So much has changed...

It has been a really long time since I made a post.  So much has changed. 

The biggest news is that the boys now sleep in separate cribs.  I never thought it would happen.  They always kept to their own sides and never woke each other.  Then one day I noticed that Carter would not go down as easily for a nap.  Then it happened again, and again - lots of crying before finally falling asleep.  After a few days, it was so bad that I finally went back into our room.  Gerrit was sound asleep tucked into his corner of the crib.  Carter was on the other side of the crib screaming his head off.  He looked at me, then at Gerrit, then back at me as if to say, "get him out of here!"  The next day I set up a pack and play (our other crib was never fully assembled) and he slept like a dream.

The boys also no longer nurse together.  At night I noticed that they were only feeding for a minute or two before stopping.  That would have been the greatest weaning opportunity if the pediatrician had not just informed me that my boys were too small and needed to put on additional weight.  So, one night I fed them separately, and they each ate for 10 minutes again. 

This change in nursing caused Gerrit to have to wait for Carter to finish before he could nurse.  The result?  He would fall back asleep while waiting - and thus started sleeping through the night.  This happily continued for almost two months.  Only, in the last month we have been dealing with molars and other teething issues, and are thus up again in the night.

All this change for the boys is leading to some change for us as well.  We are finally preparing to move the boys into their own room.  Now that we know they can sleep through the night, we are ready to get our privacy back. 

It is so strange to look back at pictures and realize how much our lives are changing.  Some things get easier (like the boys being able to climb into their high chairs all by themselves), and some get harder (like the boys being able to climb onto table tops all by themselves).  Overall though, it gets better every day.

Twins Sharing One Crib

OK. So, I bought two cribs. One sits next to my bed. The other.... well, let's just say it has a nice layer of dust on it. It sits in their equally dusty nursery that my parents worked so hard to finish before the boys were born. Sorry Mom and Dad.


My boys are almost 11 months now, and they still fit well in one crib. I have heard some mothers of twins say they only kept their twins together for three or four months until the twins started rolling into each other.  My boys started waking each other up about that time too. My solution was to lay them at opposite ends of the crib- feet to feet.  It worked for me, but all babies are different.

Funny thing is they have suddenly started squirming back together the last two weeks. Last night I went to bed to see them lying side by side with their butts in the air. So cute. What made it even cuter was that they were also holding hands. Now, that is something only a mother of twins gets to enjoy.

Cosleeping Times Two!

My 9 month old twins sleep next to me in their crib (and occasionally in our bed). They originally slept in a large cosleeper until they outgrew it. I can’t imagine any other arrangement when it comes to dealing with two babies at night.

The benefits of cosleeping with twins:

1. You never have to get out of bed at night. You simply pull them out of their cosleeper/crib, feed, return them to bed, and roll over to go back to sleep.

2. You will hear them in their early stages of waking up rather then screaming through the monitor. That said your babies are less "awake" when you feed them, and thus return to sleep easier.

3. They can easily be pulled into bed when sick. Depending on your stance about sleeping with a child in your bed, I can say that a sick baby sleeps much better snuggled up to you than alone. I am not sure if it is just me, but my babies (who sleep on their stomachs in their crib) always sleep on their backs when in bed with me. Thus, when they have colds, their noses drain much better. If they are in their crib, they constantly wake up from being unable to breath.

4. You can enlist your husband's help when needed. Enough said. Until about 6 months old, my husband was responsible for night-time diaper changes. Now that they only get one change, we share the job. (What a keeper he is!)

5. Breastfeeding is much easier. This also relates to #2 - only it is much easier for you to return to sleep.
Non-Cosleep process:
 You get up, throw on a robe, walk into a cold room, get two babies out of cribs (which logistically is quite hard once they are mobile), breastfeed, burp, return them to bed, go back to your room, and crawl back into a now cold bed.
Cosleeping:
You sit up in your cozy bed. You pull one baby into bed and lay them next to you. You place the other one in your lap. You or your husband places the second baby into position. You breastfeed both babies at the same time while leaning back against a soft pile of pillows already in place. You burp the babies, and then lay one next to you in bed. You then return the first baby to the cosleeper, followed by the second. Finally, you roll over into your warm, yummy bed and fall fast asleep.

6.  It is easier to let them cry.  Lately my babies have tried to establish 2 am as "play time."  This required that I let them cry it out a little for the first time.  It was actually easier than I thought, because I could see their sillouettes in the dark and I knew they were OK.
I am a little biased towards cosleeping. Can you tell?

(Thank you to my new twin mom penpal Sarah for inspiring me to write this.)