BillandBob.com

Our friend Rachel recently blogged about one of the incredibly busy days she’s had lately, and I was struck by how vastly different our lives are just now.

Evenings for Bill and me used to involve preparing or procuring dinner, then settling on the couch to enjoy a little telly while we ate. Then we’d clean up, perhaps spend a little time on the computer, and head to bed. In stark contrast, here’s how my day went from yesterday evening:

6:30 pm I pumped for 15 minutes to keep trying to grow my milk volumes
7:15 pm Cate woke up to take a new diaper and nurse for 20 minutes, then took a bottle of expressed breast milk and another of formula to top her off
8:00 pm Sam woke up to take a new diaper and a bottle of breast milk
9:00 pm After “napping” for 15 minutes, Cate woke up to take another ounce of formula bfeore falling asleep for 4 hours
9:00 pm After hanging out awake for an hour, Sam nursed for 20 minutes, then took two ounces of formula to top her off
9:30 pm We put Sam in a bouncy chair and then sat together in the living room in the semi-dark to eat dinner while hoping that Sam would finally succumb to sleep
10:30 pm Sam fell asleep for 3-3/4 hours
11:15 pm I pumped for 15 minutes
11:55 pm We pounced into bed to “hurry up and sleep” for 1-3/4 hours
1:45 am Cate woke up to take a new diaper, nurse for 15 minutes, and then took 3 more ounces of formula
2:15 am Sam woke up to take a new diaper, nurse for 15 minutes, and then took 2 another 2 ounces of expressed breast milk
3:00 am Sam fell asleep for 3-3/4 hours
3:15 am I ate a banana and drank a glass of milk while I pumped for 15 minutes
3:45 am Cate fell asleep for 2-1/2 hours
3:45 am I crawled back into bed to sleep 2-1/2 hours
6:15 am Cate woke up to take a new diaper and nurse for 20 minutes, then took an ounce of expressed breast milk by bottle
7:00 am Sam woke up to take a new diaper and 3 ounces of formula
7:30 am Sam fell asleep for 3-1/2 hours
7:45 am I drank some orange juice, took my iron and vitamins, and pumped for 15 minutes
8:00 am Cate fell asleep for 2 hours
8:00 am I slunk back to bed for another 2 hours
10:00 am Cate woke up to take a new diaper, nurse for 20 minutes, take 10 ml of leftover breast milk, and an ounce of formula
11:10 am Sam woke up to take a new diaper, nurse for 20 minutes, take 2 ounces of expressed breast milk, then another ounce of formula to top her off
11:15 am Cate fell asleep for 2 hours
12: 55 pm I heated an Evol egg and green chile burrito, poured a glass of milk, took a few bites/swallows, and had just started to pump when…
1:05 pm Cate woke up to take a new diaper, nurse for 10 minutes, and take 3 ounces of formula
1:30 pm Sam, still awake, took another new diaper, nursed for 15 minutes, and took 2 ounces of formula
2:00 pm Bill brought me a few bites of my now-cold breakfast burrito
2:10 pm Cate fell asleep for ___ hours
2:45 pm Sam…
2:53 pm I finished my breakfast burrito and pumped for another 15 minutes

It’s now 5:00 pm, and Cate is (blessedly) still asleep. My data claims that Sam fell asleep a little before 3 pm. And she did look extremely sleepy, with nodding head, big yawns, drooping eyelids, slowed movement… the works. But when I went to console Cate during a bout of gas-induced screaming meemies, Sam stretched, opened her eyes, and turned her head to look at me, before closing her eyes again. As I sit here typing, I continue to hear her squawk occasionally through the baby monitor. I’m not at all sure that she’s sleeping, but I know that when I go back in the room to check, she’ll wake up for sure.

To be fair, the last twelve hours have been more brutal than most. The girls are apparently fueling a growth spurt, waking up to eat every 2-3 hours when they’d been managing occasional 4-hour chunks for more than a week. Unfortunately, it’s currently a zero-sum game: more feeding them leaves less sleeping for us. I’ve been getting by on three chunks of sleep a day, taking 12 hours to eke out 8 hours of sleep, but that’s way better than the 6:15 I eked out last night.

It’s tempting to skip pumping — especially since I then have to wash my pump gear everytime I use it — but that’s the only signal that tells my boobs to make more milk. Since I aspire to breast feed exclusively and quit having to fuss with formula. bottles, or pumping, I really need my boobs to make more milk.

Also, somewhere in all that, Bill managed to cook us (a really yummy) dinner (of salmon en croute), work on a presentation for his client in Raleigh, NC, and spend time holding Cate whenever gas woke her with screaming meemies. Suffice it to say that he’s not getting much sleep, either.

That said, my electronic leash tells me I’m on duty again, at least for a few more hours. At 8:00 pm, our once-a-week night nanny (who was away last Friday for Thanksgiving) will arrive to give us a much-needed 12-hour respite. Then tomorrow, we’re back on. I sincerely hope our girls do a lot of good growing tonight and settle back into a normal rhythm soon.