Week 4 – Sept 26 – Oct 2 – We are Family

So I started back to work this week.  I am now working part-time Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays through the week of Thanksgiving.  Then I’ll go back full-time.  Barbara will start working part-time next week.  She’ll work Tuesdays and Thursdays until just after Thanksgiving.  This way, one of us will be home every day until the boys are about 3 months old.  I have the usual problem as a new first-time parent.  I want to spend the time with my kids and not go back to work.  But, I do like my work, I’m just fascinated with being a dad right now.  Oh well, I’m not the first, nor will I be the last to feel this way.

One piece of good news is that this weekend, the boys started eating more and were finishing their 3 oz quickly and still being hungry.  So after a week at 3 oz, we increased them to 3.5 oz.  And when we increased the amount, they’re now sleeping a little longer and eating about every 4 hours instead of every 3 hours.  That helps a lot.  It means that sometimes between feedings we even have time to get things done around the house and maybe even catch a quick nap.  The boys now eat at rough 3:00, 7:00 and 11:00 (both AM and PM).  For now, we are trying to keep up as they did in the hospital of feeding them consecutively one after the other.  We also keep to the schedule of bathing them every 3 weeks.  We purchased a bathtub with a hammock/sling that holds the baby.  Wow!  It was worth it because the sling makes bathing the kids SO much easier.

The hard part here is working out our sleep schedule so that one of us is always available to take care of the boys.  We’ve tried a few things, but it seems to work best with Barbara going to sleep about 7-8pm and sleeping until 3am.  I sleep from 3am until 7-8 am.  I’m starting the 3am feedings and when Barbara gets up, she takes over.   Next week, when Barbara goes back to work part-time, we may have to shift things a little so that she can get enough sleep before going to the office for the day.

On Tuesday, Grandma and Grandpa Ying (they go by the Chinese nicknames, Nai-nai and Yeh-yeh) came to visit.  They’re planning to stay for 3 weeks until October 18.  They were so excited to get back to the house and finally meet their new grandsons.   They immediately wanted to help with the kids and with two babies, sometimes both wanting to eat at the same time, they got their chances.  Mom also helped with cooking and dishes and laundry, all very important things.  While Mom was here to help with the kids, I was also able to get more tidying around done.  It had taken 2 weeks, but I was finally starting to excavate the house enough that we could see the flat surfaces like tables, counters and floors again.   Then an unfortunate occurrence happened.  We had a cold snap over the weekend and Mom caught a cold.  She was very worried about infecting the babies, especially considering the cautions that we had gotten from the pediatrician about not exposing them to sick folks.  So, she asked me to reschedule their flight home and they would leave early.  It was so hard for her to keep away from the grandkids.  She wanted to hold them and would still react every time one of them would cry out and would want to go and soothe them.  They’ll leave next Tuesday, but we’ll make arrangements again either Thanksgiving or Christmas for them to come back to visit again and see the kids.

But they had a wonderful week visiting and helping us out.  Meanwhile, Barbara and I were still sharing shift duty so that one of us was always there to care for them.  But, it was nice to have the help around the house and with the twins.