16 months and counting

The girls are just over sixteen months old now.  They lag behind on some things and surge ahead on others.  This seems to be pretty normal for all babies.  While twins often do experience some delays associated with premature birth, the girls don't seem to have any physical issues.  I think some of the delays are simply because parents of twins just can't interact as much with two babies as compared to how parents of singletons interact with one baby.

We play with the girls a lot.  We talk to them all the time.  It's just not the same as parents with one child who can walk around with that just that baby.  You're always checking in on the other child.  You're often snuggling one and making eye contact with the other.  You have to make decisions all the time about which baby needs you more...even when they're both crying.  If you're alone with them, it's just about impossible to hold and carry two babies. 

On the other hand, the girls do some things that other babies aren't doing.  When I watch the little ones at the sitter's, most of them are playing near each other.  They're playing independently, but close together.  The girls break into games throughout the day.  Currently, they're passing toys back and forth and Calliope is putting them on the shelf or into the basket.  Earlier, they were grabbing toys and rolling until they had their heads together.  The latter is a favorite thing to do, especially with books.

Twin talk.  I'm getting a bit tired of being asked about this.  (No offense intended to the people who've been asking.  Twins are different and wonderfully so!) The scientific terms are: idioglossia and cryptophasia.  The last term being specifically for the language adopted by multiples.  The girls really don't exhibit these languages.  They babble constantly, but there are no patterns to the speech.  The very limited reading that I've done suggests that twin talk is actually an adaptation of poorly pronounced speech.  The twins adopt each others' attempts at words and then have their own "language".  I don't notice this with the girls. Mostly what I see is that they model the inflections we use for everyday speech.  Thank you is almost musical when Thalia says it.  Calli seems to do the same with "doggy". 

And now I have to go because two little girls are both trying to walk! 

Playtime for Mommy

I like to take pictures.  What's better than pictures of kids? Not much!  Here's the first attempt:

Ok, but not what I wanted.  If you crop out the baby on the left, it's alright.

These turned out better.  There's better light in the kitchen and babies in sinks can't escape.

Calli loves to play in the water...at least for bathtime.  Pools are another thing altogether!

Thalia waiting to wash off her avocado bits.  She likes to eat and explore textures.

It's so hard to get a good picture of both girls, but this one makes me smile.  Too many textures, though.

My little hammy girl!

Sweet Thalia Lyn!  I'm hoping that it will get easier as they get a bit older.  I'm pretty sure that's just wishful thinking, though.

Grandma H.

Unfortunately, we lost your Grandma H. to ovarian cancer before you were born.  I think of her often every day.  We were so close and it is really hard knowing that you won't get to meet her.  So, here are some of the things I remember most.

Her sense of humor.  She was a lot of fun.  She was always Mom and you didn't cross certain lines, but she was fun.  When I was little, she'd dance with me and we'd play Barbies.  She used to kiss my ear before bed and say, "Yuck, rutabagas!" 

I find myself using lots of the same things she did.   When you're upset, I pick you up and rock you the same way she used to rock your cousins.  When you talk, I say the same things she used to say to babies.  We eat some of the same lunches and I can't wait until we can have pb and banana sandwiches for lunch...with a big glass of milk. 

There's so much more to tell and I know you'll know her through the stories you'll hear.

How we did it (part two)

I hope that a new or expectant twin parent finds this helpful.  We could not have survived if we hadn't found some tips online. 

When the girls could suck stronger, we switched them to Podee Bottles and that was great!  The bottles are a pain to clean, but they really, really were a huge help.  From what I remember, we had about four sets of bottles.  We cleaned them at the end of the day.  I loved the microwave sterilizer for the tubes.  I just never felt like the tubes got clean enough just rinsing them as the directions suggested. 

The Baby Trend Double Snap-n-Go was a great stroller for the early months.  I really miss it sometimes.  It was just so easy to pop the car seats into it.  We took the girls to Montreal with that on a train.  It was so nice and light and we didn't have to fuss with unbuckling babies and hauling a stroller in addition to car seats.

Color-coding.  Thalia's things tend to be pink.  For a while, we knew them in photos because Thalia had a stuffed froggy and Calli had a monkey. 

Now that they are into everything and trying to walk, it's a lot harder.  Especially with the biting.  I don't know what to do about the biting.  I don't have enough hands to cuddle the bitten baby while whisking the biter off to time out.  We'll make it through somehow, though.

How we did it (part one)

After listening to a radio show, it appears that many parents really do want to know how you manage multiple babies.  Here are some of the things that worked for us in the earliest days.

1.  Lots of help.  People brought us meals.  Toby's step dad filled our chest freezer to the top and into our regular freezer.  My SIL, Angie, came down to stay for a few days and that helped a ton.  Just knowing there was another mom in the house was great.  No need to panic if she didn't panic.  Later, we hired a local teen to come in an give me a hand with some of the feedings and laundry.  She was wonderfully helpful and her presence meant I could shower and do dishes in peace.

2.  Sleep.  You need some.  We took shifts.  Toby thought of this and it worked for us.  He took the girls from midnight to six am.  Then he slept while I took the girls from six am until noon.  For us this worked because the girls were pretty easy going.  I don't know how I would have survived without the six hours of sleep.  We also napped in the evening while the girls were sleeping.

3.  We thought about systems to help us out.  Diaper bags were packed and left by the door at all times.  The coffee table nearest the door became the "going away table".  This is where the diaper bags and car seats were kept.  A box was there with blankets and shoes in it.  This was the catch all for things  you might need.

Nothing came out of the diaper bags if we could have doubles.  There was also a large box in the car with extra clothes, blankets, diapers, wipes, formula, bottles, bibs, toys, etc....  This meant that the bag we carried didn't have to be gigantic.

Feeding time is hard with two newborns, but we managed.  With two u-shaped pillows and an afghan, you can feed two babies pretty easily.  You have to prop the bottles which means never taking your eyes off the babies, but you can do it.  You can also put them in their car seats and hold the bottles up.  Another method was to prop the babies in their pillows and sit between them holding the bottles. 

The family room became baby central.  The girls slept in the pack n' play until they were sleeping six hour stretches at night.  The pack n' play was at the end of our sofa and next to a kitchen counter.  It had a diaper changing station on it and that was awesome.  We kept a box of diaper essentials stocked on the counter and a laundry basket nearby.  We lived in the family room.

Aside from the sleep schedule for ourselves, the best thing was that the girls were on the same schedule.  I don't think you can make it without having the little break you get when two babies are sleeping.

Two of a kind? More like night and day!

Let's see, what do you hear when you have twins?  "Double trouble!" groan "Bet you have your hands full." Why, yes, and would you mind holding the door while you're chuckling?  No matter how alike people think the girls look, they are like night and day to me.  Thalia is more quiet and interested in observing before she tries something.  Calli just jumps in to anything she sees.  What surprises me is that Calli is my cuddlebug and Thalia is content to sit and read to herself.  Calli is a clown, but don't be fooled.  Thalia is an absolute hoot if you watch her and get silly with her.

Now that you're one... (part 2)

You started to play together more.  Calli is in the stripes and Thalia is in the pink/white shirt. 

We went to ConFusion and you met lots of new people.  Later, we went to PenguiCon and saw many of them again.  You were a big hit with the hotel staff.  They were very nice about helping us out.

Fen got to eat a lot of Cheerios!  We had to make the dogs wait in another room until you were done eating because you fed them so much of your own food.

We learned that double sinks are really handy.  You both love bathtime and nothing gets rid of a bad mood like a bath!

Grocery shopping got more and more challenging.  We found ways around it, though.  Sometimes I (Mom) would carry one of you in a front carrier and put the other girl in the cart.  For a while, you both fit into the cart together. 

Thalia pwned her first monster!  Go get him, girlie!

Calli learned to play peek-a-boo!  You both think that this is the greatest game!  That and putting things on top of your head (or Mom's head or Dad's head) are just hilarious.

Your first birthday was lots of fun!  You've brought lots of new challenges and joy into our lives.  I wish you all the best life has to offer as you grow.

Now that you're one...

There are so many things to write in baby books and so many things I didn't mark down.  Now that you're one, let's look at the last year.  We brought you home and put you in your bassinet.  Calli cried and shook her fist and it scared Fenrir.  Fen fell in love with both of you right away.  You became his "puppies".  He made sure you were all right and let us know if you weren't.

We all took lots of naps and rested as much as possible.  The four of us spent lots of time on blankets in the family room.  We watched Dora and Lost for a long time between feedings. 

You took turns playing video games with Daddy.  It's never too early for a girl to learn how to kill zombies. 

We went to Cleveland for a book-signing and you helped Daddy sell his books.

You learned to smile and it lit up our lives!  This photo was taken while Daddy was away at a conference.  We all just woke up and you had your bottles on Mommy and Daddy's big bed.  Then we sat and played for a while.

We took you to Montreal, Canada for your first science fiction convention.  You were great travelers!  We learned not to mess with naptime and that babies need a good stretch, too.  Your Podee bottles were a big hit with lots of people.  You behaved better on the train than some of the adults.

We went to meet the May 2009 babies in Columbus, OH.  Calli is in the red pants and Thalia is in the white onesie.  We had a great time at the park with the other babies and their mommies.

Auntie Freya came to visit and we had lots of fun.  You were surprised to see each other with bows in your hair!

We went to Grandpop Hyatt's for Christmas Eve.  Neither of you liked being dressed up very much.  It made me very happy to put you in pretty dresses.  Usually, we dressed you in comfy clothes, so the dresses were and extra-special gift from Auntie Freya.

Bathtime for two

Toby is in NYC until tonight and the girls really needed a bath.  They have eye infections that are goobering up their eyes something terrible.  They won't let me wipe the crud away and so a bath seemed the perfect solution.  Plus, it's a good way to get some toys cleaned, too. 

This is how bathtime with just one parent works here.

1.  Get things together while girls are in cribs or highchairs.

 

  

Please note that the Bebe Pod is not intended for bathtub use and we do not leave the girls in it unattended.  It just helps me to bathe them both at once.  Also, it floats if you have too much water in the tub and makes things very unstable.  

2.  Get one baby from chair, strip her down, and place into empty tub.

 

See that there's no water in the tub.  Baby A just plays happily for a bit until she realizes she's alone and starts screaming.

3.  Get Baby B.

4. Check on Baby A on the way to strip Baby B down. 

5.  Add Baby B to the bathtub/toy mix.

6.  Add water.

7.  Wash Baby A, rinse, repeat with Baby B.

8.  Drain water and remove a baby.

9.  Baby A will want to know where Baby B went.

(Again, no water in the tub.)

10.  Put dry Baby B into a sleeper and into crib for a nap.

11.  Get Baby A, dry, clothe, put down for nap.

Everybody is eye-crud free right now and quite happy.  Bathtime is so much fun now that the girls enjoy splashing and playing in the tub.  Our huskador (lab/husky mix) likes to try to help clean the babies.  Today he was busier cleaning up the Cheerios from breakfast.  After all of this, I decided it was time for me to eat something and to also take a nap.  We all feel better and I might even remember to shower this evening.

Introductions and Getting Started

I've been meaning to get started on this blog for about ten months, but I haven't found the time.  With ten month old twins, that tends to happen.  When I have time to spend with Thalia and Calliope, I tend to prefer playing and snuggling to blogging.  I don't, however, want the girls to grow up without knowing how important their babyhood was for all of us.  So, let's get started. 

Introducing, Calliope.  She's a clown!  She laughs, she giggles, she sobs and cries crocodile tears.

Thalia is a bit more reserved, but behind the quiet exterior is a goofball waiting to shine.  She loves to tell you about books and will let you know if you've made her unhappy.  Her chatter in the car makes me smile all the way to work.

 

We're all recovering from a week of colds and yuck in this house.  Speaking of recovering, it's time I go and get the laundry under control...or crash and get some sleep.  Wonder what will win?