I've been meaning to update this for the past two weeks. Such is life with two 12 week olds and a three year old. This past month has been the busiest yet. The boys are thoroughly done with the sleep, eat, poop routine. They are now on to the eat, fuss, sleep, fuss, play, fuss, eat, fuss, sleep, fuss, play, fuss, etc. Did you notice the pattern? Yes, a lot of fussing, crying, and screaming in this house. I'm am not joking or exagerating when I saw that even when the boys are asleep, I still hear them crying. I actually go check on them to make sure that indeed I'm hearing things. How sad is that? Over the past month we've noticed some good changes along with some more unpleasant ones.
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| Natalie taking Tristan shopping. |
The Good:
- The boys have finally exhausted the three hour feeding routine. They are now on to four hour feedings. You may not think that's much of a change, but it makes a world of difference. I find this interesting because I'm not giving them much more food per feeding. They just slowly spread out their schedule. We're still stock piling formula and go through about two large containers per week. If I were super-mom I would have breastfed them longer, but I chose my sanity over our checkbook!
- Along with the four hour feedings, their night time feeding schedule has changed drastically. They now eat at 8:00 PM, are usually down for the night by 9:30, are up between 1:00-2:00, then again around 5:00. With only two feedings at night and more sleep in between, we are much happier parents. Well, I'm happier since I feed them! Kevin will help with one feeding per night when he has to go to work so it's not uncommon for me to be up for a couple hours at a time for at least one feeding. It's not ideal, but it's getting better.
- Playtime is becoming more interactive. The boys will lay down and play with their floor toys. They smile and coo and make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Everett especially chatters. He has the cutest little voice right now. He's so reserved most of the time that it catches me off guard when he's chattering away. Tristan is just now beginning to coo. Usually when Tristan is awake he is screaming, so we know he can use his voice, but not "in a positive way" (how's that for a teacher term?).
- Natalie. Natalie is my good. She has grown so much in the past few months. We went though our jealous stage, our defiant stage, our angry stage and now we've moved on. She loves her brothers. I take that back. She absolutely adores, cherishes and is enamored with her brothers. She wants to play with them, help us with them and is always talking to them. She has now nicknamed Everett, Everett Keverett and Tristan is now....get this...Tristan, Bistan, Wistan, Histan, Kistan. Yes, indeed she knows how to rhyme. Tristan is also known as spit-up boy. I love seeing her with the boys. She's an absolutely amazing little girl. She's also beautiful, but I'm a bit prejudice!
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| Everett top, Tristan bottom |
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| Everett |
The Bad
- Poor little Tristan. Tristan, Tristan, Tristan.....sigh. Tristan screams. That's it. He screams. When he is awake, he screams. When he is asleep he doesn't. That is the life of Tristan. Did I mention that he rarely sleeps? Did I also mention that I may lose my mind trying to console this child? He's constantly burping, spitting up, tooting, and has a very gurgly belly. We've tried all sorts of formula with none making any difference. Natalie also screamed, but with some reflux medicine and some outragously expensive formula, she turned into a happy baby. None of those tricks have worked with T-man. Lord help me.
- Stress. Did you know that it's stressful to have a toddler and a set of newborn twins? I'll be the first to tell you that it is unlike anything I've ever thought of. I don't have much time to think about it, but on those rare occasions when I sit down and realize that I'm exhausted, my body aches, and I have absolutely no idea what I've done during the day, where I've been, what I've said, and pretty much turn into a pile of nothingness.....I find myself thinking "Oh, boy. When will this end?" And then a baby cries and I have no more time to ponder. I have people ask me "How do you do it?". I completely understand what my mom has always told me when I'd ask her how she handled my brother and I being 13 months apart. "You just get up and you do it. " It sounds so simple, and it is until you look back and fully understand what "it" involves.
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| Everett is in Natalie's "tent". |
The Ugly
- Having twins sucks when it comes to body image. Now six pounds away from pre-babies weight.....and holding steady. Six pounds....nothing right? I'm now thinking that weight from other parts of my body have migrated to my stomach, hips and thighs because I'm 100% certain that if I lost 6 pounds, I STILL would not fit into my clothes. This just sucks. Sucks, sucks, sucks. No time to exercise (yet), no energy....just a feeling of "Oh gross, is that me in the mirror?" To all of you saying "Oh, Sarah, you just had twins. The weight will come off. It took nine months to put it on. You look great (I love it when they add "for having twins")." I have this to say.... Yes, I know the weight will come off, I know it doesn't matter right now, I know that there will be time to exercise. But at this moment it's just one of those things that irritates me. I feel great, I just want to look how I feel.
And so another installment of the thoughts of a crazy, frazzled, mother of three comes to a close. Even through my venting, I wouldn't have my life any other way. Kevin and I are extremely happy. Probably happier than we've been in awhile. I feel extremely loved and continue to have my amazing mom help me every single day with my children. She's a God-send. I WOULD NOT be able to do this on my own and feel as though God has given me such wonderful gifts in life. I always imagined myself being a self-sufficient, independent woman. This gift of twins has taught me that aksing and accepting help allows you to see the things that are most important in life. It's the people you surround yourself with. It's your family, your friends and those whom you didn't even know cared for you until allowed them to become part of your life. I thank everyone who has either given their time to help me or simply offered.
I need to check on Tristan, he's been asleep for two and a half hours.....what's wrong????
