The day after returning home from the hospital, we had to take Anjali to the hospital to get an ultrasound of her hips. This is routine for breech babies, because of their position in the womb, the pressure put on their hips when they enter mommy's pelvis can do some damage. Our pediatrician wanted to do this to make sure her hips looked fine, weren't out of alignment or out of place. Girls are especially prone to this, and when there's more than one baby in there, there's even more risk. Daddy, mommy and both girls headed to the hospital, and Anjali had her ultrasound. She was such a good girl, she slept the whole time! The technician said everything looked good, we waited for the official results from the doctor later on, who told us he didn't see anything abnormal, everything looked great. Yay!
After the hospital, we had an appointment with our pediatrician to have the girls checked out, especially to have them weighed, and to have their jaundice looked at. We were very glad to hear that they were already weighing more than they did the day before, and their jaundice was already looking much better. That means we were over both humps! No need for jaundice treatments, and we could continue on with our feeding schedule, things were looking good.
Our doc also noticed how much better Chaya's foot looked. At birth, her right foot was very sideways, pointing to the outside, and her ankle looked quite different than her other one. We were a little worried when we first saw this, but the doctor assured us it would most certainly get better with time, and wanted us to stretch her foot towards the inside, many times a day. He said it was muscular, and there was probably nothing wrong with her bones or anything serious going on. We've continued to stretch her little foot, and it keeps looking better and better.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Feeding every 2 hours
All babies lose a little weight during their first week of life. Chaya and Anjali lost a little over 10% of their birth weights, so because of that the pediatrician wants us to feed them every 2 hours, and supplement with 0.5oz of formula at each feeding. We will need to do this until they reach their birth weights at least. This is cutting down on our sleep a LOT, since sometimes one feeding can take up to an hour! Our biggest problem is waking them up, and having them stay awake during their feedings! All they want to do is sleep! We have to take all their clothes off, sometimes change their diapers, and poke them everywhere to try to annoy them and have them cry a little to wake up! Sometimes we can't even wake them up at all, so we've skipped a few feedings here and there. It sometimes is also a challenge for mommy to wake up, and stay awake while breastfeeding.
The lactation nurses at the hospital showed us two very fascinating feeding techniques if we don't want to use bottles, and risk nipple confusion (when the babies get confused by going back and forth between bottle and breast). You can use a plastic syringe and very slowly squirt formula into the baby's mouth. You can also use a small plastic cup full of formula, and slowly allow the baby to drink it up. It's really amazing to see, but it works! It takes a long time, and you need to keep burping them during, since they may gulp in a lot of air while doing this. We tried the cup technique once after coming home from the hospital, but it was a very long process, and wasn't that easy to do.. so we decided to introduce bottles, they loved them right away, and never had any nipple confusion.
We are looking forward to our 2 weeks appointment at the pediatrician to see whether or not they have reached their birth weights.. hopefully we won't have to do this whole production for too long!
I was able to do tandem breastfeeding starting on day 2! Luckily both girls got the hang of breastfeeding quickly. Feeding them at the same time saves a lot of time!
I LOVE this photo that my mom took of me feeding the girls.
Chaya getting fed with the syringe.
Chaya drinking out of the little cup.
Anjali drinking out of the cup.
Grand-Maman helping with the bottle feeding.
Daddy bottle feeding Chaya.
The lactation nurses at the hospital showed us two very fascinating feeding techniques if we don't want to use bottles, and risk nipple confusion (when the babies get confused by going back and forth between bottle and breast). You can use a plastic syringe and very slowly squirt formula into the baby's mouth. You can also use a small plastic cup full of formula, and slowly allow the baby to drink it up. It's really amazing to see, but it works! It takes a long time, and you need to keep burping them during, since they may gulp in a lot of air while doing this. We tried the cup technique once after coming home from the hospital, but it was a very long process, and wasn't that easy to do.. so we decided to introduce bottles, they loved them right away, and never had any nipple confusion.
We are looking forward to our 2 weeks appointment at the pediatrician to see whether or not they have reached their birth weights.. hopefully we won't have to do this whole production for too long!
Monday, May 9, 2011
The big day
Didn't sleep much the night before our scheduled c-section. Had to be at Baton Rouge General Hospital around 5am. Daddy and mommy were quite excited to get the show on the road. We arrived, met all the nice nurses, mommy got hooked up to all the monitors to listen to babies' heartbeats. Then we waited a bit for the doctors to arrive. I was excited that both my doctors would be performing the c-section together, my original obgyn who also had a baby a month before (she was still on maternity leave, but came anyway because she really wanted to be at the birth of our girls), and the doctor who replaced her while she was away. I really loved both doctors a lot, so I was happy they would both be present.
They brought me to the O.R. when everyone was there, gave me a spinal and laid me back down. When they started the c-section, I freaked out quite a bit.. I wasn't aware that with a spinal, you feel no pain, but you still feel everything they do (cutting you open, moving things around in there,..). It really made me panic, I wasn't sure if it was normal, if the spinal was working.. I cried the whole time, I thought I would pass out, but the anesthesiologist assured me I wouldn't pass out. They told me to take in slow deep breaths. I was quite scared the whole time... and then they brought out the girls, and I heard their loud cries, saw tears in Prosanta's eyes, and heard how big their weights were.. it made me calm down. Chaya was born at 7:15am, weighing 6Lbs3oz, measuring 19 inches. Anjali came out next, at 7:16am, weighed 6Lbz8oz, and measured 19.5 inches. Both girls were very healthy, didn't require any special care at the NICU, and came directly with me to the recovery room. I held them in my arms right after they got cleaned off and checked out.
They wheeled us into the recovery room. Everything was going well, Prosanta learned how to change his first diaper EVER. He called a friend to announce the girls' birth. I was holding them, everyone was happy. Then I started bleeding quite a bit. The nurses kept changing pads on me every few minutes, I was losing a LOT of blood, lots of clots were coming out (which is normal, but not this fast). The nurses had to massage my uterus by pressing down on my abdomen. I've never felt that much pain in my whole life. It hurt so badly, I was holding on to Prosanta's hand so hard I'm surprised I didn't break his fingers. They had to do this to help the uterus contract and get rid of the clots. They did this for a few hours on and off, and many times a day for the rest of my hospital stay. The room was a bit hectic for a few hours. I wasn't too scared or nervous, I trusted in the nurses caring for me, they were in contact with my doctor over the phone, he was telling them what to do. Finally, it got under control, but I was left looking so pale, weak and tired..
They brought me a food tray, I was on a liquid diet at first, and once I could keep liquids down, I would be allowed to eat anything I wanted. I had some jell-o, and juice. I felt good and hungry. One of the lactation nurse came in to help me breastfeed the babies. I was so tired, I couldn't keep my eyes open, even though I was excited to experience this for the first time. She said to just close my eyes and sleep, she would hold them to my breasts to have them nurse. Prosanta was also there at my side, learning from her, how to help hold the babies, how to squeeze my breasts to help the milk (which was colostrum at the time) come out. I kept drifting in and out of sleep. I also vomited a few times while breastfeeding, guess I had those liquids a bit too soon.
We eventually were transferred to our regular room in the late afternoon (which was a little smaller than the recovery room, but just as nice). The nurses took off my bandage, took out my urinary catheter, and said they wanted me to get up and walk to the bathroom that evening, and pee at least 3 times that night, which I did. I was quite scared and nervous about getting out of bed, I remember how painful it was when I had to start walking after my knee surgeries, I was expecting it to be really bad. Two nurses came to help me get out of bed, I took it very slowly, I'm always afraid of passing out in situations like that. I did it very gradually, slowly got out of bed, holding on to the nurses, then proceeded to very slowly walk to the bathroom. They said I was doing very well, and was actually walking faster than lots of other women. Bet they say that to everyone. :) I was afraid peeing would hurt, but it didn't really. They showed me how to use the peribottle to rinse everything off after using the bathroom. They left a little container to measure my urine for the night, once I went 3 times, I was good to go.
It was quite a stressful, overwhelming and exciting day!
Arriving at Baton Rouge General Medical Center at 5am, for my scheduled c-section.
All hooked up to the monitors before the surgery.
Chaya is born at 7:16am, weighing 6 pounds 3 ounces, and measuring 19 inches.
Anjali is born at 7:17am, weighing 6 pounds 8 ounces, and measuring 19.5 inches.
Proud happy daddy holding his baby girls. There is a huge smile under that surgical mask.
They brought me to the O.R. when everyone was there, gave me a spinal and laid me back down. When they started the c-section, I freaked out quite a bit.. I wasn't aware that with a spinal, you feel no pain, but you still feel everything they do (cutting you open, moving things around in there,..). It really made me panic, I wasn't sure if it was normal, if the spinal was working.. I cried the whole time, I thought I would pass out, but the anesthesiologist assured me I wouldn't pass out. They told me to take in slow deep breaths. I was quite scared the whole time... and then they brought out the girls, and I heard their loud cries, saw tears in Prosanta's eyes, and heard how big their weights were.. it made me calm down. Chaya was born at 7:15am, weighing 6Lbs3oz, measuring 19 inches. Anjali came out next, at 7:16am, weighed 6Lbz8oz, and measured 19.5 inches. Both girls were very healthy, didn't require any special care at the NICU, and came directly with me to the recovery room. I held them in my arms right after they got cleaned off and checked out.
They wheeled us into the recovery room. Everything was going well, Prosanta learned how to change his first diaper EVER. He called a friend to announce the girls' birth. I was holding them, everyone was happy. Then I started bleeding quite a bit. The nurses kept changing pads on me every few minutes, I was losing a LOT of blood, lots of clots were coming out (which is normal, but not this fast). The nurses had to massage my uterus by pressing down on my abdomen. I've never felt that much pain in my whole life. It hurt so badly, I was holding on to Prosanta's hand so hard I'm surprised I didn't break his fingers. They had to do this to help the uterus contract and get rid of the clots. They did this for a few hours on and off, and many times a day for the rest of my hospital stay. The room was a bit hectic for a few hours. I wasn't too scared or nervous, I trusted in the nurses caring for me, they were in contact with my doctor over the phone, he was telling them what to do. Finally, it got under control, but I was left looking so pale, weak and tired..
They brought me a food tray, I was on a liquid diet at first, and once I could keep liquids down, I would be allowed to eat anything I wanted. I had some jell-o, and juice. I felt good and hungry. One of the lactation nurse came in to help me breastfeed the babies. I was so tired, I couldn't keep my eyes open, even though I was excited to experience this for the first time. She said to just close my eyes and sleep, she would hold them to my breasts to have them nurse. Prosanta was also there at my side, learning from her, how to help hold the babies, how to squeeze my breasts to help the milk (which was colostrum at the time) come out. I kept drifting in and out of sleep. I also vomited a few times while breastfeeding, guess I had those liquids a bit too soon.
We eventually were transferred to our regular room in the late afternoon (which was a little smaller than the recovery room, but just as nice). The nurses took off my bandage, took out my urinary catheter, and said they wanted me to get up and walk to the bathroom that evening, and pee at least 3 times that night, which I did. I was quite scared and nervous about getting out of bed, I remember how painful it was when I had to start walking after my knee surgeries, I was expecting it to be really bad. Two nurses came to help me get out of bed, I took it very slowly, I'm always afraid of passing out in situations like that. I did it very gradually, slowly got out of bed, holding on to the nurses, then proceeded to very slowly walk to the bathroom. They said I was doing very well, and was actually walking faster than lots of other women. Bet they say that to everyone. :) I was afraid peeing would hurt, but it didn't really. They showed me how to use the peribottle to rinse everything off after using the bathroom. They left a little container to measure my urine for the night, once I went 3 times, I was good to go.
It was quite a stressful, overwhelming and exciting day!
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| Baby Chaya (left) and Anjali (right) |
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| Mommy holding her brand new baby girls, Chaya on the left, and Anjali on the right. |
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| Mommy holding Chaya. |
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| Grand-Maman holding Chaya. |
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| Grand-Maman holding Chaya, and mommy holding Anjali. |
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| Admiring our lovely new baby girls. |
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| Daddy with Anjali in his arms. |
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| Grand-Maman showing off her newest grand-daughters: Anjali on the left, Chaya on the right. |
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| Beautiful baby Anjali sleeping soundly. |
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| Daddy learning how to change his first diapers ever! |
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| Baby girls snuggling together: Chaya on the left, Anjali on the right. |
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| Right after birth, mommy and babies enjoying some skin-to-skin contact, to keep the girls warm. |
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