Week 6—Oct 10-16 Food, Glorious Food

Well, we’re starting to settle into a pattern.  This is Barbara’s second week back to work part-time and we’re getting the hang of the schedule.  It has been nice having Barbara’s mom around to help with a little of the driving, errands and an extra set of hands with the babies.

With Grammy Carol around, I took the boys out on a couple of walks and Grammy came along.  The first day we took it easy and just walk around our block by the house.  The second time we got out, we actually walked around the long block.  The total trip was about a half mile.  We’re trying to get Carol ready for her upcoming trip to India where she may be doing a lot of touristy walking.  She’s getting stronger with the walking and getting to enjoy being out with the boys.  It’s been so wonderful having the grandparents on both sides be able to come and visit with the twins when they first arrived home from the hospital.  We have some wonderful photos of the boys with their doting grandparents and a few 3-generation photos that are priceless.

This week, the boys are 6 weeks old and I took them out shopping for the first time.  I went on some errands including to the Trader Joe’s and did my shopping with the double stroller.  With the nice big pouch on the bottom, I was able to put my groceries there and still shop with the boys.  I’m not sure if it was the fact that I was a dad pushing twins around, or the fact that it was a weekday afternoon, but I got a few odd stares from other customers.  But, I was enjoying getting them out and I also got a fair number of appropriate “oohs” and “aahs” and “how cute—twins!” etc.  They, of course, slept through the whole trip.  But it’s nice that I can take them out on errands as long as it is between feedings.

The boys continue to be well and to grow.  We spoke with the pediatrician last week about the reflux and she said that one contributor to reflux is larger meals.  She said that more frequent smaller meals may help Dexter with the reflux.  So we’re cutting him back to 3.5 oz per feeding (from 4).  It does seem to help, but they’re still not waking until about 4 hours, so it’s decreased the amount that Dexter is eating.  We’ll monitor to see how he does, but for now, between the smaller amounts and the inclined crib and pack-n-play, he seems to be doing better.  Still has some reflux, but it’s definitely better.

We had joined the Columbia Area Mother’s of Multiples club (CAMoM) and one of the programs they have has other mothers of multiples volunteer to make meals for new parents of multiples.  This week one of the volunteers brought us dinner that included a roast chicken, a big container of teriyaki string beans and a big container of rice.  It made two good –sized dinners for the three of us and was truly wonderful.  What a fantastic program.  I know that when we finally come out from under our cloud of sleep deprivation we’ll want to return the favor by doing for other families what this volunteer did for us.   This in addition to food that was prepared for us by family friends has been a lifesaver for us.  We’ve had about 5 friends who have made us food that was truly well appreciated.  Just having food that could be popped in the microwave to quickly eat around the babies’ schedule was truly helpful.  And having all this homemade food was even that much more special. 

Week 5 —Oct 3—9 Working 9 to 5

[Sorry that I'm so far behind, but unfortunately, life with twins doesn't leave me as much time to blog as I'd like.]

So, this week, Barbara went back to work on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  It was really hard to get used to the schedule.  And with Barbara not driving right now, getting her to work meant getting the kids bundled up and getting them in the car to take her to work.  Then doing it again in the evenings;  getting the kids back in the car to go pick her up.  Mostly the problem is getting the kids ready for the trip.  We want to feed the kids before we go so that they don’t get hungry and fussy during the ride, etc.  But we’ll work it out.  And we are both enjoying the maternity/paternity leave and spending time with the kids.  Wish we could afford one or both of us to be able to stay home with them, but then I bet every new parent feels this way.

So, my parents left on Tuesday.  Mom was so heartbroken to have to leave early but she was too worried about her cold.  She called a couple of times this week to check up on the kids.  She’s thinking of coming back out for Thanksgiving or Christmas to see the boys again.  That’s too far for us to think right now, but we’ll work something out.  However, one big help was the weekend before she left, my mother helped me clean the house and we were able to get rid of a lot of boxes and such that had collected, cleaned bathrooms, floors, vacuumed carpets and gave the kitchen a good once over.  It really helped to get the house in order, something that it was sorely needing.

So, my parents left on Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday evening, Barbara’s mom arrived.  Worked out so that all we had to do was change the sheets in the guest room and didn’t have to set up a second room.  Barbara’s mom is going to be visiting for two weeks.  And about 30 minutes after she arrived, the boys were hungry and Grammy Carol jumped right in and helped feed them.  Boy was she excited to see them.  And on Thursday, it was helpful that she was able to take Barbara to work in the morning and that really helped with the schedule, not having to feed the boys a little off-schedule and then try to get them packed up to go send Mom to work.  In the evening, we didn’t want her to have to drive in the Washington DC rush hour, so the boys and I went to pick up Barbara, but the evening was much easier as it wasn’t in the middle of the boys feeding schedule.  With Barbara’s mom staying for 2 weeks, she will also be able to help with this next week.  We’ve also got a number of errands that we’ll send her on since she can go out without having the bundle up the kids and take them out.  And it’s nice to have an extra pair of hands around when both boys are screaming, fussing or need to be fed.

Hard to believe that the boys are already a month old, but they are.  On Thursday, we had the boys’ one-month pediatrician visit.  The boys had been eating a lot and they seemed to have gained a lot of weight, but we weren’t sure how much.  We were surprised to find out that Dexter weighed 7 lbs, 13 oz (up 2 lbs from birth) and Spencer weighed 7 lbs, 8 oz (up 1 lb, 8 oz from birth).  Wow!  They’re still light for their age, so the doctor wants them to stay on the higher calorie Neosure formula, but they’re definitely gaining faster than normal and catching up on their weight.  Otherwise they’re pretty healthy and we’re pretty excited about them.  The only concern is that Dexter is having a bit of a problem with reflux.  He isn’t spitting up too much, but just a little and getting that burning feeling that often wakes him up and sometimes keeps him from falling asleep.  But we don’t want to medicate him if we can avoid it so we’ve started to incline his crib and the pack-n-play that they sleep in during the day.  We have a large bed wedge that we had for back problems that just fills up half of one crib and we put that in the crib.  Dexter will sleep on the wedge from the waist up and Spencer sleeps on the side without the wedge.  We’ve got a pillow in the pack-and-play under the mattress that makes the mattress slope.  So far, these things seem to help with the reflux. 

At this point, we’ve increased the amount that the boys eat and so they are sleeping slightly longer.  We can feed them every 4 hours instead of every 3 hours and that really helps our sanity and exhaustion.  Whichever of us is on baby duty can sometimes slip in a catnap while the boys are sleeping longer.  That wasn’t possible with the every 3 hour feedings.