Madison had her blood transfusions on Thursday afternoon and early Friday morning. Her hemoglobin levels doubled as a result, so she was ready for discharge by noon-time on Friday - so she was there for just over 24 hours, though it seemed like she was gone forever! Since Mike was at work, my friend Vanessa and her husband, Chris, watched Melia while I went to pick up Madison from the hospital. Yup, Melia had her first babysitting experience on her 10 week birthday. I actually left her with someone else for a couple hours! I mean, Vanessa is a nurse and Chris is a doctor - so it wasn't too hard for me to leave her knowing she was in excellent hands.
I got Madison home at about 2pm and it was time for her and Lia to eat. After that, it was time for a pediatrician appointment. They had their weekly appointment scheduled for Thursday, but I had to cancel since Maddie was going into the hospital. This was my first time venturing out with the girls on my own and I must say, it went very smoothly. The timing was perfect, just after a feeding, so the girls were content and with their full tummies, the car ride put them right to sleep. Maddie weighed in at 5lbs 1.5oz (1 full ounce more than the day before when she weighed in at the NICU - we can probably attribute the extra blood for the weight gain) and Lia weighed in at 6lbs 7oz. I thought that the girls were making pretty good progress with their weight. Madison was up 8oz from the previous week and Melia was up 7oz - but the pediatrician wasn't so impressed with their weight gain. Between concerns with their weight gain and concerns about their acid reflux, he referred the girls to see a pediatric gastroenterologist. Maddie is having a lot of trouble with her feedings - during and afterwards. It can be really difficult to get her to take the bottle sometimes and even if she doesn't put up a fight when eating, the aftermath is terrible - she spits so much of her food right back up and cries and wiggles around in discomfort afterwards - sometimes for the entire 3 hours period in between feedings. Once she finally calms down, it's time to feed her again and the process starts all over again. We try to either hold her or put her down in a position that will help her digest and make her comfortable, but there are times where nothing can help her. She's on Pepcid for her acid reflux, which in the first week or so made a great difference - but now it seems to be getting worse. We're really hoping that the specialist can figure out the magic potion to make her feel better. Melia has the reflux too and at times is clearly uncomfortable, but hers seems much less intense than Madison's. I think she could benefit from a little Pepcid and that should do the trick - but I'm not even sure that she even needs that - as she gets bigger, she seems to be getting a little better day by day. She still has her moments, but I guess when I compare her eating habits and reactions after eating to Maddie, it's easy to see that she is in a better place than Maddie is. I'm waiting on a call back from the specialist to make an appointment for them both. My pediatrician called the specialist to ensure that they get an appointment for this week because he doesn't want to wait any longer to get them seen due to concerns for their weight gain - and I'm happy that they'll be seen this week so that I don't have to watch them in pain anymore.
So between picking up Madison from the hospital and taking the girls to the doctor, Friday afternoon turned out to be pretty eventful. Friday night went pretty smooth also. Not having Mike home for us to split up the feedings was a change of pace - waking up every 3 hours was exhausting - especially with having to console Madison after each feeding for undetermined periods of time before being able to put her down. It made for a long night, but all things considered, it went very well. The girls both realized that they were hungry at their 5pm feeding, so they double teamed me - screaming from the pure starvation of not having eaten in 3 whole hours. But, it's nothing that the proper positioning on a boppy pillow and the right placement of a burp cloth couldn't fix. Maddie even help up her arm to help. At 10 weeks old, she can hold her own bottle! haha. :-)
I was pretty tired on Saturday. Once Mike got home I tagged out and tagged daddy in. I then spent the morning in bed - and I spent the majority of the afternoon and evening taking naps on the couch in between feedings. It didn't help that I got a migraine on Friday night that didn't go away until Sunday. Two babies + migraine = no fun. But we made it through.
**Notable landmarks for the week - Maddie hit 5lbs and Lia is officially out of preemie clothes/diapers - she's all newborn all the way! As of yesterday, Melia is eating 80mls (2 1/2 ounces) every 3 hours and Maddie is taking 70mls every 3 hours (we're adding a teaspoon of formula to the breast milk in each bottle to give them a calorie boost to help them gain weight)
**Notable poop story for the week - picture this: It's 2am - feeding time at the Marcino zoo. Madison looks irritated, so I decide to feed her first (rare event as Melia usually eats first since she eats faster and can be put down afterwards in a more timely fashion). I take her out of the bassinet and into the nursery to change her diaper. No poop in the diaper - another rare event. I think to myself - awesome, a quick diaper change! Well, as I've said before and I really should've known, there's no such thing as a quick diaper change - especially with Madison. So I get the new diaper on, snap her all up and of course, as I've said before - THEN she poops. UGH. I'm instantly annoyed, even though clearly it's not her fault. But hey, it's 2am, I still have to feed her and another baby - and all I really want to do is sleep! So I wait a couple minutes to make sure she's done. After not hearing anything for a few minutes I decide that it's safe. I clean her up and get a new diaper on. This time, as soon as the new diaper gets on, she does it again. I think to myself - well, at least she didn't wait until I snapped her up again. I wait another few minutes and once it's thought to be safe, I change her again - here we go - this time, she doesn't wait until I even have the new diaper underneath her (which by the way, I do extremely quickly - I always have the new diaper opened and ready to swoop underneath almost instantly as I pull the dirty one out) - as I'm doing the swoop - she explodes - poop EVERYWHERE!!! It's on the changing pad - it's on her pajamas, of course she managed to put her foot into it, so it's on her foot - it's on my hand and forearm - it's on the dresser - it's on the wipes warmer - it's on the diaper caddy - and of course, it managed to spray over several clean diapers inside the diaper caddy. By now it's almost 2:30am and I haven't even started feeding her yet, nevermind Melia who is sleeping through all the poop induced chaos. I have to change her and clean poop off of everything that was within 10 feet of her butt during this diaper change. 2am - one diaper change - countless diapers - never ending poop. I say again - ahhhh, motherhood. :-)
**pictures to follow**
