All kinds of weather, we stick together...

When my mom suggested (early in my pregnancy) that Erin come stay to help with the babies after she left , I was like, “no, no, we’ll be fine – I’ve got to be on my own at some point.” Well, mother knows best, and thank God! My amazing sister helped us so much. At that time, I was nursing and feeding supplemental bottles of expressed milk because the babies’ suck wasn’t strong enough to get the hindmilk. The whole feeding process was a little complicated, and I needed help.  Ben and Jack can thank their Aunt Erin for their (adorable) fat rolls! She was originally going to stay just two weeks, but by then the acid reflux had taken over our lives and the boys were resisting feedings. There’s absolutely no way I could’ve handled that on my own. It’s extremely frustrating to try to feed a fussy, hungry baby (let alone two) who will not eat, and without physical and moral support I don’t know what we would have done. So we got to have Erin’s help the first three months. 

Not only is Erin an amazing sister, but she’s fun to hang out with and also understands personal space. In between feedings she would do her own thing so that I could regroup before the next feeding. In other words, I never felt like I was “entertaining,” but could sit quietly and read (my many, many baby books) or nap for half an hour, or whatever. That's important when someone is there for a couple of months! Also, it was like cloning myself - Erin did everything the exact same way as I did, and since she spent just as much time with the boys she knew exactly what to do and when. She was also really good-natured about me switching things up with each book I read and went with the flow. I trust her completely with my baby boys, and she loves them so much you can see it. Seriously, is there anything better than sisters? Maybe brothers - I'll ask Ben & Jack someday :)

 

There was lots of laughter during the day; our favorite thing to do was to narrate for the boys when they were playing – at that time their movements were very jerky and Jack was especially fun to narrate. We sometimes called him the world’s tiniest dictator because his movements and facial expressions were so severe. It was neat to observe their personality quirks and discuss them during the day. There was also reminiscing about our own childhood and talking about the future; fun times with my sister. The best is when she would sing and play her guitar for the boys. They loved it! Erin wrote me a song about pregnancy (called "Belly Swell," and I think it went something to the effect of "OMG that's huge") and the boys a lullaby. :)

Ex: World's tiniest dictator

She says they won’t remember her being here for the first three months of their lives, to which I replied, “but they’ll hear the stories and see the pictures.” I also told her that if she has multiples (I think she’s crossing her fingers for triplets) I will return the favor. I’m banking on her telling me that this experience was pretty good birth control for a while. :)