My little munchins look all sweet and innocent in this photo (Phoebe is on the left). However, they were a HUGE challenge. Let's see....* they didn't sleep through the night (still don't!)
* it took ages (and a lot of screaming!) to get them to settle to sleep
*cat napped during the day
*never drank a full bottle....in fact never drank anywhere near the recommended amount and often did not put on any weight
*were sick ALL the time (reflux, colic, cold, flu, teething pain, immunisation reactions...etc.)
The one thing the really really upset me was the inconsolable screaming. Those tiny babies were depending on me to keep them happy and I failed.....miserably....every...single...day. I was very close to depression several times. I had lots of help from family (especially my loving husband) but the fact I couldn't seem to do a good job even with all this help made me feel even worse. Even with all the help there were days when I had 2 hours of sleep and no shower.
We were given lots of (conflicting) advice but the only advice that seemed to make a big difference came from a Baby Whisperer we paid to come out to our house and work out what was going on. She told us that they were severely over stimulated and overtired. She showed us how to do a form of controlled crying. After a couple of weeks of putting her advice in place we had babies that put themselves asleep. They started to feed a little better and scream a little less too. They still were quite difficult and it wasn't until 7 months that I took them out of the house by myself - a HUGE achievement!
