Support

I recently realized I have a new follower, a new irish twin mommy out there. First, congratulations on two beautiful boys, and second... as stressful as this voyage may seem most times, I've found there are so many 'aww' moments that make up for the stress.

Looking back, I remember how difficult it was the first few months after Emily came home. 1. She was a horrid sleeper. 2. Lucas only wanted mommy (but because of my c-sec, I couldn't hold him for a while without help). and 3. I remember someone telling me to take it one day at a time. This advice I had to switch to taking it one minute at a time.

The first few weeks after Emily was born, my mom and sister were there all the time to help. (Wayne worked horrible work hours and only had the first week after she was born off). After that, it was September, my sister went off to school, and I was stuck, alone, with two babies who needed lots of attention--Lucas was still only crawling at this point. Lucas quickly learned to hold his own bottle while drinking, or propped it on the coffee table while I fed his sister. And soon thereafter, I learned to put Emily in a reclined high chair with a blanket on her tray to feed her while spoon feeding Lucas. I will add a picture for demonstration. I did have to stop numerous times to pick up Emily's bottle and re-adjust the blanket, but for the most part, this worked (thank you to my ingenious mother-in-law who taught me this trick when Lucas was younger).

The hardest part, I found, was putting them on the same schedule, and sticking to it. Unfortunately I was little lax with my schedule, and had little time to call my own. Eventually, though, we made it through. I'm glad I always had a camera on hand, because if it were not for all the pictures of Emily's first 4-6 months of life... I don't think I would remember much of what we did.

I highly recommend a double stroller. We bought ours in the states the April before Emily was born, and it was the best thing I ever bought. Also, when you have this double stroller, do NOT take it for granted. Think of it as a third child. Unfortunately, a couple months after starting as a bus driver, I backed our truck into the stroller... ... the kids were in the truck, I had just forgotten to put the stroller in the truck too. I had to make do without a stroller for months before Wayne finally fixed it. So, treat the stroller like gold... it is a nightmare to do without.

Invest in a magic bullet. I was highly upset when infomercials in Canada started broadcasting the baby bullet when Emily first born. I had totally had that idea first! However, a magic bullet works just as well, and if you have a tupperware set, then you already have a place to store the food you make for your baby(ies).

Clothing, now, if you're lucky, you'll have two boys, or two girls.. I, unfortunately-clothes wise, got one of each. With two boys/girls, you can just pass the clothes down (so long as there is a size difference between your children). With one of each, once you find out you're pregnant with a boy/girl, when you go to buy clothes for the one, buy the same size in the opposite gender. Also, ALWAYS look for sales, this helps a bunch. I personally go to a used clothing for kids store. Especially for my daughter. Lucas gets hand-me downs from his cousin, Logen, who's 17 months older then him. Emily, however, she was in newborn clothes for the first 3 months of her life. In fact, right now she's only in 12 months and possibly a 12-18 month depending on the make. Again, she's our itty bitty. We rarely get asked if Lucas and Emily are twins, because Emily is so small she looks almost 2 years younger then Lucas instead of only 10 1/2 months younger.

Well, this is all the time I have to give some support. Hopefully this helps all you moms out there who're going right along with this Irish Twin insanity. Remember, things will always get better, you just have to look for the bright side, or make your wee beasties laugh.