Another worry you can have about what to expect when expecting is organizing your help after the babies come home.
When I was pregnant with quadruplets I didn’t even think about if I would have help, much less how to organize it.
To be honest, I did not know what to expect when expecting my quadruplets.
Wish I had known the information I am sharing with you when I was still pregnant. I would have planned much better! No matter how much you read from the experts, the ones who know the most about what to expect when expecting are Moms of multiples.
As it turned out, I learned and received the information just when it was needed.
Systems are so important with multiples. If people show up at odd times (like nap time) or on a whim it’s often not helpful.
Systems and schedules will help you to survive and your babies to thrive.
How do you do this?
You do it by organizing your life and not just for feeding times.
So, how do you organize help to care for your babies?
1. Create a schedule to keep track of how much each baby drinks, and how many dirty diapers there are.
2. Create a schedule for volunteers to help during feeding times.
3. Create a schedule for hired help like nannies.
4. Create a schedule for delivery of meals from volunteers.
Using a form to keep track of the babies eating/dirty diaper habits is important to insure proper growth and health since most multiples are born premature. This is helpful also when you take the babies into the doctor, you can accurately tell the doctor about each babies’ habits. No guessing which baby did what.
After my babies were born, a friend from church offered to coordinate the volunteers’ schedule for me. I didn’t know what a blessing volunteers would be.
And I had no idea how much work was involved in organizing those volunteers to help me care for my newborns. By having a schedule, I knew exactly when help was coming and—more importantly—when it was not!
If you’re like most Moms of Multiples, you need the most help during feeding and bathing times.
You’ll also need to plan for the times when volunteers aren’t available—which may happen more often than you think!
My friend used a program called Calendar Creator for the volunteers for feedings. And I used spreadsheets for the other schedules.
By creating Sign up Schedules that can be filled in you can allow the volunteers to do some of the scheduling. With Google documents and email, this can be done easily if all volunteers have access to the internet.
Create or upload the document in Google documents. Then share the document with each person. They can fill in the times they are available.
If you have a friend or family member who can coordinate this for you—let her! It’s a great gift she can give you. After the babies come you’ll be busy enough without coordinating volunteer schedules in addition to your babies’ schedules.
The perfect time to create these spreadsheets is now! When you’re pregnant, it can help to know what to expect when expecting. And knowing what to expect about the babies plus what to expect in organizing schedules can ease your mind.
If you would like to receive a copy of the spreadsheets I used, plus get other organizing tips then Join Tips For Moms of Multiples membership site – It’s Free!
Click here to get the details!
To Your Abundant Life with Multiples,
Kimberly O’Bannon
Ambassador of Positive Parenting, www.howtoliveonpurpose.com
Founder, TipsForMomsOfMultiples.com
AKA MultiMommy
Originally posted here:
Part 6 Worrying What To Expect When Expecting Multiples: How Do You Organize Help To Care For Your Babies?
