DITL with Newborn Twins
After our first few days of sleepless nights, these dads figured out the rhythm, and that included tons and tons of Cuban coffee! All we can say is, the first three days were extremely rough! Our babies were on a tight 3-hour feeding schedule but when it came time to sleep, THEY WERE NOT HAVING IT! Turns out, their days and nights were reversed and that needed correction ASAP or we would never get some rest. Daniel's sister, Nicole, came into town a few days after our arrival home with babies from the hospital, and as a mom of 4, she knew exactly what needed to be done to get these babies in check! With her help, their days and nights were corrected and babies were now sleeping, when they should be. We could finally breath a small sigh of relief!
Split the Duties!
Our motto is definitely to divide and concur! Our time is extremely limited in between feeds so it's the only way to get things done. We usually each take a baby during feeding time and when that is over we split up and take on some of the chores. These include, washing and sterilizing bottles (feels like tens of thousands of bottles), spraying stained burp cloths and baby clothes and leaving them soaked for a few hours (remojando as the latinos call it), then loads and loads of laundry, building any pending baby products, walking our fur baby Zoey and babies (while they usually sleep), prepping and cooking our daily meals and on and on and on. Aside from this, we're working jobs and trying to keep up with that, filming for our YouTube channel and writing this blog! It's a tight-knit schedule, but we wouldn't want it any other way!
Tips for caring for twins
A schedule is a must! When one baby feeds, both babies feed! Wake the other one up! Same thing goes for sleeping.
Nap when they nap, if at all possible. We don't nap much but we try to, sporadically.
Keep tons of bottles on hand so you don't have to wash the same ones constantly! "Ain't nobody got time for that!" Throw some in the sterilizer in-between feeds so you always have clean ones on-the-ready!
Bathe them every few days, instead of every day! That's just exhausting and in a pandemic, they're not going anywhere anytime soon so they stay pretty clean. Wipe them down in between baths.
Change it up so they don't get bored! By this I mean, have them nap in the swings one day, and maybe in the twin-z pillow the next, and maybe on the bassinet the next, and so on! We find our babies don't like the swings every day and prefer changes in sleep locales. They sophisticated!
Don't cater to their every whim! LET THEM CRY IT OUT SOMETIMES! They learn pretty quickly that crying means carrying and attention and you don't want to create bad habits early on! They're pretty darn smart!
Take the help when its offered! It doesn't hurt to have grandma come over and help with the responsibilities and THEY LOVE IT! Have them help you with cleaning and laundry and maybe they can even cook you a meal (*wink). We're lucky to have great Ayita's and Nana's (that's what our moms like to be called) that help us out a couple times a week.
Dance your babies to sleep. We recommend playing Gloria Estefan! (We love her!)
Have an OPEN MIND! All babies are different, so be open to different personalities and behaviors and change the mold to fit each one uniquely!
Don't think you can't do it alone, because YOU CAN! Once they're on a schedule and everything is flowing smooth and steady, it becomes EASY-PEASY, except when they both cry at the same time, that never gets easy!
YouTube Video
Check out this weeks video below, detailing a day in the life with us! We hope you enjoy the comedic twists and if you do, leave us a shout-out in the comments, like the video, and share with others to keep that algorithm going!
