I figured post babies I’d keep up with the blog. I’d fill this place up with stories & photos. & I plan to. I have four plus posts in draft on breastfeeding, me post babies, updated photos, a day in our life. But when there’s down time, & I can chose a 30 minute nap or pulling out the laptop/camera to upload pictures, I’ve been choosing nap. My dark circles thank you for baring with me.
When What Alice Forgot arrived at my doorstep, I thought two things ~ this book is thick & I’m so glad its more of a ‘chick lit’ light read. I’d been reading either heavy books for my local book club or pouring through multiples & breastfeeding books. I knew in my sleep deprived state, I couldn’t handle anything I had to think too hard about.
And what happened as I was reading What Alice Forgot, I got less sleep because I skipped naps in favor of reading. It was that good & I just had to know how it turned out.
What Alice Forgot tells the story of Alice Love, who wakes up on the gym floor thinking its 1998, shes 29, happily married & pregnant with her first child. But actually, its 2008, she’s 39, has 3 kids & getting a divorce {& she remembers nothing of the last 10 years}. The book tells the story of how she got from one place in life to the other. The 29 year old Alice reminded me of my recent former self, but I could understand & see how the 39 year old Alice got there.
The novel is told through Alice’s perspective but has letters that Alice’s sister Elizabeth writes to her therapist {helping her deal with her infertility struggle which hit close to home with me} and also letters their ‘grandmother’ Fannie writes to an old boyfriend {loved feisty Fannie!}. I enjoyed the others’ perspectives. Seeing Alice & her memory loss through them helped clue me in to what she’d gone through.
I really enjoyed this novel. I thought it was a quick, fun read & I’m looking forward to hearing what others thought of the book. For more discussion on What Alice Forgot, jump on over to the BlogHer Book Club page for the book.
This is a sponsored post from BlogHer Book Club, but the thoughts & opinions are my own.
I’ll cover feeding at the hospital for now & catch yall up on feeding since we’ve been home soon.
I started pumping & hand expressing around 5p the Monday they were born. I’d put Z to breast just hours after L was born, but then I chose couple hours of sleep over immediately pumping. I knew that with tiny NICU babies, I’d be pumping like crazy from the start. So my mom had helped make sure a hospital Medela Symphony was in my room right after delivery. The NICU had pumps I kept between the babies beds. My aunt had picked up a Symphony for me to have once I got home {rented for three months from a local LC for cheaper than from hospital}. I’d read & soaked in all the feeding/pumping for NICU babies info I could & took advantage of the LCs at the hospital daily if not multiple times a day. I think we saw four different LCs & hear a few different tips from all. And I’ve used it all.
So Mon-Thurs that first week. I pumped every 3 hours for 15 minutes, getting pretty much nothing or just a drop. Then I’d hand massage/express & get a few more drops ~like a couple mLs total. Each precious one I’d refrigerate & bring to the NICU nourishment room the next morning. My worst moment: spilling those few drops that first Wed night on my nursing gown. Crying over spilled milk isn’t just a saying. But that Thurs I felt bigger by the afternoon & Fri I realized what ‘engorged’ was. Pumping was suddenly effective & I begin to start making snappy bottles half full to bring in. The babes had been getting donor breast milk from a local hospital bank {I chose donor over formula Mon morning}. Luckily my supply kicked in within the five day period when they stop giving donor milk. Seeing my milk being tubed into the babies warmed my heart. Making all those late night hours of expressing & pumping worth it.
The babies would go to breast as often as possible at the beginning. But there wasn’t anything there so they’d hang out while getting tubed. Once Z started sucking, we tried feeding some in his mouth while latched. He was doing better breastfeeding at first since he’d had a head start while Lucy had the bubble CPAP. The LCs were all impressed at how well both our 34 weekers were doing at the breast though {I was so proud}. At some point that first Saturday at the NICU, the weekend LC mentioned trying to tandem feed. I was a bit nervous but with her & Jason’s help, we got both latched {Lucy needed more help with that} & they ate together! I think that was the first time they’d been close together since in utero too.
By the time they’d moved into the feed/grow step down NICU, they had bottle feeding pretty much down & we were coming along pretty well with breastfeeding. I’d breastfeed one at a time or both while we were there for the day. It was because they were eating so well & gaining weight that they were able to come home sooner than we expected. They came home with literally bins full of bottled breast milk. I didn’t realize just how much I’d been making & dropping off til I was carrying out a bin of milk heavier than my baby from the hospital.
Thank you to P&G and Kroger stores for celebrating “Team Mom’s Everyday Victories”! Please visit the to play games, win money off your next Kroger trip and more fun!
When Clever Girls emailed about Kroger’s Team Mom Everyday Victories campaign, I was on the verge of giving birth to Zach & Lucy. At that time, I could only imagine the Everyday Victories that I would be facing in the coming days & weeks.
Victories like the first time we successfully tandem breastfed, the first time I got dressed in something other than a gown in weeks, & the huge victory of bringing Lucy home from the NICU & soon after, having Zach join us at home. But Sunday night, my husband & I celebrated another victory. Our first overnight with the twins with it being just us {my parents left Sunday & his mom came up Monday afternoon for a visit}. We stayed up together caring, cuddling & feeding for the babes {& watching True Blood!} until 2am. At that point, I pumped & hit the sheets, promising to wake up at 530 to help with feedings & to pump again. Except that I hit snooze/dismiss on my alarm & slept til 745a. The Husband had a victory of handling babies on his own for over five hours while he let me sleep. And goodness knows I needed that stretch of rest. But my Team Mom Victory is this moment.
Two happily sleeping babies at 930a. Because from the time I came in the den at 8a, I’ve been off & running. Rock-hard boobs plus two hungry babies meant feeding Zach while rocking Lucy with my toes then switching & then switching again as they both wanted a little extra. Zach requires mid-feed burping & Lucy is quite the messy eater. Both either peed or pooped during or just after eating, so post-breastfeeding clean up required total outfit, diaper & changing table cover changes thanks to Zach peeing on the table. But then, they were back dressed & swaddled & happily snoring away in their rock-n-play sleepers while I pumped my most ever. And fifteen minutes later, I was able to grab another table cover, throw wet clothes, blankets, & burp clothes in the washer, & make & eat {in one sitting!} a bowl of cereal for myself. That, my friends, is Victory!
Hurry in to Kroger and Kroger Banner Stores for P&G’s big sale event, June 10–23!
At Kroger and its banner stores, more than 30 of your favorite P&G brands are at HOT sale prices through June 23, including Tide, Charmin, Cascade, Pampers, Crest and Olay. Look for tags with special prices throughout the household needs and health and beauty aisles, and be on the lookout for even bigger offers – like getting serious dollars off when you buy a bundle of products.
Before hitting the store, visit P&G’s event page on Kroger.com: http://bit.ly/KG6dw5 You can play games like basketball, track and gymnastics to win money off your next Kroger trip, download digital coupons, print a shopping list, and learn more about P&G products! And as part of this event, consider trying one of these fab products from P&G: Vicks Nature Fusion, Charmin Basic, Downy Unstopables, and Swiffer Duster Extenders!
I was selected for participation in this campaign as a member of Clever Girls Collective.
We thankfully were good at taking photos daily while Z & L spent time in the NICU. It now helps me keep up with what was going on with who during those almost two weeks. Here’s photos per day {no idea why the sizing is weird, bare with me I’m working on little sleep} & brief explanations so I’ll hopefully remember.
5/22: Tuesday, Lucy was on the CPAP machine. Zach’s billi levels had gotten a little high so he was put on the blanket for jaundice. They had IVs {lipids & electrolights}, body temp monitors & under heat, as well as heart rate, SO2 monitors.
5/23: Lucy did well enough to lose the CPAP and Jason bottle fed Zach for the first time. Friends stopped by in the afternoon & I was also discharged from the hospital Wednesday afternoon.
5/24: Thursday morning was the start of our new schedule. The babies were on the NICU feeding schedule of 8, 11, 2, & 5. So we left our house in time to get to the hospital by 11a & went home after the babies were done with their 5p feeding. Zach was on a billi blanket for slight jaundice. I think this is the day Lucy was able to get her IV out.
5/25: Friday we went to the NICU later because the babies were having evening visitors. My parents & brother & SIL stopped by on their way to OIB for the weekend. Lucy’s jaundice levels had risen a ton so they were super billi lighting her ~ a blanket under & two lights overhead. Because of this, Zach got all the family snuggles that evening.
5/26: The babies had a good day. Lucy’s jaundice levels went way down so she was off all the lights. Lucy & Zach got a lot of cuddles that day. Saturday night, the NICU nurses encouraged us to leave & get out to dinner for ourselves. We went out for quick, cheap Mexican food & I had my first sip of alcohol since Oct 21st {best margarita ever!}.
5/27: The hand out of the swaddle & on something is so Zach. And keeping hats on is something neither of them will do {photo of Lucy}. Sunday evening, the babies moved from the heated beds {the heaters had been turned off for a couple days} into bassinets. Woohoo!
5/28: Monday, the babies had lots of visitors again, my parents, brother & Charlotte Papa stopped by on their way back from the beach for Lucy & Zach cuddles. I happened to be nursing then pumping for a lot of their visit so I don’t have as many of those photos. Monday evening, the babies were moved from Pod D {intermediate NICU} to Pod B {step down unit for feeding & growing}. This is a big move & we were very excited they’d ‘graduated’.
5/29: Our nurse for the next two days was also a LC & new mom which was so helpful as we were focusing on growing & feeding these babies. She also warned us that things could move quick from here so we straightened out their insurance Tuesday, set up my postpartum doctor’s appt, & cuddled the babies. Turns out I didn’t take a single photo of them that day.
5/30: In order for the babies to come home, they needed to be off the feeding tubes & ‘PO’ing {eating through their mouth} all their feedings. They’d both pull or sneeze out their tubes pretty frequently though, so the nurses would sometimes try to leave them off to see how they’d do {Lucy’s is out in the below photos}. Both babies had been doing well breastfeeding that week {thanks to great LCs!} & taking fortified breast milk bottles well with the nurses at night. Z was kinda a slow bottle taker {he’d get choked up some & then fall asleep midbottle}.
5/31: We showed up to the NICU Thursday morning & their nurse mentioned us ‘rooming in’ soon as she thought they wouldn’t be there much longer. We hadn’t brought clothes or anything, so she tried to reserve the room for us for Friday. An hour later, the dr doing rounds said Lucy had done well enough to go home the following day! Holy whirlwind ensued. Thankfully Jason had a car seat & base in our car, but no other baby or parent items ~ including no cell chargers so the only photo I took was Lucy passing her car seat test that evening.
6/1: Friday morning, after little to no sleep with off schedule babies {Lucy had started being able to on demand feed Thurs}, we called my parents to share the news of Lucy going home that afternoon & to ask if they wanted to come help for the long weekend. Since Z was under the 5lb weight limit for our car seats, Jason went off to Buy Buy Baby & used gift cards to get him a 4lb seat. Z was passing his car seat test when we left the NICU with Lucy around 430 that afternoon. Friday night, Lucy slept in a pack-n-play {which Jason set up that night} in our room.
6/2: Saturday morning, we took Lucy to her first pediatrician appt {she was back up to birth weight!} then dropped her off with her Pops & Cece to watch her for a few hours while Jason & I went back to the hospital. We had hoped Zach would be coming home Saturday, but he’d been circumcised the night before & didn’t do quite as well with his feedings as they wanted. We gave him snuggles & two feedings before heading back to Lucy.
6/3: For the first time, Sunday we packed lunch to take with us to the NICU. We thought we might be up there with Zach for a while before they did rounds & let him home {L was home again getting spoiled by her grandparents}. Instead, we were there for less than an hour~ I gave Z the last of the bottle he was finishing when we arrived, Jason put him in the car seat, I gathered the stuff we had still up at the NICU {including another bin of my milk}, and off we went with him! Zach’s feet said it best~ later gator~ no more NICU life for us!!