The twins are two months old now, and we’re working on establishing a routine that is both sustainable and flexible enough to accommodate their rapid development. Here’s what any given weekday looks like in my life right now.
6 AM: First feeding of the day. I change both babies’ diapers, then hand PB over to my husband to feed while I feed Z. When Z is finished, I lie her next to me on the bed to doze or play while I pump. PB gets put down next to her when he’s done, and husband heads into the shower.
7 AM: Pumping and feeding are usually both done now, and by the time I’m done pumping both babies are asleep on the bed. I fence them in with pillows and get dressed and brush my teeth. We head downstairs, husband makes lunch and leaves while I make a bowl of oatmeal (it is good for your milk supply, so I eat it eeeevery day) and keep an eye on the baby monitor. I take my oatmeal back upstairs, and eat, check email and Twitter, and tidy up until the babies wake up, at which point I occupy them with toys and cuddles until the next feeding.
9 AM: Solo feeding. I’m on my own for this one, so I keep them upstairs in the bed and prop them next to each other on a king-sized pillow to give them their bottles. They take turns getting burped. After they finish, I settle them next to me again while I sit on the edge of the bed and pump. They play with toys or suck on pacifiers (or each other) for a while, then doze off.
10 AM: Pumping finished, I pillow-fence the sleeping babies again and begin the migration downstairs. Pump flanges and empty bottles from late last night and this morning get carried down and loaded into the dishwasher, and a load of laundry gets started. I keep an eye on the monitor so I can grab them before they wake up fully. Once they start to fidget and fuss, I bring them downstairs, change their diapers, and change them into daytime clothes. Then they go into their swings for as long as they’ll tolerate it; eventually they will wind up in boppies on the couch with me or being held, depending on how they’re feeling. Sometimes I grab a quick snack here; sometimes I don’t have time.
11:30 AM: my mother in law arrives to help. We go over the night’s developments, how they slept, etc., plus any changes to the daily process or notable events.
12 PM: Feeding time again. We each change a baby and feed it. Then they are back in boppies on the couch to nap or play while I go upstairs to pump in a quiet room.
1:30 PM to 3 PM: now is the time for folding laundry, emptying the dishwasher, eating lunch, or writing long day-in-the-life posts. Unless one or both babies are fussy – today, it’s PB, who hasn’t pooped since yesterday and is getting uncomfortable. He’s needed to be held most of the day.
3 PM: Feeding time again. A repeat of the 12 o’clock feeding – change a baby, feed a baby, go and pump. The full process takes about an hour and a half end to end.
5 PM: Fill and assemble bottles, load the dishwasher again.
6 PM: Feeding. My husband tries to get home in time for this one; he takes one baby and his mom takes the other while I go and pump. They get changed into their pajamas before they eat.
6:30 PM: Make dinner. Something simple, something fast, something pre-made out of the freezer, or, on bad days, delivery.
7 PM: Eat dinner; if babies are fussing, we take turns holding babies and eating. At some point, my mother in law heads home. I load the dinner dishes and any remaining bottles into the dishwasher and run it.
7:30 PM: Start trying to settle the babies into sleeping; we either hold them or settle them in boppies while we watch a couple of episodes of something on TV.
9 PM: Feeding again. By this time the babies are inevitably asleep; we wake them (I know, I know), change them, and feed them however much they’re willing to eat. Then my husband swaddles them and puts them down, drowsy but not asleep, in their bassinets and tidies up downstairs and freezes any extra breast milk while I pump and keep an eye on the babies to make sure they’ve gone to sleep.
10 PM: Bedtime for us, too. This can stretch to 11 if the previous stuff takes a while.
2:30 AM: Z wakes up sometime between 2:30 and 3:30. She gets a diaper change and then nurses for 10 to 15 minutes – the only time she sees breast instead of bottle, generally – and goes back to sleep. I get back to sleep by about 4. Once in a while, PB also wakes up in this timeframe and does the same thing, but it’s rare.
5:30 AM: Both babies wake up about 15 minutes before our alarm. We try to keep them calm until close to 6, when we start all over again.