Subject: Can we cope with twins- no spin answers sought
From: BillyO
Date: Mon, Aug 25, 2003 4:31 PM
Message-id:

Hello everyone,

We're expecting identical twin boys very early in the new year, they
will be our first. At my workplace and my spouse's there has been a
flash flood of new mummies and daddies. When they hear we're having
twins the boilerplate reponse is "I hope you have *LOTS* of help,
you're going to need it". Perhaps this is because the default
assumption is both parents will be working, even if it's part-time. In
our case we decided to have my wife quit her job. As for help, my
family is in Europe and my wife's is not exactly local. At a minimum I
had planned to take a month off work after the birth so we can be
together. Can we cope or will we absolutely need help?

TIA for your wisdom.

We had help for about 6 weeks. Dh took 2 weeks off and we had 4 family members
fly out in succession for about a week each. This worked out well for us. I
had a c-section, so help that first week it was essential. After that, the
girls started to get colicy so we really did need the help for those next few
weeks too. After that we were on our own. Dh was back at work full time. It
would have been nice to have family nearby to help but we got by ok.

If you have kids with an easy temperaments you can probably get by with less
help. It will also depend on you --- how little sleep can you get by on, how
often do you need to get out, how much experience you've had with young babies,
etc. There are so many variables. What worked for us might not work for you.
But I found that having that help the first 6 weeks got us through the hardest
period.

Good Luck!

Lori