Certainly, it is just amazing to nurse both babies at once, especially once they hit the three-month mark. I settled in on the football hold pretty early on, which is when you have a baby on each side of you with their heads at the breast and their feet behind you. This hold worked best with the enormous, just-for-twins nursing pillow my friend gave me, and I would just watched my babies watch me. And how wonderful it was when my boy, Quinn, first noticed his nursing partner and would gaze upon her with such contented adoration as to make my heart skip a beat. It took my daughter another week to notice she wasn’t alone on the couch with Mama, but once she did, Moia beamed at him. Babies trying to smile while they nurse is a pretty funny sight, and results in damp pants for Mom. Soon enough, at about four months, they were watching each other nurse as often as they watched me, and they would often reach out to touch hands or pat me together gently on the chest. At night, with me on my back and each baby propped up on an arm, they would reach across and play with each other’s fingers while they drifted off to sleep.

Ah, for those gentle, quiet times.

Now that they are almost a year old, they don’t nurse to sleep any more. About two months ago we climbed into bed together to supposedly nurse to sleep, and the babies ended up giggling at each other across my stomach and climbing on top of me for the Mama-as-Jungle-Gym game. On occasion, Quinn would climb up so he is lying on me, stomach to stomach, and nurse, while Moia complained and tried to push him back off. Obviously, the nursing to sleep has become a thing of the past.

Yes, I have become the proud parent of two gymnastic nursers. Laying quietly in the football hold has become passé—now they like best for me to sit on the floor while they sit in front of me and nurse. Well, they start off by sitting. Soon enough they’re up and moving, attached to my breast all the while. Quinn tends to stand with his butt sticking out and doing the hokey pokey. Sometimes Moia would sit quietly, but then rear back, peer at my nipple like she’s never seen it before, and give it a poke with her finger. When Quinn sees this, he follows with a poke to his nipple with my thumb, and then goes back to his dance. Moia has since decided that the dancing looks way too much fun, and she’s actually tried to stand behind me while nursing. They take cues from each other, building onto each other’s creativity, so now I feel a bit like I’m always in the center of some Tazmanian devil dust cloud.

And I never nurse one alone anymore. I’ve had one baby wake from a sound sleep and ask to nurse because his or her twin was eating. That has happened since they were infants. Now, when Quinn sees Moia lifting up my shirt (something he himself does not do), he heads over immediately to the breast buffet. Last week he was a bit too enthusiastic about this, and when I managed to get one side of my shirt up, they both went for the nipple, bonking their heads with a coconut clunk in the process. Quinn cried piteously, not because he was hurt, but because Moia won.

The middle of the night is still a quiet nursing time, though one twin invariably wakes up to nurse after the other one begins. They have done this since they were tiny babies, one waking from a sound sleep when the other baby started to nurse. I really don’t mind. My twins are really beginning to chow down on people food, and I know it won’t be long before my nursing days are over. At least I’ll be amused in the meantime!