Thursday, November 11, 2010

Just when you thought...

So, things were starting to calm down a little when I posted my last blog. Well, that ended. We're back near the top on the crazy scale. Countdown to the birthday party is 2 days. My house isn't finished, because I can't clean my bathroom and kitchen yet. My birthday boy is making every disaster he possibly can in the basement, his bedroom, and any other room I let him set foot in. I have to make cupcakes for his class so he can have a birthday treat tomorrow. Speaking of which I found Cupcake tips because I never know how much batter to use and he has 23 kids in his class and one box of cake mix makes 2 dozen. Not much room for error. I think my baby boy needs readjusted because he is spitting up a lot again (we took him to my cousin to have his back adjusted before, and it stopped the spitting up, the fussiness and the gas cramps) AND to add just enough craziness to make me lose my mind, my poor husband is sick.

Every time I go in to check on him he says he is sorry. He keeps telling me how he knows I don't need this right now. I have a great man. I need to remember that more often. Its hard, when your focus is always on the kids to remember what a wonderful spouse you have and all the good reasons why you married them. And, sometimes I feel that with all the man bashing out there and all the rotten guys giving all the good ones a bad rep, me announcing how wonderful my man is is almost like bragging. I think a lot of us women feel that way. But, sometimes, I think its not only good for us to say it, but good for others to see that there are plenty of good men. There are men who won't run off and leave you for another woman just because you gained some weight or got a gray hair. There are men who look at their children and their heart melts. They exist, and I am so glad I have one.

Now, back to my crazy schedule, I have cleaning and cooking to do, but one thing I wanted to share was this awesome recipe for pumpkin dip that I found. I had some at a party a few weeks ago, and it was amazing with cinnamon graham crackers. I am making it for the party on Saturday, and also for my son's kindergarten class for their "Thanksgiving feast" as their substitute for pumpkin pie. Its so easy and so yummy.

Well, off I go to cleaning, laundry, dishes, and crying baby land!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

(don't) Help me!

So I talked about letting go of control? I may be flexible with my children, but honestly, still a control freak.

Let me start by saying that I have a routine With twins, you have to have some sort of routine, or you will get swallowed up. Your kids will eat you. Well, at least every waking (and some not waking) second. That being said, this past 24 plus a few hours has been a whirlwind of insanity and I want my house back! I want control back!

My sister came to "help" me. And, while I got a ton of stuff cleaned, and didn't have a 5 (soon to be 6) year old stopping me every 2 minutes, she completely ruined every routine that I had set in place. I would be more understanding if she was a "live far away" aunt of my children, but she is up here usually around twice a week for at least a few hours.

So the insanity started with an unexpected delivery of my brand new, gorgeous table. It was supposed to be delivered Friday, but its a family owned company, and the owner makes the deliveries. So, since he knew we are getting ready for my son's 6th birthday party on Saturday, he delivered it as soon as possible. So, I got my table Monday night. Now, if things were at that point, going according to plan in my house, I would have been fine. HOWEVER, my husband went to work early. He works midnights, and he left at 5:30 instead of at 9:30 to get some overtime in. Also, said sister was supposed to be leaving my parents house around 4:30 and it takes just over an hour to get to my house. and yet, at 7:30, while I was breastfeeding my Logan, after Lily was already done, I had a knock on my door. Thank god I didn't get up and answer it while nursing since I thought it was my sister. My son answered the door and then runs over to tell me there are 2 guys at the door. I gotta say, I was rather nervous. Its a good thing the owner was one of the guys, or I wouldn't have let them in. So, I unexpectedly got my awesome table.





So, I was ready to get back into my nighttime routine. Put the twins to bed. Check. However, when one of them would start crying (usually Logan) my sister would go in in 10 seconds and give him his pacifier and try to comfort him. This is Logan's favorite game. I kept telling her that with him you have to wait a few minutes first but she wouldn't. Logan took 45 minutes to go to sleep instead of 10. So on to round 2. My big monster. Not always so easy, and with my sister around, he was excited and antsy. So, I tell him to get into bed, and she says she is going to read him a story. OK. She is still in there talking to him AN HOUR later. I had to go in and tell them it was late and time to sleep. Still, I was handling it.

So after getting housework done, (which is why she came to help, I have to get ready for the party) its midnight and time to feed the babies again. So, I do, and then off to bed we go. Next thing I know, its 3am and not time to feed the babies again, and my sister is standing in my room, holding Logan, because he was whining. I didn't even hear him on the moniter. She picked him up. You never pick him up until its time to eat. UGH! So, she tries to put him back. Failure. He cries every 10 minutes and I keep having to run downstairs to give him his pacifier until it is almost 4:30 and I pick him up and bring him to my room to feed him. No sleep. Awesome. Then, after he eats, he still doesn't want to go back to sleep, but I have told my sister to leave everyone be so I can handle things. 5:30 hits, and I am climbing back in bed. At 7 I hear her and my son talking in his room, back to sleep. 8:30 and I hear a baby whining. Here I come, Logan. I am exhausted.

So, part of yesterdays morning is a blur. I was exhausted. However, I do recall, when I would tell Felix to sit on the couch or stand in the corner, my sister would talk to him and we have a standing rule about no talking during punishments. So, it really wasn't a punishment. His attitude just got worse and worse. By the time he went to school, I was so ready to have my house back. She left before he came home from school and I am still recovering this morning. My husband went to work early last night (maybe to get away from a moody wife) and I could have asked my neighbor to come over and help me, but I just wanted to do it myself. Sometimes, help is great, and sometimes, its overrated.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Shopping

So, we went grocery shopping yesterday. Its quite an adventure with 3 children, so we usually go while my son is at school. I have decided that I don't like shopping with double strollers unless we are at a mall or shopping center.

My reasoning for this:
  1. Double strollers are a pain in the butt in department stores, maneuvering is a little bit of a challenge. 
  2. They are a giant "LOOK AT ME" sign. If you don't have twins, trust me. This happens enough without drawing extra attention to yourself.
  3. My twins are still infants, so they don't benefit from being in the stroller yet, because they are just in their carseats, and they can't see anything.
  4. The hubs works midnights, so I wait until he gets up and we go together. I see no point in using a double stroller when both of us can push/carry something.
 When shopping, I have an issue with old ladies. They like to touch my children. Its not so much the "Oh my god, a stranger is touching my child!" thing that drives me crazy, but its flu season. I also have an issue with the fact that they are the biggest offenders in stalking me at the store and attempted kidnappings on my children. Not literally, of course, but one woman (while TOUCHING my daughter) said "Do you want to come home with grandma?" Who does that? The same woman proceeded to tell me that my son and daughter have different eyes so they MUST not be identical. I wanted to tell her their real grandma can tell the difference.

I must say, hats off to all of you twin mammas out there who take your little monsters out alone and brave the stupidity of the twin questions and maneuver your double strollers through the subways, grocery stores, and everywhere else. I am so glad I have my hubster to roll around with me and the babes every day. I would lose my mind.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Let's get started

So I'm a few years behind on this whole blogging thing. But, lets give it a shot. I am nursing my son, so I'm stuck in this chair for a bit, and then I will be stuck for another bit while I nurse my daughter. Yes, I have twins. Tandem nursing? Only when I have to. I really like the individual time with each and when I nurse them together I feel like I don't have enough hands. Actually, that's a pretty common theme for me. You try burping two babies at once. Oh, you can? So can I. I just like to avoid feeling like a jungle gym. However, if you are looking for help tandem nursing, this pillow really does help.

Twins are a wonderful blessing. They really are. There is nothing in this world that can prepare you for the craziness, and there is nothing that can prepare you for the insane amount of love your heart can have for two precious beings. Also if you are kind of a control freak like me, nothing can teach you how to let go of control and go with the flow better than twins. They started early showing me I wasn't in charge.

I had to stop working at about 3 months during my pregnancy. I huge difference from calling off the day I had my son.  So, I adjusted, and Felix and I were home together everyday from December until May. I was going to make every effort to deliver these monsters naturally. My mom did, my grandma did, my aunt did. Yes, lots of twins in my family. A month before they were born, Logan, my baby A, flipped from head down to sitting on my cervix.

I was going to make it into the last month of my pregnancy. I mean, I could do it, right? I had 2 trips to the hospital to stop contractions. One at 32 weeks and one at 35 weeks. Part of me wanted it to be over, but part of me wanted so bad to show my doctors that 36 weeks was not "full term" for twins. I had a c-section at 35 weeks 6 days (and 23.5 hours) and I had to be knocked out for the delivery. My parents and my in-laws got to see the babies before me. My mother felt so bad, she took pictures to show me and was crying because I couldn't go look at my new angels. During our hospital stay, Lily was in the room with us, but Logan was on oxygen in the nursery and I didn't get to see him until after 5 pm the next day. I had to walk down (post op) and see him. That night, he was transferred to a different hospital because he needed more oxygen. I couldn't see him at all and my dad got to hold him before I did because I was still recovering from my c-section and he and my husband went over to visit him in the NICU. The doctors kept calling my babies "preemies" because they were born before they were 36 weeks. Really? 25 minutes before they were 36 weeks, and they're preemies? It all drove me crazy.

I was going to breastfeed my children. No formula. NONE. They gave my little bean formula every time she went to the nursery because she was only 5lbs 6oz at birth. So, I started pumping, giving half to Lily, supplementing the rest of her "required" intake with formula myself, and keeping the other half of my breast milk from each pumping session for Logan. My husband drove to the NICU everyday with a little fridge pack of breast milk bags for Logan. Thank goodness he was only in for 10 days.

I HATED pumping. I know, some women prefer it, some women do it for a year, I get it. I despised looking down and instead of seeing my beautiful babies, seeing tubes and bottles. I hated the sound of it, I hated the way it felt, I hated that the whole supply and demand aspect of breastfeeding was all a guessing game with pumping, and I hated hearing my babies cry and being stuck in the chair unable to comfort them until I was done. I pumped for 2 months. Then, my wonderful little boy latched on the first time I gave it a shot with him. So, I nursed, then I pumped, then I bottle fed Lily. Nights were AWFUL. My husband works midnights. I would get up and be up for over an hour, and then have to get up to start all over again less than 2 hours after I laid down. I was a zombie. Lily had major nipple confusion. So, I had heard great things about these new bottles and we gave Tommee Tippee a try. 1 week of those bottles and we were home free. I seriously owe my sanity to that company. My children are now both breastfed and they get no formula.

I am not trying to scare anyone pregnant with multiples. Really, I am not. Know that your life will change. You will be sleep deprived, and you may lose your sanity, but I PROMISE you will love every single minute of it. Just try to give in a little easier than I did. Everyone has a plan for how they want to bring their babies into the world, but it rarely goes as planned. And with twins, you have two babies who can both put a wrench in your plans at any time. Just sit back and enjoy the ride!