Rather than write out some long, dramatic post to end this blog, I'll just end it simply, with a couple of pictures of our newest additions.
Sophia
Lydia
Monday, November 1, 2010
The end
Now that the babies are home with us, it's time for this blog to come to an end. I've been neglecting my family blog (http://homesteadingandthecity.blogspot.com/) in order to try to keep up with this one, but it's time to switch over to that blog exclusively.
Rather than write out some long, dramatic post to end this blog, I'll just end it simply, with a couple of pictures of our newest additions.
Sophia
Lydia
Rather than write out some long, dramatic post to end this blog, I'll just end it simply, with a couple of pictures of our newest additions.
Sophia
Lydia
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Home!
Both of the girls came home yesterday! We went into the hospital feeling a bit nervous that something would have changed and someone would've changed their mind, but when we got there a nurse was in their room working on various items for discharge. It was such a relief to know that they were basically home at that point! We hung out for a bit to do their next feeding there and so that I could pump, but then we loaded them up (and all of their stuff!) and came home.
It was funny when we got home because both of them were asleep in their carseats. I had to pump again, so I sat there staring at them and almost felt like I didn't know what to do. Somehow, it's like I was stuck in NICU mode and wasn't sure what to do with them! But, they soon were ready to eat and we were off in the newborn cycle of changing diapers, feeding, pumping and it all came back to me.
I think that these are my first babies who actually slept in their crib at night in between feedings at this age (even once!), but even so by the time you feed and change them and I pump and fall asleep, there is only about 1-1.5 hours left before the next feed. Last night, I made the big mistake of not even trying to go to sleep until after the 11 pm feed, which meant that my only possible sleep was from about midnight until 6 am when Alice and Charlotte get up. This resulted in my sleeping for a sum total of 2.5 hours. I let Robert sleep in the morning for a couple of hours with the plan that we'd then trade off so I could get some sleep, but I got caught up in the feeding/pumping/time with A&C cycle and didn't end up getting a nap at all until 4 pm (and only for just under an hour). Tonight, I'm going to go to bed after the 8 pm feeding and I'm going to try harder to get a nap tomorrow, too. I can't function on 2 hours of sleep for very long!
We tried to keep things light and loud during the day, but the babies pretty much slept all day anyway. Still, they pretty much sleep all the time so it probably isn't a big deal. Hopefully, they let us get a little sleep tonight. I'm really feeling the whole c-section recovery thing today and have been having some issues that I'm not sure whether are related to lack of sleep or just a coincidence. But, it will be what it will be. So far, it's been really peaceful and easy enough. I mean, there are two adults here full-time (Robert and I both have 3 months of parental leave from work), plus our nanny during the work day to help with the other kids. There are plenty of people to care for these two little loves! I just need to figure out a good approach to pumping and feeding to get myself a bit more sleep until they start to space out their feedings more at night.
In other news, the XS Fuzzi Bunz we bought are way too wide around the legs so we're stuck using sposies for now. It's weird because A&C wore this same brand at about 5 lbs, but I think that they redesigned the sizes since then and it looks like they got a lot wider through the legs. Hopefully, they can start wearing them soon! Luckily, the hospital sent us home with a small pack of diapers or we literally wouldn't have had anything here that fit!
Pumping is still going pretty well. It looks like I will hit about 900 ccs today (a little over 30 ounces), and it's still continung to increase, albeit more slowly now. I am starting to build up a nice little freezer stash, too. I think that there are about 10 bags in the freezer already! It's still extremely painful, so I'm really looking forward to my body getting used to it. Because, well, ow. We have the babies' first pedi appointment tomorrow and I'm especially looking forward to the weigh in. As soon as we left the hospital, we stopped fortifying their EBM with formula. They also immediately went from taking 35-40 ccs every 3 hours to taking 45-60 ccs every 3 hours, so it seems like they are regulating their own intake. Hopefully, they are gaining weight well! A&C did just fine on EBM without the supplementing so I assume that these girls will as well.
I haven't had a chance to take many pictures yet, but here's one cute one of them tucked into bed together last night.
Oh, and the obligatory going home shot!
It was funny when we got home because both of them were asleep in their carseats. I had to pump again, so I sat there staring at them and almost felt like I didn't know what to do. Somehow, it's like I was stuck in NICU mode and wasn't sure what to do with them! But, they soon were ready to eat and we were off in the newborn cycle of changing diapers, feeding, pumping and it all came back to me.
I think that these are my first babies who actually slept in their crib at night in between feedings at this age (even once!), but even so by the time you feed and change them and I pump and fall asleep, there is only about 1-1.5 hours left before the next feed. Last night, I made the big mistake of not even trying to go to sleep until after the 11 pm feed, which meant that my only possible sleep was from about midnight until 6 am when Alice and Charlotte get up. This resulted in my sleeping for a sum total of 2.5 hours. I let Robert sleep in the morning for a couple of hours with the plan that we'd then trade off so I could get some sleep, but I got caught up in the feeding/pumping/time with A&C cycle and didn't end up getting a nap at all until 4 pm (and only for just under an hour). Tonight, I'm going to go to bed after the 8 pm feeding and I'm going to try harder to get a nap tomorrow, too. I can't function on 2 hours of sleep for very long!
We tried to keep things light and loud during the day, but the babies pretty much slept all day anyway. Still, they pretty much sleep all the time so it probably isn't a big deal. Hopefully, they let us get a little sleep tonight. I'm really feeling the whole c-section recovery thing today and have been having some issues that I'm not sure whether are related to lack of sleep or just a coincidence. But, it will be what it will be. So far, it's been really peaceful and easy enough. I mean, there are two adults here full-time (Robert and I both have 3 months of parental leave from work), plus our nanny during the work day to help with the other kids. There are plenty of people to care for these two little loves! I just need to figure out a good approach to pumping and feeding to get myself a bit more sleep until they start to space out their feedings more at night.
In other news, the XS Fuzzi Bunz we bought are way too wide around the legs so we're stuck using sposies for now. It's weird because A&C wore this same brand at about 5 lbs, but I think that they redesigned the sizes since then and it looks like they got a lot wider through the legs. Hopefully, they can start wearing them soon! Luckily, the hospital sent us home with a small pack of diapers or we literally wouldn't have had anything here that fit!
Pumping is still going pretty well. It looks like I will hit about 900 ccs today (a little over 30 ounces), and it's still continung to increase, albeit more slowly now. I am starting to build up a nice little freezer stash, too. I think that there are about 10 bags in the freezer already! It's still extremely painful, so I'm really looking forward to my body getting used to it. Because, well, ow. We have the babies' first pedi appointment tomorrow and I'm especially looking forward to the weigh in. As soon as we left the hospital, we stopped fortifying their EBM with formula. They also immediately went from taking 35-40 ccs every 3 hours to taking 45-60 ccs every 3 hours, so it seems like they are regulating their own intake. Hopefully, they are gaining weight well! A&C did just fine on EBM without the supplementing so I assume that these girls will as well.
I haven't had a chance to take many pictures yet, but here's one cute one of them tucked into bed together last night.
Oh, and the obligatory going home shot!
Monday, October 25, 2010
Day 11
Tomorrow is the big day! Our babies are coming home! Well, assuming that there are no issues in the meantime, that is. But, they have been doing great for days now, so hopefully all goes well tonight and we can take them home tomorrow morning! (I'm afraid to jinx it by even writing this... eek!)
At any rate, they have been taking full feeds by bottle since 8 am Saturday morning. They have been gaining steadily, and Lydia is now up to 4 lbs 9 oz and Sophia (my little piggy!) is now up to 4 lbs 8 oz! No issues, events, or anything to be concerned about. In fact, I'm honestly not even sure why they are still there today other than that they needed to do all of the testing, consents, various visits and such prior to discharge so we did all of that today. They are ready to come home and we are so excited!
I'm incredibly excited to begin our real lives with these little loves. Of course, we are their parents now, but so much is dictated to us in the NICU. My babies are given iron because "preemies need iron," even though they aren't anemic. They add Neosure to their breastmilk because "it will help them gain weight faster." And so on. Very little is left up to us, really. Even little things like when to feed, pouring bottles, and so on. We spend a lot of time there, and do a lot of the care, but we are told what to do and when. Finally, tomorrow, we will be able to make actual decisions and really be parents to these little girls. I just can't wait.
My heart is so full tonight.
Oh, and about the pumping. I won't even go into the agony that is pumping lately, but I'm hanging in there and getting into a routine with it. Still pumping 10 times per day, and trying to hit every 2 hours during the day and every 2-3 hours at night. My supply is still increasing, and today I pumped 880 ccs (29.7 ounces). I have a few bags in the freezer now, so I'm getting enough ahead to start to build a small stockpile for the future. However, I need to produce WAY more milk to keep up with them as they grow, so I'm going to order Reglan this week. I actually still have refills left from 2008! Hopefully, it will give me enough of a supply boost to get a really good freezer stash now to tide me over for the time when I can't pump enough for both. And, even more hopefully, maybe I'll be able to get them to nurse so that I don't have to pump all the time for the next year, too. Fingers crossed!
At any rate, they have been taking full feeds by bottle since 8 am Saturday morning. They have been gaining steadily, and Lydia is now up to 4 lbs 9 oz and Sophia (my little piggy!) is now up to 4 lbs 8 oz! No issues, events, or anything to be concerned about. In fact, I'm honestly not even sure why they are still there today other than that they needed to do all of the testing, consents, various visits and such prior to discharge so we did all of that today. They are ready to come home and we are so excited!
I'm incredibly excited to begin our real lives with these little loves. Of course, we are their parents now, but so much is dictated to us in the NICU. My babies are given iron because "preemies need iron," even though they aren't anemic. They add Neosure to their breastmilk because "it will help them gain weight faster." And so on. Very little is left up to us, really. Even little things like when to feed, pouring bottles, and so on. We spend a lot of time there, and do a lot of the care, but we are told what to do and when. Finally, tomorrow, we will be able to make actual decisions and really be parents to these little girls. I just can't wait.
My heart is so full tonight.
Oh, and about the pumping. I won't even go into the agony that is pumping lately, but I'm hanging in there and getting into a routine with it. Still pumping 10 times per day, and trying to hit every 2 hours during the day and every 2-3 hours at night. My supply is still increasing, and today I pumped 880 ccs (29.7 ounces). I have a few bags in the freezer now, so I'm getting enough ahead to start to build a small stockpile for the future. However, I need to produce WAY more milk to keep up with them as they grow, so I'm going to order Reglan this week. I actually still have refills left from 2008! Hopefully, it will give me enough of a supply boost to get a really good freezer stash now to tide me over for the time when I can't pump enough for both. And, even more hopefully, maybe I'll be able to get them to nurse so that I don't have to pump all the time for the next year, too. Fingers crossed!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Day 9
Because we don't have our nanny on weekends, it's a lot more challenging for us to visit the babies. We actually were able to have her come for a couple of hours this morning, though, so we headed out after breakfast and got there in time to hang out and cuddle for a bit and then do the 11 am feeding. They were gavaged at 8 am, but they both took their full bottles at 11. We had to leave right after that feeding, but the nurse told us later that they took the entire bottles at 2 pm as well. And we came back, with all of the kiddos in tow, and fed them their 5 pm feed and they both finished that one, too! They tend to be pretty sleepy and less interested in eating at night, so we'll see how it goes. But, it definitely seems like they are making progress.
Since Sophia has never really had any As or Bs, they took her off the oxygen monitor today. Lydia last had one on the 20th so she will come off of it on the 25th. They are still eating 37 and 38 ccs every 3 hours, and they are both gaining weight regularly each night now. They were just shy of their birthweights yesterday, so we'll see if they regained them tonight when they weigh them. Otherwise, everything is same ol same ol while we just wait for them to eat well enough to come home.
Now that the babies are totally stable, all of the kids wanted to hold them. I was holding Lydia, so I helped get them settled with her one by one. They all loved it. It was really cute! Well, except Charlotte, who was too scared to try to hold her. But, Alice said that she wanted to hold her sister and she did. She sat there perfectly and held her, it was absolutely adorable! Sadly, I keep forgetting my camera, but at least I had my phone!
Charlotte didn't want to hold Lydia, but did really like to sit on the footstool, leaning against my leg, and reading a book while I fed Lydia. It was way too cute!
In other news, the pumping is killing me, but it's going pretty well. I pumped 731 ccs yesterday and the girls only eat around 610 ccs, so I'm even providing a little more than they need right now! It's really nice because this allows them to get all BM even when we're not able to come drop it off in the middle of the night or something. My supply is still increasing every day, so hopefully I'll manage to freeze some before they start to outpace me! I'm pumping 10 times per day and drinking a ton of water, but haven't started any supplements yet. I'm going to re-assess at the two-week mark and see whether I think that I need them. Reglan was a miracle worker last time, so I might just go straight to that. The herbal stuff is really expensive and didn't work at all last time so I'm disinclined to try it again.
Robert is heading back to the NICU now and I think that I am going to go to bed. I've been a total zombie all day. Hopefully some sleep will help!
Since Sophia has never really had any As or Bs, they took her off the oxygen monitor today. Lydia last had one on the 20th so she will come off of it on the 25th. They are still eating 37 and 38 ccs every 3 hours, and they are both gaining weight regularly each night now. They were just shy of their birthweights yesterday, so we'll see if they regained them tonight when they weigh them. Otherwise, everything is same ol same ol while we just wait for them to eat well enough to come home.
Now that the babies are totally stable, all of the kids wanted to hold them. I was holding Lydia, so I helped get them settled with her one by one. They all loved it. It was really cute! Well, except Charlotte, who was too scared to try to hold her. But, Alice said that she wanted to hold her sister and she did. She sat there perfectly and held her, it was absolutely adorable! Sadly, I keep forgetting my camera, but at least I had my phone!
Charlotte didn't want to hold Lydia, but did really like to sit on the footstool, leaning against my leg, and reading a book while I fed Lydia. It was way too cute!
In other news, the pumping is killing me, but it's going pretty well. I pumped 731 ccs yesterday and the girls only eat around 610 ccs, so I'm even providing a little more than they need right now! It's really nice because this allows them to get all BM even when we're not able to come drop it off in the middle of the night or something. My supply is still increasing every day, so hopefully I'll manage to freeze some before they start to outpace me! I'm pumping 10 times per day and drinking a ton of water, but haven't started any supplements yet. I'm going to re-assess at the two-week mark and see whether I think that I need them. Reglan was a miracle worker last time, so I might just go straight to that. The herbal stuff is really expensive and didn't work at all last time so I'm disinclined to try it again.
Robert is heading back to the NICU now and I think that I am going to go to bed. I've been a total zombie all day. Hopefully some sleep will help!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
One week old!
Today was not a very awesome day. It was one of those days where you go in expecting nothing but awesome news and it turns out that there isn't always awesome news to be had. There was no bad news or anything, it just wasn't awesome.
After the seriously amazing feeds yesterday, I was really hoping for great ones today, too. Sadly, that wasn't the case. They were just super tired today. They took a couple of partial feeds, but no full feeds. After the feeding rollercoaster that we were on with Alice and Charlotte, it just completely deflated me to realize that even so much further along we may end up on it again. Granted, I'm jumping the gun here and they may very well have an awesome feeding day tomorrow, but it's just impossible to predict and that is hard.
In happier news, Robert is at the hospital now and emailed to tell me that the girls were moved into one of the lower level of care rooms tonight! I don't remember exactly when we moved into those rooms with the girls last time, but it was definitely once we were on the going home track. Fingers crossed that we're not there long.
Last but not least, today I pumped 658 ccs, which is exactly 50 ccs more than the girls eat in a day. I finally caught up AND exceeded their needs! It was what I needed today, too, since I'm currently a complete and utter zombie from lack of sleep. Pumping every 2 hours at night means I sleep in 1 hour chunks. If I had babies at home, I would just nap when they do, but I can't do that at the hospital, really. So, I'm tired as heck, and needed a little sign today that what I'm doing even matters. This is a great one!
After the seriously amazing feeds yesterday, I was really hoping for great ones today, too. Sadly, that wasn't the case. They were just super tired today. They took a couple of partial feeds, but no full feeds. After the feeding rollercoaster that we were on with Alice and Charlotte, it just completely deflated me to realize that even so much further along we may end up on it again. Granted, I'm jumping the gun here and they may very well have an awesome feeding day tomorrow, but it's just impossible to predict and that is hard.
In happier news, Robert is at the hospital now and emailed to tell me that the girls were moved into one of the lower level of care rooms tonight! I don't remember exactly when we moved into those rooms with the girls last time, but it was definitely once we were on the going home track. Fingers crossed that we're not there long.
Last but not least, today I pumped 658 ccs, which is exactly 50 ccs more than the girls eat in a day. I finally caught up AND exceeded their needs! It was what I needed today, too, since I'm currently a complete and utter zombie from lack of sleep. Pumping every 2 hours at night means I sleep in 1 hour chunks. If I had babies at home, I would just nap when they do, but I can't do that at the hospital, really. So, I'm tired as heck, and needed a little sign today that what I'm doing even matters. This is a great one!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Day 6
There is so much good news to report tonight that I barely even know where to begin! First of all, last night Robert went to see the babies (he goes every night) and Lydia was off her canula when he arrived! She's done beautifully ever since and I didn't see her have even a single desat today. It seems like she was just ready to go off the oxygen literally in a single moment, and that was that! Then, this morning, I walked in the room and saw two babies in bassinets! No more isolettes! That alone is such a huge deal and makes such a difference because it is easy to get them in/out and you're encouraged to hold them whenever you want (which, granted, we've been doing anyway). As if that wasn't enough, the nurse told us that Sophia had taken three out of four feeds by bottle the prior night and Lydia took her first couple of bottle feeds, too! Sophia was finishing about 3/4 of her bottles, whereas Lydia was finishing about 12 ccs (which is not bad for her first attempts at all!).
As the day went on, even more good stuff happened! We attended family rounds, which is where parents are encouraged to come and meet the entire care team, hear the care plan, and ask any questions. We didn't really have any questions since they are doing so well, other than the ever present one of when they will be home. The neonatologist said that we should bring carseats in soon and that he doesn't expect them to be in past 37 weeks, so it looks like they are definitely on the fast track at this point! He's been super positive all along, and just keeps telling us how great they are doing every day, which is so nice to hear. It's really been nothing but up thus far, which is rare in my NICU experience. I do expect to potentially have more ups/downs with feeding, but we'll see. Maybe they will just get the idea and come home!
Speaking of feeding, at their 11 am feeding, they were both zonked so they gavaged them. Considering that they had taken a bunch of bottles in a row, that wasn't surprising at all. At their 2 pm feeding, they were rooting and wild children. I tried to nurse Sophia, and she latched right on, but then did approximately nothing other than look around very cutely and suck once every 30 seconds. Needless to say, after 15 minutes of that, I decided to try a bottle. She took the ENTIRE bottle! I was stunned. Seriously, I can't believe that she took 38 cc by bottle! Wow! Lydia did super well, too, and took 26 out of 38 cc by bottle before falling asleep. Considering that Lydia has only been nippling at all since last night, that was amazing progress. Robert is at the hospital now, so I am looking forward to hearing how they did at their later feedings!
As for me, I had my follow up appointment with Dr. Wall today and my incision is not infected! It's goopy and yucky, but healing, so I just have to keep it clean and dry (by stuffing a pad into it every day, which is pretty gross in and of itself) and it should continue to heal ok. I have to go back in a week just to make sure, but I'm feeling pretty hopeful after talking to him that it will continue to heal well. He also assured me that the FIFTH c-section is the easiest one, but I told him that he should give it a try instead and let me know how it goes for him.
On the pumping front, I'm making a lot of progress! The babies are currently taking in 608 ccs per day combined. I have one more pumping session that counts for today and I expect to hit about 500 ccs total. That's an increase of about 100 ccs since yesterday, so I'm hopeful that I'll start to provide 100% of their milk by tomorrow. Even now, I'm coming mighty close, but I really want to hit 100% and then get ahead of them since their needs are only going to increase (and quickly!). I've been pumping 10+ times per day, plus still trying to nurse when possible, and drinking tons of water, and eating periodically throughout the day so I'm doing what I need to do... now it's up to my body. I do still plan to pick up some More Milk Plus tomorrow, though.
I forgot my camera today (figures!), so I just have a few iPhone pics today. Still, there are some good ones!
No more isolettes!
My first time bottlefeeding Sophia AND her first full feed
Sophia wide awake after her bottle
Holding both for the first time! (Yes, I'm a little tired)
Awww
As the day went on, even more good stuff happened! We attended family rounds, which is where parents are encouraged to come and meet the entire care team, hear the care plan, and ask any questions. We didn't really have any questions since they are doing so well, other than the ever present one of when they will be home. The neonatologist said that we should bring carseats in soon and that he doesn't expect them to be in past 37 weeks, so it looks like they are definitely on the fast track at this point! He's been super positive all along, and just keeps telling us how great they are doing every day, which is so nice to hear. It's really been nothing but up thus far, which is rare in my NICU experience. I do expect to potentially have more ups/downs with feeding, but we'll see. Maybe they will just get the idea and come home!
Speaking of feeding, at their 11 am feeding, they were both zonked so they gavaged them. Considering that they had taken a bunch of bottles in a row, that wasn't surprising at all. At their 2 pm feeding, they were rooting and wild children. I tried to nurse Sophia, and she latched right on, but then did approximately nothing other than look around very cutely and suck once every 30 seconds. Needless to say, after 15 minutes of that, I decided to try a bottle. She took the ENTIRE bottle! I was stunned. Seriously, I can't believe that she took 38 cc by bottle! Wow! Lydia did super well, too, and took 26 out of 38 cc by bottle before falling asleep. Considering that Lydia has only been nippling at all since last night, that was amazing progress. Robert is at the hospital now, so I am looking forward to hearing how they did at their later feedings!
As for me, I had my follow up appointment with Dr. Wall today and my incision is not infected! It's goopy and yucky, but healing, so I just have to keep it clean and dry (by stuffing a pad into it every day, which is pretty gross in and of itself) and it should continue to heal ok. I have to go back in a week just to make sure, but I'm feeling pretty hopeful after talking to him that it will continue to heal well. He also assured me that the FIFTH c-section is the easiest one, but I told him that he should give it a try instead and let me know how it goes for him.
On the pumping front, I'm making a lot of progress! The babies are currently taking in 608 ccs per day combined. I have one more pumping session that counts for today and I expect to hit about 500 ccs total. That's an increase of about 100 ccs since yesterday, so I'm hopeful that I'll start to provide 100% of their milk by tomorrow. Even now, I'm coming mighty close, but I really want to hit 100% and then get ahead of them since their needs are only going to increase (and quickly!). I've been pumping 10+ times per day, plus still trying to nurse when possible, and drinking tons of water, and eating periodically throughout the day so I'm doing what I need to do... now it's up to my body. I do still plan to pick up some More Milk Plus tomorrow, though.
I forgot my camera today (figures!), so I just have a few iPhone pics today. Still, there are some good ones!
No more isolettes!
My first time bottlefeeding Sophia AND her first full feed
Sophia wide awake after her bottle
Holding both for the first time! (Yes, I'm a little tired)
Awww
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Day 5
Lydia is doing awesome today! She is down to room air entirely and never had to be turned up at all in response to a desat. She also only had maybe 3 or 4 desats all day and recovered from them quickly. This afternoon, the nurse started turning down the flow of her oxygen, which is really what needs to happen before she can come off, and her sats remained stable. I am very hopeful now that she will be off the canula quickly since she seems to have really turned that corner!
In other news, both girls are still tolerating feeds well. Lydia was up to 38 ccs per feed today and Sophia remained at 33 ccs (it's based on weight). Neither had anything other than a small residual here or there, and mostly it was all clear. In fact, they think that they are starving and we had to feed them early multiple times! They tend to wake up 30 minutes early, hungry and rooting around like starving babies. It's so cute! Sophia took one feed by bottle while we were there and inhaled 12 ccs in a minute or two, and then got too tired to keep going. It's a good sign, though, that she can take that much that quickly. As soon as she gets more stamina, she is going to suck down those bottles like whoa. I nursed Lydia one feed and she has an awesome suck! It's really strong and, while she is a little harder to latch then Sophia, she is great about not popping off. It seems like both of them are very interested in nursing and food in general, which is such a relief after Alice and Charlotte, who are still often challenging to feed and certainly were back in their NICU days!
Today ended up being a little crazy. We spent the morning home with the kids and then headed to the NICU at 9:30, which was good timing since the girls were heading to preschool in just a few minutes. We hung out there feeding and soothing babies (which is becoming a full-time job now that they are much more awake and actually want to be held/entertained!) until 3:30, when the postpartum care lady came by to check on my incision. Incidentally, I thought that it was awesome that she came to the NICU instead of making me go there! Anyway, she took one look at it and said that I needed to go see my MFM because it is open in a few spots, oozing stinky yellow gunk, and generally isn't healing well. She called them and, since it was the end of the day, they literally wanted me to go over right then... which happened to be right as our nanny and the girls got there to see me and the babies AND right as the babies were going nuts with starvation (very early, again!). Robert had to take Emilia to ice skating, so I ended up having to just get the nurse to come feed both of the babies, and pack up my stuff really quickly, and then take our nanny and the girls to my appt. Phew.
One of the MFMs looked at my incision and said that she can't tell whether it is infected but she wants me to come back tomorrow when Dr. Wall will be there so that he can check it out. She cleaned it out (which was not comfortable at all since she took the steri strips off and really dug around in there), and got tons of blood and gunk out, and then put new strips on. Gross. Just... gross.
I also saw a LC today who told me that it's ok to go ahead and try herbal supplements to increase my supply now, but to keep waiting for another 5-7 days to start things like Reglan. Honestly, it seems like my supply is doing pretty well on its own right now, but with two babies to provide for, I guess that pretty well isn't enough. I went form pumping 186 ccs Sunday to 260 ccs yesterday to 362 ccs (12+ ounces) thus far today and that is with one more pumping session left before midnight. My supply is definitely increasing pretty steadily, but I'm going to try More Milk Plus since Fenugreek alone didn't work for me at all last time.
Proud Daddy
Multitasking... (even if the iPhone was actually just for the pic!)
In other news, both girls are still tolerating feeds well. Lydia was up to 38 ccs per feed today and Sophia remained at 33 ccs (it's based on weight). Neither had anything other than a small residual here or there, and mostly it was all clear. In fact, they think that they are starving and we had to feed them early multiple times! They tend to wake up 30 minutes early, hungry and rooting around like starving babies. It's so cute! Sophia took one feed by bottle while we were there and inhaled 12 ccs in a minute or two, and then got too tired to keep going. It's a good sign, though, that she can take that much that quickly. As soon as she gets more stamina, she is going to suck down those bottles like whoa. I nursed Lydia one feed and she has an awesome suck! It's really strong and, while she is a little harder to latch then Sophia, she is great about not popping off. It seems like both of them are very interested in nursing and food in general, which is such a relief after Alice and Charlotte, who are still often challenging to feed and certainly were back in their NICU days!
Today ended up being a little crazy. We spent the morning home with the kids and then headed to the NICU at 9:30, which was good timing since the girls were heading to preschool in just a few minutes. We hung out there feeding and soothing babies (which is becoming a full-time job now that they are much more awake and actually want to be held/entertained!) until 3:30, when the postpartum care lady came by to check on my incision. Incidentally, I thought that it was awesome that she came to the NICU instead of making me go there! Anyway, she took one look at it and said that I needed to go see my MFM because it is open in a few spots, oozing stinky yellow gunk, and generally isn't healing well. She called them and, since it was the end of the day, they literally wanted me to go over right then... which happened to be right as our nanny and the girls got there to see me and the babies AND right as the babies were going nuts with starvation (very early, again!). Robert had to take Emilia to ice skating, so I ended up having to just get the nurse to come feed both of the babies, and pack up my stuff really quickly, and then take our nanny and the girls to my appt. Phew.
One of the MFMs looked at my incision and said that she can't tell whether it is infected but she wants me to come back tomorrow when Dr. Wall will be there so that he can check it out. She cleaned it out (which was not comfortable at all since she took the steri strips off and really dug around in there), and got tons of blood and gunk out, and then put new strips on. Gross. Just... gross.
I also saw a LC today who told me that it's ok to go ahead and try herbal supplements to increase my supply now, but to keep waiting for another 5-7 days to start things like Reglan. Honestly, it seems like my supply is doing pretty well on its own right now, but with two babies to provide for, I guess that pretty well isn't enough. I went form pumping 186 ccs Sunday to 260 ccs yesterday to 362 ccs (12+ ounces) thus far today and that is with one more pumping session left before midnight. My supply is definitely increasing pretty steadily, but I'm going to try More Milk Plus since Fenugreek alone didn't work for me at all last time.
Proud Daddy
Multitasking... (even if the iPhone was actually just for the pic!)
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