It was a rough week though. Last weekend, Saturday, we had to put Sampson down. He was 11 years old and while we'd removed the cancer from his chest, the non-cancerous growth on his leg started growing, and then last week we found a huge new mass on his side. Saturday though was the day we really started seeing him in pain, and Tom took him to the vet. The vet confirmed that his spleen was enlarged. While it is sad to let him go, by far the hardest part was telling Nicky.
Saturday night, Nicky woke up and vomited twice. We thought perhaps it was due to coughing as his asthma had been acting up a bit. But when he projectile vomited all over the backseat as Tom was taking him to the movies on Sunday, well we knew it was something else. Poor thing! His outing to the movie How to Train Your Dragon had to be put off, and he was horribly sick all night Sunday night. Tom stayed in his room with him and I took care of the twins. Monday he was on just fluids, and feeling much better. Tuesday he was back to school and 100%. Hopefully he and Tom can try the movie trip again tomorrow with better results.
We've settled into a workable routine this past week or so. It's not ideal, and not sustainable once one of us returns to work, but for now we're surviving. Basically from Midnight to about 9am I'm on deck with the twins. It works better now to have them sleep in the nursery at this time and I typically feed them in there now during the night. We had them sleeping in our room in a cosleeper for a while and I fed them there, but really neither Tom nor I slept very well with them in there as we wake at every little grunt and squeak. And with two, there is a lot of squeaking going on!
During the night I try to get a shower in at least every other night between feedings some time, and then try to nap between a feeding or two for an hour or two. I usually am not very successful in the napping though. By about 9am I'm ready to keel over and so Tom gets up and takes over. I try to sleep for a good 8 hours then and wake up in time for dinner. Once I'm up, we share the feedings up till about midnight-ish when Tom goes to bed for his 8 hours. So, not the best solution, but it's working for now.
We've had my mom and now Tom's mom here since bringing the girls home, so that gives us some help with the daytime feedings especially. When it's one person feeding it takes a good hour or more, but with two it can be done in 30-45 minutes usually. So that helps. Also, Donna is taking Nicky to and from school this week, and that helps a lot too. We'll see how well this works once it's just us.
Twice this week were particularly rough though. Wednesday we had the girls' first pediatric appointment at 11am, so that meant I didn't really get my full sleep in there. And then we had an 8:30am appointment Friday morning which meant my daytime sleep was off again. But right now we don't really leave the house too often, so this shouldn't happen too much.
Their pediatrician was thrilled with the girls by the way. They've been home since June 1st and in 8 days Lily gained 13oz and Gabi gained 12oz! That puts Lily at 6lb 15oz and Gabi up to 7lb 3oz. We knew they were gaining, and they are up to about 3oz a feeding now, but we were thrilled to see the results on the scale.
The pediatrician was also fine with the toenail painting idea. She said to go ahead and use remover to take it off Lily, and then pick two colors and just do their big toes. So we'll do that soon. She wasn't worried about using any particular kind of polish, so I might just check my stash to see what I have. Or if I do get out of the house maybe I'll pick up a bottle for each of them. We'll see.
Speaking of stores, we found out that the girls were fine to start on regular formula too. We'd been having them on the Neosure stuff, which has extra calories, since the NICU. But with their good gains they can be on the regular stuff now. That works out nicely because our Friday appointment was to get the kids and I on WIC. On the way home we used one of the coupons for formula and that worked out great! It was actually quite easy to do for the formula, although it looks a little more complicated for Nicky and I, so we'll conquer that later. That puts the girls on regular Goodstart formula, although we're still using the liquid, not the powder because of the risk of E. Sakazakii.
At the grocery store the girls were quite the hit. We received many congratulations and complements on them. And everyone kept their distance which was nice. The pediatrician had warned us to keep them as isolated as possible till after their 2 month vaccinations, so it was good to take them during such and off-peak time to the store. Not many people shopping at 11am on a Friday in the summer here. Go figure.
I think that about catches us up to date. I do have a few new photos for you too of course. Ok, I'm going to try to do these chronologically:
All ready to go home from the NICU. (Gabi is in the orange carrier.)
At the OB office on discharge day. This is the guy who got us all through this! (Lily is on the left.)
Nicky has been a wonderful big brother! Here he is with Gabi and I.
Once we got them home there were a lot of snuggles going on. (Lily is on the left here.)
What Momma does when they're both hungry at once (Lily has the green bottle):
Lily's first at-home bath:
Gabi's first at-home bath:
Oh and one more thing. I was able to weigh myself finally today with all the swelling finally gone. Last time I weighed was right before having the babies, and then on June 1st after having them. Both weights were the same! What I lost in babies, I gained in water. But now the water is finally gone, and I lost 35.5 lbs of water! Only 23.5lb to go to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight (which recall I'd just lost 40lbs). Not really stressing about following any diet right now, because honestly it's all I can do to remember to eat something most of the time. When I get the babies down after a feeding and my choices are sleep or eat, well, sleep wins most of the time. But once we're all established and have the income coming back in I'll get back on WW and lose it all and more!
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