adjusting.

I feel like things are finally starting to get a little more "normal" around here(who cares about "normal" anyway right...)! We are getting more and more adjusted to life with twins, and life as a family of 6. Grammy has been an amazing help with all of this. Thanks Grammy!

The babies are getting older, and the weather is getting warmer. Which means I can take them places more and it's not such a hassle with all the bundling. Although now that they are getting heavier, it is getting way hard to carry them in their carseats at the same time. I better be buff soon from these babies! :P

One of the things I have found to be hard with twins is the logistics of getting them both where I need them to be when I am alone. When I am nursing them both, and then try to lift them both up to burp them, or get them off my lap so I can get up. Or like when they are both awake in the morning and wanting to be picked up, sometimes I can't pick just one of them to pick up so I'll try to pick them both up and sometimes they bonk heads. Sorry babies :( Or when I go to target and I forget the double stroller that the carseats snap into so I have to put each baby in their own cart and push 2 carts....and try to corral 2 other kids while doing the shopping as quickly as possible (ok that has only happened once but it sucked). Or when they are both needing some cuddle time and I can't fully give it to both when I try to rock them both.

Things like this get kinda tricky!

They are at the age that they are big enough that they are heavy and hard to carry 2 of them, but not old enough yet where they can grab on and kind of "help" when I am carrying them.

I read in one of my twin books "be prepared to be instant celebrities anytime you go somewhere" Oh my, is that ever true. I didn't realize twins was such an attention getter. Anytime we go somewhere I have to be prepared to stop and talk to people.

For some reason, with all this Nadya Suleman stuff in the news I get this one all the time.

"Oh, you have twins! Well aren't you glad it wasn't eight"?

um. ok.

and apparently Scout being all cutesy and usually in dresses or pink doesn't give away the fact that she's a girl.
People say all the time. "oh you have twins! Two boys huh?" Um. no.
Not sure why I get that one so often! Did you not see the headband? Or the pink dress? Or the pink blanket? Or the pink shoes? I just have to laugh.

this one floors me.
"Twins! A boy and a girl!?"
"yep" I say.
And then they follow with this... It never fails... "Are they identical"?
I politely say "no" and leave it at that.
But I am thinking "I sure as hell hope not or we might have some issues..."

And apparently 4 kids is like way too many to have!!! I didn't realize this.
If I am out with the 2 babies, people will often ask if they are my only 2. I say "no, I have 2 others at home", and then they drop their jaw, "Oh you have two MORE. Wow your a busy mom"!
I've even been asked if I do daycare! One time me and Kristie were at culver's together and we got asked if we were having a birthday party!!!! Nope just us and our 7 kids between the 2 of us!!!!!

Lots of people stop to ask about them, and it really is sweet, and if I am not in a hurry it doesn't bother me a bit.

Lots of people offer their help as well. I have been so surprised by the generousity of total strangers!
There have been many times I have been out in public with the four kids alone, and both babies will be crying, and I am sure I am looking frazzled, and someone will come up and ask "is there anything I can do to help you?" Most of the time there isn't anything because it's just that the babies need to eat or sleep, but I always appreciate that generosity.

One time I was in target, and the babies were both hungry at the same time. and I mean screaming hungry. So I had to try to nurse them both in the dressing room, with no pillow, or anything to put them on. They were screaming and I was having a hard time getting them to latch on. And a woman knocks on the door and says, "ma'am are you the one I saw in the store with twins? Is there anything I can do to help you"?
Obviously there wasn't much she could do, but so sweet to offer her help.

The one thing that really does surprise me is when people will come and put a nuk in my babies mouth! There have been many times that both are fussing, and I am tending to one, and someone will come over and stick the nuk in the other ones mouth. Not saying a word to me! Very nice gesture, (or maybe they can't stand to hear a baby cry?)....but you'd think they'd ask first!?

The babies are finally starting to sleep through the night. a little bit. Most of the time they do it on opposite nights so I don't get to enjoy it. But there have now been a few nights that I only have to get up maybe 2 to 3 times(compared to the hourly or ever other hour I have been doing for the past 5 1/2 months!)

Oh and not to mention the 11:00 to 12:00 bedtime they insisted on for so long! But they are finally getting to bed much earlier. Usually around 9 or 9:30 but sometimes even as early as 8! I am loving this!

I never imagined how hard nights would be with twins. Kinzie didn't sleep through the night until after a year, and she ate A LOT in the middle of the night, but still it was nothing like this. I don't know what it is. I know it's 2x the baby, but it's really taken a toll on me. Getting like a total of 3-4 hours a night just doesn't work for me!

They get up at opposite times and I am way to groggy to wake one when the other wakes up to try to get them on the same schedule. As hard as I try, I am just so tired and the thought of WAKING a baby in the middle of the night seems ridiculous at the time. So I feed one, fall asleep nursing, wake up an hour or so later to the other one crying, feed that one, fall asleep nursing, wake up an hour later to the first one again....and so on and so forth. Up until almost 5 months though, it wouldn't be where they would go back to sleep right away after eating either, I would have to rock them or walk around with them and try to get them back to sleep. So by the time I got one back to sleep the other was almost ready to eat.

I swear though, I think they lay in their cribs conspiring against me, and I think it goes something like this:
Scout: "Hey Fin, I am going to cry so she'll feed me and then afterwards I'll make Mommy rock me and walk around with me for a while and then finally I'll go to sleep. THEN let's give her like 20 minutes to fall back asleep....and then YOU wake up and cry! And then we'll reverse the roles! Won't that be a FUN GAME!!!!?

I think about all of these things, and I get overhwhelmed at times. I get stressed over the fact that I can't keep my house clean like I used to, or keep up on the finances like I used to (in our 7 1/2 years of marriage I have never overdrafted our account or had a late bill, which I have now done twice!)and forget about keeping up on the laundry! I think the hormones have made me a little depressed, and the lack of sleep makes me crazy at times.

But then I think about how amazing this experience has been. Absolutely amazing. I never realized how hard it would be, but I never realized how AWESOME it would be either. I think about how rewarding this has been, and all those other things seem so small in comparison.

Words cannot even describe the joy of having 2 little smiling faces looking up at you from their cribs in the morning. 2 little tiny people giggling as you play "I'm gonna get you". 2 little personalities forming. 2 babies holding hands, cooing and smiling at each other. It melts me.

I can't imagine life without both of them. I can't imagine what it would have been like with just one now. Obviously I know what it's like since I've had 2 singletons. But I just can't imagine only one of them being here.

I count my blessings with all four of my babes being happy, healthy, growing children. I have to stop and think of this when I am overwhelmed and stressed.