Turns out there's a lady in her complex* who's also expecting twins (boy/ girl) soon and she wants to make her one.
First of all, I said, "don't bother doing a nice one - you go through them so fast and with everybody writing in the same book, it's a mess anyway" (do you have ANY idea how far I've come with my natural perfectionistic tendencies around that notebook?!) and then I got to asking her more about her friend.
She's 23................
Well, do you know what I said, "shame! poor thing"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and then I caught myself and added, "it's VERY young to be coping with twins". LOL
I told Nanny Viola the story when I got home and she was HORRIFIED :) (she loves these babies and doesn't think a single bad thing about them - when I say "so-and-so's being very naughty", she'll say, "oh, he's just hungry" or "she's just frustrated" - too cute!)
today, around 1:30 (yes, we were late!)
We went to our friends for lunch today - thank goodness because we were CRAVING warm food (and I was also dying for a mug of tea)...more on that later
So we met the pregnant girl who was just delightful.
She told me she's planning to work until 35 weeks (currently 31 weeks) and when she saw my face, asked when I stopped work. I told her that I'd planned to stop at 32 weeks and the babies came early when my waters broke.
She did tell me her gynae also said to stop working at 32 weeks...but the age old thing, she's trying to have as much maternity leave with the babies as possible.
I tried hard not to scare her but instead to keep it honest and real. She said that she really appreciated it because she doesn't know anyone with twins and everyone is being so laidback about it. Everyone being parents of singletons. I think it's the twin romance thing.
I gave her my business card and told me to email me ANYTIME because sometimes you just need to talk to a fellow twin mom :)
It's always interesting to see people's reactions to my babies because C is so much bigger than K. But you know what she said? How lovely that he's such a nice big brother to his sister. Sweet!
coming home
Two other things
Complexes
The number 1 problem in Johannesburg is violent crime. Unfortunate but true. So that's why D harped on about electric fencing at the new house. Security companies make a fortune here selling all sorts of things - armed response, electric fencing, motion detectors, panic buttons, etc, etc. - all to help us feel safer.
As a result, some people (I'm not one of them as I have access to lots of crime stats from my work and the truth is that people are subjected to crime all over Jhb, sometimes more so in the higher income areas) feel that living in a townhouse complex * is the best thing to do as security is generally tighter (there are a lot more security guards, people can only gain access using their remote control, etc, etc).
Power failures
Oh my word! Yesterday (Good Friday) our power was out from 12 midnight to 9:30 am - I didn't think it was too bad since I generally prepare bottles until 10 am the following day for precisely this reason and I gave the babies fruit and yoghurt for breakfast.
But today? 8:15 it all shuts off and I couldn't even get through on the phone to City Power to find out when it would be restored. I had to ration the poor babies and fed them everything in the house I could find (Purity teething biscuits, apples, bread with cottage cheese, fruit and yoghurt), all to avoid foods that needed heating. Fortunately I'd also made the 2pm bottles.
I could only have muesli and yoghurt for breakfast, no hot cup of tea, so I could not WAIT to get to our friends' place for some hot food and to make my dessert. The food didn't disappoint and I had TWO cups of tea, just in case :)
So tonight I really hope we won't have a power outage again. I am DONE with "camping" but just in case, I've prepared bottles for the whole day tomorrow, until midnight! And the minute I press publish post, I'll be boiling the kettle and filling my thermos flask :)
Top Mommy Blogger?
My mom had TRIPLETS at 25. And I made it working until 35 weeks and demanded I go on bed rest (could have kept working until I had them scheduled at 37 weeks) so I would have time to work on the nursery (bed rest at my company doesn't count against maternity leave). There are tons of moms who go to 38 weeks so hopefully she'll be a lucky one (and I was working crazy hours before I went on leave) but you are right that you should be mentally prepared to go earlier. I knew by 34 weeks that I wasn't going to go early. My mom always says that it was easier at 25 than I have it in my 30s (mumble, mumble, birthday coming up). She said she had more eneregy, patience and "didn't know any differently". Maybe that will be reassuring for your friend? My mom didn't even keep a notebook (our nanny keeps dailies for us). Can you imagine? Heee!
ReplyDeleteWhen we first moved to our new house we had power outages a lot. Drove me crazy. Thankfully that doesn't happen that much anymore.
ReplyDeleteIt's great that you're sharing your twin mom knowledge. I always say what helps me the most is that there are three other twin moms on my floor at work. We compare notes all the time. They help me out more than they know.
No wonder you were craving warm food...power outages are the worst!
ReplyDeleteWhat is The Notebook? I'm just wondering if it's like a "baby book" in the states. And how in the world did you have time to keep up with it? My blog is my baby book!