Ever wish there was something that would make your day with your multiples easier?! I find myself dreaming up these silly inventions (and usually laughing at them). My latest…
Our two-story house that we so blindly bought 3 1/2 years before children, has been driving me NuTs. Stairs + babies/ toddlers= don’t mix. The girls are good at crawling up the stairs, but both often decide to stop in mid crawl to check on me or their sister and almost fall. (don’t get me started on going down the stairs- yikes!) Did I mention at the bottom of the stair case is TILE? Reese’s latest “Miss Independence-ism” is wanting towalk up the stairs, which requires a little help from me. So just the other day when focusing on her walking, Riley flew by me- down, down, down. I shove my leg behind Reese so she doesn’t fall all while catching Riley from plummeting to the tile. I’m forced to be a contortionist, I tell you! I keep thinking someone should invent a little chair with straps that will electrically bring children safely up. Ski-lift like. Then it dawned on me. George Costanza did just that (but not for babies)! In an episode of Seinfeld when he was lying as usual- pretending he was unable to walk- in order to get this job, he rode up the stairs in a little seat. It is one of the best episodes! Everyone is walking by so quickly as his slowwwww chair creeps up and he waves at everyone passing… when he could very well be walking with them. The song “My Baby Takes the Morning Train” is playing all the while. What a crack up! I now can’t go up the stairs (aka perform my juggling act) without singing that song. For your viewing pleasure in case you haven’t seen this genius of George Costanza:
Click here for the clip 
What would you create/invent to make your life with multiples a bit easier?? A girl can DrEaM!
Amy is mama to 18 month olds Reese and Riley. The latest ‘comment’ she gets out in public, due to the girls’ size difference, is, “Your babies are really close together!” Then when Riley talks to them in little sentences, they’re REALLY blown away. Like she has a genius 9 month old. ha ha! Read about their adventures at http://lovestarbucksalatte.blogspot.com
Back when I was about six months pregnant, I happened to run into a former colleague at a district wide grade level meeting (which basically means that all the 1st grade teachers in the district were getting together to discuss curriculum). I hadn’t seen her in quite a while, but news of my twin pregnancy had reached her and she came over to congratulate me. “Oh good,” she said when I told her that we were expecting a boy and a girl. “People are much more likely to see them as individuals instead of a packaged deal. I just hate when my friend refers to her girls as the twins. They are two individual girls, and they should be treated as such.”
Her comment came as no surprise to me, as this very topic pops up quite often in the blogoshpere of parents of multiples. It’s not difficult to find a post where a parent writes about trying to distinguish their children for family and friends or passes on tips regarding how to find time for each child when time is something of which we never feel we have enough. And while parenting multiples has quite a few challenges, I imagine parenting identical children (I mean in appearance, of course) has a few more unique challenges on top.
But all this in mind, I have to confess that thus far (almost two years), I’ve done almost nothing to individualize my twins. It helps that I have one girl and one boy, and I rarely dress them alike, but I know that I can and should be doing more to help them develop their own sense of self. They are always together, and have only had a very small amount of one-on-one time with a parent.
And just recently, I’ve begun to wonder how they think of themselves and what they might be wanting. It is clear that they enjoy spending time together (for the most part), but Tiny can sometimes take it hard if Buba wants to go off on his own. She’ll go after him, take him by the hand, and bring him back to the activity that she wants him to play with her. When I find a bit of time in the day to sit down and play with the kids, often Buba will wander off to do his own thing (read books or play with a toy that Tiny hogs) seeming to know that Tiny will be occupied with me and therefore won’t demand companionship from him.
It’s hard for me to know what’s best for them sometimes. I want them to be close, as singleton siblings might be, but not so extremely close that they can’t do anything without each other. Will this work itself out over time? Will they learn to be individuals when they go to school? Will they independently develop different interests that will lead them to separate activities? Or will I need to take a more active role to help these things happen? For moms with pre-schoolers or older twins, what has been your experiences?
*********************************
reanbean is a SAHM to boy/girl twins, Buba and Tiny, who will be 2 on Sunday. You can read more from reanbean at reanbean.com.
In many ways my twin pregnancy was easier than my singleton pregnancy. I had more experience with pregnancy, so I had some clear ideas about how I wanted this pregnancy to be.
First, I chose to be part of midwife-based care program from the beginning. The midwives focused on issues like nutrition, emotional wellbeing, and staying active during pregnancy. They were also prepared to look at “alternative” therapies to help with pregnancy like nutrition, supplements, acupuncture, chiropractic care, massage therapy, yoga, and other exercises, which gave me a good foundation for making healthy decision even after my care was transferred to a doctor when we found out about the twins.
Second, based on the benefits in my first pregnancy, I started going for pregnancy massage regularly throughout my pregnancy. It helped with the aches and pains of pregnancy, and with the swelling in my hands and feet. My massage therapist was also able to provide lots of advice and information because of her training in pregnancy massage and as a doula.
Third, I started taking medication for nausea as soon as it became a problem. I didn’t wait until I felt so horrible I couldn’t eat and I started losing weight like in my first pregnancy. I continued to take medication until the day before my c-section. The nausea improved significantly through my pregnancy, but it persisted through the whole pregnancy.
Fourth, when we found out we were expecting twins, we joined a multiple prenatal class. It provided some helpful information, but most importantly we got a copy of Dr. Barbara Gore’s book When You’re Expecting Twins, Triplets or Quads. The focus on the importance of nutrition and weight gain was the most helpful part. I also joined an online chat group for moms of multiples, and borrowed a lot library books. Having information and answers to my questions helped me to feel in control and prepared to make decisions.
In other ways, my twin pregnancy was harder than my singleton pregnancy. From the beginning, I felt tired all the time. Part of that was because I had an active toddler to chase around, but part of it was growing two babies. Fortunately my schedule as a grad student was quite flexible. I called my routine “self-imposed bedrest” and gave myself permission to only do what I felt I could handle. In a typical day, I would get my son up, fed and off to the dayhome. I’d come home and nap for 1-2 hours. I’d get up and work for a couple of hours and have lunch. In the afternoon, I’d have another nap before picking up my son. I’d get supper ready and clean up. In the evenings, I didn’t do much except sit on the couch, and eat – I was constantly hungry.
Throughout my pregnancy, I had more doctor’s appointments, ultrasounds, blood tests, and hospital visits. These appointments were both physical tiring and time consuming, but I quickly learned to bring my book, my water bottle and a snack. I learned to only plan one activity per day, especially if it involved travelling anywhere because I knew I’d be exhausted by the end of it.
The last 6 weeks (from about 32 weeks) the point where my twin pregnancy really started to differ from my first pregnancy. I was big and awkward. It was hard to get motivated to do anything, and it was challenging even to just leave the house. It was uncomfortable to wear my shoes or boots. My balance wasn’t great and it was icy, so I often stayed home for days in a row. I started getting light-headed, so we decided I shouldn’t be driving alone, and eventually walking any distance got to be too hard. I ended up borrowing a wheelchair from the Red Cross so I could go with my son for his picture with Santa and to do some Christmas shopping. Even doing things in the house was challenging, so I would plan my day with the fewest trips up and down the stairs.
And, the end of my pregnancy was very different. Instead of a mostly natural, midwife-assisted delivery at 41 weeks, I had a scheduled c-section at 37+ weeks. And, I got to bring home two little girls, instead of one little boy.
How was your multiple pregnancy different from your other pregnancies?
This is the story (TRUE STORY!) of two MOTs who independently decide to take their twins to the same indoor playspace on the same day…
It was perhaps a month or so ago. I made a point of getting Buba and Tiny up and ready to go as quickly as I could so we could arrive at the toddler gym before it got too crowded. Not long after we arrived and got ourselves ready to play (hats off, coats off, boots off), another mom came over our way to say hello. I knew that I knew her, but I couldn’t quite place her. Had I met her here previously? Or maybe at the library? But as soon as she said her name, I knew exactly who she was. We had met briefly at a playdate at another MOT’s house about six months earlier. We chatted a bit (as much as our twins would allow-hers 15 months, and mine 22 months), and then parted ways as our kids ran off to try other things.
Now this toddler room is not enormous, but it’s certainly big enough. I do my best to keep my eyes on both kids, but sometimes if I’m helping one kid do an activity (such as walking across the world’s most slippery plastic balance beam) it’s not hard for the other kid to leave my sight for a moment or two. But at one particular moment on that day, I looked up from where Tiny was playing and realized that I couldn’t see Buba anywhere. This other MOT must have seen the somewhat panicked look on my face, because before I even called his name, she waved her arm and said, “Over here.” Instant relief.
Over the next 45 minutes or so, our kids crossed paths a few more times. At one point, she had her eyes on one of mine and one of hers, while I was watching one of hers and one of mine. We didn’t sit down and make a plan regarding who was doing what with which kids and when, but it just sort of happened that we continued to look out for each other’s twins.
And when Tiny started to throw a fit because she didn’t want to go, who do you think helped us gather our things so I could get my kids ready to leave? Certainly not one of the dozens of mothers who where their with their (ONE) toddlers.
So as we walked our kids out the door on that cold, winter day, I couldn’t help but feel so grateful that this other MOT happened to be at the toddler gym time that day. Because there’s nothing better than being with (or chatting with or emailing with) another MoM who truly gets what your world is like.
*********************************
reanbean is a SAHM to boy/girl twins, Buba and Tiny, who will be 2 in just over a week. You can read more from reanbean at reanbean.com.
My sweeties are about 1 1/2 now and suddenly have these smart, amazing minds of their own. Which of course is a fabulous thing… or is it?! They would rather walk than be in their stroller, they want to do things for themselves (ie when taking a drink from Mommy’s cup, they want to hold it –>disaster!), climb on everything, and just plain be independent. It’s helpful at times, but quite difficult at others. Having TWO small children with this new found “mind of her own” sends each in the opposite direction. I have found myself lately, asking for more help than ever. Like in public places- to strangers. (Not endangering my kids of course) Ha! I mean, if they’re going to stare and think and/or ask :HOW does she do it?!, then they might as well get a taste for it- right?! :) So I took Reese and Riley with me to the mall the other day. I had only two stores to stop into, then lunch at the food court (why do I love that junky food so much??). It sounded totally doable. The girls were doing pretty good in the stroller with snacks being thrown at them every two minutes. Once it was lunch time, the started really getting antsy. Screaming-Lovely. Trying to get out of the buckles- Great. Waiting impatiently for our food. I strolled around hunting for highchairs. Ever notice finding ONE is a breeze, but more? Not so much. When I finally found them, I got all set up- you know how long that takes with two hungry 1 1/2 year olds! I took them out of the stroller, put them into the highchairs, cleaned the highchairs, stuck down their placemats, and began to get out their food. It was THEN that I realized that they didn’t give me the fruit. Reese and Riley put themselves on the ‘fruit only’ diet at times. Some days= eat anything, some days= fruit only. So I HAD to have the fruit! I had noticed 3 men finishing their lunch watching us in a bit in awe. Men don’t multitask well- do they? hee hee. I thought about loading Reese and Riley back into the stroller, the work it would entail, the possibility of losing my highchairs and decided I would just ask one of those men if they’d go get my fruit- ha! They were so nice and one of them (who was a daddy of one 6 month old) went and got it for me! SO nice. I surprised myself for asking, and I guess it was out of selfishness:), BUT people really are nice most of the time: can’t hurt to ask if it’ll make your life with multiples a bit easier!
So I have to ask: those of you with walkers, do you use harnesses (animal backpacks sound nicer!) when out and about? I’ve always thought it was strange until recently- having two little ladies heading in opposite directions! What do you think??
Amy is a SAHM to Reese Abigail and Riley Grace, 17 1/2 monthers. The girls latest activity of choice is screaming at the top of their lungs blood curdling screams at each other… then laughing. What’s with that?! Mommy and Daddy don’t this it’s so funny… Read more about their adventures at: http://lovestarbucksalatte.blogspot.com.
My twins turned 22 months yesterday. Which is also the number of pounds that I’m above my pre-pregnancy weight. And that was ten pounds above my pre-trying-to-conceive weight, thank you nine months of IUIs, a laparoscopic surgery, fertility drugs, and IVF. Do the math and that’s thirty two pounds I haven’t lost. What’s worse is that a month after I had the twins, I weighed twenty pounds less than I do now.
Oh, how I wanted to be in the best shape of my life before I got pregnant. I only had ten pounds to lose, really, so I started Weight Watchers in February 2006. I ate better, more frequently, took the time to buy fresh vegetables and meat, measured them out, prepared the food accordingly. I would go to the gym on the way home from work, and I’d go run on the weekends. By May 2006 I had lost the ten pounds but was soooo much leaner, too. I felt great. And, looking back at pictures from my cousin Jai’s wedding that May, I looked pretty good, too (even though at the time I thought I should have been thinner). I have this picture with my sister, my mom, my partner, and my now-sister-in-law at the reception and I miss that person. And those clothes, collecting dust in my closet. I affectionately refer to my physical condition at that time as “Jai’s Wedding”.
C-Sections are a bitch, but they’re not an excuse. I know plenty of mom’s of multiples that had c-sections and have flat bellies. And their kids are younger than mine. Sure, most of those moms are younger than me (I’m about to be 36), and thus more elastic. Not an excuse. Though I sure have used it!
Here’s a low point in my warped logic for you: it’s easier for straight women to lose weight. WTF, right? Wait, wait, don’t send hate mail! I mean that as a compliment. You’ve got your man and you want to look good for your man (ok, yeah, and you). Not to mention, it seems for all women, it’s a badge of honor to have given birth, shrink down to pre-pregnancy weight, and a gold star for getting to a dress size smaller than pre-pregnancy. That seems to be a popular gloat on one of the parenting boards that I peruse.
Here’s the thing though, women are generally more forgiving of one another. And so my partner hasn’t exactly motivated me to get my fat ass off the couch because she’s just so sweet and compassionate and loves me for who I am. It’s all her fault! (Kidding!)
Oh, do trust that all the comparing to other women is not the underlying reason for all my self-loathing and insanity, but a byproduct of it.
But you see what kind of madness I’ve had in my head justifying the fact that I can’t fit into 80% of the clothes in my closet?
And the thing is, I can’t even really say that I’ve struggled with losing the weight, because in all honestly, I haven’t really tried. Where’s that DRIVE I had before TTC? I’ve searched for it, but I keep losing my grasp of it under the piles of laundry or the meals that need to be cooked/frozen, or getting bumped for another work meeting, or my commute, or underneath that hotwing sauce. (See? I really do accept responsibility.) I have to eat lunch out with my co-workers and hell if I’m paying more for a salad than for a burger SO I GET THE FRIGGIN BURGER. AND FRIES.; I have no time to exercise; I have twins.
I have twin toddlers JUST LIKE HUNDREDS OF FIT MOMS OUT THERE who get it all done.
So yeah, no excuse.
I wish I could afford to buy the kinds of healthy foods I was buying back in 2006, carefully measuring out portions and calculating protein content. Sure, I could go to the gym on the way home from work to “take care of me”, but then I wouldn’t get to see my kids before bedtime. And as it is, I only see them 30 minutes each morning and each evening five days per week. So get up early! That’s a failure waiting to happen because I couldn’t sustain a 4:00 a.m. wakeup for long. Run in your neighborhood! Not well lit, urban, nuf said. Work out after the kids go down! But for cooking, cleaning, maintaining my relationship with my significant other, working, (okay, yeah, and blogging), and the fact that all that has to happen between 8:00pm and 11:00p.m. I have so many “excuses” and justifications that if I’d just get rid of them, that’d probably be ten pounds worth right there.
Here’s the ugly truth: I do not take pictures with my kids because I hate the way I look. Therefore, I have very few pictures of me with the children that were borne of my womb. Forget the photo from Jai’s wedding. I just want to look good enough to have a picture with my kids that I’m not embarrassed that it exists. That’s right, folks. My twins are nearly two and I have less than ten pictures of them with THEIR MOTHER in them.
It’s not that I don’t know what I need to do – hell, I’ve done it before (albeit with a lot more resources and a ton more time). It’s just that now that I actually give a damn, I am so overwhelmed it’s hard to know where to start. Though it appears Facebook had a suggestion for me:
I have hit rock bottom.
So for the last two mornings, I’ve risen with the first snooze, while my family is still sleeping, and when it’s still way too dark, and have stumbled into the living room for a round of free weights, ab exercises, and push ups. I’m sore this afternoon, so that means something is working, right? RIGHT?
I am sure there are scores of mom’s out there in their mid 30s who can offer suggestions on how they snapped back into shape six weeks after birth, but hearing from y’all just makes me feel worse about myself. And if you are under 30, don’t you dare comment! (LOL!) Instead, I’m interested to hear from the mom’s out there who ARE or WERE in a situation like mine, where 12+ months after birth, they needed to get their assess kicked by the likes of Jillian Michaels. C’mon. Please let me know I’m not the only one.
**********
When she’s not making weight-loss excuses, Rachel and her 40 lbs of extra ass blogs over at Motherhood.Squared .
Have you been asked this?
I’m sure we’ve all gotten variations of the question. “Who is more outgoing?” “Is one good and one bad?” “What are their personalities like?”
Once someone asked me which one was my favorite.
I don’t mind the questions, especially the “rude” ones, because usually I can joke about it and I’m so excited for adult interaction. But the sincere questions from friends and distant family, asking us to name the differences between the twins, are hard for me because I don’t know the answer.
The truth is, they feel different to me. I sense them differently. Their presence in a room, their weight, their faces, their hands in mine feel different. They smell different. They are my babies and I know them, but it isn’t something I can explain to another person so he or she can see it.
When they were infants I had a sense that G was angry, and P was sad. As they got older, G was more adventuresome and P was more timid. G would wander off to play on a structure across the park, and P would cling to my hand. At swimming lessons G participated, and tried to coax P into the water. P laid on the deck at my feet and cried until it was time to go home.
But they switch. Now it is P who will venture off to something new, and G who clings to us. They take turns leading each other.
Do you struggle to explain your multiples’ personalities when asked these sorts of questions? Or have your kids had consistently different personality types since birth?
Jen is a work-from-home mom of twins + 2. She also blogs at Diagnosis: Urine.
You’d think that, at 2.5, I’d know how to play with my children. And to a large extent, of course, I do. But the truth is that I spend a large portion of the day coordinating, shuttling, refereeing, and then getting out of the way when they’re actually playing nicely with one another. We go to activities together, we come home together. They play while I make lunch. They go down for nap together. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
But recently, due to some potty-training boot camp weekends, I have had the opportunity to spend nearly the entire weekend with each kid, alone. And it’s amazing how different that experience is.
My daughter was the first to go on the boot-camp front, so my husband disappeared for most of the day with our son. Rebecca has an impressive attention span, and could stay focused on one activity for quite a while. Read a bunch of books, roll out some play-doh, create multiple large-scale finger-paint masterpieces.
She pretty much chose an activity that she wanted to do, had me set it up for her, and played independently for 20 minutes or more at a stretch. Oh, sure, she wanted me to look at what she’d done, and we had fun comparing the sizes of our finger-paint handprints. And she can be goofy as all get-out, and loves to race circles around the first floor on a big green racing turtle. But she’s an introvert, just like her daddy. She could spend a lot of time engrossed in her own little world, singing songs to herself.
Two weeks later, and the kids switched places. It was Daniel’s turn for a weekend of mommy and potty. I scarcely realized how much I should have rested up for the whirlwind that is my son. In terms of straight physical activity, he’s not the perpetual-motion machine that a lot of toddler boys are. But he never, ever, EVER stops talking.
The talking was not a surprise to me. He’s been like that for ages. What I did find fascinating is his new love of pretend-play. He would come up with elaborate story lines and want me to act them out with him. Most were a mish-mash of favorite TV shows and memories of things we’d done together. But he wasn’t just telling the story, we were playing it. I had to sit next to him on the bench of the Dinosaur Train, and stamp his ticket with my claw. I sat in the back seat of Daddy’s car (actually, the floor of our mudroom) while he drove us to the airport and the museum. I could only convince him to take a potty break from these elaborate tales by suggesting that we visit the potty on the Dinosaur Train/airplane/museum bathroom.
The extrovert, which he obviously gets from me, bounces from one thing to the next and wants me to be involved in every part. That is, at least, until he tells me to get off of the couch and go into the kitchen. When I ask why, he says it’s so he can slide down the arm of the couch (which he knows he’s not really supposed to do – bad liar).
It was really something to shift out of my normal gear, which is to just kind of manage the chaos and the outings and make sure everyone is reasonably happy, somewhat well-behaved, and not killing one another. To actually take a day or two, stay in the house, and play with each kid on their own terms.
What about you? Have you gotten the chance to sit and play with one kid at a time? Do you find them remarkably similar or completely different?
I’m posting a second, short post today. I thought I’d write some posts about being pregnant with twins and how that compared to being pregnant with a singleton. But before I started, I wanted to know if there are any readers who are pregnant and have questions they’d like to ask. I’ll offer my comments, and then I’m sure the other readers will share their comments too.
Just a note: I live in Canada so I don’t have much to offer in the way of information about the US medical system, and I certainly won’t offer any medical advice. But I’m sure there’s still things that I could say that might be helpful to you.
Our two little girls are now 13 months old. A lot has happened in our lives since they were conceived almost two years ago. And, a lot has happened to my body in that time. During my pregnancy I gained almost 70 lbs, which was more than half of my body weight before pregnancy. I’ve also lost about 65 lbs of my pregnancy weight, so I’m almost back to my “normal” weight. The result of all that weight gain and loss has been boxes of clothes in a wide range of sizes. So, one of my tasks for myself this week was to go through my clothes and get rid of the ones that don’t fit anymore (I’ve also been doing this with kids clothes so we’ve got bags and boxes of clothes all over the place). All of this got me thinking about clothes and pregnancy…
Here are some of the types of clothes you might encounter in your pregnancy:
First, you wear the “early” pregnancy clothes. This is when you are feeling bloated and uncomfortable in regular clothes, but it is still way too early to tell anyone you are pregnant or to start wearing maternity clothes. If this is your second pregnancy and a multiple pregnancy, like in my case, this stage starts within a couple of weeks of finding out you’re pregnant.
Next come the “look-at-me-I’m-pregnant” maternity clothes. You go on your first shopping trip to buy maternity clothes. You are excited about being pregnant and can’t wait to let everyone know. You buy the cute maternity tops and low-rise pants. If you’re daring, you try them on at the store wearing the pillow around your stomach to show how they’ll look further along in your pregnancy. Depending on your budget, you may also have some “hand-me-down” maternity clothes. These are the maternity clothes that you get from friends and family who have had babies. They might not be quite your style, but you probably can’t afford a whole new wardrobe, especially if your pregnancy will take you through more than one season.
Eventually, you realize you have to get some “I-have-to-buy-what?!” maternity clothes. These are the clothes you buy when you discover that your normal underwear is just not going to keep fitting through your pregnancy, even if you buy the next size bigger. The same with bras, and socks, if your feet swell. They are ridiculously expensive and you can’t imagine what you’ll do with them after your pregnancy.
At some point, fashion sense doesn’t matter and you want the “I-just-want-to-be-comfortable” maternity clothes. No, these are the clothes that aren’t particularly stylish or suitable for wearing to work, but they are the only comfortable clothes you have. They include the XL t-shirts from your partner and the maternity sundresses you wish you could wear every day.
If you’re having multiples, you’ll get to the point where you nee the “please-I’ll-take-whatever-you-have” maternity clothes. These are the clothes you beg, borrow and steal from anyone, anywhere when you discover at 6 months you’ve outgrown all your maternity pants. When your size small maternity clothes don’t fit so you borrow some size large pants from a friend in hopes they’ll fit you a few more months.
As the seasons change, you realize you need some “I’ve-been-avoiding-buying-these” maternity clothes like a winter coat when it snows in October and you can’t avoid going outside for the next three months. You try to get by with wearing the “I-just-want-to-be-comfortable” maternity sweater, but it just isn’t warm enough. You also get stubborn about the “I-refuse-to-buy-these” maternity clothes, which include new winter boots that will fit your swollen feet. You can make do with the “improvised” maternity clothes by unlacing your hiking boots, and wearing them if you absolutely have to leave the house.
Then your babies are born, and you need a whole new wardrobe. To start with, you wear the “yes-these-are-still-maternity” outfits. They seem a little baggy right now, and after 4 or 5 months, you’re really tired of wearing them, but you don’t have the time or energy to go shopping with your newborn babies. You also wear the “easy-access” nursing tops so you can discreetly breastfeed those hungry babies anywhere. After a while, you give up on worrying about discretion because, face it, you’re breastfeeding nearly all the time.
After a while, you realize the maternity clothes are too big but you’re still a long way from fitting in your regular clothes. You treat yourself to a shopping trip, but you only buy “causal-mom” clothes like active wear (i.e. sweat pants), jeans and t-shirts because you rarely leave the house, and they’ll just get spit up on them anyway.
Eventually, you decide you need some nice clothes or else you’ll go crazy. So, you head out to a sale or a consignment store and buy a couple of nice outfits. You wear them whenever you get the chance, but every time you put them on, they feel a little bigger. After a few times, you realize they are starting to get too big, too.
When you go back to work, you realize you have to abandon the jeans, sweats and t-shirts and wear “real” clothes again. So, you pull out your early pregnancy clothes almost fit again. By now, it has been over a year since you’ve seen these clothes, so it is like having new clothes, sort of. But, you’re also really used to wearing comfy loungewear, and dressing up takes way more time in the morning.
Hooray! Finally, you realize you can squeeze in to your “normal” clothes again. Your pre-pregnancy clothes don’t quite fit the same way. Your hips are a little wider, your chest is a little bigger, your feet are a little wider… You start to get dressed every morning in an assortment of clothes that are a little too big and a little too small.
Then you finally take on the task of sorting through all these clothes and figuring out what can stay, what has to go (sell, donate, give away, throw away), and what you’ll store in case you need it again some day. You have to give up the sweater that lost most of the buttons when you stretched it over your giant belly. You have say good bye to the sweat pants that fit you through your whole pregnancy when you undid the drawstring all the way. You get to say good riddance to the nursing tops and the pregnancy underwear. And you can probably justify spending your birthday money on a few pieces to update your “I’m-a-busy-mom” wardrobe.
Any fashion advice for a pregnant mom of multiples? Or a new mom with multiples who’s heard it is “9 months on and 9 months off”?
