There sure is no fooling you girls. You were right from the very first guesser: this was my very detailed nursing schedule from when the twins were born. I have every feeding recorded for the first three months because I am insane. I have never felt more out of control in my life than when I brought two babies home from the hospital.
This schedule represents the only shred of control I thought I had. I would religiously record every time they ate, how long it took them, which side and whether or not I had to supplement with pumped milk. The left column was Dot, the right was Lollipop. So those aren’t their real names, but I’m finding it increasingly difficult to talk about my girls as ‘she’.
I remember the day a nurse came to our house. She asked me a question about how much they were nursing and I pulled out the schedule with shaky hands, dirty hair flying in all directions, eyes wide and crazed with shock and lack of sleep. She took one look at it, one look at me, paused and said very firmly, “Stop writing in this.” I was over the top crazy. At the time, seeing it all there on the paper helped me feel like I was doing something measurable in the midst of the chaos that was life with two newborns. I didn’t stop after that, but I did lighten up a bit.
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Enough about me. The winner of the Lisa Leonard family crest necklace is Anna, commenter number 240!
Well, start imagining it Anna because you did win! Congrats. I emailed you. Or I will shortly. Thanks for coming out of the woodwork for the giveaway. It was fun to hear from some of you! Tomorrow I’ll post a photo of my non-haircut. Stay tuned.
i simply cannot imagine the hopsital letting me take home two babies… i can’t believe they even let me take the one. but it must be something… to look at that paper and recall the chaos… and know how far your family has come. still might be a little chaos now & then… just a different flavor.
just peeking back at my comment i thought that the picture trick you taught me wsa broken… but i guess it is not… my fingers just didn’t type in the address right
I kept a detailed journal of feeding and sleeping….and I only had one. There is nothing quite like experiencing motherhood for the first time. Every now and then, I will be so embarrassed of this compulsion that I am tempted to do away with the evidence. But then, I remember that sometimes I need a reminder of just how that experience changed me and how “out of control” I truly was. Oh, those poor, loved-so-much-you-go-crazy babies!
Happy weekend to you!
Tamera@doubledelight
Wow! That is quite a nursing schedule. I had a hard enough time keeping track of one…I cannot imagine twins! Congrats to the winner!
I kept a nursing journal, too — but just for one baby. And I was totally over-the-top insane about it…and about having a baby in general. I had never even changed a diaper when I brought my first-born home. I was in way over my head!
well I have to say that my first kiddo I kept a detailed written account of her feeding schedule waste elimination schedule. I kept that, too as a reminder of the insanity. By the time the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th kid came around I was like whenever…whatever. That worked too. I still pull out that list and chuckle.
I can however totally see why you would feel better with a list with twins. I bet that was hard trying to keep it all straight. You are a good Mommy. Your penmanship is pretty good too. Mine looked like scrawl.
Oh my heavens you poor poor thing! I never for a second thought it was a nursing schedule! Having only nursed one at a time mine looked quite different! My son was born 5 weeks early and my sister had just been diognosed with breast cancer. I was determined to be the first “breat feeding mommy” in my family. The benefits were for both of us! I pumped for 5 weeks until he learned to nurse! Good golly I was tired! That little one ate every 45 minutes the first 6 months! BUT he is a giant 122 pound healthy 12 yr old boy that is a smart as a whip! I credit it all with God’s great plan…all the vitamins a baby could use straight from mommy.
i cannot understand any of that. 60 + 60? N L? i thought it was a survey of land.
i tried to keep notes but i kept forgetting to write stuff down. of course i never had 2 at once.
i laughed reading this today and i really needed to laugh. (comments, too…especially the one ahead of mine — a survey of land. love it.) thank you.
“when the King smiles, there is life; His favor refreshes life a spring rain.” proverbs 16:15
yes, that should have read liKe a spring rain…
I can’t tell you how comforting it is to know that someone else did that. I only had one, but I felt all the kinds of wild, frazzled and crazy you were describing. The insane charting that I did helped me feel like maybe I was on top of my game. Since then I have always felt a little foolish that I stuck to something like that. Second time around I threw all books, charts, and articles out the window and enjoyed the whole experience so very very much more. But I think you just helped banish the demon of embarrassment that was lingering regarding my own charting ways. Thanks for that!
I’m an identical twin. My mother recalls counting how many times she got up on an ordinary night when we were babies. The shocking number was like 27. Bless you and all the mothers of multiples.
I can’t even imagine bringing 2 home. WOW. Look what a great job you have done! : ) What a nice contest you had! SO fun!
When I had my twin girls I can remember thinking ‘how in the world will I be able to nurse 2′. But somehow you just do! My girls are 6 now and I am so proud of myself for not caving in. Kuddos to you for nursing your twins- and as insane as it all may make you feel; in the end it will probably have been your saving grace.
Congrats! That is a beautiful necklace.
My husband keeps joking with me that he wants to have twins. I keep telling him I’ll go crazy with twins, I can only multi-task at 82 different things. If we have twins he won’t be eating dinner.
Anyways. Loved this post! Babies are wonderful… I love that you wrote about this. I already wrote that. OK, bye
Gussy
Like so many others, I also had a schedule. It was in a pretty journal with good penmanship and I used a nice ink pen and every detail was in it. I didn’t record ONE feeding, got behind, couldn’t remember the details, days ran into weeks and the guilt of not being able to keep it updated caused me to never open it again. And then my baby twin girls made me laugh….And that’s what I wrote in the new journal, and I kept writing. and now, 8 years later, I have recorded the most wonderful touching, funny and “hard to believe” stories of life with a first born daughter and 14 months later a set of identical twin girls. It is only because God loves me, that he has allowed me to see the humor in a life where he gave us three girls – in two years! Throw away the schedule – keep the humor.
I knew when I first came over to your site and fell in love with the writing…there was more but “my twins” always pull me in every which direction so I’m always limited on my reading time. But thanks to this post I found out you too have a set of twins. When my twins were born (4 1/2 years ago ) I simply followed the schedule the NICU had them on…every two hours they were to be fed. My lists looks just a bit different because I am a spreadsheet junkie. I ran to excel the moment I was discharged with one child. I had one at home and one in the hospital and that excel spreadsheet was the only thing I could keep track of and control. I love this post!! As always you and your sister keep me coming back for more of your reads. But now I know why I feel such a kindred spirit when I read your posts.
I also have a personal blog that I write at and would feel so honored to invite you….I’ll be sending an e-mail when I find it….LOL
Oh my goodness this is insane…I see people with older twins and I think “how fun!”, but twin newborns!?!? Forget about it, I bow to you women!!
Aww, I hate I missed a giveaway! I’ve been so busy with tassels and homeschooling that I haven’t had time to blog. Oh, well…Congratulations, Anna! : )
Wow, that certainly is very organised! :O
As a fellow mom of twin girls, trust me, you were not crazy or over the top. It’s called survival, people.
My empty neckline is thanking you in advance! Yippee!
And…I have my own pathetic version of your nursing chart. It’s even on graph paper. Does this mean we are bosom buddies … literally?