When I was in the hospital delivering my baby twins, it was on my last day, pending my release, I started to conspire an exit strategy. What could I apply from my small pool of knowledge on parenting to this incredibly new, exciting and hair raising situation of bringing twins home from the hospital for the first time?

I thought I could just double up on all things and things will take twice as long. What other planning did I need? Right?


As soon as I got home, I put to use all the prepping and furniture arranging I had done before going to the hospital. That nesting instinct really takes a lot out of you when your pregnant. I put the twin babies, swaddled, into the play yard bassinet and put on a Baby Einstein DVD for background music and for my two year old toddler. I unpacked my hospital bag and I arranged my counter for feeding time. I had luckily come home with a ton of 4 oz. Similac bottles and tons of nipples. I had tried to breast feed in the hospital and my milk was just not coming in. About three days into being home, it came in and with a vengence. I had to use the cabbage method (wrap breasts in cabbage leaves for a few hours a day) to shut it off, because I had all kinds of problems with pumping and hot burning veins up and down my breasts. I was a mess, but I digress.


Upon relaxing on the couch, I then realized it was feeding time again. So I fed one twin while a friend attempted to feed the other. However, in the hospital, I had developed a method for feeding the twins, who were resistant to eating. So I had to feed them both, one at a time. One screamed while I fed the other. One was a greedy eater and one was a slow and steady wins the race kind of eater. I had to rub the nipple on the roof of one babies mouth and I had to take frequent breaks and burp the other baby while feeding. Nothing was easy, or as planned. Such as parenthood.


Then came night time. I had a toddler to get to bed and I had twin newborns to take care of and then there was my own sleep, but what is sleep to a new mom, but a dirty word? I put the twin babies in their bouncy seats and sat with my toddler to reassure him and to spend some quality time with him. It wasn’t long before the twin babies would cry and my toddler would say “mommy, the baby cry, help him.” Eventually my toddler would just lull himself to sleep. Then he would wake with every feeding. He was my little assistant. Dad worked a lot and was there when he could be and I think my little man sensed that he had to step up to the plate and fill that void. He did a great job. He was not jealous of the twin babies, nor did he do evil things like poke them in their soft spots. He sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and he sat next to them putting an arm around them, looking just as tired as mom. He was a trooper.

When the haze of day one had commenced, I began assessing how to make my job easier and started to organize my baby station and kitchen to do just that. I premade formula and put it in an easy pour jug in the fridge and I got a wall hanging organizer over the changing area with all my essentials. I kept a basket of toys and books in every room, so if I was taking one baby who woke up, to let the other one sleep to another room, I could play with my toddler and my awake baby as well. I had a radio in the nursery with the Baby Einstein Lullaby CD on repeat, on low all night long. It not only calmed them to sleep, helped them develop a sleep cue and eased my toddler to sleep as well, but it drowned out any household noise, so I could continue cleaning, making formula or just prop myself up in the shower. Its amazing how hygiene becomes something you have to stop and ask yourself if you did it that day, when you bring home twin newborns. Any help I could get, I took, even if it was a 30 minute video. If I had to name a saint, it would be Julie Clark, the founder of Baby Einstein. She may have become rich with felt, classical music and an empty room, but I became rich on time, with each DVD and CD.


With a schedule in tact, inventory of what was needed to run my day came into affect. Two diapers for every change. Two outfits for every morning, or mess. Two bottles and double the formula. Two arms, legs and eyes for every thing. By the time I was on day 30, I looked like a well oiled machine. I no longer needed the schedule on the fridge for every bottle, poop, pee, nap and sleep session that took place, for two. I no longer said “I don’t know, just do what works,” because I knew what worked. I was up and down with each feeding and didn’t skip a beat, but did it all in automation, because if you had asked me what happened, at what time and who did what, I couldn’t tell you, but the documentation and missing formula suggested I did whatever it was.

I took all three of the kids, with my husband to their six week check up and I took them to my check up as well. The doctors were all happy at my health and the twin babies growth. We were all doing so well that you could not even tell that I was crying through postpartum depression for the past 6 weeks and it wasn't letting up. You could not tell that I forgot to brush my teeth often and that I lived solely on coffee and english muffins. However, you could tell that my twin babies were happy and loved. They smiled, they coo’d, they were gaining weight and height by the day and they were mine. I stared out terrified, then moved into crisis intervention mode during those first few weeks and came out a super mom. My boys are now fifteen months old and little men in their own right. Each almost thirty pounds and about two and a half feet tall. They are fraternal, so they look nothing alike, they have their own beautiful personalities and looking back on those first few weeks upon bringing them home and I love them even more. Having twins, means two of everything, but it also means having two hearts.