You phone to make an appointment (which I love because I hate waiting and queues!!!) and then she sees you whenever. The walk-in patients have to wait to be seen in between the appointments.
I had to leave my beautiful pram just outside her little office (where I asked someone to keep an eye on it) because it's too wide for some doorways. The rest of the time I
The nurse put some numbing cream on their thighs and while it was taking effect, we did the well-baby checks.
that's C's thigh even though there's a pink blanket!
The weight, height and head circumference were all okay and then she started asking all the questions to check milestones.
After saying no, no and no too many times, I decided there and then to just accept that these kids are going to do things their own way, despite what the baby books say they should be doing.
I know they can smile (they smiled at 9 weeks - surely that is the milestone) but they don't do it a lot because they're not smiley babies.
We have to work very hard for a smile and most of the time we're too tired to do any extra work after feeding, changing and getting them to sleep.
They don't smile in recognition when I walk in the room. Although their eyes do follow me around and they can focus.
Frankly, that's all I remember because I had to also tell her that actually, I don't know this or that because I haven't been paying attention. Beautiful!
I'm sure all the other mothers know in detail what their child has or hasn't done. Not me.
The only thing I'm interested in is getting Kendra to eat her full feed every 3 hours, and then getting both of them to sleep longer.
That's it - I'm easy to please.
But I assured the nurse that I will start paying attention so that next time I'll be able to answer her questions properly.
Obviously I'm lying because no doubt she'll have some new questions and I'll be caught out again.
Do you think it will be paranoid of me to email her and ask her to send me the questions so I can start watching out for them? :) (that is a JOKE!)
The paed told me to not worry about milestones and all that jazz as most prems will catch up when they're 1 but definitely by the time they're 2.
It's hard though when 98% of the world has a normal, full-term baby.
when we got home, they were out - too much "excitement"
I never knew what the hell was going on...always had to have DH with me. Don't worry about it! They'll develop how they develop. Oh, and they do have check lists that they can send you, but I think they start at 12 months...that's when mine did!
ReplyDeletethey are getting so big!!! i'm sure they are doing just fine with milestones. i don't know how in the world you're supposed to take care of TWO babies, go without sleep, and still notice everything. I'm sure you - and they - are doing great!
ReplyDeleteMo
The biggest lesson of raising identical twins has been this: Individual children aren't average. And really, we don't want them to be.
ReplyDeleteWho cares where they fall on the silly charts as long as they're healthy, happy, feel safe, and eventually grow into productive and likable people?
My girls were preemies (33 weeks gestation). Melody's in the first percentile for size, Jessica in the 5th. They're funny, sweet, smart, well-behaved, mostly healthy children, and I'm fortunate to have a pediatrician who focuses on that instead of averages.
You're doing fine. They're doing fine. If you have any concerns, you can always have them evaluated. Don't knock yourself for not noticing every single detail. I kept a notebook for months to track feedings and diapers and smiles, because I simply could not remember whether it was Melly or Jess who'd done something or other most recently. I was too sleep-deprived.
The irony of parenting infants is that the point at which you're confident enough to ignore the criticism is when parenting has just gotten easier.
I counted the girls' age in gestational terms, not birth terms, until they were a year old. So, in my head, they walked at 9 months, even though it was 11 months after their birth. That helped a lot, when moms of full-termers would try to compare their babies to mine. And there are other preemies out there. It's surprising how many there are.
I had to laugh because I remember leaving my 6 week baby daughter with a mom who had had twins years ago. When hubby and I got back from our "date", she had written down every burp, expulsion, poo, sneeze... everything. I laughed, which clearly ticked her off. I asked if she did this with all her kids, and she said she did ~ and scrapbooked the very organized documents. Good grief! The stress!!! I felt like a bad mum for about 1/2 hour, but then decided it was better to feel bad and be free to enjoy versus feel "good" about my performance and miss all the cuteness because I was so busy documenting gas.
ReplyDeleteThey're pink, eating, doing everything "baby" ~ it's all good!
Enjoy those babies, wonderful Mother!!