On August 7, 2009 the girls turn 8 months old. We are still running on adjusted time, so that means we are the size and shape of 6 month olds. So what’s new now? Well, we have bouncing and laughing and loud little voices as you can see from the video.
Mom has returned to work part time for the summer, so we all spend our Tuesdays and Thursdays hanging out like this at home while the other days are spent at daycare. The first week of this arrangement was rather sucky for both mom and babies. But we have, as always, adapted to the change and it’s all routine now. At least until the end of August and then we switch to a new daycare and then mom goes back to work full time! Yikes. I’m sure that will also come with a sucky week, but we’ll get through it.
The girls are eating solid foods — oatmeal and stage 1 baby food jars of fruits and veggies. Jilly most definitely has inherited her Bammies’ sweet tooth and prefers sweeter items, so I have to trick her into eating oatmeal and any green vegetable by mixing in something sweet like bananas or sweet potatoes! Amanda will eat ANYTHING I give her, atta girl. We are giving sippy cups a go, but we still have to work out some kinks. They totally understand the concept: grasp cup, bring to mouth, suck on nozzle. It’s the whole tilt the cup upwards to send the liquid downwards toward the mouth thing that has us perplexed at the moment. And who can blame them, that is quite advanced if you ask me. So for now we will practice practice and practice some more. We have lots of bibs.
The girls have been sleeping through the night quite successfully for many months now, which has gained mom and dad a considerable amount of energy for daytime activities, not to mention sanity. Now we just have to work on some way to sleep more on weekends. I can understand getting up with the rooster crow at 5:30am on week days, but it would be nice to sleep in on Saturdays or Sundays once in a while. Sigh.
All in all, things are going great, life is good and it’s still summer time! Can’t beat that.
Ack! OMG, I am so behind in updates but I have a really good excuse. Right around the time of my last post things were getting, shall we say, GOOD and FUN around these here parts. Sure, sure, there’s still tons of work to be done and lots of juggling but all of a sudden, the weather got nice out and the girls and I have been *gasp* enjoying our time together quite a bit! There have been some hard days where I want to pass out on the couch as soon as they go to bed, but those days have become so few over the past couple of months. Time has actually started to fly instead of crawl along at a grueling and excruciatingly slow pace. So pardon my lack of updates, since we were too busy having fun and smiling and giggling and making funny faces at each other and finally having the maternity leave that I dreamed of – more like summer vacation than the eternal winter of never ending slave work.
Starting this Friday I will make my triumphant return to work after my 8 month leave of absence. People! I highly recommend a sabbatical from your regular-paying desk job if you can swing it. Maybe not 8 months, and certainly not when 4 or 5 of those months you replace your easy, regular-paying desk job with the hardest job you’ve ever done, but a few months to get your head on straight and line up those life priorities, it is just so good for the soul.
I will post more about the beans in the coming weeks, as we have much progress and much cuteness to share with the world. And I will have more of that, what’s it called… oh yeah, TIME, to sit at my desk to actually think and type and post photos and such because my babies will be smiling and making funny faces at their daycare providers while I can GET PAID AGAIN. WOOOOOOT!
I am so done with counting the babies’ age in weeks. It just gets too hard to do all the “adjusted” stuff with my limited math abilities. But yeah – here we are at 5 months old!
Amanda!
Jillian!
Things are going really great now. It turns out that A&J are excellent little night time sleepers. ML and I have stuck religiously to our bed time ritual and it seems to be paying off. By now, the girls are either sleeping fully through the night or waking once for a quick snack and then off to bed again until morning. This results in very happy babies – they don’t even cry for a bottle in the mornings. They just smile up at us from their cribs and kick their feet to say hello! Unfortunately, these happy mornings to come at a price, but it’s worth it. Our evenings lately have been loud and cranky and sometimes downright scary with the screaming, but it usually only lasts for a little while and as soon as we begin the bed time ritual things calm down. It’s tough to endure the fussy evenings after a long day of babytown, but getting that full night of sleep to recharge sure helps!
Our latest milestones are very fun. We have lots of smiles now and I think we’re starting to hear some laughs here and there. Both babies are becoming more vocal and making some gurgly cooing noises. They have decided that binkies are so last week and thumb-sucking is all the rage now. They have started to discover their hands and love to hold them right in front of their faces and watch their fingers as they clasp and unclasp their hands together. Sometimes this results in a few stray punches to their own face, but it doesn’t seem to phase them too much. Hmm.
Anyway. Toys are starting to become pretty interesting to them. We have a few stuffed animal friends that they like to “talk” to if you hold them near their faces. They also enjoy time in their new activity mat that has all kinds of fun dangly toys and a light up star at the top that plays music.
Both girls can hold their heads up really well and that makes carrying them around much easier. They seem far less fragile now. They haven’t been weighed in a while, but my guess is that Amanda is around 12 pounds and Jill is pushing 13 pounds. They are starting to fit into 3-6 month size clothes already! What a long way from preemie outfits!
A couple of weekends ago we made the daring decision to go as a family to BJs. This was HUUUGE for us. ML had been doing all of the grocery type errands since I was on bed rest back in November. Then we were on germ lockdown all winter to prevent the girls from contracting RSV. Technically, we did not have the OK from our doctor to start going out into public places with the babies yet, but we were so sick of a) not being able to shop together which we have always done in the past and b) not getting out of the house was becoming real depressing for me. So we went for it. Woo! We are total risk takers, I tell you.
In order for me to feel comfortable bringing the babies out into the world, we devised a plan wherein I would push the girls in the stroller and ML would push the shopping cart and to create a germ barrier we would not trade. I would point at items and he would place them in the cart. Only I would touch the babies if they needed something. We would use hand sanitizer frequently and liberally. We would avoid strangers by staying in constant motion and never stopping to make chit chat or even eye contact with folks who want to check out the babies. Aside from one minor flub where ML touched the carriage after touching the cart without sanitizing, for which I totally over-reacted and proceeded to wipe down the whole carriage, I tell you, our plan was a great success! Yes, I was totally obsessive about germs. I was a complete nut-job lady who paused every 10 minutes to squirt Purell into her hands. But then two weeks later the world freaked out about Swine Flu and suddenly people are envious at my superior germ killing efforts!
This brave outing was the first of many excursions including a trip down to my sister’s place for Easter and another for a family birthday party. We also made it out for Mother’s Day to ML’s parents’ house. We’ve been to the mall and even the grocery store once. We are so unstoppable now! We definitely attract a lot of attention but we’re also getting really good at avoiding gawkers and/or responding with canned answers to the lame twins questions. I have even *gasp* attempted some outings on my own with the babies. My gosh, it’s like we’re a normal family or something!
Tomorrow the girls will be “6 weeks adjusted,” that is, 6 weeks from their original due date. We have come really far in these past 6 weeks! We visited the doctor this week and had many triumphs. First and foremost the girls are very healthy and growing stronger every day. They weighed in at 8 lb, 12 oz (Amanda) and 8 lb 13 oz (Jill)! Unfortunately this was an immunization visit and the girls got 3 needles each. As proud as I was of myself for being able to handle my first solo doctor visit with the girls, I was really wishing I had another set of arms if only for hugs after the shots! I can really only hug one baby at a time and it was a miserable feeling to not be able to sprout two more arms so I could comfort them afterwards. Jilly had her first big-girl cry with tears and all! But they were very brave and the crying did not last too long. Before we knew it, we were back in the car and on the way home.
The girls are becoming more awake and alert all the time and starting to notice the world around them. Some of their favorite things are: the red balloon mobile, looking out windows, bath time and hearing mom and dad’s voices. Every morning the girls spend a good hour transfixed by the red balloon and they make little grunty noises talking to it!
All of that is great stuff, but really, the best new developments of the past week or two have been seeing the first smiles and the beginning of our new night time routine. The smiles are not consistent yet, but they are unmistakable and heart-meltingly adorable – times TWO – when they appear. Nothing beats seeing your own baby smile for the first time and we are lucky enough to get it twice as much as the next guy! If you see me in a puddle on the floor, it’s probably because I just melted with joy because both babies smiled at me simultaneously. Send help!
The night time routine was started out of desperation and we had no idea if it would work, but it seems to be going better than we expected and has resulted in one straight week of TWO RESTED PARENTS. OOOMMMMGGGG. Our fingers are crossed that things keep moving in the right direction in this department, but for the past week we have both been able to get some decent stretches of precious night sleep. We were both at the end of our rope as far as sleep deprivation and we were so done with being slaves to this so-called “on-demand” feeding schedule. Whoever thought that babies should be able to have a say in how often they eat, didn’t have twins. OMFG. No one was happy in the house. The babies were eating every two freaking hours no one was getting any rest and it was pure hell. So one night we decided to throw down. It was time for the parents to set the schedule and impose a consistent bed time routine for the girls AND for the parents. The first few nights didn’t go that great, but after a few days, my god, it started working! The girls are starting to recognize their room as the night time sleep place and they now sleep in their own cribs instead of sharing. As cute as that was, they were waking eachother up too frequently. We also have a “last bottle of the night” routine that the whole family participates in, comeplete with pajama changing, dim lights and soft music. We feed the girls quietly and put them down to sleep. After a few nights in a row of doing this we had minimal fussing and the girls usually quiet right down and sleep, sometimes as much as 6 hours (!!!) until they need to eat again. Can I get an AMEN? No seriously, can you please pray for us that they keep doing this? Thanks.
Our new sleep schedule combined with the onset of spring and the introduction of the double stroller into our lives has opened several new doors for me and the girls for our days. It feels like the end of our indoor wintertime prison sentence is coming to an end and we are ready for some real adventures! As soon as cold and flu season is over we’ll have so many more options too. For now we’re just going to stick to bringing the girls to their doctor appointments and for walks in the neighborhood. But when we are in the clear from RSV season we’ll be able to go to public places if we want. I am still terrified by the thought of that, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out!
We had a check-up from the visiting nurse service yesterday. The girls were given quick little physical exams and weighed. Amanda is now 6 lb 6.6 oz and Jillian is 6 lb 5.0 oz!! They were just over the 5 pound mark when we brought them home from the hospital, so this is great, great news. They are growing like little champs and it’s very reassuring to me and ML that we are providing the right care for them. Yayyy for Team Lang! The nurse suspects that they have been going through a growth spurt because of how quickly they advanced in their feed amounts lately and how much they have been sleeping. YES, they are sleeping a LOT which is great for us, the weary new parents. I am soaking it up while I can, because who knows how long it will last.
Almost 2 months ago, the Beans were born and weighed in at 3 lb 5 oz (AJ) and 3 lb 2 oz (JA) – so we have just about doubled their weight by now. What strong, amazing little girls we have!
I know I have been slacking on the photo goodness, so I am going to make it my weekend project to get caught up on posting those. I cannot withhold all of this baby cuteness from you any longer!
Just popping in to let you all know what we’ve been up to in the past two weeks. We’ve been sorta busy!
The girls are now 8 weeks old and growing quite well – I suspect their next weigh-in will definitely be around the 6 pound mark! Next week, on February 7, they will have reached their original due date and according to all the books and things, we will officially have “newborn” babies. How crazy is that?
ML and I have been diligently following all of the orders given to us from the hospital so that we can continue the girls’ care at home. This includes bottle feedings every 3-4 hours alternating between breast milk and special formula for preemies. They take liquid vitamins twice a day which gets mixed into their bottles. Both babies had blood transfusions while in the hospital so the extra iron from the vitamins helps. The girls are still working on some feeding issues – sometimes their suck/swallow/breathe rhythm will get thrown off and they will have to pause for a moment to regain their breath. Sometimes they choke a little because they chug so fast! But they are so much better at eating than when they were in the hospital and these are all issues that they are quickly growing out of.
We are working on direct breastfeeding every day, but it may be a while before we can attempt to fully breastfeed since we have to carefully measure all of their intake for now. They are also still not quite strong enough to latch on at the breast, but are getting better all the time. I’m hoping once they (we) get the hang of it, our night time routine will become easier – no bottles or breast pumps to deal with in the middle of the night.
ML took 4 weeks of vacation to be home with us, so we have two more weeks of daddy time before he goes back to work. Care for the twins has been a two-parent job thus far, but we are quickly finding ways to minimize the work and get into a schedule. We are figuring out how to get some sleep, which is the most important thing for everyone. Hopefully over the next 2 weeks while he’s still around we will get to the point where I can do most of the baby care on my own or with some help from my family. If you asked me two weeks ago if this was possible I would have probably collapsed into an overwhelmed heap and cried NO freaking way. But as time goes by we are getting better at this and now I feel like it’s possible.
Lastly, we are pretty much confined to the house until cold/flu season is over. The girls and I go out for doctor visits only since they (and all preemies) are at risk for a virus called RSV. They have had their first well baby visit with our family doctor, which went great. We also get home visits from a nurse about once a week, which is really reassuring. We had a couple of follow up appointments back at the UConn Health Center, which were each about 3 hour outings for a 2 minute doctor visit (GRR). We survived, though, and what I learned most from those doctor visits is that man, do twins attract a LOT of attention. I was in the lobby holding the two babies in their car seats while ML parked the car and I literally got swarmed by people asking questions and staring and ooh-ing over the babies. OMG. Perhaps staying in the house for now is best!
So that’s what’s going on for now and thanks to everyone for checking in on us from time to time! It’s a lot of work, but we’re getting by. The girls are becoming more alert and active every day. They should be reaching “normal” newborn baby developmental milestones in the coming weeks, like smiling and visual recognition. That should prove to be lots of fun. I am, as always, taking tons of photos but it’ll probably be a while before I’m coordinated enough to get them posted. Stay tuned though!
The girls are coming home! Yes, Sunday, as in TOMORROW — Sunday, January 18, 2009! Exactly six weeks from their birthday!
This week has been great for the girls, they have made significant advances that all point to discharge. They have been maintaining their own temperature successfully outside of the isolettes and taking all of their feeds from bottles, all while continuing to gain weight. They are both over 5 pounds now. ML and I have been working diligently to become familiarized with the care necessary to continue this progress at home. We are happy to say we have the confidence needed to start parenting them full time. They really are like babies now, no longer little hospital patients!
The groceries have been stocked up, the nursery is clean and ready for arrival. We have had the car seats installed and inspected by the police. We took an infant CPR class. We watched instructional videos at the hospital about RSV, SIDS and other acronyms important for babies’ health (go look those up if you are so interested). We know how to feed and diaper them, swaddle them, bathe them. We know their body language and what cues to look for when there is a problem. We have the numbers to poison control and the pediatrician handy. We have follow-up appointments scheduled to see the pediatrician and several specialists over the next weeks and months. We even have a visiting nurse service coming out to the house during the first week to check on us.
We have known since about Tuesday this week that the discharge was going to happen this weekend, but we didn’t dare speak of it until we knew for sure. Then even after we knew for sure, we waited some more to tell everyone because it didn’t seem like it was really happening! But then, yesterday it just kind of occurred to me that we are about as ready as we will ever be. Having six weeks to prepare for the imminent arrival of tiny premature babies really puts a person into super checklist mode. I doubt we would have done anything near this level of preparation if we hadn’t been through the ringer with this whole hospital experience. I hope we are better parents for it! If anything it was a good outlet for all of that nervous energy.
I remember the night after I gave birth, I barely slept at all. I was so excited – like I was a kid on Christmas Eve all over again. (Or it could have been the mega-dose of narcotics I was on, but anyway.) I wonder if tonight will be similar in anticipation, excitement and sheer terror for what we are about to embark on at home. But I can’t wait, nonetheless. I can’t wait to start the next chapter of our story – the Book of Lang has just begun!!
The number one question of all time – even more than “How are you feeling?” – is without a doubt:
“So, when are the girls coming home from the hospital?”
Damn it, people. Don’t you think I would tell you if I knew??? When I know this information it will be the first thing to fly out of my mouth before I even say hello!
Most times I am in an upbeat mood and I will answer nicely and tell you about the milestones they are reaching and how they need to do x,y and z before they get to go home, and blah blah. Some unfortunate people have gotten my bitch mood answer to that question and probably won’t ask me again how the girls are doing until they graduate from college. Ah well.
So, no. We still do not have a specific end date to our hospital stay, but I can assure you we are getting very close. We are working on the final hurdles right now, which have everything to do with feeding. Little premature babies are not born with the coordination necessary to suck, swallow and breathe in order to take bottle or breast feedings. Obviously, this is a necessary skill for the children to have before ML and I can care for them in the home. For the past 5 weeks, the girls have been cared for by the most amazing medical care team in the universe whose sole job is to get them to be able to eat. This is what the big long wait is for.
But I can confidently assure you the end of hospital time is near. The girls are getting big – almost 5 pounds each now. They are doing well with their feedings and are no longer in isolettes. They look like the other babies in the newborn nursery and no longer resemble the frail little hospital patients from the NICU. This is how I know we are going to bring them home soon. And I will for sure let the whole world exactly the date and time that they will be driving home with us in the car. You do not need to worry about that!
Today the twins are one month old! It’s been a long month of NICU and nursery care, but the girls are doing fantastic and we are so looking forward to bringing them home soon. At this time they are transitioning from tube feedings to bottle feedings. It takes a lot of patience (for us) and energy (for the girls) to make this big step, but we are making progress every day.
