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19th January 2006. It is my husband Olaf's birthday and our babies, Ryan and Joshua have been at home from the NICU for two days. My mother is working, my father has passed away. Olaf's parents are in Germany. We are managing our twin sons by ourselves on four hourly feedings.

At this time, they were fed at 6 am, 10 am, 2 pm, 6 pm, 10 pm, and 2 am. The babies were kept in separate moses baskets in our room during the night, and in separate moses baskets in a bright living room during the day with music in the background. We felt they missed all the sounds of the NICU and felt comforted by hearing some noise. After 5 pm, we would bring them to our bedroom, minimize the lighting, and bathe them in our ensuite where a baby bath was set up, one at a time. This routine helped the babies to learn the difference between day and night.

I read several books written by Gina Ford (http://www.contentedbaby.com ) and Tracy Hogg (http://www.ehow.com/how_2318214_apply-baby-whisperers-sleep-method.html)

I took ideas from both Gina and Tracy. At this stage, of when the babies were 5 weeks old, born 8 weeks early, so corrrected age being 3 weeks, I liked the E.A.S.Y routine recommeneded by Tracy Hogg. E.A.S.Y stands for Eat, Activity, Sleep, You. This means, feed the baby, let the baby play, then nap, during which time, I could get some rest. If one of my babies cried, I patted them on their back, saying 'Shh, shh, shh' which gave the messege to the baby that I am there if he really needed me, but he had to learn to get himslef to sleep on his own. It was very hard to stick to this routine when the babies cried in between feeds, but since I kept a spreadsheet of all their feeds, I knew they were not crying out of hunger.

We also used dummies (soothers) in between feeds if they cried.

As first time parents, we were not convinced we were doing the right thing as while Joshua, the bigger twin seems to empty his bottles within half an hour, Ryan, the smaller twin took sometimes up to an hour to get 60-70 ml down him. I worried whether I should increase his feedindgs. My mother called to say, she has never heard about four hourly feedings and her friends recommend I feed every three hours as my babies were so small. I call my cousin Dr June Abay, Consultant in Paediatrics at Southampton General and ask her advice. She reassured me that I am doing the right thing and even if I was to increase Ryan's feeds, he will not be able to drink any more than he does.

I also worry about the babies not being hooked to machines any more telling me they are breathing. I am afraid to shut my eyes, and fall asleep out of exhaustion in between feeds when Olaf stays up watching the babies. I was lucky that Olaf was at home for 2 weeks when the babies came home from the NICU.

We make 8 bottles of formula in the morning, and keep them in the fridge. When it comes close to feeding time, we take two out and warm it in a bottle warmer to get it to room temperature and feed the babies. We keep a bottle warmer in a living room as well as one in our bed room. We did not want to prop the babies up and feed at the same time, as they could not hold their heads up and had reflux. We fed one baby at a time. So, in between feeds, bottles were washed, sterlised, laundry done and food was cooked for us by me. Nappies (diapers) were changed before each feeding. If the baby was sleeping at the set feeding time, changing the nappy woke them up.

Following Gina Ford, we started bathing the babies daily at exactly the same time - 5.30 pm before the 6 pm feed. We had a baby bath set up ion our en-suite and bathed one baby at a time, massaged with baby oil and then given the feed at 6 pm.

Here are some pictures taken.

This is the living room on the 1st floor where the babies were kept during the day in their moses baskets.

 Ryan and Joshua sleeping in their moses baskets during the day in the living room.

Olaf with Ryan and Joshua

Exhausted Mommy - Olaf has taken this picture while I was sleeping.

Bathing in the baby bath set up in our en-suite.

Olaf is about to go back to work and I am to manage the twins by myself. Did I hire a Nanny at this point? How did I manage? To date, Olaf and I have shared thefeedings, and everything related to the babies together. Find out next what happened when Olaf went back to work!