Momo Makes a Mess (Momo the Monkey Adventure Series Book 2)

Momo Makes a Mess

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And they pronounced Friday 18th July the happy day. We arranged car seats and a lift home from a kind friend, and I was shaking with excitement and some fear. Shit just got real man. We went and bought baby vitamins and iron, nappies and bum wipes. We were going to be solely responsible for the care of our tiny little babies.

We arranged to go home at 11am, and I was so excited I was unable to sit still all day. I packed all our stuff- we had accumulated a lot at the hospital, including clothes, books, gifts, food and of course my stock of extra frozen breast milk, which we would take home in the car and in the cargo bike aka The Beast. We toasted goodbye to the linoleum floors and neon lights, the hushed halls of the neonatal unit and the anxiety of the parents within, the sound of monitors and alarms, and the feeling of never being left in peace.

Of course we knew it would be tough at home without the kind nurses that looked after us so well and did the 3am feedings for us oy vey but we were ready for phase II: The pediatrician came and made a final examination and declared the girls just fine to go home with their under-experienced parents. All in all our stay in the NICU was really amazing, the care was professional, efficient, sensitive and free! So many things are different at home and I was worried that the girls might be freaked out by the new smells and sounds, but they have been fine. They are slowly getting stronger and bigger and learning to breastfeed.

Now they weigh around 2. Hopefully in the next weeks they will steadily gain weight and strength so we can wean them off the NG tube so they can exclusively breastfeed. When I am not pumping, I am trying to get the girls interested in the boob, so I am pretty much topless all day, heaving my comic-book-style pendulous, leaking breasts around the flat.

Breastfeeding inevitably leads to spills and drips, so I am pretty much constantly soaked in breastmilk and I change clothes several times a day. As far as actually breastfeeding, I feel so helpless, I know next to nothing about it. I got some help when we were in the NICU and from the home visit nurse, and I have read a bunch of books and watched some youtube videos about breastfeeding, but it would be nice to have some expert advice on hand….. After some practice, I can get both of the girls latched and feeding in cross cradle and football orientations.

They are getting to be such pros that we even tried a tandem feed. It worked out pretty well, a little symphony of suction, quite the experience! It is really cool to know that they are getting fed at the source and it is a lovely bonding experience. Luckily they are not in the habit of mangling my nipples yet so its painless, except when I inadvertently hunch up my shoulders. It should only be another couple of weeks as they transition to breastfeeding and then we can kiss the NG tube goodbye…..

In the first 2 days Olivia pulled her NG tube out twice because the top piece of tape kept getting loose. Then we had to remove the tube and insert a new one. She cried when we had to pull off the bottom piece of tape, and it sucked to know that yes, she is crying because we are hurting her.

Thank Christ our nurse had a little stash of the old tape which she handed over, I wanted to kiss her, and since then we have had no issues. But mostly the girls are so funny. As I sit writing this they are engaged in a chorus of grunting and farting, really loud farting that you can hardly believe emanates from such a cute little baby girl. So all is well and now I just have to get my neurosis under control. It was hard in the NICU to see the babies all hooked up and feeling helpless to make the discomfort stop, so at least they are mostly wireless now and they seem happy.

But having 2 tiny babies that are susceptible to infection see http: The world is full of germs man. But we had to take the girls to the hospital for a hearing test standard stuff, they passed just fine this week, so we had to practice baby wrangling on the move, armed to the teeth with hand sanitizer and big sticks to fend off nosy do-gooders interested in twins…. Once we were out in the summer day I was totally paranoid about the sun shining on them, or the wind blowing on them and giving them a cold, or dodgy sneezing bastards on the street contaminating them with microbes, but Chris came to the rescue.

He really knows how to neutralize, or at least manage my extremes. He covered the lifts with a cloth so they were protected but still getting some fresh air, and he distracted me with an iced coffee and promises of ice creams later I am a big baby too. Is a breeze going to make them sick?? What can I do?

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I have found scattered tidbits of information on how to take care of premature babies, but nothing really solid. I am finally able to articulate what has been the most mind-blowing experience of my life to date. So much has happened in the last 3 weeks, I hope I can give a sense of the experience, some of which is a little hazy now. The girls napping in their NICU crib. After my last scan my doctor surprised me by deciding we would do the C-section on Friday 20th June, so the girls would be born at 31 weeks and 6 days. I was mostly prepared for that, but actually setting the date kind of freaked me out.

The one baby was lying kind of under the other one in my uterus, making CTG monitoring impossible, so it was the safest option to get them out here in the world where we can see them. I had hoped for their sake that they could stick around in my uterus until 34 weeks but it was not to be. I was scared about the operation, but had a meeting with the obstetrician, anesthetist and midwife the day before to discuss exactly how things would proceed.

The anesthetist came in to insert a presumably huge needle into my spine, which I tried not to think about. I had to fight the urge to run away, and the ever-calm husband Chris was smiling reassuringly.

That was soon accompanied by feeling like I would throw up. Apparently the drugs made my blood pressure very low for a minute there. At the same time, my extremities were going numb, so they were poking me and asking if I could feel anything. There was a weird little ceremony where we all agreed who I am, my social security number and the operation I was about to have and they were off, scalpels at the ready. I have to say I reckon spinal blocks are amazing, I felt hardly anything, very mild tugging as they were rooting around in my insides to yank out the babies.

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First out was Olivia at 10 am, then her sister Sophia at Chris went with the babies to the neonatal unit and named them and watched them being weighed and measured while I was reassembled. They were connected to a heart rate monitor, a monitor to check oxygen saturation in the blood, and each fitted with a CPAP continuous positive airway pressure to blow air over their noses and encourage their little lungs to unfold and help them breathe. They each got a nasogastric tube for feeding them directly into their stomachs, and an IV of glucose for extra treats.

Meanwhile, upstairs in the maternity ward I was quietly crying for like 2 hours, waiting to get the feeling in my legs back so I could go down and meet my babies properly. I was so relieved that they were born, and overwhelmed by a surge of hormones and simply could no longer maintain control. Every time a nurse spoke to me I just burst into tears. Chris popped up quickly to tell me all was well and show me a picture a lot more tears.

I thought she was kidding, like how am I supposed to walk right now?? First she removed the catheter I had for the surgery and instructed me to report back within 4 hours about my urinary proclivities. So Chris helped to stagger to the lift and down the hall to the neonatal unit. I was a wreck so after meeting my babies and crying some more, I passed out. When I woke up I was struck by the immense pain in my abdomen. Never having had surgery I had no idea what pain level to expect, and let me assure you, it was pretty epic.

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I was given painkillers every 8 hours, alternating between paracetamol, ibuprofen and morphine. I swore like trooper the first time I tried to get up and found that my abdomen was a burning mass of pain and weakness. Chris had to pick me up out of bed and help me out to see if I would detect my bladder yet — sadly no dice, my brain had no idea I had to pee. So I got another catheter for the next 24 hours to give my bladder a chance to come online. I guess it was a combo of pain, blood loss and general mind-altering change in my world at the arrival of my babies, but the next day is a hazy memory.

Luckily, Chris was really into his role as dad to the little ones, even though he also had me to look after, he was smiling all the time. He was watching the nurses in the neonatal unit at first, learning the ropes of caring for 2 little preemie babies, and I was lying in bed alternately moaning and sleeping.

Rigshospitalet NICU is actually a calm, quiet place, not the hellish mass of screaming babies, bleeping noises and harsh lighting that I had pictured. Our room is in Team 1, which deals with preemie and older sick babies.

Meaning of "momo" in the Portuguese dictionary

There are rooms with 2 families per room, separated with a room divider. There is a bed and a closet for each mother and there is a shared bathroom and a cupboard full of the medical and baby care supplies you need nappies, gauze, syringes, cotton balls, nasogastric tubes etc. The rooms are meticulously cleaned every day and the supply cupboard restocked.

There are monitors that bleep when the heart rate or oxygen saturation drop below healthy thresholds, and when that happens, a nurse comes immediately. Chris and I spent the next days learning from the nurses how to take care of the babies, and I would occasionally just look at them and cry, happy that they are here, alive and healthy but sad to see them all tubed and connected to machines. The nurses record all the info for the babies: At each shift, the new nurse familiarizes themselves with the babies, and comes to meet and discuss the plan for the day.

The doctors also come by every few days to check on the progress and tell us what they think. What does that mean?? The general atmosphere has been one of patience and understanding from the nurses: I feel really lucky to be in Denmark right now. We are given the role as parents, and not made to stand by helplessly on the sidelines.

So now we are both able to change and clean our babies, and feed them my expressed breast milk through the nasogastric tube using syringes. This last thing was scary for me at first since you have to check the stomach contents by gently sucking out what is in there with a syringe, and then detaching the syringe plunger and pouring milk into the syringe, which then drips into the stomach slowly.

Then at the next feeding you repeat the process, checking how much of the last meal they digested. The best moment so far was when I held my babies the first time. We are so lucky, we get to do daily kangaroo care, where we hold the babies skin to skin for an hour or two, just cuddling and soaking up the oxytocin.

It is the most incredible feeling I have ever experienced, the sense of love and connection in the moment with this vulnerable perfect little being. Plus there is a constant supply of new baby smell — amazing and calming, even better than new car smell. In the first week when holding them I would sometimes have the feeling of burning close to the C-section incision, other times it felt like water was dripping down my skin. It was really weird and I thought maybe there was something infected or wrong with the wound.

But it turns out that the nerves reattaching can sometimes create some unexpected sensations.

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Now I am pain-free and slowly getting back to walking with a straight spine and trying to relocate my abdominal muscles to their rightful place…. People may wonder what do you do all day long hanging around a NICU?

Well actually, you end up being pretty busy. I started expressing breast milk using a double electric breast pump on the day of the C-section, and have kept up a strict schedule since then, milking out every 3 hours to encourage milk production enough for 2 babies. I take a 6 hour break at night to get a bit more sleep while I still can, and there are nurses to help with nappy changes and feedings in the middle of the night. In between, we have feedings and diaper changes. In the first 10 days, we did feedings every 2 hours, since the girls were losing some of their birth weight as their digestive tracts adapted to this harsh new world.

Now we have stretched it to every 3 hours since the babies are able to digest better and are eating all their food and putting on weight, having just peaked over their birth weights. Then we also clean their cute little faces, and comb their hair, which is silky soft and gorgeous, and give them clean woolen hats, and the nurses replace their CPAP paraphernalia. In between I like to do a lot of baby watching, and just stare at them in amazement. After 3 weeks here, I am starting to find it more difficult, but it helps to know there is no alternative.

The machines make sudden bleeps when any of the stats drop below threshold, and the constant noises can make me quite jumpy after a while. But I know the babies need to be here until they are big and fat, and strong enough to breathe on their own, and no longer stop breathing on occasion. So I try to go outside an hour or two a day and breathe non-hospital air and get some perspective. One of these days I will not have a team of nurses to help me and give me advice, so I am going to make the most of my time here and try and learn to be an observant mom, since there will be no monitors at home, just good old looking at your baby.

I really look forward to just picking them up, and not worrying about a mass of cables in the way. At this point we expect to be here 3 to 4 more weeks, probably at least until the end of July. It is crazy to imagine that, but I know I can manage, and I am just taking one day at a time. I miss the babies whenever I am away so I am so glad I get to live here with them, as much as I miss my home. I know it will be very special when we all finally go home together. I prepared loads of meals for our post-baby period where I anticipate having no time or energy for cooking.

So I made chilli, stew, lasagne and curry, and froze portions in our new little chest freezer. My inner control freak, ever a hungry food snob, is relieved! This is not unusual, since the hospital had cutbacks and recently got rid of loads of midwives, so they are understaffed. Luckily, I am on maternity leave, so I have made peace with the idea of spending hours in the poorly lit, rather depressing waiting room. This is also not unusual. I have to have a scan every 4 days, and 2 CTGs per week. This is a risky time, and I would hate to miss signs of distress and lose the babies so close to the finish line.

As I was explaining the situation to the secretary I was suddenly totally overwhelmed by the fear of something bad happening to the babies, and the frustration that only some people at the hospital seemed to understand that this is a high risk case and needs careful attention. Not to mention the prospect of not knowing when the doctors are going to start slicing me open. And so the blubbing began. Geez these pregnancy hormones are powerful man. One minute I was calmly explaining the need for monitoring, the next I was sobbing and had to run to the bathroom before drowning in mucous and tears.

Once the floodgates opened though, it was really tough to get things under control again. For the next 20 minutes every time I tried to talk I would just burst into tears. So after the drama, the doctor realized that yes, I really do need a scan to check blood flow and she sent me to the ultrasound department, which was already closed for the weekend.

The fetal medicine specialist there kindly did the scan after hours on a Friday evening, and measured the blood flow and the size of the twins. She also assured me that the blood flow was all normal. It seems that I really, really like having a plan. I feel better now, except for the mild discomfort of having baby feet squeezing my diaphragm, and a slightly achy pelvis — I am really feeling super pregnant right now, but more calm. Today marks 29 weeks and 4 days along the pregnancy. I am in the middle of the second week of maternity leave, and feeling a little bigger and more tired than last week so I have been taking it easy….

There are no signs of premature labour or cervical insufficiency nice lingo hey? A woman carrying twins at 30 weeks is carrying the same weight as a singleton pregnancy at full term. I have been swimming to enjoy some time without the weight, and generally organizing things at home.

Momo Makes a Mess (Momo the Monkey Adventure Series Book 2)

The next project is to cook a bunch of meals, aliquot them into portions and freeze them in our newly acquired chest freezer for the anticipated insanity coming our way. Ryoma looked around in panic. Gotta find a place to hide His eyes locked on a janitor's closet. Momo blinked against the darkness of the closet, trying to get his eyes to adjust to the dim light.

His violet eyes scanned the tiny enclosement, searching for the familiar glare of Ryoma. Momo spun around, hand groping for Ryoma's face. Instead, his hand found something else; longer then it was wide, and rather hard. Momo breathed a sigh of relief, deliberately shutting out the not-so-tiny voice in his head screaming for another try. Outside, the rest of the regulars had just burst through the hall door, looking frantically around for the two missing players. Eiji rose up onto his toes, peering around.

Oishi nodded and stood beside his partner, looking around worriedly. Tezuka's going to kill them when he finds them Let Inui make them his personal taste testers. Tezuka stepped out of the doorway, glasses glinting and hair shining a delightful pink shade. Eiji tried to suppress his laughter. Fuji, smiling as brightly as ever, cocked his head to the side. The rest of the regulars glared at him. Tezuka's expression didn't twitch a micrometer. Tezuka dismissed them with a wave of his hand, spinning back to the door. The players dashed down the halls, frantically looking in classrooms for the refugee regulars.

As the players dashed through the door at the end of the hall, Tezuka raised a hand. A soft, sobbing curse leaked from behind the janitor closet door as Fuji clicked the keyhole shut. Ryoma continued beating his forehead with a nearby broomstick. Momo yawned, settling his head on his arms against the wall. Momo watched Ryoma continue to whack his head with the wooden stick.

Somewhere in the back of his head, he wondered why the kid hadn't knocked himself out yet. Whatever the case, it didn't really look very relaxing. We'll get out of here by the end of the day--absolute latest, I swear--when the janitor locks up. Momo sighed and settled back. Impossible to be social with that kid. He yawned and scratched his shoulder, checking his watch. Practice still hadn't let out yet, and it was almost time for dinner.

Shh , I know, I know He dug through his pockets, trying to see if he had any candies to tide him over. He blinked as his fingers brushed across something metallic. Momo smirked, pulling his hand out of his pocket. Momo tugged a keyring out of his pocket. Ryoma kept a steady look at him. Why didn't he remember? Momo had always prided himself on his amazing memory, along with his dashing good looks and godly strength.

If his memory started to go Momo pushed that gruesome thought out of his mind as quickly as possible, not being able to bear the thought of denying the world of the glory that was him. It wasn't like Ryoma was talking his ear off so he couldn't think Whacking his head with a broom.

Every so often tilting his head up to glare at him with those gold eyes He began to pull off the keys one by one. He'd linked it onto his own keyring so he wouldn't lose it, but was beginning to regret the decision. Momo sifted through the keys, dropping the latter key to the floor. Ryoma picked it up; glaring at it and wondering why it seemed so captivating.

Key to the book of doom, key to another realm, keyhole, key-lime pie, keyboard, keystone, key-code, malarkey, turkey, Don Quixote A small black mouse hopped from the keyring and marched through a hole in the wall, singing the Mickey Mouse Club theme. Momo bobbed his head with the music and shrugged.

In the tennis courts of Seigaku, during practice. Eiji sambaed into sight, wearing an oversized foam sombrero and shaking maracas in rhythm with his hips. Oishi followed closely behind, strumming a guitar. Fuji turned a page in his binder. Tennis practice is now. Tennis is being now.

I am on fire. I will obtain the water. Why did you throw them out the window last night? Ryoma appeared with a large and sharp stick. Momo took the stick from Ryoma and lifted him over his shoulder. I shall splash it on the captain. The preceding short was in no way affiliated with the main story, Prince of Tennis, or anything in general, really. Ryoma moaned softly, a shooting pain going through his entire body. As if carrying from far away, he could hear the low thick murmur of Momo's voice echoing in his ears. Another sting of pain rattled through his nerves, and Ryoma winced.

He knew he shouldn't have started smacking his head so hard when Momo started blathering about his preschool years. Ryoma's eyelashes fluttered open, only to reveal Momo's face inches away from his. Momo laughed noisily, ruffling Ryoma's black mess of hair. Ryoma rubbed his aching forehead, in no real mood for Momo's constant joking. Momo's eyes, usually filled with bright joking laugher, were uncharacteristically serious. Ryoma tried to back away, but found that he was already against the wall. Charlie the Chimps Day Out. Freckles and the Less Fortunate.

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