Hey! Elsie and Delia are one! We had a crazy morning running around doing annoying errands and a peaceful afternoon with long naps, presents, playing outside, and dinner/cake (well, muffins). I can't believe its been a year! Here are a few photos of our year. More coming soon!
Two Weeks Old:
Three Months:
Five Months:
Six and a half months:
Nine Months:
Eleven and a half months:
Happy Birthday Elsie Olivia!
Happy Birthday Delia Grace!
The day before the babies were born:
Oh, the hugeness! So glad to have them on the outside now!
Since I never posted this here last year, I thought I would now, on the eve of their birthday. Warning! This is really long, boring and gross if you are not into this kind of thing! But, when I was pregnant with twins I really loved reading twin birth stories (especially ones that were not c-sections) so here it is:
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We had worries that this story might begin in mid April, when, at 32 weeks and some change (three days after we had moved to a new house!) I started getting contractions that landed me in the hospital for a few days, then home on meds and bedrest for several more weeks. After that, however, nothing happened! We somehow ended up at 38 weeks, despite on and off contractions for weeks, negotiating an induction date. It was Memorial Day Weekend, and the doc wanted to induce Thursday, to have the birth on Friday before the holiday. And while I was SO huge and uncomfortable and ready to get things going, I also felt like scheduling a birth around a holiday for the doctors convenience, with no pressing medical reason to induce earlier, was not the right move. So, we opted to wait until Monday night, to give nature a few more days to get things going.
I had on and off contractions over the weekend, but nothing big. We said our goodbyes to Emma and Grandma, marveled at the oddness of how it felt to know This Was It, and checked into the hospital's antipartum unit for cervical ripening on Monday evening. We expected a long and boring/uncomfortable night in the hospital, but when the Dr. checked me she sent me home! I was already dilated to 4cm and there was no need for anything further! Yahoo!
We were instructed to come back in at 7:30 am to check in, but ended up not getting there until 8. They had already called home to check on us when we got there, ha! Triage was short, and it seemed like there wasn't much happening that day – unlike Emma's birth where the floor was filled. We met the perinatologist from my clinic on duty that day (someone new to us), and liked him immediately. He agreed that we could start by rupturing membranes instead of starting with pitocin. Hooray! They moved us into a L&D room right down the hall from the ER, which was where the actual delivery would take place. We settled in, they hooked me up and started an IV bag of antibiotics and all the gear to monitor the babies and my contractions. Already totally tied up and we had barely begun!
I expected this, but kept stressing to our nurse how I really wanted to be mobile as much as possible. She hemmed and hawed about that, and admitted that she had never really seen a twin birth work without constant monitoring in the bed (!). While the hospital did have cordless monitoring units, this particular room only had one, and we need two, for the two babies. We met with the hospitals OB on duty, and had to reiterate the No Pitocin thing yet again – they really wanted to give me the pit! She checked with our doctor and finally agreed, and around 9:30am, came in to check me (still 4 cm and 80% effaced) and break the first sac of water. We then realized we had better call our doula!
She was expecting the call and hurried right over. Pretty soon after the water was broken the mild semi-regular contractions I had been having started gradually ramping up. She arrived soon and we all hung out, listening to music, chatting, and answering questions and signing things while the nurse filled out huge amounts of paperwork. The contractions were getting stronger and I started having to concentrate harder on them, mostly through breathing at this point.
Several times in the first few hours or so, I needed to get up to use the bathroom. It was always an ordeal, bringing the IV pole along, plus unhooking all the monitors, with cords dangling as I walked. It felt good to stand up & move around, though. After one of those trips, I asked to stay up to labor awhile upright. The nurse was still hesitant, but offered to try to get the heartbeat monitors going while I stood next to the bed. They really did not want me off them for more than a few minutes, but she was willing to give it a shot. There were so many times in the past weeks where it was such a struggle to find and keep the heartbeats monitored, even when I was perfectly still, so inside I was not very hopeful about this....
But, it worked! The babies obliged by staying on the monitors (woohoo!) and I was able to stand for awhile and then sit and rock on the birthing/yoga ball, leaning during some contractions onto the bed. We started this around 11:15, and by 11:30 the contractions were getting stronger – I remember having to close my eyes and focus on breathing. My water was leaking a lot, and we had towels under me and on the floor to help with that. My doula was great during these contractions and she and Lonnie gave counterpressure on my back while I leaned over and braced myself on the bed.
I was pretty much in a zone at this point – the Indigo Girls were playing on the stereo which always makes me feel strong, so I was sort of listening to that, too. This was around noon, and I really don't remember much of that next hour – I think I was vocalizing and doing “loose lips” like I remember reading in Ina Mays book. At some point I got off the ball and stood up. I started bracing myself by leaning over the bed during contractions and things really seemed to ramp up from there. Thank you, gravity!
Around 1pm, the pain started really getting to me and I really wanted to be DONE with this! It was always in the plan (my doctors STRONGLY recommended it) to get an epidural before the delivery phase, and I felt ready. They (we? I?) wanted to check to see how dilated I was before getting it, and it seemed like FOREVER until the OB was able to get there to do a check. I got back in bed and was overwhelmed with how much harder it was to cope lying down. I was checked and at 1:30 I was 8cm, 90% effaced, and the baby was +1 station. My doula put down in our notes “in transition and coping beautifully – what a gracious labor!” but to that I say Ha! Because I distinctly remember screaming, writhing, lots of moaning, whining and complaining, and some begging and insisting I could not go on.
After eons (Lonnie insists it was not) the anesthesiologist appeared. I was feeling the urge to push and was instructed to pant through it but Not! To! Push! And that was incredibly difficult, especially as the epidural was being placed. Apparently he was amazingly fast at getting it in but it didn't feel like that at the time! At 2pm the epi was in, at 2:01 I was checked and complete, and was immediately wheeled into the OR down the hall for delivery (required for twin deliveries in case emergencies arise).
In the OR, there was a LOT of people but I barely noticed them. A NICU team for each baby, nurses and nursing students, doctors and med students, 17 people in total! The epi started to work and the haze began to clear for me. Relief! It felt really real to see two warming units and all the gear set up to receive the babies. Once I was “in position” I started pushing – this time (unlike my previous birth) I could feel when I was having a contraction and knew when to do it, too. At 2:33, Elsie Olivia was born, weighing 6lbs 12oz, with apgars of 9/9. They brought her to my chest for a quick visit, Lonnie cut the cord, and she was moved across the room to be tended to.
The next 20 mins were kind of a blur to me – I was mostly watching Lonnie over with Elsie (he kind of bounced between the two of us while the doula stayed with me). They didn't want me to keep pushing so I took a break, and they quickly upped the epi some and the perinatologist “dove in up to his elbows” to turn baby B, who had stretched out lengthwise, and broke her water sack. This is where I was REALLY glad to have the meds – I barely knew what was happening! She was showing some signs of distress from all this so they put an oxygen mask on me for awhile. After he had turned her, he put a vacuum on her to rotate her into position (she was “sunny side up”) and then with a few pushes Delia Grace was born, at 2:55pm, 7lbs 5oz. She also came to my chest briefly, Lonnie cut the cord, and then she went over to be checked by her team. Apgars of 8/9.
I watched her for a bit and was told when to push out the placenta, and was then stitched up (I tore again in the same place as before, a second degree tear). There was some concern over excess bleeding so they gave me some pitocin to help contract my uterus and control that. We were shown the placenta, which was very cool, and it was passed around a lot to all the med students – there was a semi-velamentous cord insertion and it showed that Elsie and Delia had in fact several “shared” vessels that could have caused big problems with Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. But it did not! Hooray!
We were soon all wheeled back to our room where I was immediately able to try breastfeeding (they both latched and sucked great!) with each baby while the other got bathed and wrapped up. I got to order food, we made phone calls, and everyone was in good spirits. It was pretty much exactly the birth I'd hoped for, except for that bit of manipulation with Delia at the end, which at the time I was fairly unaware of. Big sister Emma and Grandma came for a visit after another hour or so, and we all came home after two days in the hospital. And from there, the crazy chaos began!
On the docket for this weekend:
-birthday party with Emma, and a toy store stop beforehand
-shampooing our rugs and carpets of 12 months of dog grime and kid crumbs, and 11 months of copious spitup (ewww....)
-building raised beds for our veggie garden? (this is wishful thinking on my part, since I am not the one in charge of executing this task)
-shopping for a new eco-friendly rug for the babies room (and our living room!)
-making veggie pancakes to freeze for the kiddies
So much is happening around here, but alas, I am a slacker blogger.
Last week the kids and I went down to visit my parents, and lots of fun was had by all. Here are a couple of funny baby faces from there (note all the teeth!). Lots of pics in the April gallery from the week (and a couple videos to be posted here shortly). Also new photos in the end of the March gallery too!
Both Elsie and Delia like to ham it up for the camera these days:
Delia
Elsie (taken just a few minutes after Delia's -- they both have that same goofy face smile when they want to be funny!).
When I first was looking at these photos, I totally got them mixed up for a bit. I can always tell them apart when they are in front of me, but in photos, it can be really hard for me sometimes!
Its been pretty amazing to see the similarities with these two. There is definitely a lot to be said for genetics! In terms of baby book data (of which I have totally not filled out, whoops!), things like weights, food preferences, teething, physical development and milestones, they are always SO close, within days or at the most a week, most of the time.
They also have very similar temperaments, to the point that I have a hard time when people ask me about that kind of thing. They are both so unique and obviously have their own delightful personalities to us, but its hard for me to really put it into words. On one hand, I am really hesitant to say things like "she is the needier one, she is the mellower one", or "she more outgoing, she is the shyer one", because I just hate stereotyping and labling, and feel like people who do not know them well will kind of glom onto those things in a way that is not useful. Or even correct -- they flip flop so much with all that stuff, it seems! I guess part of the problem is that when describing one, its so easy to contrast her to her sister, instead of just focusing on her alone without the comparisons. Which is what we really should do, of course. I think in the next few days I will try to do a post on each girl and see if I can do that for y'all.
Here's a funny thing I caught on camera this week, though. I looked up from whatever I was doing and found Elsie sitting in her toy box (they are big rolling drawers that slide under our play table):
She is still just starting to cruise, and not fully crawling in the normal way yet (still a funny seal crawl, where she drags her belly on the floor) so I was surprised she managed this! I made a bit of a fuss, getting the camera to take a pic, and Delia watched the whole scene delightedly from across the room:
I then took Elsie over for a diaper change. Literally 2 minutes later, I turn around to see this:
Apparently Delia did not want to be outdone. I fear this is just the beginning.....
A few weeks ago my friend Mona came over to take some more pictures of the kiddies. Not only is she awesome blogger and mom, but also has a mean eye for photography. We mostly just hung out in Emma's room and Mona worked her magic with the camera. She is amazing, and we love the results! Yay, thanks Mona!
Elsie and Delia had their 9 month check up this Monday and things went pretty well. Man, is it a three ring circus, though. I make Lonnie come, so Emma ends up coming too, and we all are crammed into that tiny room while we go through a million questions and answers and procedures, while Emma drives us up the wall and back and the babies take turns fussing or crying if the doctor looks at them sideways. Egads. But thats still easier than if it was just me and two sad crying babies...
Anyway. As I expected, they are growing! Ha ha! They jumped a lot of percentiles and are not at the bottom of the charts anymore! Both babies were 18.5 lbs and within two ounces of each other, and only a 1/4 inch different for height. Elsie is 42 % for weight, 55% for height, and 82% for head circumference. Delia is 40% for weight, 46% for height, and 61% for head circumference.
Unfortunately, the exam turned up 3 inflamed ears and one questionable one. Gah. Both babies were on antibiotics for ear infections a few weeks ago, so they are now on a different stronger one. I am worried that with 3 ear infection issues in the last 4 months is a bad sign. Emma has never had one ever!!!
The one bright side, is that if we can clear up the ear infections and get a couple of teeth to bust through (I think both top teeth with both girls will be popping through in the next day or two) MAYBE we can get some better nighttime sleeping around here!!!! That would be awesome. Nights have not been all that great lately, that is for sure. But realizing that its teeth and ears makes me glad we haven't done anything drastic in terms of sleep stuff. They are already doing better now that they are doped up on Motrin and on the new antibiotics.
Ah, gotta go. LOST is almost on! OMG, what's going to happen this week?!?! It so creeps me out but also is SO addicting. We rarely watch TV anymore and were totally not caught up on this series until a few weeks ago (thank you ABC for streaming episodes over the internet!) but now we are re-hooked and enjoying watching something together again...
I know I know you all probably just want to see some damn pictures but you are not getting them this morning, at least. Sorry!
Every day when I am up putting the babies to bed (ie sitting in the dark nursing, wishing I had updated my iPod) I am just bursting with good blog post ideas. As soon as I get downstairs, finish the dishes, have a snack, help Emma do XYZ, have another snack, fold some laundry, and then sit down for a second, get up to go get whichever baby is up again, and then sit down for a minute (again), all blog ideas are gone. Bah! Here are some miscellany to fill the page, instead.
Preschool: OMG, how did this happen? Emma, Lonnie and I went for a preschool observation last week, to our neighborhood hippie preschool. We like it! I have been eyeing this place since it went in 5-6 years ago, and finally am getting to see it in action. Emma adored the place and got right to work, totally not shy like she often is in new situations.It was really fun to watch her play and interact with the kids, something we don't get to see all that often (the interacting, not the playing, of course). She will be starting this coming fall. I am having trouble deciding between two days a week (T/Th) or three (M/W/F). It is for 3 hours a day. I am leaning towards 3, since the cumulative hours would still be the same as her current 2 mornings of daycare. Part of me wants to leave more days open to do fun stuff with all 3 kids, though. But I think having 2 days for outings with all three would probably be enough...
Baby stuff
Teeth: They are both currently are working on the top two teeth! They got their bottoms way back before Thanksgiving (5.5-6ish months) but nothing since then. Elsie is way more drooly, but one of Delia's is more visible so I bet hers will come first.
Talking: Oh man are they noisy lately. Lots of hollering and screaching, which Emma then takes to imitating much to our dismay and sanity. Both Delia and Elsie are saying some words, sometimes; mama, dada/dadee, byebye, more (the sign). Its pretty cool.
Locomotion: They are also both on the verge of crawling. Which we have thought for the past 3 months, but now its really true. Delia can move a bit more than Elsie, but they both scootch/crawl/drag themselves around quite a bit. Delia can pull herself from a sitting or lying position to kneeling if she is next to a toy box or basket. We really gotta break out the baby gates soon, and figure out what to do with all the things like little people, dominos, and rubber bands that Emma tends to strew about as she plays. I kind of want to find gates that are baby proof but not toddler proof, but I fear that is a tall order...
Gotta go. Delia is hollering pathetically in the neglect-o-saucer. My time is up....
Okay, I started this post two weeks ago and here it is still. I am just going to post it and PROMISE to do more soon....
Its been awhile! Can you believe I am actually posting something? I feel slight guilt for my lack of blogging, but ah well. There are lots of reasons, procrastination looming somewhere up there near the top. More on this topic, later. Ha ha.
Delia and Elsie are 38 weeks (well, now 40!) -- and have been on the OUTSIDE as long as they were on the inside. Weird!
The are also growing like weeds! Seriously -- percentiles, were you to track them as I occasionally am known to do, are being jumped left and right. As with Emma, and actually even more so, they really took off, growth wise, with the intro of solids. They LOOOOOVE their solid food mealtimes, that is for sure. I have yet to find a food that they won't eat, though they do have their favorites, for sure. We just started yogurt and toast (wheat) in the past week or so, and both girls are the very very happy about that.
However, with all this solid food chowing I do have to keep an eye on the milk intake. I can totally see how some babies wean earlier than a year, something I couldn't really fathom having only experienced Emma's nursing habits. I do not intend for this to happen, but this means I sometimes have to limit their solids even if they are screetching for more, and have to always keep an eye on the clock and offer nursing even if they aren't actively asking for it (though if they are not interested, they are not interested!). I have been pumping (lame) during their naps, too, because I want to keep up my milk supply and eventually wean out the formula, not the breastmilk. Despite this, nursing is still going pretty well, though! I am really glad to have made it this far, and hope to continue for a lot longer.
Sleep, ha ha, I will not bore you with the novel-length discussion now. Its going okay. Way better than the first 4 months or so! We now have two crib sleepers (!) who are on a pretty decent schedule. I never thought I would be able to type a positive sounding sentence with CRIB and SCHEDULE and children of mine all in there together. Whee! (note: "sleeping through the night" is lacking from that sentence for a reason. Can't win them all...)
More soon. And photos. My posting time is really lacking, I am afraid, but I am going to try to remedy that soon.
Right now listening to Elsie and Delia complain in stereo over two different monitors. They both went down for a PM nap in their room/cribs, but woke after 30 min. WTF. I am so tired of this. I moved Elsie to our room and am leaving them to hopefully fuss or cry back to sleep. Yesterday I did the same, and it actually worked! So there's hope.
Back again after C & C (check and console), Delia asleep after about 5 min, Elsie is quieting down but still awake. After 3 or so weeks of horribly short naps, the past few days have been a bit better, and for the first time ever they are actually going BACK TO SLEEP after waking from that first sleep cycle. Progress. Also last night, both babies slept from 8:30-1:30 in their cribs, nursed/bottled/nursed from 1:30-2:30, and slept from 2:30-6:30 in the cribs again! I am totally fine with one feeding overnight at this point --I need it for my milk supply anyway. I know its not going to be like that every night, but the fact that there are nights like that occasionally gives me hope! We really have come pretty far, in the grand scheme of things.
Today I've been watching Drama unfold across the street as our neighbors are being evicted. It started this morning with a locksmith and some lawyer-y looking folks standing around for a long time in front of the gate, with someone coming out to talk and then holing themselves back up in the house, until the gate and front door locks were busted open (at this point, 3 cops joined the party). Throughout the day, lots of coming and going of neighbors and their friends, and hauling out of stuff. They are CRAZY and terribly sketchy, so we are not sad to see them (or their fence jumping pitbull) go, but I feel bad for them nonetheless. They were always nice to us, in any case. But also enjoying watching the Drama....
Well, success I think with the nappers, although now Emma's up! Ah, well, 2/3 isn't too bad...
Happy birthday to me! Today was a pretty mellow day, ending with a yummy dinner of peanut sauce noodles with prawns and tofu, and cake -- a box mix doctored by me with extra goodies (pudding, eggs and chocolate frosting) that turned out quite fantastically, I must admit.
Lonnie's present to me was finally figuring out how to download and view our videos from our video recorder! Wahoo! We didn't have it for Emma's babyhood and have been really bad about using it often, but there are a few gems that I am so glad we have, and I hope to take a lot more from now on.
Last night he showed me this one, which immediately made me cry. Its Emma from about a year ago (so about a year and a half old), playing on the stairs at our old place. She still, to this day, throws a few members of her stuffed animal "posse" down the stairs every morning and after nap. The way I know she is up is the thud thud thud of an animal (or five) on the steps.
Well, I tried the same thing for afternoon nap and while Delia went down like a champ, Elsie has now been screaming for an hour now with now slowdown (just like yesterday). She stopped crying when I went in and patted her, but didn't fall asleep and cried again when I left after a few minutes. I can't believe Delia can sleep through the racket, and Emma too, in the next room. I am pretty scared she will wake up early if I do not intervene at some point.
What I hate about CIO (cry it out) is that everyone seems to think it is the holy grail of sleep fixes, and that the first day will be the worst, but in the days following it will get better and better, and by day 3 or 5 or whatever you will be down to no crying and perfect sleep. That is so not my experience. When I do it, my kids, especially Elsie, just cry for an hour or more (sometimes less, but then long again on subsequent days), day after day after day, until I break down. I just don't see any progress when I let her CIO. Several hours of crying for a 40 min nap every day with no progress over time seems insane. Why am I doing this?
Back now after going to pat Elsie to sleep. She fell asleep pretty quick if I stood there patting this time. Whew. Despite the crying with Elsie, in general things are going better. Its baby steps forward, so its easy to get caught up in the day to day stuff and not notice the progress we've made. They no longer sleep on me all through the night! They can (sometimes) fall asleep without nursing -- by either being held/rocked/patted by Lonnie or me. They can sleep next to us in our bed, or in their Ambys pretty well, and now (Delia in particular) their cribs! If I watch them (or the clock) like a hawk so that they don't get overtired, they fall asleep within 10-15 minutes. They can be transferred sometimes without a fuss, even if they wake and know whats going on. Emma was never like that -- transfers were always out of the question!
Night is a different story, though. I still (often!) resort to letting them cosleep/nurse to sleep because I need sleep too! The nightwaking is still pretty insane -- every 2 hours generally, sometimes more like every hour, and sometimes they are up for an hour or two several times in the night as well. LAME.
But, progress on the nap front. Elsie, we gotta figure this out for your sanity and mine....
