4 months Post Twin Pregnancy

MIts been 4 months since the boys were born. I figure I should probably do an update on how I'm doing. I'm going to cover as many bases as I can in this post because I don't update on myself very often.

Now that we've experienced having a single baby, and having twins, I can't imagine having just a singleton anymore.  Its become such a normal thing for us to have two infants around that I think it would be weird to only have one.  I can't imagine only having one of the twins and not the other, I've tried to imagine it many different ways and I can't.

Well into my pregnancy, my left side ribs began to hurt me. They would be sore and often felt like my ribs were separating.  This happened because I'm not a large framed person, the boys didn't have a lot of space to grow so my entire ribcage expanded dramatically. So much so, that even my bras stopped fitting.  When the boys were born I really hoped my ribs would fix themselves. They didn't. At my 6 week checkup I mentioned that they still hurt much of the time and they suggested waiting it out. Well here we are 4 months later and they still bother me. It feels like they are popping out of place and get very sore at times. At some point I need to get in and have it looked at, but for now I just deal with the discomfort. The odd thing is, my van seats cause me the most trouble, for some reason I always have to sit leaning forward because it feels weird on my ribs to sit with my back against the seat... I realize this probably isn't the safest arrangement.

My belly button never fully recovered from the pregnancy.  It seems like it wants to stay semi herniated. I hate my belly button now, although I realize it could be much worse, I'm not sure the stretch marks could be. I will be wearing a swim suit that covers it all up. And really, the stretch marks aren't as bad as they look in the picture I'm posting, they appear much darker in photos than they are looking at them in real life - thanks a lot technology.

Although my body has obviously taken a beating I wouldn't change it for the world.  I won't wear a bikini again, but I'm not out to impress anybody with my body.  I can't complain too much. By 12 weeks I was able to squeeze into my pre-baby clothes, by 3 months I was back down lower than my pre-pregnancy weight.

My brain is on overload. There is so much I have to remember all the time: when the boys ate, were changed and slept (and for how long). When Evelyn ate, went potty and if she napped. When I have to be where at what time, what the date is, what day of the week it is, what we are doing next weekend, when the next doctor visit is, when the last time I talked to my best friends, which baby gets which breast, when did i go see Gabriel last, where my keys are, did I put diapers in the diaper bag, did I start the dryer after I loaded it, was it Logan or Sawyer who pooped, when did the other baby last poop? The list goes on and on of things that are constantly going through my brain. So if I don't remember - forgive me. My brain cannot handle this much information! 

We are still exclusively breastfeeding.  During the week I just feed them myself, on the weekends when I work they get bottles of frozen/pumped milk during the night. During the day Derrick just comes to wake me up when they get hungry. This system works the best for us.  When he would let me sleep I would wake up in pain and uncomfortable and it caused trouble with my supply.  So they get 1 or 2 bottles on Friday and Saturday nights.  They have no problems adjusting back and forth.

I love being a stay at home mom, I wouldn't change it for the world. However, this weather is seriously taking a toll on us.  We had snow into May - not ideal weather conditions to take a 2 year old and a couple newborn twins out.  We were couped up inside much longer than we hoped.  Now, we've had a only a handful of "nice" days and its been cool and rainy all the other days. I want to get out to more parks, I want to have the kids outside playing and enjoying some sunshine, but it just hasn't been very possible. So aside from the times when we get out to other people's houses or stores we are just hanging around the house, not doing a whole lot.

Getting around with the twins and a toddler is interesting - to say the least.  We've pretty much got it down to a science now though.  If I'm traveling alone with the kids: I put everything I need on the table as I'm getting ready to go (which is at least an hour and a half before I actually need to leave), this way I don't forget things like, oh, my keys.  I change, feed, and put each boy in their carseat and during that time I am convincing Evelyn to put her shoes on, which she eventually does.  I usually make multiple trips to the van, one with the stuff (diaper bag, wallet, keys, phone etc), one with Evelyn and one with the boys. 

Being on time is impossible for me. I always have to plan to be somewhere 30 minutes before I actually want or need to be there. It's a long process to get our of the house. 

We have changed the set up of the van a few times. During the snow months I took one of the middle seats out so Evelyn and one base was in the back, the other base was in the remaining "captain's chair". This worked great because we had a wide open space for putting a car seat in while addressing the other kids. That space also worked well for diaper changes and other things.  Now we re-arranged so both babies are in the captain's chairs and Evelyn is alone in the back seat.  This opened up a seat incase someone were riding with us, and made a seat where Derrick could sit if the kids were being a handful.

Its crazy that these boys are already 4 months old. I don't know where all that time went. As I go back and look at the pictures I can't believe how big I got, I never realized it. I can't believe how small they were and how alien-like they looked.

Overall things are good. The boys are happy most of the time, they really are content little guys.  I couldn't have asked for better babies.  We think they are teething so that makes life difficult and very frustrating at times.  Plus with Evelyn turning 3 next month, things get a little testy around here pretty fast.

I love watching Evelyn with her brothers, she's such a good big sister and wants to play with them so bad.  In time little one, in time. In the meantime she loves to kiss and hug them, she plays with their hands and feet,  and it absolutely takes my breath away. There's nothing sweeter.