What did you DO all day?

Where does all the time go? I feel like I never have enough time, and never get anything done. What exactly DID I do all day?

Well, John got back on Thursday night from a 3 day business trip to Chicago, so I had my first taste of single parenthood. I can't say that I liked it. I gotta give props to all the single moms out there who do it everyday. You are really amazing. Especially those of you with twins! And more especially to those of you who have twins with special needs! My goodness gracious. I wouldn't have lasted another day, and that is with a ton of help from my mom. Talk about exhausting.
Both girls have been sick the past week with snotty noses. Luckily it hasn't been too bad and they have been pretty cheerful for the most part. The only problems we have had are with Eden not sleeping for a few nights, and with Eden not wanting to drink her bottles for a couple of days.

The not sleeping thing has really thrown us for a loop. We have gotten spoiled. It took Eden a few nights to adjust after coming home from the hospital. She had gotten really used to me sleeping with her, and really wanted to sleep in our bed...on my pillow...with her arm wrapped around my neck and my face pressed against hers. Very sweet really, except that I COULD NOT SLEEP. We had a major battle over that and it was painful.

Eden cries like her heart is broken. Like we are the absolute worst parents ever to make her sleep in her own bed. It seriously feels like a knife twisting in my stomach every time she starts to cry. It sounds like something is seriously wrong. We do everything we can think of trying to help her, but nothing makes her happy until we bring her in our room. Then she smiles, and leaps out of our arms onto the bed, and all is right with the world. Well, we figured her out. There's nothing wrong. She just wants to be in our bed.

The sleep thing is very, very hard. Especially with Eden. We are constantly second guessing, and thinking about all of the terrible things that she could be feeling. Maybe she is in pain. Maybe she is afraid. What if she has a seizure and we don't go in there? What if, what if, what if... We drive ourselves crazy with all the what ifs, then we go in there, and then it takes another week to get her sleeping through the night again. Going in there ALWAYS makes it worse. But we never learn.

She did seem to be back on track for about a week, but last night was a little shaky. We'll have to see how tonight goes.

On the eating front, things have been looking a little bit up. We have a new trick, that I am somewhat ashamed to admit, but we have been letting them sit in from of the TV to eat. Horror of horrors I know, but they are definitely eating more, more easily. We've discovered that Eden really likes sour cream, BBQ sauce, ranch, and gravy. She'll eat most anything if it is dipped in one of these. She also REALLY likes rice. I have had great luck chopping up her meat and veggies really small and mixing them with rice and gravy.

Other news on the nutrition front, and I hope this will be helpful for other preemie families, is that we've made a switch in their milk. Holland and Eden had been drinking Enfamil Enfacare formula, fortified to 27 calories per ounce, since they came home from the NICU. While we were in the hospital this last time I talked to the nutritionist and asked about fortifying whole milk up to 27 cal. She and the pediatrician thought it sounded like a great idea. They checked on the nutritional information, and verified that all of the nutrients are within acceptable limits. It is slightly higher in calcium and phosphorus, which could be a good thing since we know from her chest xray that Eden's bones are pretty thin. The most mind boggling part is that it is going to save us SO MUCH money!!! Yay!!! We will use about 1/3 the amount of formula that we were using before, so instead of spending around $90 a week, we will spend $30. I am so happy about saving the money, that I am only slightly irritated that I was the one to come up with the idea and we could have been doing it a year and a half ago.

As you can see from the pics, we are good to go with the pony walker situation. Eden's private PT needs hers back, so we were working on getting one through our insurance company. The process became quite tedious because the medical equipment company, Binson's, dropped the ball on us. They weren't wanting to pursue it because the insurance company was asking for additional medical information, and Binson's has not had luck in getting our insurance company to pay for that particular walker in the past. On the other hand, we had the insurance company telling us that it would be covered %100 if they got medical records indicating was medically necessary, and that the equipment supplier should at least pursue it until it was or was not denied. Binson's finally said that they would not pursue it unless we signed a waiver that WE would pay for it if it was denied, and that it was $2500. We would absolutely NOT sign knowing that we could get the walker for $1500 from several places online if we ordered it directly.

Anyway, long story short, we found out that Eden's school PT had a pony walker in storage that we could use indefinitely. She brought it on Monday and we have had some fun having "twooo" around the house this week.

I got caught up with scheduling doctor appointments this week, at least for the girls (I have a few I really should make for myself). We will see the ENT, pulmonologist, audiologist, ophthalmologist, and a new physical medicine doctor between now and mid-September. I need to call the new pediatrician this week because I want to get the girls started on Periactin (antihistamine that doubles as an appetite stimulant) and I am hoping she will write us a prescription. After I talk to the pulmonologist, and maybe after we see the physical medicine doctor in September, I will determine whether we will need to schedule an appointment with an OT for a swallow study.

And if you're still reading after all that...kudos to you! You must really care about my girls:)

Edited to Add: A couple of people have already asked about the recipe for fortifying whole milk to 27 cal. We use 3 scoops of Enfamil Enfacare powder to 18 ounces of whole milk. Hope it helps someone else! Be sure to okay any dietary changes with your pediatrician:)