Workers in the house

When we first received news of our twins, we immediately decided on a full time helper to assist us with the babies. It was a no-brainer that we, as first time parents, and the fact that my husband has erratic working hours - would ever be able to handle the two infants and our house in order.

The babies arrived and the whirlwind started. They wouldn't sleep well at night, the required constant feeding and my sticthes (I had a c-section) were not recovering. So we hailed another assistant and was able to breathe again. This happened two months after our babies were born, so imagine how zombified we were before that. My husband had food poisoning, he also just started a new job so many times it was only me alone taking care of the babies till he arrived at 3am..

One of the many desperate moments I remember was when Riaz could not stop crying, and my husband placed him in his baby cot and let him cry for 30 minutes till he slept from tiredness. I too did the same to Ariz one night when it was just impossible to calm him down. You see, when we had only 1 helper, there was no one to assist us at night, and we underestimated the behavioural of the babies during their pantang days.

The moment the pantang days were over, the babies immediately got into a routine of sleeping at night and then the second helper arrived.

But anyways, when the twins arrived, also did the workers in the house.

My husband and I always uphold the values of treating the people who attend to our children really really well. We didn't create any boundaries between them and us... we get Starbucks, they get Starbucks too. We made sure they are not physically tired at crucial hours, we hire extra help during festive seasons and when we have guests coming over. And they get year end bonusses, during raya. And smartphones. And new clothes, not just hand me downs. And new shoes.

Some are not so into the idea of hiring workers or helpers at home... I have to agree, it is a hefty cost. I don't really agree on the invasion of privacy party because our helpers has very well respected our privacy. It's either that, or we are just non-protocolish kind of people... We just mind our manners and we try to do charity for them as much as we can.

So late last month, one of our helpers left for good after completing her 2 year contract. She's greatly missed by me, because she was my first help and she was super efficient, forward thinking and went above and beyond in making sure that my babies were safe and clean and happy. My babies do not notice her absence, maybe they are too young or because there's still another helper around.

The only tips I can give.. is to treat your workers fairly. However, sometimes you just need the extra luck to get a really good one... and Alhamdulillah, I have been blessed.

We hired another helper to replace Tuty who left, and I'm glad Lutfi is turning to be quite ok. My babies love her, what else can I ask for?

Baby Cots -- yes or no?

When you are pregnant with your FIRST child, you'd want the ideal baby situation where he/she sleeps in the baby cot and you and hubby snooze on the bed. Yes, like that's going to happen.. when baby breastfeed it's much easier to feed on the bed bla.bla.bla.

I beg to differ. It takes a lot of effort and commitment to train your child to feel comfortable and secure in the baby cot, and you have to instill that security the moment baby is born. A lot of 'failures' happen because baby gets clingy during the night, and resorting to mom not placimg baby in the cot at all.

Of course, my situation is entirely different. I had two babies, so one had to be in baby cot and the other with me. There were many restless, sleepless nights which we endured, but eventually baby got the hang of it. Give him/her 6 months.

Babies won't sleep the whole night in the cot, they very much prefer the warmth of their mothers. But it gets very tiring sometimes when you are sleeping with them and you can't move and inch, so I made sure I get some free time on the bed for at least 2-3 hours. The schedule for baby cots which worked for me was:

Birth till 6 months
8pm -10pm : Baby cot, woke up for milk
10pm - 1am : Cuddle, a lot of coaxing
1am - 3am : Cuddle and on/off baby cot, woke up for milk
3am - 5am : Cuddle
5am - 730am : Baby cot
730 am : Ready to hit the day

6 months till about 15 months
8pm -10pm : Baby cot, woke up for milk
10pm - 1am : Baby cot
1am-3am : Milk and cuddle
3am-5am : Baby cot on and off
5am - 8am : Baby cot

15 months till now (23 months)
9pm - 730am : Baby cot (sometimes wakes up for milk once). Most of the time in baby cot, sometimes gets anxious so we would cuddle, but afterwards all ok.

Training has to be participated by ALL parties... including husbands and parents in law (in case they live together). Most babies who are fully breastfeeding have an inclination to feed all night long, this is probably because they are still hungry.

Date nites, if only we get any

We are the busy parents who don't quite do date nights.Here's a pic of me and Papalove at a wedding early this year. We NEVER go out without our babies, as much as we trust our maids on keeping them safe even at night, we don't want to burden them with the overwhelming experience. There will always be another family member around in cases where we HAD to be away at night, like this wedding we went to. It's always one of my sisters who would come and babysit .. the babies and the maids.

I think date nights are good, unless you spend every single moment worrying about your babies (which we will be). I suppose I really don't mind postponing all of our date nights until the babies are much bigger.

Papalove gets a lot of night outs, usually on business meetings or business brainstorm sessions at the local Devi's Corner. I get some occasional nites (probably 1-2 now since kids were born bahahahaah) with her girlfriends. I schedule meet up with friends (very very often) during the day, they also have young babies so it's a mutual understanding. We go out a lot at night, usually in big crowds at fun places, so I don't really feel deprived of the real world, in case some are wondering LOL.

But date nights... we just have to leave it off for a few years from now... ;)

The Outdoors

I'm trying to make my kids love nature as much as possible. They're already showing signs of being outdoorish (banging on doors whenever we went out  as if telling us they want to be released from the house), and their extra happy face when they're let loose free range in the park on on the road.

I took them to the parks at an early age (as early as 2 months old), but the danger with Malaysian parks is that there might be a lot of mosquitoes, so it is not perfectly best for babies.

But they are such typical boys, they appreciate the outdoors much better and it's my hope that they stay that way as much as they can to help them stay active and healthy. Nature is the best teacher anyway. 

Here's pics of hubs taking the babies for a night run.. 

Baby Photoshoots

I'm extremely sentimental.

Due to that, I take photo-taking my babies quite seriously. These shots were taken during their first Raya celebration (in Ramadhan, just before raya) at our favourite photographer's studio. It wasn't easy at all to capture their "moments", it took a few hours of whining, crying, not wanting to cooperate but eventually it's a wrap and everyone went home happy.

My babies school needed me to send them pics of the babies crawling for their open day.. so I browsed through my hard disk and found these shots :)

The photoshoot was all worth it now that I'm looking at these pics and got all sentimental ;P

Kids area, IKEA

Last night hubs and I took our bosses out for a quick drive and a pit stop at IKEA. 

We left the nannies at home for them to relax a bit. Thank God IKEA was having a kids play area set up.. Perfect for my minions to run around and make themselves busy. 

IKEA definitely has brought a lot of fun in our kids life, hasn't it? Imagine Malaysia without it!

My Identical Twin & My Fraternal Twins

That's my twin and me. MY twin I mean, not my TWINS. Hahahahaha.

We were born two minutes apart, by Caesarean Section. We are identical twins, but there are significant differences in our features.

Now that's MY twins. My boys, I mean.

They were born one minute apart, by Caesarean Section too. They are fraternal twins. Yes, they look different entirely!

Baby bags, diaper bags .. and my obsession with Skip Hop

 The Skip Hop Dash which I almost bought. About USD60 if I'm not mistaken.

 The Skip Hop Signature Duo - almost bought this too, except that shipping from the US is too pricey. Oh well. About USD 58 for this I think.

What I finally bought at The Baby Loft, Publika. The Skip Hop Duo, Jonathan Adler edition. About RM200.


MY OBSESSION WITH DIAPER BAGS, TO BE EXACT, THE SKIP HOP BRAND

I don't think I have ever met anyone with an obsession such as mine. Oh well.
Diaper bags are soooo important to me ... it's a tiny matter for others, but it's a significant organizational method for me. It's a symbol that you take your babies essentials seriously.

And you can never go wrong with Skip Hop! It's washable, has a gazilllion pockets (most important criteria for me), and pretty funky too.

I have 3 Skip Hop bags so far, and am very satisfied with all of them.

My bosses

Riaz (in red) and Ariz (in blue).

Doing double

I'd never thought I'd compose a blog (a mommy blog especially) to write about my babies and my life around them... Until I tried searching for some cool Malaysian mommy blog and could not find any. My definition of a cool blog is definitely about tips on coping with baby and most importantly... baby products!

So here's to hoping that this blog would be the ONE to help new moms out there in figuring things out.

There's actually no right or wrong in bringing up baby. In my case, babies. However, there's a natural guideline on the do's and don'ts and the how-to's.... Which is pretty much interesting considering all babies need the same thing but we deliver differently ...!

I'm a first time mom, and miraculously, was given the opportunity to become a mother of twins, after being a twin myself. I don't think I have ever met someone like me... being a twin herslef and delivered twins and now raising them! It's a miracle, but it's true.

Well being a twin will not really prepare you enough to raise one. I needed to deal with the day to day task of being a new mom to newborns... and doing double. Thank God for helpers.

So as much as we believe that practise makes perfect, someone like me who has the utmost practice, would probably do everything at its best. Not quite. Raising babies takes more than just practise. It takes planning, organization and perseverance. And the ability to feel the joy in all this.

And for that, I thank my babies for giving me this opportunity.

Gifts

My gifts from God.
Above all, I just want them to have a happy life.