Bringing your newborn home is a beautiful experience. A beautiful experience that’s also filled with a bit (or a lot) of anxiety. Especially if you have a toddler and need to learn how to juggle both their needs as well as your newborns. We sat down with Heather Fujikawa, who recently brought home her two twin boys, to see how she’s been adjusting to life as her family grows.
Read on to hear about her experience and a few tips she has to share!
From Heather:
“Recently I had twin baby boys, it has been a time that has had our hearts and hands so full! After my husband and I waited six years to get pregnant we suddenly found ourselves with three kids ages two and under. We feel so blessed, but during this transition of having two newborns with a two-year-old, we have come across some challenges in our house to have our toddler feel included and that he still has his own space in this new phase of our life where so much has changed around him as well as to create a functional place for the twins.
Last month I felt overwhelmed as I was tandem breastfeeding my newborns and watching my busy two-year-old all at the same time. My two year old wanted to be in the rocking chair with the twins and I or at my feet when I was feeding the twins. I quickly realized that I needed to make our feeding corner a family friendly space where he had a special place of his own during feeding time, a place he knew was his.
I found the Anywhere chair and loved that he could trace the monogrammed letters with his tiny fingers and that it is just his size. He gets so excited when I say, “It’s time to go feed your twin brothers, go to your chair!”. He runs, jumps and dives into the chair that is parked right next to my rocking chair and everyone suddenly has their place. It seems small but this change has made such a difference multiple times a day when I’m feeding the twins around the clock.
Something I love about toddlers is that they follow your every footstep! This morning our toddler was following his Dad everywhere he went from wanting to shave alongside him in the bathroom to being at his feet at the garage door to try to hop in his car to go to work. Next up it was following me into the kitchen and wanting to be involved with doing the dishes or preparing the food. Since I am so strapped for time right now with the newborns and can barely put meals together as is, it is hard to always include him on every step of my activities in the kitchen but I was so happy when I found a way to still have him work alongside me by placing a kitchen just his size in our kitchen.
It has given him so much excitement to fry a pretend egg alongside me, just at his own height. I love to look over and see him say “Hmmm….let’s see” as he looks in his own pantry door to assess what food items he is going to use. The kitchen has brought so much joy to him and to our family to watch him role play and to see his wheels turning in his head with being in charge of his very own space.
Another problem area I anticipated before the twins were born was how to cart them around from room to room in our home so that we could have them with us wherever we were with our toddler. It took my husband and I six years and infertility treatments to get pregnant with our toddler and we also did infertility treatments to get pregnant with our twins.
For me, infertility has made me more of an anxious mama, especially in the newborn phase where I just want to see them all the time and make sure they are okay. It was such a struggle to get them all here that my heart just wants to be next to them all the time. Comic example: I’m currently writing this post on the floor next to their bassinets so I can hear them breathe while they sleep. The PBK bassinets have made it so functional and easy for me to roll them right next to the side of my bed where they literally touch my duvet cover to wheeling them to our family room where we all sit and play together to carrying the top part of the bassinet outside so I can teach my toddler how to use his new t-ball stand while having the babies nearby.
I’m so grateful for little sensible and beautiful details and products that really make the slow newborn days go by much sweeter and with more function!”
Styling: Heather Fujikawa
Photography: Whitney Lauren Photography
