A day in the life...

A lot of people seem astonished that I can manage two babies at once, and from the outside I'm sure it might look terrifying or like utter chaos but I'm here to tell you, it can be done! So to give you an idea of just "how we do it" here is a peek at a day in our life...

at 5:00am I wake up with Wyatt, nurse him and put him back to sleep - I must note that he miraculously fell back asleep without crying this morning!

around 6:00 am I hear Owen crying and nudge Ben to grab him, teamwork it's how we get things done around here. Unfortunately though, Ben cannot breastfeed so I nurse Owen then hand him back off to be put down until 7:30 wake up. Ben opted to snuggle with him instead.

at 8:00 am we both wake up frantic and realize we overslept (for the record that NEVER happens)

Wake up both boys (curse myself for messing up their "schedule" before they're even awake) and let them play in the living room - Owen decides he is hungry again so I nurse him while Wyatt chases Daphne around.

8:30 am I pull cloth diapers out of the dryer (the laundry cycle never ends) change diapers and give Daddy a smooch before he heads off to work.

Continue play time while I make and eat my breakfast - this involves a lot of climbing and exploring, pulling all the toys out of the bucket, crawling on top of the piano, wrestling - a few Wyatt melt downs because Owen is pinching or sitting on him... I attempt to referee all of this and don't even bother pouring my coffee until after they go down for morning nap.

Around 9:30 both boys start fussing and want to nurse again, break out the double brest friend pillow and tandem nurse before nap.

9:45 new diapers in hopes that nap will last at least 2 hours... #agirlcandream - after diapers I lay both boys down awake with kisses and snuggles before of course.

by 10:00 both boys are out after some expertly timed patting and shushing #thanksferber

During nap I go through a bit of an internal struggle where I try to decide if I'm going to watch tv, read, or do any of the 1 million chores that need to get done. Today I opted for a combination. I poured my coffee and started laundry - which I could conveniently do while watching a couple of episodes of The Americans. I finally hung up all the clothes that have been laying in a pile on the floor of my closet and folded the last load of diapers for the week.

10:45 Wyatt starts screaming... damn that 45 minute sleep cycle... I let him fuss for a few minutes then spend about 10 minutes soothing him back to sleep.

11:00 I warm up my second cup of coffee that is now cold and settle back in for more tv and folding of the clothes that I threw in the washer this morning.

around 11:40 we had some friends stop by to borrow clothes for a wedding and they brought CUPCAKES - just in case you were wondering it's never wrong to show up with food, ever. The boys woke up about 12:00 - they got new diapers and nursed then were ready to play!

Our friends stuck around to entertain the babes until about 2:00 which means I got to eat a hot lunch and then we decided to head down to Austin to see our Yaya and pick up some toys that her neighbors passed down to the boys.

It took about an hour to get all our stuff together, nurse again, finish up the last of the laundry and load into the car. We were on the road by 3.

Both boys slept almost the whole hour in the car (this was their afternoon nap) and were ready to play when we pulled into the driveway.  They nursed sporadically while at my parents (which is pretty typical when we aren't at home) and I fed them a full meal before we left.

Wyatt decided he was going to be shy today, so anytime my mom called his name he would just stare at the ground.  This is not atypical of our younger twin - he may or may not inherit his disdain for "strangers" from his mother. He mastered the look of underachievement by 5 months. Owen on the other hand was showing off all his new skills, pulling up on toys and trying to crawl and climb on everything.

We got to visit with the neighbors and their adorable kiddos and then we headed back home around 6:00. If we were at home during this time is normally when they would be getting in their high chairs and having their "food" for the day - but instead they just got some extra mama milk for the day.

Both boys fell asleep on the way home, but by the time we hit Salado it was a scream fest all the way around. I pulled over to give Wyatt a pacifier and left the overhead light on for Owen - who really just hates being in anything that restrains him, stroller, car seat, you name it he hates it.

We pulled in our driveway about 7:20 and I got both boys out and inside. I bathed Wyatt first while Owen entertained himself in the exersaucer then we swapped. Both boys were in pajamas and playing while I made their bottles but then decided halfway through the process of bottles being made to lose their minds. So instead of playing they laid on the floor screaming. Unfortunately this is pretty typical, they are trained like pavlov's dogs that once those pajamas go on the bottle comes next... When you're flying solo like I was tonight it's almost inevitable that there will be a meltdown.

Both boys had their bottles by 7:40 and finished around 7:50. We read two stories - this is new to our routine and I love it - they fit in my lap perfectly. Wyatt always looks back at me mid story and Owen keep his hand on Wyatt and gives him pats most of the time. I might have teared up at the pure perfection it was to have them snuggled on me. I know these are the moments I will cherish when they are older.

They were in their beds by 8:00 after lots of snuggles and kisses. I was pretty proud of myself for making that happen only 30 minutes later than their "schedule" says they should be in bed. If you can't tell we are new to scheduling and it literally goes against everything in my nature.

After the boys went down I listened for crying but only heard minor fussing until about 8:30 when I checked on them and they were sound asleep... this is definitely not typical but I'm not gonna question it, I only sing praises to the Lord for his grace on this one.

I spent the remainder of my evening listing baby things on Facebook to fund my cloth diaper habit and writing this lovely post for you fine folks to read.

If it were a week night - The hubs would probably be asleep by now and I would be drinking red wine, reading or watching tv but it's FRIDAY so, I will spend the rest of the night hanging out with my sweet husband, scarfing down some late night McDonalds that he picked up on the way home from his soccer game, cleaning the kitchen, packing clothes for our trip to Houston this weekend and probably watching another episode of The Americans (it's so good... seriously you should watch it.)

So there you have it - a day in our life... I would like to say it's a typical day, but there really are no typical days. Life with kids is, as you probably know is unpredictable and predictable all at the same time, but I wouldn't have it any other way. They keep me on my toes and they keep my heart so very full. Here's to winging it and winning, and wine-ing when we don't.