What happened to the angels that we met in the NICU?
All the nurses commented on how "good" our babies where. They almost never cried. Now it seems that at least one of the twins is crying at all times. We rarely go more than about ten minutes without having to go calm one of them down. I think that Jordan may be suffering from reflux and it is almost impossible to get her to burp. She definitely does not eat as well as Madison. That brings up another thought.
They are individuals.
It is easy to think of them as one. They arrived at the same time, suffered from many of the same problems, take most of the same drugs, we try to keep them on the same schedule. And speaking of schedules, we have been thinking of spacing out their feedings to every 4 hours. I realized last night that Madison may be ready for that, but Jordan may not. They really got off schedule yesterday/last night. One or the other was screaming all night. We can usually keep them fairly calm till feeding time, but Jordan had to be fed to be calmed. Maybe she has colic. I went to bed at 9:30 this morning. We had been discussing changing up their schedule where we might get a little more sleep, but didn't mean for that to happen last night. They started dictating their own schedule to me. Once I got Madison to sleep I decided not to wake her up to eat and she slept from about 3:30 till 7:00. Jordan decided that this would be a perfect opportunity to get some quality time with Dad and was inconsolable till around 6:45. At any rate we got them pretty much back on schedule at the 8:00 a.m. feeding.
We still don't feel fully in control.
With the first two kids we fed them on demand and tried different things till we found what worked. With the twins we have not felt comfortable changing things, like the feeding schedule. I asked Kari "Should we change the feeding schedule to four hours?"
"I don't know. Should we ask the doctor?"
With the first two we felt "nobody knows our kids better than us and don't tell me how to do this, I know what is best for my child."
It is taking us longer to get there with the twins. They have been on such a regimented schedule, with so much medication and so many doctor's orders, that we just have not been in our comfort zone. We had both Rylee and Reagan sleeping through the night within three months. We had to let them cry it out a few times to do that and I think that might be one of the issues. We have been unable to let the twins cry. Partly because their heart monitors go off if we let them cry for more than 30 seconds and partly because we have been geared toward "these kids have special needs." (pause here to administer Reglan to Madison)
Our relief pitcher is down with Bronchitis.
Unfortunately, Rebekah, Kari's sister, is ill and we are not sure when she will be able to come help out. We are praying for a speedy recovery for all our sakes. We have been dragging our feet about hiring a nanny (I can't tell you why. I really don't know.) and are now exploring that option again. I guess since we were expecting Bekah to come out around the 4th or 5th we were waiting to see how that worked out and assess our needs for additional help after she got here. Maybe we have trust issues, you know what you are getting with family. We are not sure what to expect with hired help. We have never even hired a baby sitter for Rylee or Reagan. Which brings up another thought.
(Pause here to heat bottles)
It was really nice having Sean and Kelly take the big girls the other day, but we really missed them. And it may sound funny, but we almost didn't know what to do with ourselves without the girls running around. But it was relaxing and I got a needed nap without a small finger in my nose or ear splitting shrieks. We had illutions of getting some things done, but we gave up on that soon after the girls left.
(Pause here to change the girls, take temperatures, check O2, feed, burp, clean up vomit, ect.)
Note: A infant inclined to roughly 35 degrees can project vomit more than 2.5 feet. It is a sight to see.
Messages:
Judy, of course I remember you. The first thing I thought of was the pictures of the naked guy who was wandering the halls of the Hyatt. Those dealer shows were never dull, were they? Thanks for signing the guest book, you are the first and only so far and it is nice to get some feed back.
Chad, sorry I haven't called you back yet. I was going to call this evening but by the time I picked up the phone it was after eleven your time and I didn't want to wake anyone. When you called I was heating bottles, had two screaming kids in the highchairs and two hungry infants who knew it was feeding time.
I will try to get some more photos posted soon.
I guess that is all I can think of at the moment. More later.