Three Weeks Old!
We survived the first three weeks! It's a lot of work. I'm pretty much doing baby stuff all the time. If it's not time to feed or change them, it's time to pump milk for the next feeding! I'm trying to use the "E.A.S.Y." routine (eat, activities, sleep, you). The idea is after a period of sleep, babies are rested and ready for a good meal. Then after eating they are alert and ready for activities (which are very limited and their age), and then it will be time for more sleep. Once the babies are down for their nap, it's I get some "me time", which is not very much but I'll take whatever I can get!
Eating
Nursing has not gone as smoothly as I hoped. The main issue is how long it takes for the babies to breastfeed. I'll spend over a half hour on one baby and I'm still unsure if she's had enough! By the time I'm done with the first baby the second is crying because she's super hungry, and the whole thing gets really stressful. I only attempt nursing if John is around to feed the other baby. I've been pumping milk for the rest of their meals, but I don't really get enough for eight full feedings. If I just had one baby to feed, I would have plenty! So since I haven't been getting enough, I've had to supplement with formula. Of course I don't like giving them formula, but I'm not beating myself up about it, I have twins for crying out loud!
Activities
Wake time activities are pretty limited at this point. Normally they fall asleep pretty quickly after eating. Sometimes we snuggle, occasionally we bath them, and a few days ago we went out for our first walk! We walked to McDonald's so mommy could get some much needed iced coffee.
Sleep
I've learned a lot about what babies need for good sleep. All the books I've read and classes I've taken recommend putting babies to bed "drowsy but awake". That way they will learn to fall asleep on their own without being in a swing, bouncy seat, etc. We totally bend the rule a bit when grandparents are around and let them fall asleep while being held, which should be fine at their age, but in general we follow the drowsy but awake rule. So far it has worked pretty well.
The other key thing to helping our babies sleep is a tight swaddle. If they escape the swaddle, it's all over...so much crying. They are little Houdinies. I have a rough time getting them swaddled tightly enough for them to not escape.
The other thing we do at night is turn on some white noise. It's supposed to help remind the babies of life in the womb. John found this audio for them to listen to at night, I think it works!
So far they are not sleeping for very long stretches, only 2-3 hours at a time. It doesn't help that we need to wake them up to feed every three hours (four hours max). I can't wait until they can sleep longer!
Me
I'm doing pretty well all things considering. One thing I discovered is that I have a weird hormonal problem every time I breastfeed or pump. I noticed it right away in the hospital when I started pumping. I always get a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach, just a really uneasy feeling of dread, like I'm about to give a public speech or something really bad is about to happen or something. At first I thought I must be crazy, I couldn't figure out where this bad feeling was coming from, and it's always there when I pump/nurse! I thought I must be crazy. Maybe these feeling were telling me I made a mistake by having these kids or something. I finally did a google search for "weird feeling when breastfeeding" and it turns out it happens to lots of women, it's a thing called D-MER which stands for Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysphoric_milk_ejection_reflex) There's nothing I can really do about it, but it helps to know it's a weird hormone thing and that I'm not crazy!
My sleeping is ok for the most part. Thank goodness I have John, he stays up for the 3:00am feeding so I can get around 5 hours. Then I get up for the 6:00 feeding and try to go back to sleep for an extra hour or so until 9:00. This system is working for us, but I really miss going to bed at the same time as John. I feel like I never get to spend much time with him.
You know what I want more than anything? A nice date night with my husband. I want to go see a movie and go out for a fun dinner and have a glass of wine and wander around Tempe Marketplace or something. I really really hope we can do this soon.
Eating
Nursing has not gone as smoothly as I hoped. The main issue is how long it takes for the babies to breastfeed. I'll spend over a half hour on one baby and I'm still unsure if she's had enough! By the time I'm done with the first baby the second is crying because she's super hungry, and the whole thing gets really stressful. I only attempt nursing if John is around to feed the other baby. I've been pumping milk for the rest of their meals, but I don't really get enough for eight full feedings. If I just had one baby to feed, I would have plenty! So since I haven't been getting enough, I've had to supplement with formula. Of course I don't like giving them formula, but I'm not beating myself up about it, I have twins for crying out loud!
Activities
Wake time activities are pretty limited at this point. Normally they fall asleep pretty quickly after eating. Sometimes we snuggle, occasionally we bath them, and a few days ago we went out for our first walk! We walked to McDonald's so mommy could get some much needed iced coffee.
Sleep
I've learned a lot about what babies need for good sleep. All the books I've read and classes I've taken recommend putting babies to bed "drowsy but awake". That way they will learn to fall asleep on their own without being in a swing, bouncy seat, etc. We totally bend the rule a bit when grandparents are around and let them fall asleep while being held, which should be fine at their age, but in general we follow the drowsy but awake rule. So far it has worked pretty well.
The other key thing to helping our babies sleep is a tight swaddle. If they escape the swaddle, it's all over...so much crying. They are little Houdinies. I have a rough time getting them swaddled tightly enough for them to not escape.
The other thing we do at night is turn on some white noise. It's supposed to help remind the babies of life in the womb. John found this audio for them to listen to at night, I think it works!
So far they are not sleeping for very long stretches, only 2-3 hours at a time. It doesn't help that we need to wake them up to feed every three hours (four hours max). I can't wait until they can sleep longer!
Me
I'm doing pretty well all things considering. One thing I discovered is that I have a weird hormonal problem every time I breastfeed or pump. I noticed it right away in the hospital when I started pumping. I always get a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach, just a really uneasy feeling of dread, like I'm about to give a public speech or something really bad is about to happen or something. At first I thought I must be crazy, I couldn't figure out where this bad feeling was coming from, and it's always there when I pump/nurse! I thought I must be crazy. Maybe these feeling were telling me I made a mistake by having these kids or something. I finally did a google search for "weird feeling when breastfeeding" and it turns out it happens to lots of women, it's a thing called D-MER which stands for Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysphoric_milk_ejection_reflex) There's nothing I can really do about it, but it helps to know it's a weird hormone thing and that I'm not crazy!
My sleeping is ok for the most part. Thank goodness I have John, he stays up for the 3:00am feeding so I can get around 5 hours. Then I get up for the 6:00 feeding and try to go back to sleep for an extra hour or so until 9:00. This system is working for us, but I really miss going to bed at the same time as John. I feel like I never get to spend much time with him.
You know what I want more than anything? A nice date night with my husband. I want to go see a movie and go out for a fun dinner and have a glass of wine and wander around Tempe Marketplace or something. I really really hope we can do this soon.
Every time I breast fed my babies, I got uterine contractions, which got worse and lasted longer with each birth. I learned it's a normal response. The uterus contracts faster with breast feeding helping it return back to normal size. Sounds like you may be experiencing something different.
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