date: Wed 14 May 2025 11:27:48 PM PDT
subj: new parents twins
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Our daughter graduated from the NICU. We are happy about that
and I'm hoping I never have to return to the NICU at any
location. The other side is the professions with all the
resources anyone could dream of is no longer supporting our
child, and now its just the two of us. We've been running on on
just enough sleep to keep going, then a six hour round trip to
and from the NICU, and the NICU took about five hours to
complete. We did feeds on the ferry and in the car, and it was
extremely high stress. At night my wife got to bed late 8:30
PM, and I was up that night until 3:00 AM.

The first night with both babies, I felt it was babies against
parents. Although feeding went well it was a bit chaotic because
one child would be starting to fuss while I'm in the middling of
feeding the other. Not really knowing how my daughter behaves
also added a bit to the stress, but eventually they settled down
and I had a moment to collect myself and think how I got through
the fuss events. I was calm in my mind and decided to handle
each event, not thinking of the future or all the things that
need to get done. Just one event at a time. 

The second night was a lot different. Our son feeds like a
champ, and usually wants more and more, but our daughter is
still learning how to eat. She was on donor breast milk during
her stay in the NICU, but at home she is on high calorie
formula. I'm not sure if the formula bothers her but, she starts
eating and quickly falls asleep. She is just running out of
energy. So sometimes it takes her 45 minutes or more to eat.
This equates to a bit of stress in the form of we can get her
to thrive. Again we have to count the wins one feed at a time,
one night at a time, one event at a time. 

The day was about what to trade. This is always the case in
life, but when you are busier then you've ever been before it
becomes most apparent. I traded a shower for making my wife
breakfast. I trade doing some chores for fitness. We'll see what
trades I make tomorrow, and what I can live without before I
start to feel cranky.