Luke and Jude Week 1

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So Luke and Jude aren't my own babies, but seeing as how I'll likely never have twins and many of you have requested updates like this, I'll go ahead and do some every so often of my cute nephews
. I make no promises about doing this consistently but I will do the best I can :)

Luke and Jude were born at 38.5 weeks (a touch late for twins) and were both a bit over 7 lbs. Now that is a lot of baby in one mommy! They have made it through the first week of their life in flying colors! And my sister Sharon is still in one piece (albeit, a tired piece!).

Routine
The twins have been eating around every 3 hours day and night (they've got a little longer at night a few times--woot!). She wakes them after 3 hours if they aren't up during the day (which is most of the time) and if they wake sooner than 3 hours, she feeds them. She's doing something similar to PDF feeds. She doesn't necessarily follow everything Babywise or Baby Whisperer (in fact, I guess she sort of follows me which means she follows a bit of everyone, haha), but she does like keeping babies, especially twins, on a EWS routine and she tries to encourage full feeds.

The number one advice you'll probably hear about newborn twins is to get them on the same routine, otherwise you'll have zero rest night and day. If you've had twins, you are probably vigorously nodding your head YES! Her babies have done great eating around every 3 hours, but most twins (especially because they are often born early) will have to eat more often.

Eating
Sharon is breastfeeding the twins which is going really well. She's been using brest friend nursing pillow which has made nursing them a whole lot easier. This was a life saver for me with newborns too. We checked their weight on day 5 and they're both over their birth weight. Way to go milk!

She started off feeding them one at a time. Obviously this isn't ideal because it gives mommy much less of a break between feeds, (especially at night!), but it was helpful at first as she and the babies adjusted to breastfeeding and as her milk came. Luckily, the twins have both been pretty good at staying awake for feeds otherwise she'd really have a struggle on her hands! On day 5 she switched to feeding them at the same time in a football hold. She has a little assembly line of burping and feeding going on.

Sleeping
Luke and Jude have done pretty well with sleep. They are both still in the sleepy honeymoon period. They still have a difficult time with sleep every now and again and I swear they've got some kind of sneaky plan to switch back and forth for each nap and night so mommy never gets a break! Right now they sleep swaddled and go back and forth between a bouncy chair, rock and play sleeper (now recalled), the crib, swing (this is my favorite one-luckily we both already had one so she's got two as back up) and when needed, her arms or a baby wrap. She generally swaddles them after a feed, snuggles with them for a minute then puts them down and off to sleep they go (if they aren't already fast asleep). She isn't obsessing too much about having a perfect sleep routine--she's just trying to make it through the day right now. If they are having a hard time settling to sleep or wake early from a nap, she'll try to help them go back to sleep for a few minutes and if that doesn't work, she'll plop them into the swing or a carrier.

At night they started off eating about every 3 hours but now for their last stretch of sleep they go a bit longer than that (yeah!).


Waketime Length
They both pretty much eat, stay awake for a couple minutes, then fall back asleep. No issue here.

Company
Even if I'm over and the babies are sleeping pretty well, Sharon says that it is still extremely helpful to have the company and support. She has lots of help from her husband, of course, but it's always nice to have someone extra to talk to when you are at home with babies (and a toddler) all day. Sharon and I had our last babies around the same time and the number one thing that helped me was company (ok, I really like it when people brought dinner too!). Of course, I've had post-partum depression issues in the past so I think company may be a bit more important to my mental health than it is to some people.

Crying
I was very worried when my first baby, Joshua, cried (which he did ALOT because he was colicky). Some people out there make you feel like you are going to destroy your child if he cries for even a second. I was telling my dad about my worries and he told me that with me and my sister Ruth (we're twins) one of us was often crying for a few minutes here or there. You can only do so much at once by yourself (with a single baby, but especially with twins), and unless you are really lucky and have some extra help*, you are often going to be by yourself. So that means one twin may be crying while you're feeding the other or one is crying while you're changing the other's diaper (or they both are!) . You get my point. Babies cry sometimes. And they'll be just fine.

*of course, if you are Suzy Giordano, you think all american have a maid and cook and 2 nannies--um, yes please, but not likely! That snippet from her book had me laughing hysterically. What pool of americans has she met!? Not the ones I've spent my time around, that's for sure.

Recipe
Here's a recipe I made this week for Sharon (and me:) that is great for moms who need a healthy energy pick me up.

Nucato
3 cups honey
2 1/4 lbs almonds or walnuts
2 tsp ground ginger
2 shakes black pepper
2 rounded tsp cinnamon
2/3 tsp cloves
1/2 lemon for spreading mixture (although it works ok without this)

Bring honey to a boil, skimming off impurities that rise to surface. Mix spices together in a bowl. Coarsely chop nuts. Add nuts to honey mixture along with 1 tsp spice mixture. Now it's time to turn on Downton Abby or 30 Rock because you've got a whole lot of waiting and stirring! Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 30-40 minutes. It is done when the nuts start to pop (this has never happened for me so I just cook for 40 minutes). Stir in the remaining spice mixture and pour it all out onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper (you may want to spray the wax paper with pam). Spread it into an even layer with the cut surface of a halved lemon or spatula. Cool. Cut and serve.