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Sunday, April 29, 2007

Poor little Owen


Sigh. This is a picture of Owen smiling the other day. Unfortunately, there was little of this today. After a tandem feeding this afternoon, Liam came off the boob content and Owen pulled off at the same time sobbing. It quickly turned into a complete and utter meltdown, worse than either of them have ever been. He just screamed and screamed for about 15 minutes until it wore him out and he fell asleep. That only lasted about 10 minutes before he woke up for round 2. Fortunately, Liam was on his best behavior and didn't let out so much as a peep as he quietly dealt with being neglected for the better part of an hour. Even more fortunately, his father arrived just after round three and entertained him for the rest of the evening while his brother went through a cycle of waking up sobbing, nursing for a few minutes, sobbing some more, and whimpering to sleep. Owen's little rump was violated several times in order to take his temperature but it never went over 100 so the nurse at the pediatrician's office said it wasn't necessary to bring him in unless he kept at it. He finally was so exhausted at 7:30 that I managed to put him to bed, and though he's whimpered a few times since then, he hasn't erupted again (yet). It looks like it might be a long night.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

STTP

For those of you not familiar with baby-related abbreviations, the title of this post refers to the fact that the boys can now be considered to be sleeping through the night. Of course, I say this now and I'm sure I'm jinxing it for months to come, but last night, at least, both boys went down at nine and didn't wake up until six. That's nine consecutive hours of sleep, which translates into five consecutive hours for me plus one hour of dozing from five to six wondering if they were ok.

In other news, the boys had their two month check-up today and weighed in at 11 lbs. 4 oz. (Owen) and 11 lbs. 8 oz. (Liam). Liam, though, was cheating by holding in his poop until right after being weighed, thus requiring two consecutive diaper changes on the exam table. I would have liked to weigh him again after pooping, but instead both boys were subjected to four shots a piece, which they did not enjoy in the least. They were a little out of sorts for the rest of the day, very tired and rather cranky, but that made it easy to put them to bed. Speaking of bed...

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Pre-pregnancy jeans!

1 week

8 weeks
My, how we've grown!


And still just as cute!

As one might surmise from the title of this post, today was a momentous occasion in that I was finally able to put on a pair of pants from that long lost world of pre-pregnancy. I still officially have 17 pounds to go to get back to my original weight (don't forget that I gained 60) but I'm convinced that a good portion of those 17 pounds is housed in my ginormous boobs. In any case, I was rather pleased that the jeans not only fit but didn't even feel as tight as they had been at times even before the boys were conceived. Of course, a lot of that has to do with the fact that I've lost a good deal of muscle, but that's not the point. I celebrated the milestone with not one but two trips to the park today, and on the second one I even managed to run about half a mile while Jon strolled the babies.

Today was also momentous because little Liam managed to sleep 8 hours straight last night. Unfortunately, Owen chose last night to wake up after only 6 hours, allowing for his mother to only sleep two and a half before going down to feed him. Ok, enough about sleep. No,on second thought, I'll go ahead and answer my loyal reader's question from the other night:

"Do you feel sleep-deprived and grumpy?"
Well, now that you mention it, today I do feel somewhat sleep-deprived, but not really grumpy. It's almost 11 and I haven't pumped yet and really don't feel like doing it, but that's about it. This morning I woke up very tired, but then Liam was all smiles for some reason (maybe because he got 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep), and you can't be grumpy when you wake up to a beaming baby. It's actually rather amazing that I'm functioning so well on so little sleep since I used to cherish a good 8-9 hours a night, to say nothing of 11-12 hours on some weekends. I'm guessing I won't get those days back for a long, long time, if ever.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Breastfeeding twins is not always fun


Despite moments like these which make it look so easy, breastfeeding twins is not always the idyllic bonding experience that nursing is often made out to be. When I found myself suffering from a plugged milk duct a few weeks back, I was not surprised to find out that one risk factor for the problem is simply nursing twins. For mothers who wish to breastfeed twins there are two options: tandem nursing (as shown in the picture) or nursing one at a time. Advantages to tandem nursing: significantly less of a time commitment, an important consideration since it can take 12 to 15 hours a day to nurse two infants individually. Disadvantages to tandem nursing: all three people involved are considerably less comfortable than they would be nursing individually. Three is, indeed, a crowd. Since there are advantages and disadvantages to each, I try to combine the two strategies. Lately, at night, I will nurse individually since I hesitate to wake a baby who might sleep another couple of hours. Sometimes, like the night before last, the result is as good as to be expected, other times, like last night, the whole thing just falls apart.

Since the most loyal reader of this blog has complained that far too much web space on it has been dedicated to the subject of the babies' sleep and the mother's lack of it, I will attempt to limit all discussion of sleep to 10% of this blog. That being said, I'll start out today by saying that last night was not an easy night. At some time yesterday Liam had latched on incorrectly to the left boob, leaving it tender and sore. This didn't turn out to be a problem until Liam woke up hungry at 1:30 a.m. I don't think anyone would disagree that excruciating pain does not make for pleasant breastfeeding. My plan of feeding lying down on the futon in order to sleep while the baby is eating was complicated by the cycle of wincing, grimacing, and re-latching that went on until Owen woke up some time later. After unsuccessfully putting Liam back down in his crib, I ended up once again rocking him with my foot while feeding Owen. Later, while I was bottlefeeding both babies in their rockers with milk that I had frozen last week because the boobs were completely empty and the babies were still starving, I wanted to throw in the burpcloth altogether. Fortunately, by morning the boob was feeling better, everything was under control again, and breastfeeding for 6 months at least no longer seemed impossible. I guess we'll keep at it at least for one more day.

Finally, in order to end with something altogether unrelated to the subject of sleep, yesterday I was hit for the first time with explosive poop. Liam fired out at me during a diaper change and managed to get the carpet, my pants and my sock before all was said and done. I forgave him.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

more sleep news


It's 9:20 a.m. and Liam has fallen asleep on the floor. It's a little early for the morning nap and Owen looks like he has no intention of taking one just yet, but I'll take what I can get. Lately, I can get them to nap in the morning but not for longer than half an hour, even fully swaddled and pacified. Fortunately, though, the nights have been a little better, if you don't count three nights ago when I was nursing one or the other from 12:30 to 6 a.m. straight, often at the same time rocking the second one in his rocker/bouncer with my foot. Last night was a good one even though I spent most of the night on the futon. I managed to sleep three and a half hours straight before Owen woke up (it's the first time in I don't know how long that Liam hasn't woken up first) and then slept most of the time each one was eating. I think at one point I had Liam for nearly two hours. When I woke up he was sleeping peacefully and his brother was starting to make noises in the crib again so I switched them out and kept going. I did manage to get back up to bed for a 20 minute catnap between actual sheets, and I resisted the temptation to take the boys into bed with me since I'm starting to fear that if I keep doing that I'll never be able to get them out.

In other news, I lost one of Owen's pacifiers yesterday (they are color-coded: yellow for Owen and blue for Liam). I still can't figure it out. I was convinced that I had put both of them down on the playmat before feeding them but when I went back I could only find Liam's. My only theory was that maybe it had gotten stuck in a piece of clothing and I put it in the wash. I didn't see it when I put the clothes in the dryer, but I haven't gotten them out of the dryer yet, so I guess it's still possible. I wonder if a pacifier is rendered useless by going through the wash...

We got a second bumbo seat yesterday thanks to my friend Andrea who went to Target and asked if we needed anything. The boys are still a little small for it, but I think it will be very useful once they can be counted on to hold their heads up consistently. I've put them in it a few times when I've been around to make sure their little heads don't flop forward. Here's a picture of Owen enjoying his bumbo time the other day:
One final bit of news is that I took Liam in to the doctor on Tuesday because of some serious goopy eye. Owen is the one who has had a blocked tear duct since he was 9 days old and Liam has never had any problems. It turns out that they have matching blocked tear ducts, except that Liam's seems to be fine again. I think he must have had something in his eye that was irritating it and making it tear more than normal. Oh, and Liam weighed in at 10 lbs. 14 oz. We go back for the official 2 month appointment next Tuesday for the dreaded shots.

Ah, as usual, I just got one baby to sleep and the other one woke up. So much for getting a shower during their morning nap.


Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Late to bed

It's already after midnight and Liam will probably be up a little over an hour so I'll keep this short and go to bed. The boys actually didn't get to sleep too too late tonight, but we had some friends over which over-excited them a little and neither one appreciated being put down drowsy but awake so they rocked in their rockers and got to sleep by nine. Owen slept for 8 hours for the second night in a row. I keep hoping that he'll convince his brother to do the same.

I started taking Fenugreek the other day and it's working wonders. It's now the second night in a row that I've been able to pump 10 ounces in one sitting. I've even started filling one 5 oz. bottle and freezing another 5 oz. for future use. It's very reassuring to know that I have extra on hand so that I don't have to use formula if I have another moment of crisis like last week.

We're still in a bit of a standstill as far as developmental milestones are concerned. They are 2 days shy of 7 weeks but still aren't smiling in a way that convinces me that they know what they are doing. They are, however, seeming more and more aware and alert every day and they are so vain that their favorite toy is the mirror.

More soon, but I need to sleep.

Friday, April 6, 2007

Six weeks already?!?


This picture is from the hospital, three days after Owen and Liam were born and right before we were allowed to go home. Owen, by the way, is on the left, and Liam is on the right. Note how they were swimming in their newborn size sleepers.

I had meant to start something of this sort shortly after the boys were born, if not several months before, (in fact, I posted one entry in a pregnancy journal before I ran out of steam and abandoned it) but here I am with six week old babies and I'm just now getting started. So six weeks of life on the outside plus eight and a half months on the inside are already gone without any online documentation. I'll try not to cry over spilt milk, though, (and having recently become a nursing mother I know full well just how great of a disaster it can be to spill milk) and I'll just jump right in.


Liam and Owen turned six weeks yesterday and promptly began their scheduled six-week growth spurt. I had just celebrated their first night spent entirely in the nursery and Owen's eight hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep when all of a sudden they decided that they had to eat every hour and a half. By the end of the day, when normally I would have been putting them to bed, I found my milk supply completely depleted (I tried to pump just to make sure), my nipples burning and aching, and both my boys still ravenous, unhappy, and completely unable to sleep. I tried to hold out as long as possible, trying to distract them as best I could until I could produce more milk, but finally I caved in and opened the container of formula provided by the hospital and fed them. It only took 2 ounces for Owen and 1 for Liam to calm down so that I could put them down. They didn't wake up again for 5 hours, thank goodness. It turned into the longest stretch that I've slept since well before they were born.



I just paused to feed Liam and put him back to bed, but somebody is making noises again. I'm hoping he will stop on his own. The noises have stopped... I'm going to bed.