Nov/Dec 2009 Babies

[aims327]

I wanted to start a thread for all of us November/December 2009 parents. I'm hoping we can all share our experiences as new parents.

[kutekellie99]

I'm here aims!! I hope everyone else comes on over too! Feels good to have made it to the "parents" section

[aims327]

I agree Kelly. I was beginning to think I'd never make it to this section. How are you feeling? I saw you were back in the hospital on FB.

[cymplicity27]

I'm here, I'm here!!

So has anyone taken their baby/babies out yet? Whenever we go to a pedi appt we've stopped to a store or two (Target/Kohls). One lady had the nerve to tell me they were too young to be out. I almost told her to mind her business but I decided to bite my tongue and ignore her all together. We also took them out to dinner with the grandparents one night this week. All they do is sleep where ever we take them. Most of the time we're shut up in the house so I think it's good for all of us to get some air from time to time! Our pediatrician told us to just keep them away from large crowds and sick people and out of the cold.

I know it's colder up north for some of you which makes a difference. It reached somewhere in the 60s here yesterday!

[aims327]

Cynthia - We've only taken the twins out when they have a doctor's appointment. The doctor at the hospital told us not to really take them to too many places until they were a couple months old. My hubby has followed doctor's orders faithfully. lol I just want to show them off to everyone and he won't let me. lol It is very cold in Indiana right now so it's probably better they don't go very many places.

Ren had his doctor's appointment with the urologist from Riley Hospital today. The doctor was very nice. It looks like Ren will have two surgeries. One surgery will be to separate his penis from the testicles and the other will be to straighten his penis so it doesn't look like captain hook. He won't have his first surgery until he is 9 months old and the 2nd one 4-5 months after that. We were told that only 1% of boys are born with what Ren has.

Cynthia, I have given up on bf too and just pump. I have to put cereal in Ren's milk so he doesn't throw up as much, so it's pointless to put him to the breast. Piper hates breastfeeding. Ren can't keep formula down at all so he is exclusively breastmilk. Piper is on both.

How's everyone doing with the feedings? I am so exhausted feeding them every 3 hours. Sometimes I start to dose off feeding them. I'm afraid I'll dose off and drop them. That would be bad.

Well, I'm off to get some things done before the feedings start again.

[Tara2009]

Hi Ladies,

I am here too! I have never felt this disoriented in my life before - just with one baby. I can't imagine how moms with twins are handling it!!

I had a vaginal delivery, but with 2nd degree tear. So I have difficulty walking, bending etc. I don't know what I would do without my elder sister who is with me for a few days to help!

Neverthless, it is a great pleasure watching, caring and feeding for our baby girl Faith.

I am exhausted with feeding every 3 hours as well. I breasf feeding, but she is not getting enough of my milk, so I am combining formula as well.

DH is also getting used to all the new schedule. It is overwhelming, but we asked for it, didn't we? I am sure we all are going to do great parenting. Please keep sharing your experience.

Tara

[cymplicity27]

aims, how has your c-section recovery been going? Just in the last few days I've been getting this kinda sharp pain in my lower right abdomen. At first it was just when I coughed or sneezed and it hurt like crap! Now it's like a constant pain. Very annoying. I've read that the incision heals from the outside in and you'll experience different pains for 6 weeks. I so thought the worst was behind me and things would only get better from here. I'm so tired of pains!

AFM, the babies have hit the crying phase. They are awake more and never seem to be satisfied. We had the worse night the other night. The twins got on different schedules and we were waking up every 2 hours at night. They grunted (Chaz is a MAJOR grunter!!) and whined none stop plus little Jos has been spitting up a lot so we always have to pay close attention to her and make sure she's not throwing up in the middle of hte night. Last night was MUCH better and we got them back on the same schedule. Sometimes I feel completely out of it, frustrated and incompetent. I just want to go in a corner and cry. I love my babies dearly but MAN, this is work!!! Plus it tears me up to not be able to figure out what's wrong and fix it immediately. Life as a new parent I guess

[aims327]

Cynthia - My c section incision is still sore but definitely healing. Most of my pain in the middle of my stomach. I've had really bad stomach cramps too but was told that was just my uterus shrinking. I'm at 6 weeks since the c-section, and I'm definitely moving better. So, you'll feel better soon.

The crying phase...I feel for ya Cynthia. I feel so helpless when they just cry and cry. Even more helpless when I'm home alone and they are both crying at the same time. Most of the time Piper cries because she has gas. I've found infant gas drops are wonderful. Ren cries because he has acid reflux and now thrush this week. Thrush is horrible. I changed the worst smelling poopy diaper yesterday. It smelled really strong of yeast. I was so worried I gave it to him even though I have no signs of a yeast infection. The doctor told me he just got it. He has to take meds for it 4x a day for 7 days. So, if you smell really strong yeast and see a white tongue, get them checked for thrush.

[nancy1]

Hi Ladies,

I'm from the Nov mommies thread and I would love to join your group to share experiences.

My baby is now 5 weeks old. He lost quite a bit of weight at birth (most babies do but he was close to the danger zone). He is now thriving well and eating about 3.5 oz every 3 hours. I am curious to find out how much and how often your darlings are being fed. I am feeding them with pumped milk.
I would really appreciare the input.
Thanks,
Nancy

[aims327]

Hi Nancy, welcome to the thread! I had my twins 6 weeks ago. My son, Ren, was born weighing 3lbs 5 oz and my daughter, Piper, was born weighing 6lbs 5 oz. We've struggled getting weight on Ren but he is 4lbs 14oz now. He is only taking 2oz of pumped breastmilk every 3 hours. Piper is on both formula and breastmilk and taking about 4oz every 3 hours. I've really been struggling with getting my milk supply to have both of them on only breastmilk. How often do you pump? I try to pump every 2-3 hours but that doesn't always happen.

[kutekellie99]

Ok ladies...I think my baby is a hog. She is eatting 5-6 ounces every 2-3 hours!! I was actually so concerned that I called the Dr and asked why a 3 week old would eat so much. They said to put rice cereal in her milk, but the dern stuff won't come out the nipple!! So anyway, she's eatting well.

I have taken Gabby out to the mall, Babies R Us, Target... Anywhere we need to go. She been out to eat 8-9 times too. I just hope and pray she doesn't get sick...but when my husband has a day off work, all I want to do is get out of the house. So, Gabby goes with us.

Aims: yep, I'm finally out of the hospital... I had endomitritis (I think that's how you spell it). I tell you, it sucked! My fever was 104.1, so I felt awful.

Well, hope everyone is ok and making it on no sleep! I'm personally about to fall over tired!

[aims327]

Kelly - Wow, that does seem like a lot for a 3 week old. How much cereal are you mixing in? I have to put cereal in all of Ren's bottles. I was told to put 1 tsp per ounce.

AFM - I had my 6 week post partum check today with my OB. Everything was fine and looks like I go back to work Jan 4th. I really don't want to go back. I just want to stay home with the twins.

[Tara2009]

Kellie,

Wow! I am amazed that you are going out a lot. I remember you mentioned that you had 2nd degree tear during delivery? I also had the same, and still recovering from it. It hurts when I walk too much or climb stairs. How was your recovery? How long did it take to walk without hurting?

Faith is only 10 days old and I already want to go out! I haven't gone out yet except for doctor appointments.

Tara

[cymplicity27]

Hi Nancy. My 8 lb boy is getting 3.5 to 4 oz every 3 hours. My 5 lb girl is getting 2 to 2. 5 oz every 3 hours. They've been eating more often lately though. Like having to have a "snack" in between feedings. I think they may be going through a growth spurt? Anyone else experience this?

Amy, I think I'm about done with pumping. I just don't have the time!! Between trying to get the 2 fed, who has time to pump? I'm down to only pumping twice a day. I think I'm going to wean off the pump this week and have them on solely formula going into their 2nd month. I'm tired of stressing over it. How is your pumping going?

The twins have been to Target and Kohl's several times. And they've gone out to dinner once. I can't wait to take them out more. I just hate when they start to get fussy because I don't want to take them out of their seats at all in public. So I'm trying to hold out until they are a little bigger.

We are headed to the mountains for Christmas this Wednesday! It will be their first road trip...about 5 hours. I can't wait to hand them off to my family so I can get some sleep, lol!

[aspotofTea]

Hi Everyone! I'd love to join in too.

My twins were born the same day as Aims twins- November 4. They were 37 weeks and two days at that point.

Fox is my son, and he was born first, weighing 6 lbs 6 oz. As of yesterday, he is 9 lbs 4 oz.

Violet is my daughter, and she was born weighing 6 lbs 2 oz, and as of yesterday weighs 8 lbs 10 oz.

Hi Cynthia!

Hi Nancy- I was going to suggest us moving to this thread in our old one, so I'm glad to see you here, and look forward to comparing note with you. And I'm really happy to be able to compare twin notes and war stories with you Amy and Cynthia!

Feedings- Fox would NOT latch on at all, so he has been bottle fed from the start. He would cry and get so upset when I tried to bf him that it was not worth it. So I pump for him and he's about 50-50- one feeding will be a bottle of formula, the next feeding a bottle of breastmilk. He takes 3 1/2 ounces each feeding, unless he's really hungry and then he will take 4.

One day when he was about 3 weeks, I tried again to bf and he totally latched! I was so happy.....until about 3 days ago, he went back to getting so upset and crying. So, that is that. I won't try again.

Violet latched like a pro from day one. She will take a bottle, but she doesn't like it much. I just now have gotten her to the same point as Fox- 50% formula, 50% breastmilk. Because I bf her, I'm not sure what she takes in when she does, but when we give her bottles, she takes about 2 1/2 ounces, but she still scowls at the formula haha.

It was important for me from the start for my husband to be able to feed them, so I never planned on exclusively breastfeeding. Plus, with the holidays, the rest of the family love that they get to feed them too. So it works out well.

Pumping sucks, I don't care for it, but it's okay, I'll do it. Not sure how long I will stick with it. My supply has been pretty decent- enough to feed them both breastmilk 50% of the time. Sometimes I can't get to pumping, so it's not the end of the world of they get two bottles of formula in a row. A lot of the time, in the middle of the night that happens.

Feeding has been great. Sleeping on the other hand.....OYE. It's been a tough battle. Recently, Violet has decided she likes to be awake until 2 am. Getting them both in the crib at night is tough. Forget about "bedtime"- it never stays the same. We try and try...........plus, they REFUSE to sleep in the crib during the day. The only thing they will nap in is their bouncy chairs. We call them the magic chairs- makes them happy everytime.

I could go on and on but I'll stop now. Happy to be a part of this discussion at long last !!