I survived the first month with twins.  It has been as awesome as it is exhausting.  I’m not going to lie, when I first found out I was having twins, I was scared, I mean how do you take care of two newborns?  Well, I still don’t know how it’s done, only that you do it, and every day is a victory.  I’m already getting nostalgic about those first weeks home.  They were SO hard.  So very very hard.  We didn’t sleep.  We walked around like zombies.  Our patience was tested.  We had a little bit of help, but for the most part, day in and day out, it was Ian and I, in the thick of it.  We had to learn how to go from one child to three, and what that means for the first child.  We are still trying to figure out how to balance everything, and not traumatize Henry in the process.  Wish us luck.  I’m probably making it sound awful to have twins, and it’s definitely not. In between the exhaustion and hormonal meltdowns and the questioning myself as a mother, there were moments of wonderful.  The first time I put the babies next to each other in the pack n play was one of them.  I cannot describe to you how completely amazing it was to see those babies staring at each other.  Kind of like they knew each other but they didn’t.   I squealed when their belly buttons fell off, I celebrated the one time they slept 4 hours at night instead of three, and I cried while staring at them too many times to count.  I thank God every single day that I am lucky enough to have them.

Ian was off of work for almost 4 weeks, and it was perfect.  We took walks, hung out with our kids, and were able to bond with these two new people.  I was so sad when he had to start working again.  Not because I was going to miss the help, but because I loved sharing every single second of these new lives with him.

The first month went by so fast, but it was so full.  And, there are so many things to look forward to!  I don’t want time to pass too quickly, as I know it does when you are a parent, but I’m also so excited to see their little personalities develop.

So here they are, two thirds of my heart, Georgia & Miles.

and from the “session” I did at one month.  It was really 15 minutes of them in a crib with G crying most of the time.  I told them, they better get used to it!  But seriously, they are holding hands.  Does it get any sweeter than that?

My due date.

Georgia & Miles are already here, laying in their bassinets, and not sleeping, I might add.

I feel like I need to start at the beginning.  The very beginning, when Ian and I decided, “Hey, lets have another baby.”  That was Fall of 2008.  Henry had just turned 2, and we felt like we had left behind all of the “baby” work with him, and we were eager to do it all again, and most importantly, give Henry a sibling.  I got pregnant very easily with Henry, and the thought never crossed our minds that it wouldn’t happen that way again.  Well, Fall turned to Winter, which turned into Spring, and I wasn’t pregnant.  Summer was when I started to get worried. I had a chemical pregnancy in August, which basically means I was pregnant for a few days.   At that point we decided to get a fertility work up to make sure everything was okay with both of us.  Everything was okay, and by Fall, we got the “unexplained secondary infertility” diagnosis.  So where does one go from there?  They say good things come to those who wait.  I say good things come to those who take fertility drugs.  I took the drug Clomid, just 5 little pills you take at the beginning of your cycle.  My dr explained that a woman normally has a 1.5-3% chance of naturally conceiving twins.  This drug would raise my chance to 7%.  Ian and I thought about it for a month, and decided that there was still a really good chance, like 93%, that if I got pregnant, it would be with 1 baby.  And besides, twins just mean you have two babies to love.

You can see where this is going.  Of course I got pregnant the first month, on a very low dose, and at 6 weeks, 3 days, we saw two beautiful heartbeats.

Twins.

Two.

More. Than. One.

My pregnancy went perfectly.  I had a lot of preterm labor scares, but they were only scares.  My body likes to hold onto babies you see.  At 36 weeks, we had an ultrasound, and Baby A was breech.  This meant I had no choice but to have a c-section.  I opted to wait until week 38 instead of week 37, because I know that whatever my body was doing to grow these babies was way better than anything anyone could do for them on the outside.  It is better for them to be born a little early though, after a certain point, the placentas start to break down, and it becomes a less than perfect environment.

At 37 weeks, Baby A flipped back to vertex, so I could choose to try to birth these babies vaginally.  We scheduled my induction for the following Tuesday, I would be 38 weeks, 2 days.

On Tuesday, July 6, I said goodbye to my baby boy, who after the next day would be my big boy, even more so than I could have imagined.  We got to the hospital at 10, and began the induction process.  I had another ultrasound to make sure Baby A (Georgia) was still head down.  She was, and Baby B, was still transverse (sideways.)  My dr didn’t have a problem with this, he felt comfortable either flipping Miles around or delivering him breech.  At that point I was checked for progress, and I was 1cm dialated.  I couldn’t believe that’s all I was.  I’m thoroughly convinced had I not been induced, I would have broken some sort of record for being pregnant with twins for 44 weeks.

Pitocin was started at 12:15.  I labored through mild to moderate contractions throughout the night.  I didn’t get any sleep, the babies kept kicking off their monitors so the nurse was in a lot to monitor their heart rates.  My dr arrived the next morning at 6am, and said he would be back to check on me.  At 7:10, he checked me and I was dialated to 2.  He then broke my water, and that’s when the fun started.  At 7:45 my epidural was placed.  At 9:15 and 10:15 I was only 3 cm, and getting a little discouraged.  I remember looking at Ian and telling him, “I’m not going to get the chance to push these babies out.”  My Dr came back at 11:35 to once again check my progress.  I was dialated to 4cm, but Georgia was in a terrible position for a vaginal birth.  Instead of coming down head first, she was coming down face first.  She even bit my dr’s finger when he was checking me.  The decision was made then that I would have to have a c-section.  I made it to the operating room around 11:50, Ian was at my side by noon.  They began to up my epidural for surgery.  The only problem was I still had feeling in my stomach.  The dr kept pinching me from behind the curtain, and I kept saying “Ow!”  I remember feeling really tired, and telling Ian that I felt like I was going to pass out.  The next thing I know, I wake up, and hear babies crying.  Ian said to me, “We have two beautiful babies.”  Apparently I had to be sedated because the epidural was not working. I’m a little sad that I didn’t get to see them over the curtain, or here the “It’s a girl!” and It’s a boy!,” but I’m happy that I didn’t have to feel the surgery.

Georgia Alice was born at 12:12, weighing 5lbs 3oz and Miles Adam was born at 12:13 weighing 6 lbs, 6oz.  Both are perfectly adorable, and wearing us out.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I forgot to add this to my original post, but it’s one of my favorite parts of the twin’s story.  On Sunday morning after they were born, my OB was on rotation, so he was the one to discharge me.  He came into my room very early, around 5:30, and explained the no lifitng, take it easy, see you in 6 weeks normal c section instructions.  He also said that he was sure I could have delivered those babies vaginally if Georgia would have cooperated.  He also made sure they were just in the normal nursery and didn’t need any NICU time.  As he was leaving, he said, (and I’ll never forget this) “Alright sweetie pie, it’s all over.”  Then after a pause he said, “Either that, or it’s just beginning.”  Boy, was he right.

Poor Georgia’s face is swollen from being stuck face first.

When I found out I was pregnant with twins, one of the first questions I asked myself, besides how the hell am I going to take care of two babies, is what will I have to do differently?  Two very important things to me in mothering a newborn/infant are nursing and cloth diapering.  I have been told the first one, while difficult, is definitely possible.  The cloth diapering however, gets a lot of “good luck with that,” from most twin moms that I’ve talked to.  If you know me, you know that the one way to get me to do something is to tell me that I can’t.  And now we know where Henry gets it from.

So here is my newborn stash for twins.  If you are planning on cloth diapering one baby, you will need about 2/3 of what I have.  This list is stolen from diaperpin.com.  An excellent resource if you are just jumping into cloth diapering. (CDing)

To cloth diaper one baby, you will need:

• 24 to 36 cloth diapers.
• 0 to 3 all-in-one diapers.
• 4 to 6 cloth diaper covers.
• 1 or 2 polar fleece or wool covers for overnight. (optional)
• 12 to 24 doublers. (More if your child is a heavy wetter)
• 1 diaper pail.
• 2 to 3 dozen cloth diaper wipes.

I HIGHLY suggest sticking with prefolds and covers for newborns.  They are very economical, and have a great resale value.  Plus it’s hard to say what will fit your baby at first, and you wouldn’t want 20 expensive pocket diapers that don’t fit.

Okay, on to my stash, (disclaimer: these pics are not very good.  I’m having a hard time getting the proper angle for a shot, my equilibrium is a little off.)

The changing table:

top row is covers, all in ones and fitteds, and g cloth with an emergency pack of sposies. bottom row is prefolds, and then misc. supplies, babylegs, hemp inserts, etc. The Ikea trofast system holds cloth wipes, larger sized diapers and misc baby supplies.

On to the goods!

Covers:

clockwise are are Thirsties xs, Bummis Super Brites in newborn,  preemie size prorap, Bummis Super Whisper Wrap and a Thirsties Duo size one. These will go over prefolds and fitted diapers.

Prefolds:

These are organic newborn sized orange edged and regular bleached preemie sized from greenmountaindiapers.com.  Prefolds are the most economical cloth diapering option.  They are trifolded for easy stuffing into covers, like so:

You can also use a snappi, which I will happily demonstrate on Henry’s Curious George. First, you start with a trifolded diaper, and fan out the top edge:

Next you lay your baby, monkey on the diaper:

Then bring the bottom up through the middle of the monkey’s legs:

Then you fold down the front and fold in the wings.  You can use diaper pins or a snappi to hold the diaper on.  I like snappis the best.

Finally, slap a cute diaper cover on, and you are all set! (This one is the thirsties duo size 1, in blackbird print.)

Next is fitted diapers and all-in-ones.  Fitted diapers require a cover, think of them as an already folded prefold.  These are from Clovers, an Ohio business for you locals. These will probably be our night time solution, and they are organic!

fitteds:

I have 4 velour and 4 interlock knit for the babies.  The velour is more absorbent, the knit may be a tad more breathable, and they are less expensive than the velour.

All-in-ones are exactly as they sound.  The diaper is all there, you just slap it on like a sposie, no cover required.  I plan on using all-in-ones in the diaper bag to cut down on the shear amount of baby paraphernalia that twins require.

all in ones:

I have 6 of these.  I could probably use a few more, but I’m waiting to buy some cute gender specific colors.

Next up is gdiapers.  These get very mixed reviews in the cloth diapering community.  (I bet you didn’t know there was a cloth diapering community, check out diaperswappers.com if you want to check it out.)  You can get gdiapers at babies r us and whole foods.  They are considered a “hybrid diaper” since you can put disposable liners in them.  We have decided to go with the gcloth, since the disposable liners are a little expensive, and of course reusable is always better. I like this option because they are really trim, and the gpants can be washed with regular laundry.  (Less diaper laundry = good) I think these are a good option for twins, since you do have the dispoable liner option if the laundry gets out of hand.  These won’t fit them for a few weeks, but they will bridge the gap between prefolds and One sized diapers.

Here is a cover:

g cloths:

gpants with a gcloth:

Also in my stash is a few fleece liners, some CD safe diaper cream, 2 wipes warmers and some cloth wipe solution, and a bunch of doublers and other inserts for different diaper needs.

After the babies outgrow their newborn stash, I plan on moving to pockets, g diapers, and all in ones.  I’m really hoping to like the bumgenius! organic all in one.  They are one sized, so they will fit from about 8-30 lbs.

I used Fuzzi Bunz with Henry, they are a pocket diaper, which means there is a micro fiber insert that slides into the diaper.  They dry faster than an all in one, which is the main draw for me.  I’m trying to stay with mostly natural fibers this time, so I’m not sure if we will use these again.  I did like them a lot with Henry.

So that’s that.  I can’t wait to finally try some of these on the babies in about a month. (Not sooner babies!) I guess what I really want everyone to know about cloth diapering is that it’s really not as daunting as most people think, and it really can be a lot of fun.  I didn’t even get into wool, which is an addiction all by itself. I didn’t really get into it with Henry, but I plan on trying some this time.  I’m thinking I’m going to need some sustainable babyish for sure.

For more information on cloth diapers, check out nickisdiapers.com, diaperswappers.com and diaperpin.com.  Or leave a comment below and I will gladly answer your questions!

One more thing, don’t forget to nominate Amber Campbell Photography for a Nickelodeon’s Parent’s Pick award!

http://www.parentsconnect.com/parents-picks/cleveland-oh-usa/best-cleveland-family-photographer

Starting June 1, I will be booking for Fall 2010 sessions!  I will be shooting a very limited number of sessions for the rest of 2010, so if you are interested, please book asap!

Thank you!!!

Here’s a few from Friday, when the weather was beautiful, and I could get some shots from my chair.

I came across this blog post today (my google reader is as neglected as this poor blog!)  and decided that I’m going to start displaying my pictures in cool ways.  I got two really awesome cameras for my birthday, so I have no excuse to think outside of the box.  I’ll report back when I actually finish a project.

And of course, I want you to display your pictures too!

http://thecreativemama.com/an-art-gallery-of-your-very-own/

Hopefully soon I’ll be back with pics, and a little giveaway.  Stay tuned!

Here are my top ten,

1. ohdeedoh – I know I’ve posted this blog before, but I seriously LOVE it.  I can’t tell you how many awesome ideas I’ve gotten for kids rooms from this blog.  (Apartment therapy is awesome too, if you need grown-up space ideas)

2. purlbee – This blog is from the awesome purl soho in NYC.  I dream of visiting there in person one day.  Great DIY ideas.

3. soulemama – This blog is from an author, she has written 2 great books, “Handmade Home,” and “Creative Family.” Check them out, and check out the blog.

4. simplemom – this blog has many off-shoots as well, simple organic, simple kids, etc.  All awesome.

5. re-nest – another apartment therapy blog.  Awesome advice about being green.

6. sesame ellis – a commercial photographer, and mom who shares her work and life.  She also has “beyond snapshots” which is great for anyone wanting to get their feet wet in photography.

7. design*sponge – LOVE this blog.  I like to save up a bunch of posts on my reader and read them over the weekend with a nice hot beverage.

8. make & takes – another DIY blog.  great kids crafts.

9. sew liberated – another great blog with DIY ideas from a montessori mom.

10. green baby guide – says it all.

and I have to add two more, because these have the most awesome projects!

11. prudent baby – I’m making many of the things I’ve read on this blog for my bambinos.

12. under the sycamore – another photographer and mom.  She is very talented, and has awesome craft ideas!