Under 1s twin post-natal group? Should we have one? Who's in?!

[PeelingmyselfofftheCeiling]

The antenatal group is nearly full, any graduates fancy joining forces to compare

And your post made more sense, I'm fumbling in the dark too

Dreaming, that puts everything into perspective. And I 'm glad you are seeing a way through without having to spend all that dosh!

Ooh, x posts. Hurray ceevee, sounds fabulous, only a few more weeks til then for me :)

dreaming, bigboobs, thanks girls - makes me feel a lot better! You're right, of course. I'm still concerned that mine aren't drinking enough - average about 90ml, every 3 hours - but I just realised they drink the amount it says on the formula box for their weight not their age. They are just little, that's the way it is. I'm not very big myself...

Mine just drank about 100ml each and the promptly up-chucked about half (on me and sofa). so the amount they actually consume changes all the time!

Oh god I hate that bigboobs. We sit on a towel on the sofa now, couldn't handle washing the cushions twice a week...

Oh beyoglu my DD (and it looks like my boys) are all 25centilers and there's no shifting them even when they've been on my boobs for about four thousand hours. I think both DH and my families are lithe and that's what our children are, it's why I stopped going to HVs as they always made me worry over weight and there was never anything to worry about. (and when I say lithe, there is a qualification - DH's family stay lithe, mine are lithe until they have frigging babies and then we develop into something closer to large....) I've still got the most horrible looking belly. I know its done a wonderful job, I should be proud of it, no one cares etc etc, but my body has undergone such a huge change from being the skinny wench I was to being a very motherly looking person (nice way of putting it), and sometimes I have a really hard time not letting it get me down. I've realised now, it's easy to have a good body self image when you've got a good body...

I'm shattered today. No excuse really as the boys are continuing on their 5 hour stints of sleep at night and are getting much easier to settle. I think I've just hit a wall and because DD doesn't nap I'm 'on' all the time. If they didn't all go to bed at 7pm I'd go a bit barmy I think. dream I'm glad DH has stepped up - it really is sooooo much easier when there are two of you to settle. Oh and I did bedtime on my own again last night - horrific! I fully expected the neighbours to report me for child cruelty as there was screaming crying from all 3 for about and hour and a half non-stop. Unfortunately DH came back and the boys were feeding, DD was in her pjs and quietly cuddling up to me whilst I read her a book so he wont believe me about how awful it was!!!

On the food front, I have a secret snack cupboard which has pick n mix sweets, Rita Dark Chocolate and lots of strange biscuits. However, I am blessed with a husband who cooks and so I do get hot meals. He even makes them up at the weekend, freezes batches and then tells me what he's put out to defrost each day . I really shouldn't have complained about him should I? DD wont eat anything very grown up despite all me blw efforts and how good she was before she was 2. But she does eat well - just lots of things like scrambled eggs, pasta pesto etc rather than a roast dinner or curry! Dried apricots and rice cakes are a big fave in our house and I'm still getting green veg in her via the smoothies I make (which I sometimes think are the only things that get me through the day: frozen spinach, berries, peanut butter, milk, yogurt, banana and blitz). I still spend most of my life stressing about what she's eating though. It's never ending this parental guilt thing.

And bigboobs, I spent all the first 9 weeks of the DTs lives silently worrying that they weren't smiling and imaging all sorts of things wrong with them. You can't stop them now - they'll smile at a lamppost so keep calm and don't fret yet. xxx

Sorry everyone, this turned into a long un - got a bit carried away.

Red, I feel your pain, have been sorting through my old clothes recently and have about 3 bin bags full of clothes that I don't think I will ever get back into so am sending to charity shop. And I still can't get my wedding rings back on 7 months down the line!

How is the move going? Did you get my pm?

You know ceeveebee, I'm an idiot - been reminding myself to check daily and completely forget each time. Will reply later.

red, I am similar- my tummy, while having produced lovely children- is now gross. More Wretch marks than I care to consider, loose skin and still look about 20 weeks pg (with one!) . I know part is my split stomach muscles but as I can't get my colicky boys to bed for anything like 7pm, more like 10pm, never mind DD, I have no time to do the exercises ( rubbish excuse, I know...). Plus, willpower has deserted me and i keep being a complete glutton with chocolate etc.. and can't get out of the habit of chocolate after breakfast too . I have only got about 5lb to lose but all from my stomach, it won't happen like this and i can't help being a bit :( about it. especially since I was asked when #4 was due...

My groclock has been dispatched according to amazon :) . Hope it works. I should make DD smoothies though I've tried nesquik to get her to drink milk, unsuccessfully . I doubt she'd drink it but at least is have tried.

Wretch?! *stretch

I think wretch marks is a very apt description!

My tummy looks like the jowls on one of those hang dog dogs with my herniated belly button as its nose.

Just saying.

confessions of a tired parent:
Oh dear. I was entirely unreasonable last night when both babies were refusing to settle around 3am. Dh did quite a lot of helping for a pretty long time although he's meant to get his sleep on a work night. I will be surprised if he is still talking to me this morning, I was horrible... And he has to go to work.

Love it rednellie, & the smiling at a lamppost too

Dream, please don't feel bad - I am sure he understands what tiredness does to someone. I am horrible to my DH most of the time - and he gets up for every feed with me, every night - so is pretty much as tired as I am - but obviously no one is as tired as me in my house, thats the rule.

I got back to my pre-pregnancy weight - but have started putting weight ON again! I am sat here eating chocolate malted milks for breakfast so shouldn't be too surprised. Healthy eating starts...... MONDAY!!!!!

So, how was DH this morn Dream? I hope he was understanding. You probably weren't that horrible anyway :)

No no, I was horrible (as i also am most of the time at the minute...) and he was lovely, just fine about it while rushing for work at least, I wonder about this evening so I feel even worse!!! And of course no-one could possibly be more tired than you or me. Perish the thought! My dh can trick me into thinking he's ok with things, like my mashing of family car into gatepost on my birthday last Friday and he brought up how shit the car looks at 4:30am on Wednesday night and whether we should leave it or get a quote for repairing it?!! I didn't dare mention the door handle is actually loose but managed to control my temper- hard at 4:30- and suggest it wasn't the time to discuss it & there's no point fixing it, I'm bound to do it again

I have had another 2 chocolate rolls as a pre breakfast snack at 6am, then a big breakfast with DD. . I'll join in bigboobs, healthy eating from Monday as long as the birthday chocolate is all gone

Monday it is then Deam - make the most of now and eat eat eat!!!! You should still eat eat eat actually as you are bf-ing and need those calories!

Two great things have happened today- I have won a competition - and I have officially joined local Twins Club and they are the most friendly bunch and there are twin Mums just 5 mins from me! Really excited about going to twin group next week and then meeting up for walks with neighbouring Mums. Feel like my social life is going to get a bit better again!

Competition is just tickets (to Hampton Court Palace RHS Flower Show) - and we probably won't even be able to go - but really chuffed anyway - and will be a lovely pressie for my parents :)

If only the sun would shine as well....

Oh Oh Oh, and another thing... we are going to look at a new car!!!!!! A 7 seater Zafira. Second hand obvs. Any one any views on said car? we were not looking for a new car but one was for sale (via the twin club) so thought we would look at it......

What a day!

Dh complaining of complete exhaustion as the dts were up every 90 mins last night. It's totally wrong to be smug and say 'see?!' isn't it?! I'm still sorry I was horrible last night but its so nice that he's finding the nights as impossible as me...

bigboobs, what a great day!! Very lucky to win a competition, and i am very jealous of your twins club. I hope your local mum is lovely :) . You have inspired me. Tonight I will text this twin mum with one year olds... Don't know much about zafiras but 7 seaters can do plenty damage being driven into gateposts I've found...

Ooooh bigboobs, you'll have to tell us about the Zafira. We're still trying to work out what to buy. I totally want a VW Transporter but as we're going to be in London for a bit it's not really practical.

dream, I think roping in your DH has been a brilliant idea. They can't really understand until they do it too. But still, let's hope those boys start getting more sleep soon, for everyones sakes.

Am I allowed a third cup of coffee? Is the benefit I'll get from it worth passing on the caffeine to the boys? Decisions decisions...

Yay for you getting more husband help dream. Also yay that getting a bit of sleep didn't make you feel worse like it sometimes does...

Re cooking, we were so lucky and had meals made for us for the first 2 weeks, organised by our curate :) boy did I miss it when it stopped! Especially since I'm diabetic so have to at least eat something vaguely decent at mealtimes. :( Thankfully our new routine of DH cooking at lunch works well, but I feel my body really craving fruit/veg and I just don't eat enough, t's all junk really. Having hypos doesn't help either!

My twins have (well toby has, therefore I try to keep jacob 'in tune') started feeding every TWO hours now. It was every 4/5, then every 3, now 2! Boo hiss. I hope it's a phase/growth spurt. Though tbh as long as I know what we're doing it's not too frustrating coz I can still plan around it...ish. My mum was reaaly helpful and said 'of course they're feeding more often, they only feeds 10 mins each'. She won't believe that that's the longest they'll usually feed for!

On a random note, anyone else have trouble talking later on in the day?? I seriously struggle to get coherent words out sometimes, as well as telling my DS that an elephant is a cow, and other bizarre nonsense. To be fair, it was blue.

Also, to whoever said about being tanned coz of so many trips out as attempts to calm the babies - is there anyone who ISN'T?

Had a bit of a down period today and last night, which was mostly kicked off when the DH came home from work yesterday - I'd had a frazzled day/evening, done loads of extra tidying, only managed to grab some toast for tea nearly 2 hours after I should have eaten, etc, and my DH comes home from work, looks at our new internet data usage graph and immediately gets angry that I've apparently used tons of data. It turns out that a PC game had been downloading background data (I'd foolishly opened it earlier in the day in the vague hope of playing for 5 mins but hadn't got past the log in screen!!! But it had apparently started downloading a big update.) Yeah, thanks for the lovely welcome, thanks for taking the twins off me and making me a cuppa... anyway apparently it brought back a bit of a depressed episode like I had sometimes in the pregnancy (also had post-natal depression with my DS) which I hadn't had for ages. So currently feeling a bit rubbish. I somehow managed to persuade myself to just keep calm and carry on, and it sort of worked, just shove it under the carpet, y'know...!

ceevee that is a lovely image of twins playing :) trying not to fast forward in my mind

Yes guys tummies are something I wanted to ask about... Mine is disgusting, billions of stretch marks, loose skin, etc. But that I kinda expected. However around my belly button I have quite dark brown rough skin that is just horrible. It doesn't look like something that is going to go away though :( anyone else have anything similar? It's similar to the line you get down your tummy though mine was invisible til after they were born coz my skin was so stretched! That said I still have the line so hoping they'll both fade together at somepoint soon...

Another ramble from me, sorry.. bed soon, once jacob finishes his feed..

lemele have been reading your post with interest as reckon I wrote half of it at least! How old are your dts? Im thinking hoping the growth spurt thing going on here too as dts 1 has started to wake in night for a bottle again tho tb fair they did both sleep thru last night again (sorry dream dont look tho it will happen for you too very very soon), My dts are 20 weeks does this sound normalish for 20 weeks maybe cos weaning is coming etc?!?

Also I always get a bit frazzled tired as day goes on by about 5pm I was downing pro plus and everything and yea red walking and talking was not happening much if either ! [grin}. Seem to be ok now its true you get used to it=the sleepless nights, the early mornings, the lots of crying, the taking ages to leave the house etc even if you dont want to....

And lemele you described my belly exactly . Really not sure what to do have cut down a teeny bit but its not fat its postnatal muffin top!!! Was also going to do some sit ups but saw something on tv that said it can make it worse so now dont know what to do! Im away on a birthday weekend for my friend next week and Im just packing my control pants is all Im saying maybe I should name change next week to peelmeoutoftheseknickers!!

Oo and umm.. sorry( I think) it was me and beyou that was showing our tans off but thats cos were celts and dont get much sun (beyou you are def a scot!) relax though the sun has gone my tan has peeled and the raincovers are battened down -sucks to be me lol...

waving at you all have a gooooddddd sleep!!! xx

Oh I make up words willy nilly. Even DH has started using odd words in normal sentences. God knows what DD's language is going to be like if we're her major influence! Luckily, right now she speaks with the Queens English and is a bit like a sergeant major bossing everyone around.

bigboobs, was also going to say I feel for you with DD. Mine's defo had occasionally emotional outbursts that I think are related to all the pressure she's been under. Having said that we've made huge steps forward - whole days have gone by where she's not hit or bitten anyone and she is being so loving to them. I can even let the boys lie on the floor now without any imminent danger to their lives.

Lemele - that weird skin is weird and I had it after giving birth. However, I gave it a really good (read 'incredibly violent') scrub and a lot of it came off. So I then just exfoliated like a mad woman and it's definitely improved the tone of it. My issue isn't so much the stretch marks, its the diastasis recti that sucks. Mine that might be what you've been hearing about - it's basically when the bit of tissue (the linea alba, natch) that connects your abs gets so stretched that it wont go back and so you get a semi-permanent pregnant belly. You can reduce the gap with exercise (like the ones dream is avoiding ) and physio. Sometimes the gaps so big you'll never get back to totally flat, but you can improve it a lot. And yeah, doing crunches and anything that makes your tummy dome is a BAD IDEA. Look up exercises for the Transverse Abdominus and that's sort of what you should be doing.

I had a cry today, so there you go, we're all having a cry together. I didn't even really have anything to cry about. It was raining, I'd just about convinced myself to get everyone ready to leave the house and then I couldn't get the buggering rain cover on the buggering buggy to work and so I had a massive paddy and went back in to the house, shut the door and put Sesame Street on instead. Harrumph.

Morning! DH was on duty so I'm waiting for him and the girls to wake up, had to get up at 6 to see my mother off (she's travelling back to Glasgow today and then MIL coming on Wednesday. I'm slightly in denial about what that's going to be like, given that I find it hard enough sharing a house with my mother. La la la I'm sure it'll be great.)

Who was saying the thing about forgetting words? I find it so frustrating when I'm feeding a small one and asking OH/mum to do something and I can't point or remember the word! Yesterday morning OH came into the girls' room while I was feeding one of them and asked some question about the night's feeding that required me to tell him how the whole night went and I just had to say, look, don't ask me, I'm too tired to remember the words. I do 4 nights in a row during the week (he works 4 days just now, and takes the girls 3 nights) and on the day before the 4th night I get really down, and then on the day after I'm happy but totally mental because I've had so little sleep. Really hoping the small ones are going to stretch out their feeds a bit soon so I can get some more sleep in those nights. They did another 4 hour stint on Thursday I think, which helped.

I might be starting to see the point of baths in the evening routine, because yesterday I bathed the girls before we went for their 8 week checkup and imms and they were so relaxed through the checkup it wasn't real. DT1 was even smiling at the doctor! And then at the actual immunisations they were stoic, even DT2 who's the sensitive one just cried for like half a minute and then was fine. DT1 was eating less than usual yesterday afternoon, crying when I tried to re-offer her the bottle rather than just clamping her mouth shut like she usually does when she's finished, and was a bit sick after the 4 and 7pm feeds but my mum tells me she took the 10.30 feed without yelling. So maybe she's through it.

OK I hear yelling, must go... wanted to say re tummies, mine is a war zone, I look like one of those people who's had a gastric band fitted and lost 10 stone...

beyoglu, mine love their bath, DT1 particularly, but just lying naked waiting for his bath calms DT2 down. As he's still colicky he's always crying before the bath, but for the 30 minutes of getting both undressed, bathed and into babygros he doesn't cry (well, he does at getting re-dressed)

lemele, I've not been depressed so can't know exactly what you're going through, but I'm getting the self doubt and worry and feeling low sometimes and that's hard enough. Doing all those evenings by yourself must be so difficult, you're doing a wonderful job. Mine are feeding 2 hourly mostly, only feed for 10 minutes and my mum says exactly the same Bound to be a growth spurt.

rednellie, last night I finally managed a whole 10 minutes of exercises :) . I agree, its the diastasis and pregnant belly appearance that's worst. At least no one need know about your stretch marks unless you tell them, or god forbid, show them! And i need to put much, much more effort into my pelvic floor since feeling too fit and doing way too much lifting post CS has brought back my problems from my first delivery... Not incontinence, just what I thought was a prolapse but is in fact just a bulge. Urgh. As a previously very fit person and a runner in my pre-children life its a lot bit rubbish

Dh was up very briefly at 3am with me (as it was only one baby awake and he just got up to go back to bed in the boxroom) and got up with DT1 at 5:45 but is so knackered. Don't think his helping will last long, but to be fair he has a stressful and busy day job. I did ok for sleep though- DT1 up at 3am, DT2 at 4:15, from finally getting the colicky one down at 11 so I had a 4 hour sleep :) . Couldn't get DT1 fully settled til 15 min before DT2 up, then DT1 up for the day by the time DT2 settled but as dh got up and I went back to bed at 6am for another hour I feel ok.

minesa love the control knickers inspiration for a name change :) . I need to get inspired with my exercises or get some ready for a wedding in August...

bigboobs, what did you think of the car? Am eating for England ready for Monday!! Missing the point I'm sure, packing in take away curry etc now but hey ho.

Oh, and when, when will I get my evenings back?! DT1 is actually asleep, but DT2 is fretting etc as per usual and DD is shouting.. 8:25pm. Wouldnt be so bad if i could just cuddle DT2 but its all about the walk and jig...