Big Day: Live Blog

Well, here we go.

5:51
And… we’re back home. Rachel’s washing the bottles, the babies are asleep in their car seats, and I think I can officially say I survived my first day on my own. Actually, it wasn’t so bad!

5:13
On location: reporting from Rachel’s office, where the babies a huge hit! I’m slightly regretting the decision to take them out in what is fast becoming a downpour. Despite the weather, it was a treat to bring the babies in to see their mama and to get a chance to show them off to Rachel’s co-workers. We’ll have to make this a regular thing!

Naturally, both babies needed to be fed, and Julian had an embarrassingly loud poo. (Embarrassing for him, that is.)

3:44 P.M.
Field trip time. Babies, into your car seats!

3:38 P.M.
Eloise woke up at 3:00, and I was reminded that although having two babies awake can be kind of a pain in the ass, when they squirm around together in the crib and coo at each other it’s unbelievably cute.

Managed to feed them both by sitting them both in their high chairs, although Julian remains frustratingly distractable. He’ll turn his head towards any sound in the room, which means coming off of the nipple. Aren’t you hungry, you little weirdo?

2:53 P.M.
Julian surprisingly uninterested in eating. Second reading of The Runaway Bunny.

2:44 P.M.
World’s cutest boy is awake! Time for a diaper change and a bottle, both long-overdue.

2:20 P.M.
Both babies napping, and thank goodness. I really had to pee.

I’m so annoyed that it’s raining, since it more or less rules out the daily afternoon walk in the stroller. The babies like getting out of the house and, let’s face it, it kills an hour. Perhaps when they both wake up we’ll go for a drive, instead.

2:04 P.M.
Just read Eloise The Runaway Bunny… now it’s time to see if she’s ready for a nap.

1:39 P.M.
All’s well. Julian’s sleeping, Eloise is bouncing in the Jumperoo, and I’m eating an apple. Just need to find a few minutes to wash bottles.

1:10 P.M.
Delightful. Since Julian screams just as loud whether I try to feed him or I don’t, whether I hold him or don’t, I’m going to go with “don’t,” at least for the time being. Go to sleep, little boy! Now, to see if Eloise is hungry.

12:50 P.M.
Oh, for Christ’s sake. Tried to put Julian down by feeding him his prune juice bottle, but of course when he got to the end of it, he screamed because he was still hungry, and although I tried to whisk him out of there as fast as I could, I think he might have woken up his sister. Dammit.

12:37 P.M.
Well, Julian’s eaten, I’ve eaten, and the boy is completely adorable. Good times.

(Rubbing your eyes already, Julian? Looks like another nap coming up.)

12:04 P.M.
Man, it’s hard to find time to blog when both babies are awake!

Eloise and I had a great time playing this morning, as you can see:

After about an hour, I started to worry that if Julian slept for too long, he’d ruin his afternoon nap. Since Eloise needed a diaper change anyway, I took her upstairs and turned off the white noise. Julian woke up in a fantastic mood, which was lucky. Two diapers got changed, and we all came downstairs. I parked Eloise on the playmat for a while I fed Julian, but he was pretty distracted and didn’t finish, so I gave up and all three of us played on the playmat.

It didn’t take too long for Eloise to get fussy. I knew it was either that she was hungry or tired. Looking at the stats—ate an hour ago, woke up an hour and a half ago—I figured it was tired, so I parked Julian in his bouncy seat, took Ellie upstairs, wrapped her up, and put her down.

I usually like to give the babies five minutes to fall asleep. I’ll put them down, and then go downstairs and wait to even turn the monitor on. Five minutes later, with Julian slowwwly sucking on his bottle, I turned the monitor on to hear shrieks, so I must have guessed wrong.

Naturally, I sped upstairs, rescued the girl, and started her next bottle. She got about halfway into it before losing interest, so I let the two of them roll around on the mats for a while until I heard pooping noises coming from the vicinity of Julian’s diaper, and saw Eloise rubbing her eyes.

Back upstairs then? Yes, for two more diaper changes. This time, Eloise didn’t complain at all when I wrapped her up and put her down. Five minutes later, silence on the monitor, and Julian is happily trying to shove a toy monkey into his mouth. Maybe I can eat a little lunch.

10:17 AM
Besides the obvious reason, it sucks when the babies’ naps get out of sync, because the changing table is in their room. If I don’t want to wake up the baby that’s sleeping—and I do not—I end up doing a lot of diaper changes on a travel pad on the floor of the family room. Not optimal.

Eloise is awake, got a diaper change, and slurped down her bottle. She’s also in her second outfit of the day, thanks to a sloppily attached diaper cover. Now she is being adorable, so I’d better go get me some of that.

9:47 A.M.
Well, I’m dressed, the bottles are washed, the house is (sorta) straightened up… and the twins are still sleeping. Kick ass.

8:56 A.M.
The day got off to an imperfect start, since Eloise woke up at 5:30—ideally, we want them to sleep until 7:00 so Rachel can get up and dressed before they wake up, but we’re usually happy if they last until at least 6:00. We let Eloise cry in her crib until 6:00 while Rachel showered and got dressed, and then Rachel extracted Eloise and took her downstairs to feed her so Julian and I could sleep a little longer. (Thanks, honey!)

Julian woke up around 6:45, and was a perfect smiley delight, although he ate his morning bottle verrrry slowly. A little after 7:00, Rachel came back up with Eloise and changed both babies’ diapers, and then we all headed downstairs for Fabric of Family Life Time. (Some expert somewhere apparently wrote that babies need to learn to be part of the fabric of family life, not the center of it. We were tickled by the phrase, so we’ve used the term to name the hour between when we take them downstairs and when we put them down for their morning nap.) During FoFL, Rachel and I run around and make and eat breakfast while the babies sit quietly (ha!) in their high chairs and play with toys. Eloise was a little grumpier than usual because she’d been up for an hour and half already.

Recently, we’ve introduced “spoon practice” to FoFL Time, but this morning neither baby was particularly into it. Eloise was too fussy, and Julian (who never finished his morning bottle) didn’t seem hungry.

A few minutes before 8:00, Rachel went upstairs to get ready for work, and I gave the babies their top-off bottles (well, Julian got the remainder of his wake-up bottle). This involves putting the high chairs on either side of my chair, and carefully feeding both babies at once. It’s actually easier than it sounds.

Once they’d finished their bottles (Eloise inhaled hers) I ferried them upstairs to their cribs, gave each of them a diaper change, and swaddled them for their naps. Putting them down is challenging with only one parent. Basically I have to take turns comforting or feeding one baby while the other one waits patiently (ha!) in their crib. There’s a lot of getting up and down, patting, and shushing. For the most part, though, once the lights go off and the white noise goes on, the babies are reasonably good about figuring out that it’s naptime. Eloise cried in her crib while I was feeding Julian the last of his bottle, but the minute I picked her up, she put her head on my shoulder and fell asleep. Aww. Julian finally drank his top-off bottle (recently, he’s needed to suckle himself to sleep, which is not exactly a great sleep habit) and went down without complaint.

Now that they’re both sleeping, I need to get the hell off the computer and into the shower while I have the chance.

Filed under Parenting | Tags: liveblog, solo | Comments (12)