Away To Me

Breastfeeding update

Nathan lost his umbilical cord stump this morning and Wesley nursed at the breast for 40 mins. I think he received a decent amount of milk from the tap. He fell asleep after nursing and when he woke up a few minutes later he was a tad hungry but only ate 18 ml of expressed breast milk.

I did some figuring - in the past 24 hours I pumped 15 times and had a total of nearly 23 ounces. That needs to double in the next week. I have the appropriate herbs and supplements on hand now. Hope it works, I want so desperately for this to work. 

Apologies and Pumping schedule.

I just want to quickly apologize for not responding to any comments on my blog or any emails I've received. To be honest... I'm busy! LOL!!!

I haven't had much computer time these days. I haven't read blogs in over a week. Mostly I just pump, pump and pump some more breastmilk. I'm still not making 100% which bums me out. I'm at about 80% which is great. To give you an idea of my pumping schedule, here is the past 12 hours:

Today as an example:

Midnight

1:45am

3am

6am 

6:45 am

8am

10:30am

11:45am

12:15pm

In between pumping sessions I change diapers, feed babies, warm formula (if needed) try to eat something myself and make sure I drink as much as possible. I also try to sleep a bit. 

It's tough right now.  I feel like a zombie.

Off to sleep some.

Day 8 -Semi Solo

Day 8 and all remains well. I'm still pumping, pumping, pumping. So far today the boys have received 100% breastmilk. Fingers crossed we can keep it going through the rest of the day/night.

Hubby went to work today. He left a bit late and then a few hours later our wonderful sitter came to keep Jake occupied for 4 hours. It gave me time to take a shower, pump, pump, pump, feed and love on babies, take an hour 15 min nap, two loads of laundry (still not folded) and of course take photos of the boys. 

Wesley on the left, Nathan on the right.

Nathan - looks like his daddy, acts like me!

Wesley looks like me, acts calm and sweet like his daddy.

Update - Nearly a full week old.

Boys turn one week tonight at 9:13 & 9:16! 

Had a ped appointment yesterday. Nathan (Aka Lefty) weighed 5 pounds 3 ounces, so he's really doing well. He weighted 5 pounds 8 ounces at birth, so he's quickly working his way back to his birth weight.

Wesley(Aka Poncho) weighed 6 pounds even. He weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces at birth, so he's not bouncing back as quickly. I noticed last night that he is eating about the same amount for the past 2 days, where Nathan is eating more. So I'm trying to encourage Wes to eat more.

I have been feeding on demand. Which is not easy with twins, but I think it is best for them. Nathan could feed every 1 1/2 -2 hours. Wes, could easily go 3 hours without eating. Today I'm going to try to keep Wes more alert when Nathan is eating in hopes that he'll wake up and want to eat. 

Breatfeeding is really tough. But I haven't given up. Nathan hates, I mean HATES any form of feeding  besides bottle. Sometimes he'll tolerate the breast for a few minutes. Wesley will take food in any form, but he is a slow eater and he doesn't eat very much.  He will feed from the breast which is great but also painful.

I'm pumping a minimum of 10 times a day. It's more like 15 times a day. Most times it's 20 minutes per session but sometimes it's only 5-10 mins. I'm producing lots of milk, nearly enough to feed both babies 100% breastmilk. Woohooo. But my nipples are so sore from pumping, I can hardly stand trying to put the babies on the breast at this point. 

I have every breastfeeding contraption there is including nipple shields and nipple shells. I'm pretty confident in my pumping abilities as I pumped so much to produce milk for Jake. But it sucks to get sore and it sucks to spend so many extra hours awake pumping when I wish I could be sleeping or spending time with Jake.

Jake is great, but he's a bit anti-mommy right now. Daddy is more fun and mommy is with the babies all the time. Poor kid. Between being hormonal and tired, I lost it a bit this morning when daddy took him to school. I started to cry when I gave him a hug and a kiss. So silly! Daddy is doing an awesome job and we are all so lucky to have him in our lives!

I'm feeling okay, not as good as I would have expected. I'm pretty sure I have a hernia and I have lots of edema that I didn't anticipate. It's bad around my lower belly area. Very unattractive to say the least. But the not-so-attractive part isn't what bothers me, it's the stretching and pulling of the stretch marks and the incision that bugs me. It burns, badly! Ice is helping and I'm going to drink some pineapple juice per my friend Leah's suggestion to help get rid of some of this excess water. 

Well that's all the time I have to update. A pumping I must go! 

Monday Morning Update

I'm dog tired.

Boobs are sore.

But I have never been happier in my life!!!!!!!!! 

I made enough milk last night to feed both babies ALL NIGHT LONG!!! They had NO FORMULA at all last night.

This is huge for Nathan, he's always had to have supplemental formula (mostly formula actually). I did have to use a bottle for him. He does not like the syringe feeding, or SNS feeding or cup feeding. And at this point, the delivery method is not as important as the product delivered.

Wesley is so cooperative. He reminds me  a lot of Jake when he was a newborn. Wes wasn't thrilled with the SNS feeding, but he drank and he dealt with it. He was exclusively breastfed his first 20 hours of life. Hopefully the milk will continue to come in and keep increasing. 

By this morning, the tap ran dry, I was pumping for 20 minutes and only got about 20ml. The 6:30 feeding for Nathan (who woke up later than Wesley) was formula. But that's okay, he got 11 hours of mom's milk.

Off to take Jake to school and then to the pediatrician's office for the baby boys.

Busy Night ... Busy Morning ... Busy Day!

Things do not slow down for a mom of twins. Even if you did just have a C-section. LOL!

Last night was a marathon. But I rocked. Seriously, I am so happy with myself that I am going to toot my own horn. I feel like Iron Woman! Hubby is not good with lack of sleep. He tries, but we know his limitations. Besides, I need him 100% during the day to take care of Jake. So Hubby is sleeping in the spare room for the time being. I handle the babies by myself at night. Besides, I'm the milk maker. 

During the day the boys were sleeping long stretches, like 3 hours or more sometimes. I was forcing them awake and feeding them because of the pediatrician's fear of their blood sugar levels dropping and their bilirubin levels. At about 3pm I got some better advice and I quit forcing these babies to eat. It went against everything I felt in my heart and knew in my mind but these docs have had a hold on me the past 4 days. (a whole other blog post on that subject soon).

Anyway, last night both boys ate like champs, on their own. Only problem was, they weren't on the same schedule. So I was up ALL NIGHT LONG! I was lucky if I got 30-40 mins in between feeding, pumping, cleaning, warming. By 2:30 I was giggling. I mean it wasn't worth getting upset over as it was actually a wonderful thing. I mean both my boys were eating, fantastic amounts, on their own demand and then they would settle right down and sleep. And I'd say 1/4 of what they ate was MY MILK!!!! I have been a pumping fool. 

At 8:30 we left to go back to the hospital so the boys could have their final blood draw. I also had my staples removed. Boys passed ther bilirubin checks and the staple removal went well. 

Then we headed to my midwife's place so she could give me some lactation support. She's a lactation specialist, used to head the LLL in her area. She is an invaluable source of information to me and I just love her so much. She's made me feel so good about what I've been able to accomplish with these boys. 

The bad news is we have had many stumbling block put up in front of our breastfeeding goals. 

1: C-section and premature babies - which leads to super tiny mouths and slow sucking. Especially with Nathan.

2: Formula fed with bottle in the hospital. This makes the babies so lazy when it comes to taking milk from the "tap".

3: Flat and semi-inverted nipples. My nips are not ideal. Also, the fact that both boys have such tiny mouths, they can't pull out my nipple well, so they don't get the stimulation to the roof of their mouth that triggers their sucking reflex. 

4: I know there is a fourth, but I've forgotten it! LOL!

So now we have a plan of attack to establish breastfeeding. My goal is to exclusively breastfeed these boys and I'm going to stick to it and do my best. In order to achieve this goal I have some serious work ahead of me. 

#1, no more bottles. Which means I have to finger feed, syringe feed, cup feed or use my supplemental nursing system for EACH and EVERY feeding. This takes a LONG time and requires both hands. (remember there are two babies) LOL! 

#2 Pumping. Pumping, Pumping and more pumping. Since my babies can't latch right now, I need to prove to my body that it has to make enough milk for twins. Besides I want to feed the boys more mom's milk than formula, so I have to pump to get that. 

Basically I pump for 15 mins. Put Wesley to the breast as much as possible. Feed with syringe, or finger, or SNS or cup first goes the expressed breast milk, then the formula, (if needed). That takes 25-45 mins.  Basically it takes me 45 minutes to 1 hour to feed each baby. And they are eating every 1 1/2 - 3 1/2 hours. Nathan doesn't take the breast so I just try to put him against the breast while I feed him with the syringe.  It is a lot of work. After all that I still have diapers to change, burping, snuggling, etc! 

So that's the update. Now I'm off to pump. Hubby is doing awesome with Jake and the house and being my "hunter and gatherer". More updates when and if I can. 

More Photos

While the men folk (Jake and Daddy) went out for awhile to hunt down some more preemie clothes and some dinner, mommy took pics of the boys. 

Nathan

Wesley

Names, Weights and updates - Brief.

Introducing Jake's little brothers!

Nathan Gregory (aka: Lefty) 5 pounds 8 ounces (daddy texted wrong)

18 inches long

And

Wesley John (aka: Poncho) 6 pounds 10 ounces

18 3/4 inches long.

Both boys are doing okay. They were definitely taken to early. Both were doing well in me and should still be. But I listened to doctors and made the best decision I could. Hind site is always 20-20 and one day soon I hope to give all the details on the blog. 

For now I just want to focus on the joy these two boys are bringing Jake, hubby and myself. Jake by the way is an amazing big brother. He is so gentle and caring and helpful. I am so in awe of how smart and intuitive Jake is. I love him so much!

I promise to get more pictures and more information up soon. For now these pics will have to do. I will say despite the great care we received at the hospital I was so ready to leave. So less than 48 hours after my C-section, we were driving home! 

Nathan on the left (looks just like daddy) Wesley on the right, looks more like me.

Wesley on the left. Nathan on the right. 

Phone Update #2

She called from the car. She's on her way home!! Woohoo!!! - Camille

Phone Update

Heights!

18 " and 18 3/4"

I talked to Deanna on the phone today. She really sounds fabulous and is very ready to go home. They were waiting for some test results and then to be discharged - hopefully! She's had enough of the hospital.

She said yesterday was rough with the low blood sugar for the boys but that everything had leveled out now. Their little heels are raw from being poked. So sad!

The connection we had was terrible so I didn't catch everything but it sure was nice to hear her voice - and sounding so good!

-Camille