Quick Update

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!