Katy and I went for a short walk today and remarked on how lucky we are to have the support of a vast network of amazing friends and family across the globe. We thought about yesterday, when Katy had an uplifting conversation with her friend Marci that included much-needed post-partum laughter, while I drove to Richmond to see my friends Jamie and Misti, who have 7-month-old twin boys of their own, and lugged back a load of clothing and baby-holding devices.
With things like this blog, e-mail, phones, and video chats, we're able to keep our closest friends close and get much-needed support from them. We also marvel at the physical support we've gotten: loads of hand-me-down clothing and equipment, post-partum care packages, three marvelous baby showers, a general profusion of presents, a meal train for after Katy's mom leaves – organized by Saint Shelby, as we privately dubbed her today (thank you!) – and of course absolutely vital assistance from the grandparents.
We've had two recent improvements in our daily process of twin alimentation. First, we've moved from "mini-days" (as previously described) to shifts. The day consists of 8 3-hour shifts (rather than the other way around). Each shift begins with Mom doing 10 minutes of Double Football (which see) and 30 minutes of pumping. She then returns to bed (if and when she wants to... another issue we'll tackle later), and then the helper takes over bottle-feeding for the remainder of the shift, whenever either boy is hungry. The helpers tag-team the shifts. Last night, I took 12:30a-3:30a, and Grandma and Grandpa took 3:30a-6:30a. This system works great as long as the number of helpers is greater than one. Thanks, Laura!
The second improvement has to do with the physics of rigid containers. Two nights ago, I noticed that Charlie was pulling vigorously on his bottle but not making much progress. Everyone knows that removing fluid from a rigid container is only easy if some other fluid replaces the volume that was removed. Case in point:
Nurses had mentioned that we should see bubbles entering the bottle as the baby drinks. So, while Charlie was laboring away, I held him with one hand, grabbed the screw top with the other, grabbed the foot of the bottle with my teeth, and turned it about 5 degrees to the left. Presto, bubbles began streaming in and Charlie chugged the bottle's substantial contents in a three-towed sloth's handful of minutes. I was both elated at my success and dejected at the hours that had been wasted so far by simply failing to look for bubbles.
At any rate, both of these improvements have helped make it so we are now hitting most of our feeding goals and still sleeping enough that we're not making too many mindless blunders.
Today is the boys' one-week birthday. They are now the equivalent of 38w 3d gestational age, still ahead of their due date, had they not bifurcated days after coming into existence. They are doing very well. At a pediatrician appointment today, we found that Charlie had grown 130 grams (a quarter pound) since Friday, and Bruno 20 grams. So now Bruno is the one who needs to play catch-up -- but we feel a lot more confident that we have the situation in hand.
Thanks to all of you who have helped, and who continue to help. We look forward to being able to pass on what we are learning and accumulating to others who start after us.
Finally, here is a photo I just got from my dad of us in the hospital:
With things like this blog, e-mail, phones, and video chats, we're able to keep our closest friends close and get much-needed support from them. We also marvel at the physical support we've gotten: loads of hand-me-down clothing and equipment, post-partum care packages, three marvelous baby showers, a general profusion of presents, a meal train for after Katy's mom leaves – organized by Saint Shelby, as we privately dubbed her today (thank you!) – and of course absolutely vital assistance from the grandparents.
We've had two recent improvements in our daily process of twin alimentation. First, we've moved from "mini-days" (as previously described) to shifts. The day consists of 8 3-hour shifts (rather than the other way around). Each shift begins with Mom doing 10 minutes of Double Football (which see) and 30 minutes of pumping. She then returns to bed (if and when she wants to... another issue we'll tackle later), and then the helper takes over bottle-feeding for the remainder of the shift, whenever either boy is hungry. The helpers tag-team the shifts. Last night, I took 12:30a-3:30a, and Grandma and Grandpa took 3:30a-6:30a. This system works great as long as the number of helpers is greater than one. Thanks, Laura!
The second improvement has to do with the physics of rigid containers. Two nights ago, I noticed that Charlie was pulling vigorously on his bottle but not making much progress. Everyone knows that removing fluid from a rigid container is only easy if some other fluid replaces the volume that was removed. Case in point:
Nurses had mentioned that we should see bubbles entering the bottle as the baby drinks. So, while Charlie was laboring away, I held him with one hand, grabbed the screw top with the other, grabbed the foot of the bottle with my teeth, and turned it about 5 degrees to the left. Presto, bubbles began streaming in and Charlie chugged the bottle's substantial contents in a three-towed sloth's handful of minutes. I was both elated at my success and dejected at the hours that had been wasted so far by simply failing to look for bubbles.
At any rate, both of these improvements have helped make it so we are now hitting most of our feeding goals and still sleeping enough that we're not making too many mindless blunders.
Today is the boys' one-week birthday. They are now the equivalent of 38w 3d gestational age, still ahead of their due date, had they not bifurcated days after coming into existence. They are doing very well. At a pediatrician appointment today, we found that Charlie had grown 130 grams (a quarter pound) since Friday, and Bruno 20 grams. So now Bruno is the one who needs to play catch-up -- but we feel a lot more confident that we have the situation in hand.
Thanks to all of you who have helped, and who continue to help. We look forward to being able to pass on what we are learning and accumulating to others who start after us.
Finally, here is a photo I just got from my dad of us in the hospital:
So glad you guys are figuring out what works best for you and the boys as far as feeding and sleeping goes. Jeff created a sleep/feeding schedule for us & his parents when we first brought the boys home. It works well and gives you dedicated sleep time - Katy you should take advantage of every second of sleep you can grab! It will help with your recovery and help with your milk production. Also, make sure you eat! Also helps with the above. Your experience sound so familiar to mine and I encourage you to take care of yourself. You can't take care of your family if you are not fully taken care of yourself! Can't wait to meet Bruno and Charlie!
ReplyDeleteSo sweet! I've been catching up on the blog -- amazed at their growth. Ready for a laughter-filled facetime session any time. :)
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