Double Duty in the First 2 Months: Making Life Easier for Mom
Author: Stef Daniel
When you bring your twins home from the hospital, you may feel a sense of being overwhelmed. This really goes without saying. Chances are your twins are a bit smaller than the 'standard' baby, and their needs, especially feeding, will be more encompassing in the first few weeks. While most babies need to eat every 3-4 hours, twins will need to eat around every hour and a half in the very beginning. This is often complicated by the fact that many twins born a few weeks early, do not have properly developed sucking muscles and will require special attention during feeding. You, like most mothers of twins, will have tons of help in the immediate days and weeks following birth. However, after the 3 to 4 week mark, your twins are no longer an event to everyone else, and you will at some point find yourself caring for them alone! Stay calm, and realize right now that the first month or two is the easiest you will ever have it!
One person can effectively care for newborn twins. The best thing (and only thing) to do is to get them on a routine or schedule of doing everything at the same time. Feed them bottles at the same time, give their baths one right after the next, and even do diaper changes in tandem. If one baby wakes up to feed at 2am and the other seems peaceful- wake the other up anyways and give them a bottle. By doing everything at the same time, you will actually be giving yourself more time to rest and ensuring that you won't spend 24 hours a day tending to a newborn. If there is any advice a new mom of twins MUST follow, this tidbit is IT! Maintain a consistent and simultaneous schedule of everything for both babies.
The easiest way to bottle feed or nurse two babies at once is to sit in a full size recliner that has arms. As cute as the nursery rockers and gliders are, they are just too small for a mother of twins. Put one in each arm and prop them up using your arms, wrapping your hand around their head to hold the bottle. At first, this may seem cumbersome, but in a few days, you will be a pro. When one needs a burp, simply dislodge both from eating, and burp them one right after the other. Chances are you will have one twin that is a gulper while the other one can barely stay awake during the feeding. When it's over, you will have time to hold and rock two sleeping angels, and when you are ready you can transport them to the crib to sleep. Guess what, after that you get to enjoy some time for yourself!
The best way to bathe twins is together! Allow one to be resting peacefully in their bouncy seat while the other gets the sink bath, and then switch. This way they can be dried, diapered, and dressed together. Giving baths this way only takes about 15 minutes once you become a pro and avoids bath time being an all day event. Make sure you keep all the supplies you need in a handy basket to be as efficient as possible. Dress them together afterward, and then start a routine of having some floor time in the living room for a brief period of stimulation.
While it might be difficult at first, ensuring that their sleeping schedule is simultaneous can be a life saver. This will take a bit of waking up one and prodding another to sleep. If one wakes up, wake the other and vice versa. The point is that if you don't, you will have not one minute throughout your day (and night) where there isn't a baby in your arms. You will be effectively wearing yourself out and wearing your nerves very thin. Twins easily adapt to each other's schedules, and for this reason, many seasoned twin moms urge using one crib in the beginning. In order to keep up with the demands of any newborn, the parents must get a rest. If you pull double duty with everything in the first few weeks of life, you will effectively get time between duties to relax or at least do the mountains of laundry piling up in the nursery!
From the word GO, make sure that you allow yourself time to care for your twins alone. Certainly, lots of people will want to help, but discourage round the clock assistance. The longer it takes you to hone your mothering skills and develop a routine, the more apprehensive you will feel caring for your babies. Once you have a sense of control and order, invite whomever to come and help or stay a while; but insist, especially in the first few months, that the schedule you have created remains the rule! In the long run, this will make you a better, happier parent and will ensure that you feel confident that twins are really not that much of a handful. Keep in mind as well, that this truly is one of the easiest times in your maternal life because your babies will sleep the majority of the time. Enjoy it as much as possible!
