Logistics of Twins

I'm coming up on a year now of having four kids, including my twins. Yep, they are almost a year old. So hard to believe! As with any baby, things around here are constantly changing. What it was like to have 6 month old twins is vastly different than what it is like to have 11 month old twins. My life just feels like a constant flow of ever changing challenges - all of which are worth it to have so many people around me to love. I did my best while pregnant not to day dream too much about what life would be like with two more children. I knew that it was pointless because no matter what I thought or expected, it would be how it would be. It turns out that the most difficult thing about having twins is just the logistics of it all.

First of all, as I expected from the day that the ultrasound tech said, "I see two sacs in there," everything has to be done twice. I don't just change one diaper. I change two. I don't just bathe one baby, I bathe two. I don't just get one kid in the car, I put two coats on two babies, strap two babies into car seats, carry one baby down to the basement, go back upstairs to get the other baby to carry him down to the basement, carry one baby to the car and snap the seat into the base, and then carry the second baby to the car and snap his seat into the base. (I break a sweat every time.)

Although sometimes backbreaking, it is not double everything that is the most exhausting. It is the logistics of having twins that wears me down the most. There was a time about 5 years ago that I only had one kid. It was hard. Really hard. I was exhausted. I really do know what it is like to try to accomplishing things that need accomplished when you have one baby. Despite this, I see people out and about now with one baby hanging out in their car seat perched on the grocery cart, and I think they have it so easy. The logistics of one baby were so much easier. You just pick that baby up and do it - in those few minutes you have between naps and feedings and that constant feeling of being overwhelmed.

I've been taking Will to preschool with two babies in tow for the past 4 months. His preschool requires parents to come into the building to drop off and pick up their kids. Lots of other moms come in with their other children or their babies. They look exhausted. It is hard work to get those car seat carrier things in and out of the car and carry those awkward things in and out of the building. But they only have one. I have tried pretty much every combination of things to get Will to preschool. I tried carrying two car seats. Once. At which point I decided that just sucked. Then for awhile I would get one baby out of the car seat and wear him in my Ergo while I carried the other little guy in his car seat. That was awkward but it saved me from having to unbuckle/re-buckle two car seats. Babies got bigger and heavier and I changed to wearing one in the Ergo and pushing another in an umbrella stroller. Then it was mass chaos of unbuckling and re-buckling and in and out of the car. But you do what you have to do. Then it started getting cold. In order to get a baby into the Ergo, I have to take my coat off, insert baby, and put coat on. One more step. So recently I ditched the Ergo. Double stroller it is. Two babies - and Will - buckled in, unbuckled, into the school, back to the car to be buckled up again. And the double stroller is wide. I can't even get in or out of the preschool doors unless someone is around to hold one for me. And the halls of the preschool are narrow so I am always blocking the hallway and running over toes.

And then there is the logistics of shopping, grocery shopping in particular. That will be a whole other post. I have to go change a diaper. And then another diaper.