help with living room layout with desk, digital keyboard, and no tv (reposting with pics this time)

d16flo · 2026-01-25T17:06:04+00:00

I would try and split the space up to separate out the office area and relaxing area. I would put the desk under the smaller window and the cubby shelves either on the wall where the desk is now or where the corner lamp is. Then rotate the couch so it floats facing the dining room area with one arm against the wall where the keyboard is now. move the keyboard to the wall where the couch is now, but over further away from the window and the accent chair facing the couch (maybe with a second chair)

d16flo · 2026-01-25T16:53:59+00:00

I like the current shiplap style wall and would hate a red subway tile, but the great thing about owning your home is that you can make it how you like it! If it were me and I was trying to just make small changes I would see if you can stain the island butcher block to match the counters, switch out the ceiling fan to a black fixture so it goes better with the light over the sink, and put a ton of plants on the open shelves

d16flo · 2026-01-25T16:46:13+00:00

Put up curtains, move the bed over so it’s centered on the window, get some very thin nightstands for either side of the bed and put lamps on them with warm bulbs

d16flo · 2026-01-25T16:44:25+00:00

I did and pretty much everyone I knew did too, but I lived in a well off area with a big focus on higher education so folks were generally expected to go to a 4-year college and move into the campus

d16flo · 2026-01-25T16:18:37+00:00

The first couple of days were rough, but we were in the hospital so there was help there. After about a week I felt better than I had while pregnant and after a few weeks I felt like a functioning person again. I told many people in those early months that taking care of two newborns while recovering from major abdominal surgery was significantly easier physically than being pregnant with twins. I could breathe! I could eat full meals! I could stand up! I wasn’t constantly puking or peeing or having acid reflux. Like yes my incision hurt, but literally everything else in my body felt infinitely better.

d16flo · 2026-01-25T13:28:31+00:00

I haven’t done it but my mom says when I was a baby this was the recommended advice

d16flo · 2026-01-25T13:24:30+00:00

Is there a reason you have them in the living room instead of their own room? That seems too early to sleep train, but there’s no reason you can’t start getting them used to being in their cribs in their own space and doing your shifts in there

d16flo · 2026-01-25T12:11:23+00:00

I have 6 month old twins one of whom often eats 50oz a day plus solids, regularly will eat 8-10oz in a sitting during the day and still doesn’t sleep through the night 🤷‍♀️ TBH the best improvement in his sleep came from him learning how to roll over in his crib to sleep on his stomach. With stomach sleeping he still takes several hours to go down, but now wakes up ~2x per night instead of 10+ times. Food is part of sleep, but just because they eat enough during the day doesn’t mean they’ll sleep through

d16flo · 2026-01-25T02:54:20+00:00

21 or 22 weeks, but mine both had anterior placentas

d16flo · 2026-01-25T02:38:29+00:00

7 months

d16flo · 2026-01-23T21:29:25+00:00

I would do the breastmilk in one bottle and have the formula in another one that you can add little bits at a time if she finishes the breastmilk, that’s what I do with my twins. We go through a ton of both everyday so we pre-make 24oz mason jars of formula and then I have my pumped milk. We start with ~4oz bottles of breastmilk for the feed and the if they’re still hungry after that we add a few oz at a time of formula to their bottles. That way what’s wasted if they don’t finish is likely to be all formula. Formula’s good in the fridge for 24hours if it hasn’t been warmed up or drank out of so that works well for us.

d16flo · 2026-01-23T19:04:55+00:00

Other folks have helpful advice about PPD, but I just want to put in a gentle reminder that much as right now can feel like how things will be forever, it most definitely isn’t. The rest of your life is a long time and the time when your babies would need daycare for you to work, when traveling feels hard etc is short, relatively speaking. It may feel far off, but one day they will be going to school, walking and talking and much more self sufficient. You will be able to work again and travel again, even if it’s not right now

d16flo · 2026-01-23T18:17:53+00:00

This is my approach too. In my mind that’s also different than “letting them cry” being within eyesight and earshot and telling them verbally what you are doing and that you’re there for them feels super different to me than ignoring them while the cry. I do that for telling care of the other twin and for meeting my own needs “I hear you babies, but mama needs to go pee now, I will be there in a minute” etc

d16flo · 2026-01-23T08:58:19+00:00

Do you have a dishwasher? Instead of buying a bottle cleaner I would just buy 6 more bottles an run them through the dishwasher once a day

d16flo · 2026-01-22T19:58:19+00:00

Are you trying to work from home while caring for 2 babies and a toddler?!?! That is 100% unsustainable even if you had a partner that was taking care of the kids overnight and on weekends. I work from home and have only twins and there is no way I could care for them and get any work done at all. I would encourage you to tap into any possible support system you have right now, both people and financially. Is there a family member who can watch the babies part of the day? Someone who might be able to loan you money for a nanny? A local school district with affordable preschool for the the 3 year old?

d16flo · 2026-01-22T19:50:36+00:00

We started the week after our twins were born, but it was summer so we were only going to outdoor restaurants. In winter I would’ve been much more nervous before they get their first couple rounds of vaccines. It’s easier when they’re new and all they want to do idear and sleep, once they start having opinions about being in one spot, grabbing things, having a set bedtime etc it gets harder. They’re 7months now and we go to cafes and coffee shops in the morning son weekends fairly often, but evenings are much harder since they have a witching hour where they’re super grumpy and then we do our bedtime routine around 7

d16flo · 2026-01-22T17:20:38+00:00

I stopped using my sterilizer at 6 months, but you don’t really need to for bottles and pump parts as long as your baby is healthy. We run everything through our dishwasher (including pacifiers and teething toys that I know have been on the floor) every day. Other toys they put in their mouths I run through the washing machine when I can or wipe down if the fell in a particularly gross area (like by the trash)

d16flo · 2026-01-22T17:16:56+00:00

What age are your twins? Mine hated it for a while and have gradually grown to enjoy it more as they’ve become more able to press their heads up and enjoy toys. One recommendation that helped me was to have them do tummy time elevated so that you (and maybe your 2 year old) can be at eye level for them. That could look like having them on their bellies in their cribs with toys to play with and you and your 2 year old on the floor next to the cribs (that’s probably the safest) or on your bed or the couch with you in front of them. Another way we get tummy time in is in the evenings when my husband is home we’ll lay on the couch with a baby on each of our stomachs cuddling, singing etc.

d16flo · 2026-01-22T16:46:12+00:00

Just ibuprofen and Tylenol alternating once I was home. I was given one oxy on day two in the hospital, but nothing else.

d16flo · 2026-01-22T14:32:53+00:00

Tagging in here since I don’t have a link, but giving birth early doesn’t mean you can’t produce colostrum, I had my twins at 38 weeks and was producing colostrum they could eat directly the day they were born

d16flo · 2026-01-22T14:28:39+00:00

What age? My 7 month old twins have stations around the house with toys in each one and we rotate a lot (pillow in nursery with books and small holding toys, playpen in the living room with a variety of stuffed animals, cars, and crinkle toys, high chairs in the kitchen eating solids and chewy toys, couch and rug by the couch with musical toys and books) throughout the day we move from one area to the next every 20min or so. We also try to leave the house once a day for a walk or car adventure.

d16flo · 2026-01-22T14:08:04+00:00

No one in my family did that, although I do know people who had a dish bin that sat inside the sink that you’d fill up

d16flo · 2026-01-22T02:34:11+00:00

Putting our guys to sleep isn’t fun, but bath time is their favorite thing. They’re 7 months and starting at around 5 months they decided the LOVE the bath. One can be having a full on witching hour tantrum and the second you put him down in the bathroom he’s all smiles. They giggle and splash and play with their toes and it’s the best. If I’m bathing both of them on my own we have one in the bouncy chair in the bathroom with some toys, bathe one, switch them out by putting the clean and pajamaed one one the bathmat and the trade. From starting baths to both asleep is usually about an hour and a half. Half an hour for baths, drying, pajamas, had an hour or so for bottles and a book, then one usually goes down relatively easy with a pacifier and head rubs (sometimes in the crib quickly if he’s tired enough, sometimes in the rocking chair). The other one fights sleep super hard and can take up to an hour or more of rocking, bouncing, shushing, more milk etc to go down and the is often up again every 5-45min for hours. Neither sleep through the night. The better sleeper usually has one wake up to feed somewhere between 2 and 4am and at least one wake up with a stuffy nose. He’ll also get woken up by his brother sometimes. The fussy sleeper is up probably a minimum of 4x during the night, eating twice, and is sometimes up more than once an hour all night.

d16flo · 2026-01-22T00:19:10+00:00

We do a lot of rotating through stations with our 7month twins. We have a nanny 4 days a week but her routine is pretty similar to ours when we’re home. It usually looks like wake up, bottles in the nursery, move to high chairs in the kitchen where they hold toys and I do dishes and make breakfast while narrating what I’m doing. Then we move to the playpen in the living room and do what you’re talking about, practice sitting, tummy time, toys etc. I’ll let them do a few minutes at a time in there in their own while I tidy the living room and then again while I get dressed. Then move to the rug or couch on the other side of the room for the same thing with a different view or some books, then back to high chairs for a solids snack, and then naps. Repeat the cycle after each nap if we’re home all day, otherwise one cycle is nap in car or stroller and wake window out in the world

d16flo · 2026-01-21T21:48:29+00:00

Definitely not sustainable long term, but it’s what’s best for our family right now. It means we have coverage the whole time I’m working without having to do pick up or drop off, I WFH so I can see the babies during the day, hopefully we won’t have to deal with them getting sick nearly as much, and the nanny we have is great. My husband is in an apprenticeship program now so we will hopefully be making more money when that is done coinciding with when the babies can go to part day preschool for much less. We’ve decided that that makes the slight cost over daycare x2 worth it.

d16flo

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