Sneak Peaks

A couple of weeks ago I asked myself questions like: How many diapers do I change a day? How many bottles am I feeding our babies?  How many loads of laundry am I doing?  And the list goes on.  I feel like I'm working all day but there's not much evidence- my house is still a mess, the sink still has dishes, and there's unfolded clothes everywhere.  So perhaps to make myself feel better, like I'm actually doing something throughout the day, I thought I'd track some of this information.  Here is what I found:

Daily (varies from day to day- here's one of the days)

Bottle fed 12

Diapers changed 13

Sleep each night* 6 hrs.

Weekly (varies)

Bottle washings 12

Laundry loads  7 (up from abt 3 before twins were born)

# of Baths 12

*Editor's Note:  Six hours may not sound too bad.  But non-consecutive hours makes a big difference.  Usually it's 3-4 hours of sleep, then wake to feed them, and then 2-3 more hours.  I long for the night when I can have a non-interrupted night's sleep.

Overnight Changes

It's hard to believe how much they can change seemingly overnight.  They are like different babies than a short time ago.  Within the last week Aaron & Andrew are now doing the following (sleeping through the night is, unfortunately, not on the list):

- Rolls over (Aaron) from back to stomach

- Grabs toys (Andrew & Aaron)

-Moves from side to side (Aaron & Andrew)

- Giggles (Aaron)

- Wears helmet/DOC band- (Andrew- already his head is less flat)

- Discovered his thumb (Andrew)

- Discovered their toes (both babies)

- Eating more: going from about 4 oz to 5 or 6 oz each feeding (both babies)

- Noticing each other more- this is so much fun!  They'll watch each other, hold each others' hand (not sure if this is intentional), and smile a lot more at one another.  

      

Some Daily Routines

Just two months ago I felt overwhelmed and incapable as I tried to care for two babies. Within the last month or so things have improved dramatically.  Here is a glimpse into what some (not enough) of our days are like:

3:00ish a.m. Usually wakes up to be fed, goes right back to sleep

7:00ish  Wakes up for the day

8:30ish   Asleep for  morning nap

11:30ish Wakes up (my wishful thinking- sometimes happens much earlier)

1:30ish Asleep for afternoon nap

4:00ish Wakes up

6:-6:30ish Begins bedtime routine (we call them our 3 B's):

Bath, Book (which they LOVE), and Bottle

This is my dream day (minus the 3:00 waking, of course).  This schedule has happened a couple of times but not many.  The challenge is for them to have synchronized naps.  They sometimes take turns staying awake or asleep.  Aaron and Andrew need to get together and coordinate things a little better.  

At night they're usually asleep within an hour or so.  It's amazing at the difference this bedtime routine has made.  Before bathing them at night and pretty much rocking them to sleep each evening, it took FORVER to put them down. We made a few changes, at the suggestion of a friend, and overnight they were so much easier to put to bed.