Mamma's of Multiples

Tonight I attended my very first "North Pittsburgh Mothers of Multiples" meeting and had a lovely time.  Usually, it seems like it's more effort and stress than it's worth to get out of the house.  The stress doesn't balance out the stress relief of going out.  Tonight was different though.  It was totally worth going out.

So I've been thinking about joining since I was pregnant, but I was working, and waddling and it just didn't seem like it'd be the best time to go.  I figured since we're now out of the pure chaos stage, it was time to get to it.  So I took a shower, put dinner in the crock pot and was on my way.  My wonderful hubby even knew how much I needed the break, so he came home at 5:00 and my sister came over to give Dan some "back up" while I was gone.  Yes, someday he'll need to know how to manage them himself.  That day has not yet come yet.

At the meeting, I got to know a few of the Moms and asked lots of questions about their experiences.  The more I read other twin mom blogs and meet other mothers of twins, I realize how rare the fact that I delivered at 38 weeks really is.  So many of these moms had to experience the heartbreak of NICU life, and I am so truly blessed to have had my sweet babes come home exactly 60 hour after their birth.  God is so so good...

What do mothers of multiples do at such meetings?  Apparently, have fun and relax.  Of course on occasion, I'm sure they do much more important serious things like discuss sibling rivalry and twin developmental stages, but tonight's meeting was just some much needed fun.  We decorated cup cakes!  Here's a few that we made...

Mum Cupcakes

Sunflower Cupcakes

So super fun and I was actually proud of my creative capabilities for once!  I came home refreshed and actually eager to hold, feed and snuggle my little ones.  And the best surprise of all - my incredible hubby cleaned my mess up while I was gone and now, I feel like I'm not drowning underneath the chore list.  He really is the best.

Irish Eyes

Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Coleman Babes!

It's like they discovered America...

"Oh my gosh - they're twins!"  It's a phrase I hear more times than I can count when we go out to the store.  Other variations include "you have twins" and "there's two of them!"  And I can't help it - I'm a snark.  Deep down I'd like to sarcastically reply "Really???  I had no idea!"  It's like they've discovered America and are declaring my babies "twins" for the very first time.  Then they go on to gush about how lucky we are, how adorable the babies are, and how it's perfect that we have one of each.

And it's not that I don't appreciate the compliments. I know the little old ladies are just excited to see babies, and two babies are of course, even better.  It's just that sometimes, I feel like we're such a scene with the huge double stroller, the huge diaper bag, and potentially two wailing tots.  I recognize that it's unusual to see twins - about 3% of all births, but my guess is less likely in Western Pennsylvania due to some social factors.

Part of the challenge is that in all social exchanges, you're almost expected to match the mood and emotional tone of the person with which you're speaking.  When they're all thrilled and cutsie wootsie, it's tough to put on a big smile and be super cheerful up to eight times in a single craft store - when you're just trying to pick out some ribbon.  Maybe I'm just not a people person.

See for me, I've come to realize that I don't even see them as twins.  I have so much time with them individually, that I see them as my beautiful Julianna, and my incredible Brayden.  They are so much their own people, and not at all "one half of a whole pair."

Then there are the people who are so personal.  "A girl and a boy - perfect!  Now you can be done!"  I am pretty confident that we want more kids.  And does that mean Dan's family growing up was incomplete because they had three boys?  And they want to know how much they weighed, how far along I was when we delivered - and almost seem disappointed when I tell them that they were pretty normal weights and that I lasted 38 weeks.  It just seems a little too much for me, standing in the checkout line, discussing this with my sales associate.  The attention is just so uninvited.

Yesterday we went to the museum, and my brother was carrying Brayden in the Baby Bjorn and my sister had Julianna.  These two ladies came right up and started congratulating them on their babies.  Awkward for them - yes.  Secretly though, I was standing by gleeful that I was able to avoid the conversation myself.  It leaves me wondering, would they have walked up to any family with a single baby, and gushed in amazement over their child and asked all sorts of questions.  Perhaps they would.  And maybe I should be the one to try it some day.  I'll walk right up to some unsuspecting new parent and exclaim "oh my gosh - you have a singleton!"  They'll look at me like I'm some crazy woman, and I'll walk away smiling knowing that at least I got a little revenge.

Wubba-what?

We've been struggling with getting the babies to sleep in their cribs - even for short periods - so that eventually, they can sleep there through the night.  With mom's anticipated departure set for the end of March, we need to figure out a way for us to handle our pair overnight - alone.  Right now that's a terrifying prospect.

So a challenge in crib sleeping has been that the binkies we use ALWAYS fall out of the babies' mouths, and as soon as they do, the sirens go off.  When I first came home from the hospital, this was CONSTANT before we began current strategies, and I felt like I was doing sit ups with my c-section incision in terrible pain.  So we started shifts, co-sleeping, yadda yadda yadda until we've arrived where we have now.  So somewhere in my online travels, I saw the recommendation of the wubbanub.

What's a wubbanub you ask?  It's a pacifier holder, with an adorable baby safe stuffed animal on the end, which props the soothie pacifier into the mouth.  We could find no where local that sold them here in Pittsburgh, so we ordered from amazon and boy are they cute!  It's taken a while for the babies to get used to them, (and Julie's not quite got the hang of hers) but they do seem to love the softness of these sweet critters.  Brayden's wubbanub is a giraffe, and Julie's is a cutsie caterpillar.  So far, we wouldn't say that these have been "miracle workers" as a good swift swing of brayden's arms and the giraffe will be tossed across the crib.  There has been improvement though, and they do seem to smile and look at the contrast quite a big.  Now if we could keep Duncan and Layla away from the temptation of claiming the wubbanubs for themselves!

Julie and Brayden Update: 2 Months

I am stealing this idea from another twin mom blogger, Mandy at The Fabulous Baby Striblings - tracking certain things each month in an update to see how my little ones are progressing.  One of my biggest regrets in mommyhood so far is not taking an official "One Month" picture (although we did take tons of pictures) so we're a little behind.  We'll catch up for sure though. :-)

Feedings:  Babies are drinking about 4 ounces of milk, about every three hours (with the exception of our recent overnight improvements).  We do one formula bottle every night as well, and mamma is still exclusively pumping every four hours.  We've just started adding one tablespoon of rice cereal to our midnight bottle which seems to be helping extend the midnight hour just a bit.  We've given up on overcoming the frequent spitups and don't really bother with the Zantac since it didn't seem to help, nor do the babies seem to be in pain.  The doctor's perspective is that the breast milk is probably worth it to hang in there and keep our "spitty babies."

Daytime: The babies still spend most of the day snoozing away, but will sit contently in the swing, or in the bunny chair on the kitchen table for stretches of time.  Brayden especially loves the "play gym" on the floor where he can look in the mirror and kick the whale hanging by his feet.  Julie enjoys tummy time, although we need to work at finding more time for this.  A favorite game we play is "buzzy bee" where I pretend the bee is buzzing and lands on them.  Julie loves to follow my fingers!  Favorite toys include the Swing, the Play Gym, the crib animation toy, the Winkle and the Glow Seahorses.  We typically feed around Midnight, 5 am, 9 am, noon, 3, 6, and 9.  As the picture shows, Julie still sleeps a LOT.  Probably around 15+ hours a day?  It's great to catch her when she's awake though. :-)

Nighttime:  We're finally getting a good stretch overnight where we get five+ solid hours of sleep.  The babies don't like to sleep in their cribs - at all - and so we're co-sleeping with one sleeping with Grammy in the guest room, and one in our bed.  Hopefully we'll be making some improvements here soon.  Our biggest problem is that because the babies won't sleep in their cribs, we can't put them to bed until we're in bed -which means midnight (especially since I have to pump as well).  If we'd move their bedtime back to, say - 10:00, we'd be back to feeding at 3 am.  It may not be the best plan of action, but this is "working" for the time being.

Schedule:  There really is no schedule.  This is rough and certainly not a recommendation to any other parents out there...  Yes, I realize to some, this looks like a wild mess - but, for us, it's the best choice for the moment.
5-6 a.m.: Bottle then back to sleep(Dan feeds whoever is in our bed, Grammy feeds whoever is in her bed, Heather pumps)
9ish am: Bottle then back to sleep
11ish am: Wake Up, change, and start the day.  Typically the babies spend some awake time here until their next bottle.
Noonish: Bottle
3ish: Bottle then typically some more sleep
6ish: Bottle
9ish: Bottle - then colicky crying time
11:30: Get ready for bed, then bottle
12:30 a.m.: Feed and Sleep

Outings and Events:  So far we have ventured out on numerous occasions to the doctors office, multiple trips to Target, a visit to TJ Maxx, the scrapbooking store and the craft stores (Grammy's favorite).  Brayden has had two "lunch dates," once with my former co-workers at Buffalo Wild Wings, and once with Grammy and her friend Charlene.  We've also all gone out to visit Great-Pap at Aunt Kim's House and Great-Nanny at the Assisted Living facility.  One of our most memorable experiences was Julie's diaper explosion at the Scrapbook store that left us on the ground with a blanket, and ended in her spending the rest of the afternoon pantsless.  What an adventure!
 We do try to make frequent outings out of the house (for our sanity and mom's practice), but those are pretty difficult maneuvers.  Typically, I pump, we dress the babies, then feed the babies, and by now - an hour and a half has gone by and it'll quickly be time to pump again.  I'll try to pump again right before we leave to extend the time we're able to be away.  This typically works, except when babies spit all over their outfits and need changed again before we leave, and have empty tummies that need re-fed.  There have been days, we just give up and stay home.

Milestones:  The babies are both right on track for their milestones according to the doctor.  Julie has an exceptionally strong neck, and can turn from side to side while on her tummy.  Both are pretty strong overall!  Brayden's great at following things with his eyes.  Both babies have begun smiling a lot the past few weeks and are generally very pleasant during the day.  They've also begun "talking" to things like the birds hanging above their bunny seat and swing, the crib animation, themselves in the mirror and family.

We're so enjoying this special time!