The few times we have been out with the girls, often the same ice breaker question is asked. "How are things going?" The short answer is often, "they are a lot of work". You see if you go back to January 22nd 2021, this was just a random Friday night for us, but little did we know this would be our last night with no children.
We spent that Friday night watching the original Coming to America in preparation for the sequel. We were half way into the film and clearly someone was inspired by the fictional "McDowell's" and had the very real McDonalds delivered at 11:30 PM. I was 3 whiskeys in at that point and Terri may have also had a rare adult beverage of her own if I recall correctly. We were living our best life with no idea what the next couple months would hold. Spoiler alert we don't stay up late drinking and watch vulgar adult comedies anymore.
The girls are a lot of work. Thankfully Winter is generally calm and easygoing. She is making it much easier to care for her younger, not so easy going sister Parker.
The main difference between the two of them is the crying. Winter rarely cries or throws fits. Shoot at 3 weeks old we had not even heard Winter cry. Parker cries. She cries very loud and can go from peacefully sleeping to screaming like a baby Pterodactyl in a blink of an eye. Usually she's easy to troubleshoot and most often just wants to be fed. But on the occasion where they both are awake and very hungry at the same time, and vocally letting you know, it can get very stressful. A couple nights this week we had to abandon our "shift schedule" and both had to wake up to feed separate babies because they both decided to lose their minds at 3:30 AM. That's just rough. No way around it.
Which leads to another difference between the two. Parker has much more of an appetite at 3 weeks compared to Winter. She's had up to 5oz of formula in one feeding several times at this point. Parker is also "cluster feeding" as Terri says, which to me means less time between feeds. This also gets rough in the middle of the night. As of typing this post Parker’s feeds range from 2-5oz while Winter's feeds range from 4-6oz. Thankfully they are both on the same formula Similac Sensitive. Managing two kinds of formula would have been a giant pain.
Moving on to sleep... Neither Terri or I are getting much, but it could be worse. We try to get them in bed by 8:00. Some nights that is easier than others. We usually each take a child, give them a fresh diaper, dress them in a sleeper, swaddle them up and put them to sleep with a bottle. Most nights getting them to sleep is not overly difficult. Winter can be stubborn at times but usually a good rock, and she's out.
Typically one of them is up around midnight, and then within the same hour the other is awake for a bottle and diaper as well. That shift is Terri's shift as she is the night owl. My shift usually starts around 3:30 AM. More often than not Parker is the first awake at that time. Winter will sometimes wake at 4:00 but has made it to 5:00 a few times. We both look forward to the day they both sleep through the night, but in general we are managing and don't want to rush a moment of this rollercoaster.
So that's how it's going. They keep us busy but we are managing. They are both alive and Terri and I have not killed each-other. So all things considered we are doing well. Again, thanks for reading.
