February Chatty Thread

[LauraH]

Oh. Alita - that must be so tough. Wish I could help but I'm going to be pretty busy myself in a few days. It's a really good thing that your mom can come back. I'm sure that is a relief for you.

Patty - that is so cute that the girls are starting to realize there is another little person there! I never thought of that before.

Care - It's going to take some getting used to but you will be fine with the twins. And don't forget the other moms of twins right here at your fingertips! I'm sure you'll get lots of great advice.

Dawn - Have fun at the shower! Oh do I hear you about work! Today was my last day & I think we were all in complete denial; my boss just kept saying; "Well, if anything comes up you're only a phone call away." None of us has accepted the fact that I am not going back.

TWO more days to CALEB!!!

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[2moms2be]

Laura- You will be a mama with all the pooping and crying in no time!!!!

A- Oh, your post almost made me cry...I know what you mean. All you can do is try to take care of the one that is crying the loudest first...the one thing I have found though, is if you try to take care of everyones needs at the same time no ones needs get met. It is heart breaking though...

Care- you may want to see how much a night nurse would cost 1 2 or 3 days a week for the first month...At least that way you would have a night or two of sleep. The lack of sleep is the worst. At night is the ONLY time I felt like I was loosing it. Mainly cause I was soooooo tired, and all I wanted to do was sleep. I felt like if I could just sleep I could handle the day better and I HAD HELP during the day for the first 3 months. You also might want to place an add of CraigsList...I did that for a sitter and received LOADS of OVERLY qualified applicants. Maybe even a moms helper to come in for 4 hours so you could nap...

[2moms2be]

Oh and when its really bad I just have to repeat to myself "NO ONE ever died from crying" It just help keep it into perspective, cause you just feel so bad when you are holding one baby trying to help them get to sleep and the other one is screaming bloody murder, but you know if you put the one in your arms down too soon, it will be screaming just as loud.

[2moms2be]

ok, back to the subject of "HOOTERS" hehe So I am breastfeeding as you all know so I thought I would share my opinion on nursing bras...they are EXCELLENT I couldnt live without them. Why I like them is it is so much easier to get the boob out then a regular bra. When I wear a reg. bra I have to lift it over the boob and it ends up pushing on the boob making the milk flow even faster. This is not good for me cause I already have a fast letdown and my girls have to gulp and end up with gas and lots of spit up. As for nursing shirts...well that doesnt seem to matter that much I usually end up just pulling my shirt up even if it is a shirt that can be pulled to the side. Maybe if I were feeding in public I would prefer them, but I really have not done that yet.

[swell22]

Hi girls!
I guess I'm officially taking the leap and coming over here. I haven't read ALL the posts, but it seems like Laura's DW is getting induced on Monday!!!!!!! That's exciting! And Alita just had her babies (who are super cute btw) and I joined right after she had gotten her BFP - time goes by really fast!

Anyway, since I'm on the front end of all this fun, I was wondering what advice you all have about things you wish you had taken care of earlier or before the baby. I just am sitting here at 7 weeks thinking I should be doing something, but am not sure what to do. Help!

[A Squared]

Suellen, take care of adoption paperwork ASAP. I wish I did more before the babies were born but we got some bad advice from a lawyer on this issue and didn't get anything done. Usually you can get the homestudy done ahead of time and some of the paperwork.

Patty, Thanks for the advice and support. I will have to keep it in mind when they are both losing it at the same time. I also hear you on holding one baby and the other one screaming. Sometimes you know the quiet one will let loose if you put him/her down. That is definitely the challenge of twins!

Care, I would look into some help if I were you. It might be worth it for at least a few hours a week. I have found that the babies are much easier in the day, so that should be good for you. My two have a meltdown starting around 9:30 pm (former baby dance party in my uterus hour) and DP works evenings so I will have to deal with that alone. I don't think I will be able to get help at that time, either.

[2moms2be]

Welcome Swell!!! I agree with A try to get some of the legal stuff ASAP. We had to get wills written up and we could have had that done ahead of time.

A- That sux that it is that late at night they melt down. We got lucky and their freak out happened earlier like anywhere from noon till 8pm...it seemed so random!

[Care75]

Suellen- I'd try to get the legal stuff done, too. But in our case, the lawyer doesn't really want to do too much before they are born. He kept saying, "Let's wait until January to get started." And even now (we're two weeks out from the c/s), he's not too worried. Of course, it's driving me crazy!! So I'm not sure how much you can really get done before the baby is born.

Other stuff. Have your shower earlier rather than later. We ran into Christmas time and so it got put off, and having a shower at 34 weeks with twins is not ideal. I think having it closer to the beginning of the first trimester would be better.

We actually didn't do any shopping until the 2nd trimester. I just didn't feel confident enough until then especially since I was on bedrest for a couple of weeks and had bleeding. I don't regret it because we still had plenty of time.

Start buying diapers-- with coupons, of course. You won't get hit all at once with the price of them! DP started this months ago and has a TON (like 6-8 cases of each!) of newborn and size 1 diapers already. DP got a ton for $10 a case (192 diapers!) the Friday after Thanksgiving. Keep the receipts with them (we taped them) in case you have to exchange them for different sizes. Target (one of our favorite stores) has started to be really a pain with returns, but Babies R Us has been really easy for us. We even returned things from the shower without gift receipts that probably weren't bought there. They gave us merchandise credit.

Look for your bedding, crib, etc. early. These things can take a while to find- particularly if you are as picky as me!! However, one mistake we made was picking it from places we had to buy ourselves. I wasn't happy with anything at BRU or Target so our stuff came from Land of Nod and we bought it instead of registering for it. Of course, picky me likes it better, and we got a lot of other stuff so...

This is a little ways off but... maternity clothes- I liked Gap.com. They have maternity wear there. I bought lots of simple pieces when they were on sale- black and brown shirts, etc. that were great for work and home. I liked them better than the other stores because they size their pants. Instead of small, medium, large- which never fit me because I'm hippy- they have pant sizes. I bought my pre-pregnancy size- 6- and the pants still fit me pretty well (although they are getting tight in the stomach area- but I'm 36 weeks with twins what can you expect!!). I liked their demi-panel the best- they fit under my belly and until now were great. They really don't look like maternity pants. I may wear them after!!

Save up your days as much as possible at work if you are planning on going back. I talked to my boss when I hit 14 weeks and asked her if I could add up time before taking a half day (if I could get my classes covered without a sub). So like if I could get an 8:30 appointment and be only an hour late, then she would let me add up the time until I had to take a 1/2 day to count for it. This allowed me to save my days for now. I'll end up getting about 11 weeks paid off (if the babies wait until the c/s). Also- when you talk to HR, ask all of the questions you want and keep calling back if you have questions. I thought I'd only get 6 weeks paid with a c/s because they didn't tell me otherwise, but talking to other people, I found out that I'd get 8- paid. Of course, they didn't tell me that!

Okay- well I've overloaded you enough! I'm sure I'll have more advice when the kids are here and I know what else I didn't do right!!!

Glad you're here!