Sunday, July 19, 2009

The first week with our girls.

We can’t believe it’s been over a week since our daughters were born! Time flies when you are having fun!! They even have nicknames now – Baby A or A in the previous blog is Birdie. She got nicknamed that because when she is rooting for food her head turns to the side and she looks like a baby bird begging her mom for a worm. SO CUTE! Baby B or R in the previous blog is Turtle. She is very aware of her surroundings – she has BIG newborn blue eyes and her eyebrows raise while her forehead wrinkles making her look like a cartoon turtle. Equally as ADORABLE! We can’t remember life without our babies! But although it’s only been just over a week we’ve learned so much already and thought we’d share our top 10 list of what we’ve learned.

10. Projectile poop really does exist – just ask M.
9. You shouldn’t choose the bottle type/brand for your baby ahead of time. We bought a bunch of Avent bottles for the girls and only Birdie will drink from them. Turtle does not like the nipples and will not take milk from that bottle no matter what. Thanks to a friend mentioning the Nuby bottle to us months ago, we finally found one that Turtle likes and will feed from.
8. Don’t bother making a plan. We had it all set in our minds that J would breastfeed both babies at once (or at least work up to that). We bought the double breast feeding pillow which is still in its bag. Birdie will NOT breastfeed no matter what we do. We had multiple consultants and nurses at the hospital trying to help but to no avail. Turtle breastfeeds like a CHAMP! Since both girls have Jaundice (which stemmed from them bring premature – although full term for twins and the fact that their blood type is different than J’s) we’ve had to supplement their breast milk with formula as the formula is thicker and will help them pee/poop more. The more they pee and poop the faster the bilirubin will leave their body. So our feedings go like this: Turtle breastfeeds for a bit, M feeds Birdie breast milk from a bottle, Turtle has breast milk from a bottle, Birdie is changed, Turtle is changed, Birdie is given formula from a bottle, Turtle is given formula from a bottle then J pumps for the next feeding. We’ve slowly gotten this down to 1 ½ hour cycles which gives us 1 ½ hours in between feedings to do what we have to do whether it be sleep, laundry, clean the house, wash bottles, do laundry, play with the girls, make food for ourselves, go to the park… etc.
7. Birdie is a faster eater than Turtle.
6. Both babies love so sit in their Boppys and sleep, look out the window, or just hang out.
5. Putting both babies in the same crib has worked out great and they are so cute to watch from our monitors as they sleep.
4. A baby can sleep with her arm straight in the air.
3. We are surprised at how “easy” it is to take care of our girls. Yes, we are sleep deprived but all in all, they never cry unless they are hungry or have a poopy diaper. Our house has remained remarkably clean and we’ve been able to shower almost every day. We are also surprised at how easy it is to go out to dinner with newborns – feed them, change them and then they will sleep while you eat.
2. We were surprised at how quickly their nails grow!
1. How quick it was for both of us to fall completely in love with our daughters. We have always been told that there is nothing like being a parent but we never really understood the reality of this until our girls arrived. Words can not explain the feeling we have towards them. “Loving them” is not a strong enough descriptive. It is an unbelievable feeling which has also brought us even closer together if that was even possible.

The girls are amazing! We just stare at them, kiss them, cuddle them and love them all day long! J is healing nicely from the c section but is frustrated that she is not allowed to pick up anything heavier than 1 baby for 5 more weeks. M has been doing all the heavy lifting including carrying 2 baby filled carseats at once. M is going to mostly work from home for the next 5 weeks with an occasional trip to the office (which is 5 miles away) but that means J is housebond while she is gone. We are surprised at how quickly her enormous belly is going down. J weighed herself 1 week after the c section and she was 30lbs lighter! Only 15lbs to go to get back to her pre pregnancy weight! Look at the difference here! CRAZY!




Other things about the girls…
· The girls seem to change a little every day. Birdie’s face is filling out and they are looking more and more like each other.
· We’ve caught Birdie with her thumb in her mouth a few times and she is the only one who will take a pacifier. Neither the pacifier nor the thumb we are very fond of.
· Birdie has also “held” the bottle a couple of times! We know she isn’t intending too, but it is cute how interactive she is during feedings.
· Turtle loves to gaze up at J while she is breastfeeding. It is an amazing bonding experience that they share.
· Turtle LOVES music, especially Classical (and also a little Pink and Black Eyed Peas when we feel like getting a little saucy). Her eyes get really big and she perks up. Her arms move around slowly as if she is conducting the orchestra. It is absolutely adorable.
· Turtle doesn’t love her sponge baths but Birdie will just lay there and enjoy it.
· They both fall asleep in the car and the stroller.
· Turtle smiles a lot – we know it isn’t a REAL smile yet but we can tell she is going to have one beautiful smile once she can! She has 1 dimple on her right cheek. They both have little dimples by the top of their upper lip when they feed. It is so cute!
· They are both very photogenic which we only know because M takes about 1000 pictures of them a day. Over the span of a 1 minute “photoshoot,” the babies expressions will change a hundred times.
· Twins get a LOT of attention when we go out. A LOT.
· Our entire family could not love these girls anymore than they already do!

We are going to get ready to head to the park and sprawl out along the lake now. Too beautiful a day to stay cooped up inside.

Here are a few pictures of our little angels. Enjoy!


Bedtime for the Babies!


Chillin' in their Boppys


Milk drunk


Stop crying Birdie! You're hurting my ears!


ALL CLEAN!


Sisters

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Our girls are finally here!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our twins were welcomed to the world Friday morning!!

A (ironically also Baby A) was born at 9:56am at 7lbs 5oz and 19 3/4 inches
R was born at 9:57am at 7lbs 2oz and 19 1/2 inches

They are not tiny girls!! Now I see why J couldn't move for the past month! LOL.

Now, we may be biased just a little bit, but we can't help but think they are absolutely perfect. We know it's only been 36 hours, but we can already see cute little personality traits coming out. We couldn't be more in love with them. We just sit and stare at them all day long! The babies are doing really well, they have a touch of jaundice which we are hoping doesn't require them to spend the day under the special light, but all in all they are perfectly healthy! The nurse actually just reported that the billi.rubin numbers are stabalizing - guess putting them near the windows today helped! J is doing great with her recovery from the c-section and the two of us could not be happier! There truly aren't words to describe what we are feeling. We know what a blessing (or two) has been given to us!

Here is a picture of our sweat peas ... plenty more to come!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Tomorrow is D-Day or should we say C-Day?!

Well, we are finally all set for tomorrow. Everything has been done and our bags are packed and at the door. Our c-section is scheduled for 10a and we have to be at the hospital at 8a. We hope we sleep tonight, but are not too hopeful. Both of us are just so excited at the thought of meeting our daughters tomorrow!

We'll post updates and pictures as soon as we can! Thank you everyone for all of your support along the way - it's been a long road, but we've finally reached our goal!!!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

We Graduated... AGAIN!

Yesterday we had our last visit with our specialist. Our dr finished the appt with "You've Graduated! Good Luck on Friday!" YAY! This appt was the same as last Mondays - heart monitors on the babies and J's uterus for 20 minutes (which they behaved VERY WELL for this time!) and then an ultrasound to check positioning, amniotic fluid, etc. Our dr did tell us to make sure that the hospital did an ultrasound before J goes into the operating room to recheck the positioning of the girls. Apparently, the way Baby A is laying now, transverse (sideways) along the bottom of J's belly and face down, is perfect for a normal cutting of the uterus - from left to right. If she flips and is back down/face up on Friday, they will have to cut J's uterus vertically because they cannot grab the back of a baby to pull it out apparently. Our dr said we don't want them finding out the baby is back down after already being cut open as then they will have to make yet another incision either making the uterus cut like a J or like an upside down T to get baby A out. If this happens, the uterus will be a lot weaker in the long run and more susceptible to bleeding as it is healing. So yet one more thing to remember on what we’re sure will be a crazy Friday morning.

We have 2 more appointments this week. Our final ob visit is tomorrow followed by our pre-surgery testing at the hospital. We can’t believe this is finally it! 3 more days! J is sure she is going to go into labor before Friday – “JUST BECAUSE” we are so close to our scheduled c-section. ;)

The past week has been pretty uneventful. J has still not had a single Braxton Hicks or contraction which we can’t believe. Besides the weight of her belly and the general discomfort of being 37w 5d pregnant with twins, things are status quo. The only new symptom J has had the past few weeks is knuckle pain in her hands. She says it feels like major arthritis and she can’t make a fist at all and is in pain when she has to use/bend her fingers. Great timing eh? ;) We hope the water fluid retention goes away pretty quickly after the girls are delivered and her hands go back to normal (and normal size). Everything seems to swell quicker these days. J is still working which is fabulous and plans to work up until Thursday. Why not?! She works from home and with the comforts of her blackberry and our bed (and her ma.c next to the bed) it makes working “easy”!

J had completely grown out of all her maternity clothes about a week or so ago. We are making due with things she can fit in as she doesn’t go anywhere except to dr appts where she can easily just wear sweatpants to. We found all her running shorts with elastic bands still fit her as she really has only gained weight in her belly. Here is a funny comparison of J in her running shorts before TTC and a picture of her last week (same shorts).



Here is another shot of J’s belly this morning – does that look like 15 inches to you?



It is going to be so weird with J NOT having this belly. We almost forget what it is like because she started showing so early on – 15 or so weeks! Needless to say, J is ready to retire this heavy new addition and let M carry half the load from now on – on the outside of course!

We’d say we are generally ready for the girls – really have been for several weeks now – JUST IN CASE. The only outstanding “issue” to resolve is whether or not we want J’s mom to stay with us for a week after the babies arrive. She is more than willing to stay but said it is up to us. We keep going back and forth. We currently have a 2 bedroom place, while a large 2 bedroom place, this still means J’s mom will have to sleep on the couch. This isn’t a problem for her at all but will it just add confusion to the crazy week we will have or will it be helpful for her to be here? She can’t help with feeding as J is going to breastfeed so we guess diaper changes, burping, laundry, cooking? Would it be easier for us to just find our routine on our own at first? We KNOW we will be beyond exhausted and walking around in a daze (and of course, J will be healing from her c section) but would it be easier without another person thrown into the mix? J is leaning more towards thinking her mom does not need to stay (probably delusional thoughts?) and M is leaning more towards wanting J’s mom to stay. Any suggestions out there?

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Fully cooked! Are we talking 4th of July burgers or babies?

On Thursday, we got our weekly pregnancy email from Ba.bycenter.com. This is what it said:


Does that really say "Congratulations - your baby is full term?!?!" Then why the heck is our dr waiting until 38 weeks (38 weeks and 1 day to be exact) to pluck the little ones out?

Arghhh! 6 more days... 6 more days.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful 4th of July! YAY for barbeques!