Day in the Life: 10 Months

 Twin Talk's "Day in the Life" series continues with Erin and her 10-month-old twin girls!

Hi y’all, my name is Erin Kellogg. My husband and I are high school sweethearts and dated for five years before getting married in 2011. We weren’t necessarily trying to get pregnant but we also weren’t not trying if you catch my drift. We found out I was pregnant at five weeks on March 6th,  2013 and I had my first appointment at nine weeks. It was at this appointment I had an ultrasound and we found out we were expecting twins. Growing up I always knew I wanted to be a wife and mother and I always hoped I would be blessed with twins. So there was that initial shock in the doctor office in which my husband and I could not stop giggling, but once the news settled in I was incredibly excited.

I was blessed with an uneventful pregnancy and had to be induced at 38 weeks because I had mono/di identical twins and my doctor felt it was too dangerous to go past 38 weeks.

Both girls were born vaginally, were healthy, and never had to leave my side. Abigail Lynn was born 10/28/13 at 8:43pm weighing 5lb12oz and Harper Grace was born 10/28/13 at 9:35pm weighing 6lb2oz. My whole world.

Fast forward ten months and that’s where we are today. I am so blessed to have the privilege to be a stay-at-home mama. My husband is a paramedic and works 24hr on and then has 48hr off which means every day is different. Today he works so here’s a day in the life...

2:46am I hear Harper crying in her crib. I pick her up and bring her in our room because that’s where my rocking Lazy boy is and I nurse her.

2:58am She falls asleep and I put her back in crib.

6:17am I hear Harper moving and talking to herself.

6:29am I pick her up so she doesn't wake Abbey. I bring her into our bed and nurse her.

6:55am She almost falls back asleep.

7:00am My husband's alarm goes off so she's wide awake. She's an anti-snuggler so the next 20 minutes are spent trying to snuggle with her and her trying to avoid me at all costs.

7:20am I hear my sweet Abbey.  Her daddy is ready for work so he picks her up and brings her to our bed and then says bye to all three of his girls and leaves for work. I nurse Abbey while trying to baby wrangle Harper from crawling off the side of the bed.

7:36am We sing songs in bed a few of our favorites are: Rise and Shine, You Are My Sunshine, Two Little Monkeys, and This is the Day the Lord has Made.

7:46am Harper spits up on my leg so I decide it's time to go change diapers and play in their room.

7:52am Let the babies play together while I sit on the floor in corner of their room and read my Bible and pray over our day. Sometimes I try to read a book but this is what happens. I get attacked.

8:10am The babies are happily playing so I scroll through Facebook, email, and Instagram.

8:14am I put on Veggietales Pandora radio and have a little dance party with my girls.

8:23am I clean up the girls room and take the babes down stairs to make breakfast. The babies play on the ground while I make breakfast. They love stacking toys right now. And they absolutely love taking things out of cabinets.

8:36am I console my sweet Harper because Abbey bit her. If anyone has tips on how to handle biting ten-month-olds I’d love to hear it.

8:40am Breakfast is ready, babes are having eggs and waffles. I say “don't throw food on ground” and “sit on your booty” approximately 9373726288 times over the course of breakfast.

9:10am I let the babies have their second breakfast off the floor. Don’t worry it's clean. I sweep at least three times a day and I should buy stock in mops.  I clean up the tornado that was 10-month-olds feeding themselves breakfast and start the dishwasher.

9:17am I throw (figuratively, not literally) the babies in stroller for run around the neighborhood. I wait till after nine so I don't have to see all the kids walking to school and because my girls like to play games called "Wake up the entire neighborhood" and "Who can scream the loudest?"

 

9:37am I get home, bring the girls upstairs, change diapers play in their room for a bit, turn out the lights, and turn on the sound machine.

9:53am I put them in their cribs for nap. Up until this week I had always nursed them right before naps.  Since I now occasionally go to bible studies during nap time, it's much easier for others to put them down when they don't have to nurse before nap, especially since they won't take bottles. So this week we decided to start nursing after naps. So they are currently fussing in their cribs still adjusting to the new schedule.

9:57am Harper Grace is asleep Abbey is still rolling around, talking to herself and fussing.

10:02am Abbey is asleep. I generally have about 30 minutes so I decide what wins today: shower, read a book, laundry, or some sort of cleaning. I got semi sweaty on our jog so I decide today's a shower day. Take a quick shower, get dressed and ready for the day, which means putting on deodorant, brushing my teeth, and sometimes brushing my hair.  It's been over three days since I brushed it last so I decide to go for it and brush my hair today. It’s a glamorous life I lead.

10:28am They are still asleep so I decide to clean the fridge. Anyone with a mobile child will understand that this is a task one can only complete while children are sleeping.

10:32am Well I didn't get much of the fridge cleaned because they are both awake and hungry so I pick them up from their cribs and bring them to my bed to tandem nurse them. While I nurse I think about the rest of what I want to get done today. And then check Facebook and Instagram.

10:48am I put them in jumpers so I can dry my hair and throw it in pony tail.

10:55am We go back to their room to get them dressed. I am one of the most indecisive people in the entire world and I am determined not to pass this onto my girls.  You can call me crazy but I already let them make choices. Today I let them choose which headband they wanted to wear. OOTD brought by Target and 5heartstrings headbands.

11:06am We go downstairs and I let the babies play on ground while I pack up the diaper bag because we are about to head to Chick Fila to meet some friends for lunch.

11:19am Wrangle the monkeys into the car.

11:36am We get to Chick Fila. Both my girls have hated car seats since they were born, so at three months I stopped using the car seats you can carry and now this is the way I take them both places. I put one in an ergo and carry one on my hip. I get a lot of funny looks and comments like “wow you have your hands full” but hey, don't we all? If I'm bringing them somewhere with a longer walk I'll bring my Bob stroller but just running errands or going to lunch, this is how I roll. Luckily, my friends are already there and have set up seats so I plop the girls in their high chairs and give them a teething wafer while I go order. I struggle severely from mommy brain and I forgot my wallet so thank goodness for good friends who buy our lunch.

12:00pm I get the girls the 4-piece grilled nuggets and cut them up for them. I also give them the mandarin oranges from my salad. And a pouch. I love the Ella's kitchen brand and the plum organics. Today they had a peach and banana Ella’s Kitchen pouch. And they have their sippy cups of water.

12:30pm Chick Fila, can I get an amen for some Chick Fila.

12:53pm Load up the minions and head home. Praying they stay awake until we get home so I can put them down for a nap later and finish my fridge cleaning duties.

1:12pm Get home and praise the Lord, they stayed awake.  We play on the floor for a bit while I talk to daddy on the phone.

1:38pm The babies favorite time of the day!!! Unloading the dishwasher. It will be awesome when they can actually put them away instead of all over the ground.

1:51pm I have a little snack of trail mix before taking the babies up for naps. Did y’all know that at Whole Foods you can make your own trail mix? The BOMB.

1:57pm We get a delivery. The bike trailer we ordered. And the babies go nuts climbing all over the box.

2:14pm I carry babies upstairs for new diapers, turn out the light and turn on the sound machine.

2:17pm I put the babes in the cribs for nap. I sit for a moment in my lazy boy and put my feet up and read a blog post I've been wanting to read all day.

2:25pm Both babies are sleeping so it’s time to blast some Dierks Bentley and finish cleaning the fridge.

2:45pm The fridge is done. Time to eat a cliff bar. Nursing two babies makes me super hungry, y'all. And then fold some laundry until the minions wake up.

2:51pm They're awake, so I pick them up from their cribs and bring them to my bed to tandem nurse them.

3:06pm I bring the babes downstairs and load them in the car to meet my sister and her kids for some shaved ice. It's key for us to get out of the house at least once a day. The days we are stuck inside all day make all three of us very stir crazy.

3:31pm Shaved ice with no flavor for the babes, and Wedding Cake/Lemon Lime for me.

4:11pm Load 'em up and head home.

4:34pm We get home and Abbey needs a new diaper.  I change her and then I put on the babies favorite show (Jeopardy) while I fold laundry and the babies play on the ground. I’m only joking, they don’t really care about Jeopardy but they don’t care about any TV so I might as well put on what I want to watch and it's educational, right? I’m trying to convince them to like TV - the mornings they wake up way too early I will bring them into our bed and try cartoons but they do not care. I guess that’s a good thing.

5:01pm Laundry is folded so I play with the babies on the ground.

5:12pm The babies are too busy playing that they don't want to play with me. So I decide to dust.

5:22pm I bring the babies in the backyard and put them in their swings with some ice in their mesh feeders.

5:34pm I put the babies down to play on the ground while I get their dinner ready. I always do an easy dinner when my husband is on shift. Tonight’s included organic mixed frozen veggies, antibiotic-free turkey burger left over from last night’s dinner, and homemade pouches (one of butternut squash and one of beets).

5:43pm I strip them down and put them in high chairs with their dinner. I have a snack of carrots and hummus. Dinnertime is a lot of fun. I love watching them learn and explore. They love when we sing songs while they eat.

6:21pm I wipe down the crazy messy girls and high chairs while they eat their second dinner off the ground. They are so silly. They don’t like to eat peas on their tray but when they get them from the ground they love it.

6:26pm I bring the babes upstairs for jammies, turn out the lights and turn on the sound machine. We do baths usually every other night. Also when my husband is home he reads them a bedtime Bible story before bed.

6:41pm I tandem nurse babies and say bedtime prayers.

6:49pm The babies haven't fallen asleep while nursing in a long time, but tonight they did, and since my husband is at work I roll Abbey onto the bed, put Harper in her crib, then come back and carry Abbey to her crib.

6:51pm I lay down on my bed and scroll through Facebook and Instagram for a few minutes.

7:09pm I go downstairs and do the dishes from their dinner, sweep and mop downstairs, heat up my leftovers, and talk to my husband on the phone.

7:43pm Plop myself down on the couch to eat and watch my recorded episodes of The Duggars, Chopped, and HGTV. If my husband was home I would have made dinner and all that.

10:09pm Decide its time to go to bed.  I bring all my folded laundry upstairs, put it away and get ready for bed.

Thank you all for coming along and seeing what a day in my life with ten-month-old twins is like.

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If you have a question for Erin, CLICK HERE to email her!  You can also visit her blog: The Joyful Dwelling.