Feeding three hungry, growing babies is no small feat. To date, the babies have been fed exclusively on their Mama's milk and have been doing well on it. Of course, with such great nutrition, they are all growing. Did I mention that Heather is over 6 lbs now - and requiring more and more milk?
With each day I have watched my supply of milk (stored in the freezer from early days after the girls were born) dwindle as the nurses have needed to use it to satisfy the ever increasing appetites. Despite my attempts to keep up, I knew there might come a day that I just couldn't. The lactation consultant(s) in the hospital are quite good and I've had numerous opportunities to speak to them about how to make my body do, as some would say -- the impossible -- and produce even more milk. We discussed different options, one being formula. Of course, there is nothing really wrong with formula: many parents choose it and their babies do just great. For me, it has been a bit of a mental hurdle getting used to the idea that these babes might need formula so early in their lives. The consultant offered that perhaps I can consider the formula as equivalent to "drive through" -- she said that it's not as if they will need the "drive through" all the time, just once in a while, trying to ease my guilt.
Well, today was the day that I took all three kids to the "drive through". I'm not sure using this metaphor is actually helpful. We took Jennifer to McDonald's for the first time not too long ago, I felt quite guilty about it, however, she has never looked back - she knows exactly where "Donald's" is and that she can get fries there! Is any fast food actually good for you? DON'T ANSWER THAT. Anyways, I digress... The girls continue to thrive and do well with both their Mama's milk and the occasional (daily) need for "drive through" to make ends meet.
All three girls gained good weight today. Both Emily and Heather continue to work steadfastly on mastering their bottles and Caitlyn continues to roll with Mama's back-and-forth routine. Jennifer too takes everything in stride. Today was again a "no nap" day for her, but she continues to be happy and cheerful in spite of this. We watched her on "Jennifer TV" (my dad gave us a wireless video camera setup so we can watch Jennifer in her bed) and, immediately after having been given a stern talking to by her father about the need to close her eyes and go to sleep, she resorted to an Olympic calibre handstand routine in her crib. It was quite impressive really, when you consider that she didn't have any musical accompaniment. Anyways, we had a fabulous time going for our first walk with Caitlyn - Big sister pushed the stroller proudly the whole way and was eager to show off her new sister to neighbourhood on-lookers.
That's what the day brought today...so, until tomorrow
Jan
Well, if there's something having twins has taught me (and I'm sure my triplet mom friends would agree), is that you need to do what you have to do to survive. If that means you have to go to the drive-through more than you'd like, then that's what you do. If that means my older daughter has to watch an extra hour of Sesame Street, than that's what I have to do. The BEST thing that you can do is love your kids with everything you've got and love yourselves enough to take a break when you need to (because you're nothing to your kids if you're at the end of your rope). Everything else is just minor details.
ReplyDelete