So, the girls were in the NICU for 8 days and came home last Thursday. They have been home for about 10 days now. When we left the NICU they told us that we would need to follow up with our pediatrician as well as have a home health nurse come out to the house once a week to check on the girls - make sure they are doing well, are gaining weight, etc. Well, we had our first home visit from the visiting nurse the day after we were released from the NICU. That was interesting. Si and I make way too much money to qualify for any services or anything from the state, so we have never had the privilege (I guess) of having a worker out to the house. She really made us feel stupid - and we are both very well educated people - I know that we aren't stupid! Anyway, I digress. When we were released from the NICU the neonatologist had started the girls on Neosure for two feedings a day (a formula specifically created for premature babies - it has extra calcium and phosphorus in it which apparently the babies would have gotten their last month in the womb had they stayed in there that long). The Neosure is a higher calorie formula, so it is supposed to help them gain weight better than breast milk. Now if only it worked and the girls tolerated it well! From what I can tell it made them nothing but gassy and fussy. They spit up more and just generally seemed unhappy. I really didn't like the formula feedings, especially because I was making enough breast milk to feed both of my babies and even get a bit extra left over! If we were going to bottle feed, we could feed breast milk. Anyway, so we were on the neosure to help ensure that the girls were continuing to gain weight. The visiting nurses scale showed that the babies had lost weight (again), which of course freaked momma out (because I didn't want them to have to go back to the hospital to gain weight). She called Olivia "scrawny" which ticked me off because she isn't, and overall her entire visit just left a bad taste in my mouth. She was condescending. . .and she had no right to be.
That was Friday (the 21st? - I can't keep track of days anymore let alone dates!). We saw the pediatrician on Monday (the 24th?). She said that the babies looked great! She said that they didn't even look like preemies and that I had done a wonderful job getting them to the weights that I did before they were born=). She also said that we didn't need to continue the Neosure feedings. She said that there are better more effective ways to increase calorie intake if we need to, but there is no reason to have the girls on a formula that they really don't need that is making their tummies upset. She gave me the go ahead to breastfeed exclusively, 24/7. YAY. She would re-evaluate after we met with the visiting nurse again (this past Thursday - the 28th?), but as long as the babies were gaining at least 2/3 ounce per day, we could stick with breastfeeding only. Well, the visiting nurse cam back on Thursday and apparently her scale and the pedi's scale are WAY off. I knew that the girls had gained weight since Monday but her scale showed that the girls weighed the same as they had when we went to the pediatrician. UGH. I'm really ready to just be able to feed my babies and watch them grow and not worry about whether or not they are gaining enough weight every day off my breast milk! Why does this have to be so difficult?! Anyway, so I am thinking about calling the pediatrician tomorrow to see if I can bring the girls in simply to weigh them and make sure they are gaining appropriately. I'm really not a huge fan of the visiting nurse, so I would rather figure out with the pediatrician's office what I should or shouldn't be doing to help my babies grow big and strong!
What else is going on? Well, the girls have started to become increasingly fussy between about 9 PM and 12 AM. Last night Brianna cried for about 5 hours straight. It was torture! I felt so bad for the little peanut - nothing I/we did could calm her down. She would cry, I would cry, Si's mom would come and take her for a while, but regardless, the vicious crying cycle would continue. Thank God that Si's mom is still here though! She has seriously been a God send. I don't know what I would have done without her here for the last couple of weeks. She has helped with the babies (especially with the middle of the night crying spells/feedings), cooked, cleaned, done laundry, been ridiculously supportive. . .she is AMAZING. I am SO glad she came down to help us. She will be going back home today some time and I am SO sad to see her go. She could just move into the spare bedroom and live with us forever and I would be totally cool with it! My dad is coming to stay with us on Monday and Tuesday, but I don't think he is intending to stay the night (which is really when I need someone the most - 24/7 breastfeeding really catches up to you at about 3:30 AM when what you really need is a couple of hours of uninterrupted sleep - HA!). Then my mom will be staying with us for a week, and she will be staying the night, so hopefully that will work out well. We will see. I am really hoping/wishing that we can get the girls on some type of a sleep schedule sometime soon! I mean, they are eating about every 3 hours now, so that is a schedule, but they don't just sleep in between feedings, and especially not in the middle of the night. They seem to be getting a bit better about sleeping in the middle of the night, but they definitely haven't perfected the art of sleeping yet.
Other multiple moms - when did your babies start getting a night time schedule and sleeping semi-regularly? How was dad incorporated into the nightly feedings - especially if you were breastfeeding? Si and I had talked about running a schedule where he would be up with the babies from 9 PM until 2 AM, and I would be up with the babies from 2 AM on (since he is back to work now). That way I could get 5 hours of sleep potentially (if my breasts didn't explode first - lol!). It is just immensely difficult to care for two babies on your own - especially if they are fussy. Props to all of you ladies that have done it! I am definitely still trying to figure it out. And I have SUCH a hard time letting one baby cry while I'm tending to the other. . .how do you "choose" which baby to tend to first if they are both upset and crying? And how does their cry not hurt you?
Okay, that's enough for now. I should probably try to sleep a bit while the babies are sleeping (HA!). I just wanted to drop in and let you know that we are still alive here (barely), and although sleep deprived are still chugging along on the train of parenthood=). Hope you all are doing well!
Oh, and I almost forgot to add in pictures! Sorry!
Here's the girls trying to sleep together in the pack and play =)
Here's the girls hanging out on their boppy on my lap =)
And here's the girls in their carseats for the first time when we left the NICU =)