Life at Home with the Twins!

Our little Josiah is adjusting pretty well to having his brother's at home and we are making a big deal about how he is Mommy and Daddy's big helper with the babies. He has been fetching diapers, putting diapers in the garbage, patting the babies heads when they cry, etc. to help us. He gets a big kick out of that too. Here he has his "I'm the big brother" shirt on as he is holding Daniel with Mommy's assistance.

Another funny interaction with Josiah the other day went as follows: I was dressing Josiah for the day and he said, "Where going Momma?" and I said, "Later we are going to the store to buy some things," Then he said, "Go to Walmart Momma?" to which I said, "No we are probably going to Safeway." Then he says, "But WHY?" in a very whiny voice. Usually when he goes to Walmart of late someone (namely Grandma or Grandpa) buys him a toy or something and so I think he associates Walmart with presents.

Another funny thing is Josiah's reaction to Mommy pumping mik all the time. One day as I was pumping, he came up and started breathing in and out of his nose really loudly. I said, "What are you doing?" and he said, "Sound pump makes!" Incidentally it does sound a bit like someone breathing in and out! David asked him the other day what the babies eat and he replied appropriately, "Milk" and then David asked him where the milk comes from and he said "Pump." And then David said, "Yes and the pump gets the milk from Mommy." Then Josiah said, "OH!"

It seems that the twins are used to having noise around them when they sleep, and so they actually do really well sleeping out in their carbeds set upon our dining room table. Josiah plays noisily around them and they stay asleep during their down times no problem. And for those of you who have never seen a carbed, now you have! They are essentially just baskets you strap the babies into that allow them to lay down rather than be propped up. The down side to these is that unlike a normal carseat, they don't have a handle above for convenient carrying and they are much wider than normal carseats and have to be horizontally laid in the car. This means that our children don't all actually fit in the backseat now with Josiah's seat also. Coming home from the hospital, we had to put one of our babes in the front seat and I was squished in the remaining seat in the back. We discovered that this would be OK to do legally as long as we disable the front air bag, which our local Chevy dealership will do for a price I am sure. Needless to say though, it would be nice to eventually have a bigger vehicle, so start praying now!

So far it has been going really well having the twins home with us. David and I have devised a schedule that we heard recommended by one of the twin moms in the group I attend (Tacoma Parents of Multiples), which is to have him take the night shift from around 8pm to 1am and I take the 1am to 6am shift after that. In both of our shifts, we can take little cat naps between their feedings, but we at least have a greater chunk of time for undisturbed sleep which helps a lot! Honestly, I am no more tired that I was when I was pregnant, so for me this isn't as bad as I had heard it would be. David is still adjusting to the sleep deprived life, but he is managing OK too! God is good and thank goodness we are organized! We have been tracking all their feedings & diapers (wet/dirty) to be sure they are getting enough nutrition and are staying healthy. Little Caleb had to go to the doctor today though because he wasn't racking up points on the dirty diaper scale. We got some medicine for him today though and that did the trick to clean him out!

It has been so wonderful to have my dear husband home with me to help out! He is such a great helpmeet and has done more than his share to make this transition go well for all of us! Now you all can pray that when he has to go back to work that I will survive without him! He has the next two weeks off and then he will work from home 3 days and go into work 2 days. It will be those 2 days that will be the challenge as he will not be able to take his night shift and still get up at 4am. We know that it will work out somehow, but are open for suggestions and lots of prayer!