- right now I'm sitting on my bed with Brennen cuddled up to my leg sucking on his cow wubanub and Barrett asleep on my chest sawing logs. Can life be any sweeter? I could sit here all day and soak in their faces!
- at their last pedi appt (July 8th) Brennen weighed 7lbs & Barrett was 7lbs 1oz.
This summer has been absolutely amazing! The older B's are having a blast sleeping in, swimming. coloring (I can't keep them in coloring books!), ballet camp, movie dates with granny & papa, building Legos and being awesome helpers!! I love how much they love these babies! There is no shortage of kisses and baby pats. They fight who gets to help feed (I let them help me feed when I'm cooking dinner) and I have to a mental note of who did it last.
I took them ALL to the grocery store for 4th of July food and I couldn't believe how easy it was! Brady and I made the list together and he was in charge of the list in the store. Brit was in charge of pushing the basket, Ben was in charge of putting items in the basket and I pushed the stroller. We got lots of stares, lots of questions and lots of "Bless your heart, your hands are full." I even got a "think you have enough kids?" I felt like saying, "Dude you have no idea the lengths gone to get these children." Instead I just smiled! While I never planned to have five children, I am so happy God loaned five out to me! The kids had a great time at the store and Brady said, "Mom this is so much fun!" I won't lie though I was exhausted when I got home!!
C-Section Recovery: I still need to finish my birth story. Hopefully soon. Recovery though..... I hate to say it but its been rough. I did a lot of reading on csections prior to birth but really no one can prepare you for the actual surgery/recovery. I maintain that I don't regret my decision to want one but since my delivery was considered emergency and both babies were transverse I would have had one anyway. Things no one/no blog prepared me for having a csection. My own experience...
1) after being in the bed 24hrs due to a magnesium drip, standing the first time was traumatizing! I thought I was hemorrhaging. Blood poured out of me, down my legs and puddled at my feet.
2) that first walk to the potty, omg I can't believe how foreign it was to walk and sit. Just thinking back about it makes me cringe.
3) the realization that I was covered in blood and the nurses wanted me to shower and remove the bandage from my incision. Never in my life have I ever loved and appreciated my husband more than that night. He climbed right in that shower and scrubbed all the blood off my legs since I could barely bend and washed/blow dried my hair.
4) sleeping: I think I slept sitting up/leaned to the right for five nights in the hospital because the pulling around my stomach was unbearable. I've been home 8 weeks now and I can only sleep on my right side with a pillow between my legs and a pillow behind my back. It has gotten better but I do hope to be able to sleep on my left side again one day.lol!!!
5) I think because rest is simply impossible my incision has taken a awhile to heal. The incision itself is three inches long. A few days after the babies came home a 1/4 inch of it opened up (but was deep, like 1/2 inch) and I was making trips everyday to my ob to pack it with gauze. Can you say uncomfortable !?!?! He then sent me to wound care at the hospital where they filled it with silver lined felt. Since then I've been going to wound care twice a week for five weeks. On Wednesday my doctor wasn't happy how it bubbled so he reopened it twice with silver nitrate. Omg ouch!!!!! Today I saw wound care again and they gave me special honey and foam to try. Hopefully I'm on the road to healing because I'm OVER it!!!! I've got to heal! This incision is slowing me down in more ways than I can explain! I would do it all again in a heartbeat though because my babies are worth every bit of lost sleep and pain.
Weight: oh where do I start with this. I have struggled with weight my entire life. I eat an amazingly healthy diet but having no thyroid means I have to get exercise in even with a healthy diet. So prior to getting pregnant I had gained 25 lbs over the course of three years. I got busy in therapy with Ben and didn't make exercise a priority. So when I found out I was pregnant with twins I panicked a little thinking about weight gain, I made it a priority to walk as much as I could handle (Dr approved) and not make the mistake of eating for three as in pigging out/cravings. Although I was eating for three it was all about healthy choices and water intake. I feel really proud about what I ate and gave my babies in utero!! I only gained 33-35 pounds pregnant and by day two of post surgery I lost 21 lbs. Yesterday at my post checkup I have lost all my pregnancy weight and some...46 pounds total!!! Yay!!!!
Breast feeding: I really wanted it to work but it didn't. I was pumping around the clock, eating oatmeal, taking fenugreek, drinking 102 oz of water and my flow just kept dropping. Having NICU babies didn't help. Getting strep two weeks after delivery didn't help. Having to produce for two babies didn't help.... One baby wasn't interested in latching and the other baby was doing good but since we had to do formula for his weight it was hard to bf him (was more for comfort than feeding). They gave me nursing safe blood pressure meds and they weren't really doing the job. It finally came down to making a tough decision, which is more important providing minimal breast milk or my blood pressure/health. One night it was 152/105. That was the final straw and we decide blood pressure trumped breast milk. The babies got donor milk and mine for six weeks, so they did get some. It makes sad that I had to stop since this was my first and last chance but I'm trying to focus on the good. The good being I'm not tied to a pump and the time spent pumping I can do other activities with my kids!!
I'll leave you with some pictures!!!
So glad to see an update from you! All of your Bs are beyond precious, and I'm glad that you're slowly adjusting to your new life. I can't believe you took them ALL to the grocery store by yourself... Ummmm, super mom for sure!
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