Our Journey - Part 5

Our Journey to have a family - The first 5 months with Twins - Part 5


Well once we got home reality started to set in. Man 2 babies can be a lot of work!! My dear husband had a month off of work so I was lucky to have his help for a few more weeks. I was still struggling to recover from what I was now finding out was a difficult pregnancy. We arrived home later than we had hoped and we had nothing we needed as far as baby food went. We sent my parents on a formula run and we proceeded to get organized.

I was planning on putting the boys in their room, but after having them bunk in for so long in the hospital I just couldn't do it. My poor husband had to take one of our cribs apart to move it into our bedroom that night.

We managed to make it through those first couple of weeks with very little sleep. The boys were awake at night and were sleeping during the day. Unfortunately, we could not change our sleep patterns to match the boys. When the going got tough, we just kept remembering how lucky we were to have them.

We finally managed to move them into the crib in their room in preparation for dad to go back to work. We couldn't have them waking dad up, he needs some sleep too.

The nights were painful, I didn't realize how difficult it would be to feed babies every 2 hours or so, I longed for them to sleep through the night.

My husband works early in the morning, so I wanted him to get some good sleep before going back to work so we bought an air mattress and I moved into the babies room. I really had problems moving them out of our room I was terrified something would happen to them. I had so many nightmares about something bad happening to them it made it tough. I was even seeing little white coffins, which still gives me chills.

Well it was time for my husband to go back to work; I will NEVER forget my first night and day alone with twins. I wondered how I was ever going to manage. By the end of the week, I had found my rhythm and things were getting easier. I was breastfeeding and pumping so it kept me busy during the day, between washing stuff and diapers and spending time with the boys I never got bored!!

I still wasn't feeling well and just waiting for my husband to get home to help me out a bit. I was a little jealous for the first couple of months that he got a break and I didn't. As much as I loved and wanted my little ones, there were still difficult days. I think it made it easier that we tried for so long to get pregnant that we appreciated them so much that it made the bad days a little easier. I was hoping that it would mean that we had no bad days... man was I dreaming!

I just kept waiting for them to sleep a little longer and a little longer, by their 4th month they finally hit the 6am mark. I was happy and still waiting for the 8am mark! The first few months were really a blur and it is truly amazing how fast they grow! I would have never believed it until I lived it that's for sure.

I was trying to keep track of all their firsts, that became a difficult task, but I have done my best. The first smiles were amazing and each milestone is even more amazing.

I spent 2 weeks alone at the beginning of December. My husband had to go help out his folks as his father had a heart attack in November. Some friends offered to help me out, but when my husband left I was truly on my own for 2 weeks. I had phoned a friend for help one day, but she was busy dying her hair and couldn't help. After that I gave up. I was lucky the boys were pretty good for those 2 weeks as I had no help at all. It wasn't so bad except supper. I didn't have any time or energy at the end of the day to prepare food. Thank goodness for frozen dinners! (I really need some new family and friends!! Did I mention that I had to take the boys for their 4 month shots too? All alone that was no fun at all!)

Finally dad came home and Christmas was around the corner. We enjoyed our 1st Christmas with the boys and it also brought their first solids. My goodness solid foods already! I had finally decided that it was time to give up pumping! I returned my rental breast pump at the end of December. I was happy about that as I had been pumping since July after every feed, and when the boys stopped getting up at night I was still getting up at 3am pumping!! NO MORE!! (Needless to say I have enough frozen breast milk for at least 2 months after I stop breastfeeding)

By the end of the fifth month we were enjoying smiles and laughter from both boys, one learned how to sit on his own for a few seconds and we were starting on napping in the afternoon in their cribs. (The first 4 months they would scream in their cribs if we tried to get them to nap in them!) So now the boys are regularly sleeping the night and mom still isn't. I will be glad when I get a good night sleep, I am still waiting!

Finally I am pretty much up to date and I can start publishing what's new in the life of a twin mom. I will also keep you up to date on our next round of IVF. I am so sad that we had infertility problems if I was younger and didn't have issues I am sure I would have 4 or so kids, I love being a mom!