However, and there’s always seemed to be a however, babies are given their first checks at this time, usually at home. A paediatrician arrived and decided that Matthew was looking rather too jaundiced. They were also weighed, and Matthew turned out to have lost about 12 percent of his body weight. All babies lose weight as they lose hydration and meconium after birth, but anything over 10 percent gets doctors worried. So…although Chris was free to leave, now the hospital wouldn’t allow Matthew to come home until he’d had some phototherapy for his jaundice. Basically, he lay in another incubator with a bright blue light shining up on his back:
As this is an overnight procedure, this meant another night in the slammer for Chris. After a bit of discussion, we both decided that I should take Sophie home to give Chris a quieter night. It also felt like a small victory in what was turning into a major battle to get everybody home.
Poor Matthew had to fill a couple of vials with his blood, which meant inserting a needle into a tiny vein in the back of his hand. Needless to say he screamed the house down. This was to eliminate any problems with his kidneys and liver, as well as to get an accurate reading on his jaundice. Sophie, incidentally, also gave blood this way, but only whimpered a little at the start. She may be small, but she’s hard as nails.
Chris, apart from slowly going insane, is physically in good shape now. She's only taking paracetamol for her pain now, though her legs have swollen to impressive dimensions. All par for the course.
Matthew’s weight loss got us both somewhat worried, so we decided to drop the cup feeding and start bottle feeding in addition to breast feeding. Chris is now expressing a lot of milk, so much of the bottle feeding is with her breast milk. The paediatrician gave us a ‘target’ for the amount of milk per day Matthew should be getting and by bottle feeding we will be able to ensure he gets at least as much as he needs for the next few days, hopefully to put on weight quickly. We are both very keen to get both twins breastfeeding full time in due course, but for now we need to compromise.
Late in the evening, I scooped up our tiny girl, strapped her into a baby seat and to comments from the midwives including “you must be brave” and “this is very unusual”, I took her home to meet the cats. They scarpered and hid in the conservatory. Though feeling guilty for leaving Chris in hospital, I had a wonderful night with Sophie, putting her to bed in a Moses basket, feeding her every three hours, except once when she woke me two hours after her previous feed. I got about 4 hours kip, partly because she is now so alert, especially at night. Wide-eyed, looking around, soaking up her new world. She’s adorable. Here she is, dreaming of her brother joining her in the Moses basket.
Overnight, while feeding Sophie and calling her name softly to encourage her to feed, one of our cats, Wolfie, shut outside the door thought I was calling his name. We had a little chat:
Me: Sophie
Wolfie: Miaow
Me: Sophie
Wolfie: Miaow
Me: Sophie
Wolfie: Miaow
Me: Sophie
Wolfie: Miaow
...and so on...
Looks like I may have to change Sophie's name to stop confusing the cat.
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