A day in the life of twins...

Thought I'd give you all a view into what a typical day with these twins and my two year old goes down like.
This post is brought to you by the fact that my boys have started doing a 5 hour stretch between feedings at night--so now I feel like I can function.

Individually, I think both of these baby boys are fabulous babies.  It's the fact that there are two of them and a two year old that makes it a little crazy around here.

Meet Camden, or Piggy as I sometimes refer to him.  He is usually the guy who wakes us up and declares "It is time to eat!"  with a piggy-like squeal.  He is a little more irritable than Carter.  This dude can go from zero to 10 (loud squealing pig) in a second.  If he wets through his outfit or poops through (which happens on average about 3 times per day per kid)--SQUEAL.  If he loses his binki when he was almost asleep but not quite--SQUEAL.   If his sister picks him up when he was fast asleep and then drops him on his head because he is a bit of a heavyweight--SQUEAL. (NOTE:  That scenario is not encouraged but seems to occur every time I leave Liv alone in a room with the boys).  However, once his tummy is full, binki is replaced, dry diaper and clothes are donned, and sister resumes watching Cinderella for the 5th time that day, he is actually a pretty happy baby.

Player #2= Carter, or Barfy as he sometimes gets named around here.  This guy is a whimperer.  If you leave him whimpering long enough, he can reach about half the decibels his brother can.  His whimper almost sounds like a giggling girl, and it is sometimes hard to take the guy seriously.  Poor guy doesn't get the immediate results that Piggy has trained us to dish out.  Carter seems fine to wait until it's convenient for us to perform feedings, diaper changes, clothing changes, etc.  However, Carter is the baby who must always be accessorized with a burp cloth.  When you think the coast is clear and transport the guy sans burp cloth, is when you get the surprise attack and will be required to change into one of your 3 different outfits for the day.  Carter does not care for a binki (neither did Liv--and because of that I sometime forget that Piggy may be squealing because he wants a binki--not used to it yet).  However he, unlike Camden, sometimes takes to his girlish whimpering for no reason that I can tell.  Which, as I stated before, is not too much of an annoyance--it's almost somewhat humorous. 

Player #3= Liv, the two year old is truthfully the hardest part about having twins.  She can throw a whopper of a tantrum when made to wait for something she doesn't want to wait for (which happens all day long).  She has also learned how to capitalize on the fact that Mom cannot really enforce any of the things she threatens she will because she is distracted by two other fussing kids.  This comes in handy mostly during nap time and bed time.  She knows I can't force her to stay when I have no free arms (that is until child lock with duct tape--because just a simple child lock she can disable in a minute-- was installed on the inside handle of her door).  However, being locked in her room usually results in one of those whopper tantrums which includes--peeing on the floor, throwing all her book and decorations, kicking the door and screaming at the top of her lungs until she finally gives up and climbs in bed with wet pants to go to sleep.  I constantly have to weigh my options to see which is worse a two year old without a nap or a disaster to clean up.  Usually I opt for cleaning the disaster once the storm has blown over.

Overall, the boys tend to eat every 3 hours until about 4 or 5 pm then they switch over to every two.  Luckily, at about 10 or 11 pm they go to sleep for the night and will do a 5 hour stretch.  After eating, at night they are very good about going right back to bed (though occasionally we have to do the binki war with Piggy and the spit-up patrol with Barfy).  During the day, they are usually up for about an hour after eating and then go back to sleep.  Honestly, the whole thing has been easier than expected because the boys sleep most of the time.  I only feel like I have 3 kids for 1 hour every three hours but craziness does occur during those hours.

Every night around 7 or 8 pm it seems the boys decide they want to be held and know if you put them down.  I can't blame them.  They happily lay around not getting held all day.  I suppose they deserve a little human contact each day.  However, this is also bedtime for Liv so if you want to see craziness come then.  Derek and I passing off fussing babies between us and trying to wrestle Liv into bed all at the same time.  Then, after Liv is in bed Derek and I trade babies back and forth (I always get passed whichever one is fussier) until they finally go to bed and Derek and I can hit the hay too.

The craziest stuff is how many diapers we go through.  No joke about 30/day.  It's not hard to do 5 diaper changes in 5 minutes with these dudes.  Like I said it seems everyone in the house goes through 3 outfits per day since these twins have arrived.  I feel like someone has constantly peed themselves, pooped through, or puked on themselves (or me--Derek changed 3 shirts in a half hour the other night).  This and the need to wash either the twins bedding or Liv's due to pee has increased laundry by 10 fold.  I honestly do 3-4 full loads every day.  Then there is the fact that I literally never leave the house. Where would I even go with all 3 kids--not to the store?  Somewhere where we could just stay in the car--the bank drive-thru maybe?  But that is not worth the hassle of packing up and getting 3 kids in and out of car seats.  I will honestly go 4 days before stepping foot outside my home (even to just get the mail).

I have been lucky enough to nurse the babies and have made enough milk that we haven't had to supplement.  It's a one woman show that is quite the sight.  I nurse them both at the same time (which makes me immobile for 30 minutes) and I have also learned how to change diapers, burp, and switch sides.  One baby can totally be nursing while I am burping or changing a diaper in front of me.  It's chaos, but it works.

All in all, I am shocked at how well the days go-- much better than I anticipated.  Occasionally I even find all three of them asleep at the same time (this has only happened maybe 3 times) and then I debate about whether to take a nap or shower.  Usually I opt for the nap--who needs to shower when you aren't going anywhere anyways? 

The boys are sure cute.  There is something about two babies together that is just so neat.  I keep taking pictures of them sleeping together or in the swing together. Nothing special except it's just cool that there are two of them.  It's such a privilege to get to snuggle two babies at once and Liv is super sweet with them--I love watching their sibling relationship developing before my eyes.


On Monday for FHE we attempted a family outing.  Liv had been begging to sit on Santa's lap.  So we went to dinner at the Riverwoods mall (which is outdoor), put both the boys in front packs, tons of layers for everyone, and stood in line to see Santa.  Of course as soon as we got done eating, it started raining, but we forged on anyways.  It was madness how much planning and preparation went into a 30 second lap time with Santa, but Liv hasn't stopped talking about it since, so I guess it was worth it.  She didn't cry this year, but she was so awestruck that she couldn't come up with anything to ask him for either.  Santa suggested a dolly and the whole way home she told us about how she needed a dolly.  (I guess she will be receiving Dolly #9 coming from Santa).



So, now I will sign off for probably a long time just wanted to let you all know we're managing just busy nursing, changing diapers and clothes, and doing laundry.  But I am basically always home, so if you want to see me--stop by!