Schauerhamer Family Update

I am barely able to keep updated on the twins' life and growth and pictures, I haven't been able to do a post just on life.

The twins are both napping right now, their long nap. It's rare I get them both down at the same time and they both decide to take their long nap at the same time. So, however long they continue napping is how thorough this post will be.

I'm so madly in love with these babies. I seriously fall more in love with them every day. I'm addicted to them. By the end of their long nap, I miss them and just want them in my arms. I don't even mind the 3am feeding, because by then I miss them. 

It started out pretty rocky. Well, lets be honest - this whole baby thing started out rocky. Finding out we were pregnant after just 6 months of being married was devastating to me. Then to find out it was twins. And the pregnancy was so rough, we moved two times, I was on bedrest, got preeclampsia, was so sick and in chronic pain. Then the whole NICU experience... all while Trevor was coaching football.

Looking back I seriously don't know how we did it.

My mom stayed till they were 2 months old, which we could not have done any of this without her. She'd watch Savannah at home when she came home, so I could spend time with Oliver. She left pretty soon after Oliver finally decided to come home from the NICU. And then I was on my own.

I am going to toot my own horn just a little bit, because I seriously feel like a bad A! I was basically a single mom with newborn twins in the beginning, and I MADE IT! I do not know how single moms of twins survive. I really don't. 

I'd have the twins alone all night (with them waking every 2-3 hours) and then all day while Trev was at work. Then all evening alone while he was at football. He'd come home and help out a couple of hours and then went to bed and I'd do the whole night and day alone again. He'd have late practice once a week, which meant I got no help from him. Then on Friday nights - game nights, he wouldn't come home till about 1-2am.

The twins were so needy and not sleeping back then, and we had no semblance of a routine. And I did it all alone once my mom left. I had no help, except for some amazing friends who visited and Trev's grandma would come up about once a week and bring lunch and hold babies. That was so helpful. If Trev hadn't been in football it wouldn't have been so bad, but with him being gone all the time it was so hard. Plus it's winter so we couldn't really go out, only have one car and it gets dark so early it's depressing.

But, WE MADE IT!

I'm not going to lie - in those early days I didn't enjoy being a mom much and especially didn't enjoy being a twin mom. I resented having two babies so much. I felt like I had been robbed of being a first time mom. I'd always dreamed of being a mom and cuddling my new baby and just soaking in the experience. But with two... there is no time to just enjoy cuddling your new baby. You're moving 24/7, trying to triage one baby to get to the other. I felt like I was just rushing through one baby to help the other (who was, of course, screaming) and trying to fit in pumping every 2 hours so I could feed them...

These days though, I can't imagine having one baby. It's so fun with two. It's a ton of work - but I don't know any differently. I see moms out holding one baby and I wonder where her other baby is... or commercials with one baby, I'll wonder where the babies twin is... haha. 

At 4.5 months, things have gotten manageable. I'd say at about 3 months it started to get manageable, and every week gets a little better and SO MUCH MORE FUN!

Savannah smiles all day long. She smiles when I pick her up in the morning and from naps. It never stops being the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Oliver is starting to smile more, and holy cow does it melt my heart. He's such a mama's boy - and that is so dang cute I don't even know how to put into words. 

They're sleeping better at night, which means I'm sleeping better. It's so much more manageable during the day when I've had more than two hours of sleep a night.

Trev and I love being parents. He is such a good dad. He loves his babies so much. He teases them constantly and thinks it is hilarious. 

We can't wait for them to get bigger and actually enjoy us playing with them. Right now more than anything they think we are annoying. 

I can't stop kissing them. I swear I get sore lips from mugging on them all day long.

They are getting so much more animated and move so much more. And their smiles make it all worth it.

I couldn't ask for a better husband than Trevor. He's so amazing to me, and such a good dad. We are seriously so happy and so in love with our little family. We're exhausted, but happy. And grateful. Grateful that we get to be Savannah and Oliver's parents, grateful we have them here safe and sound, after such a terrible and scary pregnancy.

That about captures things I guess. I have so many pictures I need to upload, but for now at least I managed to get this much written! And the twins slept the whole time! 

Love,

Brittney