Life with twins 3

[GibberingGinger]

Like some sort of film sequel, or a royal dynasty, welcome to Life with twins III, a thread for general discussions and sharing experiences of having (or expecting) twins.

Hello ladies, hope all is well?

Cerubina my boys would love to be mobile but have no idea they can be yet so no movements for crawling just yet, A has 3teeth + 1 poking through, G has 4 + 2 poking through! And about a month ago A started doing a quiet 'roar' which I thought was brilliant and now G knows how to do it, so we just sit there roaring at eachother-it's great fun!

Anyway better go sleep, DD has a school play tomorrow and I'm hoping the boys behave....

Hello fellow twin survivors mothers...

I have my mother here at the moment, hence being a bit quiet. We're all better - thankfully - and getting all sorted for Christmas. Just did the tree.... girls' birthday tomorrow - TWO YEARS OLD... simply can't believe it. I haven't bought them anything other than a few books and haven't even wrapped them up. Oh dear.

Other than that, we are due to drive back to the UK in early January, stay with my mother, and then - shock horror - move into the new house sometime soon afterwards. Mortgage application finally in, waiting for survey to be done hopefully this week. I am still in shock that it looks as though we may actually get to live in that house after all.

Taking the girls for their first haircut this afternoon. I don't know whether to be excited or scared... could go either way. xxx

Hi everyone

May I please join your thread? I have 7 month old twins (boy and a girl) and I am just emerging from the blurry haze of the first months after having them! I am, however, beginning to wonder how I will cope when they both begin to start crawling, then running off at the same time. Maybe a giant playpen and some twin reins?! Not going to get any easier, is it?!

Hello, PolkaDottedShoes. I've got 9 month old b /g twins and I can confirm that it does get more fun (but not any easier!). A giant playpen is number one on your list, the bigger the better if you've got the room, otherwise you'll be constantly untangling them from a big, fighty pile-up. I've got a playpen in the kitchen, and in the afternoons we use a duvet as a giant playmat on the floor so they can go mad and explore and tire themselves out. Mine don't crawl yet, but they roll as fast as lightning...

How's everyone doing? We've got the cavalry arriving this afternoon in the shape of my dad and stepmum - they live quite far away so we don't see them often, but they're brilliant with the babies and they're bringing FOOD! Home-cooked food. Fish pie, lasagne, cake... Nice one. Hmph, better go and tidy up, looks like we live in a bin at the moment.

Happy belated birthday to your girls Lottie - did you have a lovely day? Where has the time gone...?

Hi Polka and welcome.

Foxtail hope you're enjoying the food!

Am up at an ungodly hour with a restless Rose. She has one bright red cheek, a mild fever and a nasty cough. Slapped cheek maybe?? Anyone had this? Was just starting to feel smug complacent about the lack of illness this end. Ah well, back to google...

Morning everyone, thanks for the welcome

foxtail we put a quilted throw down on the floor for them to roll around and (try) and tire them out! Lots of Jumperoo bouncing as well my little girl hates going to bed and seems to have endless energy in the evenings. Can anyone recommend a type of playpen? I have seen one on a twins site but not sure.....

tartiflette I hope your little girl is ok- I know there is some good info on the NHS website (slapped cheek) but guessing that's what you have found!

Well we had a pretty good night- ours can be terrible in the night, but we do have some (few!) good nights. They both fed at 10pm, then one at 3 and the other at 5ish- they should be having enough in the day, although have been a little bit off with solids due to teething. We have tried all the giving water, not milk etc in the night (read the Gina Ford twins book!!) but has never worked. I'm hoping once they get more established with solids it may improve!

Hope everyone has a good day

Hello and welcome PolkaDot :) Mine were two yesterday, so in answer to your 'does it ever get easier?' question I have to say it's a resounding YES! My mum's here this week and we were talking about the stages we arrived at where I remembered realising things had just got a bit easier. Some of them were:

• the girls waking up from a nap/sleep and their first response not being to cry but to play happily in their cot
• being able to walk to the car with them without having to put them in their buggy first, or carry them one at a time
• progressing on from needing a giant bag of shite essential items whenever we go out - can now slip a water bottle, couple of nappies and a pack of wipes into my handbag along with a dummy and some bribe biscuits and we're set.

I could go on... looking back the baby days were a bit gruesome compared to the next bit! So - it was their 2nd birthday yesterday, spent the morning making some fairy cakes and then trouped off to a friend's apartment yesterday for a little party. No idea how I managed to wangle someone else entertaining everyone at their place - massive bonus for me of no clearing up. Was lovely, girls quite into opening presents which surprised me. And I am still in shock that my babies are TWO. Got them their first haircut in a hairdressers (E's first haircut full stop) the day before and they really do look like proper little girls now. Awwww...

I, on the other hand, am a ball of stress, have put on weight (WHYYYYYY?!!!), have no clothes which fit, and feel generally crap. All progressing slowly with the house purchase although I get a slight fit of the jibbers whenever I think about it. We're meant to be driving back to the UK in TWO WEEKS and I've done nothing!

PS: tarti - that does sound like slap cheek. Have you been around anyone with it? Hope R gets better soon xxx

Thanks lottie very good to hear things get easier! Sounds like your girls had a lovely birthday! I'm looking forward to be able to do more a little more with them as well- at the moment I sometimes feel like it's Groundhog day! I try and break the day up but it isn't always easy, especially as I don't really get to see many other people in the day! I'm not planning on going back to work until the twins are older so I want to try and make sure I don't get stuck in a rut (as best I can)

I remember the Groundhog Days well PolkaDot. And still get them too, for that matter. It is bloody hard in the first few months with twins - I often resented people telling me I should 'get out more' because frankly going out was more stressful than sometimes staying in, especially at this time of year. To be honest, I found the first few months of weaning particularly difficult - felt like I'd just got my head around bf'ing when all this pesky FOOD needed to be introduced too. It gets easier though when you start dropping the milk feeds a bit - at 7-9 months I think I just felt as though my day was one long feeding exercise.

Happy birthday to your girls Lottie. Wow, 2! & it sounds like a result on the party front, well done! I'm still refusing to give in to a first haircut for ds2 tho I am going to have to chop a bit off the front again as he's beginning to struggle to see again. Dp is keen for a big cut but I can't bear to see the curls go! 2 weeks to go til you travel - GAH!

How is Rose now Tarti?

Hi Polka! There are certainly different challenges at each stage but I'd agree that it generally gets easier to cope with as they are able to do more things for themselves - and the increasing ability to communicate / make you laugh / gasp at their genuis-ness is a huge bonus.

Been busy here but nothing madly exciting - just trying to get jobs done while I only have a single, portable baby in tow. It's so easy just getting dd & myself out & about! Not so chuffed at wasting one dt-free afternoon going to GAP for jeans only to discover it has closed down (was not impressed with them at that point rattling) and then having to spend another dt-free afternoon trekking to a different one without having time to investigate the wider retail opportunities. All so I had something to wear for my xmas meal. Which was a bit of a washout cos they wouldn't let me in with dd after all. Still, it was nice to see my colleagues for the couple of minutes I was allowed to tell them I couldn't stay . Guess I should have called after all..... Had a lovely Xmas party this afternoon. Boys ate their meals like angels, didn't get covered in food, scared by Father Christmas, danced the hokey cokey etc until the farce that was `getting us all back into the car in the peeing rain whilst dts dangled on their reins like puppets'

R seems fine thanks all, had bit of fever a couple of nights running but not developed into anything

ALL how ridiculous about your work party. Especially annoying after a hunt for an outfit. Ha ha at reins/puppet image. Would you recommend reins generally? Have you got twin ones (if such a thing exists) or just two lots of normal?

Lottie - omg!!!!!!!! A nice relaxing Christmas then

Polka I read Lottie's list of milestones for things getting easier and totally agree with all of it. Toddler-hood brings its own challenges but - for me at least - is a BREEZE compared with having two young babies. Just the logistics of everyday life are so much easier once they can walk. But before that, each milk feed you drop frees up a bit more of your day. I think I started to turn a corner once they were weaning.
We just got a normal sized playpen (wouldn't have had room for anything more) which was very useful and we have only just packed it away, at 19 months. Even when they got too big/active to both play in there for any length of time, it was really good for putting one in there to play quietly/safely, if the other one was on the rampage (!).

School broke up today. Lovely feeling although not quite as lovely as it used to be pre-children! Lots of nice things planned for this week though until we head down to the pils next friday .
We finally got a tree yesterday and had a lovely moment when they saw it all lit up today and insisted on pointing at every single frigging bauble, light and figure on it, shrieking WHAT'S THAT?! Also lots of WOOOOW at the 5 mins' worth of snow we were treated to . Loving this age actually.

Morning everyone

tartiflette that's so lovely about the snow and baubles!! I have to admit to be mildly disappointed in the lack of interest shown towards my own very glittery and purple tastefully decorated tree!

I must confess though-dare I say it- that I'm not really looking forward to Christmas as much as I should be. I feel I should be as I see all these other new mummies on facebook harping on about how they are soooo excitied about their baby's first Christmas nearly every day and I just feel, well, too knackered to muster up any real excitement! I do feel bad about this. I am, of course, making an effort but it just seems like more work at the moment!

I hope everyone has a good weekend

DON'T FEEL BAD! I felt that way the first Christmas (they were 10 days old so no wonder) and their second Christmas too. We had driven to the UK and were at my mother's place, and I had my SIL crowing about how her daughter (same age as the girls) was SOOO into Christmas and 'got' the whole thing. Well, mine didn't have a clue, and are only just starting to get it now. I didn't buy them anything last time (maybe a couple of books) and yes, found the whole thing just an extra stress. Make sure you get a few pics of them sat next to the tree or looking festive and that's all you'll remember in years to come

These first months/year are bloody knackering and it feels like a success sometimes just to get through the day without turning to gin for comfort...

Good lord woman do NOT feel bad, I felt zero excitement last year and only muted this year, mostly relief that DH will be off work for a few days and around to help.
Rather gratifyingly a good friend, who had her first at the same time as I had the girls, has just had her second baby and I think has found it a real eye opener. She has said a few times that she didn't really appreciate what it was like for me/us with two littlies. So don't compare yourself to facebook gloaters. And there will be times where you can feel smug yourself about your double bundles of joy

Ah Polka, I agree - don't feel bad. There's a definite expectation that you should be excited etc but others often don't appreciate that you still have the same old daily grind as well as fulfiling the additional expectations, especially when the babies are v young & have no concept of the celebrations. I think I was looking forward to it last year, but also a bit stressed that we weren't going to end up with the Xmas we wanted (which we didn't). This year should be more successful....

We just have 2 sets of `normal' reins Tarti. They don't necessarily help walk properly, but it does give something else to grab onto if when the need arises. Ds1 has mainly been pretty good at holding hands & walking nicely but ds2 is a monkey & thinks it's hilarious to try to run off the second his feet hit the ground. & they both seem to enjoy dangling from the reins too . They're starting to gang up on me now. Hence me carrying both boys by the reins after they were lollong around in puddles in the peeing rain the other day.They had a huge telling off once I'd gotten then in the car.

Have to report our tree now has bare bits. Ds2 worked out that the parcel decorations we have are foil-wrapped bits of polystyrene (classy). I think he's hoping there might be something interesting in one if he keeps looking.....

We've watched our first `family' films as a family over the last week or so. Boys loved The Polar Express (can't go far wrong if it involves a choo choo train to be fair...) and then Jonny Dep's Charlie / chocolate factory. Looking forward to more over Xmas! i've also bought a Peppa Pig DVD. They must watch it at nursery cos ds2 goes mad when he sees a pic but we've only ever managed to see 1 episode here.

Must think about getting some films; good to hear about ones which went down well. We've er, just invested in a twin-screen DVD player for the car - in anticipation of our drive home in the New Year. £100 on Amazon! Ooh modern technology today, etc etc etc I've bought a Ben & Holly DVD (they LOVE Ben & Holly and some of Juliet's favourite words now seem to be JELLY FLOOD, JELLY FLOOD!) and of course we have the entire oeuvre of Peppa too.

So bloody annoyed this morning. ONLY IN SWITZERLAND - 7.30am on a Sunday morning and some fecker is out clearing snow... woke me up with the shovel scraping along the ground right outside my window.

I cannot WAIT to get them into films.
ALL my nursery was having some work done in the toddler room last week so they shoved all kids in together for a day and they came home with their report card thingie stating they had "enjoyed watching ELf" - wtf?!!? I can't even get them to stare in the direction of Peppa for five consecutive minutes.

Lottie how in God's name were you still asleep at 7.30am - do the girls just lie in until 10ish now they've reached the grand old age of 2?!

Hmm, okay time to fess up. The girls don't wake up until 8am most mornings...

We tried the Gene Wilder Charlie/choc factory today - even taped recorded it to play over & over.... but alas, not so impressed :-(. I have my eye on Wizard of Oz too, and Narnia might go down well with the lion & assorted other animals. MIL is bringing Ice Age 1-4 with her. Dp loves the earlier ones so at least one person will enjoy. Ben & Holly is another we're yet to discover.

I wish nursery would give us more of an insight into what ours do Tarti. We get a piece of paper for each detailing what they've eaten / how much of the main meal, nappy changes & sleep times & requests for more nappies when needed each day but no idea about activities etc other than the days we need to sign the accident book. A few weeks ago we had a sudden appearance of an excercise book for each boy with `home-link diary' written on the front. No explanation til dp asked & was told it was for us to let nursery know stuff. So a few days later I wrote that ds1 had had calpol. We've not seen the diaries since .

Just finished off making our family xmas cards. Was going to do photocards but the boys just dive for the camera as soon as they spot it so it was impossible to get a nice pic of all 3 dressed up and not crying. So.... boys painted the cards a festive grungy blue/brown colour earlier and I've just spent a happy half hour gluing on gift tags, snowflakes and glitter. I loved it but they're so naff they're almost cool .

8am wake-ups must be really useful when you're on your own so much tho Lottie. We've had a few weeks of 6.30am wake-ups & that's really good here. Luckily for me, dp is a morning person so will often do the really early starts tho I need to be up at 6.30 to make sure I get a shower before he leaves for work. Some people need a cuppa to function - with me it's a shower!

Morning all

Thanks everyone, I'm feeling much better about being a scrooge not overly looking forward to Christmas. I can't wait to open their presents with them but I have inlaws coming round in the morning, which means I will have to try and make myself halfway presentable much earlier than I would prefer on Christmas day. Bah humbug!

ALL your Christmas cards sound fab! I wanted to take photos of mine as well (in Santa hats) but have just not had time. I may be doing the same as you next year! I still need to take a nice photo of them to put in frames as part of both sets of parents prezzies, will have to do it asap- have left it so late this year!

Well we've had quite a good weekend, managed to get a little more shopping done. Have also noticed that DS has started using a different voice when 'talking' to DD. Very cute and higher pitched than his usual babbling. This is usually whilst trying to grab her eyes or chomp on her fingers but it's all in an affectionate way, I'm sure! I have to say this is one thing I love about having twins, seeing how they get so excitied with each other and all the cute photo opportunties of holding hands and falling asleep on each other. Makes all the hard work seem even more worthwhile

ALL you are making your own Christmas cards?! With three children including a newborn to look after? I am officially in awe, and also feel really lazy/useless for not even managing to get shop-bought ones and fill them in. I hate the paperwork of Christmas - I never mind wrapping one present or writing one tag, it's just when there are 38,000 to do that i procrastinate and hate it. It would help if my writing wasn't worse than a 5 year old's and everything didn't have to be gone over afterwards to make it clearer!

Gosh LL, so little time before you return to the UK (that comment not intended to make you feel panicked by the way). Are you getting packers in to help? Will dh's work pay for the repatriation costs? Glad to hear the girls' birthday was such fun and also enjoyed by them. I can hardly believe they're two either, I remember joining the Assisted Conception thread just as you were going in for your bed rest. The passage of time is shocking.

Hope R is better tarti. Did you find out if it was slapped cheek?

Hi polka and welcome.

Snotty noses again here (plus ca change...) but they both seem quite cheerful considering. Met up with my twin mum friends yesterday and all the babies were adorably well behaved and festively dressed, it was great fun as a consequence. S didn't manage even a wink of sleep at lunchtime though so by bedtime I had never seen a more tired little boy. He's being gorgeous at the moment with hugs and kisses. R has learned to clap and also boogies a bit when she hears certain tunes. I've got her a little handbell/sleigh bell and a tambourine for her stocking as she loves making noise, and have got them a picture frame to hang on their bedroom wall with numerous apertures that I have filled with Miffy postcards as they love the bright colours and pictures. So much for my initial idea of just getting them a cardboard box and wrapping it up!

Better go - I hear grumblings from upstairs...

Oh, don't be Cerubina. We only made 6 and that was cos the easier option of photocards didn't work out . The boys' contribution was a 15min painting session, strapped into highchairs immediately before tea so we could chuck them straight into the bath after. Then it took me 30mins or so to finish them after boys were in bed / dd was sleeping on dp. They are the only cards we'll be sending too - I don't do cards. I do feel fairly sorted for xmas thiis year but I think knowing I had to post stuff for my family helped, as well as not being at work but still having the boys in nursery p/t. Dp is def more into it this year too & helped with wrapping the other night. He finishes for the hols today so we're popping into town tomorrow as we need to get something extra for his mum. Then just food (& the house...) to sort out. That bit I'm not looking forward to.... FIL is extremely fussy, here for 5 days and we can't just cop out & eat out for most main meals!

DD was weighed yesterday & has gained 3lb in 3 weeks, the little milk monster! She's doing genuine non-windy smiles now too - makes my heart skip a beat .

Hi all, would appreciate any advice/ideas! We are having big problems with my DD going to bed in the evenings. She had colic which seemed to stop at 6 months (7 months now) which was bad in the evenings. We just couldn't put her down so concentrated on getting DS into a bedtime routine, which has been pretty successful- he goes down quite easily at around 7pm. Now we are in the situation where she HATES bedtime. I thought the colic was back as she was arching her back so and screaming, but after a couple of nights I realised it began literally as soon as the lights went down or when I was putting her sleeping bag on. If I try to do any controlled crying she gets really hysterical and she really fights sleep.

It's such a battle- having to rock and sing to sleep for ages every night with lots of crying or give in (I am very guilty of this recently-mostly to try and keep DS away from the noise!) and keep her with me on the sofa downstairs until she's asleep (yet she will still get upset/fight sleep) She's actually usually ok once she's in a deep sleep and tends to do well in the night, it's just getting her into the cot. Any words of wisdom? I know I should be firmer but I find it really difficult

Hi polka are they in a room together? I had sleep problems with my two (well, one and then a couple of weeks later the other) at a similar age and in the end separated them for a few weeks while we sorted it out. If I were you I would first talk to DH about what 'strategy' you want to/can face using - important to agree on this so you're both following the same party line.
Personally I'd go hardcore and be consistent about putting her down, leaving the room and only going back in after a minute or two, soothing her briefly to reassure her you've not totally abandoned her, then leaving again, waiting couple of mins etc etc although be prepared to have to go in a LOT of times for the first couple of nights! .... But I know it's not an approach that appeals to everyone. The thing is, although it is tough on you, it's actually not nearly so bad as the alternative (ie the usual hysterics/rocking and fear of putting down...) and you feel like you have some control because you are only waiting until the minute/two minutes are up before you go back in and see her. I used to sit at the top of the stairs clutching a watch to time myself - God knows why but the watch made me feel better.
DD2 still doesn't go off to sleep as easily as DD1, and to be honest I think she might always struggle with sleep to some extent, but she is perfectly happy in her cot and makes no fuss whatsoever about being put down. And her screaming and writhing around used to be HORRENDOUS. That approach I used worked within about a week.
I'd really try not to bring her downstairs, I totally get that you don't want DS to be disturbed but I think it just confuses them when everything leading up to that point has presumably been calming and getting them wound down and ready for sleep.