Week 1

Now that I'm getting the hang of this motherhood thing, I'm going to get this blog up-to-date on what's been going on with the boys since we've been home.

Week 1 was tough... I mean TOUGH! I had prepared myself (or
so I thought) that parenting twins wouldn't be easy, but I would have never thought it would be this hard. What an adjustment. Between the lack of sleep and the emotional melt downs I was having constantly it seemed that I'd never be able to handle my new life. Fortunately, my parents were here for lots of extra help and the boys were fairly cooperative.

We were feeding every 3 hours when we first came home. Nathan was only able to bottle feed which in hindsight was great since anyone could chime in and feed him while I worked to breast feed and supplement Jeremy. It seemed like things were going pretty well, but Jeremy kept getting more and more frustrated with breast feeding. It turned out that he wasn't getting the nourishment that he needed from me and ended up with Jaundice again. So heartbreaking! We ended up having Bily lights delivered to our house to reverse the Jaundice. We had to wrap Jeremy in a 'Bily blanket' while he was sleeping (see photo). Fortunately, after 2 days, we cured the Jaundice and had moved to bottle feeding exclusively to make sure he was well hydrated and fed.

Once we nailed the Jaundice, things seemed to get a lot easier. Both boys were moved to a 4 hour feeding schedule. I bought myself an hour! You wouldn't believe what a difference an hour makes. Suddenly I felt like I actually could accomplish something between feedings... nap, email, walks... I could see the light!

And, I decided that breast feeding was too risky for Jeremy and decided to exclusively bottle feed. This was a huge decision for me, but ultimately best for everyone's sanity. Jeremy was very upset everytime he tried to breast feed which was killing me! It's heartbreaking to have your child wail everytime he tries to feed from you. So, instead we moved to formula and I decided to pump as much as possible to still be able to provide both boys breast milk.

By the end of week 1, we developed a pretty good system for feedings. The boys ate at 11:00, 3:00 and 7:00 around the clock which isn't too bad. The 3:00 am feeding is the only real tough shift, but we took turns and muscle through it. The hard part is waking up, but once you see the boys, you just smile and get to work :-)