“I. DON’T. WANNA. SLEEP!” screamed my one month shy of a 4-year-old at the top of his lungs, directly into my face. I’d like to say this was a one-off occurrence brought on by severe overtiredness.
But it wasn’t.
This, along with other unwanted behaviors, had become our new normal. Primarily with the midday nap, but not exclusively.
Full disclosure: This is NOT a post about potty training twins in X number of days because that has not been my experience.
Even after potty training for 2 weeks, I didn’t consider my boys fully potty trained. They used the toilet regularly and didn’t wear diapers during the day, but I was still actively thinking and worrying about accidents.
Potty training twins has been one of the most challenging parts of parenting I’ve done to date. The hard truth is, all of that had to do with me.
Choosing when to wean is a very personal decision. I’m not going to tell you when to do that. However, if you’re considering dropping nursing/bottles, you’re in the right place.
Mama, I have good news. After the newborn stage, combo-feeding gets a bit easier with twins.
By 4 months, you’ve probably mastered tandem nursing and are well into the prop-to-bottle phase. Soon enough, your babes will hold their own bottles while you gaze lovingly at them, sipping your hopefully hot coffee.
Real talk: I spent the first year of my boys’ lives trying to kick formula to the curb. Due to a lack of medical support, proper research on my part, and a pandemic leaving us isolated without hands-on assistance, we fell into supplementing with formula.
At my boys’ four-month check-up, I finally put my foot down and announced I was going to try exclusively breastfeeding.
Spoiler alert: it was an epic failure.
I was always under the impression there were only two ways to feed a baby: exclusively breastfeeding or formula bottle feeding. After getting pregnant, I learned exclusively pumping and bottle feeding breastmilk was also a primary feeding option.
There is also the unique (and exhausting) hybrid of all three. This post is all about combo-feeding twins from birth through three months.