US Japan Fam

Seen The US Japan Fam YouTube Channel?

11/20/2015

Until very recently, my YouTube channel was just a place to upload videos of product reviews for my blog. But when my twin pregnancy progression stop motion time lapse video went viral a couple of weeks ago (over 140K views on my channel, over 4.5 million views on The Daily Share's version of it, and articles on HuffPost UK and Parents Magazine), it inspired me to get my feet wet in the vlogosphere!

Here's one I did giving a peak into the (very unglamorous) world of being a mom to 3 under 3, more specifically newborn twins and a toddler!

And here is my spin on the crazy Surprise Egg trend, a game we call Happy Halloweaster. I fill up plastic Easter eggs with random stuff from around the house and hide the eggs, which my toddler then runs around and collects in his Halloween basket. He then opens them up and no matter how many times we do this (sometimes 10+ times in a row) he is always super excited! It's a great rainy day or snow day activity!

And in case you haven't seen it yet (what are you living under a rock??) here is my twin pregnancy progression video!

If you like what you see, please please please subscribe to my channel, and oh yeah "like", share, and comment on the videos!! THANK YOU!!!

Do you have a YouTube Channel? Share the link below - I'd love to follow you!!

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The Ultimate Crib Mattress by Naturepedic

11/13/2015

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Your baby sleeps... A LOT! So you want to buy a mattress that is safe and non-toxic, duh. But it's not that simple. There are a ton of mattresses out there. Some of them throw trendy words out there like "natural" and "organic" but if you look deeper they aren't really telling you the whole truth. That's why I really love Naturepedic. With them you know you are getting pretty much the safest mattresses on the market!

Naturepedic mattresses have:

No harmful materials
No allergenic materials (i.e. no latex, wool, or coconut husk / coir)
No fire retardants (while still passing standards)
No vinyl, PVC, polyurethane foam, PFCs, or antibacterial treatment/biocides
Greenguard Gold certification (zero/low emissions)

I did a lot of research when pregnant with my son, and we ended up buying the Naturepedic Classic Organic Cotton Lightweight Crib Mattress. Because it doesn't have coils, it's only 10 pounds and is super easy to lift up to change the sheets. He slept on it for almost 3 years and we couldn't have been happier with it. It's maintained it's shape and firmness, so much so that it's now been handed down to one of his newborn twin sisters!

But now our toddler needed a new mattress, and I knew exactly where to look... Naturepedic, of course! This time, we went with the Ultra 2-in-1 Organic Baby & Toddler Mattress. The top side is wipe-clean waterproof and the bottom side is quilted organic cotton, making it a great choice for an infant and you can flip it once they are a toddler! We chose the quilted side for our toddler to sleep on, and ended up getting an organic waterproof mattress pad (you never know when there's going to be an accident or illness - best to protect your mattress!). When he laid down on it for the first time, he was in love. It's nice and plush (but still plenty supportive), which was a huge contrast from his previous mattress (which was firm as per recommendation for infants).

US-Japan Fam reviews Naturepedic's 2-in-1 Baby & Toddler Mattress

The 2-in-1 mattress has 252 coils, so it's considerably heavier than his old mattress, but I can still manage to lift it and change sheets by myself. It also has 9 gauge edge support, so it cannot be "squished" into bed frames that are a bit too small. So, be sure to check your bed's measurements first, this mattress did NOT fit into our Pottery Barn cribs (the Naturepedic lightweight mattress DID fit since it doesn't have the rigid edge support), but did fit into his Babyletto Mercer crib with the 4th rail removed (we didn't try it with the 4th rail in place).

So, whether you're looking for a mattress for your baby, older child, or even yourself, definitely check out Naturepedic! You can see their entire lineup here, which includes mattresses, pillows, sheets, pads, toppers, etc!

Disclaimer: Although I did receive this product free of charge, all thoughts and opinions are my own and completely unbiased.

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Amazing Brooklyn Newborn Photographer: Sweet Born

11/10/2015

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When our son was born, we didn't think we had the budget for a professional photo shoot and I very much regret not having done one. I've been in love with the Anne Geddes type photography for as long as I can remember and always wanted to have that for my babies. Well, this second time around I searched high and low and couldn't be happier with what we got with Sweet Born Photography!!

US-Japan Fam loves Sweet Born Photography in Sunset Park Brooklyn

She had this sneak peak ready for us just a few hours after the shoot!!

Located in Sunset Park Brooklyn, Jennifer of Sweet Born Photography is nothing short of amazing!! She's a mother herself (actually expecting her second child soon!) so she knows how to handle babies... and new mothers! If you want to stay in the studio and watch, she's totally cool with it. Or you can hang out in the next room and watch movies (they have Netflix!), take a nap on the couch, you get the idea! Personally, I went back and forth between the two rooms - I wanted to see the adorableness as she was capturing it on film, but I didn't want to interfere or have the babies smelling me and getting too excited.

Jennifer and her assistant were amazing getting the babies settled down and into the various positions. It must take incredible patience!! The room was kept nice and warm and they had a shushing machine and a sound machine! She also had an incredible assortment of newborn clothes, accessories, backdrops, etc.

So... if you're in Brooklyn or even another borough, you will not be disappointed with Sweet Born! We sure weren't!! And for more yumminess, follow her on Facebook and Instagram!!

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Personalized Baby Accessories by Atkinson Drive

11/9/2015

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I'm not on Instagram or Pinterest often, but every once in a while I come across something that has me going "OH MY GOSH I HAVE TO HAVE THAT!!!!" Most recently it was custom beanies by Atkinson Drive. I mean, come on, look at these!!!

US-Japan Fam loves Atkinson Drive's newborn beanies

We got the "Danville" beanies for our twins and looooove them!! So super cute and great quality, too! They may not be able to fit into them for long, but I'm planning to frame them or put them in shadow boxes with a couple other newborn items.

Atkinson Drive also makes other cute personalized baby accessories such as swaddling blankets, pants, bows, skirts, and more. You might want to consider adding them to your baby registry :)

Just a heads up though, they're not kidding when they say 4-6 weeks delivery time, so if you're getting these for your bun in the oven you gotta plan ahead! You can order on their website or Etsy shop.

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My Positive Twin Birth Story

11/2/2015

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My twin pregnancy, delivery, and recovery couldn't have been more perfect. Seriously, it was about as good as it gets! But when people congratulate me and say they're proud of how well I did I have to say I'm a bit uncomfortable because I really feel like I can't take any credit. If you ask me, it really comes down to something like 30% educating yourself and making smart choices, and 70% pure dumb luck! I'll elaborate...

US Japan Fam - My Positive Twin Birth Story

Educating Yourself & Making Smart Choices:
Prepare for the worst and hope for the best, I say! This included finding a birth team I trusted and who had experience with birthing twins, reading books (I highly recommend When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, and Quads as well as What To Do When You're Having Two), taking classes, and of course Googling (a lot!!) and taking what you find with a grain of salt. I ate reasonably well, gained the recommended 24 pounds by 24 weeks (research shows it gives you the best chance of carrying twins to term), and stayed active walking about a mile a day and up to 4 miles a day - right up to delivery at 39 weeks!! (See my post on how to prepare for twins).

Pure Dumb Luck:
How did I avoid Gestational Diabetes, Preterm Labor, Intrauterine Growth Restriction, side effects from Pitocin and Epidural, etc etc?? How did I luck out with twins who had their own placentas, were both head down, and Baby A was bigger than Baby B? Well, it certainly isn't anything I can take credit for!! Everything went smoothly and I am so incredibly thankful, but it really was just luck!!

OK, so now that we've covered that, let's get on with my birth story!!!

Leading up to D-Day (Delivery Day):
38 weeks is considered full term for twins and most docs won't let you go past that. Mine, however, were cool with letting me go til 40 weeks and were monitoring us accordingly. I had several weeks of labor-like Braxton Hicks which were annoying because you would time them, thinking THIS IS IT, only to realize hours later that nothing was progressing and it was time to just go the heck to sleep. When I hit 39 weeks, my MFM (high risk specialist) expressed her concern about me going any longer (risk of still birth!!) and I started to question my OB team, but they encouraged me to keep waiting, which we did! My parents drove up from North Carolina to help out "as long as I needed" and we were all sure that their arrival would give me peace about what we were going to do with our toddler during delivery and things would get rolling, but my girls were simply not budging (I made such a comfy home for them in there??) so we finally scheduled an induction and we went in at 39 weeks 6 days.

Induction with Pitocin:
My son was a 53 hour all-natural labor and delivery, no drugs, it was grueling and horrendously painful, but pretty amazing. I was hoping to go drug-free with the twins as well, but as soon as induction was inevitable I threw my plans out the window and decided to just play it by ear. We had induction scheduled for 11AM on October 6, and waited 1.5 hours to be seen in triage. That was really frustrating, but gave me a chance to scarf down a big lunch down before all food and drink became off limits. We then spent another hour and a half being monitored in triage. I was 100% effaced and 3cm dilated, so thankfully my doc said we could skip the cervical ripening part of induction and go straight for Pitocin. I got a room around 2PM, got my IV in place, and just before 4PM we got the show started with the Pit.

39 weeks 6 days with twins - let's get these girls out - INDUCTION TIME!!

They start your drip with the smallest amount of Pitocin (a synthetic version of Oxytocin, the hormone that gives contractions) and crank it up a level every 15 minutes until you are having strong contractions every 2-3 minutes, but this takes a while. At 4:30pm I still wasn't in any pain and we decided to kick things up a notch by breaking the water of Baby A. Because they weren't able to keep both babies on the external monitors (babies kept moving and both monitors kept honing in on the same baby, leaving one not being monitored), they went ahead and reached up there and placed an external monitor IN BABY A's HEAD!!! Wahhh, this distraught me quite a bit, but it was reassuring to have both babies being continuously monitored finally, and especially so to see them both doing so well through contractions.

My husband took a nap while I enjoyed cable TV from my bed. Pretty ironically and much to my amusement, the Friends episode where the woman giving her baby up for adoption to Monica and Chandler had a surprise delivery of twins! Ha! I took it as a good sign :)

By around 5:30pm the contractions started getting strong and I was having trouble enduring them (picture me groaning and cursing and writhing around like a possessed woman!). Oh yeah, I was also puking my guts out and going through major bouts of shivering, like I couldn't control it at all, my whole body was shaking! Our midwife was amazing, giving me back rubs and putting hot packs on my back, she was just so calm and encouraging! So great! The Pitocin had made it's way up to "8" and my midwife decided that my contractions were unnecessarily overwhelming so she turned it off completely and to our surprise my contractions kept on going with no need for the Pit boost.

Heaven Sent Epidural:
At 7pm I was 8-9cm dilated and the anesthesiologist popped in saying he was about to go into surgery and if I wanted an epidural it was now or never. Well, I think I thought it over for all of 30 seconds before screaming "I WANT IT!!!!" to which my husband and midwife asked "Are you sure?? / You're almost there, you can do this" and I was like screw you guys, give me the damn drugs!!! It took him a while to get all of his stuff ready, and the worst of it was getting into place on the bed and not budging while bent over hugging a pillow through a couple of contractions. The shot with the local anesthetic was not much more than a pinch, and I don't recall if I even felt the actual epidural being placed. I mean, when you're in the middle of ridiculously painful contractions, every other discomfort pales in comparison! Once it was in, they had me lie flat on my back so the drugs would disperse evenly, this was tough too because it hadn't kicked in yet and laying on my back through contractions was HELL!!

But sure enough, within a few minutes the pain started fading and eventually all I felt of the contractions was painless pressure. I never lost sensation or control of my legs, I could wiggle my toes and pick my legs up, etc (though they wouldn't let me get out of bed). I was absolutely giddy that I felt so amazing, on top of the world, epidurals can be amazing!!!! I had such a fear of them because they can be a slippery slope to distress in babies, contractions slowing, and c-section, but in my case it did exactly what it was supposed to do and made me one happy mama!! The puking and shivering stopped, and I was able to relax again. Bliss! I questioned why I didn't do this hours ago, but reminded myself that I had wanted to know just how bad Pitocin-induced contractions were, and also that starting epidural too early could have slowed or stopped progression and caused many problems.

Before and after epidural - US-Japan Fam's Twin Birth Story

Ready to Push!
By 8pm I was fully dilated but not feeling the urge to push. My doc let me go another hour to see if the urge kicked in... It did not, so we did a practice push and I guess I passed the test cuz he said let's head on over to the OR (twins are required to be delivered in there due to the risk of emergency c-section, and also so they can fit the dozen or so people required - OB team, nurses, pediatrician for each baby, anesthesiologist, etc.)

It was odd to be in the OR. Very bright and sterile, many people but it didn't feel crowded or circus-esque surprisingly. I was on a flat surgical table, though the were able to tilt it a bit so my head was higher. Still, not as comfy as the bed in the labor room! We jokingly placed bets on how long it would take to push out the twinkies. I thought at least an hour and my OB bet me a sushi dinner on it being quicker, thank goodness that was a bet I didn't win haha!

They removed the bottom half of the bed and had my hubby holding my left leg and a medical student holding my right leg. I guess this is much better than stirrups? I got over the awkwardness of it pretty quick!

Just before i started pushing, I had to snap a photo! What a view haha! That's my hubby on the left.

Once everyone was in place (my midwife was delivering with my OB next to her), they said I could start pushing with my next contraction. It was really odd to feel absolutely no pain and not really feel the need to push, but I have to say it was really really great!! Birth with no pain, yes please!!! They guided my pushes just like with my previous birth, telling me when I was pushing effectively and when to take a deep breath and keep going. It was extremely helpful! My OB asked if I was a swimmer (I'm not), he was apparently impressed with my breath control?? Ha!

Well, in about 15 minutes at 9:56pm Baby A (Emi, 6 pounds 11 ounces) popped out and was placed immediately on my chest and my hubby was instructed to cut her cord. I tried to stop them because I wanted to delay clamping til the cord finished pulsating, but they said they can't do this with twins because there's no time. They weren't joking either... After a few minutes of bonding and taking photos, Emi was taken to the bassinet behind me to be checked by the pediatrician and my OB "guided" Baby B down and into proper positioning with gentle massage on my belly. Just 6 minutes after Emi's debut (in just TWO PUSHES), Baby B (Mia, 5 pounds 9 ounces) was out at 10:02pm!! I simply couldn't believe how easy delivery of these girls was, I didn't realize a birth could be so easy and painless!!! I laughed, a lot, and cried. The joy and surprise was just overwhelming!!

Recovery
With a total of 21 minutes of pushing, despite it being 2 babies, the recovery from this birth was WAY easier and quicker than my previous, which was 2 hours of pushing out an 8-pounder followed by pretty bad bleeding. Within 2 hours of this birth I was up (unassisted) and using the bathroom, pretty amazing for post-epidural! The after pains (especially when nursing) were much worse, but only lasted a week. The only pretty bad part was some back/hip pain that started while pregnant. I ended up seeing a chiropractor at 2 weeks postpartum, but it didn't help and at around 3 weeks it went away on its own, which was a huge relief!

In a nutshell...
Just because you're having twins does not mean you will have tons of problems throughout the pregnancy and deliver preemies via c-section. Yes, these can all happen, but there is no point in freaking out about the possibilities that hopefully will never happen (and even if they do happen, chances are mama and babies will all be perfectly fine in the end!). It is completely possible you will have a kick ass easy pregnancy, quick and wonderful birth, and amazing ride into the world of being a twin mama!! Good luck to you!!

And in case you missed it, check out my baby bump progression video, followed by the video recap of their birth!

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Seen The US Japan Fam YouTube Channel?

The Ultimate Crib Mattress by Naturepedic

Amazing Brooklyn Newborn Photographer: Sweet Born

Personalized Baby Accessories by Atkinson Drive

My Positive Twin Birth Story

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