I think I would go crazy if I didn't try to follow some sort of schedule with the twins. Sometimes it just doesn't work, but overall I try to follow a routine. The times are pretty solid in the morning, more approximate in the afternoon (except bedtime, that almost always occurs between 6 and 6:30...otherwise they get over tired).
At 5am Tim wakes up, gets a formula bottle, is changed, then goes back to bed.
At 6:30-7:00 Ryan wakes up, gets a formula bottle, is changed, dressed in day clothes, and then hangs out with me on the bed until Tim wakes up. We break out the morning toys...a stuffed dragon that crinkles, a few fluffy stuffed animals, a dog that squeeks...
8:00ish, Tim wakes up. I change him, dress him in day clothes, then play with him along with Ryan on the bed for a little bit until we make the trek downstairs. I carry one, then the other baby downstairs (trying not to fall) and put them in bouncers in the kitchen.
9:00 Whoever said not to put bouncers on an elevated surface doesn't have twins. I put the bouncers on the kitchen table and warm up 2 breast milk bottles. I then roll up some dish towels to prop the bottles and give the babies their bottles at the same time. I have to make sure they stay upright here and there, but overall, I have my hands to myself. I try to hold onto their hands while they eat so they're still getting some contact.
9:30 I make breakfast for me and Gerd. Often eggs, sometimes oatmeal and almonds..simple, but with protein.
10:00-10:30 The babies take a nap, give or take 30 minutes.
10:45. I put both babies are on the play mat. I play with them a bit while they kick around, then pick one baby up at a time and read stories to them for around 10 minutes each, then play with them together for a little bit. Overall, this takes around 30-40 minutes.
11:15-I'm back in the kitchen warming another 2 breastmilk bottles. I have the babies in the living room still. If they're fussy, one gets the swing while I feed the other baby. I want to hold them at least once during the day.
11:45 - back to the kitchen and the bouncers while I fix lunch for me and Gerd.
12:15, back to the living room and tummy time or off for a walk. If tummy time, that only lasts about 10 minutes, then I flip them over and play with them a while longer. So far they really don't like tummy time.
1:00: Another breast milk bottle for each and then time for another nap. This one usually lasts about an hour.
2:00 back to the play mat and I sing to them for a while. If we haven't already gone for a walk, sometimes we do now, otherwise I try to fit in some tummy time.
3:00: We break out the formula bottles, then they take another nap...if I'm lucky.
4:00: We wing it here. Another book usually, and then some time on a blanket. The afternoon often doesn't go quite as planned as the morning...
5:00: Gerd is "off work" and comes down to help out. They get another formula bottle
6:00 or 6:30ish The bedtime routine begins, a bath for each, a song as they finish their bottle or drink another one. From bath to bed takes about an hour.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Friday, November 16, 2012
Sleep
Whenever anyone hears that we have twins they automatically assume we are the worst sort of sleep deprived. And sure, we have times when we don't get much sleep, but overall I feel pretty blessed to have children who seem to like to sleep.
At first, of course, they slept a maximum of 4 hours at a time, usually during the day. Usually it was every 2 hours we would change, feed, and return to sleep each baby. If they were off cycle, it could mean 1 hour intervals.
During the first two weeks my mom, husband and I decided the only way to make sure everyone got some sleep was by running shifts. Two people needed to be on at all times. We camped out downstairs and worked in 4 hour shifts. That way everyone got at least 4 hours, but occasionally 8 hours of sleep at night. We would also take naps during the day, so it all kind of worked out. Emotions did run high sometimes, as we were all exhausted, and forgiveness and understanding was quick to follow, because we all recognized that we were not fully functioning.
After 2 weeks we decided it was time to move the babies into their hammocks in the bedroom. They were, at this point, pretty colicy. It seemed like they were either allergic to the formula, or something I was eating, but they would wake up screaming in pain. We went to our pediatrician, who we have since fired, who told us we were feeding them too much. At this point Tim was sleeping around 6 hours at a time, and Ryan would sleep in 4 hour increments.
Our new pediatrician, who we love, recommended probiotics. The next night Ryan slept 8 hours straight, and stopped waking up in pain. He has since worked himself up to 12 hours and almost always sleeps at least 10 hours straight. Tim hasn't much improved. He would wake up so soaked, often we would need to change his pajamas.
We switched to our "super-duper" diapers, soakers that do a good job keeping everything in the diaper cover. We got a few nights of 8 hour increments from Tim, but he's pretty much back to 6 hours, then another 3, then another 3. Not ideal, but we're working on it. It's nice that he wakes up all happy and smiling, but we hope the sleep times increase. Last night he fitfully made it through 8 hours, but we were constantly running over to help sooth him back to sleep.
But all of this might change soon. We've already introduced cribs for naps. Today their naps include sleep sacks in their cribs. But for nighttime, they've yet to try out the cribs. Thanksgiving will be a first, but we need to get them used to cribs before their trip overseas. Currently they sleep in hammocks that are mounted with springs. When they begin to stir, they move around, and end up bouncing themselves back to sleep. I don't know what will happen when they move to cribs at night. We might end up back to shorter sleep times.
My hope is that they've learned that it's nice to sleep all the way through the night. They're getting enough food during the day that they don't need a night time feeding. I'm hopeful that they will remain tired enough that they will be able to sleep without the spring action. Only time will tell. In the mean time, I'm enjoying only waking up once in the middle of the night (Gerd wakes up once too).
Now if only we could work on the naps. They get so tired, and want to take naps, but they're frequently only half an hour. When they get 3 separate hour long naps in, they are much better about going to sleep happy, and actually sleep better through the night. As long as we don't go anywhere during the day they seem to nap okay, not great, but if we go anywhere their routine is shot and it'll be a rough bedtime routine.
At around 6:00, although we are trying to start a little later, we begin the bedtime routine. First one gets a bath and is then dressed for bed while the other plays with the other parent or hangs out in a bouncy chair in the bathroom. They then they get a bottle and lullabies while the other gets his bath, pajamas, bottle and songs. One is always in bed around 30 minutes before the other. We've given up on bedtime stories for now, they're too hungry to listen to a story, and then too full and tired to listen to a story. We're thinking of doing stories before baths, but right now it doesn't entirely work out. They get independent story time at least twice during their day routine, so they are being read to daily.
Hopefully I'll be able to write about their daytime routine next time I write. That's a work in progress, but things have been pretty good lately. It helps that I think about the day as a group of mini-lesson plans :)
At first, of course, they slept a maximum of 4 hours at a time, usually during the day. Usually it was every 2 hours we would change, feed, and return to sleep each baby. If they were off cycle, it could mean 1 hour intervals.
During the first two weeks my mom, husband and I decided the only way to make sure everyone got some sleep was by running shifts. Two people needed to be on at all times. We camped out downstairs and worked in 4 hour shifts. That way everyone got at least 4 hours, but occasionally 8 hours of sleep at night. We would also take naps during the day, so it all kind of worked out. Emotions did run high sometimes, as we were all exhausted, and forgiveness and understanding was quick to follow, because we all recognized that we were not fully functioning.
After 2 weeks we decided it was time to move the babies into their hammocks in the bedroom. They were, at this point, pretty colicy. It seemed like they were either allergic to the formula, or something I was eating, but they would wake up screaming in pain. We went to our pediatrician, who we have since fired, who told us we were feeding them too much. At this point Tim was sleeping around 6 hours at a time, and Ryan would sleep in 4 hour increments.
Our new pediatrician, who we love, recommended probiotics. The next night Ryan slept 8 hours straight, and stopped waking up in pain. He has since worked himself up to 12 hours and almost always sleeps at least 10 hours straight. Tim hasn't much improved. He would wake up so soaked, often we would need to change his pajamas.
We switched to our "super-duper" diapers, soakers that do a good job keeping everything in the diaper cover. We got a few nights of 8 hour increments from Tim, but he's pretty much back to 6 hours, then another 3, then another 3. Not ideal, but we're working on it. It's nice that he wakes up all happy and smiling, but we hope the sleep times increase. Last night he fitfully made it through 8 hours, but we were constantly running over to help sooth him back to sleep.
But all of this might change soon. We've already introduced cribs for naps. Today their naps include sleep sacks in their cribs. But for nighttime, they've yet to try out the cribs. Thanksgiving will be a first, but we need to get them used to cribs before their trip overseas. Currently they sleep in hammocks that are mounted with springs. When they begin to stir, they move around, and end up bouncing themselves back to sleep. I don't know what will happen when they move to cribs at night. We might end up back to shorter sleep times.
My hope is that they've learned that it's nice to sleep all the way through the night. They're getting enough food during the day that they don't need a night time feeding. I'm hopeful that they will remain tired enough that they will be able to sleep without the spring action. Only time will tell. In the mean time, I'm enjoying only waking up once in the middle of the night (Gerd wakes up once too).
Now if only we could work on the naps. They get so tired, and want to take naps, but they're frequently only half an hour. When they get 3 separate hour long naps in, they are much better about going to sleep happy, and actually sleep better through the night. As long as we don't go anywhere during the day they seem to nap okay, not great, but if we go anywhere their routine is shot and it'll be a rough bedtime routine.
At around 6:00, although we are trying to start a little later, we begin the bedtime routine. First one gets a bath and is then dressed for bed while the other plays with the other parent or hangs out in a bouncy chair in the bathroom. They then they get a bottle and lullabies while the other gets his bath, pajamas, bottle and songs. One is always in bed around 30 minutes before the other. We've given up on bedtime stories for now, they're too hungry to listen to a story, and then too full and tired to listen to a story. We're thinking of doing stories before baths, but right now it doesn't entirely work out. They get independent story time at least twice during their day routine, so they are being read to daily.
Hopefully I'll be able to write about their daytime routine next time I write. That's a work in progress, but things have been pretty good lately. It helps that I think about the day as a group of mini-lesson plans :)
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Need Vs. Want
My next post was supposed to be on my babies' sleep patterns, but this topic seems more pressing.
I have big kids. Or long kids, or both. They're around 14-15 pounds, according to our home scale, they're not due in to the doctor for a while. They're also 24 inches long. Our car seats are rated 22 lbs and 29 inches. While new car seats aren't an emergency, at the rate they're growing, it won't be a full year before they've grown out of their current seats.
And that's a problem. Actually, that's a part of many problems:
1) My Yaris is small enough that we have to strap in the car seats each time because they don't fit with the click-in base. We bought the only car seats and stroller that fit into my Yaris, not really considering that I might have to trade the car in a year anyway. Convertable car seats won't fit while they are rear facing. The recommended age to turn them around is 2 years. We will need to put them in a bigger car.
2) We HAVE a bigger car, my husband's Passat, but it doesn't have the hooks for the click-in base, so that's not useable either, and we have quickly discovered that with double everything, it's not really great for traveling either. We could get a roof rack and storage container and retrofit the car for the hooks, but that also costs money. We've had to shell out something like $4000 in repairs this year, and the car is a 2002. We're not really sure it's worth spending more money on or not, plus I don't particularly enjoy driving it. Finding a parking spot is very difficult in Southie, and the bigger the car the bigger the challenge it is to find somewhere to park.
3) Our parking spot has been revolked. We rented an off street parking spot until the owners of the lot sold it and gave us one day notice that our spot was gone. Finding parking spots for rent is difficult. The only one on our side of town is $200 for one car $300 for two cars in a parking garage 1/2 mile from our house. While a walk might be nice in summer, think icy unkept sidewalks and a twin stroller...But if we got it at least we would know where the car was, and find a spot when needed.
4) With street parking, getting babies into a convertible car seat before they can walk to the car will mean putting the kids in a stroller, walking to the car, moving the kids into the seats, folding the stroller and putting it into the car. We might need to get a smaller stroller that has the only purpose of doing this. The stroller I have is fabulous, but it folds up pretty large when the seats are attached (we are still using bassinets and car seat adaptors so I'm not sure how large).
In other words, we're in a predicament.
I *want* a car big enough to tote everything around with me, but I also want to be able to find a parking spot on the street. The bigger the car, the more difficult it is to park. Really, we should think about moving, and we are, but it won't happen right now. We're doing all we can just to keep up with the babies, I can't imagine trying to pack and move right now, let alone visit potential houses and trying to keep our house tidy enough for a realtor to show our house.
I'm also up against my own values. Keep things simple, keep them small, don't take on too much debt. I've long been against buying a gas guzzler, especially if only one person is in the car most of the time. It's hard to look at cars that only get 21mpg city and realize that that might be the best we can do.
Minivans are WAY too big, my favorite vehicle that I've coveted for years, the Highlander Hybrid is way too big. I finally found a car that seemed like what I wanted and it has been discontinued (Ford Escape Hybrid). Very few options are available that fit our needs. All of them are priced between $25,000 and $28,000
Our short list is:
Subaru Forester, 179.5 inches long, 21mpg city, 27mpg highway, 63 cubic feet trunk space. Comes in manual transmission, not really a smooth ride, but very nice inside. I really like that it's AWD and feels like a comfortable mix between car and SUV.
Toyota Prius V (the hatchback): 181.7 inches long 44mpg city, 40mpg highway, 67.3 cubic feet trunk space. The most expensive option (and somewhat of a waste since we don't drive that much) but my favorite so far (also the longest option).
Honda CRV: 178.3 inches long, 22mpg city, 30mpg highway, 70.9 cubic feet trunk space. Also a nice option. I loved, as in *loved* loved loved my Honda Civic. But I test drove the CRV after the Toyota. I didn't like the dashboard on the 2013, but if it's still available when I go home for Thanksgiving a dealership in my parents town has a certified 2010 version which would be far less expensive, and has a nicer interior.
In comparison: My Yaris is 150.6 inches long, 29 mpg city, 35mpg highway and has 9.3 cubic feet of trunk space and my husband's Passat is 185.3 inches long, 19 mpg city, 28 mpg highway, with 15 cubic feet of storage space.
Logic says that I should just start driving my husband's car until we sell our house. The car is paid off and large enough for everything but road trips. But...I don't want to. I want a car I like. And I want a car I like without going back on my ideals. I used to *like* car shopping. Now it feels like an assault on my ideals.
I have big kids. Or long kids, or both. They're around 14-15 pounds, according to our home scale, they're not due in to the doctor for a while. They're also 24 inches long. Our car seats are rated 22 lbs and 29 inches. While new car seats aren't an emergency, at the rate they're growing, it won't be a full year before they've grown out of their current seats.
And that's a problem. Actually, that's a part of many problems:
1) My Yaris is small enough that we have to strap in the car seats each time because they don't fit with the click-in base. We bought the only car seats and stroller that fit into my Yaris, not really considering that I might have to trade the car in a year anyway. Convertable car seats won't fit while they are rear facing. The recommended age to turn them around is 2 years. We will need to put them in a bigger car.
2) We HAVE a bigger car, my husband's Passat, but it doesn't have the hooks for the click-in base, so that's not useable either, and we have quickly discovered that with double everything, it's not really great for traveling either. We could get a roof rack and storage container and retrofit the car for the hooks, but that also costs money. We've had to shell out something like $4000 in repairs this year, and the car is a 2002. We're not really sure it's worth spending more money on or not, plus I don't particularly enjoy driving it. Finding a parking spot is very difficult in Southie, and the bigger the car the bigger the challenge it is to find somewhere to park.
3) Our parking spot has been revolked. We rented an off street parking spot until the owners of the lot sold it and gave us one day notice that our spot was gone. Finding parking spots for rent is difficult. The only one on our side of town is $200 for one car $300 for two cars in a parking garage 1/2 mile from our house. While a walk might be nice in summer, think icy unkept sidewalks and a twin stroller...But if we got it at least we would know where the car was, and find a spot when needed.
4) With street parking, getting babies into a convertible car seat before they can walk to the car will mean putting the kids in a stroller, walking to the car, moving the kids into the seats, folding the stroller and putting it into the car. We might need to get a smaller stroller that has the only purpose of doing this. The stroller I have is fabulous, but it folds up pretty large when the seats are attached (we are still using bassinets and car seat adaptors so I'm not sure how large).
In other words, we're in a predicament.
I *want* a car big enough to tote everything around with me, but I also want to be able to find a parking spot on the street. The bigger the car, the more difficult it is to park. Really, we should think about moving, and we are, but it won't happen right now. We're doing all we can just to keep up with the babies, I can't imagine trying to pack and move right now, let alone visit potential houses and trying to keep our house tidy enough for a realtor to show our house.
I'm also up against my own values. Keep things simple, keep them small, don't take on too much debt. I've long been against buying a gas guzzler, especially if only one person is in the car most of the time. It's hard to look at cars that only get 21mpg city and realize that that might be the best we can do.
Minivans are WAY too big, my favorite vehicle that I've coveted for years, the Highlander Hybrid is way too big. I finally found a car that seemed like what I wanted and it has been discontinued (Ford Escape Hybrid). Very few options are available that fit our needs. All of them are priced between $25,000 and $28,000
Our short list is:
Subaru Forester, 179.5 inches long, 21mpg city, 27mpg highway, 63 cubic feet trunk space. Comes in manual transmission, not really a smooth ride, but very nice inside. I really like that it's AWD and feels like a comfortable mix between car and SUV.
Toyota Prius V (the hatchback): 181.7 inches long 44mpg city, 40mpg highway, 67.3 cubic feet trunk space. The most expensive option (and somewhat of a waste since we don't drive that much) but my favorite so far (also the longest option).
Honda CRV: 178.3 inches long, 22mpg city, 30mpg highway, 70.9 cubic feet trunk space. Also a nice option. I loved, as in *loved* loved loved my Honda Civic. But I test drove the CRV after the Toyota. I didn't like the dashboard on the 2013, but if it's still available when I go home for Thanksgiving a dealership in my parents town has a certified 2010 version which would be far less expensive, and has a nicer interior.
In comparison: My Yaris is 150.6 inches long, 29 mpg city, 35mpg highway and has 9.3 cubic feet of trunk space and my husband's Passat is 185.3 inches long, 19 mpg city, 28 mpg highway, with 15 cubic feet of storage space.
Logic says that I should just start driving my husband's car until we sell our house. The car is paid off and large enough for everything but road trips. But...I don't want to. I want a car I like. And I want a car I like without going back on my ideals. I used to *like* car shopping. Now it feels like an assault on my ideals.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Breastfeeding
I've finally come to accept the way feeding is going and have gotten into a realistic pattern.
I'd thought that I could breastfeed both twins without any problems, but I was wrong. First there was the supply issue. In the hospital I wasn't getting much in the way of colostrum. The babies latched right away, although Ryan had a death grip on my nipple, but there wasn't anything there. Not even the small amount of colostrum you would normally find. The less they found, the less they stayed on the breast trying to latch.
Which led to latching issues. Tim would try for a minute or two, get frustrated, and begin to wail. Ryan tried chewing his way to milk. I'd pull him off to try for a better latch, and then he'd wail. Two very upset babies and I was so exhausted I just went with whatever the nurses suggested. After a day they introduced formula.
It was a complex system. I would have a tiny tube attached to my breast, they would attempt to nurse, and they would get formula as they suckled. I would do one baby at a time, while Gerd would finger feed the other (ie, the tube was attached to a finger). It worked, but was extremely frustrating getting it all to work, getting the tube in the right place, keeping it there, all while worrying that the latch was right.
We went home with this method, and were told that as my milk came in, the babies would gradually ween off of the formula. My milk didn't come in for 6 days, the longer end of the spectrum, but still within "normal". By then, however, the babies were used to a lot of formula. I was supposed to pump after every feeding, because that would simulate the additional work needed to get the full amount they needed if I hadn't added formula.
Unfortunately, pumping right after a feeding was not realistic. There would be the diaper change, then the attempts at calming the babies from the diaper change, and the putting down for sleep, and almost all sleep occured on me.
Which means that my milk supply didn't fully come in. Later, while working with a lactation consultant, she had me change my priorities.
I was to stop trying to breastfeed. Formula would be mixed into bottles so the feeding would take less time and be more manageable. I would pump religiously 8 times a day and my mother or Gerd would take care of the babies during that time. The goal was to better establish my milk supply before it was too late.
I took herbal supplements, Blessed Thistle, Fenugreek, and eventually Golac. I would eventually find that Golac made my nipples feel like I'd touched my tongue to the ends of a 9 volt battery. My supply inched up, and ended up around 28 ounces a day...just a little under the 30 ounces I needed for one baby.
But I was pumping every 2-3 hours and not spending enough time with the babies! It was terrible to hear them cry, but then hie off to another room to pump while someone else calmed them. So I reduced the pumping. I ended up pumping 6 times a day, then 5, and now 4.
My supply has leveled off around 25 ounces. It's enough that they get 2 or 3 bottles of breastmilk a day. They get about 6 bottles daily, now at 5 or 6 ounces, so it's not quite half their supply, but it's something.
Intermittently I would try to nurse instead of pump, but the babies were now so accustomed to bottles that they would fail to empty the breast, instead demanding a bottle. I ended up with plugged ducts, again and again. I've thought about trying again, now that I pump less frequently, the milk comes much faster, but then I go to long between pumpings, and end up with plugged ducts again and remember how miserable that feels.
I recently met up with the other birth mothers and babies from our Bradley Birth Class, and everyone was breastfeeding together while I pulled out a bottle. It about broke my heart, and I vowed to try again, but it just doesn't work. And I've come to the conclusion it's not worth more effort. What I'm doing works.
And as a benefit, my babies get more food in during the day, so they sleep better. Sleep is its own post, but I'll mention that Ryan slept 11 straight hours last night, and Tim slept 6 hours, then another 5 hours with only 1 bottle and a diaper change in between (30 minutes).
I pump in the morning, around lunch, at the end of the day, and once in the middle of the night. I would love to cut out one more pumping, but my boobs don't agree, and I'm pretty sure I'd loose supply. I'm not really sure how this will all work out on out Christmas trip to Germany, but we will have to wait and see.
I'd thought that I could breastfeed both twins without any problems, but I was wrong. First there was the supply issue. In the hospital I wasn't getting much in the way of colostrum. The babies latched right away, although Ryan had a death grip on my nipple, but there wasn't anything there. Not even the small amount of colostrum you would normally find. The less they found, the less they stayed on the breast trying to latch.
Which led to latching issues. Tim would try for a minute or two, get frustrated, and begin to wail. Ryan tried chewing his way to milk. I'd pull him off to try for a better latch, and then he'd wail. Two very upset babies and I was so exhausted I just went with whatever the nurses suggested. After a day they introduced formula.
It was a complex system. I would have a tiny tube attached to my breast, they would attempt to nurse, and they would get formula as they suckled. I would do one baby at a time, while Gerd would finger feed the other (ie, the tube was attached to a finger). It worked, but was extremely frustrating getting it all to work, getting the tube in the right place, keeping it there, all while worrying that the latch was right.
We went home with this method, and were told that as my milk came in, the babies would gradually ween off of the formula. My milk didn't come in for 6 days, the longer end of the spectrum, but still within "normal". By then, however, the babies were used to a lot of formula. I was supposed to pump after every feeding, because that would simulate the additional work needed to get the full amount they needed if I hadn't added formula.
Unfortunately, pumping right after a feeding was not realistic. There would be the diaper change, then the attempts at calming the babies from the diaper change, and the putting down for sleep, and almost all sleep occured on me.
Which means that my milk supply didn't fully come in. Later, while working with a lactation consultant, she had me change my priorities.
I was to stop trying to breastfeed. Formula would be mixed into bottles so the feeding would take less time and be more manageable. I would pump religiously 8 times a day and my mother or Gerd would take care of the babies during that time. The goal was to better establish my milk supply before it was too late.
I took herbal supplements, Blessed Thistle, Fenugreek, and eventually Golac. I would eventually find that Golac made my nipples feel like I'd touched my tongue to the ends of a 9 volt battery. My supply inched up, and ended up around 28 ounces a day...just a little under the 30 ounces I needed for one baby.
But I was pumping every 2-3 hours and not spending enough time with the babies! It was terrible to hear them cry, but then hie off to another room to pump while someone else calmed them. So I reduced the pumping. I ended up pumping 6 times a day, then 5, and now 4.
My supply has leveled off around 25 ounces. It's enough that they get 2 or 3 bottles of breastmilk a day. They get about 6 bottles daily, now at 5 or 6 ounces, so it's not quite half their supply, but it's something.
Intermittently I would try to nurse instead of pump, but the babies were now so accustomed to bottles that they would fail to empty the breast, instead demanding a bottle. I ended up with plugged ducts, again and again. I've thought about trying again, now that I pump less frequently, the milk comes much faster, but then I go to long between pumpings, and end up with plugged ducts again and remember how miserable that feels.
I recently met up with the other birth mothers and babies from our Bradley Birth Class, and everyone was breastfeeding together while I pulled out a bottle. It about broke my heart, and I vowed to try again, but it just doesn't work. And I've come to the conclusion it's not worth more effort. What I'm doing works.
And as a benefit, my babies get more food in during the day, so they sleep better. Sleep is its own post, but I'll mention that Ryan slept 11 straight hours last night, and Tim slept 6 hours, then another 5 hours with only 1 bottle and a diaper change in between (30 minutes).
I pump in the morning, around lunch, at the end of the day, and once in the middle of the night. I would love to cut out one more pumping, but my boobs don't agree, and I'm pretty sure I'd loose supply. I'm not really sure how this will all work out on out Christmas trip to Germany, but we will have to wait and see.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Birth Story
I've been meaning to put something like this up for a while, but of course I haven't yet. This is a letter that I sent to our Bradley Class childbirth educator, Ann Marie. The class was great, and by her recommendation, I started eating tons of protein. I have to say, the babies stayed in a long time, and were very healthy when born. I'm sure some of it is genetic, another part is luck, but a great amount of our fortune has been due to the amount that we learned in the class, and our acting upon what we learned. Hopefully I'll find time to update the blog with some other baby things that have been floating around in my head...breastfeeding, sleep, daytime with twins, getting in shape, etc. For now, though, here's my birth story.
Hi,
We have had a great experience with
Mount Auburn! On Friday we had a line-up of appointments set to help us
figure out what to do. With twins, the ideal time to give birth is
between 38-39 weeks, and while they weren't too concerned about getting
to 40 weeks, they were concerned about 41.
The
ultrasound ob suggested a home birth or scheduled c-section, the head
of ob's met with us and suggested we wait at least until 41 weeks, and
the assistant director of midwives suggested we induce and work out a
plan for intermittent monitoring. All of the plans had their own merits,
but we were most inclined to wait it out another week. Unfortunately it
started to look like I was possibly developing pre-eclampsia, so we
really needed to induce. So on Friday, after 3 hours of appointments and
meetings, we decided to be admitted and tried to see if a Foley bulb
would be enough to start natural labor.
While
the foley bulb did help, it was obvious in the morning that we would
need to use pitocin to really begin active labor. We ate a good
breakfast had a consult with the anesthesiologist, and then started an
iv for pitocin around 10:00am. It was a gradual induction, so we didn't
really get into active labor until about 4:00pm. Before 4:00 I was
continuously monitored, but let off my leash for a few walks around the
l&d area and every time I wanted to use the bathroom. I often
switched between sitting on a birthing ball, a rocking chair or sitting
on the edge of the bed. The midwives and nurses were great, because
every time I moved, and often even when I was trying to stay put, they
would have to re-locate the babies heartbeats.
As
active labor began I spent more time in bed on my side, but would get
up and switch to the birthing ball or rocking chair. I was also still
let off my leashes to go to the bathroom and used the toilet as another
laboring position. I was only able to eat 2 bites of dinner before I
realized that food was no longer an option. As labor progressed I began
to get shaky and nauseated. I didn't start saying I couldn't handle any
more until around 12:30 am. I asked for an exam and said that if I
wasn't progressing I'd take the epidural (the anesthesiologist had made
up a special batch of bupivicaine free dosage if I needed it). I was
6cm dilated and at 0 station. Around 2:30 I was about ready to quit
again, and asked for another exam. I was at 8cm, 0 station.
Around
that time the monitors became more and more of a problem, but the
midwives and nurses went above and beyond, sitting with me holding the
monitors on me whenever I changed positions, letting me off again and
again as I went to the bathroom. At one point I asked how other twin
mothers would do this and the response was that they would just limit
other mothers movement to the bed. I don't think I would have made it
through without further intervention if they had restricted me.
I
would say that my "transition period" was not very clear, but probably
lasted from at least 2:30 to 4:00. My doula was key in helping me get
through it. Around 4:00 I was examined again and told that I was at 8 cm
and fully effaced, so I should start pushing whenever I felt like it. I
don't think I got the hang of that until around 4:30/5:00. I labored
for the first on a birth stool, which I liked a lot, but I had such
extreme back pain that I ended up switching to my side on the bed.
At
6:06 Ryan Oliver Schreiter was born (in the caul)! He had a 9/9 apgar
and started screaming immediately after they took him from the sack. They let the cord pulse
for about 2 minutes and immediately put him on me but, the fetal monitor
on the second twin was showing a dipping heart rate. Gerd was able to
cut the cord, then they tried to determine now far back baby B was.
Pretty far back it turned out, and the low pulse was very concerning.
They gave me one option besides an immediate Caesarian, and that was to
push hard and fast to bring him closer to the outside and they would
step I'm with a manual vacuum pump. Gerd took Ryan and held him from
that point on.
Timothy Alexander Schreiter was
born at 6:42! His umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck, and his
breathing sounded a little off, so they cut the cord immediately,
suctioned him, and had him on oxygen. His apgar was still pretty good
7/9, but they wanted to take him to the nursery, so Gerd handed me Ryan
and went with Tim to the nursery. Ryan and I had skin to skin time and
and he tried to latch on, although we're still working on that. Tim
perked right up in the nursery and didn't even need to be further suctioned. The
rest of the morning is kind of a blur to me because my blood pressure
dipped pretty low. They gave me saline, I ate breakfast, and had some
orange juice and it went back to being too high.
Originally
we had planned on leaving the hospital the same day, but that hinged on
my mother being here to help us as we transitioned to home.
Unfortunately my grandmother passed away on Friday so she was back home
making preparations with her sisters, so we decided to stay at least
overnight. Being here has been a mixed bag. We've had different nurses
and lactation consultants pointing us in many different directions. I'm
thinking we're going to need some outside help on this when we go home.
While
here they've been monitoring me for pre-eclampsia and they're not quite
sure I'm out of the woods yet. We may be here an extra day if I need a
magnesium sulfate drip. That piece of the story is still to be
determined.
I feel extremely fortunate to have
had everything turn out as well as it has so far. Both twins are
healthy and strong and we made it through without a ton of
interventions! Ryan weighed 6 lbs 9 oz at birth, and Tim weighed 7 lbs
12 oz. They're adorable, but I don't have downloaded pictures yet, so we
will send photos later.
Thanks for a wonderful class and all of the advice along the way! Please share with the class!
Bethany, Gerd, Ryan & Tim
As an update to this, I did end up with problems with possible per-eclampsia and had to be monitored for two weeks. My kidney and liver functions would alternate from okay to abnormal, and my blood pressure was very high. In the hospital they decided it would be a good idea for me to get a blood transfusion, partly in order to ensure I would develop milk. After a few weeks I was back to normal, but I wasn't 100% alright for a while. I'm so glad my mom was able to come back to Boston and camp out with us the first two weeks. We literally ran in shifts each night to ensure everyone got at least 4 hours of sleep a night. Doesn't sound like much now, but with twins, it was pretty miraculous to get that much the first few weeks :)
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