Sunday, September 24, 2006

A whopper and a small fry

The whopper: B-Boy is now 12 pounds, 11 ounces
Small fry: Miss M is 9 pounds, 5 ounces

I shouldn’t categorize them like that, though. They’re both growing well. (But B-Boy jumped from the 20th to the 75th percentile, or something like that!) I’d have more details, but I was a bit traumatized by the injections. Three of them into each of my kids was a lot of needles. And I’m not sure if you remember, but I was a big old needle-phobe before launching into the world of fertility treatments. At playgroup last week* one of the moms consoled me about the shots, noting “I just nursed her right afterwards, and she was fine” and I crumpled a little. We went in with a strategy - make sure they weren’t hungry, then J got to comfort MissM, who likes to suck on his finger like she’s nursing, and then I could nurse B-Boy, who uses me as his own personal pacifier. It worked out okay, though still - those needles? They looked to be the same size I used for my own IM injections, and, um, I have a lot more muscle (and fat) in my ass than my wee babies do in their thighs. Man that sucked.

In other mundane news, we’ve been using the g-diapers everyone recommended. They’re not bad, though the size small doesn’t really fit my chunky boy, and having to take them to the bathroom to flush adds a step that requires both hands to be free. And they’re pretty expensive. So I think we’re going to go with a combination of cloth pocket diapers (Fuzzi Bunz, probably, though I have one other kind on order to try out) and ‘sposies, but we’ll use up the g-dipes we have first. We’ll see how that goes.

What else? The babies have both developed silent reflux (which means they’re not spitting up all the time, but they’re really REALLY fussy when they eat). So we’re working on that. And the big exhaustion of all of that determined that if we can swing it, we should hire some part-time help so that I can focus on feeding these babies and leave the rest of it to someone else as much as possible, at least for the next month until I no longer have to keep them upright while nursing and for 15+ minutes afterward. So we’re venturing into the world of hired child care. I’m sure I’ll have more on that once I dive in, but for now I’m just barely slipping my toes in.

* This time at playgroup, I learned that the other cool thing is a nursing cover called a Hooter Hider. What I don’t understand is how all these moms who haven’t met before know what’s cool. I mean, I’ll understand if there are even more Hooter Hiders next week, but at our first group meeting? It went well, otherwise. Still too big to be a playgroup, but I think people will slowly drop out. We’re the only twins in this group, so still quite the spectacle. And I’m not getting an infertile vibe from any of the others, not that I know what that vibe would be. I did put out some hints, though, in case there was another in the room.

3 comments:

  1. I have a Hooter Hider! I had no idea it was cool though. Good luck finding some help. We looked into it last week, but just couldn't swing it financially.

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  2. I can only imagine what it's like with 2 of them, I'm so glad you're going to get some help.

    To suss out the infertile vibe, can you just out yourself? That usually brings ppl out of the closet.

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  3. I think the cool thing is probably something a lot of us miss out on because of the infertility. Normal women who are pregnant, or thinking of getting that way, spend a lot of time around their mom-friends, so they pick up on what all the cool accessories are. The fertilely-challenged, on the other hand, tend to avoid talking about baby stuff, often until quite far along in the pregnancy.

    Re help, I'm thinking of hiring a responsible high-schooler to come in for a couple hours after school. Obviously, she can't nurse the babies (although there's always pumping/bottles), but she can change diapers and play with them while I work or do housework. I wouldn't trust a high-schooler with solo care of twinfants, but the idea of a mother's helper doesn't worry me if I'm right there in the house.

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