I am the mother of newborn twins! How crazy and exciting to have come through a twin pregnancy, twin delivery and the first month of having these two new babies in our family. Amalia and Alexander. The newest Lerner clan members!
I hope I'll take the time to write down the details of their births, but for the moment, I have the house to myself. Everyone except me and Amalia are asleep right now. Poor Amalia is trying desperately to fall asleep, but she doesn't really like the pacifier and is having a hard time getting all the way asleep.
Rather than typing this, I should also be trying to sleep. But, I've been wanting to type a little about our babies and my new life, so sleep will have to wait. There is also a fantastic thunderstorm outside right now and I want to savor it.
What is life like with month-old twins, you might wonder? It is all-encompassing. It is distressing, relaxing, exhausting, sweet, difficult, overwhelming, challenging, exhilarating and more! It is even more challenging when everyone in the household over the age of one month comes down with strep throat. Sheesh! Like we didn't already have enough on our plates without that!
In summary, or as an introduction, I would say that my life has become extremely simplified since the twins were born: I operate almost exclusively on survival mode.
Nursing a baby like Alexander takes about 16 hours (range: 12-19) a week. Nursing a baby like Amalia takes about 13 hours (range: 11-19 hours) a week. A mother of twins quickly learns to get the babies on a nursing schedule and nurse both babies at the same time. This is the only way I can see surviving. But I will confess that it is extremely...what's the word...stimulating? Over-stimulating? And, not in a particularly pleasant way. More like how one feels in a 3-D surround sound movie during the shoot-out part of an action flick after years of not watching TV.
Even after a month of nursing two babies, I just can't relax in the same way when I'm nursing both babies as I do when I'm just nursing one. It is such a pleasure to be out of the house and find that I have to nurse the babies. I sit down for a 10 minutes to nurse one baby, then switch to nursing the other afterward. Ah, sweet relaxing bliss. Did I neglect to mention that while I nurse one baby the other one is off-and-on screaming about having to wait? And Evelyn is demanding attention or leaning over the screaming baby making me fear for the baby's life? Survival mode has helped me redefine "relaxing" and "bliss."
I find myself also in survival mode when it comes to crying babies. There are times it gets to me--really really gets to me--and I'm ready to do whatever it takes to soothe the cry baby. And then there are times where I have to stop myself from moving on to a new task after I've been finishing something up during a cry baby spell. Really, I can slip right into survival mode and function pretty well when one, or even both, of my babies are crying. Sometimes Evelyn gets thrown into the mix and I have all three kids crying. And I find I am balanced on a point tightly wedged between sobbing and giggling. More often than not I find myself giggling to myself or trying to get Evie or any nearby adult to laugh along with me. Like the time I was in the urgent care clinic waiting for a strep test at dinner time with no food and three crying kids. And I overheard one receptionist say to the other, "that lady with the babies" [points] "can we get her in a room?" HA HA HA HA! Who is that crazy lady who shows up by herself with three crying kids? Oh, that's me! HA HA HA HA!
Well, the storm is over and Amalia still isn't asleep and Michael is here to relieve me. I must take these opportunities to sleep when I get them!
