Approaching 27 weeks

I can't believe I am already 26 1/2 weeks prego. I feel so lucky to have made it this far without any complications at all and I pray that the next 11 weeks remain quiet in there :-) My high risk doctor continues to remind me that things can change on a dime with a twin pregnancy so I've definitely slowed myself down and am making sure to get plenty of rest.

B and I took an infant care class at our local hospital today and it ended up being very helpful. I used to babysit and ton but things change all the time in the baby caring department so I'm glad we took the class. Some highlights I took away that may surprise you are:

• Babies do not need to have their bottles warmed. This just makes more work for the parents. Regardless of if you start off breastfeeding, using breastmilk or not. When making a bottle the recommended way (ironically this is the way we were prepared to do it. Kudos to us!) is to fill the bottle with purified water of room temperature and then mix in your formula, shake it up and feed. Our instructor said that breastmilk is room temp, the same as the bottle and this makes for an easier transition on their little stomaches when you start to serve them regular milk in a sippy cup that has been in the fridge. It is easier on parents too, especially when you're on the go and have 2 hungry babies!
• Dreft is a big scam! This surprised me the most. The ingredients in Dreft are the same exact ingredients as in Tide fragrant free. There is no need to buy dreft other than if you want to buy into it. The fabric dryer sheets are debatable. They take the fire retardency out of clothes so we probably won't use these but I will stick to my Tide fragrant free.
• Swaddle, swaddle, swaddle! I have just started reading Harvey Karps book, "The Happiest Baby on the Block" that a friend let me borrow and after watching the DVD of the swaddling technique I am amazed. I have seen this in action by several of my close friends so I was already a believer. I was given 2 miracle blankets for my little boy and I've already bargain shopped online and bought 2 for my girl.
• Sssshing. This goes with the swaddling and is one of Harvey Karps 5 S's. It appears that babies are soothed by the loud shhhshhing noise because it sounds like when they were in the womb. I've seen friends do this and thought they were crazy but I'm willing to give it a try, coupled with turning them on their side as recommended.
• Baby Food: When comparing ingredients between regular jar baby food and organic, the carbs and sugar amount were the exact same. This may not be true for all organic brands, but be sure to check the labels.

I'm excited to have all these suggestions and it will be interesting to see what works for our little ones and what doesn't. One thing I know for sure is that my house is definitely NOT baby proof. We had some friends over for a happy hour last night and we had a toddler, a crawler and a 4 month old. I was able to accomodate the 4 month old with my playmats and swing, however we did end up moving quite a few things and with a broken dog bowl. Very eye opening for me and especially B who was convinced we would not need to make the extra room in our basement a playroom. I think he's certainly changed his opinion on that after last night.