A typical day

There really is no such thing as a "typical" day in our house right now.  The babies eat every 3-4 hours, so when the eat and how many times they eat can vary from day to day.  Mara and Davin always eat at the same time.  When one baby fusses, they both get fed.  This allows us to cut back on the amount of time we spend feeding babies throughout the day and allows us to stay sane.  When I am by myself, feeding the babies involves using two nursing pillows to prop them up and the use of blankets to prop up the bottles.  How I look forward to them being able to hold their bottles!  We usually go through 14 or 16 bottles a day and it seems like I'm forever washing bottles and nipples. Oh yeah, and one giant sized can of formula from Costco doesn't even last us a week.  I know breast feeding is cheaper, but I cannot even imagine breast feeding twins.  I tried, and I think I would be in the nut house already.  My hat goes off to anyone who succeeds at this task, and I know there are many.  

We usually go through 14-20 diapers a day (not including Jayna's) and believe it or not, this part of the daily duties really isn't as bad as you'd think.  I have to boil two kettles of water a day for bottles, wash dishes at least once a day, if not twice and the dishwasher is run pretty much every day.  I can't imagine what will happen when the twins dirty more than just bottles.  I also do 1-2 loads of laundry a day as well.  This is all so that I can pretty much just keep up with everything and doesn't even allow me to get ahead.  Thank goodness that through the generosity of others, we have house cleaners right now!!  I quite often feel like I'm spinning my tires.  I have to remind myself that my children will grow up and remember the time I spent with them, not that there were toys on the floor or dishes on the counter.

The babies have no set sleep schedule right now and it seems as though one baby is awake most of the day while the other sleeps and the next day it's the other one who's awake most of the day.  I know that this will pass, just like everything else.  Thank goodness for the Baby Bjorn.  At least I can put one fussy baby in it and get a couple of things done.  

I usually wake up in the morning and have a plan to get a few things done, but I also realize that that may not happen.  It is all beyond my control.  I try to get a load or two of laundry done everyday (and actually fold it and put it away).  Sometimes this is the only thing I actually get done and sometimes I don't even get this done.  I'm also happy if I get supper made before Derrick gets home. 

Oh yeah, and I also have Jayna who can throw a wrench into my plans.  I remember telling Derrick that on days when I have all three, nothing will get done.  Jayna goes to daycare twice a week (thank goodness!!!!), but when she is home, it's a whole different ball game.  Jayna has adapted really well to her world being interrupted by two little ones requiring our attention.  She loves her brother and sister and usually just tries to smother them with love.  Her new thing is that as soon as they fuss, Jayna assumes they need their soother.  She seems super concerned and says "soos" and runs and gently puts it in the baby's mouth.  Jayna is very good at entertaining herself, but I've noticed that if the four of us just stay home all day, then she can definitely be a handful and definitely is more demanding of my attention.  My favourite ploy of hers is needing to go potty when I'm busy.  She is not potty trained, but definitely has an interest.  We take advantage of the times she asks to go potty and we aren't busy.  

Believe it or not, I actually find going out on days when I have all three kids makes my day a lot easier.  The reason for this is that Jayna is occupied and she's not as needy when we're out.  I am also the kind of person who loves to be on the go.  Too many days cooped up inside, and I start to go crazy (okay, crazier).  When the twins were two weeks old, I took all three kids to visit my work.  People kept asking me how I did it and were amazed that I got into the building all by myself.  I thought this was funny, as I have two hands (one to carry each car seat) and Jayna can walk, so it wasn't that difficult.

Jayna doesn't nap at home anymore.  Nap time has become "quiet" time and that means she's in her room talking very loudly and usually singing her ABC's (or what she knows of them).  After quiet time is up, her and I need to spend some time cleaning her room that was not a disaster before quiet time.  Oh how I miss naps!!!  Since Jayna is not napping she goes to bed a bit earlier.  She now goes to bed around 7, which just leaves Derrick and I with Mara and Davin.  I know I should try and accomplish some tasks during this time, but instead I usually just watch TV or read to unwind a bit.

I really look forward to the twins going to sleep around the same time that Jayna does.  We have tried to put them down in the evening and it's usually successful with one.  Once again, it's only a matter of time until they fall into a schedule, which I'm finding a lot more difficult to figure out with two.  We feed the babies one last time before we go to bed and then they are usually up twice in the night to eat.  I can't really complain about this part, because they usually give me a couple of decent chunks of sleep every night, but we all know that there are exceptions.

So this is a brief insight into what goes on on a daily basis in our house, but of course, any parent knows that no two days are alike.