Two Months!!

Pretty much forever ago I thought….I should write a blog post on how things are going. And then I realized I have twin infants and I would need to substitute sleep to make that happen…and that just wasn’t an option at the time. So fast forward a few weeks and here are a few snippets about how life is going…..in no particular order.

1. Sickness- So this is cold and flu season….also known as the scariest time ever to have an infant (or two). I also have a 9 year old stepson bringing his germs he gathers at school into my house multiple times a week. I would say 90% of the words out of my mouth to him are “WASH YOUR HANDS!” He actually does a pretty good job when I remind him. And then there is the rest of the world and there germs. I don’t want to be a shut in. I will loose my mind if we don’t get out into the world every now and then, even just to Target. I would love to just take them on a walk….but its rained about 85% of the time since we brought them home from the hospital. So yesterday where did we go on our outing…..THE EMERGENCY ROOM. One of my poor sweet babies spiked a fever over 101 and the pediatrician sent us to the ER. After we waited for 2 hours just to have a nurse take her temp it had of course gone down and she was acting totally normal. We then waited another 2 hours to see a doctor just to be sure. I was feeling super silly (and the nurse made me feel like I had done something incorrectly taking her temp), but after they ran some super traumatic (for me) tests they found via chest X-ray that my brave little 11 week old baby possibly has pneumonia! We won’t know for sure until the cultures come back in 3 days but they started her on antibotics anyway….and today she’s acting normal with no fever but she has a cough. UGH.
2. Sleeping- So people constantly say to me “Oh wow Twins! You must be so tired”. Except I’m not that tired….anymore. Around 5 weeks they got on a pretty solid schedule. They would wake up twice at night around 1 and 5 am. Then around 7 weeks we would put them down at 9pm and they would wake up around 3 am and then sleep til 8 am. They seemed to really understand bedtime and for the most part would go right to sleep after our nighttime routine, and then go back to sleep right after their middle of the night feeding. We started doing naps in the cribs and those could be a little hit or miss, but once I started using the Ollie Swaddle + the Dock a Tot they were getting much easier to put down for naps. Baby T is a bit of a nap fighter still but we are consistent with them and she’s doing much better. So these people continually told me that I just must be so tired, and I felt guilty saying I really wasn’t. Getting up once in the middle of the night for 30-45 minutes is totally doable. And then three days ago something magical happened. They slept through the night from 9 pm to 7 am. I was sure it was just a fluke. I assumed that they would just start pushing the middle of the night feeding later until eventually it reached actual morning, but that’s not what happened. We had a few middle of the night feedings around 4 or 4:30 am and then it just went to 7 am. And that’s been the case the past 3 nights. Again, I have no idea if this is going to last but I’ll take it right now, especially with my husband out of town this week!
3. Eating-I have fought really hard to give them breast milk. Breast feeding twins is exceptionally hard if you are taking care of them by yourself for the most part. When they were super small its difficult to tandem feed by yourself because they have so little head control and you only have so many hands. Feeding them one at a time works except if you are by yourself what do you do when you are feeding one and the other is screaming bloody murder? So I pumped so that I could bottle feed them, but every time I started to pump one of them would wake up and scream. It felt like a constant battle. I did/do the best I can. I pump when I can. I made the lactation cookies. I took supplements. I power pumped for days. I just could not be consistent and obviously my already very weak supply got weaker. One breastmilk bottle per day went to every other day and now it’s every three days. But I still pump when I can because I firmly believe that FED is best, but I want to do my best for them so they have some breast milk as well. So they are both on formula primarily, and because they are different babies, they are on different formulas. We have switched baby K’s formula a few times because of her sensitive tummy and constipation issues. T has been doing great on the original formula we started with so no reason to switch her too. At our 2 month check up the pediatrician gave us the okay to give them 2 oz of juice or water every day to help with constipation. We tried water first. They hate it. I mean HATE it with passion. We tried for several days and while I like the idea of them having water more than juice, I don’t want them to start to reject eating and giving them water was just making them so pissed. So we give them juice every few days as needed. So far this has solved the constipation issue.
4. Working- So there was a time in my life (early 20’s when I was young and so naïve) that I was dead set against ever being a SAHM. I was going to have a career and I just couldn’t stand to sit at home and not work. And 10 plus years into my career I am well aware that working for the man isn’t all I thought it would be back in the day before I had any real life experience. But since my family likes to eat and have nice things like a roof over our heads and the occasional vacation (and diapers and formula for two babies is $$$) I will be going back to work. I am going back to work in the middle of March. It is absolutely stressing me out already. The other day I got really emotional about it. I am sad because I don’t want to miss a moment of these two growing up. When they are napping I miss them. I actually REALLY miss them for that hour-ish they are sleeping. I just want to look at them and talk to them all the time. How will I be away from them for 9 hours a day? What if they need their mommy? What if they don’t eat? What if they won’t nap? So seriously how am I going to be away from them for 9 hours a day???
5. Childcare- Since I am going to have to rejoin the working world after these joyful months of maternity leave there is the issue of childcare. As you can imagine childcare for two infants isn’t cheap either. After much research we decided to get an AuPair. It is affordable, we have space in our home (barely), and we will not have to worry about taking off work if they are sick and can’t go to daycare, and we won’t have to worry about them getting sick from daycare. We hired our AuPair in November and she arrived a few weeks ago. It has been great to have the extra help, especially since my husband has started to travel for work again, and it gives me the opportunity to spend time with her so I will hopefully feel more comfortable when that dreaded day comes that I have to go back to work. So far it’s been great! She is great with the girls and they really like her. Also because when they are napping she does there laundry and washes the bottles I have actually had time to accomplish things around the house.
6. Travel- I decided that I should try and take advantage of this time off so we are going to Colorado to visit my mom and grandma. This is probably insane to travel on a plane with them at 3 months old, but it felt scary the first time we left the house with them so let’s just rip the travel band aid off right now. It might have been wiser to start with a shorter flight…but what is the worst that could happen? They could scream for 2 and a half hours and people might clap as we deplane…..but I have always been extremely patient and understanding that people have to travel with babies by plane sometimes and it’s not the babies fault that their ears hurt or that they are out of their element. So hopefully we aren’t sitting next to some A-Hole. I want my babies to meet their great grandma. She’s 87 and you just never know…and I don’t really know when we will have another opportunity to visit. Since we are now a family of five plus the Au Pair we had to rent a minivan (and we have to take both cars to the airport). Thank goodness for my husband’s work travel so we are all flying for free because minivan rentals are $$$. I am praying for a smooth flight and good weather…..and no major delays.
7. Baby T- Taegan was our baby A. She is exactly the opposite of what I thought she would be when I was still pregnant. She is spunky and outgoing. She smiles all the time and cracks herself up. She is a wiggle worm. She is also tiny compared to her sister. At the 2 month check she was a full pound lighter (9 lbs 14.5oz) and 2” shorter (21”). She is more high maintenance than her sister but is becoming more independent. She is very verbal. She is my nap fighter but has been a good sleeper at night. She loves to look at everything around her and has been very alert since she came home from the hospital. I think she fights naps because she is afraid of missing out on something. She loves bath time and hates tummy time. She also has recently started to like her play mat and the vibrating chair. You have to steal snuggles with her right when she wakes up or right before bedtime otherwise she’s much too busy taking in the sights too snuggle.
8. Baby K- Kruse was baby B. She is much more shy than her sister. She is a great sleeper at night and at nap time. She loves to cuddle. She is usually content to hang out in the swing or vibrating chair. She is more tolerant of tummy time that her sister but gets over it quickly. It’s hit or miss with the play mat. Almost everything gives her the hiccups which eventually makes her mad. She is noticeably bigger and heavier than her sister. She has the best squishy cheeks ever. She loves to look at our kitchen pot rack. Her favorite toy is a white stuffed bunny rabbit. She spits up much more often than her sister so we rock a bib after meals to avoid multiple outfit changes. She and her sister love to read books before naptime. She isn’t thrilled about bath time but tolerates it for the warm water. She hates the after bath routine because she hates to be cold. She even chatters her little lip. She despises lotion. She has the cutest pouty face you have ever seen. Her stretchy face when she wakes up is equally adorable. She “tells us” she us upset about something before she cries about it. She has a much bigger appetite than her sister and is ready to eat pretty much the minute she wakes up.
9. Twins- Pretty much everywhere we go people stare at the massive double stroller rolling by them. It doesn’t really bother me and I’ve kind of stopped noticing. What I do notice is that there are twins everywhere! I love how many sets I see out and about! The questions I am asked the most –Are they girls?—Are they identical?—Do twins run in your family?
10. Non questions people say the most – You must be tired. – You have your hands full.
11. Being a mommy to these two is more than I could have ever imagined. They are the best.