Hello My Dear Followers!
I cannot apologize enough for letting this much time go by before creating another post, but I do have a pretty good excuse! It has been very challenging to navigate this new normal - balancing 3 under 1.5 years, my marriage, laundry, keeping the house in some sort of order, my health, and having a little bit of fun in between is no easy feat. Right when I thought I was figuring out a routine, I returned to work full time.
Now enough with the explanations, that's not what this entry is about. In this post, I want to give another update on the girls since a couple months have gone by. Moving forward I will start adding content about my C-Section, NICU, breastfeeding (exclusively pumping), and home life experiences.
Margo and Eleanor are now a little over 15 weeks old (7 weeks adjusted). They landed on the unadjusted grown curve at 2 months old at a whopping 3rd percentile, and at their 3 month appointment were up to the 10th percentile! They were taken off of their 1 bottle of Neosure a day at their last appointment because they were well over 10 lbs each, so they are officially on straight breastmilk.
The first few weeks at home, the girls mostly just ate and slept - similar to what they would be doing if they were still in my belly. Around their 4 week adjusted age, however, they started being awake a lot more often and a lot more fussy. The " newborn" stage had officially kicked in and what a challenge it was! The Witching Hour was something that I had never experienced with Silas, but as a mom of twins it seems to be amplified.
Eleanor cries and I console her, rocking her and snuggling her just like I remember doing with Silas. She is instantly comforted, a deep sigh of relief in my chest - only to then hear the loud cries of Margo. I then put Eleanor down and insert her pacifier to tend to Margo. Margo is instantly comforted by her mama's snuggles and is happy on my chest when Eleanor spits out her pacifier and let's out another bellowing cry.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
I am so thankful that Brian is a very " hands on" dad, so when I'm really in the trenches of the Witching Hour, he jumps right in to console a baby too. But sometimes we have to get other stuff done! Dinner, entertaining Silas, laundry, mowing, cleaning the house, taking care of the animals, the neverending yard work, freezing breastmilk... the list really goes on and on and on...
Now I know the newborn stage is hard, but doubling the newborns makes it that much harder. A lot of mamas of multiples call this the "survival stage," and I totally get that. It's not easy, that's for sure! But I remind myself in the difficult times that this is just a season. I am reminded of this constantly as I watch my son grow. The time really does go by so quickly! So survive, we will!
"Are you getting any sleep?!"..... a question that I'm asked quite often. I am! Not a ton, but certainly enough! The girls typically wake up twice in the night to eat. We put the girls down for bed between 7:30 and 8pm. Brian takes the first feed around midnight, and I do the next one around 4am. The girls then wake up for the day around 7am.
Navigating sleep has been a challenge with twins. First off, I'll start by saying that Silas was an amazing sleeper right from the start, and still is. He sleeps 12 hours every night and takes a slammer nap in the afternoon. I knew with 2 newborns, that it wasn't going to be so easy. Their night sleep isn't horrible - I know that waking up twice a night is developmentally normal for their age and that some mamas of multiples dream of that kind of sleep. The naps, however, are HARD. I feel like I'm constantly trying to comfort one baby that wakes up while trying not to wake the other. SO much running up and down the stairs. Multiple times a day we're bringing a baby down to chill in a swing, hoping the other will stay resting. At least I'm getting a workout in though, right?!
That said, I'm looking forward to eventually having a structured, consolidated nap schedule.
This leads me to my next topic. Being a mom of preemies has its own set of challenges. One of those is understanding their actual age vs. adjusted age. I think that may be a reason why I get impatient with these short, unstructured naps. Often times I need to remind myself that although they are 15 weeks, developmentally they are really only 7 weeks.
As a mom of preemies, you are constantly paying attention to if they're hitting their (adjusted) milestones on time. Often times, early intervention is needed for preemies to assist with physical delays - be it gross motor skills, fine motor skills, or communication. We're not very far into our journey, but at 6 weeks (adjusted) we got our first smiles and coos out of both of the girls, and it was such a huge relief. They're both also doing quite well with tummy time and picking up their heads. I truly couldn't be more proud of how far they've come in such a short period of time!
Overall, the girls are doing wonderful. They're hitting their milestones and sleeping a developmentally appropriate amount. Their big brother adores them, and from the way their faces light up when they see him, I'd say they feel the same. My heart could truly explode. Even in the hardest of times I remind myself how lucky I am to be this overwhelmed. I thank God everyday for seeing this through.
As always, thanks for following along on this crazy journey and please keep checking for new content!