Raising my babies while they raise me

But on the 26th May 2010, while everyone was getting ready for the World Cup in South Africa, I gave birth to my beautiful Hannah. Liam was 15 months old, still in diapers, still drinking a bottle, still sleeping in a cot – and here we were with another baby. But she too was absolutely perfect. I always say it was more difficult than having twins. Twins are at least on the same sort of schedule; their routines are similar and they are involved in the same milestones, same diets, enjoy playing with the same toys – all at more or less the same time. Having two small babies a few months apart is more difficult because they can’t really do anything together. Bathing, feeding, sleeping, playing – EVERYTHING was topsy turvy because their needs for all these activities were different! We basically had a child each; when I was bathing Liam in the big bath, Hannah was getting bathed by Dad in her compactum bath. While Liam was being fed dinner by Dad, I was breast or bottle feeding Hannah. While Hannah took her naps, Liam was awake and vice versa. It was a whirlwind six months, until we were able to start regulating their routines. As soon as Hannah could sit, we put her in the big bath and bath time was one event for both babies. As soon as she was on solids, we all sat down at the same time to eat and feed. Our saving grace was that she was a good sleeper so regulating their nap and bed times was easy once she was past the new born stage. I moved them both into their own rooms at three months old, in order to create some sort of space in the house (our room) which was still just ours. Where we could still just be Robyn and Byron and not Liam and Hannah’s parents, somewhere which was still only ours; where we could be alone together without tramping on a squeezy toy, once the kids were asleep. I got a good nanny and fast! We enrolled Liam into nursery school and we had to move into a slightly bigger place to accommodate our growing family. Everyone used to tell me how awesome it was that they were born so close together and how it would all be worth it in a few years when they were able to entertain and look after each other. I must be honest, that first year of Hannah’s life was the most difficult. There were times when I wanted to run away and leave them all behind, where I wanted to stay at work rather than go home.