My Day

My day today was good. Yesterday was good too. So was the day before. They've all been pretty consistent the last three days. My children wake up one at a time and at a reasonable hour, like 7 or 8 am. Since they wake up one at a time, I get a chance to hold, feed, coo, play, etc. and have generally good one on one time with each of my twins. This morning, it was Drew first. Yesterday, it was Syd. My day is filled with eat, heat up bottles, change diapers, general infant sight/sound/touch stimulation, naps and when I get around to it, showering and general house hold chores. There is "tummy time", reading books, playing with their Lamaze rattles and mirrors, all kinds of stuff to do and see. Sometimes I think their favorite thing to watch is either the blank ceiling or the ceiling fan. The three of us have a good time but when it's just one awake, one asleep, we have a great time. Then, night. I can't tell you what it is. I don't know. Maybe I'm just not aware of how tired I am because I have enjoyed my day. Maybe it's something medical. Could be the weather (as my neighbor suggested) or a full moon sort of thing. Sometime after the seven-ish PM feeding, all bets are off. Today, for example, we went for a one and a half mile walk. Followed by sitting in their bouncies while I read Energy Ecstasy (by Bernard Gunther) and The Book Of Secrets (by Deepak Chopra) aloud for about an hour and a half while I moved the bouncies tapping my foot the whole time. Afew minutes after ten PM and I decide it's time to wash bottles and actually get something done (like brush my hair and feed the cat). Basically, today from about 6pm to now, they've either been perpetually on the verge of crying or just plain crying. I know what you are going to say, because it's the first thing people tell me whenever they see my babies crying and the answer is, no, they are not hungry. Or if they are hungry, it's the sort of "I've got the munchies" hunger, not the "I'm so hungry I could eat my siblings leg off" hunger. I feed them every 3 1/2 to 4 hours. At 3 hours, Syd still manages to burp up an awful lot of the previous meal sometimes so I figure it takes longer to digest 6 oz of baby formula than 3 hours. Also, Syd has a habit of stopping the tears long enough, just to down a bottle of formula before continuing on with her afternoon/evening cry sessions. In fact, I must give people a look without even knowing it because this lady who always seems to go grocery shopping when I do made a comment the other day to Syd about her just not being a "happy camper" then turned to me and said "I know, I know... she's not hungry she's just unhappy". I laughed. My neighbor/landlord came over last night. Both babies going off. She asked if I'd tried this, that, and the other thing because it worked with her kid. I shrugged. After about 4 hours of doing all the tricks to fight back their tears, I was done trying and quite honestly didn't care. They were fed, they were changed, they had the mobile going over the crib, it's 11:30 at night, I'm done. Within minutes, she had them both quiet and smiling. Dee, my landlord, looks at me as if she has accomplished the impossible and says "see, what'd I tell you? I'm tellin' you, it works." Once again I shrugged. The second she left, they were back on at full volume and I went to bed. I'm not exactly sure when they went to sleep. I do know we overslept today... it was blissful. We had a good day today.... and now, as I write, they are behind me... still crying. Although this time, it might be hunger, their four hours are almost up. And so are mine.