I'm not sure what i've just gotten myself into, but i'll explain.
Good friends of ours had their baby girls, Gabrielle and Brianna, 4 weeks before i had my son on the 19-07-05. Brianna has recently gone back into hospital with meningitis, and will be in there for at least another 2 weeks. Her dad lives in this town, and the hospital where she is is an hour away. Their 4 year old and Gabrielle are staying with familyin the same town as the hospital. I offered to look after their DS during the day, so he sould stay with dad at night, and their dad said he didn't want them separated...so i offered to look after Gabrielle for a few days as well....WHAT HAVE I DONE?? I will have my 5 week old son, their 9 week old daughter and their 4 year old son!! HELP!!

Ohhh - Sarah! I cant offer any advice accept wanted to say that you are a great friend and I am sure that you will be fine with them. Your friends will be so appreciative of your thoughtful gesture and no matter how stressful it will be the smile of appreciation will make that all worth while.
We will be here for you to vent to during this time *LOL* - You can only deal with one thing at a time and try to stay focused on that fact. Deal with the most serious cry/scream first.

Your kindness and generosity will hopefully help this special twin family spend more time with their sick little baby girl. hugs to them and a medal for you....

Our Precious twins Born on the 21st March 2005

Thanks hayfilfy,
I know its important for Gabrielle and Declan to be around their dad, so i dont mind a couple of days of madness, i'm just worried that the two babies will be out-of sync, i demand feed my son, so he feeds every three hours or so....and Gabrielle feeds every 3-4 hours, so i reckon i'm gonna end up feeding all day for three days!! Plus she's unsettled because of being separated from Brianna! Oh well- it will be worth it for the kids!!
Any tips would be greatly appreciated though!

Lucky them, having friends like you!

If it's only for a few days, surely it wouldn't be a problem if their bub was fed after yours woke up? (I know lots of twin mums feed the bub who wakes up hungry, and wake up the sleeping one to save feeding nonstop!)

I'm sure your friends wouldn't mind- just decrease the volume per feed to make it the same overall amount over the day.

Good luck!

What a great friend you are! I thought that after your last post about presents actually.

Not sure how it would go with a 4 week age gap, but I would try and have the bubs eating and sleeping at the same time as much as possible. So as Christie suggested, feed hungry bub and then wake the other. I would make sure you have a rocker on hand in case you have 2 screaming bubs at once - feed one and bounce the other with your foot. Not sure how you could b/f yours (sorry I'm assuming that) and bottle feed Gabrielle at the same time but there might be someone here who has tried it.

The 4 year old will probably be very helpful too - he could help by bouncing (gently!) one baby in the rocker or something and might like to feel like the helpful big brother. Another bonus if you can get the bubs sleeping at the same time is that you could spend a bit of alone time with him. He's probably missing that a bit at the moment poor lamb.

Good luck, I just wanted to say again what a great friend you are - there should be more like you.

Nicolie
DDs Paige & Hannah (23/09/03)

Thanks for your replies,

ChristieEm, I was wondering about waking Gabrielle up after I've fed Jai- saves me feeding ALL day! lol

nicolie- yes i am b/f my son, so i think it would be esier to wake gabrielle after i have finished feeding him, he usually has quite a long 'calm alert' stage after a feed, so i'm not too stresed about two screamers! Yeah, I'd really like to spend some time with Declan, he's such a lovely little boy, and LOVES his new sisters!

Thanks again! Sarah

double post- sorry

This message was edited by sarah_jane on Friday, 26 August 2005 @ 10:24 AM

Sarah - I would say the same as Christie. I breast fed Hayden and Bottle fed Brooklen and that was not an easy thing to do LOL. I would wake her once you are either half way through Jai's feed (before swapping sides) and get her to a good awake stage and then fed her.
You are going to be mega tired and possibly feel like all you are doing is feeding, and feeding but keep your chin up.
When does this begin? Or has it already?
Pat yourself on the back you are a great friend!!

Born 21st March 2005

Hi there-

Thanks for the tip (waking during feed)No, it's not happening at the moment, it will be the week after the one coming, i just want to be ready!!

Sarah

Sarah, you are a wonderful friend.

I would like to know how the little girl is? I hope she will be okay because we all know how serious menigitis is.

What a stressful time for all of you.

Hi Ava,
The girls were born 3 weeks early on the 16th of June. So they are 10 weeks and 2 days today. She got sick the day after their immunisations, and got sent home by a doctor and the hospital TWICE before simone went and saw the paediatrician who rushed them to hospital.....gives little faith to our local doctors and hospital! It's type B memingitis, and she is on antibiotics via drip for another 2 weeks Luckily the doctors think there is very little chance of any brain damage or permanent effects, but things would have been a whole lot worse if she was kept home even 1 day longer! thankyou for your concern.