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10 to Twins

By Jessica T

About this blog: I'm a late thirties mother of a ten-year-old and infant twins. My family moved to Menlo Park 6 years ago from Virginia - where I grew up, went to college, got married, had my first born, and got an MBA (in that order). I'm a manag...  (More)

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Stay-in-bed mom

Uploaded: Oct 27, 2013
Sleep deprivation with newborns is a strange thing. At breakfast, I try to calculate how much sleep we may have cobbled together on a given night. And lately I find that neither my husband nor I can remember how many times the twins woke and when they fell back asleep.

When my first daughter was born, my husband wrote a story about how our tiny baby would climb down from her crib and travel to our bed on the cat's back because neither of us could recollect bringing her in each morning.

This time around, the babies simply cannot linger in our bed. However around five AM, things get very surreal... Babies are handed to me, I turn on my side, lift my shirt, and nurse. Baby and I often drift off in the process, and I forget who's nursing and on what side they last nursed. I woke up last week in the dark, panicked to feel a baby in the crook of my arm, having forgotten to put someone back to bed, but reassured by her soft, persistent breath.

At about seven AM, big sister gets up and gets involved. She comforts babies, changes diapers, and hands them my way with stranger and stranger nicknames.

"Mommy, 'Little Stuff' wants to nurse."

"Here's 'Muffkin' - she's half munchkin and half muffin!"

"Bugaboo wants to say hello!"

"Make way for Mr. Cozy!"

The list goes on. We developed strange, adorable nicknames with my first daughter too, and I wonder if they were created in a similarly sleepy haze. Perhaps it's the mark of the good-humored, not-very-well-thought-through adoration that comes from being a sleepless family.

The truth is, I stay in bed and cling to an extra hour's sleep while my daughter gets ready for school and my husband shuttles her to school. Only as he's leaving the house with her at 8, do I get an armful of twins, a cappuccino, and at last drag myself out of bed.

What are the strange side effects you and your family have experienced due to the sleeplessness that comes with newborns? What are the origins for your kids' pet names?

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Comments

Posted by Sally Torbey, a resident of Palo Alto High School,
on Oct 28, 2013 at 12:50 pm

Hi Jessica-
Yes, this brings back many memories. Those were the days when my husband looked forward to getting on a red-eye flight because he got more sleep on the plane than he did at home.


Posted by Another mom, a resident of Green Acres,
on Oct 30, 2013 at 11:41 am

Reading this, I'm thinking the sleep issue is a scaffolding for sharing the image of your daughter helping, and the adorable names. Very sweet! We had a lot of fun telling my younger brother's intended all the cute names we had for him when he was a baby. Tell your daughter to write them down! :-)


Posted by Jessica T, a Mountain View Online blogger,
on Oct 30, 2013 at 1:52 pm

Jessica T is a registered user.

Sally - I hate red-eyes. You have me worried that these sleepless nights may get worse before they get better...

Thanks to Another mom for the suggestion of writing down the silly nicknames. I suppose they are well-documented for posterity now on this blog!


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