First of many mix-ups

The fun thing with identical twins is telling them apart.  We have been pretty lucky so far since the twins are so different in their weight.  Another thing that has helped us tell the boys apart is that Jordan has more eczema and cradle cap on his forehead.  When you put the two boys together it is much easier to tell them apart, but when they are not close together to compare, it gets trickier.
Grandma came to visit a couple weeks ago and she was very proud that she was able to tell them apart. The day she left we had an appt to take the boys to and grandma was getting the boys ready with me.  Jordan and Jaxon are in different size of diapers and so it is important to put the right size on the right boy, so you have to know who you are holding.  Typically we keep the boys on the same side of the crib, but sometimes we put them back on either side.  My mom just assumed that Jordan was where he should be and switched the boys diapers.  Normally it wouldn't be a big deal but Jaxon had a huge blow out when we were at a physical therapy appt.  It was all over my shirt, pants, and the floor.  LOVELY!  I don't keep a change of clothes for myself in the car so I had to wipe up as best as I could.

Each day the boys seemed to look more and more alike.  It is so much fun!

How to calm 2 babies crying

Sometimes with twins they decide they want something at the same time or they want to eat at the same time.  Yesterday they were just plain fussy and I really couldn't hold both of them any longer.  I put them in the crib side by side with their heads almost touching and they quieted right down.  They don't like to hear their brother crying and so if both are crying and you put them together like that, one boy will stop crying and give his brother a look of disgust like he is saying, "Whats your problem?"  It is the cutest thing in the world to watch.  They will also take turns crying it out.

The boys were pretty happy and content for a few minutes like this.  Jordan is on left and Jaxon is on the right.  We put them like this quite often and they like to lay and stare at each other.  So adorable!

7 weeks

Life is a lot of fun with newborn twins.  All my 4 other babies were pretty big from the beginning so I've never really had the chance to have a little baby for long.  I've also never really been a little newborn baby lover, I like it when they can interact with you better.  My mind and opinion have changed and I have loved being a mom to two little babies.  Jaxon is a pound lighter now than when Joseph was born.  No wonder so many people told me he was like having a 2 month old.  I never really understood that when people told me and now I know.  I even am considering when I go back to being a nurse to do NICU or nursery.  

Our days are kind of the same over and over again and I don't have much time to get out.  When the boys were about 5 weeks my friend Emily who had twins told me that if I wanted the boys to nurse that I should just take the plunge and make them learn.  At this point when I would nurse the boys, it would still hurt and the boys would be really fussy after nursing.  I thought that I would give it a try and so I spent almost the whole next week just concentrating on nursing.  By the end of the week it was going pretty good, but the boys weren't as happy as they had been.  My sister in law, Amber had come into town and was a huge help so that I could work on the nursing with the boys.  I was even only nursing and feeling pretty good about things, except for the more fussiness.  When we went to the 6 week old weight check up, the doctor didn't like that they boys were not gaining weight like they should be and so we had to reevaluate what we were doing with their feeding.  Well, long story short, the boys weren't getting enough food and we started feeding them bottles after being nursed and they gobbled all the bottles down.  This was very frustrating.  Now I am to nursing only once a day and bottle feeding what I pump the rest of the time (or formula if I don't have pumped milk).  The whole process takes about 1 1/2 hours to complete and sometimes 2 hours.  This includes changing their diaper, bottle / breast feeding, pumping, burping.  This is all that I do it seems.  

Stats for 7 weeks:  Jaxon 8 lbs 11 oz  & Jordan 7 lbs

Growing babies!

NICU for 14 days

When the twins were born, they were given apgar scores like all newborn babies.  The disadvantage of having a nursing background is that I know a little too much.  The babies really didn't cry when they came out and what little crying that they did was very weak.  I kept asking, "is the baby ok, is he crying, how is he?"  The room was a little quieter than was comfortable for me and I knew there were a lot of people in the room for the babies.  The doctor asked someone what the apgar scores were and someone responded, "baby a is 7 & 9 and baby b is 3 & 6".  I knew that these are not great scores.  You typically want to see a 7 & 9 at the lowest.  Apgar scores are based on 5 different things, activity, pulse, muscle tone, appearance, respirations.  I knew a 3 & 6 were terrible and baby b was not doing well.  The NICU doctor stabilized the babies enough to take them to the nursery.  Before heading out of the room, the Doctor gave Jordan to Lynar since he was doing so well and he carried Jaxon and brought both boys to me to give them a kiss and see them before they took them away.  They had to put Jaxon on oxygen right away and decided he had to be taken to another NICU hospital at Willow Creek.  I got to see each of the boys one more time (or attempt to see them since they were wrapped in blankets and in a transport box).  This was the last time I was able to see the babies until I was released from the hospital 48 hours later.  It was hard, but I knew that the babies needed a little extra help and it was best for them.

I really want to breast feed the boys and so that night I started pumping and what I pumped, Lynar would take down to give to the babies.  He was my courier for a couple days and driving back and forth the 30 minute drive was a little busy for him.  Plus, we had to juggle our other 4 kids since my mom hadn't come into town yet.  Thank goodness for good friends to help us out during that time.  I healed pretty fast this time and getting up was not as bad as my 2 other c-sections.  I was left alone most of the time since there was no baby to check on me with and so I was learning how to move in bed by myself and do things quicker than if I had a baby to sit and hold.  It had hurt so bad the whole pregnancy to walk that the c-section was a breeze and it felt better to walk.

I was discharged from the hospital on January 23rd in the early afternoon and was able to go straight to the hospital to see my babies.  They were hooked to an iv, and a bunch of other wires to monitor them. Jaxon had been on 4 liters of oxygen the first day, then they moved him down to 2 liters and the day I was released they took him off of the oxygen.  They were in a big room with lots of other babies, but by that night they moved the babies to a private room where we could have some privacy with the babies and sleep on an uncomfortable bed if we wanted.  While I was still healing I did not stay the night so that I could sleep better in my own bed at home and finish healing a little.  My mom flew in that night and so Lynar picked her up from the hospital and then came and picked me up.  For the first week, we came home late at night and as the nights went on, it got harder and harder to leave my babies at the hospital.  I know the nurses would take care of my babies, but it is hard to leave a newborn with a stranger no matter what the situation is.  The nurses would encourage me to go home and sleep and get rest which bothered me because I felt like I should be at the hospital with the babies.

The babies were mainly in the hospital for feeding/growing.  Both boys had a hard time finishing a bottle and had most of their feedings in a feeding tube.  They needed to take a full bottle (which was 55 ml for Jaxon and 42 ml for Jordan) for a full day without having to put any of it down a feeding tube before they could have the tube taken out.  Then they needed to go without the feeding tube for 2 days before being discharged.  It seemed like they would be there forever since they had a hard time doing this little chore.  To finish a bottle took a lot of work for them and for us.  It usually took 30 min for such a small amount and they wouldn't even finish it all the way.  It seemed like 2 steps forward, 1 step back.  We had some great nurses and some so-so nurses and we realized that the nurse made a huge difference with how the babies ate.  If the babies had a good day, they would have a bad night because they had over done it during the day.

The nice thing about being in the NICU is that we were able to have the babies monitored so well and I did get a lot of rest knowing that if they had problems we would know right away.  Every new mom knows the worry that goes along with a newborn.  Another nice thing is that the babies were trained to fall asleep on their own since we didn't hold them much.  Letting them sleep uninterrupted was really good for them to help them to grow.  One thing we really enjoyed doing was kangaroo care where we would put the babies skin to skin and let the babies feel our warmth.  Lynar was able to do this as well and it was fun to see him enjoy this whole experience.  I nursed when I could, but it was hard for the babies and so we didn't do it often.  I pumped every 2 hours for the first little bit and then did every 3 hours.  I was keeping track of every little thing the babies did as much as possible.

Finally on February 2nd the babies had reached their feeding goal of taking everything by bottle and they were able to have their tubes taken out.  The next day I woke up and the nurse told me that the babies would be able to go home that day since there was a bad storm coming the following day and they wanted to get me home before it hit.  The day was busy getting some OT testing done, circumcisions done, and also getting car seat tests done.  We were not cleared to go home until almost 10 pm.  THe kids had not been able to see the babies since no kids are allowed in the NICU so they were super excited.