I constantly get asked....how do you do it with twins. Well to us, it's all we have ever known. I love being a stay at home mom....every second of it! I want to remember each stage cause these two little ones are growing up so fast! So I thought a post about a day in our life would be a good way to remember and share how I do it! First of all I have no help....except for Ryan...never have. We came home from the hospital with them on a Saturday and he went back to work Monday morning! Never had a night nurse or daytime babysitter or even a family member come for a night when they were little. Not that they wouldn't do it if we asked, but we just waited so long to be parents and really enjoy raising them ourselves. We have had babysitters, but they are always asleep when we leave. I am by no means complaining I promise...but it is possible to do it yourself! I have always been a very independent person....but never knew how efficient I was until I had twins!! I am not perfect .....not at all, but we manage to raise two healthy happy babies and love everything about having twins! When people ask for twin advice...I can only say
#1 Pray they don't double team you!
#2 Always stay one step ahead of them!
A Day in Our Life:
7AM I wake up and head to the kitchen. Before I go to bed the night before I get coffee and breakfast ready. So I come into the kitchen looking like this (most of the time)...
We go get the kids around 7:15. I had a cute video from this morning and it wont upload. I change diapers and bring them in the living room. I feed them bottles and then they lay in their boppy pillows and watch the Today show while we have breakfast and coffee. Ryan is usually gone by this time, but today he didn't have to leave until 7:50! I run the dishwasher every other day so I unload during this time.
I also try to make beds and get their breakfast ready before 8.
Around 8:00 I undress them and feed them breakfast. We are trying to work on sitting up to eat, but Graham loves to eat and does a lot better in the bouncy seat. My kids love their veggies! We have a vitamix and make all their baby food in that now...super fast and easy. We don't even cook 90% of the food. Just blend it up raw! This morning we are having raw Kale, Broccoli and Squash.
After breakfast we get dressed for the day.
After getting Graham dressed I put him in a toy to play while I dress Ellie.
Both kids dressed!
Then we play...with this gorgeous weather we usually head outside. I don't have any pics from today so here is one from the day before!
We play fetch with the dog and I water plants while we are outside. Then we head back indoors to play, read stories. I feed them another bottle at 8:50 and they go down at 9 for a nap. I then jump in the shower, start a load of laundry and get lunch and the rest of the days bottles ready.
They wake up anytime between 10:30-11. Today Ellie woke up at 10:40 and Graham at 10:47! I feed them real food- we are eating lunch on the floor and out of "to-go pouches". I still make the food myself and put it in these pouches...a little less messy and quicker to feed. Lunch today is Green Beans and Spinach. We switched to full coverage bibs cause they were making a mess:)
I always clean as I go. So I clean up from lunch.
We always leave the house for a little while. Mondays we have music and the other days we run errands, have playdates or play outside. Today we went to the grocery store to pick up a Redbox movie and few items for the weekend. Love my view of them in the car! Graham isn't always great in the car (let's be honest - he screams a lot), but today he was really sweet and quiet. Ellie is always good:)
Here is how I manage two in public alone. I put Graham in the baby bjorn and Ellie in the top of the stroller. I use Graham's empty carseat to store stuff. If they are both happy I leave them in the seats and just store my goodies under the stroller. Funny thing is today a guy in the store offered to take a picture without me even asking - although I wouldn't be opposed to asking ha!...maybe he knew I was planning on doing this blogpost :)
At the end of our trip the kids were still being good so I headed to Starbuck to treat myself. We buy Starbucks coffee at home and every bag can be traded in for a free coffee!
We head home and unload the car! Then they drink another 5 oz bottle.
Ellie can feed herself about 75% of her bottle alone. Graham can do about 30-50% and then I have to help him. I'll take all the self efficiency I can get!
They play for a bit while I clean up bottles and change out laundry.
We head to their room to change diapers and read a book before naps. They really love books. And love the kind where mommy makes silly noises or hang gestures! I put them down around 1PM.
Once they go down I take a few minutes to eat lunch and watch TV or catch up with a friend on the phone....or blog like today! Lunch for me today- grapes and leftover Mediterranean Quinoa from the night before.
After about 30-45 min of "me time" I get back to work! Usually I clean and prepare for dinner. Today I sweep and dust and clean our master bath. We love to cook, but don't like eating at 8PM, so I try and get as much done for dinner during nap time. Tonight we are making pasta so I am making the sauce during naps. Usually its something like chicken fried rice- I'll make the rice and chicken during naps. Or Sweet Potato Quesadillas and I'll bake the sweet potatoes and cut up all veggies.
Pasta sauce done!
I make all their food too. Usually on Sundays while Ryan watches football- he helps me too! I store it in the freezer in labeled bags to make it easy to grab and feed them during the week.
Before they wake up around 3:30-4 I pick out dinner for them and get their stuff for dinner and baths ready. We usually leave right after they wake up and return home right in time for dinner and I like to stay one step ahead!
Just when I finished someone wakes up! Exactly 3:50:)
I change his diaper and feed him. Ellie woke up at 4:05 with a huge scratch on her face so I cut her nails and fed her a bottle.
Monday-Thursday we go play with friends at the park after naps. On the weekends we do something as a family. Today we went and looked around the mall and tried on a few things.
Then we loaded them back up in the car and headed to another shopping center so Daddy could get a new jacket! Here is me and my silly man in Orvis!
We walked to Dean and Deluca to get some apps and dessert for our Friday night dinner.
After we finished shopping we headed home and made some appetizers and got the kids undressed and fed them dinner! We normally feed them right at 6PM
Graham will eat anything!
Even his bib hah!
Ellie is hit or miss. She likes all food....just not always up for eating in general:)
After dinner its bath time 6:15. We bathe them daily. We at least throw them in the tub and rinse them off.
6:25 We get dressed and feed them their last bottle of the day.
Then we play for a while to keep them awake until bedtime.
We again read them a story before putting them down for the night at 7PM.
Night happy little boy!
Night Night Ellie Bug!
We head to the kitchen to make our dinner. It's Friday so we are making something a little more complicated. Homemade pasta!
7:35...dinner time! Yumm!!
Then we watch TV or in tonights case a movie and usually head to bed around 10.
So there you go.....a whole day in our world with twins. Today was a good day, but they are never perfect. Some days someone wakes up early from a nap and is cranky the rest of the day. Some days they scream in the car or have a meltdown in public, but we still live our lives and go places. I don't want the fact that we have twins to keep us from doing things that we would do with just one baby so we just make it work. I love being a mom and love every day I get to spend with Ryan and Graham and Ellie.
