My week as Mr. Mom

So with Jeni going back to work last Thursday, Grandma Pat came and watched the girls for 2 days. Then, starting on Monday, I took a weeks worth of vacation to stay home with my girls.

Several people have asked me if I can handle being at home with the girls by myself... Granted my time with them alone hasn't been longer than a few hours at a time, but seriously, don't I come off as capable?

So Monday was a false start, as we were hit with winter weather. A quick-moving artic blast came through and gave us a nice little coating of freezing rain on everything prompting the local schools to call off classes, which meant Jeni got to stay home another day. No biggie. Seemed like a 3-day weekend for everyone...

Today, however, was the big day alone. I started my day at my usual time around 6:00 and got up and fed Olivia. On the current schedule, Jeni gets up around 5:00, does her motherly duties involving a pump, and then changes and feeds Sydney. Don't ask me why Sydney does everything first (feeds, bath time, etc) its just the schedule that that hospital started so we haven't changed it... Anyway...

So I got up around 6:00 and Jeni had just put Sydney in the swing to get her back to sleep. I warmed Olivia's food and sat down to feed her. Meanwhile, Jeni ran around the house getting everything ready to go to work. Olivia finished her bottle in about 30 minutes, which is a pretty decent pace compared to her usual. So, I was finished with her right about the time Jeni was walking out the door. Unfortunately, she didn't leave quite early enough as the weather was again bad and had provided a nice little dusting of snow everywhere... Just enough to screw up rush hour traffic... ended up taking her over an hour to get to work. Sorry, honey.

So after Jeni left, I got Sydney up and put her back in her swaddle and in her crib. Then did the same for Olivia. This has become their routine. Following their morning bottle, the girls go back to bed for a while. They nap at this time until their next feeding which usually occurs around 5 hours after their first bottle... We've tried doing it a little earlier than 5 hours, but the girls just aren't hungry...

So I set the timer on the microwave so that I wouldn't doze off and neglect my duties... Around 9:15 the timer went off and I got up to make bottles. I made enough bottles to last me through their 6:00pm feeds. The girls are finally up to taking nearly 4 ounces at every feeding. Some get a tiny bit more (their first and last bottles) and some less (their 10am one). Then I had to mix and give Sydney her reflux meds. These are given to the girls via syringes (without the needle) everyday before their 10:00 bottles.

Sydney wasn't too interested in eating, so we simply sat on the couch and watched some TV. Finaly she showed some interest and ended up taking her bottle in under 30 minutes... Fast for her!

Next I gave Olivia her meds and then started her feed. Olivia took her bottle quickly as well and took it all in under 30 minutes with no complaints.

The girls relaxed in their bouncers while I washed bottles. I had bottles from the previous evening to clean as well as breast milk bottles that needed to be washed.

After that it was lunch time for me... and finally some time to relax and do something fun. So, I put in a PS2 football game and continued my season of domination against the computer intelligence... I didn't get through an entire game, though, before it was time to warm Sydney's food for the next feeding.

Again, to my surprise, Sydney took all of her bottle in less than 25 minutes! And, even stranger, Olivia did as well! I'm a rock star!

The girls then went down for a nap in their cribs. I finished my game and Jeni arrived home from work. We conversed and she did more mom-chores while I washed more bottle and made more bottles for the girls for later in the evening and for tomorrow morning.

At around 6:30, the speech therapist from First Steps arrived to do an assessment on the girls' eating habits. This is a service provided since the girls were born so early to make sure they are progressing correctly and on-time. Before the therapist arrive, I was concerned that the girls had eaten so well for me... They have many issues when it comes to eating and I figured with how well they had done for me throughout the day, it was going to be like the situation where you take your car to the mechanic for that weird noise it's making... only it won't make it when the mechanic drives it...

However, lucky us, our girls performed on que and pitched quite a fit when Jeni and I tried to give them their 6:00 bottles. They squirmed, cried, and pretty much did exactly what frustrates us most about their eating. The therapist took lots of notes and made a few recommendations. However, she did commend us that we are doing just about every trick in our power to get the girls to eat...

The rest of the evening was uneventful as we watched 'The Biggest Loser' Finale before bath time and the girls final bottle. Again they reverted back to their difficult-eating-selves for this bottle...

Well, it was a long day, but I never realized how quickly the day goes by at home... 10:00am until 2:30 flew by like the wind... Too bad it never does that at work!

Maybe I'll get some time tomorrow to post some pictures... HA! Who am I kidding... Like I'll have that kind of time...

Anyway, take care, all.

M