A day in the life of a SMC of twins

My twin boys Niklas and Jacob are 9 weeks old now and I figured it would be interesting to post about a day in my life as a Single Mom by Choice. In a few month I will post another day, just to see how things are going or have changed.

It's 0:30 and Jacob is waking up and wants a feed. I change his diaper and prepare the bottle, he is not happy  and crying that it takes so long, yet he is still half asleep. While I am feeding Jacob, Niklas wakes up, he usually waits patiently when this happens for his turn but not today. I stop feeding Jacob to change Niklas and grab my nursing pillow to tandem feed them. When Jacob is finished I swaddle him, he is falling asleep within minutes, so I lay down with Niklas to continue to nurse him. We both fall asleep over this.

I wake up at around 3am and figure I might as well put my breast away now that Niklas is sleeping, turns out he was not as deep asleep as I thought and he starts to stir, so I quickly put the boob back in and he is back asleep and so am I. To be honest I feel very contend and peaceful when nursing and love the feeling.

At around 5:15am Jacob stirs and wakes up. I prepare him another bottle and change his diaper, Jacob used to refuse the breast and we are just now getting there that he is latching on but during the night he still gets the bottle, while I increase the milk supply. He is finished and I swaddle him again. I get up and put the diapers in the washing maschine (05:35am). When I get back Niklas stirs, so I change his diaper and then nurse him until he falls asleep at 06:15am. There is no point in going back to sleep, so I get up and make breakfast (fresh eggs, sausage, bread) and enjoy an early morning cuddle with the dogs.

At 7am my mom comes over to look after the boys while I take the dogs for a quick walk. We are back by 7:20am as Lily doesn't walk very far nowdays, I feed the dogs and the quickly go to the garden to harvest some lettuce and red onions for my lunch salad. Afterwards I have a second cup of tea and enjoy a few minutes of solitude while the boys are still asleep. 

07:45am the peace didn't last and Niklas is waking up. I lay down with him and cuddle & nurse him for a few minutes, what a nice way to wake up. Jacob stirs about 10 minutes later and I repeat the process of cuddling & nursing with him. 

 
08:05 am I set up the play mat & let the boys play to wake up. While they play I sort out their cloth. They have outgrown their current bodies and I sorted them out and out the next size up in the wardrobe, I also hang up the diapers and put the baby cloth in the washing maschine. 

 

By 8:50am they have played enough and they get cranky, so I wash & feed them and by 10am we head out for a walk in the pram. I looks as though it might rain, so we just go on a small round (meaning about an hour walk), I meet some people and stop to chat for a while. I enjoy those walks out in the country and work on my to do list in my head. Today I am working out all the things I need to do in order to raise meat rabbits again. The big question is still if I get a doe this fall or wait till spring.

We get home around 11am and after a quick diaper change, I nurse of them, while the potatoes are boiling on the stove. At 12pm Jacob is asleep but Niklas is still awake. I put him in the carrier, transfer the potatoes to the oven and head outside to hang up the washing. I have lunch at 12:30pm (port sausages, salad and crashed rosemary potatoes) and afterwards lay down with Niklas, who falls asleep with me.
I didn't get a chance to actually sleep for more then 10 minutes and Jacob is awake and crying. I nurse him but he wakes up Niklas anyway, so I grab both boys & we go for another walk in the pram. This time we go in the woods and to a nice park in the close by town. It takes me 30 minutes to walk there at a leasurley pace and we walk through the park and watch the ducks at the lake. There is some shade and especially when it's hot like this afternoon, I love going there, plus the boys sleep well in the pram.

We get home shortly before 4pm & after another diaper change both get something to eat. I hear the doorbell and my old neighbor is coming for a visit. Vera used to live in the house next door and I have known her since I was a little girl. She was in hospital and now wanted to meet the boys. Together with my mom we sit in the bedroom chatting for nearly 1.5 hours, in between the boys play on the play mat or nurse.

It's 5:30pm and Jacob and Niklas both fell asleep or so I thought. By 6pm they are both awake again and need their night time feeding(they usually get their evening meal between 6pm-7pm). It takes about an hour for Jacob to finally fall asleep and Niklas eventually followed him at 7:30pm. Bed time usually takes an hour till an hour and a half but now they are out until about midnight and I have some time for myself.

7:30pm, I do the dishes & bottles that have piled up in the sink, I make myself a cup of tea and have a quick dinner (sandwich). I call the dogs in from the garden and they get their evening meal. I walk through the garden to see if anything needs harvesting right now. I have read about calendula last night and since I have some in the garden, I harvested some and set them up to dry.



By 08:15pm I catch up quickly on my e-mail and the blog world. I want to try and be in bed by 9pm tonight and not 10pm like the last few day but there is still some things to do, like putting a parcel together to return the items I had ordered.

It's 9pm now, I just finished writing this post, I will wrap up the parcel & then head to bed.