A day in the life with twins

As promised in my last post I am here to explain and describe what a day in the life with twin babies looks like for us. To be honest there is lots of sleeping and eating but we do do other things as well. We haven't got a strict schedule (besides feedings), just some activities I try to incorporate into our day when I can. 

I have mentioned before that the girls eat every three hours. That means eight bottles a day per baby which adds up to about 960 bottles over the past two months give or take. That is a lot of formula. Preemie formula is shockingly expensive so I was happy when we were able to switch to regular formula recently. With each feeding comes a diaper change plus some extra each day depending on how the babies' digestive systems are working. I will round off the diapers used to about a thousand. Luckily we started to buy diapers when we found out I was pregnant so we had a bit of a stash. Unfortunately since the girls were born so small we had to buy quite a few until they were able to use the normal newborn size we had. 

We are watching you mom

Laura and Vera currently sleep together in their crib. This is the sight I woke up to this morning through the slats. It was just around 9am and Vera was already awake and waiting to be fed. She was still patient at this point but waiting much longer would have been a bad idea. The girls are like alarm clocks for the most part and get hungry about every three hours. They will both wake up to eat around the same time which is ok when there are two people to feed them. Otherwise one has to wait which isn't ideal. There is lots of crying unless the baby not being fed is still sleeping.

Solo feeding and changing both the girls takes about an hour. The three of us usually go back to bed until noon since I have been up every few hours the night before. I sometimes sneak in a shower at this point in the day depending on how well the babies are sleeping. Otherwise my shower waits until later when either the girls are really passed out or Jose is home from work. After the twelve o'clock bottle I usually take them and Cooper outside for a walk in the park by my apartment.

After a walk outside

When we come back in from outside I will have lunch before three pm. During the afternoon between feedings and naps I read to the girls, basically during the windows in which they are awake. For me it is important that they have lots of contact with reading and books. I love reading and know this has a lot to do with my mom having read to me and my sisters from an early age. Lead by example people! Plus this is an easy way to increase the twins' English language input. I am determined that they will be bilingual. Spanish will be easy since it is the language of the place they live. English will be a bit more of a challenge so I try to speak exclusively in my native tongue with them.

Book order from Spain's Amazon

Another thing I try to do every day is sing to my girls. This is sometimes when they are eating, otherwise it is when they are awake or half asleep. Music is something else that I think is important. Besides singing I will find children's songs on Youtube and play that for them while singing along. If there is a video that goes along with the music I won't show that to them (more on this later). There is also a video of classic Disney music played on a piano that I love. It is so calming. I am also guilty of singing along to the radio or finding oldies to play for the girls. Jose is sick of all these songs already.

After bringing both girls home I had to review my baby song repetoire. Some of our favorite songs are:

The wheels on the bus
ABC
I'm a little teapot
BINGO
This old man
Mary had a little lamb
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
Five little monkeys jumping on a bed
Row, row, row your boat
Old MacDonald
There were ten in a bed
Head, shoulders, knees and toes
The ants go marching
It's raining, it's pouring
Rain, rain, go away
Down by the bay
The itsy bitsy spider

We take lots of naps

At our first meeting with the neurologist (we have been going about once a month to track the girls' progress and see if they need any kind of early intervention) we were told the best thing we could do for our babies was to talk to them, sing to them, hold them and NOT put on the TV for them. Most of that seems like a no brainer for me. Jose and I had decided before the twins were even born that we would limit screen time. I just read another article recently which supported this decision. The link can be found here. 

After Jose gets home from work (and if there are no appointments with doctors which there have been a lot of lately) we will usually have bath time, bottle and then bed for the girls. Jose and I stay up until midnight for one last feeding before we go to bed. Those hours between nine and twelve have not been great for sleep but have allowed us lots of time to catch up on series and to watch movies. I also have been taking advantage of the fact that I have to be up at 300am on Sunday nights to watch the simulcast of Game of Thrones. No spoilers for this girl!

So there you have it, an idea of what we do every day with our girls. For now my life revolves around three hour cycles which is ok. I am looking forward to the time when they will be able to sleep a bit longer at night. Just five hours of uninterrupted sleep seems like such a luxury now. And to be honest I am not as exhausted as I thought I would be. I think it's because I do try to catch some zzz's when they girls are asleep during the day if that is possible.

I should also mention that I am trying to stay on top of laundry and keeping my apartment somewhat liveable. I have most chores on a rotation which means if I get one or two of them done each day then I feel like I have accomplished something. Today for example I cleaned the bathrooms and swept the floors. Tomorrow I might vaccuum. Thank god for having a dishwasher because I haven't done dishes besides bottles in a while. Things aren't perfect but they weren't before the babies anyway. I like to think we are doing pretty well though.