Thursday, June 1, 2017

Five Months Old

Silas and Ezra Five Month Update

Silas Reid
16 lbs., 3 oz.


Ezra Jack
15 lbs., 7 oz.


Both currently wear 6-9 month clothes.


Mutual Likes: Trying to eat their feet, chewing on anything/everything, playing with Asher
Mutual Dislikes: Being in their carseats, taking medicine (especially their new inhalers)

Milestones



Both boys are now rolling from belly to back regularly. They are busy boys and love playing with toys, shaking rattles, and chewing on everything they can get their hands on. They recently discovered their feet and spend most of their time rolling back and forth holding their feet, trying to get their toes in their mouths. 


Health

This month was the hardest yet in terms of health. We continued to struggle with constant breathing issues as we waited to see the specialists about their asthma. Two separate instances, we ended up in the emergency room because Silas and Ezra were showing signs of respiratory distress. We also had too many other trips to the pediatrician to try to count. It was frustrating because every time they got sick, doctors would give them breathing treatments, put them on oral steroids, and send us home. The oral steroids would help temporarily but as soon as they caught another virus again (which seemed to happen over and over again without much of a break), we would be in the same situation with their breathing.


Just before Easter, we were having to give Silas and Ezra breathing treatments around the clock. If we went over four hours without the albuterol (a rescue medicine), they would immediately show signs of respiratory distress. They wheezed and coughed constantly and I was always on edge because I was so worried about their health and it felt like we had no long term plan for treatment.

We woke up one morning both boys were breathing much more rapidly than even their typical wheezy breaths. We noticed some pulling in the rib area and they seemed to be using their stomach muscles to try to get air. Silas in particular seemed to be struggling to breathe; his breaths were rapid, short, and his breathing coarse. The wheeze more pronounced, with intense, deep coughing fits in between that were nothing like we'd ever heard before. We rushed them to the emergency room where both boys were treated and Silas was subsequently admitted to the hospital. It was an incredibly stressful couple of days and even just writing this, I can feel my anxiety levels rising.


Once we got their breathing stabilized, we ended up seeing a pulmonary specialist and getting Silas and Ezra on medications that will help with their breathing on a longer term scale. It is a relief to know that we won't need to continue to give them oral steroids, which can have some scary long term side effects. We are truly hoping that this will allow us to stay on top of their asthma, and give us a chance to relax and enjoy our time as a family.


Sleeping

During the month that they were pretty much constantly sick, they were needier in the night. They were up nursing more than usual and had a harder time staying asleep because they would cough and wake themselves or each other up. I didn't even mind getting up so many times in the night because I was up worrying about them anyway. At the recommendation of their pediatrician, we were setting an alarm throughout the night for every four hours and would give nebulizer treatments while they were sleeping.

We also just recently began transitioning from swaddling and it has been tough. We have the Halo swaddle sleep sacks but it seems like any, even slight, movement causes them to wake up and cry (which subsequently wakes up the other twin.) They then both need to nurse to settle down and often need to be rocked back to sleep. We are going to try the Merlin's magic sleep suits to see if these help with the transition and prevent them from waking themselves and each other up so often.

We are also planning to separate the boys into their own pack and plays soon. Up until this point, they have slept together, swaddled side by side, in a single pack and play in our room. Now that they are rolling and able to move around quite a bit more, it's time to separate them into their own spaces for sleeping. They are really becoming too big to sleep together in a single pack and play and hopefully separating them will prepare them to eventually sleep in their own cribs in their nursery.


Eating

Sadly, when Silas and Ezra are sick, especially if they are congested, they don't want to nurse as often or for as long. This is the total opposite of the experience that I had with Asher, as he would want to nurse around the clock when he was sick. I noticed a pretty significant decrease in their nursing sessions, which their pediatrician insisted was normal. But as a breastfeeding mom, it was absolutely heartbreaking when I took my sick babies to the doctor and saw that they had lost weight. After the hospital stay, once they started their new medications and started to feel a little better, I noticed that they seemed to nurse a little better as well.

Silas and Ezra are still just exclusively breastfeeding with no solids yet. We are waiting until at least six months, or until they are sitting up well and showing all the other signs of readiness, before we start baby led weaning.


Big Brother

It was so hard for us when we were in the hospital yet again and away from Asher, who luckily stays with his grandma each time. Grandma keeps Asher distracted and happy while we are away, but whenever Asher arrives home after one of our hospital stays, he has a bit of a difficult transition. He needs lots of cuddles in the night and often tells us not to leave him again.


Luckily, Silas and Ezra were well enough that we were able to take a family trip to the Adirondacks at the end of the month to celebrate Josh's 30th birthday, which was just what Asher (and really all of us) needed. We stayed at a very family-friendly hotel with a spa, pool, game room, movie theater, ice cream parlor, restaurant, and nightly campfire. It was so good to spend that time together as a family, especially with Asher, who I think loved our vacation more than anyone else. He told us repeatedly that he wanted us to live at the hotel.


Asher impressed us by hiking up an entire mountain on his own for the first time, which was not an easy hike. Josh and I each carried one of the twins and kept asking Asher if he needed a break. He insisted on doing the hike on his own and made it all the way to the top of the mountain keeping up a great pace. Everyone we passed was astonished that Asher was making his way up such a steep, difficult trail. Josh strapped on our new Twingo baby carrier and carried both Asher and Ezra on the hike down, which was a good thing because Asher fell asleep about two seconds later.


It was so good to get away and spend some quality time as a family. We really needed the time together after everything we had been through in the month of April, and Asher desperately wanted to spend some time with his brothers that wasn't in doctor's office waiting rooms. Asher is so sweet with Silas and Ezra and has been so patient through it all. He continues to amaze us as we watch him grow. 


Final Thoughts 

Despite our challenging month, it finally feels like things are going to start getting easier. Hopefully we have no more hospital stays in our near future so we can just focus on our quiet little life as a family of five. We so are looking forward to warm weather, walks in the park, playing in the back yard, and summer barbecues.