Revenge!!

When we first found out we were having twins there were many people including a few readers from here who said we were lucky and how they wish they have twins as well. My reply to them then was to give us a few months and let me blog about my experience first before you wish for it.

Well here is an update for you twins seekers after having ours home for a little over a month.

I believe the hardest part of having twins is really the sleep deprivation. When we had Isaac, although he was usually cranky between 9pm till about midnight or 1am it was still very much manageable. There were 2 of us and only 1 of him so we could always take turn to care for and pacify him.

With the twins now we sort of have our own designated baby to care for throughout the night. Currently they are sleeping on the same cot, although not for long at the rate that they are growing, so when one wails the other will be woken up also. It is hence very important for us to remove the wailing twin from the cot ASAP to prevent doubling (literally) our trouble.

As mentioned in my last post the twins, like Isaac, are also a little more unsettled during late night till early hours in the morning. Here is an example; I was back from the legendary Bangkok trip with Mike on Sat night and I was home close to midnight but I did not get to sleep till 6 the next morning. Perhaps the twins really missed their dad during his 3 days away. On Sunday I went to bed at about 4am and then 3am on Monday night. A definite improvement judging from the time but not nearly good enough if you ask me.

On Tuesday we brought the twins to Dr K, their PD for their BCG injections and the only question I had prepared for him was "Is it normal for them to be more unsettled at night?" His answer was they are unable to tell night from day so only way is to tire them out a little more in the day in order for them to sleep better at night and hopefully a routine will emerge after a while and they will understand that lights off means sleep time.

Since our visit to Dr K we have decided to stop swaddling them and make sure they get up for their feed every 3 hourly during the day. In the evening between 8pm to 10pm is the hardest because they are usually "gone" by then so it is very hard to try and keep them awake and not to the extent that they will get agitated and cry. If the previous 2 nights were anything to go by then our little "revenge" on the twins have paid dividend because they were sound asleep by about 11pm and went back to sleep without much fuss immediately after their night feeds.

The irony in life, well at least mine, was when the twins are asleep by 11pm I was wide awake. I remembered I stayed awake till Luke's next feed at about 2am and only went back to sleep at about 3ish. Looking back now maybe the 24 DVD did not help. Since I only had to feed Luke so the Mrs was able to have an uninterrupted sleep. Another irony was because Hayley was so quiet and did not wake up for her feed after 3 hours I got out of bed just before turning in to go check on her just to make sure she was alright. This is what I call the typical "baby-monitor syndrome". You leave a baby monitor near your baby so that you will be alerted should she cry. On one hand you wish she can sleep through and not bother you but if there was complete silence after a while you get worried and had walk over to take a peep.

Oh, about Hayley missing her feed at nights, no worries on that because she is now able to last up to 6 hours after each feed. We do not mind it so much during the nights but we made sure she did not miss her feeds during the day. It was a pleasant surprise for us and a quick check with Dr K revealed there is no cause to worry since her weight gain is normal. Hence we are allowed to feed her on demand at night.

Luke on the other hand is quite different. Not only did he gain weight he actually gained a little too much. In the 4 weeks between our visits to Dr K, Hayley gained a total of 1.1kg which was good while Luke gained a grand total of 1.5kg. He weighed in at 3.865kg on Tuesday while Hayley was 3.3kg. For those of you who aren’t parents yet, typical weight gain for infant should be between 800g to 1kg in a month so you do the math on Luke. The difference between the two is rather obvious now. You can tell just by looking at them and of course from carrying them. After the visit to Dr K we were told not to increase Luke's quantity and we have also decided to place him in the feed on demand program for both day and night. By the way they are currently on 90ml of milk at each feed and they are going through a tin of milk a week now!!

What is your opinion of having twins now?

At the time of publishing the most recent photos of the twins are not available so do check back to see if you can tell them apart.