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7 weeks today! It's so hard to believe, but then I look at my beautiful girls and I see that they are filling out the pj's that they were swimming in, and they're so much more engaged with us. It's thrilling. I went away for 2 minutes this morning and came back to the bed and when Tilly saw me, she lit up with huge smiles. Man, that felt fantastic, I don't have the words to describe it. But again, you all know what that feels like.
We went to the health clinic yesterday for a weigh-in and a breast feeding group meeting. Mathilde weighs 9lbs 14 oz, and Alexis is 9lbs 4 oz. For those keeping track, that's 1lb in two weeks. Yikes! We're very pleased with their progress, since breast feeding is one of those things where it's really hard to know for sure how much they're taking. Okay, I know you're supposed to do diaper counts, but when you've got twins, honestly the only way I know if I've changed someone is to do the smell test.
The breast feeding meeting we sort of walked in on. We finished our weigh-in and I needed to calm cranky babies and the best way to do that is to let them suckle a bit (or it seems that way to me anyway). So I plopped down in a rocker and plugged in the girls and introduced myself much to the amazement of the other ladies who had until moments before, been focusing on the finer art of latching on one single baby. I think my visit served to encourage some ladies who might have been thinking that nursing was too hard. It certainly reaffirmed for me what a good and important job I've been doing. Okay, enough pats on the back for me.
We got out for another walk with the girls and River. It's been either really cold here or really snowy, but we managed to find a window of opportunity the other day. We also made it out to a different mall this week to buy a book at the English book store. We picked up What to Expect; the First Year. This book has been well worth the trip and the cost and I'm sure will continue to prove its worth over the course of the next year. The girls slept through the entire outing and even afforded us the opportunity to have some wonderful Thai Food (which we all paid for later!)
Speaking of sleeping....6 straight hours last night! Then as if that wasn't good enough, we did our feeding for 45 minutes and then went back to sleep for 4 more hours! Is this too good to be true? I sure hope not! We're still co-sleeping and it's workout out for us for now. The girls really love it and it seems like the most natural thing in the world. Oh, we are fully aware of the pitfalls involved (getting them into a crib later on, intimacy, risk for SIDS and so on), but right now our sanity is in check and with sleep, we're better able to get on with the business of raising our two daughters.
And with that said, I've got two wide awake girls and one who needs to be fed, so I'm off to enjoy our babies. Dad is off to get provisions so wish me luck! One more week of two parents and then I'm on my own. Anybody have any vacation time coming up? It's Carnival...
Bye all, have a lovely weekend.
January 21st 2009. Happy Birthday, Dad! Well, it is Wednesday and traditionally this is the day that I update the blog. I may change that to Friday, since that is the day of the week that the girls were born and so makes a bit more sense. But since my Mom made a special request for an update, we got some video and sat down to do just that. What's new? Well, we gave Alexis her first diaper rash the other day. There's a good way to make yourself feel like a real heel. I might have felt better if I had cut her finger with the nail clippers (which I am sure to do any day now.) We decided to let the girls go for six hours overnight without changing their diapers. This was neither a wise, nor a humane decision as it turns out. Live and learn I suppose; I'm just sorry that our parenting experiments result in real discomfort for our children. She's fine, by the way, it's nearly healed and she didn't seem to suffer any pain for it. I have suffered enough for both of us. Enough about that.
While I stole away to the washroom last night, one of my daughters smiled at her dad. Alexis, while in the arms of her handsome father decided to charm him with a smile. And it worked! But by the time I came racing from the washroom to witness it, she had moved on to another more common expression; consternation. I am happy for Ivan, that he got to be the recipient of the first legitimate smile. I did get one from our Mathilde this morning when I came back from getting juice, and to top it off, Lexi also expressed her happiness at my arrival by flashing me a big toothless grin! Ah, how satisfying and sweet! So now that we know they are capable of it, we spend a good deal of our time acting like idiots for them in an attempt to coax more of these delectable smiles. These are the rewards of parenting I think.
NOTE: Tilly just filled her diaper and was crying about it. Ivan walked in the room and so I deviously handed her off thinking that I was getting away with something. The second she hit his arms she flashed him a smile. The joke's on him though, he's got a diaper FULL of poop to contend with!
The girls have been sleeping really well (I think). They seem to have settled into feeding every 3 hrs during the day and then every 4 at night. This is very manageable. I should point out though that we are co-sleeping; something that we were not going to do. It doesn't help that our cribs are condemned; the unfortunate result of a massive recall by Storkcraft. I think we'll have our work cut out for us down the road, but for now, we're all getting sleep.
That's it from us for now. It feels like the girls are changing every day. We'll keep everyone posted while we mark the passing of each precious day. Thanks for reading!
I know, it's not a video! I'll upload one as soon as we get one and when time allows. I love this shot of Mathilde though. It sort of sums up what they think of the world currently. "That's nice, but where is my food?" or perhaps, "My diaper is very wet, what's taking you so long?"
What I love most about the picture though is her rosebud lips. They both have this exact look and I love it!
So the girls visited the pediatrician this week. Dr Tremblay. He seemed a nice fellow and appeared to be really into his occupation. He told us that the french name for those smiles that new borns give you when they are sleeping are called "Angel Smiles". Ivan and I both enjoyed that very much. Although the girls aren't quite smiling spontaneously yet, you can tell that they are on the verge. They are holding our gaze much longer now and just starting to interact with us in little ways. Mostly though, they're still in the eating, pooping and sleeping stage, which is fine with me because they are little and helpless and totally adorable.
On the subject of little... Mathilde now weighs in at 8lbs 15oz. I won't say 9lbs just because that was with her diaper on and it was in its usual state of "full". Alexis is the slighter at 8lbs 5 oz. They are 1cm apart in length. Tilly again, just ahead of Lexi. As usual, the Dr marveld at how large our girls are. It is sort of funny to dress them in the mornings. Inevitably we'll pull an outfit out of the drawer in the morning and it's too small. Usually we can use Tilly as a gauge. If it's just too small for her, we have a day or two on Lexi before it has to go into the "return to Tanya" pile. Right now our Tilly has on a tight pink leisure suit which will be worn next by Lexi and then sadly be out of the rotation. It really does look funny on her though. (I'll try to get video of her in it today).
The girls are starting to hold their heads up for much longer periods now and staying awake longer too. They eat really well (I'm still nursing much to the shock of a few moms in the waiting room at the clinic. It can be done!) It all happens so fast!. We took them out to my eye appointment yesterday morning and in the afternoon we went to the mall to run some errands. They just sleep right through it. It's quite the experience going out though. Every grandmother within 3 miles can sense twins and come running! Ivan was constantly flocked by little old grey haired ladies who were beside themselves with "little angels!" and other french terms of endearment. It was actually pretty fun. We're going out again on Thursday!
Ivan is off now until Feb 6th. And I need him! We're planning on getting in some fun activities with the girls now that we're better at going out. Stay tuned! Take care.
Back to "Normal" it is indeed! I saw my Dr today and physically I'm back in good shape (well, that's relative!) I can go for walks, have a bath (thanks Ivan) and all I have to do is keep up my iron supplements. I can do that. The girls came with us for our second trial outing this morning. Last Sunday we went to our friends place for an hour to practice getting out of the house and visiting with babies. They slept through the entire experience, of course. Today they mostly slept, but Mathilde woke up for a bit of a feed and visit with Dr Carrier. I had my first public breast feeding experience, which didn't go too poorly. Nobody put a hex on me or anything!
As the video points out, we attempted to go for our first family walk today. We got the girls fed, changed, dressed and packed in their Gucci stroller and River put his favorite winter scarf on. We all got outside and were ready to proceed when the realization hit that we were locked out! So after a door was sacrificed we all piled back in the house (River no wiser for the fact that he had NO walk), and the girls no wiser for the fact that we had stranded them outside in the cold for several, shall we say tense, minutes. So there will be no more walking today...
We had a lovely visit with my Dad and Mary. They left for Florida on Saturday and made it there safely. We miss having all the Grandparents around us; all of the help was tremendous. Thank you, David & Jeanette, Dad and Mary for everything. We are flying solo for now and making it work, but if anyone is heading back this way.....LOL!
The girls will have their first appointment with their pediatrician on Monday. We're well rehearsed, so the execution should go smoothly. I cannot guarantee that nobody will get pooped on though. What is it with these babies? Seriously, and you would think that we would learn. Take the diaper off and there WILL be pee or whatever and it WILL get some place you don't want it to go. And why is it that your baby's pee (or whatever) is somehow exempt from being disgusting? It is often a thing to be celebrated! Ivan and I are always exclaiming about how amazing our latest diapering experience was. Why is that? Funny things happen when you become a parent. I guess most of you already knew that.
Well, enjoy the upcoming weekend. Tomorrow night is pizza & movie night. The girls enjoy a nice nap on Mom and Dad and we enjoy our Friday night ritual. Maybe we'll pack the girls in their baby Bjorn's on the weekend and sneak in a Museum or something. That is if I can get the Lightwood clan out of bed before 1100am. Yeah, I'm serious. You can wish me evil later, for now I'm getting sleep!
This Week was almost as bad as last week! My Dad and Mary arrived on Boxing Day just in time to take over so that I could be rushed to the hospital by ambulance yet again for bleeding. This time I opted for a blood transfusion to bring up my hemoglobin and was sent for another ultrasound to see what was going on inside. The images looked just like they did the week before! Everything had returned to the same state as before the last surgery. So dubiously, I was lined up for yet another D&C to clean out my infected and still stretched out uterus.
Once the surgery was completed, the girls and Ivan joined me in the hospital for two nights so that I could continue breast feeding. For this I am so grateful to the staff at Centre Mere et Enfant. I would have almost certainly lost my milk but for their common sense. Not to mention the fact that the very best medicine for any new mother is the presence of her newborn child(ren).
On the positive side, the girls continue to thrive. They have exceeded their birth weights and are starting to fit into regular sized clothes. Bye the way Tanya, the Children's Place sleepers turned out to be the best, just like you said. Their alert periods are getting longer, and they are starting to interact just a bit with their world. So far they like milk cartons and cell phones!
Let's hope that next week, or this New Year prove to be more stable for them. Though something tells me, Ivan and I will look back at our hospital campout times with a fondness, since it really was about family and togetherness during that time. And of course the lessons that were learned during that time are priceless. Happy New Year everyone.
