I thought I'd do an update on how things are going at home here with the boys. Today is the first day I actually have time (and energy) to sit and write some thoughts down. I know that I have found it so helpful to look at other twin blogs to find perspective, and I hope this can be of help to others who are in similar situations.
We had a doctor's visit today and the boys were weighed. They sure have grown! From last week MJ was up a whole pound (!) and now weighs 7lb,4oz (birth weight 5,9). RJ was also up and is now 6lb,2oz (birth weight 4,12). They both have grown in length and are starting to outgrow some of their preemie outfits (so sad!). I'm pretty sure we have outfits they haven't even worn yet too. It's happening so fast! There is not too much more to say about the boys right now. Since they are still preemie, they basically only sleep and eat. They don't have very much awake time. Whenever they do, we try to put them together, or give them tummy time, but this only happens once or twice a day for a short period of time. RJ has been the fussier one - wanting to be held a lot, and having troubles spitting up and having an upset tummy. He's smaller and just underdeveloped a bit. MJ is very chill and just likes to sleep!
The biggest challenge so far has been figuring out the feedings. We have done a combination of tandem feeding, bottle feeding (expressed milk), and individual breastfeeding. My goal is to do mostly tandem feeding, with the odd bottle in the night or if we go out and leave them with the grandparents. MJ is a breastfeeding champ, but RJ is little and sometimes does better with the bottle (depends on his energy). Since we're still getting the hang of breastfeeding, we have also been topping up every feed with a bottle. This makes for a lot of work! Breastfeed, prepare bottles, bottle feed, settle, put down, pump. It is also a lot of work to learn to tandem feed, so some feeds I will breastfeed one and let someone else bottle feed the other. Through the night (the 2am and 5am) we usually just bottle feed since it is easier and quicker.
Now that we know that they are gaining weight just fine, I hope to eliminate some steps and make the process a bit quicker. Right now it takes just over an hour to complete everything. Then they sleep for an hour or two, and we start it all over again. Today, for the first time, I managed to tandem feed them both all by myself! It is quite tricky to figure out how to burp them, but the rest of it I can manage (I'll post more on that another time). I'd like to mostly tandem feed them since it keeps them on the same schedule and is much faster without the bottles and the pumping. Still, it's nice that they can take a bottle as this will make life much easier for some situations.
So far my milk supply has been enough. This weekend we had a scare and thought we weren't going to make it so we picked up some formula, but we haven't had to use it yet. Since I started focusing on tandem feeding more frequently, my supply seems to have increased. I'm also taking fenugreek and eating lots of foods that promote breastmilk (avocado, cashes, oatmeal, non-alcoholic beer). I find my supply is also definitely affected when I am tired, hungry or thirsty. I am eating so much food! More than when I was pregnant I think (which may explain why I haven't lost much... but I am so hungry all the time!). I try to rest lots, but I am finally feeling like I can think about other things in life than just survival, which is nice too. I do feel like we have a bit of a routine now, and that is so important to me! It helps me cope with all of this so much better. I'll blog about it another day.
The upcoming goals include:
- Mastering feeding on my own (my mother-in-law leaves in one week and I'll be on my own for reals then!)
- Taking the boys on an outing (other than just to the doctor)
- Figuring out how to do feeds in public (twin moms... what do you do???)
- Starting an exercise routine! I hope to start walking myself this week (too cold to bring the boys) and doing some yoga at home. My 6-week postpartum visit is next week and I hope to get the go-ahead for more exercise then.
- Getting the boys to sleep for a longer stretch through the night (any advice from preemie moms on when and how this starts to happen?)
And now, a few pictures to leave you with (since that's the best part, right?)
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| Coming HOME! |
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| Boys and their toys |
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| First fight? |
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| Pup getting to know them |
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| Bright eyes |
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| Loving this!!! |
So darling! Glad to see things are going well!
ReplyDeleteThey are such handsome little boys. :) I love the first fight one. It's so sweet!
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