Newborn photo of identical twin baby girls wearing pastel pink

The first few weeks of twin mum life!

The twins are now 5 weeks old. My oh my- how time passes you when you're having fun! Twin mum life has been an absolute rollercoaster!

Throughout the whole pregnancy, I researched, googled and learnt as much as I could about twin pregnancy- and beyond. The majority of what we learnt turned out to be somewhat negative, or at least, only showcased the negative side to twins. The sleepless nights, the endless crying, nappies, stress and the fact you wouldn't get out of your pyjamas most days. It was common to hear that the first 1-2 years is a hazy blur that you won't remember.

For some, this may have been a good enlightenment to prepare themselves for what their journey 'may' have been like.

But for us, it was tiring constantly being told about the negatives, the fact we wouldn't be able to run our businesses and have two newborns etc etc (which financially we have to!). So we decided to stop reading and go into this with a clear mind that our journey would be nothing short of amazing, and it has been. Just that- amazing. We are determined not to live in a 'haze' and to appreciate every moment we have been blessed with. There are so many women out there who would give their left arm to have one healthy baby, and we have two. That in its self is reason enough to be thankful. One statement I have heard more times in the past 5 weeks, than my entire life has been 'double trouble'. For those without twins, please think before you say this. I only speak for myself, but know that I don't want our twins to grow up thinking they're in trouble all the time when they're not. Remember that if you are told something over and over, you may start to believe it. I honestly didn't realise so many people actually said this to complete strangers!

Although, I will mention that I have spent a couple of days in my pyjamas, chicken and rice for dinner has become our 'usual' and heading out now means we have a mental checklist of items to pack. It has still been an amazing journey and not at all a 'blur' or haze as a lot of people assured us it would be.

I feel like us as women feel we have to push our own experiences of motherhood upon others, and if they didn't have the same experience as us, we somehow feel jilted and take it personally. We are all different with varying support networks, family, financial circumstances and relationships, thus have vastly different experiences from person to person. Our twins are on 3 hourly feeds, they have been since we left the hospital and although we don't wake them to feed, it is almost like clock work that between 2.5-3 hours they will awake starving! My husband and I both wake up and feed a twin each and it has been great to be honest. We watch a different movie every night (in our feeding intervals) which is quite a novelty to us, as we rarely ever watch tv or movies! Sure, we would rather sleep, but it's not a bad way to see the nights through! We usually feed the girls at around 9/10pm, 1am, 4am and then they wake up 6-7am.

Both my husband and I are financially required to work. So it wouldn't make sense for only one of us to be doing the night feeds and looking after them.

Lately, I have received a lot of emails about organisation and how we fit everything in. Honestly it feels like something that we just 'do'. I don't have any family in QLD, so ensuring we save as much time as possible means the difference between getting to bed at 9pm vs 11pm! There are a lot of little things that make up the big picture that we have done for so long that it doesn't feel like anything out of the ordinary. A few of those things are: We usually have some form of chicken or meat with dinner, which I then use to make the boys lunches before bed and put them in the fridge ready for the next morning. Upon waking around 6:30, Nath goes downstairs and makes the boys breakfast while I shower, (twins asleep) once I am ready (10 minutes) I head down to do lunches, have breakfast, organise uniforms and pack the bottles and nappy bag ready for the day.

Washing

The big one every asks me about! LOL. We have A LOT of washing. Between two newborns, two boys (who change 3-4 times a day!), Nath (who has training clothes, work clothes and casual clothes daily) and myself, there is quite a pile!  I do it every 2-3 days (or whenever we are home 4+hours)  and put the clean clothes in our spare room. The boys and Nath fold and put their washing away twice a week, I do the girls and myself. Their clothes- their job. I once dated a guy who had his mum still doing his washing at the age of 26- this will not be my kids LOL. My mum had us doing our own washing from 11 and now I see why! I also only iron something before we wear it (if required!). We (now) have a weekly cleaner, who does 2 hours a week- THE best $50 a week I spend. She does the bathrooms and floors. TICK. ;) I usually cook dinner and Nath washes up. We are a team and thats how we run our household. It would be different if I was able to be a stay at home mum, but (like everything) our life is different to the next families and I work as much as my husband so it is an equal share in everything over here.

We have a pretty good nightly routine in our house that works well.

5pm homework, 6pm dinner, 6:30pm showers/baths (kids) 7:00pm bed. It has been this way for as long as I can remember Whilst I am cooking dinner the boys do their homework at the table so that I can help them when required. If we don't know what to have for dinner, we go to our trusty favourite (roast chicken breasts, roast sweet potato, quinoa and salad). Everyone loves it, its easy and it always has leftovers! We do two shops per week, once online (delivered to our door!) and one 'just running in' which is either Nath or I (whoever doesn't have the kids) stopping into the shops on our way home from work to grab fresh vegetables, fruit and meat. If I have an appointment or something on during the day I will take one twin with me and Nath has the other at work with him. We swap the twin that we had prior. It works out well, as having only one baby to snap in and out of the car/pram or rock is a lot easier. When at work, I have both twins in my office, unless they are both crying or I have clients/meetings, then Nath will take one.

I hope that shines a little more light into our busy lifestyle with the four kids in tow.

The other question a lot of people are asking is what the best things we have purchased/needed are. There hasn't been anything that is a complete 'must have' although here are some things we use all the time: Facewashers We use them as bibs/burp cloths. (Ikea $3 ones are thick and great!)

Wraps

Invest in good quality wraps (the bigger the better, the more stretch the better too!)

Wipe stations

We have set up little baby changing 'boxes' all over the house. These have been amazing. Being able to grab a wipe or face washer without walking up stairs to locate them is a handy time saver! I hope some of our daily extras help some of you to gain a few extra minutes in the day! Our twins had their first paediatrician check up since leaving the hospital this week. I was looking forward to seeing our doctor for reassurance. The girls are doing amazing and have gained more weight than expected, are super strong and have no problems. Woo hoo! There was also my appointment with my osteopath this week. I have a abdominal gap of 2-3cm still. I need to be very careful of the exercise I do start to ensure that it doest get worse. I'm yet to see my OB for clearance to exercise. I am super excited to start my weekly instalments of that within the next couple of weeks! Thanks for following my journey and supporting me with your comments! 

Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published