my schedule

my new normal looks something like this…

pump around the clock. every 2 hours with one 4 hour stretch at night. I am basically trying to make myself into a milk machine. so far it is working and the girls are loving the product. but it is extremely time consuming and every time I look at the clock I think “oh man – I need to pump again!”.  I am sooo glad I bought the hands free pumping bra. it allows me to do emails, posts, etc and move around. when I am at the hospital the pump is on wheels so I will stand by the girls crib and calm them down or talk to them or just stare at them and try to figure out how to tell them apart.

the beginning of my stash in the girls room. so proud!

I spend the majority of my day at the hospital with the girls. I/we (if bill is off) arrive early. then I try to figure out the time that they will be doing some serious sleeping in the crib so I can jet home for to spend some quality time with charlie. then I usually come back to the hospital for the afternoons and go home for dinner and then back to the hospital until late at night. while at the hospital I am holding the girls, working on nursing them when the conditions are perfect, pumping and doing “cares” (ie: diaper changes, baths, etc). at night, bill and I usually each kangaroo one of the girls and enjoy some light naps.

today they each nursed twice and did a great job. I don’t want to push them to switch over their feedings to nursing too quickly because they still get so tired from little things. if we overdo it one day we will backtrack the next. they are great eaters – probably better than charlie when he was born so we are just waiting for them to build up their energy to nurse for every feeding. I could write more and more, but I am done pumping and am off to bed. this time we are getting to just soak up the girls is a special time and while I would love for them to be home I am truly enjoying have such quiet, protected time with just them. I feel like I am really getting to know them and will be much more prepared to bring them home when they are.

 

here is a sweet picture of the girls. eleanore has her arm over claire. ellie likes to sleep with one arm out like this while claire likes to grab hold of her ear.