Thread: Had babies...

Congrats Tiffany! I am so glad that the boys are doing fairly well. It is hard to have one baby in the NICU and one out. That was our predicament. Add your own health issues to that, and I am sure it is stressful. I had high blood pressure issues after the twins were born due to fluid retention. I did not have pre-E. I hope they can figure out what is going on and I pray that you will be perfectly healthy once your body adjusts to delivering twins. I cannot wait to see pictures!

How are you feeling Tiffany??

It has taken a few days but I think we finally have my pre-eclampsia under control. I had a pretty bad case of it. I am still short of breath either from it, the virus I had before the twins came or my pretty severe anemia. My blood pressure is starting to come down though. Healing from a c-section is also much harder than recovering from a vaginal birth. I don't let it keep me from doing anything, but I have never thought I would really need percocet and there are times when it is pretty handy - plus it suppresses my cough a bit.

Caleb is doing great. We call him our "stress relief baby" because even though he might be a little "high maintenance," it is just that tenacity that kept him out of the nicu and in our arms while they did test after test to figure out what was going on with me after delivery. Plus it would have been hard to go through all that and then not go home with a baby. He likes to cluster feed at night whether it be bottle or breast. My husband was "in charge" of him last night and got introduced to this concept. It seemed only fitting to share the wonderfulness of this with him, though I did step in so he got some sleep last night. He is still set to come in for daily appointments right now to check his weight and bilirubin.

Hayden is a difficult feeder. His cues are mild. His suck is mild. He does't take much and he takes it slowly. But, I think if we just keep holding and feeding him he is going to bloom into a normal baby at some point. It definitely gives me new appreciation for the "late pre-term baby." To all of you who are still pregnant, this baby shows why babies are supposed to stay in until 40 weeks. Even a few weeks too soon can be problematic. He couldn't keep his temp up, he couldn't keep his blood sugars up, his attempts to breast feed only made his blood sugars worse due to the effort and now it is going to take awhile to get him up to speed. He is getting me to pump though because he definitely takes breast milk better than formula. But.... it can be difficult to find time to do that when taking care of another pre-term baby at the same time who needs to eat, needs to be held, etc.

Our older son is doing ok. He wants daddy for everything and daddy has a lot of responsibilities between sick mommy, sick baby and almost normal newborn. I know I am starting to carry my weight around here but there is a lot going on. Its going to be awhile before I am tandem feeding two babies using breast or bottle, so that one of us can really attend to him. There was hardly a minute last night while both of them were sleeping and since it was our first night there was a lot of hand holding to do on both of our parts. My brother is here to help with him and having him here is a huge help as it allows us to divide and conquer and I am probably not well enough to be handling even carrying a car seat with a tiny baby by myself and plus, he is not sleep deprived so is good for stuff like driving and making dinner.

Hope this answers any questions. I really hope to take some pics today. In the meantime we are quite busy keeping them both fed.

Tiffany

Thanks for the update!! Glad you are all home. It must be really helpful to have your brother there. Hope things continue to improve.

Congratulations!!! I'm sorry everything is so overwhelming right now but I can attest that each day gets better and better (mind you, one of my twins still has colic). My daughter had a hard time feeding at first but eventually we got there. Just take things one day at a time, don't push yourself and certainly don't feel bad if you wind up totally bottle feeding either. /big hugs!

Hope things continue to improve!!!!!

Lurking from IVF Board...
Tiffany- So excited to hear that you had your boys!! Glad to hear that things are improving! T & P for a speedy recovery for all 3 of you!

I think it sounds like you are doing a great job!!!! I hope things continue to get better, you heal fast, and you all can get into a routine.

I agree that you are doing fantastic!! That is a LOT to take in and it sounds like you are doing really well despite all you've had to deal with and that you have an amazing support system which is key. I agree that late preterm babies are really a lot more then you would imagine when pregnant. I am positive your little Hayden will become easier and easier to read/feed etc every day.

I can't imagine how tough a c/s recovery would be in general, let alone having twins, an older child, and other health complications to consider.

Congrats!!! Havent been on in awhile but was wondering how you were making out. I had the same problems with bfing. Brad was great but Kayleee had a horrible latch and was very lazy. They were also "late pre-term" babies. My suggestions if you are able to stay sane by doing so keep up the bfing. I swear bfing is what saved me in the first few months. It gets better around 6 weeks. I'm still bfing and they are 16 months now, proof it can be done! Congrats and I'm sorry about all the health concerns. It gets better, I promise.