So Busy!!

I'm sorry I haven't posted an update in a while, but Passover just sort of took over my entire month of April, and the semester isn't finished yet for school. I've missed so many classes - when I was sick, Passover, and then yesterday because my car battery died. (Seriously...not the best time for that to happen! But at least all it took was a jump and we were back in business.)

Anyway, half of my husband's immediate family stayed with us over Passover, and everyone had a great time. The twins went wild over "Auntie Beh" and "Uncle Joe" (aka "ABehBeh" and "AJoeJoe"). There was a lot of laughing and even some potty success! I bought the twins some cloth training pants, and hopefully they'll come in the mail soon. I just want to get them out of diapers already! Sure, they're young, but there's two of them and Tzipora. I'm getting sick of diapers. lol

I've discovered that Tzipora really isn't gaining weight - she's still at 10 1/2 lbs. I think maybe it's because she cut out an overnight feed and goes 10+ hours without crying or waking us up. She'd go even longer, but I have my alarm set for 7:45am so I can be on time to class and such. She just lays there and sucks on her fingers, so we have no idea that she's even awake. I'm going to be a lot more strict about waking her up at 5am for a feed and I'm not going to let her sit and nurse for an hour at a time during the day, because for the vast majority of that time she's basically sleep sucking and not getting any milk. I'm going to poke at her so she drinks quickly and I can get in more feeds during the day. Any expert breastfeeders out there with ideas on getting her to eat more and quickly? Cuz even though I might spend 4 hours per day with her on the breast, her weight is completely stagnant...

Growing Baby!

We had to reschedule Tzipora's weight check appointment from yesterday because of the snow. Actually, I'm relieved we didn't have to go in at 9:30 in the morning (snow or not) because I try to use the morning to sleep as much as I can. Tzipora is actually a FANTASTIC sleeper and I generally feel well rested, but you can never get too much sleep. ;-)

Breastfeeding is going so well. I am in awe of my body, which fought against me so heartily after the birth of the twins and refused to produce enough milk for one baby (let alone two). This time around I don't even have to think about my milk supply because there's always enough for her, no matter what time of day. And it gives me such satisfaction to see milk dribbling out of the corners of her mouth or to hear her gulping down milk. Tzipora is a champion nurser, too, feeding just about every 2 hours during the day and going for nice, long stretches at night. I do wake her during the day to make sure she's not going too much past the 2 hour mark, because I want to make sure her longest stretches are at night. Her night feeds tend to be sporadic, meaning one night she might only do 3 hour stretches but the next she might go for 6 or 7 hours... There have even been some nights where I've woken up to go to the bathroom and she is still fast asleep! Kinda funny when your newborn can go for longer sleep stretches than you can... :-) I even asked my doula whether or not I should wake her if I get up before she does, and my doula said that as long as the baby is back up to her birth weight then I could let her sleep as long as she wants to (but not past 8 hours). The only problem is when she wants to do a cluster feed between 8pm and 1am. Sure, I don't mind it as much as I would a cluster feed between 1am and 6am, but when school starts up and I need to be up and about before 8am, I'm going to be super tired without my sleep between 10pm and 1am. Honestly, though, I have nothing to complain about. I get enough sleep, even if it's usually interrupted once or twice, and now that Tzipora knows that night = sleep, I'm generally getting restful sleep. (There's a HUGE difference between getting 2 hours in a row and getting 3 hours. It has to do with sleep cycles and REM sleep, but getting 1 or 2 hours of sleep and then being woken up is almost as if you hadn't slept at all.)

The proof is in the pudding, though, as they say... She's two weeks old today, and not only is she back up to her birth weight, but she's well above it!! Last week on Tuesday (so 9 days ago) she was 6 lbs exactly, down 7 ounces from birth but up from her lowest weight which was in the 5's. Today she's now 6 lbs 13 oz!! She gained 13 oz in 9 days. Woo hoo!!

Breastfeeding

I'm done. The last few weeks were really tough with the breastfeeding, and I slowly weaned them down. I was nursing like 2-3 times a day and pumping once, then I was nursing like once a day and pumping once, and then a few days ago I just stopped everything. I think I pumped once when my left side started getting a bit hard, but after that everything's been soft and pain-free. No sign of mastitis or anything. Now, why did I decide to stop? Well, it was becoming just too much of a hassle with the twins. My right side had basically stopped producing, so Chana Brocha wasn't getting anything when she nursed. I would latch her on and then she'd pull off...over and over and over again. Dovid would also do this even though he was definitely getting milk. It was just so frustrating trying to keep them latched on when they really didn't want to. I do miss it a bit, just because it was nice to know that I was providing some of their food, but I also love just being able to plop a bottle in their mouth no matter where I am and not having to worry about getting up early to breastfeed when my mother-in-law can just as easily make them a bottle. :-) I made it 3 months breastfeeding the twins part-time, and I think that's a heck of a good job!

P.S. Big happy birthday to my hubby last Tuesday!!! He turned the big 4-0. Eep! I'll have to post a recent photo of him without his ugly beard, so you can see how much of a babyface he has.

P.P.S. Happy birthday today to my best friend, Melanie! She's the big 2-5. :-) Now she can rent a car without being charged extra for insurance!! hehe

New Bottles

I bought new bottles for the twins yesterday and they LOVE them. If you are breast feeding and bottle feeding, these bottles are awesome. If your baby is spitting up a lot or has gas, these bottles are awesome. It's the Playtex VentAire Advanced. I bought the newborn gift set. They have two types of sets available, one normal and one with wide bottles and nipples for babies who go between breast & bottle. The nipples really are more "life-like". My sister-in-law noticed a difference with the very first feeding! I even noticed a difference! When I mix formula there's usually a ton of bubbles after shaking it up, but after shaking with these bottles the bubbles just disappear. Go out and register for it or buy it yourself! :-)

My daughter slept through the night last night! She took a bottle (5 oz) just after midnight, finished around 12:40a and then slept till 6:40a!!!! She took 6.5 oz @ 6:40 and then she didn't take another feeding until 11:30a. Just amazing! Too bad her little brother got up for a 4a feeding, but he had only taken 3 oz at the midnight feeding.

If you're wondering about the breastfeeding, I get up for the feeding between 9 and noon and nurse them both. Then I breastfeed them during the day--as many times as they need to. If I sense that they're still hungry after a full nursing (i.e. I've been sitting there for an hour and starting to get sore), we'll supplement with a few oz (less than 3) by bottle. This generally only happens much later in the day. Around midnight they start getting bottles. Sometimes I'll pump in the morning if I wake up right after they've finished a feeding and I generally pump right before bed so I don't wake up in a puddle...which happened a few nights ago. lol oops! So far this has been working. My body has adjusted to it and I seem to be producing enough for them during the day. Next time I have a baby it will be one baby and I'll be able to breastfeed full-time. (You hear that, G-d? ONE BABY PLEASE!) hehe

Nothing to Report

Not much is going on here. The babies are doing well, although their feedings are still quite sporadic. We're trying to get them on an "every 3 hours or longer at night" shtick--only after a formula bottle and making sure they get at least 3 if not 4 oz. If it's during the day and they're nursing, it's anyone's guess and they will sometimes get hungry 1 or 2 hours after the *start* of a feeding. So if a feeding takes 1/2 an hour, they could be hungry again a 1/2 hour after that. Unfortunately nursing that often just hurts. The babies are (sort of) learning to nurse without the nipple shield, but they're not particularly good at it. I can only do it with one baby at a time and they can't usually go for a whole feeding. Then the next feeding I have to use the shield because I'm sore. *sigh* You'd think babies would have learned how to do this properly in utero and that nipples would evolve to not have nerve endings after 5000 years... :-) Oh well!

My Decision

Thank you for all of the wonderful comments and suggestions in my last post! I decided to go ahead and "do it." Hopefully my OB won't find out... hehe :-)

Sorry for the lack of posts, but life around here is nuts. I barely have time to check my email or do anything else, so blog posts get put way down on the priority list. :-(

The twins are doing very well, but I'm terrified for the day when there's no one here for me to call to when both are screaming at once or I need extra help. Yikes! They're both gaining weight well, and the fenugreek that I'm taking seems to be helping my milk supply. My biggest issue is generally with the evening feedings when I've been feeding them almost non-stop all day long. By that point, there's no milk left and my nipples start to itch from being nibbled on so much. On the days when they feed less often during the day, then I don't generally have that problem. I also can't wean them off of the nipple shields. My son has such a strong suck that I can only nurse him for a minute or two before the pain is too much for me. He has trouble with the latch--he gets on fine and then tries to slide down the nipple so he doesn't have as much in his mouth. OUUUUCH! My daughter flat out refuses to suck at all if I'm not wearing the nipple shield. She'll pull off and then start crying. *sigh*

I splurged and bought a Wii Fit the other day. I'm really looking forward to working out with it, becuase this belly bulge has got to go! I'm about 60 lbs over my ideal weight, even though I don't look it. I'm going to put a weight loss ticker on my blog so you guys will keep me honest. :-) And, in case you were wondering, I am 4' 10.5" tall, so 100 lbs IS my ideal weight...

Baby Burps

Anyone who ever told you that babies are unable to burp on their own (which is why you need to burp after every feeding) is totally mistaken. My twins have been known to burp while on the breast! It's a bit strange to be watching them suckling and then all of a sudden--BRAAAAP. hehe Half the time you sit them up right after a feeding and they'll let one fly before you've even touched their back. I dunno...maybe they're just baby geniuses. lol

We also discovered that my daughter is holding her head up. Don't ask me how, seeing as she's only 3 1/2 weeks old, but maybe it's because her head doesn't weigh too much yet. :-)

I started taking fenugreek to increase my milk supply. Because I don't do night feedings (my mother, mother-in-law and sister-in-law are SAINTS), I can go 10 hours without feeding them...and I think it was affecting my supply. For the last few days they would take over an hour to feed, still be hungry when we tried to put them down and then would be hungry an hour later. Today they eat for 20 mins, fall right to sleep and aren't hungry for 2 hours. Maybe they were just having a growth spurt, but I'm hoping it was a milk supply issue that is now resolved. :-)