02/02/2011

The girls have been travelling really well,  eating,  sleeping and pooping! I feel like a zombie though, my mind feels fried and I don’t know what day it is, as they all seem to be rolling into one.  I only wake Frank during the night unless it is absolutely necessary-but I want to wake him every night during those middle of the night feeds.  It feels so lonely, but thank goodness for Foxtel-it beats the infomercials!  After their feeds I would always express for their top up bottles and for Frank to have time with the girls too.  It was taking me 2-3 hours for every feed from start to finish.  No wonder I was  sooooo tired.

My first box off Domperidone goes very quickly, and the next and next!  My local GP keeps reminding me that…if the girls are feeding then my supply should go up naturally!  What would he know I think to myself?  If it was, then I would not be on these tablets!  I tried twice to stop and my supply dropped dramatically, so again I go to get a prescription, only to be made to feel uncomfortable again!

I call my OB whose insists that they are harmless and not to worry about being on them long term. I am so determined to breastfeed till they are 12 months, that is the number I have planted in my head.   So  I resort to doctor hopping to avoid the questions and get these pills.  Which in turn makes me depressed that I have to resort to this, just to give my girls breastmilk!  Which everyone keeps reminding me that it is so important for their long term health.  Which now that they are older, I beg to differ!

Angela xo

29/01/2011

I know I  have said this before…BUT I really mean it now! 2011 is the year of the Wee Willie Winkie Blog.  Which in my world is giving you my life in raising my twin girls…lucky I have kept a journal?

To continue on from my last post…the girls were getting the hang of breastfeeding and me!  But I do not know if it was stress, having two babies sucking the life out off me or just my breasts.  My milk supply was drying up, from having loads and loads it was slowly diminishing and so was my freezer full.  I went back to my doctor who put me on Domperidone-3 times a day.  Those tablets really helped and it looked like my supply was on the rise, I cannot tell you how happy I was.  I felt like it was all going quite smoothly and I was in control.    So between breastfeeding, changing nappies, expressing after every feed, keeping a journal,  eating and sleeping-there was little time for anything else.  I was exhausted and like a walking zombie. 

Thank goodness for my mum, mother in-law, family, friends and our local La Porchettta.  I don’t think I cooked for about 3-4 weeks.

Layla & Allegra 10 weeks old..awww. This is the time I struggled to tell them apart

Till next time

Angela xo

23/06/2010

As I sit here and try to recount those first few weeks at home…it is all a blur.  It is now and was then!  I remember thinking how easy it was at first because all they did was eat & sleep. But my biggest dramas were yet to unfold…??? 

Let’s call it breastfeeding…errrr!  Because they were prems and so little, we had major issues with the girls latching on.  I was so determined to breastfeed if it was the last thing I did!  I already felt like we had not had the chance to bond, because they were in special care for those 7 weeks.  So I was breastfeeding (well trying), expressing and giving them my milk that way.  But my supply of milk dropped suddenly when the girls came home-stress… luckily I had a freezer full of breast milk but that too was diminishing!  I was now freaking out!!! 

I went to breastfeeding clinics to try and get the girls on…you know breastfeeding is not as easy as it looks???  As mothers there is such an added pressure to breastfeed, you know the saying “breast is best.”  After 3 visits to breastfeeding clinics, I felt like the girls were getting the hang of it and me.  I still had a major issue with my supply, so back to the doctors to do something about that!!!

Till next time

Angela xo

Two weeks after arriving home-not much hair then and not much now!

Till next time Angela xo

Layla & Allegra-sleeping ever so peacfully!

19/06/2010

We brought our babies home…the scariest 10min drive in my life.  Frank was not speeding, but I don’t know how many times I told him to slow down?  The fact that you have these little people in the back where there was once nothing at all!  All of a sudden we had an instant family riding in the back of our car.

We were excited and terrified at the same time, no doctors or nurses to be on hand if something went wrong.  No monitors to make sure they were still breathing, and no one to do the night feeds!  I don’t know if I missed the hospital because of the feeling of security or for being able to get a full night sleep?

Life had changed as we once knew it-for the better of course!

12/06/2010

As mentioned I want this to be a view or insight into raising twins…time has been my major factor in not posting regularly. 

So to follow on from my first post…we brought these two munchkins into the world at 1.3kg (Layla) and 1.6kg (Allegra) at 4.45pm, so very tiny but OK.  Besides Allegra needing Oxygen for 24 hours things were looking good! We brought them home after seven weeks in special care it was the 20th March at 11am 2008.  We certainly had our dramas over those seven weeks, with feeding issues to IV’s being too tight causing scarring on one of my little babies Allegra!  But all in all I have to send out a tremendous thank you to the wonderful staff at Freemasons Private in East Melbourne for the wonderful job they did in taking care of my babies.  Although those 7 weeks was tough not being able to take my babies home, there were many nights of tears and midnight trips to the hospital.  The staff were always so great and reassuring!  I think I came out far better than had I been able to take two babies home after 5 days!!!  I learnt so much in those 7 weeks, that otherwise I would have had to deal with alone.  These are some pics of my girls born and during those 7 weeks.

Till next time happy parenting!!

Their first designer clothes…of course by two!!!

13/04/2010

Well my first post in my very own blog…very exciting!

Mostly I will be giving you an insight into the world of raising my twin girls who are two & two months.  Their names are Layla & Allegra, they were born on Feb 8th 2008-two months premature.  I remember my obstetrician saying as I was being wheeled in to have my caesarean say, “you know…this is a lucky day for the Chinese.”   And he was right it was indeed a very lucky day for my husband Frank & I, we had two healthy beautiful identical twin girls.  They were sooooo very tiny, but they were OK and that is all that mattered!  It honestly feels like yesterday that they were born-how time flys???