Sunday morning walk

This morning Aaron, my mom, and I took the girls for their first walk in their baby carriers. I had Lily in the Moby and Aaron had Penny in the Baby Bjorn. It felt *really* good to get out of the house for some fresh air and sunshine.

A little pampering

After 3 weeks of hard work, my mom and I took one of the windows of time between feedings this morning for a mani/pedi. Aaron stayed with the girls - we arrived home to napping twins, a made bed, a showered dad, and a dishwasher loaded and running. Success!!

We're not gonna wake them!

At our 3 week doctor appointment this morning our pediatrician said the magic words. The words we've been waiting to hear since day one. We no longer have to wake them up at night to feed them on schedule! We get to let them sleep and tell us when they are hungry! We are still on a no-more-than-3-hours-between-feedings-schedule during the day, but at night we get to sleep as long as the babies will let us. No news has ever been sweeter.

Babies' first boat race

Lily and Penny are very competitive little girls. Lily was born first. Penny latches on better. Today, they opened a new chapter in their series of outdoing one another. They had their first boat race!

Penny celebrated by turning the bottle up over her head after she finished. :)

Handmade with love

Some photos of our girls wearing the sleep saks made by Nana (my mom) on a blanket made by Bubbe (Aaron's mom). Enjoy!

Sleep deprivation

The adrenaline is starting to wear off and I'm officially succumbing to the sleep deprivation that comes with being a new mom. Before the babies arrived, I was worried that I would become snippy and unpleasant. And while I have my moments, I think I'm still generally holding up okay. We even get a few laughs out of it.

For the night feedings my mom and Aaron trade off being my second set of hands. The last several nights they have had to work pretty hard to wake me up to feed the girls. Before I'm officially awake, I've been saying some pretty random things. Like asking Aaron to please go get Aaron, asking if he thinks Penny and Lily could swing by sometime, insisting that my mom bring me a washcloth but when it arrives (and I am more awake) having no idea why I asked for it.

And yesterday I had my first daytime complete brain fart. I put two nursing pads on the right side, but none on the left. The lactation specialist, Aaron, and I got a good laugh out of it at my appointment.

Time to put more focus on getting some additional zzzzzz's.

Image by Graeme Weatherston / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Happy Valentine's Day

More than double the love in our house this year!

1 week doctor visit

Aaron, the girls, and I got out of the house for the first time today for a doctor visit. We planned poorly and were rushed to get out in time, but we reminded ourselves not to panic as we were certain we are not the only new parents to be late to their first appointment. Luckily the doctor's office is literally only a 5 min drive away.

The main thing the doctor looks for at the 1 week visit is weight gain. We were pretty certain that both babies have been gaining since with Lily we can see it in her chubbier-by-the-day cheeks and Penny is a champion guzzler at feedings (frat boys could take lessons from her).

Turns out we were right - compared with their weight on Tuesday, Lily is up 2 1/4 oz (weighing in today at 5lb 4.25oz) and Penny is up a full 5 oz (today's weight: 6lb 1oz)! The doctor wants to see them back at their birth weight by the time they are 3 weeks old. They only have 5 more ounces to go and 2 whole weeks to pack that on. They are doing awesome!

Heading Home!

Just 4 days after their birth, our little '36 weekers' are good to go home! We figured that would be the case since they didn't need any NICU care at all, but our pediatrician wrote their discharge papers last night. I could have gone home yesterday, but wanted to take advantage of one final night of nursing help and a lactation consult this morning (they have been coming daily) so we asked my OB to write my discharge papers for today rather than yesterday. Apart from the whole 'surgery recovery' bit, our hospital stay was amazing! Every single nurse we had offered a ton of help, advice, and information. Several nurses confessed that they had fallen for our sweet girls which resulted in some extra attention and lots of hospital free-bees. Score! Enjoy the photos from our hospital stay.

Happy Birthday, baby girls!

Final dinner as DINKs

This evening our special occasion red plate took a field trip to the hospital so Aaron and I could celebrate our last dinner together as DINKs - Dual Income No Kids. We ordered in Thai food from a place just up the street and learned that ironically the owners of the restaurant had a baby here earlier today!

Just a few more hours until our lives officially change forever. We are so excited to meet the baby girls and spent most of dinner speculating what features each baby will have when born. Will they have hair? Will they have long fingers and toes? Will their cheeks be chubby? How soon before we see their personalities distinguish themselves from each other?

Hospital Bed Rest - Day #6

If you don't count Thursday evening when I checked into the hospital, this morning is the beginning of day #6 of hospital bed rest. It has been a very easy stay so far. I'm comforted by the monitoring (of the babies and of me), I have enjoyed visitors each day, and the nurses are pretty much awesome.

The main thing that is keeping me here is my low platelet count. Everything else is still right where it should be - the babies heartbeats, my blood pressure, contractions, etc. This has the twins specialist using the word "boring" in reference to my situation - he sees all kinds of crazy cases including the woman next door who has been here for 1 month already and is anticipating being here for 2 more (Aaron has made friends with her husband).

My OB is still talking about this Saturday for a delivery date, though nothing is officially on the books. Possibly just a few more days!!