The past month has been absolutely amazing. More than I day-dreamed it would be. Overall, it has flown by; however, there have been a few hours here and there that seemed like an eternity! hehe The babies have changed to much already, it excites me because they are showing us who they are, but Im' so sad that it is going by so quickly! Here is a little snapshot of what we have done and learned the past month:
Weights: My babies are healthy! Praise the Lord they are growing so steadily. It calms me down every time we go weight them at the doctor...I am in a constant state of wondering if I'm producing enough milk for them. So far, so good! Thank You, Lord!
As you can see, they are coming in very low on the percentile scale...but that is because they are using the kids' real age, not gestational age. I.e...at our last appointment, they were 3 weeks old...so they measured them comparing them to other 3 week old babies instead of measuring them by their gestational age which would have been 40 weeks or a typical newborn (somewhere closer to 1 week or less). So the babies are doing great in weight gain while Momma is not as happy with her weight loss. At one month, Jenna is 7 lb 6 oz and Caden is 7 lb 11 oz! Take a look...see a difference? :)
Sleep: The first two days home from the hospital, the babies didn't sleep. I mean that, no exaggeration. The only way they would calm down and "nap" is if someone was holding them upright. Oh to know what we know now....Turns out I wasn't making enough colostrum to feed them both, then when they did get something in their tummy, if they were not upright, it was causing all sorts of pains - reflux and tummy issues. So, we resorted to sleeping on the couch with a baby propped up on us the first 2 nights. In the picture below, Ryan was the hero and took both babies so I could get some real sleep.
Then, on Friday, my milk came in with a furry and all has been well since! Poor babies, they were just hungry! Knowing what we know now...we totally would have given them some formula the first few days until my milk supply came in so they wouldn't be so miserable!
From the start, they were on the same schedule, partly because we made them :) and partly because they were just in sync with each other! We started them a 3 hrs schedule immediately in the hospital and praise the Lord it has stuck! They were not typical preemies - they didn't sleep all the time, they have had a decent amount of alert time from the start. Now sometimes they go the entire time between feedings awake. It makes it difficult to get anything done, but as long as they do that during the day and not night..we are good. It was so hard going in and waking up two sleeping babies at night, but I'm so glad we stuck with the schedule...it has paid off. It has really helped us know the babies' cries and when they are acting hungry vs just a little fussy :) Once they got to 40 weeks / 6 lbs we were able to let them go a longer stretch at night. What a glorious day! Now, they consistently go at least one 4 hr cycle (3 hours of sleep) before waking us to feed. We are hoping they keep increasing, increasing that time! We are on a flexible routine...meaning we may start at different times from one day to the next, but once we start, we go 3 hours throughout the day. At one month of age, here is a typical schedule:
8:00 am - wake up and feed, give bath if bath day.
9:30 am - enjoy some awake alert time
10:00 am - back down to sleep
11:00 am - up for feeding with a furry this time
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm - enjoy alert time, then usually fights going back to sleep
2:00 pm - after only a little hour, time to feed again!
3:00 pm - back to sleep
5:00 pm - time to feed and wait for Dad to get home / go for a walk
6:00 pm - Jenna turns into crazy Jenna and starts her fussy time. Caden starts his cool, chill, sleepy time.
7:30 pm - usually need to do an earlier feeding at this point...crying crying!
8:00 pm - snuggle while we catch up on 6,000 recorded episodes on tv
9:30pm - quick feed and try to sooth to bed. Jenna usually stays up the entire time and wants to be held.
11:30 pm - feed with 3 oz bottle, put down to bed for the night
3:30 am / 4:00 am - somebody wakes up hungry so we go in and get the other up. Another 3 oz bottle.
7:30 am / 8:00 am - wake up to start another day!
So as you can see, we typically get 6 ish hours a night, its just not all at once :) We rotate feedings so that Ryan can sleep thru one, our helper can sleep thru one and I can get up to pump and go right back down and "sleep thru one."
Feedings: I am soooo thankful the Lord has allowed me to breastfeed the twins so far. Most other couples in our Twin Class we met have gone with formula for one reason or another. It is a huge commitment and challenge, but one that is best for the babies. I nurse them during the day, right now one at a time. Until they get some better head control, its easier to feed one at a time and takes just as long as tandem feeding. The hope and prayer is to get to tandem nursing by Christmas so feedings and can go faster! I pump after most feedings and have enough to feed the twins with a bottle at our night feedings. We have gotten the night feedings down to a science...most nights we can have the babies up, fed, burped, changed and soothed back down to bed in an hour. I think Team Ryan/Casey has posted the best time coming in at 45 minutes. :)
Mom: The day I came home from the hospital I had lost 23 lbs. When the twins were 1 week old I was up to 30 lbs. The past two weeks have stalled a bit...I'm sitting at 32 lbs lost...25 lbs to go. Yep, my total weight gain was 57 lbs! My last belly measurement came in at 50 inches!!!!! I can hardly believe it now when I look at pictures or hold up a measuring tape to 50 in. Recovery has been incredibly blessed, fast and complete. I've only had 2 breakdowns...both of which happened in the first 2 days we were home when the babies were Crazy Twins and the morning Ryan went back to work. I love being a Mom and love every bit of my twins. And yes, I vow to do a better job at documenting as things happen so we can keep track of everything and remember all of these precious moments we are living!
so proud of you Momma KC! You are amazing!
ReplyDeleteYou are doing great! Those babies are so blessed to have you as their Mommy! And yep, we're gonna get them feeding together by Christmas! You can do it and it will save you SOOOO much time!
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