Playing with the boys

From the Twin-Daddy:

The boys are staying awake longer and are becoming more interactive.  Both of them seem to love having their arms waved around and we are getting fairly regular baby-grins when we play with them now.

Zodiacs and Our Sons

Like all new parents, we are curious what our children will be like – their personalities and interests, and we must patiently wait to watch as our little boys evolve. However, we can always turn to zodiacs for some light-hearted predictions….

We already knew that our little boys were going to be born during the Year of the Tiger, making our cubs tigers like their mother. According to the website Chinese Zodiac, “those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Tiger are authoritative, self-possessed, have strong leadership qualities, are charming, ambitious, courageous, warm-hearted, highly seductive, moody, intense, and they’re ready to pounce at any time. Compatible with Horse or Dog.” Grrrr…. For those interested in a more detailed description, you can visit the website page dedicated to Tigers.

Because they were born August 1, Dominic and Alexander are also Leos in the western zodiac. According to one of the many websites, Leos are: “Stubborn, fixed views, strong, cruel, independent, organizing capacity and talents for propaganda, humanitarian, frequenting solitary places, generous, famous” and “ego, self-centered, arrogant; fixed, stubborn, persistant; artistic or creative expression as a vehicle for revealing “who I am”; needs to be a center of attention, requires acknowledgment and approval, likes to be noticed and appreciated (‘ego-strokes’); personal integrity, true to self, honorable, trustworthy; kingly, self-assured, confident.”

Well, now that we know their personalities, we can start planning their lives for them…right?

Lions and Tigers and Shakti

We took some photos of our cubs with their Great Dane on Sunday. Shakti has taken the boys arrival in stride. She sometimes comes over to give them a sniff or to lick their cheeks. If they are crying, she occasionally comes to check on them, but it is more common for her to either keep on sleeping or to go back to our bedroom to take a break from the noise. (Click on the images to see a larger version of each. Click on the back button to return to this page.)

Just a short note tonight. Alexander gave his daddy a great big smile yesterday (September 18) when he saw him, and we’re counting it as Alex’s first smile. Yes, he’s had grins that appeared spontaneously, but this was the first one that seemed to respond to seeing his dad. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing more of those! Dad has started several little games with the boys that they love – like wiggling their little arms quickly back and forth, tracing big circles with their hands in the air, and giving them fish face. We’ll try to catch some video of that soon.

Grandma Myrtle should be arriving back in California tomorrow night (Monday), and we are looking forward to having her with us again. We feel very grateful to have her assistance with our young babes. Puck starts back to work tomorrow too, and classes at UCDavis begin later this week. I’ll be teaching Spanish I in the afternoon. It is always a joy to see just how far students advance in the Spanish I courses in just a few weeks.

Starting this past Saturday, our boys have inexplicably started going on a feeding marathon from about 7 in the evening until 10 or 11. They want to nurse every 1-2 hours, and these sessions often last 45 minutes to an hour. So, after drinking together for an hour, either Dominic or Alexander (or both) have taken a short break and then decided that the thirst just wasn’t quenched. Typically after 3 hours of almost continuous breastfeeding, we supplement a bit with bottles of breastmilk or formula.

Since Puck heads back to work full-time on Monday, we decided to shift our schedules, and the last few days I’ve taken over the feedings after midnight. This would have been a more difficult transition for me, but the twins – without intentional parental manipulation – have also made a change in their schedules. After their feeding frenzy the last couple of nights, they have gone 5 1/2 to 6 hours before wanting to eat again. This means that I’ve been able to get at least 4 hours of solid sleep even if I don’t go straight to bed after the 10 or 11 o’clock meal, and there is the potential for 5 to 5 1/2 hours of sleep. I’m hopeful this trend will continue.

Now, after this extended fast, both Dominic and Alexander tend to eat about every 1 1/2 to 2 hours for awhile. In fact, I was looking over our poo journal (yes, we record which son did what and when as well as when they ate and on which breast), and I discovered that the past 2 days the boys have eaten 11-12 meals a day (10 of those breastfeeding). If you subtract just 4 hours for their extended fast, this means that they are eating 11-12 times in 20 hours and that we are spending at least 5+ hours nursing a day. Wow!

We’ve had our sons home for almost 1 month now, and it’s been wonderful to watch them – growing, wiggling their arms and legs, opening their eyes and looking around, nursing, holding hands, suckling in their sleep…. Alexander and Dominic are 6 1/2 weeks old now, and they are starting to hold their heads up for longer periods of time, to grab at objects, and to really see the world around them.

When they are in their bassinets, we often hang their mobiles above them, and they have enjoyed watching the large raindrops circle. From the start they would also swing out wildly to hit a raindrop.

Growing Boys

Since our sons arrived early, we had appointments with our pediatrician every week for several weeks. They were doing fine at each check-up, and we got to weigh them:

• Sunday, August 1 (birth weight):
  • Alexander: 6 lb. 5 oz.
  • Dominic: 5 lb. 13 oz.
• Friday, August 20:
  • Alexander: 7 lb. 4 oz.
  • Dominic: 6 lb. 10 oz.
• Friday, August 27:
  • Alexander: 7 lb. 13 oz.
  • Dominic: 7 lb. 6 oz.
• Friday, September 3:
  • Alexander: 8 lb. 5 oz.
  • Dominic: 7 lb. 12 oz.

As Alexander and Dominic grow, they look more and more alike, and I would guess that by now Alexander is at least 9 pounds and Dominic 8 1/2 pounds.

Diapers

We have used over 900 baby wipes, and our boys spent little time in newborn diapers after they came home. We’ve had a few out-of-diaper experiences, and Alexander and Dominic have each taken a go at peeing and pooping on Mommy and Daddy.

Help and the Unexpected

As many of you know, my mom came out to help us before the boys arrived, and she had planned to stay for a couple of months. Grandma Myrtle was a tremendous amount of help those last few days of July when I was finding it harder to get around and afterward during the two+ weeks that Dom and Alex were in the NICU. She made life so much easier, and it was such a comfort to have her here to talk to and to guide us as we entered the ranks of parenthood.

Unfortunately, my mom only got to stay with us for less than a week after Dom and Alex came home because my dad developed heart problems. We were all glad though that Mom flew home and was with Dad when he went in for a bypass surgery and that the operation went well. Dad is home and recovering now, and Mom is planning to come back out to help with the boys soon if all continues to go well. This has been a very eventful year for my family. Hopefully next year we’ll have fewer trips to doctors all around.

Puck and I have also been blessed with many wonderful friends who have dropped off gifts of food (Thank you sooo much!) and stopped by to meet the boys. It was especially difficult to get out to the grocery store (or anywhere else) early on, and we’re still learning about the best ways to plan excursions to the outside world. Dominic and Alexander typically sleep in the car right now, but we have to plan around their feeding schedule to make sure we don’t have two very cranky little boys. One of the bigger challenges is just getting us all packed up and ready to go with a last feeding as close to the time we’ll be leaving as possible.

Nursing Update

We are primarily tandem nursing Alex and Dom. Some people are surprised when we say “we nurse” the boys, but it really is a team-activity. The twin-daddy changes their diapers and soothes them as they wait to latch. In the middle of the nursing, he burps the boys so they can re-latch and finish their meal, and afterward, we each take a son. Often, they curl up on our chests to sleep, but other times they play with us. Puck also makes sure I have something to drink or eat. He calls himself the pit-crew, and the nursing sessions flow much better when we work together.

At night, the twin-daddy has also been bottlefeeding them for 1+ of the meals – usually with breastmilk but sometimes with formula or a bit of both. This lets me get 3-5 hours of solid sleep, and then I take over so he can sleep. (However, our schedule will be changing somewhat with Puck heading back to work on Monday.) Nursing them on my own is a much more frustrating experience for them as they have to wait for me to get their diapers changed and then get us positioned and ready to nurse. I often have to accept that there will be a certain amount of crying because I don’t have the extra set of arms needed to hold and soothe them both at once.

When Dominic first came home and for awhile after both boys came home, I was pumping almost every time after breastfeeding to be able to take milk to the hospital for Alexander and then to encourage my milk to continue to come in. Pumping that often was exhausting and time-consuming. I spend at least 4 hours nursing the boys every day (usually more), and the pumping back then added another 3-4 hours. Now, I generally pump between 1-3 times a day so that Puck will have milk to bottlefeed our sons, and I produce between 150 and 300 mL a session.

Starting around 7 PM, the boys have started to have a feeding marathon with one or both nursing or bottlefeeding continuously for 3-4 hours. It’s kind of amazing how hungry they can be. However, last night at least they both seemed to sleep longer after their marathon.