8 weeks old!

We see the peditrician for their 2 month checkup on Wednesday, but, we
no longer have internet so I am doing my catch up now.

Both babies are now over 10 pounds. They are such good babies. All my
friends and relatives seem amazed that I hold phone conversations and
cook and clean the house. Partly, because Duane lets me sleep for 5
hours when he gets home from work everyday, and partially because the
babies don't have colic.

As soon as we went to powdered formula, Lucas stopped having gas. I
guess the extra water helps him make poopies. :-P I now recognise that
the first week at home with them was so hard because I didn't
understand what their cries meant. I would hold them when they needed
a diaper change, change their diaper when they were hungry, and feed
them when they wanted to be cuddled! But now I speak "grunt" (Lucas)
and "Squirm" (Matilda) and it has made life with newborns much easier.
They stay on a 4 hour schedule, they don't cry without reason, and
are easy to soothe. My only worry is the swings. They are both
addicted to them!

Also, they aren't having any developmental delays for 35 weeks. They
both smiled on schedule and do everything the babycenter updates say
is appropriate for each week. Both smile, both hold their heads up and
like to sit on our laps. They track and follow objects, and they like
to see where sound comes from. We hold their hands, sit them up and
let them study the world.

My main issue now is that they are now alert for long periods of time
and I am a dullard with baby games! I sing only three songs- Old
MacDonald Farm, Itsy Bitsy spider, and The Brady Bunch theme song. Ha!
I am improvising on fairy tales. We just don't get out much to buy
baby things. I sleep as soon as Duane gets home, and he comes straight
home from work. We haven't used a sitter yet because I don't
particularly trust anyone with them. :-P

I think the first couple weeks I was home I screwed up my thyroid. I
only took my medication once or twice a week, and now I feel a bit
rundown and lethargic.

I am at Duanes work with the twins, and then we are going out to dinner as a family.
His boss just came in here, she looked at us and said "I can't believe
how good those babies are. I can't believe it".

OK, maybe they aren't *that* good... maybe I just know what they want
and take care of it. We are implementing attachment parenting as much
as possible, so they never do cry for long. They are never more than 3
feet from one of us 24 hours a day. Whatever it is, screw all those
hateful women who would hear I was pregnant with twins and apologize
and say "Double Trouble". My TWO babies are better than their one
babies ever were apparently, because I actually think I could of
handled triplets as easy as these babies have been. HMPFH!!! Sorry if
I seem like a braggart, but I really got sick of everyone telling me
to anticipate my life being "hell" with twins. Its not been anything
like that at all. Watch if we have a third one- she/he will have colic
for 6 months, LOL.

Lucas and Matilda 8 weeks 1 day






Anyone here doing attachment parenting?

tummy time, smiles and shopping

As far as when to start tummy time, The issue was with Lucas "spit 'em ups" we didn't
know when to do tummy time. We decided to do it right after we diaper
them before they eat. That way they won't have spit 'em ups! We are
doing anywhere from 1-5 minutes after diapering for the 7 a.m., 11
a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. feeding. The others are their "sleep times" so
we don't want to wake them up.

They both do fairly well- Matilda is better at holding her head up and
is already able to turn it from one side to the other which I read
occurs a little later than now. Lucas has a larger head than Matilda,
and he can't hold his up as high. Plus, he can suck on his hand when
he is on his tummy, so we have to keep pulling his hand away. When he
discovered that he could suck on his hand, he decided tummy time
wasn't too bad! Matilda hates it and screams. :-(

Matilda really was smiling last week! She has smiled at me all
morning, and I was able to take two pictures of her grinning when she
was waking up waiting for her diaper change (the diaper abruptly ended
that happiness!).

I do all the shopping on weekends while Duane cares for the twins, and
when I got home yesterday he had cooked a pork tenderloin in a pepper
marinade, steamed broccoli with a southwest spice, and long grain and
wild rice. I think he is why I feel rested right now. He lets me catch
up on sleep on the weekends and gives me time to myself while he cares
for the twins... but, get this... the babies are wanting to sleep
through the night. They are behaving at night the same way they did at
3 weeks when I moved them from a three hour schedule to a four hour
one. They started this the past week. They no longer wake up for their
late ight feedings, and they don't finish their bottles when we do
wake them up. I am going to make them hold off until 8 weeks though.

Hard Day's Night

The other night at 3 a.m. I was stomping up and down the living room
singing Hard Days Night at the top of my lungs to get Matilda to sleep.

She has decided that she likes to be wide awake and HELD in the wee
hours.

Anyhoo, I am totally sleep deprived. I actually feel more rested
other than the wee nights with Matilda. Today I even did one of my 20
minute "Walk away the pounds" videos. Exercise is a good way for me to
freshen up when I feel tired midday. Especially since its hard to nap
when Duanes not home. I just keep checking on the twins!

They sleep in bouncy seats during the day, and their twin pack and
play at night. Duane and I take shifts at night- this is working for
me but not him. I can get by on interupted sleep, but he can't. He
needs a full 6 hour block to feel rested, and who has that? His mom
had been coming up a few days a week, but it doesn't help me rest. I
actually feel like my guard goes up and feel more tired when she
leaves than when she was not here. However, it makes it easier to feed
as it never fails, whoever I am feeding the other one will start
screaming! I can see why twins learn patience early. Eventually I will
stop trying to placate the screaming one and make them wait their turn!

Well, thats my update. Everything is wonderful here, just exhausted. :-
)

Weight gain

The babies gained 24 ounces in 14 days! Thats ten more ounces then
they needed to gain. :-) Lucas now weighs 7 pounds 1 ounce, and
Matilda weighs 7 pounds 9 ounces. Shes chunky. We sing "She's a
brick house" when we are burping her. My SIL heard this and
said "Glad you two are enjoying your toys". LOL

The twins are 5.5 weeks old and still treat us like we are
just "food receptacles" is that normal? Matilda might be grinning at
me now, but not even sure about that- could be sleep grins

no more breastfeeding

The pumping is over I guess. *sighs* The other night both Lucas and
Matilda had a very stressful night because the peditrician wanted to
cut back their mylecon dosing. I went over 12 hours without pumping
and never had engorgement or pain and when I pumped I got about three
drops. If I could be aggressive I think I could at least get back to
where I was last week getting one ounce a day, but it seems to
pointless. In spite of having more time for the babies and knowing the
neosure is a good formula I feel the heaviest guilt. I don't even
understand it, but its there. I do feel like we tried. I just think I
would of tried HARDER had there been in fruits to my efforts. My MIL
was here this week and after I pumped for twenty minutes she saw what
I carried into the kitchen and said "Oh Lizzie, you worked twenty
minutes for THAT?" She wasn't being cruel either- she wasn't able to
breast feed any of her children. Being mexican, she had a lot of
pressure to do so and tried with all three of her daughters to nurse.

I am trying to switch the twins to a four hour schedule. They haven't
been waking up for there three hour feedings, so we decided to see if
they could do well on four hours. We will track what they consume and
make sure they make up for the two extra bottles they will lose on a
four hour feeding schedule.

We still haven't made "contact". They seem to look through us. Ha!
However, both are starting to be more responsive to us. When we pick
them up to eat, they stop crying if they had been. They anticipate
their bottles and get excited. They are very alert and also lift their
little heads now. Cute! Matilda gets so excited when we burp her that
she tries to chomp on her burping cloth while waiting for the bottle.
Lucas entertains as always with his cute expressions.

Hard!

I feel bad about the breastfeeding- its not working out well at all.

And whats BAD is that we have help. My MIL has been coming up every
other day for the 11 and 2 feeding. But, I don't trust her to feed
Lucas. Lucas is a very sluggish eater and probably needed to stay a
day or two longer on his tube, but, the hospital really wanted to send
them home together and said they felt Duane and I had the skills to
get Lucas fed. Well, we DO. Because we stay on top of him- twirling
his bottle, pulling it back and forth reminding him to suck, blowing
in his face, getting him cold, binding his arms when he becomes
"disorganised" etc. So, when we have guests- like right now when my
sister is here- the only way I feel like I can get rest is if Duane is
home. Then I know he will feed Lucas. Lucas also has mild reflux, but
Matilda does, too.

Last night I started zoning out watching t.v. and Duane says "Please
go nap, you look awful and you are zoning out". I laid down at 10:30
and didn't get up until after 2. I told Duane "I didn't pump! I didn't
pump!" then, I went to get my stuff to pump for after I fed the twins,
and he says Matilda has colic. I ended up taking her and bringing her
in the living room and rocking her until 4:30 when I discovered that
her bouncing seat seemed to sooth her on vibrate. I put it in one side
of the twin pack and play and went to sleep. I forgot to pump!

My supply is so low that I don't feel any heaviness or pain in my
breasts in between pump sessions, so, there isn't a physical reminder
that I need to go do it.

Duane took on the 5 30 feeding to let me rest up after the extended 2
a.m. one as it only ended at 4:45. Matilda is upset again, and now
Lucas is, too. I asked Duane if he had changed Lucas and he said he
had. After holding him and seeing how uncomfortable he was for 45
minutes, I decided to check his diaper and he had made a big poopie
and thats why he was upset. I counted diapers and realized Duane
hadn't changed him! I asked him about this, and he said "Oh. I thought
it was Matilda whose diaper I not changed (I told him to skip hers if
it was only wet as it seemed to further agitate her when she needed to
eat and sleep)". But, in his own drowsiness, he had changed Matilda
instead of Lucas (why shes screaming again!).

So now its 12 hours since I last pumped and also time for me to eat
since its been 14 since I did that.

And my milk is drying up. :-(

Anyhow, there isn't a way for me to not feel bad about this, because I
honestly feel like its a scheduling issue and I don't know how to
resolve it. I need to stay fresh for them, and I do need to eat and
drink, and I have to be the one to feed Lucas if Duane isn't here.
But, the BF milk is so good for them. The only thing I can console
myself with is that its neosure- not BF- thats been shown to help
preemies overcome any problems associated with premature birth-
neosure preemies are taller, heavier, etc, than other preemies.

So, I am going to eat and pump again. *sighs*

BTW, Lucas is the sweetest baby EVER. I wanted a girl so very bad, but
can honestly say that I am totally in love with my little man. He is
the cutest most patient baby, and ever so sweet. I just smooch him all
day long!

Homecoming

Lucas and Matilda came home today.

I feel a bit frazzled, but my MIL was here tonight to watch them while
we went and picked up a few last minute items from Walmart, and shes
coming back tomorrow.

They are currently sleeping in their twin pack and play in our bedroom!