Twinsanity

Goodness! I have not meant to let blogging go so completely by the wayside, but it has. Blogging, like so many other activities I used to enjoy, requires some measure of uninterrupted time and mental focus and, well, those are lacking these days. I have always felt pretty good about my ability to multi-task but lately taking care of the twins is consuming just about all my physical and mental energy. And this is with Zach home for the summer! I don't even like to think about what daily life will be like come late August....

A few weeks after the twins came home Zach and I talked about life with twins so far and we agreed that it was easier than we had been expecting. The babies slept so much so pretty much all we did was feed them, change their diapers, and let them sleep. And they'd sleep anywhere which was convenient. But sometime last month (probably not too long after their due date) they woke up to the world a bit and found their fussy voices. Specifically at night. Most evenings have consisted of several hours of on and off crying from both boys, despite holding, rocking, feeding, swaddling, administration of gas drops, Gripe Water, etc. Every parent knows how hard it can be to listen to an inconsolable baby. Two inconsolable babies...you can imagine the difficulty. One Sunday morning one of our pastors exhorted us to remind ourselves of all God has done for us in the past. The only thing I could think of was "Well God, you didn't let me jump off a building this week." One particularly terrible night I remember praying through my tears "Lord, I don't see how this shows goodness or kindness to me but I know You are good and kind so please help me!" And I didn't go jump off a building that night so obviously God's merciful hand was on me. :) But seriously, I knew having twins would stretch me and my faith in new directions and it sure has.

But (written in a very hopeful voice) I think we may be getting over that phase. It has really helped me, by the way, to remember that Esther went through a similar stage at just about the same age and it didn't last long in the big picture. The last few nights have had much less crying and our days have been smoother too. I think Joshua and Jude are starting to give us more recognizable cues when they're ready for a nap and as long as we respond quickly they take nice little naps in their beds. Thank you, Father, for this mercy!

There are more things I'd like to blog about but that will have to wait for another day. (So sorry, Esther, I did not do a birthday post for you. Aunt Megan says it's not too late--I'll try to get on that before your third birthday.) So here are a few pictures until I can manage more.

Jude (Good thing the paci is visible; that's the main way we
tell the boys apart these days! Keep the paci nearby and
nobody gets mixed up.)

Joshua (Man, these babies are cute!)

Little mirror images. Jude is on the left. I think. Let's call it 95% sure.

Austin and Esther enjoying the view from Grandpa's "tall office
building." More about our visit to Grandma and Grandpa later, I hope.