What I have learned in 2 months of being a mother twins....

First of all, this has been the ride of a life-time so far. There has been so many ups and downs. The downs have been fueled by exhaustion and sleep deprivation and there have been times where I just wanted to walk out the door or throw baby bottles in my father's face (yup, that last thing did happen). But however frustrating things might be at times, they are a million times better when you step back and allow yourself to be swallowed by the chaos that ensues after you have twins. These tiny little creatures are so amazing and I love them more than anything in the world.  

These are some of the things that we did that worked for us.

Everybody I spoke to prior to having my little munchkins said "get them on a schedule." I could not agree more, but in reality schedules have been hard for us to maintain. We do however try to feed them every 3 hours. This was also the case right after we brought them home from the hospital. We definitely make exceptions to that rule on a daily basis, but it is a good goal to work towards. At this point we go longer stretches at night and will usually only have to get up once a night if we time it right (feed at 10pm, 2am and 6am).

From the moment we brought them home, I always kept in mind that I would eventually have to do this on my own at sometime. We were very fortunate to have my parents here to help us for 2 1/2 months (and my in-laws were here more than a month prior to the babies birth.) I will say, take all the help you can get. I believe this is rule #1, when having twins. But that doesn't mean that you should not think ahead. I knew from the beginning that I wanted our babies to sleep in their crib, so for every nap, we tried (with emphasis on tried.) That meant putting them in their cribs while they were still awake but drowsy.

After a particularly rough night in the beginning. Notice what a crib should look like in the handout.

These were the early days. Look at how much space is around them.

Just a few days before transitioning to separate cribs. Notice pee pads and washcloths. 

I knew that I would not have the luxury of cuddling with each baby for hours on end. To this day I still try to get them to go down for naps in the crib, but there are several times where a) they sleep in RockNPlays, bouncy chair or swing or b) it takes me 1 1/2 hr to get them to sleep. At night time they always sleep in their cribs and only every now and then, will one of them transition to the RNP over the course of the night. Our babies shared a crib for the first 2 months and only 2 night ago did they move into separate cribs. Because they were in the same crib and because I did not want to change sheet in the middle of the night because of leaky diapers, we took pee pads from Ikea and cut them into smaller pieces. The babies sleep with a pee pad section under their bottoms (on top of sheet - yes, I know that is frowned upon) and they also have a flannel covered washcloth under their heads (even more frowned upon.) This is what worked for us and I have loved our system.

Night time routine is one of my favorite things. We shower the babies each night and it gives them cues that there is a difference between night and day. We take my old pregnancy pillow (Snoogle) and form a circle. Then lay down those wonderful cut up pee pads from Ikea and a big towel. We call it "Thunderdome" and ask the babies if they are ready for Thunderdome. I think repeating the same words and sentences help them know what is going to happen and they like it. Babies are showered put in the circle and given their bottle. Another ritual is once their diapers are changed, they are "swallowed by Oogly Eyes" - their bath towel. After our night time routine they are put in their crib and will fall asleep quickly while enjoying the sound of white noise. Love the White Noise App, especially the heavy rain. They will be completely calm and there is no fussing at all (hasn't been since the very early days.)

My dad helping with Thunderdome

Babies with their bath towels. 

Simple toys are the most fascinating. Since the babies are now really alert and aware of surroundings around them, it has been interesting to see the things that they really love. Currently the favorites are the ceiling fan and a cowhide draped over our couch. Although there are other favorites too, like "the elephant that picks your nose" and the "monkey with a donut."

Nothing beats beating your sibling in the head - oh, wait I only added the cute pictures!

Do not buy too much or open too many boxes. Although I was breastfeeding in the beginning (that is another post altogether) we are now solely bottle feeding formula. Since I had not planned on bottle feeding, I didn't buy a whole bunch, which I am happy about. This is because we went through 3 different brands, before settling on Dr Browns bottles. In terms of chairs and sitting devices, we quickly found out that our babies had favorites and two of everything was not needed. Joshua liked the bouncer and Caroline the RockNPlay. Most of the other chairs (3 or 4 others - I forget) are just stashed away in another room. In the feeding department, I must also recommend the Babybrezza Formula Pro. It is like a Keurig but for babies. There is nothing better than just pushing a button and having nice warm formula, when you have two babies screaming their heads off. But do remember to do the maintenance on it, or you will have clumpy formula. For a drying rack, we inherited a two-tiered rack that spins which is great since our kitchen is the size of most  people's closet.