Sink or Swim

I think everyone has times in their lives when they feel like they are drowning.  It takes everything you have just to keep your head above water.  There isn't anything pretty about it.  It is purely survival.  Well folks, we are in survival mode here.  Having twins is not like having two babies.  It is like having seventeen of them.  I don't know how to explain it, but two babies is exponentially harder than one.  Plus a two year old and a four year old?  Infinitely hard.

This morning I think takes the cake.  I hate Monday mornings anyway.  The weekend is over, Jay has to go back to work, and we have to wait five whole days for Saturday to come back.  The babies night sleep is still pretty scattered.  Sometimes they sleep great, other times barely at all.  Of course last night, both boys had issues with reflux and spent part of the night fussing.  Jay left for work looking like a zombie, and I was so tired I knocked over the trash can, banged my head on the dryer door, and spilled breast milk all over the counter.

Luke is two.  Some say tender twos, some say terrible twos.  I would agree with both. He has been toying with the idea of potty training.  I have been putting him off because we just don't need another thing to keep track of right now.  Well, this morning he refused to put a diaper on.  He had to have underwear.  I decided that we might as well give it a shot since we will be home for the next month anyway.  Forty minutes and two potty breaks later, I was folding laundry when I heard Luke say, "Ahhh, wet!  Bummer."  He had peed his pants.  We felt sorry for ourselves for a minute and then he agreed to wear a diaper.  A little later, Tripp was upstairs fast asleep from his difficult night and I had just settled down to give Charlie a bottle. Luke ran up to me and yelled, "Poop!"  I told him to go ahead in his diaper and I would change him after Charlie's bottle. 

This is about to get really gross.  Proceed with caution.

Somehow, Luke pulled his diaper sideways and suddenly the poop was sliding down his pant leg.  He started panicking.  I had to hurry to put Charlie down, get over to Luke, and help him get out of his pants.  Suddenly, Charlie is screaming because he was in the middle of his bottle, then Tripp starts screaming over the monitor, Luke is freaking out because there is poop on his leg, I am trying to wipe poop off of his foot before he puts it on the carpet, and Jack is dry heaving over the trash can.

I know what you are thinking.  Funny scene from an "everything goes wrong" movie?  Yep.

So I race Luke up to the bathtub.  I start the water and rinse him off, hand him some toys and put Jack in charge of sitting with him in the bathroom.  Next I scrub myself down so that I can rescue Tripp from his disturbed sleep.  Then I head back down to finish still-screaming-Charlie's bottle.  I got Charlie and Tripp settled, finished Luke's bath, and then we all had some Skittles for our hard work.

Those of you that told me that you have always wanted twins are crazy.  Downright mental. Those of you that told me it was easier to have your children close together in age...that was mean. And for those of you that think I can't handle this...watch me.  I may not get both my hair and makeup done on the same day. I may smell like spit up. I may even be living off of Hershey's kisses and beef jerky, but I will rock this and we will all survive.  And my final goal is to make it look so easy, that all of you suckers try it and then I can laugh at you. :)  Just kidding.  Sort of.

Now for the update, because we all know you just want to see pictures of the babies.

Our 4 boys :)

This picture was hard to get because Tripp (our resident fatty) kept trying to eat Charlie's hand.   I would post the video because it is so cute, but for some reason I can't upload video anymore to blogger.  Ideas to fix that, anyone?

Can you believe the cheeks on these kids?  I always wanted a fat baby. Charlie is long and skinny like Jack and Luke were, but Tripp is a short roly-poly.  Love the rolls. Tripp is still on breast milk with a fortifier in it to up the calories.  Hence, the fatness.  Charlie we found is allergic to milk and soy protein and has to be on a hypoallergenic formula.  He is allergic to the fortifier, so he is growing a little slower.  So far it hasn't made a huge difference in his temperament.  I think he may just have a more sensitive personality :)

Jack is their biggest fan.  He can calm them down quicker than I can.  If I am holding a baby and Jack walks by, their eyes follow him like a hawk.  

The babies have a pretty sweet little bond.  They sleep in the same bed.  I have them on opposite sides of the crib, but by the time they wake me up for feeds, they have wiggled out of their swaddles and are snuggled next to each other. 

We have had minimal snow much to my big boys dismay.  The day it did snow was about 18 degrees.  We braved the weather for all of 10 minutes :)  It took way longer than that to actually get their snow clothes on. 

Check out the jowls :)   Jay told me that our babies aren't cute yet.  I suppose he is right, but I still think they are darling :)

This is my view for pretty much 80% of my day.  I am getting good at the two baby thing.

And just because I can...

Tripp on the left, Charlie on the right.  Charlie cries his feelings, and Tripp eats his feelings.  :)

Lastly,  I recently got my haircut.  I went in hoping to look like this....

And came out looking like this...

This is when I am grateful to stay home all day with my kids :)