8 Ways To Survive Water Rationing With Babies

Published on makchic.com April 2014

Let’s face it, water rationing sucks. I didn’t think I could handle the alternate “two day got water, two day no water” scheduling but at the end of March I patted my back and said, “Well done January, you did it.” Then I got sent an email saying that they were extending it for another month. All the curse words in every language I knew ran through my head and I had a knot in my tummy. How in the world am I going to go through this again?

We’re halfway through April and I hope and pray to all the Gods that this will end this month. It hasn’t been easy but in a way I use water a lot more intelligently now. Here are a few things I’ve done to survive the dreaded rationing with two 7-month old babies at home.

1. I’m lucky that I live in a house that has a tank but even then without proper usage the tank can run out pretty quickly so now bathing rights go solely to my husband because he goes to work. Babies come second, so they bathe every alternate day if not they are just wiped down and I bathe on days that there is water.
2. Fill up every single container you have. All the pots and pans in your kitchen, water pitchers, pails and if need be buy bigger containers to fill up on days you have water. Buy extra thermos flasks to fill up boiling water with and keep cooled boiled water for all formula feeds.
3. If you have enough milk bottles for all their feeds, great, I sterilize six the night before and four in the afternoon after their third feed. Wash all bottles at the end of the day, not after each use.
4. The first thing I do when water comes in is the babies’ laundry and only then mine. I try not to do any laundry on the second day there is water so I can keep the tank as full as possible for the next two days.
5. I cook (my food and babies’ food) on the first day that there is water and keep the rest in the fridge or freezer so that for meals all I need to do is reheat on no water days.
6. I use one mug for my coffee and one glass for water throughout the day. For meals, I use paper plates and disposable chopsticks or eat with my hands to reduce cutlery as much as possible.
7. If water levels get too low I wash my hair at a hair salon, which is great because I get to pamper myself too.
8. Keep pails outside to collect rainwater, you can use this water to wash bathrooms or the porch.

Starting Solid Food With My Twins

Published on makchic.com March 2014

To be perfectly honest with you, I’ve not really stressed out about parenting till the day came to start feeding my babies solid food. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing; I used Google so much that I ended up being more confused and I almost had an anxiety attack. The problem was that I found information in bits and pieces. Nothing really tells you exactly what to do, plus I had two mouths to feed for the first time!

So here are some notes from my experience of starting my babies on solid food, which I hope other mums of multiples would find helpful:

What You’ll Need

• Utensils: I feed my babies using one bowl, one colour changing spoon (lets you know when food is too hot), and a couple of bibs. A sippy cup was introduced later when their had better grip.
• Highchair: My babies aren’t able to sit on their own so we haven’t bought them high chairs yet. At the moment they are fed in netted bouncers, which are easy to clean.
• Baby food maker: Like most women, I love pretty things and I was very tempted to purchase the Beaba Babycook but I didn’t because already had a steamer and a food puree apparatus at home. Sure, I have to wash up a few more things but it does the job, which is all that matters.
• Baby recipe book: It helps to invest in a good baby recipe book for healthy recipes and to get an idea what babies can eat at what stage. A friend of mine gave me Renee Elliott’s The Top 100 Healthy Recipes For Babies & Toddlers and so far my babies have lapped up everything I’ve made for them.

Preparing

• To retain nutrients, I steam the vegetables, add in a bit of the steam water and blitz everything in a food puree apparatus. Fruits like apples, mangoes and pears are blitzed raw.
• My paediatrician’s advice was to prepare food roughly the size of my babies’ fist and gradually increasing their portions as they get used to eating solids. My babies’ first food was sweet potato and then only brown rice cereal two weeks later. Now, they have 3oz of fruit in the morning and 2oz of veggies mixed with a tablespoon of cereal (brown rice, millet, quinoa, etc) for dinner.

 Storing

• I’ve been preparing the baby food in advance and freezing it because it works for me. I’ve been storing them in baby cubes and reheating it when necessary.

Feeding

• My son initially didn’t like the idea of solid food. I used to smear food on his mouth so that he could taste and hang of it. After observing his sister having so much fun eating, he finally loves it too.
• To make sure they are eating the same amount of food, I’d feed them a spoonful each.
• I started off with one meal first at 11am because it was when they weren’t too fussy and they had time to digest before night time in case they didn’t agree with certain foods. At six months, they now have breakfast at 9.30am and dinner at 6pm alongside their usual formula feeds. This may decrease slightly since solids fill them up a little more.
• Solids tend to constipate your little one so make sure you give them a couple of spoons of plain water after a few spoons of solids. I stress on plain water and not a sweetened drink because you don’t want to start them on the bad habit of only drinking sweetened beverages.

 Meals on Wheels

• Feeding the babies when we’re out and about is usually a stress-free affair. We prop them up in their stroller and fed them as per usual.
• If I’m organised, I’ll pack their food from home. Otherwise, I bring along bottles of jarred organic baby food from my pantry.
• I also pack my own water because you never know how clean the water is wherever you are going.
• Just remember to bring zip lock bags for dirty bibs and cutlery.

As with everything, just have fun with it because this is your babies first experience with food and you want them to enjoy it and not shun away every time they see a spoon. Also, just because you don’t like a certain vegetable doesn’t mean that they will hate it too. Try to expose your babies to as many flavours and colours now to develop their palate for later on.

Sleep Training With Twins

Published on makchic.com March 2014

Sleep training, without a doubt, is the second most sensitive topic after breastfeeding. Some people say that letting your baby cry it out will affect their sense of security and trust in the world as adults. But as with everything else that comes along with parenthood, you need to make a decision that best suits your lifestyle and temperament.

I’m a stay-at-home-mum without outside help so I need to stick very closely to a routine to keep sane. I’m proud to say that I eat three meals a day, shower, do the laundry on most days, which any mother would know is a huge feat.

Sleep training is basically training your baby to sleep on his or her own, and teaching them to connect their sleep cycles so that they can sleep continuously throughout the night. That’s right – no rocking, no patting, no nothing. I put my babies in their cots and they sleep. If they wake up in the middle of the night, they know how to pacify themselves and eventually go back to sleep on their own.

Of course, this doesn’t come easy because in order to get your baby to learn how to sleep on their own, there will be a lot of tears (sometimes not the baby’s) and at times you may even want to give in, open the door and carry them. I knew that sleep training would be a must for my baby even before I had a baby because I had a friend who had a sleep-trained kid and I was completely shocked at how her kid used to nap like clockwork every single day.

From the time we brought the babies back from the hospital we had somewhat of a system everyday where we’d get them ready for bed at around 5.30pm. I know that sounds really early but for us, it involves two babies to bathe, change and feed so by the time they are actually put in their cots it’s already 7pm.

I’m not sure if this helped but my babies were sleeping through the night before they were even three months old. However, I did struggle with their daytime naps. When they turned four months old, I tried out my friend’s three hourly cycle and it seemed to work wonders for my babies.

Here’s an example of a schedule that a friend gave to me, which you can tweak to suit your little one’s feeds. But keep in mind that they shouldn’t stay up for more than a hour and a half or so.

5.30 am- Nurse and then back down to bed
8.30 am- Nurse and then “Activity time”
10.00 am- Down for a Nap (1 to 1 ½ hours)
11.30 pm- Nurse and then “Activity time”
1.00 pm- Down for a Nap (1 to 1 ½ hours)
2.30 pm- Nurse and then “Activity time”
4.00 pm- Down for a Nap (1 hour)
5.30 pm- Nurse and then “Activity time”
8.00 pm- Bath (every other day)
8.30 pm- Nurse and then down to bed for the night (Asleep by 9:00pm)

Sleep Training Tips:

1. As difficult as it is to believe, babies love routine so once you’ve started your training try to keep at it for at least two weeks so that the habit can be formed.

2. The more sleep your baby has, the better your baby will sleep at night. Babies who don’t have enough sleep are cranky babies and so take a long time to settle down and sleep.

3. Try not to pick up your baby the second you hear a whimper from him or her; most of the time he or she will fall right back to sleep by himself or herself.

4. Take cues from your baby. The moment you see him or her rubbing their eyes or yawning or staring into space put them to bed immediately.

5. Try not to over-stimulate your baby just before nap time; instead try leaving them alone so that they can learn to be independent and wind down on their own.

6. If possible try not to change your baby’s diapers at midnight (unless you really need to) because this will eventually become a habit for them and they will wake up at midnight every night.

7. If your baby has started to sleep through the night on his or her, chances are that he or she doesn’t need the midnight feed anymore.

8. If you’re a parent of multiples you can try staggered scheduling where one is fed 15 to 20 minutes later than the other child so that you can avoid two simultaneously hungry and cranky babies.

9. As cute as it is to hear your baby coo and baby talk at 3 or 4 in the morning don’t go over to their cot to play with them because if they start expecting you to come over to play with them, it won’t be so cute for long.

10. Babies’ sleep patterns are constantly changing and we need to be aware of these changes and go with the flow.