What to expect the first week home

Hi all,

I am 33w 4d pregnant with Mono/di girls. I also have a 12 year old son at home. Doc says we will deliver via c-sec in the next 10-24 days, depending on how the girls are doing. I've been on hospital bed rest for 9 weeks, so I've had to depend on hubby and son to get things ready at home for the girls.
I'm wondering what we should expect the first week home, and what tips or tricks you would recommend to help us facilitate things. I know to expect diapers, feeding, and little to no sleep. I am looking more for tips and tricks to keep my household running until we hit our stride with our new additions. Anything we can put in place now is something we don't have to forget to remember in the hectic first few weeks at home.

Some things to know. I plan on breast feeding, if I can't figure out the logistics, I'll be pumping for the girls. We do not have a separate freezer (not for lack of trying!) so premaking a bunch of dinners isn't practical for us, as the stupid fridge usually only holds enough frozen meats and veggies for our family for a week.

Thanks in advance

 

Send the hubby out to buy paper plates, plastic cups, and maybe even plastic silverware I used it for the first several weeks with all of my kids, but it came in super handy with the twins. It took the pressure off of us having to worry about dishes.
Plan on having soup and/or sandwiches for lunch, something quick and easy, and you can eat a sandwich while nursing.
Stock up on bottled waters and ALWAYS have one on hand. If you are nursing you'll need to drink lots of fluid, bottled waters are easiest to tote from room to room.
Plan on lots of crock pot meals. Buy a roast big enough to make two meals out of. It's super simple to toss it into the crock pot. You can also use the leftovers for sandwiches. Make a big batch of chili. Couple it with a bagged salad and garlic bread that cooks in 5 mins in the oven. If you can afford, you can rely on takeout for some meals too. At least 2-3 suppers a week we did takeout until things calmed down and I was well healed from my c/s (and subsequent bladder infection).

Welcome to TS and congrats on the upcoming twins! :wavey:

 

Exhaustion. Lots of crying.

It passes, but I thought I was going crazy the first week home. We literally lived in our basement (finished with a bathroom and comfy couch), and I only went upstairs to shower, take the kids to the pedi, or see visitors (rare, because visitors sent me over the edge) for the first week plus. Be nice to yourself. Your hormones are crazy. Your body is healing. Make DH and your son do EVERYTHING not baby related and help with babies. Let the babies sleep anywhere they will--bouncy, swing, etc. And for the first week just sleep when they sleep. Let everything go. You will have just had major surgery. Finally, one week after they are born, get your husband and son to take a feeding and go to bed. Sleep 5-6 hours in a place where you can't hear babies.

 

If you can, enlist extra help. Cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc. are all very hard to get done with two newborns. If you have friends, family, church members, etc. who are willing to help out, LET THEM. I put everyone to work who came to see us the first few weeks. :laughing: My mom also stayed with us two nights a week for several months so I didn't totally crash from no sleep (my boys had severe reflux and didn't STTN until 9.5 months) - having those extra hours of sleep made a HUGE difference.

If there is someone who can do it for you and you have people who will participate, you can set up meal deliveries on takethemameal.com. We didn't have a meal every single night, but we had 1-2 meals a week brought to us the first month, and that really helped. If you are on Facebook, that is a GREAT way to get people to sign up to bring you a meal, and we also used our church prayer chain.

Also, if you haven't heard this already, consider having a notebook to write down feeding and changing times at first. I actually did it for the whole first year, but I'm a control freak. But I will say that in those first days of total sleep deprivation, it was VERY easy to lose track of BM's, wet diapers, etc. and the pedi wanted to know those things at the first few check-ups.

 

Oh yeah this is very important! DH made up a chart that had columns for date/time/breastfeeding/bottlefeeding/wetdiaper/dirtydiaper/meds...I think that was all the columns. We had one side for our son, and one side for our daughter. This way we could keep track of everything. Under breastfeeding I put how long they nursed for, under bottlefeeding was how many ounces they took. Under meds was for if they need antibiotics, or, what we used it mostly for, was thrush meds, since we had thrush 3-4 times in the first 6 weeks. So I could keep track of who had their thrush meds at what time without forgetting

That way you don't wake up at 3am and panic, thinking you nursed one baby at 1am but forgot to nurse the second baby, or fed the same baby twice Because I promise you, that'll happen at least once! :lol:

 

exhaustion!!! Like pp said ( crying too) Somehow you will do it like we all did..and it does pass. It was harder than I imagined but u do get through it

 

Exhaustion and crying. I agree with writing things down, there were some days I had no clue who ate how much and when. If you can get help, do. As far as housework goes I know for myself not much got done in the first few weeks except what was ABSOLUTELY necessary such as laundry and dishes. Don't worry about the "mess" you'll have 2 newborns and having just come off of 9 weeks of bedrest, you'll tire fast. I was on strict bedrest for 13 weeks and I would tire SO easily the first month or so, the little to no sleep didnt help either. Good luck and congrats on your girls!

 

If you have the room for it, have them sleep in your room or bed if you're breastfeeding. It's so much easier, especially when they start cluster feeding. As far as schedule goes, we set up a feeding schedule right away where when the first twin woke to feed I woke the second one up to nurse right afterward to maximize the amount of time in between feeds. We also kept a written journal until we had our heads on straight.

Keep snacks in your dresser drawers and a pitcher of water by your bed. I had granola bars, nuts, and fruit bars in my bedside stand so that when I was up in the middle of the night feeding I could have a quick snack and go right back to bed. If you're pumping, make sure that your pumping equipment is all ready to go right by your bed for when you wake up. You can put your pumping stuff in a ziploc and store it in the fridge in between feedings instead of washing it, which saves a lot of time.

If at all possible get a bar fridge for your room! Someone told me that they had one and I thought this was the best idea ever! So much easier to store the pumped milk, bf'ing stuff and snacks for yourself. I basically wouldn't have ever left my room if I'd had a bar fridge .

Make sure that your husband and 12 year old manage guests well; either put guests to work folding laundry or letting you have a shower or whatever or make sure they're shooed out the door after 20 minutes.

And also make sure to check in the forums whenever something comes up. Chances are very good that some other twin mama has been there, done that and there's tons of great advice. Best of luck for a healthy and safe delivery!

 

Thanks guys. Keep it coming. I'm taking fastidious notes to share with Hubby

 

Time just melts into a blur, like a Salvador Dali painting.

The best thing a friend did for me was come over once/week for the first 6 weeks overnight. I was nursing, so I was up, too, but if a baby was awake after a feed, she took care of it and we slept. She also sent my DH to her house to sleep a full night's rest. It was awesome!

 

I agree with the exhuastion and crying.

When I was where you are, a friend told me, don't plan on (or expect to) leave the house in the first three months. And I'm glad I had that in mind because I barely did leave the house.

As for food--crock pot.

Is your 12 year old at all interested in cooking? if he is, task him with looking up crock pot recipies he thinks sound good. Then he can help you or your DH put them together in the morning and you know his dinner will be ready when the time comes.

For you stock up on snacky things and just eat a little something all day--I remember I never had enough time to sit down and eat a full meal until they were I don't know, a year? If you have a free hand, use it to put food in your mouth, remember you will need 1000 additional calories to make milk for two.

Good luck! it shouldn't be long now.

 

You've gotten some great advice and idea's already!! I just wanted to say welcome to TS and Congrats!!! I am sure everything will be great!

 

I was thinking something like this too. My SIL (who also had twins) described it as, "I feel like our living room is a submarine." You spend nearly every minute in that one room and give very little thought to what is going on outside it.

The first week was actually not so bad (in retrospect) because everything is just so new and strange. Weeks 2-6 were pretty rough and then we started to get more of a handle on things.

One of the best things people did for us was taking turns with feedings. We had several "couple friends" who would come over one night a week or so and handle the late evening feeding. DH and I would feed the babies and go straight to sleep at 7pm -- our friends would do whatever feeding came after that, then stay for the next couple of hours while the babies slept. They would wake us up just when the babies were starting to stir for the NEXT feeding.

We also said yes to anyone who asked to help. We had people watering our plants for us. I'm sure they were kind of like, "I thought I was going to be helping take care of babies!" but sometimes what you really need is just for someone to water the dang plants.

Good luck and remember they do get bigger! A lot of the problems you think are insurmountable turn out to just go away by themselves as the babies mature.

 

Oh oh, this goes beyond the 1st week but it helped so much I have to share...my husband and I slept in shifts, I would go to bed at 8:30 and sleep until 1:30am, no interuptions-and from 1:30-6;30 my husband got to sleep with no interuptions. At first we did the taking turns with feedings and it was like neither of us got anymore then 2-maybe 3 hours sleep in a row tops-this worked so wonderfully because we really felt like we got a good nights sleep.
Now if you are bf-ing exclusively this may not work but I thought I would throw it out there! Good luck!

 

I EBF'd and did a variation of this, too. Whenever someone needed to eat, his brother did, too. I'd nurse them and go to bed around 6:30 every night (seems unimaginable now!). Then they'd go until about 9:30 and I'd go nurse them again, then go to bed. After they nursed at about 12:30 or 1a, if they were awake, I stayed up with them and DH went to bed. I had him help me change diapers and latch them on and I'd nurse the 3:30a and he'd sleep. It was interrupted sleep, but very doable. I took 2 naps a day in the beginning (am & pm!) as well. It is doable but tiring. :youcandoit:

 

Hubby is working on the girls worksheets. He wants to know how detailed to make it (for doctor reference, for our references) We have

Time as our left hand column then across the top
Fed
Changed
Wet/Dirty Diaper
Meds

Anything else we should be keeping track of?
Should we have a separate sheet for each girl, or one for the both?
Where do you keep your log? Do you have more than one? One in the kitchen, one in your room, one in the nursery? Or do you carry it with you?
How long do you keep each log? Should I get a folder/binder to keep them in?

 

I did an excel spread sheet that we printed out. Each side was dedicate to a girl: the rows were date/time, Bottle oz (if you are bf'ing you could do side/length of time), meds, diaper wet (check mark yes), diaper poopy (check yes). we spent all our time in either our bedroom or the living room (each had a pnp in there and changing station). The spreadsheet paper went with them that way if someone came to help they could see what was done or what needed to be done.

The first two months seemed like groundhog day on repeat every 3 hours. Change a baby, feed a baby, burp a baby, swaddle a baby, change a baby, feed a baby, burp a baby, swaddle a baby, sleep. Repeat!

I agree with all the other suggestions, but also see if your grocery store delivers. We did this for the first two months too. Our delivery program (pea pod) even accepted coupons.

Good luck with the rest of your pg!

 

If you are planning to breastfeed I would have 2 separate columns under Fed, one for breastfeeding (time they nursed), and one for bottlefeeding (how many oz's they took). We ended up supplementing for awhile so I had to write down both nursing time and oz's.

I had 2 binders, one in the living room, one in the bedroom. We printed a ton of sheets off, wrote each babies name at the top of each sheet, and beside the time I wrote the date down so we'd know what day it was! :lol:

I kept mine until we started feeding solids, so I could write down if someone had a reaction to a food. So I could look back and say "Oh, Liam started bananas and has had diarrhea all day, he must be reacting to them." Once we had gone through most of the standard baby foods I finally stopped keeping track.

 

I had 1 clipboard with a piece of paper for both. I drew a line down the center and labeled one side/baby. I noted the time, # of min nursing, wet/poopy diapers. That was it. I did it until their 6 week checkup and asked the ped if I could stop. As we were in the groove and they were nursing & gaining weight well, we stopped at that point.

 

I used the Similac sheets that the hospital gave us in the baby swag bag. While everyone is right about keeping track, don't make that it's own source of stress. Keep track of how much they eat and how many wet and BM diapers a day, and you'll be good. And if all is well, you'll stop that a month or so in.

 

Oh Yes..Shifts..I forgot all about that...a necessity! I went to sleep at 7pm...hubby stayed up till 11pm..filled em up with milk..and that held them till 1230..if I was lucky.That way I usually at least got 1 4 hour stretch.

 

I found a spiral notebook at my local Target that had sections with color coded edges. Each of our boys had a section, and whatever page we were on was folded down. We mostly fed in the living room, so that is pretty much where it stayed.

My columns were simple: time, food (you could do BF or oz. - we did oz. since we did formula and later noted solids as well), and diaper (1 for wet, 2 for dirty). As far as med or anything, I just noted that in the margin.

Like I said, I did it the whole first year, at least for the feedings. I didn't worry so much about the diapers after the first few months. But it was nice if I was out or sleeping or whatever that my mom, MIL, or whoever else was helping could fill in the charts. Remember, it should be a help to you, not a stress.

 

Ok feeling confident on our worksheets. Onto crock pot recipes! Do y'all use one crock pot and clean it every night? or do you have a couple on hand? Favorite recipes?

Thanks for all the helpful advice. It is really hard to nest/prepare from a hospital bed

 

Crock Pot Liners!! The crock pot stays clean, sometimes if I cook my food a little too long there will be a little dark stuff on the crock pot itself, it just washes away easily, but this way, nothing sticks to the crock pot and you just toss the bag and the pot is ready to use again

I like making chili because it'll last us 2 meals plus give DH a meal for work. Roast's are super easy. Chicken and rice. You can make all kinds of chicken breasts in there. Do some with cream of mushroom soup, some with salsa, some with stove top stuffing...etc.

www.crock-pot.com
www.rachaelray.com
www.kraftrecipes.com
www.cooks.com

Those are my 4 go-to sites when I need a recipe for something

 

They sell crock pot liners?! :friends: I love the things I learn on this site! :good:

 

Definitely Crock-Pot liners. And look for easy recipes. So many require browning meat before you put it in, which defeats the purpose. One of my favs is to take a 2-3 pound pork shoulder roast, put it in crockpot with an envelope of taco seasoning and a half cup water, turn on low and cook all day. Great for tacos (similar to Chipotle carnitas) or over rice and makes enough for leftovers. As far as other recipes, I like realsimple.com. You can search by slow cooker. And there is a blog on blogspot called crockpot365 or something. The woman cooked in her crockpot every night for a year and posts all the recipes. She tends to use organic ingredients and posts about how it turned out.

 

I do lots of roasts in the crock. Peel and cut up a couple of potatoes and carrots (for super easy, just throw in baby carrots) and a sliced onion if you like that. Salt and pepper the roast on both sides and put it on top of the veggies. If you like garlic, you can actually slit the roast in a handful of places and put in whole garlic cloves. Pour about 1/2 cup of water over it, cover, and cook on low. A roast around 3-4 lbs usually takes about 5 hours in my crock, but mine seems to cook hot. The best way to be sure it is done is with a meat thermometer.

This is also SUPER easy and very yummy.
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Garlic-Apple-Pork-Roast
(I would go VERY easy on the pepper unless you really like things peppery....I think I use 1/2 tsp only).

 

Oh my gosh....crock pot liners are my best friend! I think i went into shock when I ran out a few weeks ago, I went out and bought 2 boxes to be sure I had lots more! :lol:

 

Don't expect anything. Nothing will be perfect but he less you expect the smoother it will seem. My perfectly planned schedules and worksheets may as well have been fire wood. I did things as they needed to be done and sent dh for fast food if he did not want to cook. I had no help my set was born on Wednesday ( c section, we came home Friday) the boys and dh went back to school and work on Monday - I would have let the post man in to hold a baby if he would have I was so tired! If you have anyone offer to help take them up on it!!!! I set up camp in the living room with myself propped up in my big chair and a baby on either side ready to breastfeed. Do whatever works for you and the twins don't worry about what anyone else thinks!!!

Congratulations!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks for starting this thread! This has been a big eye opener with great suggestions I'll be using when I deliver in December. If you haven't done the feeding chart already I put one together you can use. You can download it and tweak it or you can print from this website: My Twin Log
also, another crockpot site is on Facebook and I love it! Crock Pot Girls on Facebook The recipes are under "Discussions". They also have a website: Crock Pot Girls