What the First Month with Twins Is Really Like
Bringing home twins can be an overwhelming and life-changing experience. While it brings incredible love into your life, it can also bring exhaustion, stress, and a seemingly never-ending to do list.That’s why I wanted to share my experience of what the first month with twins is really like.
Because prepare as much as you can, twins are still likely to surprise you…at least they did for me. When I was pregnant, I read lots about twin pregnancy, but couldn’t find many accounts of what it was like after they arrived. That’s why it was important for me to share my experience of what the first month with twins was really like for me. Read on!
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Babies:
Time truly does fly. While the twins are only on their fourth week of life, their one week cuddles are becoming a blurry memory.
A main fear with twins is how tiny they are. I felt so lucky to have our pregnancy go to 37.5 weeks and end up with an 8lb baby and 6lb babies. Seeing them here next to me, healthy, gives me such a sense of gratitude.
All the pregnancy pain was worth it! If you’re curious as to what it felt like to carry 14 pounds of babies, read my twin pregnancy week by week experience.
Since coming home, H has been gaining weight steadily, but A took a little longer. We had to give top up bottles after every feed, essentially doubling the feeding time, and wake her to eat.
Now, you probably know that waking a newborn when you’re exhausted and just want to sleep can be hard. Waking a newborn when you have another newborn and a toddler to care for? Exhausting! Though when wondering what the first month with twins is really like, I bet you were expecting that.
It was all worth it though, when at our one month checkup we got the thumbs up that both babies’ were a good weight and their health was on an upwards trajectory. Hurrah!
As exhausting as life is, there are times when I just stop and simply look in their eyes. I feel their tiny fingers wrap around my pinky, and everything else simply fades away. I wish I could bottle those moments to come back to as the years pass by.
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Sleep:
Often, babies confuse their days and nights, preferring to be up all night and sleep all day – making it not so easy on their exhausted mamas. We were lucky that our twins figured out their nights & days early. While they still wake to eat every 1-3.5 hours, they were at least letting us sleep in chunks throughout the night.
My husband has also been awesome at helping out overnight. With him covering the 3-7am shift, I know I can get a solid 4hr shift of blissful, uninterrupted sleep.
There’s also the issue of keeping them on the same schedule. When one baby is crying and the other sleeping soundly, it can be so tempting to let them stay there. If we did so, however, we could be feeding every hour on the hour.
I’m still exhausted, and it’s not perfect but…it could be worse?
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Mom Life:
It’s a cruel joke that the moment your body needs the most recuperation is when you’re able to sleep the least.
What the first month with twins is really like involves tears, and lots of them. Thank goodness for friends who had warned me about the day four postpartum crying.
I know it was just my body’s hormones adjusting so that milk can come in, but the bawling was intense. Tears were streaming down my face while cooking, showering, and breastfeeding – they just wouldn’t stop. By day seven, I had had a full day with no tears – progress!
After we had been home a week and hadn’t left the house once, I realized how important it is to get back out there. Yes, it’s easier to hole up, recuperate, and protect my tiny twinnies from the outside world. It feels so much better, though, to get the sun on our faces, and meetother moms who can relate.
Overall, having newborn twins and a two-year old is simply a lot – and that’s before our entire house got the stomach flu.
From the first sign of vomit, we went from zone defense to man-on-man. Hubby took the 2-year-old vomiter, I took the twins, and we holed up in their room. Alas, it failed, as a fever, full body aches, and vomiting all hit all of us. I couldn’t have been more grateful to my hubby when I couldn’t hold down a sip of Gatorade and was trying to feed two tiny humans who were also vomiting.
So, if you’re curious what the first month with twins is really like: it’s never-ending, and exhausting. It’s a wild, exciting, intense, wonderful, amazing, hard, magical, and incredible phase of life. The love that’s permitting our house is like nothing else.
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Weight Loss
Throughout my pregnancy, I put on a whopping 55lbs. Imagine the feeling of strapping 55 pounds to your stomach, squishing your organs 24 hours a day, and you’ll have a sense of what it was like.
At the twins’ one week appointment I was down 30lbs. 30 pounds in one week? I’ll take it!
By two weeks I was down 38lbs, and by one month postpartum I was down 42lbs, with just 13lbs left to go.
I feel that getting back to my pre-pregnancy weight will be doable, especially while breastfeeding twins (which burns up to 1,000 calories a day!).
Breastfeeding is definitely not easy. It can hurt, you can get infected, and it can frustrate me to no end when I don’t produce enough – but there’s no denying the benefits!
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Our Toddler:
When I was looking forward to what the first month with twins is really like, I was worried. We would have 3 under 3 -yikes! Yet K has been surprisingly awesome with the twins. She treats them so carefully and is incredibly sweet with them.
With her parents though, she’s not afraid to push back. We’re all getting used to our new routines, and sometimes she actually acts like the two-year-old she is!
One thing I miss deeply in the evenings is silence. With three under three, it’s a rare stretch when we have blissful, beautiful silence. I remember silence…it’s a happy, distant memory I look back fondly on during our days of chaos.
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The Hardest Part:
When discussing what that the first month with twins is really like, I can’t skim over the hard parts. I thought the hardest part would be the sleep deprivation. And it’s true, it is hard.
But the sleep deprivation isn’t the worst part yet, though I know it’s going to accumulate as the months go on. No, the hardest part the past month has been all things physical.
Having twins takes a toll on your body. From recovering from labor and childbirth, to getting used to breastfeeding, to losing sleep, hormone adjustments, endless weeping, lack of physical activity, getting the flu, and just your body recovering from the pregnancy itself, my body has been through a lot.
Another hard part is trying to figure our what to do when all 3 kiddos are screaming. It’s such an awful feeling to not be able to support each of them, but there are only two of us. And what will I do when it’s just me??
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The Best Part:
This one is simple: the best part of what the first month with twins is really like is the abundance of sweet baby cuddles and love, love, love.
No matter how hard this period of life is is, I’m trying to treasure it. I guarantee that in the days, months, and years to come, I will want to give almost anything to return to these moments. That’s what the first month with twins is really like.
So I remind myself, as I unwillingly draw myself out of my comfy bed at 3am, and head towards screaming newborns, to treasure these middle-of-the-night feeds. When a baby is fussy, but curled onto my shoulder, I try to relish the feeling, and smell their little leads.
Because as incredibly hard as it may be, I’m going to miss these days.
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Read Next:
Twin Pregnancy week Week By Week Experience
Minimalist Twin Registry Checklist
Follow along on social @TwinWinning
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