A day in the life..

The most common question I get is people asking me how I do it. The short answer is, well I just do! I don't know any different since the twins are my first children. But just because I don't  know any different doesn't mean it's been easy. Seriously, the first five weeks were just a blur of sleepless nights, dirty diapers and endless nursing. Yes I am breast feeding my twins. Both of them. At the same time. Nursing was the part I was most nervous about. I wanted to try it but I wasn't confident that I would be able to successfully feed two babies ever, let alone do it for nearly 6 months. But here we are 5 1/2 months after they were born still nursing away. The trick is getting a good pillow (I use the My BreastFriend Twin nursing pillow) and holding them both in football position. It took a lot of getting used to but in my opinion there is no other way to do it. It saves so much time. So much. 

In the beginning, the babes were on different schedules. And that was hard. My husband, Forrest, and I worked so hard to get them sleeping and eating at the same time. Yes, that meant that we constantly had to wake up sleeping babies so they could eat at the same time. Which also meant that we would go entire nights sleeping less that 2 hours total. I remember just praying for morning to come. Thinking "just wait until the sun is up - I can last until then." Then 4 AM would hit and I'd feel a major sense of accomplishment and relief at having made it through another night. I remember thinking how easy it would be if we only had one. Which I know is not true - having a new baby in the house is hard regardless of how many of them there are. And then when they were 5 weeks old we moved from Southern California to Salt Lake City. We finally had two bedrooms so we immediately moved them into their own room. And then they started sleeping. And we started sleeping. The first night they both slept for 6 hours straight was one of the best nights ever. I thought it was a fluke, but they kept doing it. Then at 8 weeks they started sleeping for 8 hours straight and taking good naps during the day. That was when I started feeling like a normal person again.

Now they are great - mostly. Of course we have our bad days and rough nights, but generally speaking my babies are really happy and content and are excellent sleepers. Thank goodness! They wake up in the morning and play happily in their cribs until I go get them out to eat. (They sleep in different cribs. When they were little I sometimes put them in the same bassinet/crib but they just wiggle way too much now.) I usually pick up Charlie first because he is a little fussier in the mornings. He gets really excited and smiles until I lay him down on the ground to get Caroline. Then he cries. Hard. Caroline smiles and reaches her arms up for me and snuggles with me while I carry her to her brother. I put her on the ground next to him where they play while I'm getting set up to feed them. I clip my nursing pillow around my waist and sit down Indian style on the ground against the wall. Then I pick them up one at a time and lay them down on the pillow to eat. Even if Charlie has been crying hard, he always laughs when I do this because I swing him forward before putting him onto the pillow. It's his favorite. While they eat, their bottom hands meet in the middle in front of my chest. Caroline usually grabs on to my shirt and Charlie puts his hand on top of hers. Sometimes it's the other way around, but either way they are always holding hands. It melts my heart! If they ever take a break from holding hands, it's usually to pull the others' hair or ears or to poke their face. They are so curious about one another! I love to see how much they love each other. After they eat I change diapers and get them dressed, then carry them into the kitchen to eat their breakfast. When they were smaller I could easily I pick them up and carry them both, but now I do one at a time into their high chairs. I just use one bowl and one spoon and sit in front of their high chairs and feed them every other bite. (Truthfully, it's usually two bites to Charlie then one bite to Caroline. Unless it's peas, then it's the exact opposite!) They play in their chairs while I eat breakfast, then we play in the living room until nap time.

The day goes on about like that until bedtime. Forrest is an accountant, so he works a lot this time of year and doesn't usually get home until after the kids are in bed. So I do bath time and bedtime alone. It was hard at first, but it's getting easier. I bathe them at the same time, I just put their heads next to each other in the middle so they lay with their legs in the opposite direction. That way they don't kick and splash each other as much. After bath they eat, we read a story and sing a song and then are in bed.

It's really not that hard, taking care of them both. Most days I love it 100%. Of course there are hard days, like I said, but I try to forget about those :). The hardest part is that sometimes they just have to cry. If they are both sad, I can only deal with one at a time so the other just cries. Of course I don't like it, but there's not really another option. The second hardest part is carrying them to and from the car. They are getting really big and heavy and I'm building a lot of muscle carrying two car seats at once! Not easy, but it's still doable. 

Well there you go, that's how I do it! A little disclaimer: I have an amazing husband who is so helpful and who is so good with our kids. I couldn't do it without him. I also have wonderful sisters, parents and in-laws who live nearby and who are so extremely helpful. Also could not do it without them! And  I have the most darling children in the world that make it all worth it :)