Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Reflections of Motherhood Part 2: Sleep

I’m hesitant to even write about this topic as I know some parents will want to kill us. Sleep has actually been a pretty positive thing in our house. In the early days that’s pretty much all Caleb and Micah did. We woke them every 3 hours to feed. Then a few weeks in we decided to stretch out the early morning hours and they did a 5 hour stretch from feed to feed. That meant about 3.5 hours of sleep in a row for us as feeds took an hour and a half, but pretty good all things considered.

One thing that stood out for us in the sleep department was the idea of “starting as you mean to go” from the Baby Whisperer. If you want them to be able to do something, start from the beginning and for us that meant teaching them how to put themselves to sleep. Especially having two, rocking or nursing them to sleep wasn’t realistic for us. Obviously they were too young for “crying it out” but basically from the days in the hospital, we put them in their bassinettes awake for them to fall asleep on their own. It wasn’t a struggle, they just did it. I realize that’s not always the case, but I’m thankful for it. At bed time and nap times we basically swaddle them (arms out now... they roll over!), sing the nap song, give them a kiss, put them in their cribs and say goodnight. That’s it. Sometimes they cry for maybe a minute but mostly they go peacefully to sleep. I love it!

The boys go to bed after a 7pm feed, we wake them for a 10pm dream feed and they sleep until 7am on most days. Getting sleep has made all the difference in being able to make it through the day with them. Trying to produce enough milk for two babies and just taking care of them, rest is so important. I’m not a nap person so “nap when they nap” didn’t work for me, despite trying. They have also slept in their cribs from the first night they got home from the hospital. Co-sleeping is not for us and who’s kidding who, our bed isn’t big enough for 4. I didn’t even want them in our room as I’m a light sleeper and knew I’d be awake at any little sound... ANY sleep I could get was crucial. Our house is small and they are easy to hear if they need us. I don’t think I’ve ever used our baby monitor.

Naps have been our only struggle and even then I can’t complain. They are often short and because I feed the boys together, the one who sleeps will often get short changed or they wake each other up. Such is life with two, and it’s definitely getting better.

I know there are a million and one ways to approach sleep with babies and every family has to do what’s best for them. We knew that having two is a whole different ball game and that maximizing sleep for everyone in the family was a priority. We often joke that with our next child we are really in for it as our boys have been pretty easy. I wouldn’t be surprised but in the mean time I will cherish my sleep-filled nights!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Reflections of Motherhood Part 1: Breastfeeding

Now that I’m over 4 months into being a mom, I thought it was time to record some of my thoughts about the early days, mostly so that when I look back and it all seems like a blur I’ll have some record to look back on. Today’s topic: breast feeding!

I was determined to breast feed my babies from the beginning. Although I have nothing against formula and people who choose/have to use it I wanted my babies to get as much breast milk as possible. I knew it would be a challenge with twins and has definitely proved to be my biggest. Breast feeding is hard. The babies had to learn and I had to learn. It didn’t just happen magically. In the early days and weeks it didn’t always work. It was a huge production to try to get one of them latched on and feeding both would take well over an hour. In order to produce enough milk for two I also had to pump after each nursing session. I HATED pumping. There is nothing nice about it. We also struggled with weight gain in the beginning so had to supplement with formula after each feed. I was afraid of them getting too used to a bottle so we used a lactation tube, where basically they get the formula at the breast. No easy feat and I was happy when we didn’t need to do that anymore.

The best thing I did was go see a lactation consultant. We had one visit us every day in the hospital and we were able to continue seeing her at the free Peel Breast feeding clinic (so thankful for such a great resource in our community!!). An LC is such an important job. My good friend Kristen just passed her exam to become one and I’m so excited for her. She’s also been a huge encouragement in this process.

One of the biggest parts to my success was setting a goal for myself before the babies were born. My first goal was to make it 6 weeks as that’s the post-partum stage. Without that goal I’m pretty sure my babies would be on formula by now. SO many times I wanted to give up but I stuck it out and it got easier just like they said it would. We continue to have our challenges (Micah now gets very distracted and we’re having some weight issues again) but lots of successes too. For a few months I’ve been tandem feeding them and am proud that I can do it on my own. My next goal is 6 months and after that possibly a year if they’ll go that long. I love that it’s free and portable but thing I’ll be ready to wean them once they can have whole milk at a year.

The best part of breastfeeding is the bonding and knowing my babies are getting the best nutrition they can. I also love feeding them together and love when they hold hands or look up at me and smile. The hardest part is that they need me all the time and life is planned around feeding. Tandem feeding twins isn’t very public friendly either so I don’t get out as much as a mom of one baby can, but I know it’s a short phase of life that I’m committed to.