The under/over/around 1 Twins thread for support, tips on how to survive and enjoy twin parenthood!

[DreamingOfPeace]

BB3: dcda non id girls Sept 2011 (plus ds)
TwelveLeggedWalk: DCDA DD and DS 14.09.11 (PFBs)
Tiggersreturn twin boys (?!) (plus ds age 5)
Wherearemyearplugs twins (plus ds)
Ceeveebee b/g twins 21.11.11, PFBs
minesapintofwine: non-id boys 02/02/2012. dcs 1&2/pfb on good days.
ClaireMarathonFeeder: Boy/girl twins born 08/02/2012, no3&4, dd1 (2001) and dd2 (2004)
rednellie nonID boys 13.03.2012 + DD 03.02.10
Lemele: id boys (plus ds)
Skitoo : DCDA Non ID Boys, 01.04.12 DC 1&2
DreamingofPeace: dcda non id boys, 4.4.12 DC 2&3 (DD Sept 2010)
beyoglu: dcda non id girls 21.4.12
Bigboobsatlast ID twin boys 30.04.12 DC #2&3 (DD Feb 2010)
Scollister mcda girls 3.5.12 plus DD age 4
Twin2makes4 mcda girls plus 2 ds,age 8 & 4

Again, sorry for mistakes, doing this from my phone!

Settle in ladies :)

Hey minesa have a read of this thread...

Well first day at work over with, all fine. But nanny had a bad day, was walking them in the pram and a stupid cyclist came flying round the corner and clattered them, thankfully were strapped in the pram and no harm done but she was shook up on her first day in charge. Hope she comes back tomorrow!!

ceevee I needed that! Though I admitted told my mum today and she sniggered which is not like her so starting to think it's not so bad! Also your poor nany bless her what an awful thing to happen! Thank god all was ok though. Makes you wonder why we ever leave the house then we eye up the tv cables and wooden floors....

Different note. Am saying my prayers tonight for little April Jones and her family.

hello

thank you so much for all your kind words..., really appreciate your support. today's day 3 of being on my own and its not bad at all but the unpacking has ground to a complete standStill

mines I've also had a fair few crap mother moment, when dtg overturned in the bath with her seat, as the the suction pads will not stick to the bath in the new house

and yesterday I was feeding her while dtb was in his playpen, but out of my sight.. I could hear him crying but his sister was just falling asleep and I didn't want to wke her so by the time I get to him he has been sick all over the playpen...guil guilt guilt, and lots of washing..

dream how's the diarrhea going? hope it's clearing up.

rednellie how are you settling in? hope the excema is getting better and happy belated birthday

ok got to mleave as dtg crying now... might be a while before I'M Back so waving all the others

Hello hello! We're doing alright but our stuff from Canada is turning up on Monday and we have no more room. Our landlady has also informed us that she'll prob be kicking us out after 6 months, which she can but we'd never have moved if we'd known! So another move to look forward to. Bugger

Apart from that all well. The children are all great. I may be joining dream on the dairy free as the doc has drawn a blank on the excema. I just want a referral tbh as I get the feeling the gp knows as much as me.

How's everyone else doing?

Hi all,

I've been back to the doctor's today with DT2, nothing on their stool samples but both still have the diarrhoea. Very deep green and mucousy now. Thought you'd all like to know :) . Went for DT2's chest though. He's coughing and sobbing and wheezing and roasting. Not a chest infection though the GP was a bit concerned about how wheezy he is. to keep a close eye and take him for another listen if any concerns. can I also complain about how much of a pita the GP with twins is?! I have to struggle upstairs (no lift so can't take buggy) holding both my babies and bringing my change bag as it has keys/ phone/ wallet in. FFS. Then make sure I don't drop one til called, struggle in, deposit one or both on couch/ floor. Hmph.

Also, as DT2 is feeding badly and keeps biting me I think I've got either a blocked duct or mastitis :( . Certainly a sore boob, red bit, feel flu-y and a temperature. Great.

What a total pita about another move red, id

Oops, hit post by accident.

Was saying I'd be so frustrated and cross with her for not telling you! Shame the exzema (sp?) isn't improving... My DT2 has been banging on weight, and has caught his brother up, so as faltering growth is a key feature of cmpi I'm told I'm getting quietly optimistic that- fingers crossed- he won't turn out to be cmpi, or will have already outgrown it & then I'll be able to stop the torture of no dairy .

Weaning has stopped here, entirely. They've had no solids for well over a week, and to have nothing til diarrhoea gone. Hurry up!!!

Well done Claire, so pleased you've got your own space and its not a disaster. Unpacking is overrated, it'll happen eventually, probably when you find a nice babysitter to free you up as I've no idea how I'd manage that!

bigboobs, your boys are SO gorgeous. I'm going to try and go ob the computer later and put one up.

Quick post (again) as dts have been napping an hour doubt I'll have much more time!

red thats crap about another possible move. You must feel like you're not really going to settle into this place now. But at least the next move will not be as hard as the epic one you did last (and mines ponders if red is superwoman) it'll be a doddle in comparison! And you will have Christmas and the cold weather out of the way too. Hope they find a solution to your dt's eczema too poor mite .

dream the dr's I work in and the dr's I go to are pita's for double buggies too. Can get throught the main doors (no stairs) but no hope of getting through the dr's office door! I always take someone but leaves you feeling a bit crap doesn't it? well done on carrying the 2 together though! I have only ever done this a handful of times at home only have never mastered it. TBH it was quicker to get them about one at a time! I do hold them together sometimes if dh putting up pushchair etc but have to be passed one..and they are soooo heavy!

bigboobs just had a nosey at your pic aww they are georgeous! I'm also that that bowl is still intact on highchair no way would my dts leave that alone! (think many many messes to clean up).

Ok I am very very nervous. It's my sil b'day today and she wants my family in law to all go for a meal. We can't get a sitter (il all at meal ) and I love her to bits don't want to miss out. So tonight me and dh are doing that thing of bedtime routine, babygrows, bottle, car seat and hopefully will sleep at meal booked for 7pm.

I'm scared! I know this is silly though. We had a bad experience once but this is different! I'm thinking even if they don't sleep I can handle that and there will be lots of helpful folks! We can always leave a bit earlier too. I suppose my main concern is if they kick off in a pretty naice restaurant in the evening will the other diners be pissed off? I suspect yes. You know what I'm not going to let that bother me will just try and deal with whatever comes and being stressed and nervous is not going to help-it's meant to be an enjoyable thing! Trying to guve myself a little pep talk here. Oh the things kids put us through. Bet you lot can't wait to hear what happens! (and will laugh and say I told you so when it all goes wrong!-actually I know you won't laugh you're a lovely bunch of peeps!).

So it appears my prayers have gone unheard this time for a poor little girl and her family. I know it's a different thread and irrelevent but why why would some one do this? It's so close to home too. I said to dh the other night I was so releaved (sp?) my lo's were tucked up safely in their beds .

Not that quick after all. Dts still asleep! Must have been the speedy shop round the supermarket earlier wore them out!

So funny mines hope the dinner goes ok, but I feel like you, I hate attracting attention at the best of times, and having two crying babies in a restaurant is hell!! The one good thing about Italy though is tgat most people will go aww rather than tut, so you dont feel soo bad I but I still do

Rednellie not another move! I'd have lost the will to leave, I never ever want to move again but will have to as we're renting!!

bigboobs, your boys are gorgeous and I have the same highchairs

*live not leave !!

I have lost the will to live. I lose it several times a day! Seriously though I've got so beyond stress now that I'm becoming tefflon coated. You are right though mines it has sort of put me off making an effort.

Ps don't worry about restaurant. If it's that bad you can leave! But I'm sure you won't have to.

Ok really beginning to struggle now... 5 months is turning out to be a challenging age. Fight sleep during the day so spending so much time trying to get them to sleep only for them to wake 30mins later , still tired and grumpy. And then bedtimes involve a ridiculous amount of parting shushing jiggling cuddling rocking. I would feed them to sleep if only tthat

Posted too soon.... if only that bloody worked.
How how how do I get to the stage where I can put awake babies in their cots and leave them to happily fall asleep on their own? I feel so inadequate as never ever achieved this with dd but I NEED to achieve it with the DTs.

Sorry feeling a bit fed up. I should man up
really as know some of you deal with so much more

Waves to all and sorry for me me me

bigboobs, as I never did well with naps for DD, though she did self settle at night from about 9 months I only do pushchair naps for the dts. So even if we're in, I get the buggy out of the car, push them in the garden, or if very, very lucky rock them in the porch. Then the last few days I listen out for them and instigate urgent rocking when they start stirring after 30 minutes and have amazingly had 2 hr naps out of them!!! Mind, they are ill, coughing, DT2 wheezing, still got the blinking diarrhoea... Night time DT2 will sometimes go in his cot with comforter and white noise cd. DT1 I have to lie in my bed and feed him to sleep then effect The Transfer to his cot. So god knows!!!
Mine were 26 weeks this week, I'm finding they get bored quickly but they won't go on their tummy-DT2 howls, DT1 can roll straight off onto his back, can't sit yet, want constant entertaining... Which means I get fed up, take DD out puddle stamping or something so even more time in the buggy for the boys so even less developing motor skills time, argh!!
So no answers, just to say I'm no wiser at this than you :)

well we did it! It wasn't too bad the dts didn't sleep at all though were blatantly tired! They weren't grumpy though thank god dt2 did scream once or twice! I wouldn't rush to do it again though as can't say I found it enjoyable I was constantly on edge and as the dts were out of their car seats they were wriggling around and grabbing at everything. Plus the place was packed and no other children there at all! I know I'm daft but it could have been much worse!

bigboobs don't worry I'm me me me all the time! I have been wanting to say this but didn't want to put those with younger babies off. Basically though things were easier at the hallmark 3 months I found 5-6 months got quite hard again. They changed their nap routine and I had to find out what the new one was. I don't know if this would work but I started keeping them up longer in the day they went from naps every 2 hours to every 2 1/2-3 hours. We found a new routine it took about 3 weeks though. Babies change their patterns so much I feel when this happens it's so easy to get sucked in and stresssed over it that it's best to calm down, go for walks/drives etc. Though my dts sleep most naps in their cots (they don't sleep much in pushchair etc so if we have a day out naps just happen when we get in) I love a long drive in the rain with two snoring babies! I'm mad me. Oh and they did change their pattern again at 8 months feels like we barely had a routine there! Regarding them falling asleep in their cots we do have a teeny tiny nap routine but if theyre tired they should fall asleep after a little grump anyway.

bigboobs my DD was same as yours and I never did suss thevdaytime naps. However with the dts I tried the whole thing of putting them down in the dark in their cots and self settling. The pre-requisites were that it would have to be after they'd been awake for at least an hour and a half, they'd fed, I'd changed them, they'd had a play/stimulation and they'd started fussing.

The first day I did it I had to go back in twice, but after that tgeyvtotally got it. I was gobsmacked. After weeks of feeding asleep then attempting transfers -it was like revelation. They still wake in the night, but they always have a two hour nap in the a.m. and then another shorter one in the p.m.

mines I am grateful that you didn't say anything about it getting harder at 5/6 months as I'd have gone round the bend a couple of months ago! But I agree - every day I'm up and down like an effing puppet trying to make sure they have at least one longish nap, replacing dummies and shoogling at 45 mins when they inevitably wake up. We've got a 3 naps a day "routine" going on but DT2 is constantly moany at the moment and like dream's ones they both need constant entertainment at the moment. Both want to do stuff they're not physically able to yet. Feeding schedule is slowly starting to fall apart as they are hungry ALL THE TIME and I doubt they are going to sleep through the night now before they go onto solids. I was thinking of delaying till they were 6 months corrected but now thinking to start at 6m actual which is only 3 weeks' difference, but have read around and apparently it's actual age that counts as they start needing more iron etc... not sure how this is supposed to fit in with BLW though as don't they just wave bits of carrot around for the first couple of weeks? (So I'm thinking maybe I need to feed them some mushy stuff for the first couple of weeks, but I don't know. Also DT1 at least looks like the ideal BLW candidate because I made them a bit of porridge yesterday just to see and she wouldn't let me put the spoon in her mouth but instead grabbed it off me and licked the porridge off, and then when the spoon was clean she grabbed her bib and licked the porridge off that had landed on it!) We also desperately need to get them out of the swaddle and into sleeping bags before they start turning in the nighttime as well as daytime, and we're trying to adjustt hem towards GMT, and they have started waking earlier in the morning too...

La la la la. Once I start feeding them solids they are going to cheer up immensely and sleep through the night and I will be able to watch Homelands on a Sunday night with a glass of wine. Yes. Just let me live in my little dream world for a moment, it's lovely in here.

Also my OH is back after leaving me with his inlaws for 5 sodding days. THANK THE LORD. I've told him that's the last time he's allowed to go away until they go to school.

Daytime napping. My least favourite subject at the moment. For some reason my DTs have decided that daytime naps are for losers and they want to stay awake all day. Am sure they just feel unsettled after holiday and my return to work, but their nanny was exhausted by end of Thursday as they had both stayed awake from 10am to 7pm. They get put in their cots but just stand or kneel up talking and laughing to each other. Yesterday DTD had 1/2 hour all day, and neither of them have napped so far today despite being walked in pram for an hour and a half with snooze shades, and they gave been in cots upstairs for 1/2 hour and both still awake. Have just seperated to opposite sides of room. Might have to get blackout canopies for cots. Any tips from Twelve or anyone else with older twins gratefully received!!

Oh good skills red, I'm impressed. I have put mine down at the normal load-em-in-the-buggy nap time when both are fretful and tired. I have run up and down for 20-30 minutes, shush patting and reassuring til the crying is making me lose the plot. It has never worked. It never worked with DD and i wasted hours of my time trying. I do not breed good sleepers :) . No routine here, though I'm aiming for a shorter a.m nap and longer after-lunch nap. However today the dts were so, so dreadful in the night that Dh took them out in the buggy at 4am as I cried was losing the will to live, so then DT2 slept in til 9am, DT1 up normal time, DT2 has had a long morning nap, DT1 catnapped and is asleep now... Argh!!! I'm awed by those with both dts in the same routine!!!

Good for you for attempting the meal minesa . Nothing's the same after children hey?! At least they weren't grumpy.

Love it beyoglu, I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than have the in laws here for 5 days, you've done well!!! From what I have read, at 6 months babies need food, iron and other deficiencies can occur otherwise. Something I read said up to 20% of ebf babies are affected by anaemia after 6 months old. I desperately wanted to start weaning before 6 months so they are actually eating something once they reached that age, but here we are, in ever lasting diarrhoea hell, so I've stopped all weaning til their tummies settle down. And they are now 6 months. And gagging for food, trying to grab it from my plate etc. Would be mad to add new foods onto upset guts though :( . I have also just bought a second hand jumperoo for £35 from a fb selling page, for hopefully easing the entertainment load...even though its yet another thing to delay their development

dream they have been here for THREE WEEKS. They came in late yesterday tho so OH and I had already installed ourselves in front of the TV with bolognese from the freezer and The Great British Bake-Off on the Sky box. Ah, small, specific pleasures! Neither of us even bake. But we're addicted. I've just done my last on duty night (6 effing nights! Massive respect to breastfeeders.)
Yeah I read some stuff this morning on Sciencedaily(?) suggesting that the government is about to change its recommendation about delaying weaning to 6 months for that reason and also because there is a window for them getting used to the bitter taste of green vegetables. Anyway I can't take the whingeing from DT2 any longer. We are going to the supermarket and getting all sorts of meaty mush and I guess some broccoli too! Yesterday I mashed her half a banana and she sucked it down like a starving woman. And they had some baby rice and some carrot to play with (not all at the same time!) DT1 is still grabbing the spoon and licking it herself so we'll call that baby led weaning for now...

Ach dream it's not like you're going to leave them in the jumperoo all day! I say that, we inherited one, and they both love it. I figure if I had another pair of hands I'd be bouncing them up and down in my arms much more and the jumperoo basically does that. Anyway, that's one of two things that will always bring DT2 out of a bad mood - the other is a vtech bear with the most irritating voice I've ever heard. It's like it was designed to annoy adults, but whenever I put it on those two are like "oh! Who is that lovely person?" Smiles all round. Bloody babies.

Oh god, I've been away for aaages havent I!
Bigboobs your boys are gorgeous!

Hit return too soon...
Ceevee on the nap front I'm just pretty matter of fact about the whole thing - watch for the first sign of eye rubbing/thumb sucking, then into the cot for each of them (even if the other one is pretty perky), lights out, door closed fingers crossed. There might be a couple of minutes of grizzling but I reckon it works around 80-90 per cent of the time, especially in the mornings.
Afternoons they tend to sleep for longer and more happily if we're out in the buggy, so I tend to do that when possible. That's probably not much help is it!

Impressed by the evening meal Mines - never tried that, only once at a wedding reception when they both were asleep in their buggy after one of the most epic meltdowns of all time

Passes to all with ILs staying, and to whoever invented the Jumparoo.

It's wilfulness that is the problem here - won't be changed, won't be dressed, won't sit in the bath, won't sit in the pushchair, won't eat things previously enjoyed, won't won't won't. Arrgh! It's like we skipped one year old and went straight to terrible twos!

Anyone got any thoughts about having twins sleeping in separate rooms? DH got up this morning from an on duty night swearing blind that he will never again let DT1 share a room with either him or DT2! They're fast approaching 6 months so could move a cot now... DT1 is a noisy sleeper so it would make sense, but I'm concerned about trying to feed them in the night as I do tandem bottle feed in the cots.

We don't have a Jumperoo just cheap activity centres. They are both different though so I can alternate. And hell if they like it so what? My dts spend loads of time playing with that annoying vtech bear beyou and various other irritating noisy toys though the batteries have gone in half of them and mysteriously cannot be replaced and also in the activity centres. Their development is fine dream and will be even if you try to delay them (which of course you won't but you yswim?). When they get grumpy they crawl around my floor and it's all good.

Don't think I am brave enough to have two rooms beyou but I say whatever works for you! You could try it and put them back if it doesn't work out. The dts do disturb each other though I'm quite quick at grabbing them from a nap. (dt2 has been up for 45mins so far whilst dt1 has been napping for an hour and a half). Also in the days before cc I found it easier to comfort two together in the same room.

ceevee how many naps do your dts have? now they are older maybe they are dropping one? roll on when they go to school!

3 1/2 weeks of maternity leave left not that I'm counting or anything!

Oops dt1 awake apologies to anyone missed...