The Uterus Project: post-partum

Oh my Coryna! Double blessing to her and her spouse.  I have advice aplenty. First piece to give her, even though she has as spouse (I assume) make sure someone else is in the house with them for the next six weeks – that extra person’s job: feed and care for mama and papa – they will need it.  Second is have a friend set up a meal train – it’s really easy for friends to deliver handmade food or have food delivered (thank you Prime Now, GrubHub and UberEats) for the new family. And finally, third and most important: don’t miss a minute of it.  Be present. Breathe in. Breath out. It goes soooo fast. They will never know that’s it’s twice as hard as raising a singleton and it won’t matter because it’ll be so awesome all along the way, even when it’s very very hard.  Plus have a twin pregnancy is so high risk that you just get used to going with the flow and hanging out in zen mode knowing you have not control – it’s great practice for when they are walking around outside your body.

I followed an India traditional post-partum ritual and lined up six amazing woman in my life and each had one week to stay in the guest room and do all the things Cassie talked about her parents doing - clean, coordinator and meal train, laundry - and because I had twins the also helped me diaper and swaddle one while I nursed the other. It was a  real blessing. My sister who also has twins took the first week, my dear friend and her husband who are nurses took the second week which was great because I was still monitoring post-op blood pressure and my best friend was third week, my mom came back for week four then Portland "mom" then acupuncturist dead friend. The last week of six was awkward because by then I wanted to be alone with my babies. Anyway. If you can make it happen to have six weeks with help of any form you'll be great. ​

(email to Phoebe Ebright's friend who just gave birth to twin girls on January 25)