Kendra - an update

I can't believe Kendra's been home for only 2 and a half weeks. It feels much, much longer.

Kendra went for her check-up last week and weighed 2,23 kg - it was only an "acceptable" weight gain (an average of 20g per day since discharge) so we upped her feeds a bit and this week, her weight gain was "good" (average of 38g per day for the last week) as she now weighs exactly 2,5 kg . The new weight enabled her to be immunized.

Connor was immunized two weeks ago when he was 2,57 kg (in case you're interested, his weight gain since discharge was an average of 45g per day). I weighed him today (both of us on the scale, then only me.... so not very scientific) and he weighed 3,4 kg. Take off the heavy nappy and clothes and a more accurate number is probably 3,2 kg.

Since I'm nerdy, I like to know the background about the feeds so I asked the paed. Babies need 150 ml per kg per day. You then divide whatever that total comes to by the number of feeds - 6 or 8. So K needs 375 ml minimum every day. Divide that by her 8 feeds and we get 46.9 ml. We give her 50 ml for 6 feeds and I do two 75 ml feeds to try and keep her sleeping for a tiny bit longer.

I honestly can't say if Kendra's less fussy or if she's crying any less. Sometimes I think she's getting better; other times I think it's just the same. Frankly I'm too exhausted to think rationally and keep proper notes.

(Roz, my notebook hasn't been filled in for over a week!)

The paed said maybe it was colic but the definition is very loose - the baby must cry for 3 hours on at least 3 days every week.

I still don't think it's colic because it's only with us that she cries. She is happy as a clam with my mother. Probably because she is held all the time and picked up the minute she so much as opens her little mouth.

Of course if I had only one baby and nothing else to do, I could hold Kendra all the time too. But I can't - and this is the problem with twins - there's always another baby to attend to, and besides that, bottles, laundry, food and showers for me, etc.

I would also let her cry for longer if it weren't for Connor. The crying wakes him and then I have TWO babies to deal with, which is so unnecessary.

The * night nanny also has no problems with Kendra. When she came on Monday night, I asked her what she's doing to keep her quiet and she laughed. It's no joke - I really wanted to know. So she said she doesn't wait for them to wake (as we do); she wakes them to feed. Interesting...

Anyway, time to get some rest - a baby should be waking soon :)

(I have so much to blog about, so little time.)

* We're interviewing for a semi-permanent (about 6 nights a month for the next 3 months) night nanny tomorrow. Remember I said we'd been using my normal nanny who starts in Sept. Well, she can't work days and nights so I'm looking for someone else. Update to follow