Life as a Twin Mum
Clare Fahey - Paediatric Sleep Consultant and Mother of Twins
Being a new mum definitely has its ups and downs. There is the joy, excitement and wonder of creating new life as well as the absolute exhaustion of broken sleep night after night. It seems like a miracle that two perfect little people have grown inside me and I am amazed each day at how different their little personalities are already.
My beautiful babies were born at 32 weeks and 5 days, after my waters broke 9 days earlier. The twins were in NICU for 9 weeks and I am very grateful for all of the care and support we all received during their time there. While they had the care and expertise of the NICU staff, I was able to recover from my cesarean, get used to being a mum, and get to know each of them individually as I sat and spent time with them.
Now that we are home life is busy busy busy. Each day is a blur of feeds, sleeps, nappies, dishes, washing and more feeds.
Although I had years of experience working with babies and young children, I was always able to give them back at night and get a proper sleep. I didn't know first hand what the fog of sleep deprivation felt like.
During my consults I tell people about the importance of consistency. I now know that your own babies cry breaks your heart and it is a natural instinct to pick them up and make everything all better.
As my babies reach each sleep milestone I am sure it will make me a better sleep consultant as I will have more experience as well as theoretical knowledge.