answers to your questions so far.

I've gotten a few questions so far. So here are some answers. Keep the questions coming.

What is the babies' feeding schedule (what do they eat, when, how much)on a typical day? Lately, it seems like they eat constantly. They are nursing 5 times day and eating solids up to 5 times a day. I actually have their entire schedule and their food menus detailed out in an excel workbook (because I needed to do it for the nanny, or I'm just obsessive like that. you decide), and as soon as somebody tells me how to share that kind of format here, I will post for you all the dirty details. But here's the short version:

• 7am (or as late as 7:30) - wake up and nurse
• 8am breakfast (yogurt)
• 9am - nurse (or bottle, 5 oz EBM). then nap.
• 10:30 or 11-ish - snack (a little fruit or veggie, or finger food)
• 12:00 - lunch - oatmeal, fruit, veggies
• 1:00 - nurse or bottle. then nap.
• 3 or 3:30 ish - snack
• 5:00 - nurse or bottle. then nap.
• 7:00 - dinner (cereal, veggies, fruit, some finger food)
• 8:00 - nurse and bed time

How do you put the babies down to sleep for naps and nighttime--are they awake or asleep? Almost always awake. Occasionally Callie falls asleep nursing at bed time, but it's rare. We put them in sleep sacks, give them a little blankie or stuffed animal, give them a paci (Daniel takes it, Callie tosses it), dim the light, turn on the fan, and walk away. 90% of the time this works great. With Daniel actually it works great 99% of the time. Callie gets so wired that she sometimes has a hard time calming down and then we go back in and pat her and try to give her the paci to calm her down. Maybe once a week or a little less we need to pick her up, but we really try to avoid it. I don't really believe in letting babies totally cry it out, so I'll only let her cry for 5 or 10 minutes. It usually only takes one round of comforting for her to mellow out.

Do you have any problems with them sharing a room--i.e. one baby crying out at night and waking the other? Very rarely at night. Sometimes for naps one will cry or talk loudly and wake the other. But we usually try to go in and get the awake one before he/she wakes the other one up. At night they both sleep so soundly that they generally don't wake each other up.

Do you ever think how much easier it would be to just have one baby (and then feel totally guilt-ridden for thinking it)? I really don't. Occasionally I think that having one baby must be a piece of cake, but then I also think it must be kind of boring and lonely. I don't know anything different than having twins. I have never once wished I didn't have twins. Honestly. never.


What's the worst day you had since your babies arrived? Hmm. Hard to pinpoint a single day. I guess the hardest day emotionally was the day that we had to check Daniel back into the hospital. It was so scary. On the scale of health problems that I know babies can have, this all turned out to be nothing, but it was scary, until we got some answers. Otherwise - I had a few days when I was home on maternity leave that were just exhausting - full days of screaming and spitting up. Days when I was near tears at the end of the day, out of sheer exhaustion. The shit and barf storm of 2008 that we endured last week was no picnic. Sick babies are yucky. Really the barf filled car seat that I posted a picture of earlier was probably the most disgusting thing I've ever had to deal with. Funny though - it didn't gross me out nearly as much as the pile of cat barf I had to clean up off the floor the next day. Perspective, I guess.


Do you ever feel jealous of your husband that he has a stronger genetic connection to your kids? No, this thought has honestly never occurred to me.

Do you feel that this has changed your relationship with your sister? Yes. I feel much closer to her now. Because she is so much younger than me, we never had a very close relationship. I think this brought us closer, and it helped me to look at her as so much more than just my 'baby' sister. I always thought of her as just a little girl. She is a strong and generous woman whom I admire and respect. She did something totally selfless.

How does your sister feel about your children? I've never specifically asked in these terms. I don't think that she looks at them as more than her niece and nephew - perhaps she is more interested in them than her other nieces and nephews, but that also could be because she is closer to me than she is to my other sisters. I do wonder how having her own baby (she is 15 weeks pregnant now) will change how she looks at these. Will she feel something different about them once she feels that bond with her baby? Or will she have a different understanding of what she gave to me once she sees how she feels about her baby. I don't know.

That's it? Keep the questions coming. I like them, it gives me things to think about.