Fun with the twins

I am having a blast. I am spending a stretch of days with my dear old friend Julie- you may remember her from previous posts. She is the one who recently had the twins for whom my mom and I made the blankets. The twins, Forest and Lily, are now a month old, and I am here with them helping with the daily grind for a few days. The babies, having lost a bit of weight after birth, need feeding every 3 hours or less. Feeding both of them usually takes an hour minimum and sometimes up to an hour and a half or more. That leaves Julie an hour and a half to eat, sleep, bathe, return phone calls, use the bathroom, or do anything else. I am helping wherever I can. Julie prefers to nurse them separately, so she can dedicate all of her attention to each one, as they are still working on learning how to do an excellent latch. However, sometimes they both get viciously hungry at the same time. In those circumstances, the tandem football hold is employed, but assistance is needed- stimulating the baby to keep from falling asleep and such. I also have been doing a lot of diaper changing, swaddling, dancing, singing, rocking, finger pacifying, and joking around. The schedule is quite tiring, but I am truthfully having a blast. It is such a lovely way to spend time with Julie. We have had some really wacky and funny moments at 3 in the morning, when one of us, delirious with fatigue, makes a ludicrous comment and we both nearly fall over busting up. It is really, really funny to see Julie laughing her head off with a baby on each boob, everyone shaking up and down with laughter. Some very creative lullabies are being crafted during these wee hours- by everyone. Jeremy, the husband and dad, is fun also, although, we are alternating helping and sleeping, and have not had quite as much hang out time as we usually do (or did before the babies).
Also, may I mention how much I absolutely love Forest and Lily. I don't know if it is normal to love someone else's kids so much, but considering Julie and I are "blood sisters" (achieved with co-mingling our blood with a finger prick sometime in our teens), the kids are practically blood to me too. When I look at and hold each one, my sentiment is 100% love- even when they are screaming their brains out and peeing all over me. It's very cool. I repeat, it's very cool.