A (Long) Update

A month has gone by already! Things are just as crazy around here as they were a month ago though. Here is an update on what is going on with everyone:

Erin and Emily: They are cute, but quite a handful. They seem to be growing, though we haven't actually had a doctor's appointment to have them weighed or anything. They are awful sleepers. They wake up after 15-20 minutes of their naps a lot. We are definitely exhausted, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be. They do sleep ok at night. The bad part is that their longest stretch of sleep is from around 9pm to 1am. If we don't go to bed with them, then we miss out on a few hours of uninterrupted sleep! Lately it seems as if one of them is crying practically all the time. We call them the crying chorus. They want to be held 24/7, but sometimes that doesn't even calm them down. It can be quite exhausting. They also spit-up a TON! Maybe the two are related?! Erin is still more fussy, but her sister is getting to be quite a competitor. They are starting to agitate each other and be sympathetic cryers.

Nursing them has been one challenge after another. It is a small miracle that I haven't given up yet. Just when the milk supply problem seemed to be solved, they/I got thrush. It is a yeast infection type thing that babies get in their mouth and pass it to their mom. It makes nursing them painful for me and for them too. Fortunately, I figured out that we had it quickly, so it never really got super bad. The girls seem to be better, but after a week of treatment I wasn't better at all. (Probably because our insurance company wouldn't cover the medicine the Dr. actually prescribed without preauthorization which could take 3-5 days!). Anyway, they decided to give me something else last week and everything seems better now.

Below: Emily

Above: Erin

Me: Every week is a little better. I always seem to notice an improvement on Saturday for some reason. It still really hurts to cough, sneeze, laugh, etc. I haven't tried driving, but bumps and potholes on the road hurt too! :( Everything seems to be healing up ok though. I had a really weird, poky pain on my right side. It didn't hurt all the time, just when I was sitting a certain way...like in a dining room chair or something. It had been there since right after they were born. Some nurses/doctors at the hospital said maybe it was from the way someone was standing when they stitched me up or maybe some nerve that got messed up. I finally called about it again because it seemed unnatural for it to still be hurting so badly. They pretty much said the same thing except added that "well, when your abdomen gets cut open, things get messed up." Thanks. She also said that maybe something just got pulled to tightly or something. I wondered if they left something sharp and poky in there. That's what it felt like. It's feeling a lot better now, so hopefully it will be totally gone before long.

Other then that, I am doing ok. All the swelling has gone down and I have lost the extra water weight...about 35lbs so far. 15 left to get back to where I was before they came along. It will be a miracle if I ever get there with everyone bringing us such great food and yummy desserts everyday. Thanks to everyone who has brought us dinner, we haven't had to make dinner for an entire month. That has truly been a blessing during such a crazy time!

I am wondering how I will survive alone. Just the thought of it is overwhelming. It seems like I spend the majority of the day feeding babies. This may tell you how much time exactly, I have already watched nearly three entire seasons of "Friends" on DVD. I don't even watch it every time I am feeding them! It takes about an hour to nurse them both. We may eventually move to alternating nursing one/bottle feeding one. However, we figured out that to exclusively formula feed them, we would spend $25 every 3 days. (And that is for how much they eat now...what will it be like in a few months!) Yikes!

Mike: He is tired. Mike is doing more middle of the night duty then he ever had to do with Maggie. He helps get them from their bed, change their diapers, burp them, etc. As I am moving around a little better he doesn't have to do quite as much, but is still feeling the effects. Mike has been getting back to work slowly. My mom was gone for just one night and we wondered how we would get everyone to bed when he had to work at night again. He is getting far behind in his class work, but hopefully will get a chance to catch up this week.

Maggie: I'll let her tell her own story later :) She is doing great though, cute as can be and funny too!