Summer is upon us...although it doesn't quite feel like it yet. Here in Anchorage, it has been an average spring and early summer meaning temperatures hovering around the 50s and flirting with the 60s. The warmest so far has been 65 degrees. We don't have an air conditioner so that's okay with us. It can't get too warm or it's going to get uncomfortable real fast. In the mean time, we've had to get a space heater to help maintain the temperature in the girls' room. I know what you're thinking..."space heater? aren't those things dangerous!??!"
Yes they are and not to worry. We used it for the first week and only turned it on for a few minutes at a time to get the temp up a little. Since then, we've found that it can be much more useful downstairs with Eileen where the temperature is a good 10 degrees colder.
What does this have to do with our girls? Not much...just thought I'd share.
I've been trying to get back in shape since the girls came home so I've been taking bike rides every night after dinner and between feedings. I mention the weather because like tonight, it was not comfortable. 48 degrees and sprinkling is not the ideal biking conditions. The good news is I'm now biking over 10 miles a day!!!!! I'll have my pre-teen figure back in no time.
The girls have been keeping us busy...obviously. With the long Alaska summer days, we think they may be a bit confused about when they're supposed to sleep. They are night owls. Their favorite time is between 10pm and 2am...sleep for an hour and a half to 2 hours, then up again between 3:30 and 4am. That feeding takes between an hour to an hour and a half so back to bed around 5:30 or so with UP TO 2 hours of sleep under our belt. It makes for a difficult night but we're then able to catch up a little bit during the morning when they will sleep up to 5 hours or so. With Eileen here to help, we are also able to take turns napping when our bodies tell us to.
Feedings....we're getting a little concerned about our little one, Katy. She has weighed less since the first week but the difference between the two may be getting larger. Alyssa continues to want more and more during the feedings but Katy seems fill up faster or throw up if she gets too much. We keep track of how much we give each girl since the majority of the feedings are by bottle and have noticed the difference between the two is getting a little bigger. This has only happened in the last 3 or 4 days but still something to think about...at what point do we seek the advice from our pediatrician. Our next appointment is the 11th so maybe we'll just wait till then.
****************************RANT*************************
That reminds me about something I'd like to vent for just one minute. How freaking outrageous are medical bills???!!!!! We are lucky that our insurance has paid 100% of our medical bills from the pregnancy all the way through the NICU. But now that we are home and have to make normal appointments...we're realizing how absolutely ridiculous this is going to get. For example, we had an eye appointment for the girls set up for the day after we were discharged. The optometrist was going to come to our room at the NICU and do a followup with the girls. Because we were discharged, we had to make another appointment and go the next week and since it wasn't apart of our stay at the NICU, we were responsible for paying for the appointment. We waited for 2 hours before we saw the doctor who looked at each girl for about 5 minutes. As we're leaving, we're told the total is $500....PER BABY!!!!!!!!! Our co-pay is "20% so that'll be $200 please." :|
Then Lisa reminded me that our girls will need to get a shot once a month during RSV season which goes from October to May. Okay. Okay except the shot is in the $1000's of dollars (or so we hear).
What a mess!
I'm not sharing this to get any pity or help from anyone, it's just frustrating to think about. Lisa and I have always been very fortunate regarding our health but now that we have two additions to the family that will need medical attention through their early years, we're kinda forced into this foreign world that we haven't been exposed to before. Again, I know every family deals with this and it's no different for us...BUT...it doesn't make it easier.
************************RANT OVER**********************for now***********
So Memorial Day weekend didn't bring us much excitement. I don't think we did anything different than any other day of the week. ...OH I worked on the lawn a little bit. That's a summer thing to do, right?
Otherwise it was business as usual at the Brown household. We had a couple of visitors. Micki came by with her 15 month old twins and then Lisa and Ben stopped by yesterday to say hi and spend some time with us. We REALLY appreciated both visits because we don't get out and can get caught up in our own little world. It was a nice break. We seem to watch WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYAYYAYYYYY too much TV. I think that may be why I started biking...just to get away from the TV for a few minutes. We listen to a lot of classical music but the TV is on way too much. By the way, if you didn't know already, TV kinda sucks. There are only like 4 shows that I REALLY enjoy and one of them won't be on again until next February. That would be Lost. The other 3 are Seinfeld, Mythbusters, and Deadliest Catch if you are wondering.
Alright, now I'm just babbling. The pressure is on. I've been told by a couple of people that they enjoy reading my blog and that I'm a good writer. I think tonight I proved them wrong.
It's now 1:15am and feedings are winding down. Katy has spit up a couple of times and Alyssa took all of hers and is still wide awake and looking for more. Looks like another hour or so before we get into bed.
I can't blog without putting at least one video or picture. Well tonight it's a video....lucky you. This video was taken almost a week ago I think. It was during a late night feeding while we were waiting for the food to warm up. We had a very unhappy baby on our hands so we'd thought we'd try a little tummy time. Madison heard the crying baby and wanted to help out. It actually ended up being a pretty funny moment caught on tape.
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