6 month checkup

Well, our 6 month visit didn't go as well -- the babies have fallen to the 7th percentile in growth...they are only 14 lbs 11 oz each. A month ago (well, 6 weeks), they were in the 25th percentile. That was their weigh-in at the visit where they were diagnosed with thrush. I guess the thrush messed us up because then they stopped eating anything at all for April & never started again. Not that they are fussy for her or anything -- they are just happy to sleep in her arms all day. It took us about 3 weeks to get rid of the thrush and since then they just haven't been willing to take a bottle (of anything, from anybody). They are not unhappy, they are not thin (nice little rolls on the legs), they are developmentally on target. They are just little.

So, the dr suggested upping their intake of solids to 3 meals a day (we had been doing one, maybe two). They love their cereal & vegetables & fruits of all sorts...whatever we have tried so far. This would be fine but cereal 3x a day means having the milk on hand to mix in the cereal & that is one thing i don't have. I haven't been pumping much & let's face it, the milk just isn't there. They do nurse fine, albeit they are fussy about it because they are impatient & don't like to wait for the milk to let down. But after they nurse there isn't any left to pump (i have been trying). So, now mostly they get formula with their cereal, thus making me feel like a loser and further dwindling my milk supply. Since they would rather eat cereal & yummy fruits, than spend time struggling at the breast to get the milk to let down. And then also, i have not even been making their baby foods -- i have been feeding them jarred food. I never fed A jarred food, and C rarely. But i can't seem to manage to make the boys food at all, i guess....i suck.

Oh this is such fun. I thought that when we made it through the first few weeks of establishing nursing & growth spurts & then later starting work, that i would be home free and could nurse without issue for the first year, anyway. Ha ha har de har de har. Joke's on me.

I am trying to pump more, to increase supply & give them breastmilk with the cereal. But it is very hard to pump when you have two 6-month olds to take care of, as well as C. Right now i can manage a little because my MIL is in town & dh is at home. But MIL is leaving and dh, well, you know, he has other things to do, because who cares if they drink breastmilk or formula anyway. I will spare you the things he says, because they are just awful.

The doctor will see them back in 5-6 weeks or so, to weigh them & see how it is going. I have one more week off & then the next semester starts. My internet connection at home is very bad -- Dh tried to make some improvements & now it works very poorly. Oh, and the coffeemaker is broken.

So that's the report from here....at very least, i am going to go out today & get a new coffeemaker.

Merry Christmas to all...

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...and to all a good night! (I know i sure could use one...)

contentless

is that even a word? 'without content', i should say -- both describes this blog recently and sums up the state of my brain. I actually do have some posts to write, some things to say...if i could find the energy to say them. But that energy seems beyond me. It might help if i could get some sleep.

A few nights ago we went to another family's house for dinner. The guy works with my DH, his degree is in an area close to mine. The woman, turns out, works in a related field. They have three kids, ages 6, 4, 2. So it was a fairly good dynamic for us -- A & their oldest played games on the Wii all night, and C was fast friends with the 4-year old girl. In fact they got along really well, it turned out they were very much alike. But for me it was difficult to meet new people...especially because i was unable to really talk to them. I find i am incapable of adult conversation...i mean i could probably hold my own in a discussion of diapers or laundry or breastfeeding or dead babies...but anything more is asking too much. I was really bewildered while the others talked about politics, science, religion, and etc. It was like, oh yeah, there was a time i could actually think about stuff, reason through things, and even had some opinions. Now, it's like my mind is mush...let us hope it is just sleep deprivation and the brain will eventually reactivate itself? One can dream....

career plans

So, i said to C:

"C, what are you going to be when you grow up?"

and she answered:

"I gonna be a scarecrow!"

Yardwork

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I need to write a real post. But my life is all piles right now -- piles of papers to grade, laundry to put away, laundry to do, bills to sort, toys to clean. So maybe i will get caught up this weekend, but probably not. In the intervening time here is a cute picture of C. Of course, it is about a month old -- we have snow on the ground now.