mothers of multiples

Lifestyle Parenting, Household Affairs and Cuisine corner
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especially newborns.. how do you guys breastfeed? what if they both get hungry at teh same time? and what bout bottle feeding? you can obviously only hold one at a time.. or no?

its so intrigued by this aspect of motherhood … the amount of technique i needed just to feed one.. i dont know what i woulda done if i had to bfeed 2 at the same time!!!

do the babies have similar sleep eat poo patterns or are they poles apart?

just.. all of it

i want mothers of multiples to tell us singlets how it was … the newborn phase and then babyhood..

im all ears!

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Re: mothers of multiples

this reminded me of TLC series.. table for 12, surviving sextuplets, quints by surprize :rolleyes:

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Re: mothers of multiples

why are you rolling your eyes?

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Re: mothers of multiples

I'd LOVE to have twins.

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Re: mothers of multiples

Here's how I did it with the twins....I nursed them both for a full 6 months exclusively before I transitioned them to formula/bottles.

Thing 1 was very easy going, we joked he was on "autopilot"....sleep, nurse, poop, sleep..... so I would nurse/burp/change him first, before moving on to Thing 2. Because they were preemies, I could not tandem nurse, they were too small and fragile, and it was very hard to manage logistically. So I did everthing in like 30 minute increments. Thing 1 was a sound sleeper and very low maintance (aH!) while Thing 2 was VERY fussy and sensitive to any type of light/sound/stimulation, and would keep me up ALL night!!

By the time they hit the 1 year mark, things settled down and they were on routine schedules. Because I still had the The Boy who was a toddler himself (and a very spoiled one at that!) The Twins learned at an early age to be self reliant, i.e. they didn't need to be coddled to sleep or fed every bit by hand.

Thank God my Ammi was still alive then, she would take The Boy from morning until about 5pm or so, when my husband would then pick him back up on the way from work...we called it "outsourcing"..lol! Once the twins were past the first year, and the boy was 3, it was full on insanity!!!! I would put all three down for naps at the same time, and bed time as well.

Gosh, those years were such a blur!!! When I think back on how I did it (like even typing this now!!) I really do not know how I managed!!!

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Re: mothers of multiples

Take mine!!!

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Re: mothers of multiples

khatti: wow… i cant even imagine it man… so thing 2 would be ok with getting food second? when i think bout my first born.. if a boob or bottle was not in his mouth at first cry.. he would go ballistic. your thing 2 was patient i see? did u ever learn to bfeed at the same time?

i hadnt even thought bout having multiples with an already existent child…

i wonder if god helps out a bit .. he knows what kinda crazy he is sending down on a couple.. so maybe help them out a bit.. by making one baby easy to handle?

i need to further sit down :faint:

and i understand the same routine for sleep and eating and naps… i do that with my 2 just so i can get some time to brush my teeth!

sara: u still want twins ?? :smiley:

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i also want twins :wub:

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^ Oh honey, you have no idea!!! The Boy was about 3 weeks shy of his 2nd birthday when the two imps made their very early entry…And then they were in the NICU…Thing 1 came home first (after 12 days) and then Thing 2 came home about 2 1/2 weeks after that…and then Thing 2 had to have a surgery the week after he came home…it was awful!!!

With the twins, I definitely used pacifiers (something I never did with The Boy)!!! Thing 2 would be screaming his head off, but there was nothing I could do but stick the paci in his mouth until it was his turn!

I could not breastfeed at the same time, because Thing 2 was the weaker of the two, and had some problems with muscle control, so we were extra careful with him.

I had a “color” system for the twins… Everything Thing 1 used (paci, bottles, blankets, bib etc) was yellow, and then for Thing 2 it was all blue. And the paci clips were our best friends!!!

But I can say that once we were over the first couple of years, The Twins have been no problem at all!!! They are so independant and self sufficient as far as eating, sleeping, dressing etc..they learned very early on how to do things for themselves. Now The Boy…Oye Ve!! He is in a class all on his own…9 years ka honay wala hai,mA aur abhi tak meray palao say chipka huwa hai!!! I STILL have to lay down with him every night.. :nahi:

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Re: mothers of multiples

I am not sure who said it or where I heard i just a few days agot,but it was along the lines that you just have to get used to to either one of the kids crying almost all the time (like when it is feeding time or nap time or changing time).
As much as twins sound cute,I am pretty sure it is too much hard work to manage them esp in the earlier years.

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Re: mothers of multiples

i think 1st kids r always like this bc they r the first one, they r all alone they always have been center of attention of both parent n boys r always mama’s baby.

khatic u delivered normally twins or by c section, n mostly twins r born premature? is it the case or not?

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khatti… i need to do a round of applause for you…

everyone.. TAALIA!

:clap:

thats the reason why i wanted twins.. so i could color code everything ahha… god im so stuck in la la land :smiley: oh and dressing them teh same.. did you dress them same?

did u ever go through depression or anxiety? did u get any sleep?!

i can imagine one baby crying and you not being able to do anything… i see a pattern here.. surely its not as tough as twins.. but having 2 babies close together.. where one isnt independant enough and the 2nd makes its entry..

i remmeber making my baby cry cuz i was tending to the older one.. like yours.. he is in a league of his own.. SO high maintence.. whilst the baby is so self sufficient mashallah..

and lol at your 9 y rold :smiley: im sure somewhere your bahus is already cursing you hehe… for having a mama’s boy.

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Re: mothers of multiples

chips: what you are sayign seems to be true.. i didnt have twins but genie had to cry it out a lot cuz i was so ultra bz with midget.. he was the harder one to manage .. so the faster i could get him over and done with.. the longer i could spend time with genie.

the worst is feedings colliding.. midget was still on bottle when genie came.. he would wake up wanting his bottle immediately and i would be bfeeding genie.. thank god i had my own place otherwise i would be quite a sight.. running from the room to the kitchen with genie still latched on back to midget´'s room.. still exposed :D

devi: i think you can have twins full term too.. someone delivered them full term when i was in labour with midget..

ya khatti.. why did they came early?

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Re: mothers of multiples

oh and khatti can i say... its amazing you chose to bfeed them both... i think some women would opt out of it for reasons of sanity and just bottle feed.. this way you can feed both at teh same time and they arent bound to just you

you brave girl you

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Re: mothers of multiples

yes i agree wth khaw u r brave girl, u breast feed them mashahallah, i was not able to feed myself even to 1 baby alone :(

khati how u manage when 1 baby was at hospital n 1 at home, ur mum must have helped u n it must be really stressing?????

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The thought of having twins or another kid...uff shudders

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When they were babies, I did the whole yellow/blue color coded thing on all their clothes as well..like the same onsie or same outfit just in yellow or blue…but as they got older..not so much. Since they are fraternal and not identical, with very different personalities, I never enforced the matchy-matchy thing. Now I will coordinate similiar looks on special occasions (for all three) but I tend to stay away from exact outfits.

Sleep??? What was that??? Haaaa!!! Depression, alhamdullilah, no! Well, let me take that back…the first week they were born, yes, I did get hit post partum depression, especially since I had to leave them in the NICU. I remember VIVIDLY, the first night I came home from the hospital, I was at my mom’s house, because she lived closer to the hospital, and my husband took The Boy home with him, and my mom and stepdad had gone out somewhere, and I found myself all alone in this big 'ol house staring at the industrial grade breast pump we had to rent (since the twins were exclusively recieving breast milk throught their feeding tubes) and I just started bawling!!! I felt so tired and confused and sad and melancholy..I cried, and cried and cried…my mom came back and was like “Oh Hell No!!!”…she was sooo strong!! After that, I was not allowed to remain alone!!! And she forced me stay out in the sun, on the patio, outdoors as much as possible while I recupperated at her house, so that really helped!!

As far as anxiety, I was just too busy to be anxious! My husband, mom & I were like a well oiled machine! It was constantly Go! Go! Go! There was no downtime at all!!

And yes, my favorite refrain when looking at The Boy is “Oh Gawd help me, you’re wife is going to HATE me!!” (through no fault of my own :()

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Re: mothers of multiples

They were born just as I finished my 32nd week....The twins were in a "T" shape in the womb..meaning Thing 2 was horiziontally across, straight under my diaghram, while Thing 1 was vertically head down....because I'm only 5ft 1, with a small/petite frame, there wasn't a whole lot of room for them to move around, so Thing 1 was putting too much pressure on my cervix and I started dilating from 26 weeks on...because of that I was on complete and strict bedrest, to keep me off my feet....Both bags of water broke simultaneously on the day I was starting week 33...

When we got to the hospital, I was already 4 cm dilated and they were prepping me for a double c-section, however, Thing 1 could not wait and as he was head down directly on my cervix, he decided to tear through and was delivered vaginally....they tried to turn Thing 2 into position but could not, and they didn't want to take the risk of waiting for him to come into position, since his amniotic sac had already broken, so they gave me a full spinal block and did an emergency c-section to get him out. So yes, I had one vaginal and one ceasarean at the same time!! shudder!!!!

Oh yes, I could not have been able to do it without my mom's help, it was a terribly stressful time, but aH, we got through it!

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Re: mothers of multiples

omg :d6c:

seriously hats off to you mashahallah mashahallah

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OMG I should never had opened this thread ... there goes my dream of twins in the dustbin