Kayla and Bryce: 2 Weeks!

Kayla and Bryce are two weeks old today. It's hard to believe. They had their check up with Dr. Readinger and both of them exceeded their weight goals! Bryce now weighs 5 lbs. 7 oz. and Kayla weighs 5 lbs. 5 oz. They gained 7 oz. since Thursday and they are now 2 oz. above their birth weights. Bryce's umbilical cord fell off yesterday. Kayla's fell off on the 25th and Bryce's circumcsion ring fell off on the 24th. They had their 2nd newborn screening today. I hate seeing them in pain. Kayla did a little better than Bryce. She stopped crying at the last blood spot. Bryce, on the other hand, cried for a while after he was done. The technician had to prick his heel twice because he wasn't bleeding very well. Poor baby. It broke my heart. His whole heel is now bruised because the tech squeezed so hard. :(

I picked up my FMLA paperwork from Dr. Bradford today and she gave me 8 weeks to heal before going back to work. I know it's less money for us, but it's more time I get to spend with Kayla and Bryce.

Feeding them every 3 hours is exhausting. It seems to bother Kevin a little more than it bothers me. He went to work one day last week and he's planning on going in a few days here and there. This week, he'll go in on Wednesday and Thursday. We're still not sure what we're going to when I return to work but we're looking at options. My mom offered to take them 3-4 days a week and Kevin can take them on Fridays and another day if he needs to. Luckily, the district daycare offers drop ins at $35 a day. It's not cheap, but it is an option if something comes up and my mom or Kevin can't watch them.

Being on bed rest for the last two months of my pregnancy took its toll on us. There are so many things that need to be done around the house. By the time we take care of their needs, we're too exhausted to do anything else. We're even too exhausted to make food or even eat for that matter. I called and asked my mom yesterday if she could come over and help out this week while Kevin was at work. I also asked if she would bring over food. She said yes, thankfully. Hopefully, I will have a chance to straighten up and clean around here a little bit.

I am healing pretty well. I had an enormous amount of swelling in my lower abdomen for the last 3-4 months of pregnancy. To allow for drainage, Dr. Bradford used staples instead of stitches. The staples were removed on Saturday, August 21st, the day before I went home. It didn't hurt near as bad as I thought it would. At least until the staple remover got caught on one of the staples. The nurse had to get another staple remover to remove the one that got stuck. Then, she put steri strips over the incision as a precautionary measure. I peeled those off this previous Saturday, August 28th. The burning in my abdomen isn't as bad as it was at first. I haven't had to take the harder pain medications since I've been home. Ibuprofen 800 mg seems to work just fine, and even those I haven't had in a couple of days. My abdominal muscles are coming back, too! I wasn't allowed to use those for a while. I had to use only my arms to get up out of bed. For the first week, I couldn't roll over on either side so I just basically twirled myself around on my back and oozed myself out of bed. Finally, when I got back home, I was able to lay on my side again.

The swelling in my abdomen and face have gone down considerably. It looks like I lost 10 pounds out of my face alone. As of yesterday, I am officially back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I still have some swelling to lose, but once I lose that, I will end up weighing less than I was when I got pregnant. I still have congestion but I can't take anything because decongestants raise blood pressure. I can't get my allergy shots, either, because I'm taking beta blockers to lower my crazy blood pressure.

The diabetes is completely gone! I was switched to solid foods after two days in the hospital and my blood sugar was checked throughout the day. I wasn't on insulin the entire time I was there but they had to monitor me to make sure I didn't need any. My blood pressure was normal for the first couple of days, too, so we thought that had resolved also. Unfortunately, on Thursday night and Friday, it started creeping back up. That was when Dr. Bradford ordered the blood pressure meds. My blood pressure was in the normal range when I saw Dr. Bradford last Thursday. Hopefully, we can stay this low so she can take me off the meds.

That's all for now,
Charla