We were very lucky to have a maternity nurse staying with us for four weeks after the twins were born. Advantages were that we got into some helpful routines and had an extra pair of hands. I had no idea how much there would be to do. And our maternity nurse was very good at not intruding on our evenings and looking after the twins.
The disadvantages were few, for me mainly revolving around me not feeling that I knew what the routines were or that I felt like it took me ages to bond with Tilly and Scott. Having said that, we were very lucky to have someone on-hand who knew about breastfeeding twins who could share her expertise with Charlotte often.
Now that we’re back to our old selves, without the maternity nurse, it’s taken some time for us to get our routines sorted out. Being the Dad and having useless man-boobs, I seem to sleep ok. Charlotte, however, is needed at 3.00 am most nights to do the night feed, and then again at 6.00 am.
For me it’s easier, I just get on with the 9.30 pm feed using bottles of formula. I remember that this was one of the great interactions I had with Monty when he was a baby and it meant I felt very bonded to him by the time we stopped doing the 11.00 pm feed. I missed it for a while afterwards. It was “our” time, just Monty and Daddy. And now I’m having “our” time all over again with Tilly and Scott, a little earlier in the evening at the moment but hopefully soon we can move this to a little later. My ideal would be an 11.00 pm feed with the twins sleeping through to 6.00 or 7.00 am. That would mean Charlotte could skip the 3.00 am feed and sleep from 9.00 or 10.00 pm right through until morning.
It’s much harder, I’ve found, feeding twins. Initially I tried a casual approach. Lining up the baby lying-down bouncey things (technical term) I thought it couldn’t be too difficult to have a bottle in each hand and sit on the floor in between them. This way I envisaged two perfectly well-behaved mites being very accommodating and lying on their backs letting Daddy feed them. This would mean I could combine activities. I could feed them and get up to date with watching the back issues of The Shield on dvd. I’ve just finished Series 3 and would like to graduate to Series 4 soon.
However, Tilly and Scott have their own ideas (who would have thought?) and so it’s a trickier process than I imagined.
For starters, I’m not sure they have the same appreciation for the tight script, superb cinematography, sharp direction and engaging characters. This means they act totally disinterested, requiring my attention whenever it suits them, not when it suits me. Pause gets pressed a lot, and it can take anything up to two hours to watch a one hour episode.
Nevertheless, the feed gets done in about an hour every night. And the twins have their own way of feeding. Tilly likes to feed in small doses and dribbles out of the left side of her mouth - she’s difficult to wind adequately. Scott likes to drink as much as possible in one go, is very easy to wind, and then prefers to go straight back to sleep. It’s funny noticing how different they are already.
So we’re getting our routines gradually established. Sometimes they work well, sometimes less so. But it’s all good fun, and for the most part, I’m enjoying the ride.
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