not as important either.

We're so far in debt it's ridiculous. My husband and I faced a similar problem recently. My company has been on a salary freeze for four years, and we're now looking at at least two more. The hubs is facing budget cuts next year. And because we didn't expect this, we lived beyond our means for a while, and it caught up with us.

The federal government is in the same predicament. What did we do? Because we're five years in with more experience than when we first got married, we took the small stuff off the list and tackled the big problem. We figured out a way to fix things. We compromised. We each gave a little, as we weren't in agreement on how to fix it. We came to a COMPROMISE.

Has the government done this? No. And because of that, we're looking at a possible shutdown tomorrow.

Maybe that's a good thing. If they're shut down, they can't spend any money, right... ?

My first ever real vacation.

I've had a full-time job with benefits for four years now. This is something in my previous life (the one where I never thought I'd make it through college!) I never thought I'd have.

Year one - in 2008 - I didn't get vacation time. I had to make it through one year of employment before I could get paid vacation time.

Year two - in 2009 - I got part of the regular 10 days because I wasn't employed through the whole year of 2008. That year, however, I spent those vacation days on a cot in the PICU with Mitchell as he worked his way through the initial stages of his diagnosis of Type I diabetes. It was rough. It was not a vacation. I was newly pregnant and suffering from morning sickness, all the while camping out in a very uncomfortable room while my baby was hooked up to machines and unconscious most of the time. I also had to puke in a tiny, tiny bathroom that I wasn't even supposed to be using. They made an exception and turned their heads since I was in my first trimester. Coincidentally, I didn't yet know I was having twins. This was about two weeks before I discovered that little fact.

Year three - in 2010 - I had to use my full 10 days of vacation before I could start my disability pay for maternity leave. So I spent it hugely pregnant in bed, alone, in pain and suffering. Bed rest sounds great, but when you've got two huge babies incubating in your guts, it's not too pleasant.

Enter year four. I am pleased to announce that my kids are healthy, and I'm healthy. I knew this year I would get to spend my vacation however I wanted.

I figured I'd take one week in the spring and one in the fall and take off time from both jobs and just enjoy being home with no responsibilities. There was one thing I had to take care of this week, which is why I decided to take off, but it's been taken care of. So the rest of the time was devoted to me. I thought.

Monday, we had a slight panic over money. Everything turned out okay. It ended up being something that happened on the bank's end, but I had to spend the whole day trying to figure out how to handle it. It stunk.

Tuesday was a little better, but I was still trying to shuffle funds and figure out how to get back on track with the bank's mistake. Then I spent all day designing a budget to help us stay on track. The spreadsheet was awesome, if I might say so myself. Formulas and all. A thing of beauty. Yesterday I slept on and off until noon because I woke up with 102 fever. I was sweating through everything. I made it to the drug store to get NyQuil and load up on Red Box movies, but that was about it. Today, I'm feeling a little better and am hoping to salvage the last two days of vacation.

Though it sounds bogus, this is the best vacation I've ever had. I'm catching up on watching movies, I'm napping, I'm reading, I'm relaxing and I've even gotten all of our laundry done. The best part is not having to worry about work at all. And knowing I have another week to try to do this better in the fall. Vacationing is an art form, and I'm learning how to do it well.

Some day my vacations will be spent at the beach, or on a cruise ship. But for now, I'm enjoying getting this whole relaxing thing right. I was able to enjoy some great snuggles before starting my next to last vacation day this morning.

Me and my mini me