Nutrition.....Interrupted

Warning: I am going to talk about breastfeeding in this blog....if it wierds you out in any way then you probably don't want to read this (because I wouldn't have wanted to read about someone else's nursing issues before I became a mom).

We hit a little bit of a "snafu" 2 weeks ago. But first let me say that I had to Google the world snafu because I am anal about spelling and I had NO idea what it stood for!!! It's pretty crude. I don't think I will be using it in my vocabulary too much anymore. You should Google it if you don't get offended easily! OK, anyway so 2 weeks ago on a Tuesday I had to go to court to testify in an old case (in which they found the defendant not guilty after he confessed...anyway that is for another crime scene blog from my former life that I could spend years writing..Eric always says I should write a book about my crime scene/autopsy/working with child molester days...maybe I will do that in all my free time!). Anyway Eric came home from work to watch the babies while I went to court. On the way home I called him and he said that Graham had been so fussy the whole time I was gone. Granted, Graham is definitely a fussier baby but not as bad as what Eric was telling me. It continued ALL week long. He was NOT happy....by Friday I was at my wits end. And at this point Evie Claire had chimed in and was just as fussy, which is when I knew something was wrong because she is the most content child. On Friday night we weigh both of them just to make sure they are gaining weight. So we weighed them that week and neither one of them had gained any weight. Graham was at 8 lbs 6 oz and Evie Claire was at 7lbs 4 oz. I called our pediatrician, Dr. Stephanie, on Saturday morning and told her what was going on and she wanted me to bring them in. Thank goodness she works on Saturdays and she has twins so that is one reason why we chose her. They weighed them and sure enough Graham was the same weight on her scales and EC was an ounce less at 7 lbs 3 oz. Dr. Stephanie said they were in the 5th percentile for weight and that they need more calories. They should be gaining 5-7 ounces per week at this point and taking about 4-5 oz of breast milk each feeding. The thing about breastfeeding is there is no way to gauge what each child is getting. They said a breastfed baby is getting enough if they are content and gaining weight....which neither of mine were doing at that time. Her suggestion was to nurse them and then follow up with a bottle of a couple of ounces of frozen breast milk until I depleted my frozen supply and then add in formula. I did this for 2 days and it was too much. We were back to square one with it taking over an hour to feed them. Eric was able to help me since it was the weekend so I would nurse and hand him one of the babies for him to bottle feed. But when Monday came around it was going to take a while. So Monday I decided that I would just start pumping and giving them bottles. That way I knew how much they were getting each feeding. It was working out MUCH better. Graham was taking about 4.5 oz and EC was taking around 4 oz. I weighed them this past Monday and Graham was up to 9 lbs 3.5 oz and EC was at 8 lbs! EC finally made the transition to 0-3 month clothing at 3.5 months! So the last couple of weeks have been a little crazy but I finally have my happy, content babies back and they are off their baby Weight Watchers program that I didn't even know they were on in the first place.
It took me about 6 weeks to build up my stash of frozen breast milk...I had the whole sidebar of my freezer chest full of milk.......and sadly, it took me about 5 days to deplete the stash!!!!!!  Now they are getting about 3 bottles of breast milk a day and 2 bottles of formula. I have to admit the first feeding that I had to give them formula I cried. I felt like I had failed some how as a mom and meeting the nutritional needs of my children but then I stop and tell myself that I do have twins and most twin moms don't nurse at all and a lot of them don't produce enough milk. So I was lucky and fortunate to solely nurse them for a little over 3 months. They got breast milk during the most crucial time of their life so I think I did pretty good.

So let me say this.....breast feeding is not easy, well at least it wasn't for me. For all the women out there who have a baby and they just latch on the first feeding, say a prayer of thanks. Maybe I had a hard time because mine were preeemies, maybe I didn't know what I was doing....I don't know. Maybe it's because I have a set of twins.....but I did not enjoy breastfeeding. I will say that I think I would have enjoyed it much more if I was just nursing one. But nursing one baby while the other one is screaming because they are hungry too is not enjoyable. You have to do what is best for your baby and for mom's sanity, I have learned.  My love language is "Words of Affirmation" so I needed someone to tell me what I was doing wasn't working...I got that affirmation at the doctor. And from the help of a few wonderful friends! :) One thing I have learned since becoming a mom is that everyone has an opinion on being a mom! But in reality the only opinion that matters is Graham and Evie Claire's! And I think now, they think I am doing a pretty good job!