Week 2 - Boobs & Photos

Well, we've survived the second week at home - barely! This week we stopped running on adrenaline and and started running on...well... exhaustion. E and Gabe are doing well. The pediatrician proclaimed they are doing so well, we can abandon their rigid schedule and let them sleep until they wake up. This sounds like a great idea when you've been going from one feeding to the next breaks no longer than an hour or so. But then you actually try it and each child has their own schedule and now, even though they sleep for 4-5 hours, your breaks have become more like 30 minutes long.

Kathy has abandoned wearing anything more than a nursing bra or nursing gown as additional clothing (such as a shirt or robe) is pointless. (Truth be told, even the bra is pointless, but you gotta have some standards.) Essentially, she just breastfeeds and pumps. Chris and Ninah take turns bringing her new pumping equipment and food.

So with all this "top-heavy" focus, you would expect the breastfeeding to be going swimmingly, wouldn't you? Instead it has been an up and down process. Overall there is improvement (both boys are breastfeeding 6-10 times per day with and without sheilds, milk supply remains strong, etc.) - but when you are 2/3 asleep it is hard to balance against the challenges (phyisical discomfort not to be described here, trying to keep a sleeping baby awake and sucking at 2am so you won't have to start again at 2:15am, feeding for 30 minutes only to find out the baby has only taken 8mls, etc.) And their consumption still isn't quite enough at the breast, so we are doing bottle top-offs which add significant time to each feeding. We called a lactation consultant in to our home this week -- she was very encouraging, but it looks like we just need to keep slogging along. Our big accomplishment in the last 48 hours was that the boys both fed in the sidelying position. For the unintiated, this means Kathy gets to lay on her side in bed with a baby facing her and feeding and *drumroll*please* she can doze while the baby feeds! It is a phenominal skill that we are hoping will help keep our sanity.

But...who really cares about all that? What we care about is PHOTOS! So here are some classics from week 2:

Chris & Gabriel

Kathy & Elias -- Like Mother, Like Son

Gabriel is soooo silly. (Elias sleeping in background)

Obligatory Tiny Feet Photo

Still Enjoying Babies

(You can't tell, but Kathy is actually pumping in this photo as well... Now that's multitasking!)