2 months old (or 2.5 as I am writing this) and we are slowly but surely making our way out of the newborn stage! I know I should be savoring every moment, and I am trying my best to, but the newborn stage is hard enough with one baby let alone two. I wanted to do these updates as a way to look back on some specifics for each age. With three kids, it’s hard to keep track of everything!
Overall, these two are growing and developing so well! At 2 months old, Mirai weighed 4.8kg and Taishi weighed 5.35kg. He is definitely bigger than her and growing faster considering they were only 100g different at birth. Since they were born at 37+2, some aspects of their development are just slightly behind standard but right now their personalities are starting to show through now! Mirai tends to be more sensitive to noises and is generally very alert and interested in her surroundings, which tends to affect her sleep. Taishi is a bit more calm and goes with the flow of things. He sleeps easily (as long as he has his pacifier) which is a blessing for me! Even though he tends to be more laid back than his sister, I do see him getting startled quicker by loud noises or a change of temperature such as when getting out of the bathtub or a cold diaper wipe.
Sleep
The all important baby topic and something I can’t say I have much advice on. Getting two babies to sleep at one time is TOUGH! You would think that twins would easily fall into the same schedule, and in many cases that is true particularly if they spent time in the NICU or are identical. But my twins are more often than not on opposite schedules it seems! Since Taishi falls asleep so quickly and Mirai takes more time nursing and rocking, he often wakes up just as I get her to sleep (and repeat all day long). I would say the daytime sleep part has been the most challenging with them. I often spend all day putting one or both to sleep and don’t get much time to even cook dinner let alone have time for myself. I am hoping as they get older they will be more in sync.
Right now to get them to sleep I use two different techniques. Taishi usually nurses when he wakes up from his previous nap and doesn’t need to nurse again before the next one although I usually offer. I zip him in his swaddle and give him the pacifier in his Dock A Tot and he usually falls asleep quickly without much help from me. A true dream come true! However, I don’t get to enjoy it much because Mirai needs to be nursed and rocked and nursed and rocked before she finally goes to sleep. Taishi can take all his naps in the bed during the day but Mirai usually only manages one or two. The others happen in the carrier or stroller. There general schedule looks like this:
8AM – Wake up for the day (although this can change depending on when they went to sleep the night before). Nurse and diaper change.
9AM-10AM – Nap 1. Nurse and diaper change upon waking.
11AM-12PM – Nap 2, usually in the stroller on a walk. Nurse and diaper change when we get home.
1PM-3PM – Nap 3 at home in their bed. I work for this nap to be longer but it doesn’t always work out, maybe 2-3 days a week they nap for over an hour at the same time these days. Nurse and diaper change upon waking.
4-5PM – Nap 4, usually Mirai is in the carrier while I cook dinner and Taishi in the bouncer.
6:30PM – Bedtime. Taishi falls asleep quickly but Mirai will finally sleep sometime between 6:30-8:30PM
This is a very rough schedule that often changes by the day, but when it happens it’s glorious! During the night, both of them usually wake up 2-3 times for a feed. I usually do a dream feed around 10:30-11PM when I go to sleep and they will then feed around 3AM and 5AM before getting up between 7 and 8AM. When one wakes I usually feed the other one afterward as well unless it’s after 5AM, then I just let them sleep. Otherwise I would be up much more! I’ve noticed in the last month or so they are sleeping much longer stretches and I am hoping it continues at least until the four month sleep regression!
Breastfeeding
Mirai and Taishi are exclusively breastfed and I’ve been very lucky to not have any issues so far. I think there are several contributing factors to why it has gone so well, but mostly it comes down to 1) that I am an experienced breastfeeding mom and feel confident nursing on demand and 2) that we were never separated for more than a few hours in the hospital, no NICU etc. I actually feel that nursing is one of the easier parts of being a twin mom!
Taishi was slow to gain weight in the beginning but we worked on his latch and now he is a very efficient nurser. He more frequently nurses on my high producing side than Mirai, but overall he nurses less often during the day than she does. I think he nurses about 8-9 times in 24 hours where as she nurses about 12 times on my lower producing side. They both seem to prefer the flow of those respective sides so I could see them continuing to nurse on their “assigned boobs” in the future as well. I didn’t think that would happen, especially since I was switching them every feed in the beginning but it just turned out that way since I nurse Mirai to sleep and if she gets too much milk or air in her tummy she tends to projectile vomit everywhere. Not fun! Therefore the slower flow of left boob is a better fit for her I think!
Developments
In the last couple of weeks I have really noticed these two becoming more alert and interacting with us. It’s an incredible feeling to see your little baby smiling and cooing at you when they wake up in the morning! Taishi has even started to laugh a little bit which is the cutest thing. They are able to hang out and be entertained for 10-15 minutes or so between feeds and sleep time so that gives me a little time to make a snack or go to the bathroom without a baby crying in my house. Such a relief! They also track your movements as you walk by them now. They love to watch their big brother playing and I hope he will only get more and more entertaining as time goes on!
I think that’s about it for two months! I will hopefully be able to keep on top of these as time goes on. Thanks for reading!
My Motherhood Tokyo 