Month: May 2015

Breastfeeding is super important to me.  After a bit of a rocky start, Raptor and I had a great nursing relationship.  She self-weaned when my milk dried up at 15 months.  Imagine a rant here about my OB who insisted I go on birth control pills when she was a year old because of some period issues and assured me it would not impact my milk supply.  Not true.  ::shakes fist::

So when we found out we were having twins, I started obsessively researching how to be successful breastfeeding multiples.  It can be done! I highly recommend a twin nursing pillow.  I have this one and it’s the bomb.  It lets me feed them at the same time so I don’t lose my mind.

Mia is nursing like a champ!  We’ve pretty much gotten her off of the supplemental bottles!  She (and Xander) both had to have a few mls of formula in the hospital, Xander due to blood sugar issues and Mia due to jaundice, but I’m pleased to report that I’m currently managing to exclusively breast feed them.  It’s pretty much a full time job (I’m actually nursing as I type. lol) but it’s so worth it.  I went into this with the mindset that I would basically be doing nothing but nursing babies for the first 6 months.  Anytime I get discouraged, I remember that I knew this was going to be a huge time commitment for 6 months, but that I can do anything for 6 months.  With Raptor, things got a lot easier once we introduced solid food so I’m keeping my eye on that prize.  My ultimate goal is to nurse for 2 years which coincides with the end of flu season.

Nursing feels like a huge accomplishment for 2 reasons.  1, because TWINS!  Duh.  I was so worried about my milk supply.  If I’m being honest, I’m still worried about it.  Right now, I have plenty to feed the babies, plus I pump once a day and freeze 3-4 ounces in case of emergency.  Like last Friday when I had a margarita emergency at the prospect of my baby graduating from kindergarten.  ::sob::  2, because often children who have Downs syndrome have feeding issues even with a bottle, so the fact that Mia nurses almost full time feels like a huge accomplishment.  I think the fact that she has a typically developing, boobie addicted, twin helps.  He helps keep my supply up, and when I tandem feed them he helps get a letdown for her.

I feel a huge amount of guilt about the formula they got in the hospital, but I’m trying to let that go.  I’m having varying degrees of success with that.  lol.  I wanted to include a picture but, while I’m far from modest about breastfeeding, even I draw the line at posting pics of my droopy boobs online.  Once the babies are bigger and their heads provide a bit more coverage, I’d like to take some nice pics of me nursing them.  We’ll see.

So, our house almost flooded last night.  That was fun.  Not.  Luckily the neighbors went around clearing the storm drains during a break in the rain and the water started receding, but it was inches from my front door.  Might need to rethink my policy of declining flood insurance on the grounds that we’re nowhere near a body of water and it never rains here.

Raptor had a blast jumping in the puddles which, in her mind,  more than made up for the time spend “hunkered down” in the hallway yesterday during the tornado warning.

I can’t decide if I love that it’s downright cold this May or if I’m irritated that we can’t go swimming yet.  It’s usually swimming weather here right around mid-April so this is definitely throwing me for a loop.

I shot these pics with my brand spanking new 35 mm lens.  I <3 it.

Meet Alexander James (Xander) and Emilia Marie (Mia).  They’re here!  And they’re perfect.  Loud, messy, sleepless, and perfect.  🙂

Here they are at 1 month and 1 day.  I love that Xander is such a flirt and Mia’s all whatever, ::sigh::.  🙂

Our lives are definitely changing and in more, and different, ways that we expected.  I never blogged about it, but we had a ridiculously complicated pregnancy with the twins including, but not limited to, a prenatal diagnosis of hydrocephalus for Baby A (that’s our sweet little Mia) so we were expecting her to need brain surgery (at a different hospital) within a day or two of her arrival.

They were born at 37 weeks 1 day gestation via an unplanned, but not emergency, c-section.  Maybe I’ll blog about that at some point.  We had mentally prepared for Mia to be whisked off to the NICU, so we were pleasantly surprised when both twins were allowed to room in with us.  The pediatrician came to examine them and gave us the great news that, while Mia would still need an MRI and to see a neurosurgeon, it did not look like she would need surgery right away.  In fact, she might not need it at all!  And there was much rejoicing.  🙂

Then he dropped a bomb on us.

“Has anyone talked to you about the possibility that Mia has Down syndrome?”

Um, come again?  What are you talking about?!?

Due to some of our earlier pregnancy complications, we had not been able to do the blood work to screen for chromosomal abnormalities at 13 weeks.  That said, I pretty much had an ultrasound every week of my pregnancy and there was never any indication that Down syndrome was a possibility so to say that we were shocked would be a massive understatement.

It took about a week to get the genetic testing back, and it showed that yes, in fact, Mia does have Down syndrome.  No lie, it took me some time to process that, but now we can’t imagine her any other way.  She (and Xander) are perfect just as they are (though Xander could do with sleeping a bit more, lol.)

I imagine this blog will be undergoing a bit of a transition.  I’m still crafting (well, not much, but I will be!!!) and I’ll still blog about my crafty adventures.  I just envision that I’ll also be blogging a bit more about our adventures with newborn twins and a 5 year old.  After all, it’s only been 5 1/2 weeks and we’ve already had to call 911 (Xander had to learn the hard way that we don’t breath in our own puke!).  Who can tell what adventures the summer will bring.  🙂