Greetings!
I hope everyone is doing well. We are getting settled back in our Virginia home and my my, is it a different kind of normal. The grandmas are still here helping us (God bless them!), but they will be departing soon as the au pairs arrive.
As you can imagine, with five kiddos, so many people will look at my insta-family and say, "I don't know how you do it!". I simply smile and say, "Well, someone has to!". I have the blessing and the curse of not having any children before I had five children. So, I don't know what a "normal" nap schedule is like or how to only make one bottle for every feeding. I simply don't have any sense or perspective at this point--and this can be good and bad depending on the scenario.
Since so many people have asked, I thought I show you a bit of the mechanics of what makes a quint household run.
As I said, we feed about every four hours with five bottles at a time, of course. My mom (KK) is our "chemist" and makes the bottles several hours in advance. Three of our kids are on one kind of formula and two are on another. So, KK is mixing two formulas and measuring for each feed. God bless the KK! I'll assume this duty when our moms leave, and the au pairs will be a great help.
We also bought a new car! This is the Nissan NV, also known as "Bubba" as in "Bubba Bus." Bubba comes highly recommended to us from other moms of quads and quints. The seats come out and in easily and at capacity it can hold 12 people. Hopefully this will last us a while!
Feeding five hungry babies simultaneously can be challenging, especially with only two people. With Michael now back at work, we have three women home with the kiddos full time. This in addition, of course, to the amazing volunteers who have been coming out to the house to help hold babies and wash bottles. If you are a volunteer, please accept my sincerest gratitude. I'm definitely living day to day and you guys are such a welcome source of support.
But as I was saying, feeding can be tricky, especially if all of the kids wake up at the same time. Typically four people do the 10:00 pm feed; then, two people will do the 2:00 am feed; and two people do the 6:00 am feed. With the early morning feeds, the two people have to get creative (and quick!). To help in this endeavor, Michael and I purchased two Table for Twos. This product is a life-saver for moms of multiples. I'll write more about this product later.
Other funny photos...a box of pacifiers? You got it!
Collection of Rock N Plays? Check.
Three changing tables? Oh yeah.
Things are chaotic here to say the least. Hope you guys are sleeping more than I am!
I hope everyone is doing well. We are getting settled back in our Virginia home and my my, is it a different kind of normal. The grandmas are still here helping us (God bless them!), but they will be departing soon as the au pairs arrive.
As you can imagine, with five kiddos, so many people will look at my insta-family and say, "I don't know how you do it!". I simply smile and say, "Well, someone has to!". I have the blessing and the curse of not having any children before I had five children. So, I don't know what a "normal" nap schedule is like or how to only make one bottle for every feeding. I simply don't have any sense or perspective at this point--and this can be good and bad depending on the scenario.
Since so many people have asked, I thought I show you a bit of the mechanics of what makes a quint household run.
As I said, we feed about every four hours with five bottles at a time, of course. My mom (KK) is our "chemist" and makes the bottles several hours in advance. Three of our kids are on one kind of formula and two are on another. So, KK is mixing two formulas and measuring for each feed. God bless the KK! I'll assume this duty when our moms leave, and the au pairs will be a great help.
We also bought a new car! This is the Nissan NV, also known as "Bubba" as in "Bubba Bus." Bubba comes highly recommended to us from other moms of quads and quints. The seats come out and in easily and at capacity it can hold 12 people. Hopefully this will last us a while!
Feeding five hungry babies simultaneously can be challenging, especially with only two people. With Michael now back at work, we have three women home with the kiddos full time. This in addition, of course, to the amazing volunteers who have been coming out to the house to help hold babies and wash bottles. If you are a volunteer, please accept my sincerest gratitude. I'm definitely living day to day and you guys are such a welcome source of support.
But as I was saying, feeding can be tricky, especially if all of the kids wake up at the same time. Typically four people do the 10:00 pm feed; then, two people will do the 2:00 am feed; and two people do the 6:00 am feed. With the early morning feeds, the two people have to get creative (and quick!). To help in this endeavor, Michael and I purchased two Table for Twos. This product is a life-saver for moms of multiples. I'll write more about this product later.
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| Clara and Millie model the Table for Two. |
Other funny photos...a box of pacifiers? You got it!
Collection of Rock N Plays? Check.
Three changing tables? Oh yeah.
Things are chaotic here to say the least. Hope you guys are sleeping more than I am!
