all in a day

Whew. So sorry it's been so long since I've updated, but I barely have any free moments at all! I knew we were going to be busy and sleep deprived, but I guess I really didn't know to what degree until I was in the midst of it.

Anyway, I thought I'd post a "typical" day of taking care of my newborn twin girls. I know this time won't last very long in the grand scheme of things, so I want to make sure I have a record of it.

It's hard to know where to start the day, since there's not really a beginning or end. I'll start at the 7:45 am feeding yesterday morning, which was the first day without Ian here. He had to go back to work today, poor guy, and we sure missed him!

7:45 am- 8:30- Wake the babies. It takes about 10-15 minutes to wake them up. They are always very sleepy at first. Check their diapers. Feed babies. Nurse each for 10 minutes (try to do so simultaneously). The pediatrician said to not let them nurse much more than 10 minutes at this point, because they're little and it tuckers them out quickly. After they nurse, we feed them some pumped breast milk. Check diapers again, and swaddle them up. Sometimes they're very tired right afterwards, and sometimes it can take up to 1/2 hour to get them to sleep after we finish swaddling them.

8:45am- 9:15- Pump. I have to pump after every feeding to let my body know that I have to produce enough milk for two babies. Since they aren't nursing at full capacity yet, this is important. I pump from anywhere to 15-30 mins.

9:15am- Take a nap. Mom kindly watches the babies while they sleep in the bassinet in the living room, while I sleep for an hour.

10:15 am- repeat the wake/check diaper/nurse/feed/check diaper/swaddle from above.

11:15 am- Pump.

11:45am- 1:15- Make/eat breakfast. Shower. (ahhhh...shower....) Rest for a while. Do some tidying and dishes.

1:15 pm- wake/diaper/nurse/feed/diaper/swaddle. This feeding didn't go that well. Poppy wouldn't latch, and just cried and fussed the whole time I tried to get her to do so. Very sad. :(

2:15-2:45pm- Pump. Eat lunch during this pump session.

2:45-3:45- Called my friend Kristin in lieu of taking another nap. Was nice to catch up as we hadn't really spoken since I was in the hospital. I gave her the lowdown on my recovery and my sweet babies, and heard all about her baby as well.

3:45- 4:30- wake/diaper/nurse/feed/diaper/swaddle. Huzzah! They both latched. Exciting, but not sure what was different this time.

4:30-5:00- Pump.

5:00-6:15- Nap. Ah, glorious nap. Hadn't taken one since early this morning so it was much need and felt good. Until the alarm went off.

6:30- Ian is home! Back from his first day back at work. We all missed him and you can tell he missed his girls. He helps with this session of wake/diaper/nurse/feed/diaper/swaddle. Poppy doesn't latch again. It's becoming a trend, and not a good one. She gets very upset and cries and cries, because she's TRYING to latch, but can't figure it out for some reason. She sometimes can even latch, but then can't figure out she has to suck. Poor sweet baby. :(

7:30- Dinner. Watch an episode of Breaking Bad. Makes us feel a bit like we have more of a life than breastfeeding, pumping, diapers, and onesies. :)

9:00- 10:00pm- Final feeding before we switch to waking them every 3 hours. Poppy is having trouble with the breastfeeding again; so is Amelie. I decide to call a lactation consultant tomorrow, because I really want them to be able to breastfeed successfully.

10:00-10:30- Pump.

10:45-1:00 am- try to get some sleep.

1:00-1:40am- Feeding. Still not much luck with the latching for Poppy. Poor sweet girl; she gets so frustrated that it isn't working for her. I did this feeding with my mom so as to let Ian get an extra couple hours of solid sleep.

2:00-2:30am- Pump.

2:30-4:00am- try to sleep. Girls are fussy so I have to keep rocking them. Didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked; maybe 45 minutes or an hour. The girls wake up at 4am, even though our next feeding was going to be at 4:40. Guess their tummies didn't get the memo.

4:00-4:40- Feed, change, etc.

4:45- 5:15am- Pump.

5:30 -7:15 am- try to sleep. More successful this time. Wake up with Ian's alarm thinking we need to feed them right then, but then realize I have until 7:40. Try to close my eyes for a few more minutes.

7:45-8:30 am- Feed, change, swaddle, put them to sleep.... And it starts all over again......

I know that my days will not be like this for long in the grand scheme of things, and I'm trying to live in the moment and enjoy them at this size/age/stage in their little lives. We're exhausted, and it's pretty difficult, but I'm so happy to have my two little girls in my life now. They're the sweetest girls ever, and I feel like we just couldn't be luckier; even if we never sleep. :)

Well, some of us do, as you can see....

~M

one week

Happy one week birthday, Amelie and Poppy. You have made me and your dad happier than I ever could have imagined. I can't wait to see what lies ahead in the coming years; I have a feeling it's going to be pretty darn amazing.

~M

baby daze

I'm really trying to keep my blog updated and keep you all in the loop; but boy, do I not have much time anymore these days! I mean, duh, that was to be expected; but I guess I didn't FULLY realize how much time it would all take until I was in it.

Today was our first full day back home, and last night was our first night with the babies all night. I won't lie; it wasn't an easy one. Poppy seemed to be having some tummy issues, so she woke up quite a bit and really just couldn't sleep for much longer than an hour at a time. We just pretty much didn't sleep at all last night. We said to each other many times; "This is hard- really hard."

Don't get me wrong- I am IN LOVE with my girls; I just can't believe how much I love them. But your sanity starts to slip away when the sleep goes; and we're only on the first day! I never thought I'd miss the hospital, but I kind of did last night. Even though it broke my heart every night to take them to the nursery and have other people take care of them during the night; the sleep was so needed.

However, my mom is just a lifesaver. During the day today, after we feed them and put them down to sleep in their bassinet, my mom watches them while they sleep, and let us sleep a couple of hours or so. It helped us a lot today to feel a little more human. We are very lucky to have her here for the next week and a half or so!

We also went to the pediatrician today for their first weight check. They've lost a bit of weight which is totally normal, but we found out we haven't been feeding them quite enough. Our feeding routine has been letting them try to breastfeed for 10 minutes or so (we have successfully fed both at the same time; sort of), then we feed them a mixture of colostrum that I've pumped and formula. My milk hasn't come in yet (it is sometimes delayed when you have a c-section), so we have to supplement for a while. I'm ok with it, because I am still getting them my colostrum which is FULL of really good stuff that the babies need. And once the milk comes in, I'm hoping to pretty much exclusively feed them that way as long as I can. ANYway, we found out we weren't feeding them quite enough formula; and now that we've upped it, they're sleeping much longer stretches. So let's hope tonight goes a lot better! Cross your fingers.

And now, a few more cute pictures of my sweet girls.

The girls in their hospital bassinet:

Poppy's coming home outfit (size Newborn- still kinda swimming in it):

Amelie's coming home outfit:

In the stroller, getting ready to leave the hospital:

Amelie doing some yoga:

Poppy and dad on Father's day:

~M
P.S. Poppy and Amelie told me they would super appreciate it if you'd vote for them on Top Baby Blogs!

to tide you over

Today was our last day in the hospital and tonight is my last night. We are checking out tomorrow morning/early afternoon, and I'm so excited! Our days have pretty much been full of feeding, pumping, changing, eating and then repeating. We haven't yet been able to achieve (nor have we really tried) feeding them both at the same time, so each feeding takes 30 minutes or so. Then we switch to the next baby while someone changes the first one. Then they usually nap. Then, we repeat it about 60-90 minutes later.

So, needless to say, I don't have a huge long blog post for you. What I DO have, is some ridiculously cute photos to tide you over in the meanwhile. I have a plan to write down the birth story and the story of the hospital (probably in 2-3parts) in the next day or so, mostly so I don't forget anything. So, I'll be sharing that shortly.

But for now, you can just look at cute babies. :)

~M

introducing

Born- June 15th, 1:53pm, weighing 5 pounds, 11 ounces and 18.3 inches long, Miss Poppy Lorelai:



Born- June 15th, 1:54 pm, weighing 5 pounds,3 ounces and 18.5 inches long, Miss Amelie Violet:



Sorry for the short post and camera phone pics, but things have been stressful here! More to come very soon! We sure love our girls to pieces!

~M

today

Well, here I lay in the hospital! My water broke at 6:15am and I've been admitted. Not much else to say right now- just waiting for the doctor to decide what's next. I'm not contracting yet, so will most likely need some help in that department. I never thought my body would start things on its own- seems as though I was wrong!

So many feelings; excited, nervous, scared, thrilled! Of course our bag wasn't packed (I know- what was I thinking?) so we scrambled to do that before we left.

Anyway- here we are- just waiting! I'll update when I know more or when we have pics of baby girls! :)

me and you (and soon, plus two)

So, Ian and I have come to the shocking realization, that no matter what we decide about delivery; in no more than 2 1/2 weeks we will have two babies living with us.

I know, right?? This hits us a little harder every day. Not in a bad way; just in a "WHOA...crazy!" way. The biggest change we've faced in our lives thus far is less than 3 weeks away. Bigger than moving in together, bigger than getting married, bigger than moving all the way across the country. Maybe the biggest we'll ever face.

We both have some anxieties about it all, but I won't focus on that today. Today I want to talk about my best friend and husband; Ian.

It seems so crazy that these are our last few days together, just the two of us. Sometimes I get really sad about this; not because I'm not thrilled to be having these girls- of course I am!- but just because I'll miss the "just us" feeling.

I wish I wasn't so insanely uncomfortable and pretty much couch ridden so that we could do more fun things our last few weeks. See a movie or a show, or have dinner and wander around town. Alas, this probably won't happen, as these days it is an effort to walk (or, actually sort of waddle) across the apartment. :(

Ian is my best friend, the funniest, most considerate, sweetest guy I know, and I feel so lucky to have him as my husband. I will miss the "just us" time for sure; but I know that our marriage is one of our top priorities, and that we're both going to make a big effort to make sure we make time for each other whenever we can. We also will make sure we keep the lines of communication open, which I think is crucial. I know it will be really hard; I'm not naive about that. I just know it's a big priority of ours.

He is going to be the best dad. Seriously. He'll be fun, stern when he needs to, silly, supportive, loving and always there for them. I can't wait to see him do his dad thing. I know he's going to rock it.

So, even though our days are numbered as "just the two of us"; I am so looking forward to a new chapter when we're a family of four. Because I think it's going to be pretty frickin' awesome.

~M

P.S. Got a second? Click the box below to vote for us! We're still on the first page of Top Baby Blogs after they reset the numbers, but we're dangerously close to the second page (not that that's a bad thing; but it feels pretty cool to be on the first page.) Just two clicks and you're all done!