1.29.2010

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Month 7 Week 3

Last Friday Zach woke up feeling warm.  By Monday his fever had climbed to 103.4F and we took him to the pediatrician.  Near as they could tell, he had caught the same bug Alex had the previous week.  It was just hitting him a little harder.  Zach usually gets sicker and for longer than Alex, so we weren't surprised.  We just didn't like him having a fever for so long, and so high, without being sure.

On Wednesday we were back at the doctor's, this time for follow-up blood work.  Primarily we wanted a comparison of their reticulocyte count, to see if the iron supplements were working.  Reticulocytes are like baby red blood cells.  More iron should mean more are being produced.  Once they mature, then higher hemoglobin numbers should follow.  Alex's reticulocyte count went from 44 to 128 and the doctor was really glad to see that.

On the other hand, Zach's didn't change.  He was still at 44.  This is most likely due to his illness.  Your bone marrow makes a mix of white and red blood cells.  Since he has been sick pretty much the entire time they've been on iron supplements, his body has been using its resources to make the white variety.  There is also a visual analysis being done on their blood, and those results should rule out any blood abnormality.  We'll get those results either Friday or Monday.

Their next follow-up is in two weeks.  I'm not sure what we'll do without the twice-weekly visits to the doctor.  Maybe by then the boys will stop associating the nurses with something bad.  They've started crying when they see them enter the exam room.

In developmental news, Zach has figured out how to spit out his food.  And iron supplements.  And medicine.  Yay.  It's like he's blowing out some candles, but with his tongue sticking out, too.  Whatever is in his mouth gets sprayed all over the place, usually on my shirt or in my face.  The hardest part is making sure Jim doesn't laugh.  I don't want this to be something he starts doing to impress daddy.  It's already hard enough to get him to eat his dinner with his favorite person sitting next to him.

What brought this sudden expulsion of food?  Carrots.  If the boys had arch enemies of the vegetable world, carrots would be it.  (Peaches would be their fruit counterparts, FYI.)  Wow, do the boys hate carrots.  Alex, the boy would eats anything, turns into a steel lockbox at the first sign of anything orange on his spoon.  Zach uses them as instant high chair fodder.  I tasted them, and they taste like carrots.  I don't see what the issue is.  They've been eating peas and carrots for like two weeks with no problems.

In general, the boys aren't as thrilled with eating as they once were.  They'll get part way through a meal and just call it quits.  Half the time they won't even eat their fruit dessert.  We've been throwing a lot of food cubes away.  On a lark, I bought them some jarred baby food, to see if that would work.  It didn't.  They're going through some kind of phase (I hope).  All they want is avocado and mango.

Alex has started practicing his "B" sounds.  He also has started throwing all of his toys out of his car seat.  We were at Whole Foods today (buying more avocado and mango), and I had to strap his toy to the stroller to be sure we didn't loose the thing.  On the bright side, he doesn't seem to care once he tosses the toy aside.  He'll happily sit there with nothing to do, especially if we're in the van.  I think he likes looking out the window.

We're also still in the middle of separation anxiety, although Zach has it worse than Alex.  Jim's mom came over Tuesday night to help watch the boys while I went to the Mothers of Multiples meeting.  It was pretty embarrassing how messy our house is right now.  I don't know how many times I tried to clean up some, only to have Zach explode when I put him down.  He'll only tolerate the Jumperoo and sitting on the floor to play, and that'll last about 10min.  Both boys are also extremely scared of any vacuum, even the tiny cordless one.  They just start screaming and have this terrified look.

They're also eating every two hours at night right now, so I'm pretty much just worn out in general.  They're waking up more than that, but I'm making them go back to sleep.  I am not a vending machine, available for 24/7 snacking.  Hopefully I'll be able to catch back up on chores and sleep this weekend since I think we're all healthy for once.

The diaper rash thing seems to be under control for now.  After every messy diaper, we're washing their behinds with soap and water (via disposable washcloths).  Then they get dried and a layer of triples paste is applied.  We spent one afternoon driving all over trying to find hypoallergenic disposable washcloths.  For some reason only Publix seems to carry them, and ours was out.  Not even Babies R Us had them.

We upgraded my phone and cancelled Jim's.  I got one of those smart phones, like the iPhone but with Verizon.  It's come in pretty handy, especially having internet when we're out and about.  I used it to look up fruits while I was in Whole Foods, and I did a voice search to get the address of the park for our playdate.  It also has a built-in camera, which is good for taking pictures of the boys.

Well, I'm going to call it a night here.  Hopefully the next week will be less eventful than the previous.

1.22.2010

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Month 7 Week 2

It's 12am and Alex is keeping me company on the living room floor.  I type as he sits next to me, chewing on books and toys.  It's a good arrangement for him, since his cute little behind is supposed to be in bed.  But this week "supposed to" hasn't happened much.

Monday Alex was feeling a little warm to the touch but didn't show any signs of illness.  He acted completely normal.  When Jim got home, he noticed the possible fever, too.  I took Alex's temperature and it was around 101F.  As the evening progressed, he appeared to be feeling kind of bad, so we gave him some Tylenol.  Bedtime was normal but after about an hour, the crying started.  I got maybe an hour of sleep that night.  Neither boy wanted to be in his crib and they wouldn't go to sleep.  The crying would only stop if one of us went in and held them.

Tuesday we had a playdate at our house.  I emailed the other mom's ahead of time to warn them about the fever, but we were pretty sure it was from teething.  Those second teeth were on the verge of popping through.  We had fun with the other moms and kids, although Alex wouldn't leave my lap.  He was still warm (101.5-101.7F) and on Tylenol every 4hrs.  He also didn't really want to play much, but still loved eating both lunch and dinner.

The previous night's crying was actually night 3 of me (and them) getting virtually no sleep.  We were at a crossroads of sorts.  On one hand, it seemed like me sleeping with them during the day was becoming the forbidden fruit they couldn't have at night.  Both boys are also in the midst of separation anxiety where they freak out and cry if they can't see me or Jim.  Even getting a drink from the kitchen can result in two very upset babies.  They have a strong affection for us but haven't gotten to the point of realizing we still exist if they can't see us.  So to them, every time we disappear, it's like we've abandoned them.  I would cry, too, in that situation.

On top of that was Alex's fever and this whole teething thing, plus one crisis after another happening at Jim's work.  Even if the boys were sleeping, the phone would ring, waking us both up.  We all needed to sleep.  So, Jim and I decided to give CIO a break and revert back to the boys sleeping with me if they wouldn't stay down.  Normal CIO would resume in a week.

Wednesday morning Alex woke up with a temperature of 102.8F.  I called the pediatrician when they opened and they saw us right away (although it wasn't our normal doctor).  After three days with a fever, it couldn't be teething anymore but he wasn't showing any other signs of illness.  They took a blood sample from a heel prick and test results showed a high white blood count.  His body was fighting off something.  They did a catheter and got a urine sample, but analysis showed he didn't have a bladder infection.  They were going to try to draw some blood but they couldn't find a vein (he didn't get stuck any with a needle).  We could either go to a lab and get the blood drawn, or take him home and watch him for signs he was feeling worse.  By this point his fever was way down and he was acting normal again.

We decided to take him home and see how he did the rest of the day.  His fever mysteriously went away for most of the day, only to come back that evening at 101.5F.  He was feeling icky, so we gave him some more Tylenol.

Thursday morning he had a follow-up appointment with the doctor.  It was our normal doctor and as he was looking over the previous visit's records, he noticed that besides the high white blood count, Alex's hemoglobin was really low.  Alex got another heel prick and they ran more tests.  The white blood count was close to normal but the hemoglobin was still really low.  They tested Zach and his was also really low.  It appeared that the boys were significantly anemic.

The doctor started them on iron supplements.  Building their hemoglobin back up to normal levels will take about a month, and getting their reserves in place will take a couple more months beyond that.  They showed no symptoms of being so anemic, like not eating, not wanting to play, and being fussy.  We're about to increase their solid food amount because they're woofing down what we give them.  Both of them spend lots of time jumping and playing everyday.  They flap and kick while screaming with glee most days.  The fussiness stopped when the teeth poked through.  According to the doctor, the transition to this point was so gradual that their bodies were used to it.

When we got home, I did some research into what went wrong.  I mean, if they aren't getting enough iron, it's a diet issue and I'm in charge of that.  I felt pretty bad that I let them down and they were sick because of me.  I knew that low birthweight babies had a higher risk of anemia, but I didn't realize that they meant any baby born under 6.5lb.  They just don't have the iron stores from birth to make it to 6 months.  If I had known, I would have had the doctor do blood tests at their 6 month check-up.

Also, while we don't eat a ton of iron-fortified cereals, they do eat a lot of foods naturally hight in iron, like avocado and peas.  They almost always follow them with high vitamin C, like apples and mango, which helps with absorption.  Even avocado alone has a decent vitamin C in it and they've been eating that for lunch for the last month.  It also appears that some babies just need supplements, and we probably fall into that category.  It makes me feel a little better, but it's still scary to find out that your babies are sick and no one had any idea.  Long-term anemia can affect their brain development and ability to learn new things.

While at the doctor's they weighed the boys.  Alex was 18lb 13oz and Zach was 18lb 14oz.

It hasn't been all doom and gloom around here, though.  Like I mentioned earlier, both boys have a second tooth poked through, while their first tooth is making good progress.  Here's some pictures of their new pearly whites.



Alex


Zach

I started brushing their teeth and gums with baby toothbrushes and they really like it.

I think I mentioned last week about how Zach likes to scrunch up his nose and make a funny face now.  Here it is.


Zach being ferocious

What you can't tell is that he also breathes really heavy through his nose when he does this, like a baby Darth Vader.  hehe

1.14.2010

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Month 7 Week 1

After the circus last week, things have calmed down around here.  Playdates have started back up and sleep schedules seem to be falling into place.  On Monday we went to Donna's house.  She has fraternal boys that are a week older than Alex and Zach, but a few weeks ahead on things like sitting unassisted and teeth.  Either way, I think the boys had a ton of fun playing with new toys and watching all of the kids around them.  There were two other sets of twins and a singleton, so the head count was 5 moms, 6 boys, and 3 girls.  I had a good time, too.  It had been a while since I had seen anyone from the group and I had missed them.

I broke out the steam mop (my Christmas present to myself) and some non-toxic cleaning wipes this week.  I cleaned the floors and wiped down all of the boys' toys to rid the play areas of any lingering germs.  This included a good scrubbing of the exersaucers, too.  It's amazing how gross kids stuff can get, plus I think someone (I'm looking at you, Alex) has been stealth spitting up on things.

I have a correction to make from the post last week.  I thought that both boys were getting the same tooth in but I was mistaken.  Alex has the bottom left and Zach has the bottom right teeth poking through.  And then already this week they're both getting the other bottom tooth in as well.  The second teeth are just bumps right now.  The teething has come with a price, though.  Both boys want to be held and give you huge hugs.  They're happy just sitting in my lap, playing with toys and shooting me funny grins.  Yes, it's just awful having to hug the boys all day.  hehe

These first teeth have changed their grins.  Instead of open-mouthed baby ones, they're doing a more traditional smile and showing off their gums.  It'll look more normal once they have more teeth, but for now it's pretty funny looking.  Plus, Zach has started scrunching up his nose when he laughs.  It's crazy cute.

Another new thing as of this week is diaper rash.  Even though we use butt paste and I try really hard to change their diapers at the first sign of needing it, both boys have some level of redness.  Alex is actually in worse shape.  One night his behind was actually bleeding a little and he has been crying when we gently wipe his bottom.  It breaks my heart.  I have a three prong plan to get rid of the rash.  First, we bought some new triple paste that's supposed to help.  Second, I'm trying to actually wash their rear ends with mild soap and water after they poop.  Apparently normal wipes don't do a good job of getting rid of the irritating bacteria.  Third, I got a shower curtain and flannel sheet for the floor in the living room.  I'm going to try to give the boys at least 30min of naked time everyday so things have a chance to dry out.  Bacteria can't live without moisture.

I know that diaper rash is more common once babies start eating solid food, but part of me wonders if maybe there's a food that's aggravating the situation.  I mean, we've been eating solids for a while now without this level of problem.  One thing I did reintroduce was sweet potatoes (but I've since stopped feeding them just in case).  I'm not sure if volume matters, but the boys are up to eating 2oz of solid food per meal, and they eat lunch and dinner now.  What they deposit in their diapers seems pretty thick compared to a milk only diet, but I think that's normal.

Modified Cry It Out (CIO) seems to have been a success.  The boys don't cry at all when we put them in their cribs now, even if they wake up when we put them down.  Also, getting them back to sleep during the night is a piece of cake compared to the holding/bouncing/rocking/swaying we were doing before.  You just set them down, they look at you and roll over like "I'm tired.  You can go now."  Jim and I are pretty stunned at how well they both are doing at bedtime.  If they do cry or complain (like when Zach had a fever), a little extra rocking helps, or they'll put themselves to sleep within 10min.

This doesn't mean we're issue free when it comes to sleeping, though.  They still wake up a lot at night to eat - like every 2-3hrs.  They act starved, so I'm not sure how to get them to cut back.  And since I'm not sleeping with them around the clock (yay!) they tend to get up earlier now, like 5:30am instead of 7am.

We tried cutting back to two naps and I just don't think they're ready, no matter what the books say.  What we need is to get enough sleep during the day so they're not cranky but not too much that they're not sleeping well at night.  So far three 1 to 1.5hr naps has been the most successful.

On the days we have playdates, we'll leave early and the boys will take an hour nap in the van.  Then we'll do a couple hours of playing and they'll take a second hour nap on the way home.  We'll eat some lunch and rough up our toys before grabbing a 1.5hr nap in the early afternoon.  On the days we don't have playdates, sometimes the first two naps will get combined into one.

I went to the dermatologist this week about a chronic rash I get on my face and hands.  I've been dealing with it for years and the last time I had a flare up, I was referred to an allergy doctor who said it was a reaction to cats.  Well, last week I had the worse outbreak I've ever had.  My face was swollen, red, very painful/itchy/burning, and covered in blisters.  I couldn't kiss the boys because my lips hurt too much, and I had to keep them at arm's length because even brushing my cheek would make me tear up.  The swelling was also around my eyes, so I was quite the sight.

Anyways, the dermatologist diagnosed me with eczema, which means I'm super sensitive to anything with scents or dyes.  Apparently my face had been attacked by a nice smelling, pretty looking bar of soap.  We had sort of figured this out in bits and pieces on our own, so this makes much more sense than a cat allergy.  Even though I looked terrible, the boys didn't seem to notice.  I got just as many grins and laughs as normal.  If anything, they were mildly frustrated I wouldn't let them honk my nose.

1.11.2010

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Month 7 Photos!

Be sure to check out the boys' website for all of their new photos!  (pw: jma&z)

1.08.2010

2

Month 7

You know those posts where I whined and cried about how hard of a week I had?  How the boys wouldn't sleep all night?  Man, did I SO not know what I was talking about...

The boys (and the rest of us) have been fighting a cold since a few days after Christmas.  Sunday night they started getting worse instead of better.  After eating his bedtime milk, Alex vomited all over everything.  All I could do was hold him while he repeatedly pumped his little tummy dry.  He had thrown up the previous night, too, but had no problems keeping food down during the day.  Sometimes if he's feeling bad, he'll use nursing for comfort.  The issue is he'll overeat and then throw up, which is what we think happened here.

Zach spent about 15min in his crib before waking up crying.  Both boys went to bed with me.  Around 5am I woke up and felt Alex's head.  He had a fever.  I gave him some Tylenol and agreed with Jim they were going to the doctor the next day.

At the pediatrician's they weighed the boys.  For the first time, Zach weighed more than Alex.  You could also tell that Alex just felt worse.  Zach was happy and smiling, although his nose was running something fierce.  Alex, on the other hand, just sat in my lap and stared at the doctor.  He didn't want anyone but me holding him.  His little eyes were red from rubbing.

The doctor gave them a once over and said it looked like they might have sinus infections.  There was a chance they would get better on their own, but it was also possible they needed antibiotics to get over what they had.  We opted for the medicine since we felt like they had already taken a turn for the worse.  He also showed us how to flush out their noses with saline spray.

By Wednesday they were both feeling better.  They still had a productive cough but most of the lethargy and runny noses were gone.  Alex doesn't mind taking the bubble gum flavored medicine but Zach has figured out all kinds of ways to avoid it.  Besides the obvious turning of the head, he'll also stick out his tongue, cough (and spray me with the sticky pink stuff), fend me off with his hands, and generally try to escape from whatever is holding him.  He'll also refuse to swallow what's in his mouth unless both of his cheeks are full of the stuff.

I think the antibiotics were the right choice this time.  I am not a huge fan of medicine in general, but Jim was suffering from the same stages of illness and he's still hacking and coughing.  The boys, on the other hand, just have a little runny nose and the occasional cough.

Wednesday also marked the end of the "Let's sleep with mom!" era.  Jim and I decided it was time for them to sleep in their cribs again.  Our original method of putting them to bed (milk until asleep, transfer to crib for more sleeping) wasn't working.  As soon as Jim would pick one up to move him to the nursery, his eyes would pop open and he would start crying.  After some book consultation, we opted for Modified Cry It Out.  Basically you put your baby in their crib sleepy but awake.  If they cry (ha! like there's an "if"), you wait 5min then go in and comfort them.  Once they're calm and sleepy, you put them back down.  If they cry, you wait 10min before repeating the process and keep adding 5min every time.

Wednesday night, it took 3 tries before the boys put themselves to sleep (i.e. 30min of crying total).  Thursday night they were asleep within the first 10min.  I know a number of parents think CIO is cruel, and we own books that talk about how scared and emotionally damaged our kids are, being left to cry.  I think it really depends on your babies, though.  I know what their cries mean and their reaction to CIO was anger and frustration at not getting their way.  At no point was there any "I'm scared!" or "I'm sad!" crying.

They also slept for longer stretches than they have in a LONG while.  Alex only got up twice all night, and Zach was at a manageable four times.  I did have to put Zach down for a little CIO around 2am but it lasted less than 5min before he was back asleep.  They went to bed around 9pm and got up at 7:30am. The bonus?  I actually got to sleep in a position other than pinned on my back!

We've had some food adventures this week.  On Sunday we went to Whole Foods and picked up the next round of fruits and veggies for the boys.  Besides the normal pears, bananas, avocado, and apples, we got mango, acorn squash, and carrots.  I've also figured out that both boys will woof down their apples if I add a little cinnamon.  I searched the frozen food section for saltless peas and the best I could come up with was a peas and carrots combo.  They've been eating that for dinner all week and seem to like it.  Mango also seemed to be a hit.  I was initially worried since it can be a fibrous fruit, but the blender made short work of it.

Also, on the topic of eating...  WE HAVE TEETH!  Ok, really we just have tiny little spikes that will be full teeth at some point, but still!  This is what 3mo of drooling and chewing have netted us.  So, it looks like the first teeth for both boys will be the bottom left incisor.  Alex's is a little farther along, but not by much.  They're going to look like country bumpkins with one bottom tooth.  hehe

In other baby news, the boys have started doing this weird thing with their arms.  They'll extend their arm, wave it in a circle, then bop themselves on the head.  They'll do it over and over while they're trying to fall asleep for naps.  The bead bonk is really light, almost like they're trying to touch their hair but forget exactly where they left it.

Alex has been screaming with glee a lot more, especially during bath time.  This scares Zach to the point of tears.  Of course, the full-body splashing doesn't help, either.  I think Alex loves baths but Zach just tolerates them.  Zach turned the tables with some screeching of his own during lunch.  You could see the tears welling up in Alex's eyes.