Paying up-front (no free lunch)

Over the past few months, I've been telling folks how handy it is to have twins: my wife only has to take maternity leave once (i.e. only one career interruption) to get two additional kids. How handy!

But -- over the last week (sleep-deprived week), I've realized that indeed, there **is** no ''free lunch'': we're paying up-front. To have it otherwise would violate the first law of parentamics (like the laws of thermodynamics, but with more grey hair).

The tricky part of having twins -- one of them, anyhow -- is that despite what various "experts" say, "twin feeding" (i.e. both at once) just really isn't feasible -- especially if they have wildly different feeding style. So, you do them in sequence. Except that (1) this doubles the amount of time you're awake in the middle of the night, compared to having just one kid, and (2) the second kid -- the one waiting in line for his turn to be fed -- tends to complain (loudly) during his wait in the queue. So, instead of daddy having a bit of down-time to nap, he's trying to soothe Mr. Crankypants.

Ayep.


--GG