Early Days with Twins!

My twin boys have recently turned one. This one year has been a great roller coaster ride. There are times when I’m extremely exhausted or burnt out, as they call it, dealing with the intensified demands of two babies at the same time. Simultaneously, the feeling of having two bundles of unbelievable joy is out of the world. Despite of a lot of challenges, you still feel great, learn about your strengths and fears, energy to constant juggle between the two and see two lovable faces all day long.


 

Though it’s not been that long but I have expressed  my short journey in this blog.

•   Being pregnant with twins is not the same as with a singleton. From the pregnancy risks to difficulty in carrying them, low energy levels to extra fatigue and morning sickness. It’s a different experience than just having a bigger belly (which I assumed initially). You are constrained to travel and the number of prenatal visits is more than a usual pregnancy.

•  If you have identical twins, please color code them or have some sort of mark for identification. You never know a small mistake can result in bad consequences. This specially happens with newly borns when you are not that familiar to their faces actually they are naturally so similar that you cannot figure out the difference, so it’s not your fault completely. Be careful!

 

•   Incase you’re a mom to identical twins, tadaaa! You’re not an ordinary mom, you’re a mom of two celebrities. They draw attention from everywhere. People are pointing and whispering about them. Some even approach you and the basic question that you will encounter from almost everywhere, “Are they twins?” (It is pretty obvious though, you cannot have two kids who look similar, almost the same size but year/years apart, duh!) and the next in line will be “are they identical?” I’m always inquisitive to know if people can distinguish between the two.

•  You will come across people, who after knowing that you have twins,will share stories of other twins that they know but the best part is when you find parents of older twins. They become your trendsetters and you’ll be eager to learn from their experiences. Moreover they will be the ones who encourage you and make you at ease, that time will pass and these little monsters will soon grow up.
  
  

• Some people will be keen to know how you manage with the two, they are finding it difficult to handle just one. They are your driving source, best motivators. Rather they are the ones who will make you feel that you are not doing something ordinary, but something big, actually great. So hold your head high, missy. You’re extraordinary!

• Put your babies on a schedule in fact the same schedule- I can’t get enough of it. They should have a consistent eating and sleeping pattern. When one wakes up at night for a feed, don’t be afraid to wake the other. Subsequently, their nappy changing will automatically sync in with their feeding routine. This will make your life ten times easier and you won’t be in a state of constant state of food, milk and poop. (I can’t promise if you’ll get a good me time but you can go to the bathroom without your baby crying for you).  

 

•  If one baby gets sick, don’t try to prevent the other from being infected. Since they are always together, both will eventually get sick. It is bound to happen. So isn’t it better that both get sick and come out of it together? I bet, working mothers would know the importance of taking 4 days off together for both, rather than 4 days for each.

Nurturing twins is a great experience with a lot of challenges. There are times when you get frustrated, driven by negative emotions and squabble with your spouse more often but there are also transcendent moments in which you feel so happy that it outweighs the hard work you’ve done.  You feel that you are blessed with the best and cannot thank Almighty for this huge blessing. So time will pass and it will get better eventually. At least, I keep telling this to myself all the time but still waiting for that to happen when I get a good uninterrupted sleep for atleast 6 to 8 hours and sometime to pamper myself.

I hope I make sense and mommies can relate to my experience. I’ll keep posting more mummy-baby stuff and share similar stories.

Until then good luck to all mommies, you’re doing a great job!