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What's for Dinner?

Eating is the name of the game around here. How do Derek and I manage to feed ourselves now that my mom is gone? What are the babies eating these days?

It was very sad to say goodbye to my mom on Friday. She was a tremendous help during her 3-1/2 week stay, and Derek and I got lots of extra sleep and good meals during that time. Now that she has left, I'm trying to figure out how to keep me & D fed while balancing the babies' schedule and his work and sleep schedule. Now that S&Z have longer "awake" periods, last night I tried to think out of the box. I threw the tummy time blanket and boppy pillow on the kitchen floor to see how long they would last while I got dinner started (which I will admit was a casserole-style pork dish pulled from a church cookbook, and actually included Minute Rice).


They did really well for about 15 minutes, until inevitably someone started crying :) Don't let Silas fool you with the angelic look on his face, he definitely knows how to make his voice heard as well!


Now what about the babies' diet? Since Zoe was on the NICU immediately after birth, I started pumping breastmilk from day 1. As preemies, neither of them had a good latch. I rented a hospital grade pump and considered hiring a lactation consultant once we were all home together. By the time Zoe was discharged, we had a really good routine down and I decided not to breastfeed per se, but to continue pumping milk for them.

In order to supply 1/2 of their total milk intake for the day, this means I pump between 5 and 7 times every 24 hours. I figured that I would be able to keep this up until I go back to work in February, but then it might be time to consider stopping due to time constraints. After figuring out our current formula budget, however, I might not have a choice but to continue with the pumping madness! We currently spend ~ $140/month on formula, and that is only 1/2 of their total milk supply.

Both babies were initally on enhanced calorie formula feeds designed for premature babies. After Silas' big weight gain between 2 and 4 weeks, however, he was able to come off this mix and eat regular Enfamil formula. Zoe has continued on the 24 calorie feeds up until the checkup today, at which point she can now go down to 22 calorie feeds. This still requires a different "mix" of formula for her. I mix up formula for each baby 1x per day and this makes up their formula bottles for a 24 hour period. I am only ahead by a bit on the milk I am pumping, so I can make up 3-4 bottles at a time (they get formula at one feeding and breastmilk at the next feeding). This means I make up a batch of bottles at least 2x per day, and wash bottles and pumping equipment at least 4x per day. Throw into the mix Zoe's Prilosec dosage (for reflux) that she gets 2x per day, mixed in 1 ounce of milk each time. She needs to take the Prilosec and then wait 30 minutes before eating her remaining 2-1/2 ounces, so this requires two bottles for each of those two feedings. The top shelf of our fridge now looks like this:


I now understand why parents are so excited for their baby to start eating rice cereal and table food! This milk stuff is complicated.

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