"You don’t have to do all of that. We will be fine."
"I know you’ll be fine, but this will give you more help during their first month home, until we all get adjusted."
"I’m fine with asking my mom to stay, though you don’t need to take more time off from work. I’m going to start interviewing nannies like we discussed."
"Lilli, please let me do this? You can still interview nannies but, this way, you will have help with these two while you look." I put my hand on her knee and rubbed. "You do realize that I want to be here with you three? I want to be a part of their lives."
She sighed in defeat and nodded. "Okay. I guess when you put it that way." She squinted her eyes at me playfully.
"Good, then it’s settled." I pulled Walsh up and held him in front of my face. "You hear that, buddy, I’m gonna be home with you for a while." I turned Walsh around to face Lilli. "Yeah, Daddy!" I mimicked a baby sounding voice and moved Walsh as I spoke. Yeah, I used my son as a puppet.
Lilli laughed loudly and Livy jerked. "Stop it!" She laughed. "He’s not a doll."
Sarah had agreed to stay with us for a week and a half. The first night home was interesting. We were up every couple of hours to change, feed, rock and soothe the twins back to sleep. However, we were up to the challenge.
The second night, Lilli was falling asleep while she was feeding the babies at four in the morning. Sarah had to keep tapping her on the shoulder to keep her awake.
The third night, I let Lilli sleep while Sarah and I took care of the babies. Lilli had pumped earlier in the day to start building up a supply so that I could help out more with feeding time.
The fourth night, Lilli let me sleep while her and Sarah took care of everything.
The fifth night, we let Sarah sleep and handled the babies throughout the night.
After our first full week at home, we had hoped that we would have Walsh and Livy sleeping better at night. Unfortunately, when it comes to newborns, not everything goes as planned. They still had odd sleeping patterns and we couldn’t figure it out.
Sarah left to go back to Canada and I began my two weeks of working from home.
Lilli began interviewing women from different nanny services. I had to insist that she look for a live-in nanny. She wasn’t happy about ‘hiring someone for around the clock services when she was fully capable’, but finally relented when I mentioned her going back to work with the foundation.
The first few interviews had not gone well. Lilli made some phone calls to different agencies in the area hoping for better applicants. When that didn’t work out, she resorted to about five hours of online research and phone calls in order to find reliable information for hiring a nanny.
I had suggested calling Elora to find out about their nanny, Mya. Lilli then told me that they had lucked out in finding a college student with classes only three nights a week. It was perfect for Elora, but wouldn’t work out for us.
A week, and multiple exhausting nights, later, Lilli found Kimberly. Kimberly was a forty-five year old divorcee who had been a kindergarten teacher during her twenties and thirties. She was the mother of one thirteen year old son, which Lilli immediately figured could move in here as well.
Three days after I met Kimberly and her son Peter, we hired her. We decided to renovate the third floor to fit in another bedroom suite like Rachel and Alex’s. We needed to tear down a couple of walls, install some doors, install a kitchen and add on a second bathroom for Peter. It took a little over a week to get everything set up.
Kimberly and Peter moved into the house and it was almost odd at how quickly they acclimated to the family. Alex looked to Peter like an older brother, and Rachel and Kimberly seemed to have a lot in common.
Lilli was so happy with Kimberly that I saw an immediate change in her. She started to relax a little more, which she needed.
Kimberly had also helped us achieve what had felt like the impossible. The babies slept almost an entire night, five hours straight. All she did was put them in the same crib together.
She explained that since they had spent all of their time together inside of Lilli, it was only natural to miss that presence. She would eventually put them in separate cribs, moving them side by side and slowly working the cribs apart. But, for now, as infants, it was perfect for them. We couldn’t have agreed more.
"You know, you pay me to get up with them." Kimberly laughed quietly as I sat feeding Walsh in the rocking chair.
"I know, but it’s my last few days of being home with them." My voice sounded just as sad as I felt about being gone all day.
"It’s really nice to see a father take such an active role with his children." She smiled at me warmly.
"I’m sure that my lifestyle makes it easier for me to do so." I shrugged.