Can we cope with twins- no spin answers sought

Hi,

You will cope..... you have no choice!!!!

My husband works lots of hours, I decided too to quit my job, we have a 6
year old boy and 18 month old twins. Yes it is hard, but just be very
strict with yourselves, routine is the key and make sure you get them in to
a good sleeping patern. It can be done, my babies have slept 12 hours
through the night since they were 6 months old, basically when they went in
to their own room. My older boy did the same, some people say we're lucky
but I think we were determined not to make life any more difficult than it
needed to be. If you get a good nights sleep you can handle the days.
They are so enjoyable, the first few months are hard because of the feeding
but to see them play together now its adorable. Your babies will have an
in-built playmate which is a god send.
You should try and look at the positives and enjoy them, time soon passes
by, I'm no expert but I new that organisation was going to be the key and it
was.
Good luck - you'll be fine

Tanya (Nottinghamshire, England)


BillyO wrote in message
...
Hello everyone,

We're expecting identical twin boys very early in the new year, they
will be our first. At my workplace and my spouse's there has been a
flash flood of new mummies and daddies. When they hear we're having
twins the boilerplate reponse is "I hope you have *LOTS* of help,
you're going to need it". Perhaps this is because the default
assumption is both parents will be working, even if it's part-time. In
our case we decided to have my wife quit her job. As for help, my
family is in Europe and my wife's is not exactly local. At a minimum I
had planned to take a month off work after the birth so we can be
together. Can we cope or will we absolutely need help?

TIA for your wisdom.

Hi,

I can't tell you what would be best for you personally. But, in my own
experience I had a three year old once the babies were born and it was a lot of
work then and now almost a year later it still is. But I love every minute of
it, well okay, not EVERY minute of it I could live without the whining and hair
pulling and constant picking up of toys, and I definitely look forward to mommy
alone time! But as for coping, yes you can, you have no choice.
I don't know about everyone else here but, my husband was only able to take
off for 5 days. So, my grandmother came and stayed for two weeks. Other then
that we were pretty much on our own. In my opinion if you can take off for a
month without loosing income go for it. I would have much rather had my
husband there than my grandmother at first. We had different ideas on how to
do things ... you know what I mean? But if you can afford extra help by all
means get it! I am a SAHM and I pretty much wing it alone with the help of DH
of course. He rotates shifts each week so it works out well, that when he is
on nights we can all go to dr. appts or he can stay home with babies while I
take Alexis to preschool and help out.
Hope that helps.
Good luck.


~Kimberly
Mommy to Alexis Iliana 07/17/99 and
Emma Elidia & Aislyn Gabriela 10/01/02
come see us...
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/aislynemma/

You can do it without any outside help at all, but life will be easier with
just a bit of assistance. It doesn't have to be relatives - neighbours,
high-school students, members of your church or other group that you belong
to, etc. Even just an hour a day or a couple of afternoons a week can make a
huge difference.

When our boys were born, one of our neighbours came over every morning at 9
a.m., helped me feed them and then popped them in the stroller and took her
morning walk while I crawled back into bed for an hour of coma. She did this
every morning, Monday through Friday, for about 3 months. DH started a new
job, with a new company, exactly two weeks after the boys were born, so he
had the new-job stresses on top of the new-twin stresses. And our daughter
was 3 yo when the boys were born.

Claudia (Alison 8/95; Timothy and Cameron 4/99)

We just had our first, fraternal twins born 7 wks. premature on May 6. We
have not had a LOT of help in terms of in-laws etc. We've had some though
and it is quite noticeable.

Can you do it? Sure. Will it be hard? Yes. Mostly the never-ending
grind of it all. Any given incident is not that big of a deal, but it just
doesn't seem to let up. That said, now that they are 4 months old, we are
actually noticing - IT'S GETTING EASIER! There's not so much crying, they
are actually starting to smile and giggle and coo and be pleasant while
they are awake - and get this - Reed actually went 8 hours between feedings
yesterday - 9 PM to 5 AM. I have to celebrate even this, though his
brother Martin is not quite at the 8 hour mark - 4 or 4.5 is about his
speed (definitely improved from 3 hours when he first came home).

I managed to take 4 months off from work part-time on Family Medical Leave
Act. My wife is taking 6 months off work. I go back full time tomorrow
and we are having a nanny start part-time. We may go to full time nanny
when DW returns to work in November. Day care is not cheap and it doesn't
sound great for kids to get exposed to all those germs at a young age.
Nanny is not cheap either but with us both working it is (barely)
affordable.

Anyway here's some recent pics of the boys!

http://www.geocities.com/faultline19...n-reed-01.html

We just had our first, fraternal twins born 7 wks. premature on May 6. We
have not had a LOT of help in terms of in-laws etc. We've had some though
and it is quite noticeable.

Can you do it? Sure. Will it be hard? Yes. Mostly the never-ending
grind of it all. Any given incident is not that big of a deal, but it just
doesn't seem to let up. That said, now that they are 4 months old, we are
actually noticing - IT'S GETTING EASIER! There's not so much crying, they
are actually starting to smile and giggle and coo and be pleasant while
they are awake - and get this - Reed actually went 8 hours between feedings
yesterday - 9 PM to 5 AM. I have to celebrate even this, though his
brother Martin is not quite at the 8 hour mark - 4 or 4.5 is about his
speed (definitely improved from 3 hours when he first came home).

I managed to take 4 months off from work part-time on Family Medical Leave
Act. My wife is taking 6 months off work. I go back full time tomorrow
and we are having a nanny start part-time. We may go to full time nanny
when DW returns to work in November. Day care is not cheap and it doesn't
sound great for kids to get exposed to all those germs at a young age.
Nanny is not cheap either but with us both working it is (barely)
affordable.

Anyway here's some recent pics of the boys!

http://www.geocities.com/faultline19...n-reed-01.html

Oh your boys are sooo beautiful : )))

Ellie

"Digital Larry" wrote in message
9.11...
We just had our first, fraternal twins born 7 wks. premature on May 6. We
have not had a LOT of help in terms of in-laws etc. We've had some though
and it is quite noticeable.

Can you do it? Sure. Will it be hard? Yes. Mostly the never-ending
grind of it all. Any given incident is not that big of a deal, but it
just
doesn't seem to let up. That said, now that they are 4 months old, we are
actually noticing - IT'S GETTING EASIER! There's not so much crying, they
are actually starting to smile and giggle and coo and be pleasant while
they are awake - and get this - Reed actually went 8 hours between
feedings
yesterday - 9 PM to 5 AM. I have to celebrate even this, though his
brother Martin is not quite at the 8 hour mark - 4 or 4.5 is about his
speed (definitely improved from 3 hours when he first came home).

I managed to take 4 months off from work part-time on Family Medical Leave
Act. My wife is taking 6 months off work. I go back full time tomorrow
and we are having a nanny start part-time. We may go to full time nanny
when DW returns to work in November. Day care is not cheap and it doesn't
sound great for kids to get exposed to all those germs at a young age.
Nanny is not cheap either but with us both working it is (barely)
affordable.

Anyway here's some recent pics of the boys!

http://www.geocities.com/faultline19...n-reed-01.html

Oh your boys are sooo beautiful : )))

Ellie

"Digital Larry" wrote in message
9.11...
We just had our first, fraternal twins born 7 wks. premature on May 6. We
have not had a LOT of help in terms of in-laws etc. We've had some though
and it is quite noticeable.

Can you do it? Sure. Will it be hard? Yes. Mostly the never-ending
grind of it all. Any given incident is not that big of a deal, but it
just
doesn't seem to let up. That said, now that they are 4 months old, we are
actually noticing - IT'S GETTING EASIER! There's not so much crying, they
are actually starting to smile and giggle and coo and be pleasant while
they are awake - and get this - Reed actually went 8 hours between
feedings
yesterday - 9 PM to 5 AM. I have to celebrate even this, though his
brother Martin is not quite at the 8 hour mark - 4 or 4.5 is about his
speed (definitely improved from 3 hours when he first came home).

I managed to take 4 months off from work part-time on Family Medical Leave
Act. My wife is taking 6 months off work. I go back full time tomorrow
and we are having a nanny start part-time. We may go to full time nanny
when DW returns to work in November. Day care is not cheap and it doesn't
sound great for kids to get exposed to all those germs at a young age.
Nanny is not cheap either but with us both working it is (barely)
affordable.

Anyway here's some recent pics of the boys!

http://www.geocities.com/faultline19...n-reed-01.html

oh wow...they are sooooo cute!!!!
Gwen

oh wow...they are sooooo cute!!!!
Gwen

Awww.....they're so cute! Makes me want another one even more. Shouldn't that
last caption read "Daddy takes a nap under Reed"?

Thanks for sharing!

Andrea
twin girls-Jordan & Madison
3 yrs. old