Anjali goes in the pool

Prosanta and I were going for a dip in the pool while the girls were sleeping.. brought the baby monitor outside, and of course, once I got in, that's when I heard one of the babies starting to cry. Prosanta went in to check on them, and he said she fell back asleep. A few minutes later, she cried again, so this time I went in to get her and bring her back outside with me. It was around 7pm, so the sun wasn't shining down on us, and since the pool is SO hot right now, I thought it would be fun to bring her in the pool for the 1st time. I took off her clothes, left her diaper on, and brought her in with me! She really seemed to like it. I thought she would, since she likes her warm baths. It was cute, she was all relaxed, and then even started yawning! Will have to try with Chaya too one of these days.. Here are some pictures of our pool adventures.

Happy 1st father's day to Prosanta!

For his 1st ever father's day, Prosanta wanted to bring the girls for brunch at his favorite pub here in Baton Rouge, the Londoner. It's really close to our house, they have lots of good beer and a very good food menu. I made sure to feed the girls right before going, hoping they would sleep the whole time we were there. I brought bottles of expressed milk just in case. Sure enough, the girls did REAL good, and slept almost the whole time. Anjali drank part of her bottle, but fell asleep right after. We enjoyed some beers, yes, ME too! I had a delicious pint of my favorite Louisiana beer, Purple Haze (a blackberry flavored wheat beer). Prosanta had some Boddingtons. We had some really good food too, Prosanta had some eggs, toasted baguette, and potatoes. I had some grilled chicken kabobs, and a veggie omelet.

I also had a special gift for Prosanta, that I had especially made for him. It's a black rubber bracelet with a metal plate that I had engraved with the girls' names. I wasn't sure if he would like it, but turns out, he loves it! I was so glad. He was surprised I found something like that, and didn't know how I thought of such a gift. After we left the hospital and brought the girls home, he kept wearing his 2 hospital bracelets (with the girls' ID numbers on them) for days, until he finally cut them off. He said he didn't want to take them off because they reminded him of his girls. So then I thought of trying to find a bracelet or something with the girls' names on it.. Great success!

Reading his father's day card

Opening the gift!

Daddy, Anjali and mommy (Chaya is below in the stroller)

Mommy and Anjali

He even got a free pint for Father's Day!

Enjoying the warm evening

Baby feet!

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband, best friend, and the greatest daddy my girls could ever have!

Mommy and girls photo shoot

Oops, we decided to have this photo shoot when little miss Chaya was hungry...

Chaya: "Hey, mommy! I want food!"

Chaya explaining to mommy that she's hungry

Chaya: "Oh man.. more photos??!"

Chaya: "That's IT! I'm crying!!!"

Chaya: "Come on man! Enough photos already!!!"

Diastasis recti.. goodbye bikinis

What is diastasis recti? It's the separation on your abdominal muscles, which is fairly common in multiple pregnancies. Great. I had heard about it, but wasn't sure yet if it had happened to me or not. Then I read about it online, and realized that yes, my abdominal muscles have definitely separated, so much so that I can actually see my intestines bubbling under my skin right above my belly button. Yes, you read that right. Pretty weird. My belly doesn't hurt anymore, but if I'm laying down, and I lift up my head to make my abs contract, there's this weird ridge that pops up that runs up and down (from above the belly button down towards the pubis). That's how you know if you have diastasis recti. The first time I noticed this after coming home from the hospital, it freaked me out. I was wondering what the heck was wrong with my stomach. I showed Prosanta. I thought maybe it was just me healing that made it look funny, but now I know. Apparently, in some cases, it heals on its own, in other cases it can be fixed surgically, especially if an umbilical hernia is also present.. which I'm wondering about, since my belly button is still sticking out. Oh geez. The things we go through to become mothers. Next obgyn appointment is in a few weeks, I will be asking her all about this, and what can be done about it.

We're a month old, no sleep for you!

Mommy with Anjali in a sling

Chaya (left) and Anjali (right)

  

Anjali and Chaya (she's sucking on her onesie looking for milk)

So here we were telling people who would ask about how it was going with twins.. "Oh, it really isn't that bad, they hardly ever cry, they sleep a lot, they're pretty easy!" And then they turned one month old. Our sweet little girls turned into crying starving little monsters. During the day. Thankfully, they are still sleeping well at night, going between 2 and 3 and a half hours between feedings, and going to sleep pretty quickly. During the day is another story, little girlies now want to stay awake more. Luckily it's mostly been one baby at a time who wants to stay awake, so I can entertain one at a time. They are crying a lot more now too, watch out if it's feeding time, and you don't whip out that boob fast enough! They scream so loud at times, it surprises us. We can't complain too much though, they don't really cry for that long, usually if they aren't hungry, then they just want to be held, or suck on a pacifier. We've been using our various slings around the house at times, they just hang in there while we do stuff around the house, and seem quite content. I even put Anjali in a sling and played the piano for her, she liked it! Chaya woke up, and I put her in her bouncy seat on the table right behind me, so she could enjoy the music as well. That was nice, I had always looked forward to playing the piano for my babies. All this action means taking daytime naps pretty difficult, but it's pretty surprising how you can adjust to lack of sleep. I felt like such a zombie our first weeks home with them, I was SO tired in the evenings... but now even though I'm only getting a little more sleep at night, I feel pretty good during the day.

I'm thinking they may be going through growth spurts. After talking about it with the pediatrician, she said we could try putting them on a 3 hour feeding schedule during the day. So I started trying to make them wait a bit longer between feedings, by entertaining them, using pacifiers, taking them on walks (only possible in the mornings and evenings right now I'm afraid!), reading to them, playing the piano.. this seemed to work ok the first day, but on day 2, they absolutely did not want to wait for 3 hours. They cried and cried, they didn't want to calm down until I would feed them. That was a difficult day for me, no naps, always one baby awake with me the whole day. No time for phone calls or internet. I now really understood what it meant to have twin babies at home. It's quite a job! On day 3, I decided to give up on the idea of a feeding schedule for now, and just keep feeding them on demand.. that is waiting for one baby to wake up, and then waking the other to feed her as well.

Daddy and Chaya relaxing in bed

Chaya and Anjali

Chaya and Anjali (can you tell which one is mellower?)

Chaya and Anjali

Mommy and Chaya

Anjali (left) and Chaya (right)

Anjali and Chaya (photo shoots are never a good idea when it's feeding time!)

Adina's thinking "What is wrong with those things??!"

Going to daddy's soccer game

We all went to Independence Park to see daddy's first soccer game of the summer season. The team was very excited to meet the girls. We took them in their double car seat stroller. They did pretty well, I had brought some bottles of breastmilk so I wouldn't have to nurse them there. The weather wasn't so nice though, it was VERY windy the whole time, with thunder and lightening, no rain though. The game got stopped twice, and ended early. It may not have been the best day to bring them out, but it was nice to be out of the house, and see the team again. I'm planning on taking the girls to more of his soccer games, as long as the weather's nice. I want to try bringing the jogging stroller next time though, it's easier to push on grass, plus I can walk them around the field a bit if they get fussy. I just have to look through the manual to see how to collapse it, I don't remember!

Daddy holding Anjali

Daddy at the end of the game (notice the beer!)

Daddy on the field!

1 month visit at pediatrician

Mommy taking the girls and 3 dogs for a walk

Anjali sleeping peacefully

Sleeping Chaya

Out for lunch with the girls near LSU

Chaya making her little face

We took the babies to see their pediatrician for their 1 month visit.. with lots of questions regarding breastfeeding, sleeping, gas, spit-up, and Anjali's head. First of all, their weights! Our girls are growing, Chaya is now 8 pounds 2 ounces, and Anjali is 8 pounds 6 ounces! I guess I was worrying if they were drinking enough for nothing.. They are growing really well, and the doctor said to just keep doing what we're doing, with regards to breastfeeding. The girls usually feed for around 10 minutes, but sometimes it's less than that, and sometimes almost 20 minutes. I wasn't sure if this was normal, it is. If they feed for only 10 minutes and seem happy and full after, it just means that they are really good at breastfeeding and getting the milk to come out quickly. Since they are going through enough wet and dirty diapers, we know they are getting enough. I also asked the doctor about gas, spit-up and hiccups, which have all increased a LOT lately. The girls are always farting, they are throwing up pretty much at every feeding, and get the hiccups often. The doctor asked if they seemed in pain when any of these things were happening, if they were screaming for 30 minutes non-stop, or seemed really uncomfortable. Since they don't really seem to mind the gas and spitting-up, she concluded that it was probably nothing out of the ordinary, nothing to worry about. They might be drinking too fast.

Something that was definitely starting to worry me is Anjali's head. At our 2 week visit, the pediatrician told us to try to get her to lay on the right side of her head when sleeping or laying down, and to stretch out her neck muscles by gently moving her head towards the right, many times a day. This was because in the womb, she was on the right side, breech, and the doctor said she noticed her always putting her head that way. So we did this, and pretty soon, she was ALWAYS turning her head to the right when sleeping. Too much. It ended up flattening the back of her head on the right side, and was starting to affect the shape of her face. So now, we must stretch out her neck muscles the other way, and try to get her to lay her head the other way... which is easier said than done! She naturally wants to turn her head to the right, so we put a rolled up burp cloth or tiny pillow wedged under her head to try to make her turn the other way. I'm worried that we won't be able to make her head symmetrical. I don't want it to affect her beautiful face. I guess we can only try, and see what the doctor thinks at our 2 month visit.

Also asked about taking the babies out in public, and if it was safe to bring them to the grocery store, restaurants, and other indoor places like that. She said to go ahead and bring them places, and just use common sense. We probably wouldn't want to bring them to an infant's birthday party or anything like that, but we can for sure take them along for errands, and going places. Now if only there was a way for me to bring them both to the grocery store! Unfortunately, for now, I can only go grocery shopping while Prosanta is home. I would be able to bring just one baby with me though, which would be nice to take one out at a time, have some one on one time, and be able to show one baby off to people at the store! :)