I’m writing on what I call ‘borrowed time’ aka its been over three & a half hours since I fed the babies together & I’m expecting them to wake at any moment. So this will be quick. But I want to remember all the sweet & silly nicknames we currently have for our duo.
Lucy. She’s baby girl, sweet girl, Luce, Lucy girl, Lucy Beth (which I almost wanted her to be double name called), frog or froggy (she has a super long tongue that she sticks out when she’s hungry & I ask her if she’s trying to catch flies), hippo or miss piggy (because the girl, like her mommy, loves some food.
Zach. Well I guess Zach is his number one nickname as we hardly ever call him Zachary. We started calling him Zachy-poo in the NICU (he’s gonna love this when he’s older) & its kinda stuck. Sometimes I’ll even shorten it too calling him Poo. He’s also Zachy, Zacher, Z-bud, buddy, or little buddy (another nicu name that’s stuck), little dude, or turtle because of his neck control. He’s often ‘lil’ somethings because he was & still is close to 2 pounds smaller than his sister.
Zach just woke so I was right on my ‘borrowed time’. Off to nurse the lil guy!
Lucy & Zach might have turned seven weeks old this week, but I took these photos on their actual one month day 6/21. I’m hoping I can upload & post sooner for next month.
I love this brown chair for late night calming & rocking & reading to the babies. The huge owl was a gift from my aunts to the babies. So far, Moekitty is a big fan of {eating} the tutu & the babies don’t really care about the owl.
Happy 1 Month Lucy!
I breastfed Lucy then did her ‘photo session’ so she’s happily in a baby milk coma. I took photos of Zach next right before I fed him. He wasn’t a fan of my delaying his food for photos!
Happy 1 Month Zach!
Thanks to my friend Ashley for passing down the super cute owl month cards.
Quick run through of a typical day with 6 week old twins. {This is Thurs 7/5}
1230a- Suz wake up from nap, grab a lemon muffin, start breastfeeding Lucy soon after.
130a- done breastfeeding, dress & change Lucy. Put her kangaroo style for snuggling. Play online on my phone as husband watches tv {we should be napping}
2a- Lucy & I snuggle & snooze a little
3a- put L down & pick up Zach. Change his diaper, undress & nurse him.
4a- holding Z, getting ready to pump when we realize L is waking up hungry. Give L to husband, change L’s diaper, undress her, start her nursing.
5a- my grandmother woke up so we sent Jason to bed. I gave L to Nana to rock & pumped.
615a- L woke up from her rock-n-play hungry! It’d only been an hour or so since I’d pumped but I tried nursing her.
645a- Z woke up to nurse & L was still going but upset. Z got upset too. So Nana heated up a bottle to split between them. They were freaking so much they weren’t eating well, so I woke Jason up to help.
8a- finally got them settled back down. Jason went to bed & I catnapped on the couch.
10a- Started feeding Z a lil before 10 then added L 1020. Both nursed really well. I ate a quick snack & pumped after they were done.
11a- Babies & I napped for a bit.
1230p- Z woke up to eat. Nana fixed me a sandwich.
120p- L woke up & nursed. Nice to have calm, individual nursing sessions.
2p- pumped, Jason woke up.
3p- I napped in bed from 3-5ish. Jason gave the babies fortified bottles around 3.
545p- I nursed both starting a lil before 6.
630p- Bath time. Zach, then Lucy.
7p- both cueing after bath so ‘top off’ nursed them to milk coma status.
730p- Sleeping babies {L in J’s then my arms}, so we ate dinner.
9p- tandem nursed both babies, Nana went to bed, I pumped.
11p- nursed Lucy.
1130p- nursed Z.
And I’m stopping there even though my night kept up until I got a nap after 3a bottle feeding. Are you exhausted yet?!
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.
Zach & Lucy napping!
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.
Thanks to SewCurly for the Lucy onesie!
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!!
