Another Point for the Girls

As you know, Bernard and I have been splitting up the nights–he takes care of the girls until around 3 to 4 am, then I take over. This way, we can each get some uninterrupted sleep. The only problem is that it’s hard taking care of two babies by yourself, and this morning was especially hard.

I woke up at 3:45 am to the sounds of Eleanor crying. When I picked her up from her crib, I noticed that Miranda was stirring as well, so I knew I would have to work fast. I quickly changed her diaper, warmed up a bottle, and started feeding her. About one ounce into her bottle, Miranda started crying. I picked up Eleanor and went back to the nursery. Luckily, Eleanor burped during our walk to check on Miranda. Now, there are times when you can soothe Miranda and she’ll go back to sleep, but this wasn’t one of those times. She was crying loud and hard, so I put Eleanor in her car seat, and starting warming a bottle for Miranda.

While I was feeding Miranda, I was worried that Eleanor would start crying in the car seat. This happens often when they’re both hungry at the same time, and Eleanor had had only one ounce. But Eleanor was sitting calmly in her car seat looking at me feeding Miranda. Then, all of a sudden, her face turned bright red, and I heard the tell-tale sounds of a bowel movement. I kept calmly feeding Miranda, watching Eleanor turn all shades of red while she was straining. At least she wasn’t crying, I thought. My only worry was that she would stain her outfit, and eventually the car seat cover. Meanwhile, Miranda was sucking down her entire four ounce bottle.

Now, we usually burp Miranda halfway through her bottle, but I was so busy paying attention to Eleanor that Miranda had finished her bottle before I could take it out of her mouth. I quickly lifted Miranda onto my shoulder, burped her, then noticed that she had dribbled onto her outfit a little. Meanwhile, Eleanor had stopped straining, gave a small look of displeasure, but then fell asleep. I was relieved because I thought she would start screaming for me to change her right away. I took the opportunity I had while Eleanor was asleep to grab a new outfit and warm washcloth to clean up Miranda a little. This was my fatal mistake. While I was cleaning Miranda under her neck and moving her this way and that way to put on a new outfit, Miranda suddenly vomited what seemed like her entire four ounce bottle. The milk sprayed all her her outfit, my outfit, the couch, and the rug. I’m surprised it didn’t hit Eleanor who was sleeping in her car seat at my feet.

At this point, I had to prioritize who and what to clean up first–me, Miranda, the couch/floor, and there was still Eleanor who was sleeping in her poopy diaper. Well, I put Miranda on a big towel and wrapped her a little since she was in wet clothes, then I took a shower, cleaned the couch and the rug, and finally gave Miranda a bath. The whole time Miranda was just calmly looking around–she rarely gets upset when she spits up–she even enjoyed her second bath of the night.

By this time it was 6 am. Miranda started to look a little drowsy, although I knew she would be hungry again soon since she spit up all that milk. But I had to finally take care of Eleanor. So I put Miranda into her car seat, and woke up Eleanor to change her diaper. Luckily she didn’t get her outfit or the car seat cover. But I did notice that her outfit was the same one from the day before which means that Bernard didn’t give her a bath (we usually each give one of the girls a bath), and since she had just had a large messy bowel movement, I gave Eleanor a bath too.

After Eleanor’s bath, both of the girls were wide awake and hungry again. Remember, Eleanor had only had one ounce at 3:45 am and Miranda spit up her bottle. I hate it when they’re both hungry at the same time because you can’t feed them both simultaneously, so someone is always screaming. (Our friend, Sophia, recommends putting them in their car seats next to each other, crouching down, and giving them both a bottle, but I would prefer them to have better head control before we do that.) Well, I did have another option, and that’s the twin breastfeeding option. If you recall, I did buy a foam pillow specially made for breastfeeding twins, so I tried to get them both onto it. The problem though, is that they’re now both too big to fit on the pillow. Eleanor, especially, since she’s now almost 23 inches long, will scream because half her body is hanging off the pillow. Eventually, I did manage to get them to both latch on, although awkwardly, and they ate for about 15 minutes before my arms and back were too tired. Luckily, they were both somewhat satisfied. Miranda fell asleep and Eleanor was quiet and looking around.

Well, I could go on and on, because this is actually a pretty typical day for the twins. You can see that it would be impossible to be a single mother of twins because it is nonstop twenty-four hours a day with them. By nine a.m. I was completely exhausted and breastfeeding Eleanor when Miranda started crying. If it were earlier, and I didn’t want to wake up Bernard, I would have taken Eleanor off the breast, put her down, checked on Miranda, and decided either to finish feeding Eleanor or start with Miranda. But by this point I was so tired that I just kept breastfeeding Eleanor until Miranda woke up Bernard with her crying. He came out of the bedroom looking bleary-eyed and holding Miranda. “Good morning,” I said cheerfully.