Today

Mateo has started doing this really cute thing when he wakes up in the morning. I guess Sacha has been asking him for a long time if he had nice dreams in the night and now he's started doing it himself. I'll go in to get him and ask him if he slept well and then he'll say "Nice dream?" Then I'll ask him if he had a nice dream and he'll say who he dreamt about. It's always a person and currently it's our friends down the street. "Dream Alesha," he'll say, "dream Steve." It is just the freaking cutest thing ever.

We just got back from a lactation consultation and I'm very pleased to say that no one got sent back to the hospital this time! Sacha and Talia have really been struggling with breastfeeding - mostly latching and sucking, which are pretty major issues - and finally this lactation consultant was able to help. She got Sacha started using a supplemental nursing system and Sacha's own pumped breast milk. We actually have some experience with the SNS from when Mateo was a baby. Natalia's been getting supplemental bottles of pumped breastmilk during feedings when she just won't latch or suck at all, which have been many, and so she's used to having an immediate flow of milk. The SNS gives her that immediate flow while encouraging her to latch on and feed right from Sacha herself.

The best part was the after-feed weigh-in. The scale told us that Talia had gotten even more milk from Sacha than she had from the SNS, which is really good news. It means that all the pumping she's been doing to boost her supply, in the absence of a lot of nursing, is paying off. The LC seemed confident that the baby would eventually be able to breastfeed without all the equipment, so here's hoping!

Also, Sacha's mom is leaving today and my mom is now here for a week. We are so grateful to both of them. I also want to send out a big thank you to Apa and to my aunt, uncle, and two cousins, who watched Mateo on consecutive days so I could visit my girls in the hospital. It meant so much to us. Thank you!!