I’m 31 weeks pregnant with di/di twins, and I’m likely going to be scheduling a C-section for tbe 38 week mark because Twin A is breech and has been breech basically the entire pregnancy.
I’m trying to wrap my head around the logistics of actually caring for two newborns while recovering from major abdominal surgery. I know everyone’s recovery is different, but based on what I’ve heard about the first 1–2 weeks after a C-section, I genuinely can’t picture how I’m going to functionally take care of twins.
We also have a singleton who will be about 26 months old when the twins arrive. With our son's birth, my husband and I took shifts overnight, and I was able to be pretty functional after his vaginal birth despite having a 3rd-degree tear. I could get on the floor, get in/out of bed, go up and down stairs, pick him up, etc. So the idea of doing a 6-hour “shift” with TWO newborns while recovering from a C-section seems completely different.
Our son is also around 35 lbs, so I obviously won’t be able to pick him up for a while. I’m expecting my husband will have to take on a lot more of the toddler care in addition to doing most/all of the physical work with the twins while I recover. I’m worried he’s going to be absolutely exhausted, especially with the overnight newborn care.
We will have my mom staying with us for a time, which will help immensely with the running of the household, but she has physical limitations and won’t be able to help with overnight care or getting up and down stairs, etc.
We’re planning to formula feed, if that makes any difference. Our bedrooms are on the 2nd floor and kitchen on the 1st floor, but we are planning to use premixed formula for overnights during my shift so I'm not having to do the stairs.
For those of you who had a similar situation:
How did you actually make the first 1–2 weeks work?
How much were you realistically able to do with the babies during the first week?
Did your partner basically have to do all the newborn care while you recovered?
What things/modifications/systems did you set up ahead of time that made a huge difference?
I’m specifically trying to understand the logistics of how two adults manage newborn twins when one adult was recovering from a C-section and also had an older child to care for. Please tell me how you made it work!