Whitney of A Pair of Ones
The featured blogger this week is Whitney of A Pair of Ones. Whitney is the proud MoM of two month old twins Ian and Noah. The fact that Whitney is blogging and answering questions, and it all makes sense, totally amazes me. I do not think I was think coherent at 2 months.
What made you decide to start a blog?
When I was pregnant I found several blogs from moms of multiples which were incredibly helpful, but not very many discussed their pregnancy. I wanted to know if what I was going through was normal. My parents also lived and worked as missionaries in Mexico and I needed a way to include them in the pregnancy. My husband encouraged me to start blogging. He even helped me set up my site. Once I got started I loved it. It has become an incredible online scrapbook, a great way to connect with other MoMs, and a way to keep my family up to date on our life.
Can you discuss your road to parenthood?
Our road to parenthood was very different than I imagined it would be. Like most women I thought once we decided we were ready for a family it would happen quickly, unfortunately that was not how it went for us. I started by using a fertility calendar that tracked your body temperature, an increase in body temperature indicated ovulation, my morning temperature never spiked. I then started using ovulation test every day and never had two lines show up indicating ovulation. After months of charting my temperature and daily ovulation tests we decided to talk to my OB-GYN. One meeting with her and we found out that only one of my ovaries was doing what it was suppose to do and the other one, although healthy, was not ovulating. We decided to try Clomid. I had a friend warn me once about the “Clomid crazies”, boy was she right. My doctor told my husband that this was only preparing him for pregnancy hormones. We were on our third round of Clomid and getting ready to start further testing when we found out we were expecting.
Throughout our year of trying to conceive my husband always talk about how much fun he thought it would be if we had twins. Well to our surprise when we went in to the doctor’s office for our first ultrasound we found out we were 5 weeks pregnant with twins! I couldn’t believe it. I have never been more excited in all my life. I think the first picture we have of the boys is my favorite, to me it represents the amazing God I prayed to for a year begging for a child and not only did he decide to bless me with one precious little one but two.
My pregnancy overall was great! I was so excited to finally be pregnant that I honestly cherished all the pregnancy symptoms. I went on modified bedrest at 30 weeks and had the boys at 36 weeks and 4 days. My prayer throughout my pregnancy was that the boys would not have to go to the NICU, would be able to come home with us, and that they wouldn’t weigh more than 8lbs a piece. God truly answered my prayers; I had two perfectly healthy little boys weighing 5lbs 8oz and 6lbs 12oz. They never had to go to the NICU and were able to come home with us from the hospital 2 days after delivery.
Your babies are only 2 months old, how have you adjusted to being a new MoM?
I think being a new mom has been amazing but challenging. I feel like it is a big adventure of discovery and learning every day. There are so many things I did not know before having babies especially about having twins. I am so blessed to have an amazing group of friends who have answered my many questions about being a mom, but I am the first MoM in my immediate group of friends. I have discovered that there are many things that may work with one baby that do not work as well with two. I think I am finally getting to the point that I am not too overwhelmed to process what I think about being a MoM. These first 2 months have been a blur and honestly I just haven’t had the time to process everything. Some days are absolutely amazing, the boys are all smiles and it actually seems like it may be getting easier. Then there are days when both of the boys are extremely fussy and I wish I had more than two arms. I feel like as soon as I start to get the hang of things something changes and I have to adjust all over again. Although there have been lots of ups and downs my two little ones are amazing.
I truly feel like the most blessed Momma around. How can you not with these two precious little boys?
What’s the biggest piece of advice you can offer either a new MoM or a MoM that just found out she was pregnant with twins?
I think the biggest piece of advice I can offer a new MoM or someone expecting twins would be that your path and journey will look very different from those around you. So many times as moms we compare ourselves to each other and put unnecessary pressure on ourselves to be perceived as the perfect mom. Then there will come the time that you have to make a decision sometimes between what is popular and what is best for your family and you may feel guilty over the decision you made even though you know it is what’s best. My decision was between breastfeeding and formula feeding. You can read about my struggle with this decision here. There are always choices we make as moms, especially early one and the decisions never stop. You have to choose what is best for your family even when that choice may differ from others around you.
I also would tell a new MoM to let people help. This was hard for me. I don’t really like lots of people in my home for extended periods of time and I really dislike asking people for help. Once you have twins you honestly just need help. I really struggled with letting people help but I don’t know what I would have done without everyone around me. We had friends who brought dinner for weeks, some who would come over and clean my house or do our laundry, others would just call to check on me, and lots of people who volunteered to come help hold and console babies. My parents have even watched the babies overnight so my Hubby and I could enjoy a night of uninterrupted sleep. Although it is hard for me to step back and let people help I wouldn’t have made it through these past two months without all of our friends and family.
What question(s) do you have for the other families in the community?
When and how do you get your little ones to sleep through the night? My two little ones still eat every 3 hours even at night. We have even tried putting a little rice cereal in their bottles, but it doesn’t seem to help. At 10 weeks old I thought they would be sleeping a little longer. I also want to know how you balance all the hats you wear? I am getting ready to start back at school and work and I am nervous about this transition and adding more to my plate.
Be sure to leave your answers to Whitney’s questions in the comment section and then head over to A Pair of Ones to leave some bloggy love!
Our girls were sleeping 9 – 10 hours at night by about 3 months. I followed the Babywise methodology religiously, and it worked wonders for us. It also helped when I started swaddling our girls tightly (using SwaddleMe blankets from Halo, I think).
Congratulations on your sweet boys! Enjoy all those newborn snuggles! And best of luck!!!
Mandy, thank you so much for the advice! I bought Babywise today! Hopefully we will have these boys sleeping through the night in no time! 9-10 hours would be amazing, but at this point I would even take 4-5 hours in a row!
I have 3 year old twin boys.We love having twins and it started out good and just got better and better…just potty training them now! Ours did not sleep through the night until after 4 months. If I am remembering correctly (and it was all happening quickly and sleep deprivedly back then) they weren’t expected to sleep through the night until then…great if they do, but I think at that age, and having come a few weeks early, they still might need to eat every 3 hours. Ours basically began to sleep for longer intervals at night and at 3 months would sleep 4 hours straight and sometimes 5 or 6. They didn’t sleep through the night until 5 months. We did the Ferber method to help them self soothe, I think at 4 months. The trick I learned when they were 6 months (which I wish I’d known earlier, was to put them down for the night (we did this at about 8/9 ish ) and then feed them another bottle at 11pm, they wouldn’t really wake up for that bottle, I’d just rock them and feed them…this worked wonders. (It doesn’t have to be 11pm but just before you go to bed and long enough since their last meal) Once they dropped that 11pm bottle they were sleeping every night all night until 9-10am.
Believe it or not, you will miss these times of being up all night with them, it is the only time they fit perfectly in the crook of your arm and they grow so fast, my advice to my 2-3 month old twin mom self would be “Savour it as much as you can! I know its hard, but it will go by fast and they’ll be sleeping through the night and one day they’ll be wiping off your kisses and running off to play more than they want to be held..Enjoy the journey while you try and figure it all out…and you will figure it out!
(This is a blog I wrote about missing each stage)
http://threedotsbynancy.blogspot.com/2009/08/youre-gonna-miss-this.html
PS: The book Twin Set is wonderful and sooo easy to read…great advice.
Thank Nancy! I really appreciate the advice. I think twins are just different than singletons and I keep wanting to compare my boys to my friend’s babies who are around the same age and sleep so much longer. I really am trying to treasure every moment and every 2am feeding. It seems like they have grown so fast already and I really don’t want to miss anything, but it is hard not to fantasize about a good nights sleep! It is great to know that not everyone’s babies sleep through the night at 8 weeks old. Thank you again for the advice, it is so helpful!
For us, we tried to do what we could to stretch that time between night time feedings. We would feed the girls at 10 pm, and try to get them to go back to sleep by using swings, swaddling and binkies until we got a 5 hour stretch, then a 6 hour stretch, etc. You can get through this! Good luck!