8 weeks

It's time for a long overdue update on the boys!

I always hesitate to say it out loud but things continue to go well for Jakob.  Kara and I often look at Jakob and cannot believe we are looking at the same baby that was living in this house only a month ago.  We went through a growth spurt with Jakob last week.  It was a long few days as Jakob was eating every couple of hours.  Jakob and Alex continue to take about 3 oz of breast milk every 3 hours.  We give Jakob about 100 mL at the 8pm and 11pm feedings.  This helps him sleep a bit longer at night.  We have found that neither Jakob nor Alex can take much more than 3 oz at a feeding as both spit-up quite a bit after the feeding.  The boys are so alert these days.  Jakob loves to play on the playmate.  He can watch the lights for upwards of 30 minutes without ever getting fussy.  Both boys prefer to sleep on their backs.  We try to do tummy time each day but on some days we have limited success.  Because the boys are so alert these days they no longer spend much time in the vibrating chair and/or swing.  Actually it appears that Alex is starting to really dislike the vibrating chair.  I have not had him in it for several days.  Alex is also going through a phase of wanting to be held in the evening but often it has to be in a very specific position or he will scream at the top of his lungs.  We found a really awesome video on YouTube called We See that Jakob absolutely loves to watch.  I tend to reserve the video for night time when Jakob needs to fall asleep.  We prop up the iPad and Jakob will watch it for upwards of 40 minutes.  It helps to calm him down.  We love free entertainment.  The boys are still sleeping in their Rock N Plays in our bedroom but both seem to have our bedtime routine down pat.  We consider "nighttime" to begin at 8pm each night.  We do the 8pm feeding and then I turn off the lights in the living room.  The boys can stay awake but it is not play time.  We then do a final feeding around 10pm when Kara gets home from work.  We carry the boys upstairs and put them in their Rock N Plays.  They get goodnight kisses and then tend to fall asleep within minutes.  The amount of time both boys sleep varies night to night.  On a bad night we only get a two hour stretch but on a good night (which happens more frequently these days) we get a four hour stretch.  I believe a five hour stretch is considered sleeping through the night so we are getting very close.  The boys sleep upstairs until their 8am feeding.  Both boys can turn their heads back and forth while on their stomachs.  Both have also turned over from their bellies to the backs though that is not accomplished each time we do tummy time.  Kara and I are still waiting for smiles from the boys.  We think they have smiled at us but we are not 100% certain.  I cannot wait!

Other notes ... I am still exclusively pumping breast milk for the boys.  It continues to be a very exhausting process but I am committed to it for the long haul if at all possible.  I pump seven times a day and I manage to get between 50 - 60 oz a day.  It is not a great supply for twins but it is all I can manage to get at this point.  I know at some point I will no longer be able to be the single source of food for the boys.  And to be honest the longer they go without getting formula (neither have had formula with the exception of the fortification of the breast milk since they left the NICU) the more difficult it gets to accept that they will have to receive formula at some point.  I know I am being really hard on myself but it just breaks my heart to think that I could potentially be introducing discomfort to Jakob because my body does not produce enough milk.  Plus do you know how obsessed people are with breastfeeding and breast milk?  It can get annoying and it puts undo pressure on mothers.  I have complete strangers ask me all the time if I am breastfeeding the boys.  Since when did that become everyone's business??  I was a formula fed baby and I turned out just fine (Kara may disagree!).  The good news ... we are not at that point yet and I am hoping the longer we go without formula the more developed both of their digestive systems get and perhaps formula will not be as big of an issue.  I have been pumping at work and it has also been a learning curve.  Our office has a "quiet room" where employees can go to make private phone calls or just get away from the office.  My company put a lock on the door and I now use that room to pump once per day.  I will be pumping twice per day once I return to work full time.  It took me a week to even get comfortable with the environment and I still check the door about a billion times before I start pumping each session.  My freezer stash stands at about 300 oz - 350 oz so that gives us a bit of a cushion.  But I have not been able to freeze any additional breast milk since last weekend when Jakob began his growth spurt.  So it appears I may be done freezing any excess breast milk.

We continue to cloth diaper the boys.  And I absolutely love it!!  It took some time for me to get on board with it when we first got home from the hospital but I think that was because I was overwhelmed with so many things.  We have been using AIOs and prefolds during the newborn phase.  Both Kara and I agree that we love the prefolds the most.  Because we go through so many diapers a day the prefolds just make the most sense.  We also love that it is summertime so we can hang the laundry out on the balcony to dry and then we are saving money by not running he dryer.  We are going to start using some pocket diapers as the boys get a bit bigger and start sleeping longer at night.  I do not think the prefolds have enough absorbency to last through the night.  The pocket diapers will allow us to add more absorbency if we need it at night.  We use the prefolds at night at the moment but because the boys are only sleeping for two or three hours at a time the lack of absorbency is not an issue.  I will be sad when the boys are out of the newborn prefolds though.  They are too cute.

I think that is all for the moment.  I know I am forgetting some things but I am just glad to get some things on paper so that I don't forget it all.

Mary