faqs and random thoughts

you thought I would never post again, didn't you? it's only been a week I guess, but it does feel like forever... I blog quite frequently in my head... I think, oh that would be a funny little story to tell on the blog. but blogging takes two hands you see, and when have i had TWO hands free? so blake is watching the kiddos right now and I'm going to sit here and type everything i can think of until this laptop gets too hot on my lap... (but here's your warning - this is a brain-dump post, so apologies in advance for lack of formatting, good sentence structure, etc)

- FAQ #1: How is breastfeeding going dana?
it's going alright. backing up to aug 10, I breastfed Kaylee almost as soon as she was born - as in twice before Ethan made his entrance into the world. She's a great eater and all was going well. Ethan however has trouble latching due to the way his tongue is connected to his lower mouth. And then my milk didn't come in fast enough and the babies were hungry. So the lactation specialist at the hospital started us on formula. it was such a process and so much work. first I would breastfeed as much as possible. Then we would relatch the babies to me and take this little itty bitty tube and try and work it into their mouths. on the other end of the tube is a syringe of formula. the babies aren't/weren't strong enough to pull the plunger on the syringe however, so beside holding a baby to me and trying to maintain a latch this whole time either blake or I was also holding the syringe and slowing pressing it down. The concept was this way the baby thinks its breastfeeding, but it's also being fed! nice concept. took all four of blake and my hands, and that was just to feed one baby! plus if blake had the syringe I had to say "start" "stop" "okay, a little more" based on the baby's sucking/swallowing. and the insertion of the little tube into baby's mouth wasn't comfy for me. so we did that while at the hospital and when we first got home, but we soon gave up. ah yes, and then I had to pump after that whole deal too. now my milk has come in and I don't have quite enough for both babies, but I have a great deal more. so they get breastmilk which I've pumped in bottles during the day and formula at night. it's not 100% ideal (not as much bonding, lots of bottles to wash, babies don't get all the health benefits of pure breastmilk), but it's so much better than it was and that's working for us right now.

- we have had some funny half awake dreams and conversations due to sleep deprivation. a couple nights ago blake thought we had 3 babies... there was a real and very giant spider in the bathroom that blake thought he had dreamt me telling him about but no, it was real and very big... last night blake got up right after I fed them and made a bottle because he thought I'd asked for it or something, but I'd just finished feeding them...

- blake is a huge help. i should give him his own post all about how great hewas taking care of teh three of us when I couldn't even sit up in bed by myself. there was a good week or so when all I did was feed babies - he did all diapers, carrying babies, washing bottles, etc etc plus a lot of bottle feeding too.

- kaylee likes motion. ethan likes to be swaddled. it's fun to have twins and see their differences. it is less fun when they're both crying... but we can't imagine our family any other way.

- mostly they sleep in the cosleeper next to our bed, occasionally in their cribs, and once or twice for short stints in their carseats or a swing (just kaylee on those last two - she likes to be inclined and the doc said it was prob reflux and if needed she could sleep inclined in a 5 pt harness which the carseat and swing both have)

- I am off my pain meds! hurray! (I have been for about a week, but I'm still happy about being able to sit up in bed by myself)

- favorite things we bought/were given: cosleeper, Ergo carrier, Halo sleep sacks, hands free pumping bra... (well, really those are just the things we love that we weren't sure if we'd love or if they were a waste of $)

- Ethan is much bigger than Kaylee still. he wears newborn diapers during the day and size 1 diapers at night! such a big boy...

- Darren is back in NY now. goodbye uncle darren...

- Annemarie flew in last night and helped out today. Hello Aunt Annemarie!

- Today was blake's first day back at work. I survived better than I thought, but really appreciated Annemarie's help!

- currently, I feed the babies from 9pm - 3am and blake feeds them from 3am - 9am. this is working decently well for us because it gives us both a decent stretch of sleep. takes longer to feed them than when we were both waking up for each feeding, but uninterrupted sleep is also very important!

- I do still plan to go back to work, but just for 15 hrs/wk: 7 at home, 8 in office. I'm doing 1 hr from home now - hey, baby steps! plus tutoring 3-5 hrs/wk which should start next week.

alrighty friends, that's all for now. hope you enjoyed my brain dump. pics coming, i promise...