The Rivers: January 2012

I can't believe that my baby girls are already one month old! There's not much to update on because they aren't doing much other than sleeping, eating, and pooping. Both of the girls generally have one alert period in the morning or early afternoon that lasts around an hour and a half and then a three hour stretch at night. Yep, that's right, I have a couple of night owls on my hands. I've discovered that I shouldn't even plan to go to sleep until 2 or 3 am. It's much easier to just stay awake with whichever baby is awake and then sleep when they do until 10 or 11 am. If anyone has any tips on getting them to switch to being more alert during the day, I am all ears! Livy usually stays awake from 8 to 11 pm, and then Lexi takes her turn from 11 pm to 2 or 3 am. I sometimes think it wouldn't be so bad if they were at least awake at the same time, but then I realize that it's much easier to handle them one at a time even if that means I'm sleep deprived. This is such a short period of time in their lives, and it will be over before I know it. I won't miss the sleepless nights, but I will definitely miss them being new babies that don't try to get out of my arms when I want to cuddle with them.

This month, we had a weight check on 1/4 (2 days after leaving the NICU) and on 1/20. At their appointment on 1/4, the girls were gaining steadily and were almost back up to their birth weights. Livy weighed in at 4 lbs 5 oz, and Lexi weighed 4 lbs 14 oz. Their pediatrician advised us to keep doing what we were doing, which was fortifying my breastmilk with Enfamil Enfacare. I couldn't breastfeed exclusively because we needed to monitor the amount they were consuming carefully, and the neonatologists didnt want us to wear the babies out before they completed their feeds. I was a little disappointed because pumping exclusively is hard work and even harder when you're caring for two newborns. We were allowed to put the babies to breast twice a day for 10 minutes. Livy took right to it, which surprised me. I was expecting her to have a harder time since she was so small. Lexi, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with it and screamed every time we tried. After my second experience with mastitis in 3 weeks, I gave in and put away the pump. I really wanted to be able to breastfeed the girls, but it wasn't worth my sanity.

I knew the girls were growing - they had both outgrown their preemie clothes and moved into the NB size. I felt a little bad about this because our good friends Kiley and Mark had bought us a whole bunch of preemie clothes and they only wore them for 2 weeks! BUT, I was so excited that they were putting on weight. Boy were we surprised on 1/20, when they were weighed. The nurse came back into the room after weighing Lexi with a shocked look on her face and told us that Lexi now weight 6 lbs 4 oz. She had gained almost 1.5 lbs in 2 weeks!! Livy did almost as well by gaining a full pound. She weighed 5 lbs 4 oz. I can't wait to see what they weigh now. Using my scale at home, I'm estimating that Lexi is now somewhere around 7.5 lbs. We got permission to switch from the high calorie formula to something a little cheaper, so now we're on Gentlease, and it seems to agree with the girls pretty well.

Their pediatrician said to keep the babies at home until they are 6 weeks old, which is one week from today. I think we are all a little anxious to get out of the house. I still don't plan to take them into crowded places for a while, but it would be nice to be able to get out some. They get their second Synagis shot next Friday. For those of you that don't know, this is supposed to protect them against RSV which could be fatal to newborns. We don't go back to the pediatrician until their 2 month check up, which won't be until the end of February.

Here are some pics from this month.