9 days in and things are getting a lot better. I knew that having a c-section would be hard, but I didn't really understand in what way it'd be hard. I was warned over and over again about healing up in the belly, not carrying things, not going up and down stairs too much, but nobody told me about the massive swelling post surgery and, in my case, the out-of-control rash that took over my entire body.
Think Austin Powers, and the character of Fat Bastard. Now think Fat Bastard with leprosy. That was me.
Add in a cold and a healthy dose of crying for no good reason, and we've got one scary mama. What we've been doing is feeding them every 3 hours, although especially in the beginning they were both too sleepy to want to eat anywhere near that often or as much as they were supposed to eat. So we spent most of every day trying to wake the babies up enough to feed them, then feed them, then put them down for maybe an hour before starting the whole process all over again. So basically it goes like this: wake the babies, try to nurse (they were born small enough that nursing was hard for them -- basically they fell asleep on the breast immediately), supplement, pump, cry, maybe sleep for a while, then do it all over again.
Thank goodness my mother is here, or I don't know what would have happened to us. Without her we'd probably be wandering around like crazed zombies, but we're spared that because she helps to feed/change them, she shops, cooks, washes bottles, does laundry, and takes care of all of the millions of little things that I am nowhere near capable of doing right now.
The other thing I have to say is thank goodness for their daddy. He is amazing with the babies, very comfortable and relaxed. He does everything that I do, except breastfeed and pump, and he probably does it better than I do. I can't imagine what any of this would be like without him here doing half of everything, but more importantly without him here just...being who he is. Making me happy, being sweet with his children, singing his songs as he wanders around the house, just being him. God, I'm lucky.
The babies are getting stronger every day. Although they were small, they are healthy and didn't need any special care or time in the NICU. They're already getting more vigorous and alert, and they eat more easily now. Milo can nurse for half an hour sometimes before he conks out, and Nora can nurse for 15 minutes on a good day. I know it's going to get easier.
It's going to get easier.
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