So today was a pleasant day. I got about 6 hrs of sleep plus a 1 1/2 hour nap. I'm worried about sleeping tonight because I found out Priyanka took a day nanny job today with Petra, who was equally pissed off about it when she found out. I'm worried she won't wake up for feedings, so I'll set my alarms just in case. (When Priyanka showed up tonight she assured us she only was with Petra briefly and went home and got some sleep)
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| Tara sucking her thumb |
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| Vivek doing the clean diaper dance |
I managed to carry both babies to Dr. Kothiala by myself today. It hurt my arms and I was sweaty, but I did it while Mom waited for the luggage shipment guy to arrive. He came, but he was an hour late so turns out she could have come with me. But I actually enjoyed proving to myself I could take both of them on, because Lord knows I'll have to a lot in my life so I might as well start now. I didn't relish sitting in the waiting room full of sick people, and let me just say Indian men are not chivalrous. Healthy young men filled the waiting room benches forcing old women to stand and me with two tiny infants sat on the floor until the security guard offered me his chair. At least there is one gentleman! I body checked a few folks on my way out because they are so rude and crowd the entrances and exits. Something about having my babies with me makes me easily cross the line from assertive to aggressive when people pose a problem. Mom tells me they are chauvinists and raised this way.
Dr. Kothiala checked them over and gave them a thumbs up on all counts. Vivek is now 2110kg and Tara is 1885. That is 4lbs and 10 oz and 4lbs and 2 1/2 oz! I found out the dreaded brown iron drops that stain their clothes will likely be a 6 month proposition unless our pediatrician at home tells us differently. The multivitamins and B folic will be stopped soon, but she gave me two free bottles of New Cal calcium supplement and a prescription for 2 more per my request because with 5ml per day per baby that will run out quickly. The calcium may also be for several months. The domperidone will stop at 40 weeks. I'm getting better about getting the drops down without getting them on their clothes when they squeeze it out of their mouths, which Vivek is better at by far. You can see him scrunch his face up at the taste and purse his lips trying to spit it out. Fortunately for me he has chubby cheeks I can squeeze together to counter his efforts. I feel so mean, but I know it is good for them. I just hope that when they tell me to administer 5 drops they know that only 4 probably make it all the way down their gullet.
I also learned I need to put 5-10mL more in the bottle than I think they can eat. It is wasteful and formula is expensive, but it is a better way to see how much they can gobble down than looking for cues that they are hungry. She also said that 11 good feeds a day is normal for NICU, so I shouldn't fret that 1 feed per day that they each refuse to suck or try to spit the milk across the room exorcist style. She said as soon as we get to Delhi we can transition into a 3 hour feeding schedule, but start at 2 1/2 first. We will up their amounts to 1/2 oz more each feed since they'll be more stretched out. I told her that while Tara has yellow seedy poos about 3X per day, Vivek so far it is typically one and darker in color. She told us to give him 3-4 mL of boiled water 3-4X per day and that will help. Today I tried 3 bottles of water of 4mL each spread out, and sure enough tonight we had a yellow softer poo. I'm sure everyone was just dying to hear about their poo color and consistency. By the way, Vivek held his bottle of 4mL of water on his own today and we have brief video proof.
I told her to contact Hitesh Monday since we will be gone and make sure he writes her the check from the money we transferred to them for payment, because no amount of ATM trips would cover it. She told me to come tomorrow and get the paperwork from her including all medical records, the letter to the Delhi pediatrician, and the letter okaying Tara to fly since she will be just shy of 2kg. I think I'll also tackle making the photocopies tomorrow since that will be the least hectic day.
After Mom and I ordered and ate lunch and did the 3pm feeding, she had the hotel do a late afternoon cleaning of our room. The Queen demanded that 3 people clean it at once to be prompt so we wouldn't have to wait in the lobby long. However with Tara sleeping on my shoulder and me typing away, I was enjoying myself so much Mom went back to the room while Princess Tara and I hung out in her royal lobby and greeted the incoming guests/her royal court. Nice change of scenery, even if the male staff constantly have cricket games on the flat screen in the lobby.
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| Princess bores of waiting in lobbies, and says not to get in Mommy's way when carrying me lest she kick you in the shins and makes it look accidental. |
I'm still pumping but my production is still 3-5 mL per pump, which is not much at all. However I feed it to my babies proudly, knowing that all that effort probably does make a small difference. Their mouths are just too small to really breastfeed right now, though Tara did a weak little latch and sucked about twice this evening. The staff here have a bad habit of not knocking and just walking right in sometimes with food or to bring change from payment for food, and so a young gentleman got an eyeful of me pumping. I'm going to try to stay positive that breastfeeding is still possible, but just give them more time until they seem more able to handle it.
I did a smart thing tonight and copied and pasted everything I could get off the internet regarding surrogacy, CRBA, and FFRO stuff. We won't have internet in Delhi unless we take a 10 min walk to my relatives home so this way I can read it on the 26th over again to make sure we are fully prepped. Here are the links to two external sites from Global Doctor Options that had good info on the FFRO/Exit VISA process: http://www.globaldoctoroptions.com/the-exit-visa-to-leave-india-foreign-residents-registration-office/443 and http://www.indian-surrogacy.com/item/exit-visas-for-babies-and-the-frro.html /
Tomorrow for a change of pace Mom agreed to watch the babies while I made a trip to Decent Restaurant to get some to go food. I've also got to get some more fennel and the photocopies I postponed today. Worse comes to worse the embassy will make photo copies for $1 per page.
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| Mommy no more pictures! |
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| Mommy seriously! |
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