No more dairy for me

Last week, we found some blood in Chaya's poop. The first time we saw it, it was a bit alarming, her poop was bright red. We called our pediatrician, went in to have her checked out. Other than the blood, she seemed healthy and happy. The doctor wanted to test a stool sample to rule out various things, like infections, bacteria or viruses, we're still waiting on some of those results. She also suggested I go completely off dairy, in case it could be a dairy protein intolerance. This can be common in babies, they have trouble digesting the dairy that I'm eating, that's going through my breastmilk to them. I know many women who have had to give up dairy, and it made their babies feel a lot better. It could also have something to do with the reflux and gas. So I cut out all dairy, which is a little tough. I was finally used to drinking cow's milk (which I hadn't liked since I was a kid), and actually really liked. Cheese is the tough thing to give up, it makes everything so good, and is a really easy snack to eat with bread, crackers or tortillas. But oh well, anything to try to make my babies feel better. The complicated thing is, often the intolerance also applies to soy. So we'll see how things are in a few weeks with no dairy, if things have improved, we'll know it was a dairy problem. If things are the same, I may have to also eliminate soy from my diet... which will restrict things even more! Oh boy.

They are also on Zantac to try to help with the reflux. Both girls were spitting-up really bad at one point, during feedings, right after feedings, and in between. Sometimes it seemed like all the milk they had just drank was coming out. At first, it didn't seem to bother them, but after a week or so, they started crying sometimes when spitting up, and waking from a nap crying and sometimes screaming, and then spitting-up. So it might be causing them a little pain and irritation now. They also have had a lot of gas for a while now, and it seems to hurt them at times, they'll cry and scream, let out a fart, and then calm down. After a little over a week of being on the Zantac, we've noticed a bit less spitting-up, so we're going to keep giving it to them. Also giving gas drops.

Prosanta's idea for a children's book

After reading "The Family Book" to Anjali last night, Prosanta was changing her diaper, and came up with another great book idea for Todd Parr.

"Some poos are big
Some poos are small

Some poos are black
Some poos are brown

Some poos are on the floor
Some poos are in the toilet."

Brilliant.

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??!"