Mommyhood

This is Ashley, I have decided that it’s actually time for me to sit down and write a little blurp on the blog. The boys have been keeping me very busy. They are still eating every 4 hours which means I only get about 3 hours of sleep between feedings by the time both boys are fed changed and put back to bed, on the nights Bryan has to work the next morning.
Although it is exhausting I am really enjoying my time as a full time mommy. For those of you who don’t know, I have lost my position at St. Joseph ER because I exhausted my maternity leave while we were in Spokane. Right now, while the boys on are the monitor and oxygen, either Bryan or I have to be home with them. I do miss my co-workers but wouldn’t trade all the extra time at home with my boys for anything. I know I can never have this time with them again so I’m going to enjoy it and not stress about returning to work.
Both boys have been evaluated for the Infant/Toddler Program because of their prematurity. A developmental specialist came to our home to assess the boys and their development. Both boys are doing very well for their adjusted age. They base their age on how old they would be had they of been born full term. They take all of the information provided by a form I had to fill out and what the developmental specialist determines and as a group they develop a plan to meet any developmental needs. Our goal is that all developmental needs have been resolved by age two. It is believed that prematurity can cause some delays in development but with early intervention it can be corrected.
It has been hard to break myself of the exact science of the NICU and relying on numbers. Everything in the NICU was based on some mathematical equation, ok not everything, but it seemed that way. They determined the amount of their feedings based on their weight gain from the night before multiplied by some number. They had minimum amount they had to eat each day. Then we get home and feel completely lost. I don’t know why but common sense parenting went right out the window when we had NICU babies. I had gotten so use to the boys being weighed every night and I was reassured that even when breastfeeding they were getting enough. Finally after some anxiety from bringing the boys home from the NICU, I had to give myself a pep talk. It was something like this, “Ok, Ashley, you are a smart girl. If the boys are not getting enough while breastfeeding they will just wake up from hunger, duh!” So that day it all clicked and things have been going very well. Not to say we don’t face some challenges but at least I have the confidence to just trust in myself and my motherly instinct.
Well, I have plenty more to write about but the boys are getting hungry and what can I say, they pretty much call the shots around here.