Besides the crazy rush we went through to deliver Emilio and Alejandro, (ok never mind it wasn’t THAT crazy) having twins seems to be a “novelty” and one you need to navigate carefully so everyone involved feels loved, cared for and important. Especially when you have 3 more kids to worry about!! 🙂
Going into this we knew we had our work cut out for us to make sure Nati, Nico and Santi were going to be ok with the arrival of two more babies into their lives. And not just 2 more babies… twins! Identical twins! Whoa! A phenomenon of its own! Since this is our 4th rodeo, we kind of think we know what we are doing. We’ve dealt with “sibling displacement syndrome” (I totally just made that up) twice already and feel like we succeeded at it. But this is a different ball game ladies and gentlemen, this is twins. This is the “I want to dress them up the same and make them look so cute” game. This is the “Oh my God you have twins! How cute! Tell me all about it!” type of game. And because of this, I/we need to step up our game and say “Hey! Thank you, yes! They are twins (yet they are individuals… oh boy.. that’s another thing we’ll deal with) but check this out! We have 3 other kids who are amazing!! Yes, we are Catholic (very non-practicing) but that is not why we have so many… And these are their names AND they are awesome because they do this and this and this…
And don’t get me started with the looks we’ll get… and my struggle to hold back my desire to punch or say something to those I can tell who are judging us… This is definitely another post/rant. 🙂
So, because of all of the above and a ton more, we tried our hardest to make sure Nati, Nico and Santi felt not only special, but also so they could feel that everything was normal and their world was not turned upside down because Emi and Ale had arrived…
In an effort to do this and due to the timing of their arrival (one day before Nati’s 6th birthday), my schedule was out of whack the first couple of days… trying to juggle being at the hospital to support Becca and tending to the newborns while still maintaining “normality” in everyone else’s lives!
This is sort of what Monday night and Tuesday looked like.
Monday 7:49PM: Welcome babies to the world.
Monday around 9pm: Nati, Nico and Santi come meet their new baby brothers. 🙂
Monday 9:30pm: I leave with the kiddos to put them to bed at home (about 25 mins away)
Monday 11pm: I head back to Hospital
Monday 11:30PM – Tuesday 6am: tend to newborns as needed. “Slept” in a very uncomfy chair.
Tuesday 6am: Get up and head home.
Tuesday 6:30 – 7:30am: Get showered, pack Santi’s lunch, wake up kiddos, get them ready for school.
Tuesday 7:40 – 9am: Drive Nati and Nico to school. Then drop off Santi at daycare and head back to Hospital.
Tuesday 9-11am: Tend to newborns and Becca as needed.
Tuesday 11am: Head out to Target to get cupcakes for Nati’s birthday and get lunch for Nati and Nico.
Tuesday 11:45 – 12:30pm: Brought cupcakes to Nati’s class, they sang to her, went to get Nico from his class and had lunch all together! I loved all of it. 🙂
Tuesday 1pm – 2:45pm: Back at the hospital.
Tuesday 2:45 – 3:45pm: Head out to pick up Nati and Nico from school and back to the hospital.
Tuesday 3:45 – 5pm: at the hospital.
Tuesday 5 – 5:45pm: Head out to pick up Santi from daycare and back to the hospital. We had dinner at the hospital.
Tuesday 8:30pm: Took all 3 kids home to put them in bed and once asleep, I went back to the hospital.
Rinse and repeat.
Phew…. That was ONE CRAZY DAY! But those are the sacrifices we needed to make for our kids to make sure their lives were “normal”. I would do it again if I had to (oh wow.. just jinxed myself… just kidding, we took care of that AND I probably will go double whammy and go in for my vasectomy too).
Besides all the crazy things we had to go through, the kiddos LOVED their new baby brothers. They wanted to see them at all times, they wanted to hold them, feed them and kiss them. Santi (our 2 year old) was the only one that was uneasy around them… as if they were too little and he was afraid of breaking them. Emilio and Alejandro couldn’t be loved any more by their sister and brothers. And now that it has been 2 weeks, I can honestly say no one has felt “displaced” or not loved. Heck, we do try hard and make a conscious effort so that everyone feels “special”- as parents each of the kids holds a special place in our hearts.
I am so proud of my Nati, Nico and Santi and so appreciative of how welcoming and loving they’ve been to Emi and Ale. It makes me smile to think about all the love they share and all the amazing memories they will build together. We are so excited about our adventure. It has only been 2 weeks and I would not change a single second.
We are seriously Happy Number 7. 🙂