Lesson learned

One thing that I've always heard about raising twins is that you have to have a schedule or you will never get any time for yourself.

When the boys were born I never really had a schedule for them. They gave me their eating schedule and I worked around the rest. In March of last year I created a schedule for eating and sleeping and added to it when they began eating solids.

Since the boys have many caretakers when Glenn and I need a break this schedule was a godsend. Over time Glenn began to rely on this schedule and not think about what had to be done. Over the holidays I chucked that schedule out and started using common sense.

One thing I never scheduled was diaper changes....how can you schedule that?!?! As there was no schedule, Glenn has a tendency to "forget" to change the boys diapers when they get up from a nap and only if they stink does he remember.

For 2008 my New Year's resolution is to let Glenn parent the boys his way and to not freak out when it isn't done the way I would like it done. I have slipped on this, but I'm trying.

With that said, I arrived home from work last week at 5:15 as usual. We had dinner and played with the boys and noticed they were a tiny bit cranky. At 7 o’clock we started getting them ready for bed, starting with their bottle. I was sitting with Gavin in my lap and for whatever reason my had brushed his diaper. It felt quite full.

Now normally when I get home I ask Glenn if he remember to change the boys, but I hadn’t asked. So now I did….”When did you last change the boys?”.

“Um….funny enough I just remember 5 minutes ago that I haven’t changed them. I was hoping that you wouldn’t ask.” He replied as he finished feeding Riley his bottle and put him down to run around a bit before they were off to bed.

“Ok, so they haven’t been changed since 3:30?”

“Gavin probably, Riley more like close to 1:30 before his nap”!!!!!

I started to undress Gavin to get his PJ’s on when Riley toddled over to have me remove his clothes as well.

Poor Riley was soaked!! To the point that the diaper was no longer holding any pee and it was seeping up his shirt and down his pants.

I started to laugh and instructed Glenn to change him.

The reason for the crankiness reared it’s head. It seems there wasn’t just pee in there and it had gone UP his back.

I was laughing so hard I was crying as I watched Glenn changing him. At one point poor Riley was hanging in mid air from his feet so that Glenn could minimize the smear on the change pad and wipe his back.

Once the entertainment was over, Glenn looked at me laughing and said, “You know I have to learn how to do everything the hard way!”

Needless to say, they have been changed everyday since and I no longer have to ask.