The Sleepover

The NICU decided it might be a good idea to have a little "practice run" with the girls before we took them all home at the same time. We joked that it was probably more like a test to see if we were really capable. And that's not a bad idea because we definitely didn't feel capable! We didn't even get a chance to sleep until after 4:30am and even then only slept an hour. But we needed this experience to freak out there before we were home & scared. We roomed in with the girls for one of the roughest, most eye opening 24 hours of our life. Did I mention it was also one of the longest waited for nights of our lives as well?

We did this 24 times:

( 8 feedings x 3 babies = 24)

Right in the middle of the chaos


One of the more precious moments...

This was one of our favorite parts...when all 3 were asleep at the same time haha... I'm not kidding. I literally looked at Erik, took a big sigh and said "now this is heaven" haha.

The first night was hard enough that I broke down into tears. I did. But ya know what? That was it...my one moment of breakdown and the nurses said I'd probably cry a few times my first week and I haven't. I just had one weak moment and I've grabbed the bull by the horns and decided to find ways to patch up the rough spots, learn from mistakes and make this work.

Things We Learned:

In order to get ANY sleep, we have to feed at least 2 at a time and feed the 3rd immediately after.

We have to do our best to keep our feedings under an hour ( not always easy with sleepy babies)

We must make sure our night time feedings are the fastest so we can get back to sleep as well as keep it nice and dark and quiet so the girls start learning that it's nighttime/sleeptime instead of play time

We must go to bed after their 9pm/10pmish feeding so that we can get in a couple extra hours of snooze.

Payten is usually our safest bet to leave to last when in doubt because she's so calm-she'll sit and wait for 15 minutes without crying. Such a good baby!

Never nurse in the middle of the night. Ever. Bad bad bad. They don't enjoy tandem and they each take at least 30 min to eat. There's no way to sleep at night if I nurse at night. So with a snap, it's gone!

I have to mix all of the bottles for the following day in one giant batch the night before so things are ready to go right away to save time. By the time we're done changing diapers the milk is warm and we're "go".

We had a TON of amazing nurses. Although I like to refer to them as the girls' friends. Cuz that's what they are! I'll talk more about them later, but we did have one nurse that caught me during a moment of weakness after our 24 hour stay. She happened to be a twin mom herself yrs ago and she got real with me.

She told me I'd cry...which I was choking back tears as she said this & trying not to talk so she wouldn't see. She told me we were going to figure it out, we were. She told me we're going to get through it. She told me that I need to clear my head of any cares in the world, surround myself on my living room floor with my babies, everything I need, my favorite movies/tv show, and a favorite drink within reach. This was the haven I needed to picture myself in and it's exactly what I needed. To be able to picture it in my mind and see it fitting and working. Once I saw that in my mind I knew I could do this and get in a calm, relaxed zone.

Erik and I both looked at each other after it was over and laughed...agreeing it was one of the hardest nights we've ever experienced. We were nervous driving back the next day to pick them up, realizing this was it. But now they are home, we've made it through several nights...and we're more than ok. We've had amazing family to stop by and make some of it easier as well. We're so beyond lucky and I can learn to handle sleepless nights, dirty dishes, dusty furniture and ponytail hairdays. Because of them.