Bath time: 2 babies, 1 parent

So I have posted several times that Mike is working late almost every night leaving me to do the night time routine solo. At first it was a  little overwhelming, it is still tiring, but I now have the routine of doing it all by myself down.

While some people might roll their eyes at the way I do it (my facebook post of my naked babies running around the house) this is what works well for me! And unless you have twins and have tried to do this routine by yourself for weeks on in then you can't make a judgement. If you do have twins maybe what I am about to share can help you. My routine is definitely not rocket science but it did become, what it is now, overtime.

I tried to give both babies a bath at the same time a couple of months ago, but they weren't quite ready for it. Why weren't they ready? They didn't sit up well enough on their own (I didnt know this until they were in the tub), they slipped and fell all over the place so it was scary.

I purchased an extra long bath mat off of amazon to help with this. I also gave it another month before I tried to bathe them together in the tub.

With a month of growth and development and the addition of the extra long bath mat. The twins can bathe together with no worries of slipping.

I start the bath time routine (by myself) with working on the twins' listening skills. I call the babies and have them follow me into the nursery. I say "come on babies, let's get our clothes off, and get ready for a bath, come on, come on." They make their way into the nursery and I put one on the changing table, remove their clothes, take their diaper off, wipe them down, and then I place a naked baby on the floor. (No I am not scared that they will pee on the floor, it hasn't happened yet,  I know it can, but don't think it will.) I then pick up the other baby, place on changing table, remove clothes, diaper, and wipe down, place 2nd naked baby on the floor. I then work on babies listening skills again and say "come on babies let's go take a bath, you love baths, yay bath time!" The babies will work their way into the bathroom, crawl right up to the tub, pull up and wait for me to put them in.

I throw some bath toys in, let the babies play and scrub them down.


Before undressing babies I run the bath water, get the wash cloths and baby towels ready, and I place a towel at the base of the tub.


When bath time is over, I take babies out and  place them on the towel I sat on the floor and use their bath towels to dry them. I dry them off and have them follow me back into the nursery where I sit on the floor to diaper and dress them.

And that's how I give two babies a bath with just me.



Here is what I said above in pictures. Call babies to come in to nursery. 

Come on babies let's get ready for a bath!

 Naked baby number 1 on the floor. 

 Getting baby number two to come to me to get ready for a bath.

 Two naked babies, get them to go to the bathroom, by saying let's go take a bath! 

 Babies head towards the tub.

Ready to get in the tub! 

 In the tub!

 Mohawk!

 TOYS!!!

 Time to dry off!

Time to crawl into the nursery to get dressed!

A day in the life of...

A day in the life of me :)

7:00 am: wake up in disbelieve that it is already time to get up, also annoyed and angry by this. Take thyroid pills,  start coffee, hop in shower. Get out shower, blow dry hair, straighten hair, and get partially dressed to avoid getting barfed on (the babies are mostly pasted that... I guess it is just habit now).

7:30: wake, change, feed babies.

8:00 - finished getting dressed, grab coffee, run out the door to head to work.

8:40 - start the day off at my student's feeder elementary schools, to do one on one observations of their classrooms.

9:45 - get to my high school, unlock my classroom door

9:50 - 11:34 - teach 2nd and 3rd period -- how to read food labels and calorie count

11:40- 12:20 - hall duty, monitor the halls, send kids without passes back to class, write tardy passes and detentions for late students.

12:25 - 1:15 - no lunch for me today, today I sell prom tickets during lunch (I did eat while doing so but miss out on my adult sit down lunch time)

1:20 - 2:15 - teach 5th  period - how to read food labels and calories

2:20 - 3:05 - teach 6th period a cool lesson with computer simulation babies, was supposed to be observed by an administrator , he didn't show up.

3:06 - 4:00 - turn in money and do accountability report for prom tickets sold and plan for tomorrow's lessons.

4:15 - leave school, drive home

4:40 - arrive home, play with babies

5:00 - Mike comes home, lucky me! So that I can go to the grocery store and do some other errands that did not get done this weekend.

5:15 - out the door to the post office, grocery store, and couponing trip, purchase $68 worth of goods for $8

6:15 - back home, Mike leaves to go back to work since he is heading out of town tomorrow to meet a new client, feed babies solids, play with babies.

7:00 - bath time, where I take pictures for a blog post --- about how to give two babies a bath with just one parent

7:30 - dress babies and feed them a night time bottle

7:45 - put babies in bed and read the book "Goodnight Moon," turn off the lights. Babies are sounded asleep.

7:50 - put on my pjs sit down to eat dinner that Mike made (frozen pizza, yum!) and start this blog post!

I will probably go to bed around 10pm!

Dyson Product Review

Two years ago when we purchased and moved in to our house, I wanted, but was too cheap to buy a Dyson. I purchased a Bissell Pet Hair Eraser instead. The pet hair eraser works ok, but is heavy, and gets clogged often.  Ever since purchasing the Pet Hair Eraser, I have had my eye on the Dyson. Our house is mainly white carpet and I drive myself crazy trying to keep it clean and stain free. I’ll say buying a white carpeted home was a first time house buyer overlook. It is a constant headache to keep it clean and looking clean with two babies and two dogs.

Two months ago Woot’s daily special was a Dyson. So I jumped! Woot is amazing website that offers great products that are overstocks at low prices, usually about 50% off of the retail price. They have a set number and they sell them until they run out which is usually half way through the day. I was so excited I got the Dyson before they sold out.

The first time I used my Dyson I fell in love. It is so light, easy to maneuverer, and has so much suction. I dumped the bucket so many times because my floors were so dirty. My floors were dirty not because I don’t clean them but because my old vacuum left so much dirt behind. When Mike came home from work he thought I had steam cleaned the carpets! That’s how clean they looked just from vacuuming with the Dyson.

The performance of the Dyson is 1000 times better than the Bissell. The lightweight-ness of the vacuum makes it easy to clean the stairs and the tools extend to clean the ceilings. Yes the ceilings, no cob webs in my house.

So as you can tell from what I have already said the Dyson, is a big YES, a big GO. Worth every penny, the company is known to stand by their warranty, so it should last a life time. If you can be patient and keep your eyes and ears open you can get a good deal on one. 

Huggies Snug and Dry

We have mainly used Pampers since the twins were born. If I had a coupon for another brand I would give it a try. We have tried, LUVS, CVS brand, and Target brand. I had some high value coupons for Huggies, so I purchased them. I bought the Huggies in size 3, since I was already stocked in the other small sizes. The twins just recently out grew size 2 diapers. So it was time to give the Huggies a try.

I hate them! We have never had a problem with Pampers. The Huggies Leak! In the morning when the twins get up the Huggies are soaked through to the bed. Gross! Again like I said never had this problem with Pampers. So we are using the Huggies during the day, because I am not wasting the ones I already purchased and using Pampers at night. I do not think there will be many Huggies purchases in my future. I’ll be happy when all the Huggies are gone.

Ebay

I have started selling random junk around the house on Ebay and I guess it is true, "one man's junk is another's treasure" because for whatever reason people have been buying my stuff. I made $77 dollars this week selling random stuff like an old cell phone, a dated pencil skirt, dated shorts, a picture frame, some books. Who knows maybe you have some crap someone else wants to buy?!

Talent Show is over

WOOOO who! The talent show is over and I am so glad that stress is off my plate. The show was a smashing success and was actually a lot of fun. Just the event, the activity, reminded me how cool, rare, and fun being a high school teacher is. Now I have about one week to breathe then the stress of prom!!

Blah, Blah, Blah

I was writing this blog in my head while driving to work this morning. I thought I would have some down time to write this, and now that I have a second, of course I forgot how I was going to write in this post.  I forget what I am allowed to say, what I am not allowed to say, what I shouldn’t say. There are so many things that I want to talk about, to write about, but I am afraid of the “wrong” person reading the post, or hurting someone’s feelings for putting this on the internet world.I guess I need to start and keep a more personal journal.

My life is a whirlwind right now. I don’t think I have EVER longed for or needed summer vacation more.

I feel like I am not doing a lot of things right, or good enough, and worry about what else I could be or should be doing.

Life is beautiful. My life is beautiful and I thank God every day for the precious moments I experience on a daily basis. There are so many times where I stop what I am doing and try to engrave the moment in my mind so I can forever hold on to the memory.

Like the other night at dinner when I was sad to be eating dinner "alone" yet again and then it was like a slap in the face, "I am not alone!" I pulled the babies up to the dinner table, said a prayer out loud with them, shared my dinner with them, and told them about my day, they laughed and giggled as I talked to them. It was a beautiful moment.

I also thank God for the stress and challenges he is throwing my way, my family’s way, as he tries to shape us into the people, the family we are supposed to be.

That’s the positive side of everything.

The negative side of things... I am starting to feel more drained and beat down.  I just feel like I can’t keep up with everything right now and this is not a feeling I amused to! I got home late last night due to Talent Show Rehearsal, earlier than expected around 6:30pm. We flew through the Act 1 dress rehearsal!  Mike had to leave to go back to work and ended up leaving about 15 minutes after I got home. This left me with baths and bottles  two fussy babies, right before bed time. I understand WHY he had to go, but this is such a constant it’s draining me. Mike lost yesterday, as a workday, because he spent the entire day in court. Yes court. He is losing today as a work day because we do not have child care. I am out of sick days and have huge professional responsibilities with the talent show so I couldn't stay home. He had cases due to a doctor yesterday but didn't meet his deadline due to court and a mistake with his supplier who sent his materials to his old office address. So yes I understand why he had to go to work last night.

Mike is underway more stress than I am, because of this I don’t think he understand how it impacts me. Now we have talked about it plenty of times so he has heard me tell him that I am stressed. I understand and see how everything that is happening is going to be good in the long run. But that doesn't help with the feelings at the present time. 

So last night I did what I had to do with the babies, ate dinner, relaxed for a minute, and then decided I need togo to bed. I looked around my house and immediately felt stressed, like I couldn't handle the situation. Baby toys everywhere, the kitchen counter filled with junk, my sink full of dirty dishes, the dish washer filled with clean dishes,the trash can overflowing. I literally said FUCK IT and went to bed. You must know that a dirty house drives me crazy. But I didn't care. I need help. I can’t do it all. 

Mike came home from work it was around midnight. I was asleep. And he said, “really, Heather you can’t clean the kitchen?”

Like I said he doesn't get it. Enter Heather, woke up from sleep, tempter tantrum, melt down and expressing all above emotions. Ends with a million Mike sorrys, and promises that everything thing will be taken care of when I get home today.

I leave with a poem that is so true. Be warn it left me in tears… If I hadn’t already posted this before, I meant to. So this may be a double post. 

Mother, O' Mother, come shake out your cloth,

Empty the dustpan,poison the moth.

Hang out the washing,make up the bed,

Sew on a button andbutter the bread.

Where is the motherwhose house is so shocking?

She's up in thenursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown asshiftless as Little Boy Blue,

Lullaby, rockaby,lullaby loo.

Dishes are waiting andbills are past due,

Pat-a-cake, darling,and peek - peekaboo.

The shopping's notdone and there's nothing for stew,

And out in the yardthere's a hullabaloo.

But I'm playing Kangaand this is my Roo.

Look! Aren't his eyesthe most wonderful hue?

Lullaby, rockaby,lullaby loo.

The cleaning andscrubbing can wait till tomorrow,

But children grow up,as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs;Dust go to sleep!

I'm rocking my babyand babies don't keep.

~ Ruth HulbertHamilton

Single Moms

I don't know how you do it. I have been a "single mom" a lot recently. Mike is super busy with work and has been working late for weeks. It's starting to wear me down. I am not a stay at home mom. I work. I have to get up early and go to work. When I get home I'm tired. Like I said that last couple of weeks I have been coming home and doing the night time and bedtime routine by myself. It's not the end of the world. I know a lot of moms do this all the time, every time, every night. But it is hard. It is tiring. It sucks.

So that is one reason I have had NO free time to blog. Next week I am not quite sure what we are going to do because I have to stay at work late Tuesday - Friday. The Talent Show I am in charge of is Friday and I have to stay after each day for dress rehearsals.  Telling a planner like myself to take things one day at a time is hard to say the least.

So I'll try to do a quick update since it has been 18 days since I posted. We spent most of my Spring Break sick. We did take a day trip to the Zoo and did a Romp N Roll class in the next age group 10-18 months. Both were a lot of fun. The twins loved the Zoo. I decided I am going to keep the twins in their current Romp N Roll class 3-12 months for a little longer because they 10-18 month class was crazy. Babies climbing, jumping off of things and running into each other!

I'm on a new thyroid medicine that is made of all natural parts rather than synthetic  There are pros and cons to this natural medicine. But I am hoping I can finally start feeling better. Today marks 3 weeks that I have been 100% done with pumping. I am not sad about, and have been so busy, the weaning and stopping just kind of happened. I will do a whole post on just this later. But I EPed for 10 months, so the twins got 10 months of breastmilk. Something I am proud of because it was an up hill battle. 11 months postpartum I am no where near my pre-pregnancy weight. I still have about 25 pounds to go. Yes 25. Saying that, writing that, knowing that makes me want to go throw up my dinner. (Not really currently teaching the eating disorder unit in my classes) It has a lot to do with my hypothyroidism  hoping the natural meds will help this, and now that I am done breastfeeding I am excited to look into diets. I think I want to try nutrisystem. But have been so busy, havent been able to fully look into this.

During Spring Break Mike moved his office across town. This was a process, I know Mike will not want me to talk about all the details until everything is final. So... vaguely  he moved across town, but will be moving again in 2 months to a bigger space. The business is growing like crazy, which is why Mike is so busy. Money wise there really has been no difference. The move cost money, the bigger space costs more money, and be busying and paying for help cost money. So my husband is away working all the time... but not bringing home more money. Money talks so when there is more money I wont complain as much about being home alone all the time.

The twins are growing like crazy and are on the move. They crawl so fast and are into EVERYTHING. They are keeping me busy for sure. They are one month away from their first birthday and I don't even know where to start with my emotions about that topic.

I think this is a good enough update. So Ill leave it with some pictures.

Spring Break

Spring Break is here! Everything has been so busy leading up to this break... and I've had so many things planned for this break and time with my babies.... and BOOM... sickness is upon our house. I don't really know where it came from. But on Tuesday N spiked a fever of 102. It was obvious he wasn't feeling well because all he wanted to do is lay on you, if you sat him down he just laid on the floor. I called the doctor, it was after 5pm. The doctor simply said give him some Tylenol every four hours and if he is not better in the morning call us. Well the next morning N was back to himself. Two days later, on Thursday, our Romp N Roll day... I was going to brave Romp N Roll with both babies by myself since Mike had to work late. We already have 7 make up days so I didn't want to add another. Then P starting coughing really bad like she couldn't breathe, it scared me and I said I am not taking her to Romp N Roll like that. My mom also told me she had rejected her 4pm bottle. Mike got home earlier than I expect and when he asked me what was for dinner I hadn't even thought of that yet. Mike was really hungry because he hadn't had a chance to eat lunch. He said lets go to the mall, we can walk around with the babies and grab some food. So we did. During this entire time P was fine, so I thought it was just a one time coughing attack. On the way home I stopped in to CVS for a little couponing trip and Mike stayed in the car with the babies. I get a phone call from Mike while I am checking out and he is freaking, "P has pertussis, we need to the ER now."  At this point I know she has just had another coughing attack like earlier. I go to the car and Mike has youtubed videos of it. We call the pediatrician and they tell us these coughing attacks get worst at night and to take her to the pediatrics ER. Well to shorten this long story she has Croup, a barking cough, which is very common and can be caused by 10 different viruses, we caught it in the very early stages. She received breathing treatments and steroids to loosen the mucus. N has a little cold but not nearly like P. It's interesting to see how differently their bodies handle things. I think the temperature N had was from the same virus that gave P croup. Thursday night P slept on my chest... and now I have a cold. So everyone in this house is sick expect for N. I hope we get better soon so we can have some spring break fun!