Four Days with the Grandparents

It’s enough to strike fear into any vulnerable new mum – the visiting grandparents.

Once upon a time, pre-babies, my mother-in-law and I got on fine. We didn’t even argue about the wedding. Sure, she was not averse to telling me to wear a coat when I didn’t think I needed one or to eat various things, but I didn’t really mind and just went along with it – after all, I could see that what she was doing was mothering me, which in a way was quite sweet.

And then, BabyBoy and BabyGirl were born. And suddenly I was not prepared to ‘go along’ with things which concerned my babies.

‘Double trouble’

It’s a phrase heard over and over when people find out that you’re expecting or have twins: ‘double trouble’.

Personally I find it incredibly annoying. Any humour (is it meant to be humorous?) is lost on an expectant mum of twins. I would smile wanly when someone said that to me in my pregnant state, and then cry at home to Multidaddy – expecting twins was enough of a shock without everyone saying it was going to be awful.

Sleep training – live report 27

Have we made it?

Everyone settled well, and like last night although Multimummy was aware of shuffling around from 5am, it wasn’t until 6.15am that both BabyBoy and BabyGirl really woke up. Then there was some very cute playing between the two which took us to 6.40am before the day officially started. 

If a child lives with…

I promise not to fill this blog with cliches, but I came across this poem and I realised, it’s only now that I’m a mum that I fully appreciate it on an emotional (rather than the purely rational ‘well, that is actually pretty obvious’) level. 

7 things not to do in the first 7 days after giving birth

You’ve given birth. Your bundle(s) of joy are here, and hopefully happy and healthy. It’s a time for celebration. And reflection. And just about everything in between – those hormones of yours are going into overdrive.

Hormones take a long long time to settle down after giving birth (see my post Hormones). But the first few days (until you’ve gone through the ‘baby blues’) are particularly fertile ground for doing things that you’ll really really regret once you’re back to your usual self.

Sleep training – live report 26

Feeling less guilty…

Another pretty good night. Ok, so Multimummy was being hypersensitive and only dozing from 5am as BabyBoy was shuffling around, but no-one really got up until around 6.20am…and then amazingly BabyBoy resettled so the day didn’t officially start until BabyGirl woke up everybody (she did a great job of sleeping through) at 6.45am.

Sleep training – live report 25

A tale of progress…

Everyone settled well on night 25. At some point during the night Multimummy heard someone stir – but it was minor, the memory is vague and the only real clue is that the monitor is off the charging stand when she is woken by BabyBoy at……wait for it…..

Sleep training – live reports 23 and 24

Night 23 was more of the same…early morning waking by BabyBoy. The question then loomed, what else can we try??

The only thing we could think of was the theory of changing his sleep patterns during the night. This is done by disturbing baby earlier in the night, so that hopefully he’s in a deeper sleep by the time early morning rolls around.

Times Like This

There are times when you’re a mum when you want to (and do) cry…with exhaustion, frustration, anger, overwhelmed-ness, guilt, worry…

And there are times like this, when the house is quiet and you sit back and think over your old life.

Sleep training – live report 22

Call it intuition, but I’m not convinced moving bedtime any earlier is going to work. I just feel that we’re hitting the right time now (6.45pm).