Abby and Amy: One Month

The girls turned one month old yesterday!  (And today was my due date!)

We brought Abby and Amy home after 15 days in the NICU.  We are so thankful that even though they needed some extra time in the hospital, that it was mostly for observation.  They were off all of their IVs and tubes by the end of their first week.  It was devastating not being able to see them or hold them right off the bat but we knew they were in excellent care with the nurses and doctors and it gave me the time I needed to recover from my C-Section.  I can't imagine coming home with a newborn after having major surgery.

(Amelia)

The NICU had them on a great schedule that we have stuck with since bringing them home.  They eat 3 ounces every 3 hours:  8, 11, 2, 5, 8, 11, 2, 5.  We wake them up, feed them, burp them, change them and put them back to sleep after about 45 minutes.  When we first brought them home, it was taking us a full hour to do everything (even when we were together) but we have all gotten much more efficient.  There is typically 1 or 2 times during the day when one will wake up early and will stay awake until the next feeding.  We have started tracking their day a little closer to see if we can find a pattern.

(Abby)

We saw our pediatrician a couple of days after bringing them home.  Abby was 5 lbs 8 oz and Amelia was 4 lbs 12 oz.  We will go again in about a week and I can't wait to see what Amelia is now.  When we brought them home, they were taking about 2 ounces each feed and they are now regularly taking 3 ounces or more.  We are still bottle feeding.  I really need to be more diligent about trying to breastfeed but I'm so terrified that they will start losing weight.  I also really love the convenience of our schedule and I know that will likely change if we lose the bottles.

(Abby)

We are going through diapers at an astonishing rate.  The NICU sent us home with 2 bags of Preemie diapers and we bought 2 more ourselves (Preemie diapers ONLY come in small bags with 27 diapers from what we can tell).  Once we ran out of those bags, we moved Amelia up to Newborn diapers and we haven't had any issues.  Both girls are starting to really fill out their Newborn onesies but I don't think they'll be moving up any time soon.

(Amelia)

We are being a little more cautious with taking the girls out since they are still so small.  We have taken them to Target once (without Allie) and all 5 of us went to Carson's cousins house once without any issues!  Once they get their shots, we will start taking them out more.

My recovery has been going well.  The first couple of days after they were born were much harder than I was expecting.  I wanted to be able to walk around right away and that was really not an option.  (Recovering from Allie's birth was SO much easier.)  I slept on the couch for the first week and a half and had to take the pain pills they prescribed me for about that long as well.  I lost about 30 pounds in the first 2 weeks but I am still having significant pain in my wrist and fingers on my left hand.  My rings still do not fit.  I have been going on walks in the evening, which has been wonderful.

I'll probably jinx myself by saying this, but so far it hasn't been as difficult as I thought it would be to have the twins home with us.  Right now they are on such a great schedule that the predictability of it has made it SO much easier than when we first brought Allie home.  I really think nothing will top the difficulty of being a first time parent.