The twins seem to wake up just at the same time as J. This
is also just about the same moment when Josh is heading out the door (H is
already off on the bus), so most mornings are Mommy vs. All the Boys. As I
shuttle twins between their room and mine, changing diapers and getting them
ready for their breakfast, I can hear J start talking to himself and rolling
around in his crib. J cannot be trusted to eat breakfast by himself, so he gets
to wait in his crib while the twins eat. Thankfully, he’s kind of slow at
waking up and rather likes having time to himself in his crib.
The twins are impatient, as all babes are, to get to
breakfast, and waiting their turn while brother is getting changed or even
latched, causes tears. I can’t tell you how many times the one is trying to
latch himself on my boob or arm or stomach, while I’m getting the other
latched. Once the three of us are settled, everything is fine. Tandem nursing
has turned out to be much easier than I thought it would be. It helps
tremendously that before the twins were born I’d already spent 3.5 years
nursing babies. It also helped that I got a special twin nursing pillow (made
by My Brest Friend). There’s room for both boys and generally I end up with at
least one if not two hands free. This morning I got to spend their breakfast
looking at wedding proofs of my sweet sister-in-law.
This is the giant pillow. (M on the right)
Inevitably at least one twin poops during breakfast. If the
other doesn’t follow suit within moments, then he will in the middle of my
breakfast later on. After nursing we do another round of diapering and set the
twins up in their bouncy chairs in the kitchen. They tolerate those chairs infinitely
better than either of our other two, who really didn’t like them. My life is
made so much better by how incredibly laid back M and little J are. I can’t
stress enough that my sanity is due more to their disposition than my parenting
prowess.
While the twins chill in the kitchen, I head down the hall
for the big boy. We cuddle and say good morning and change his diaper. Occasionally
we even put his pajamas back on. J just learned how to take off his clothes. We
are therefore going through an anti-clothing phase. (“At least it’s warmer
weather,” she sighs to herself.) Then it’s time to get breakfast for J and
myself. If I stay in eyesight then I can usually eat breakfast before the twins
start freaking out. By the time we are both done eating, it’s usually been
about an hour since the twins woke up, which means they start getting fussy. If
I’m lucky, I can get the dishwasher emptied and the breakfast dishes put away
before we start the nap dance.
Today Josh had a break in his schedule mid-morning and
because the twins needed shots, we picked him up and headed to the clinic. It
just so happened that this was during normal nap time. But it was that or no
adult helper. Instead of waiting for nap time to shower, today I got to shower
with one bouncy chair in the bathroom and the door open so the other twin, just
outside the door, could also see in. It’s not my favorite, but my tender heart
can’t take the dramatic increase in crying if I stuck them in their cribs, and
I was too lazy to wake up early and shower before they woke up. I’ve trained J
for years now to play in his crib during my shower, so he’s easy.
After my shower was another round of diapers, car seats, and
coaxing J into clothing. It went well because his favorite color-changing
Lightning McQueen shirt was clean. Everyone was loaded into the car and off we
went to get Josh.
Shots went well; J also wanted to get shots, because somehow
it seemed cool. He eventually settled for Cars stickers instead. We all headed
out for lunch, where J refused to eat a single bite of the hamburger and fries
he requested and both grown ups ended up holding babies while we ate. We
dropped Daddy off, J asking, “Where Daddy go?!” and headed home, praying that J wouldn’t fall
asleep in the car and ruin the lengthy afternoon nap he usually takes. It’s
never fun when he doesn’t nap. The twins did sleep because it’s impossible to
keep them awake in the car at this point.
The nap dance began with carting all the boys upstairs
because J decided walking was lame. I had to run back down and get J’s
leftovers. When I came up J had one hand on each car seat handle and was
rocking the twins and shushing them. Have I mentioned that he is the best big brother
ever? My heart was appropriately melted. Then I had to harden it and leave the
crying twins in their seats to take J back for his nap. He is the easiest child
on the planet to put down, thankfully, so a few minutes later I came back out
and decided that M was crying more, so he got picked up first. I changed
everyone’s diaper, ferried them back to the bedroom, got us all situated, and
within minutes they were asleep, happily nursing.
Now here is the thing about twins. I have long been a fan of
nursing babies to sleep. It’s easy and kind of wonderful. When there are two of
them and they’re up on this great, giant nursing pillow that looks vaguely like
a pool inner tube on steroids, it’s nearly impossible for me of the short arms
to keep them both asleep while I somehow unlatch them, put one down, pick up
the other, remove the pillow, and transport him to his crib. Events were
complicated today because little J pooped halfway through lunch. These boys do
not like being poopy. If I didn’t change him, he wouldn’t stay asleep long.
So, I nursed them to sleep. They both woke up when I tried
to put them down. I changed little J. I picked them both up, cause I’ve gotten
good at that, and then paced the room, jiggled, and rocked them until I had
them both asleep on me. It is incredibly sweet to have two babies asleep on
you. It is also nearly impossible to put them down once you do. Only very
rarely are they so tired that when I let one slip down into the nursery chair while
I put down brother, the first doesn’t wake back up. This was not that day. So I
put M down on the chair and little J in his crib. Then I picked M up and put
him to sleep for the third time and finally into his crib.
I wandered out to the kitchen only to realize that in my
haste to make it out the door this morning, I hadn’t actually cleaned up from
breakfast. The oatmeal was on the counter, the dishes were on the table, and
the dishwasher was full. Basically, I live right now in a state of perpetual
motion, punctuated by enough moments of calm to keep my sanity. There are
always dishes to put away, toys to pick up, diapers to sort, and babies to pick
up. I can’t help but ending by sharing the well-known secret of how and why we
do it. When those tiny men smile at me, I’d do anything in the world for them. And
the same goes for the slightly bigger man and young lady down the hall.
