Playmat fun together!

More fun on the playmat, together this time! The girls still don't really seem to notice or care about each other.. I guess they've been together for so long that it isn't anything exciting or surprising for them. ;)

Dog sitting again

Our dogs with little Buddy

Crazy Lucy

Beecho sleeping by a baby

Adina, Bessie and Lucy begging for peanuts (literally!)

Tucker and my parents' dog Wood

Girl friends Lucy and Bessie

Fetch time with Sonic, Bessie, Adina and Maverick

Playing in the pool with Sonic and Bert

I started taking dogs in today again. Starting slow, only one dog is staying overnight for a few days.. and then my regular daycare clients will start coming back again. Thankfully, my parents are still here to help ease into the transition. I'm not sure how it will work with the babies, hoping for the best. I would've loved to wait longer before starting work again, but we need my income, even if it's a lot less than Prosanta. It helps me to pay some of the bills and I pay for the groceries, and other things we need around the house. I also have to start paying off my credit card, I've been using it these past 3 months I've been off work.

Chaya and Anjali are smiling!

Chaya's first smile!

 The girls have started to smile! Chaya was the 1st one to intentionally smile, at mommy, while I was talking to her. She did it twice in a row, so I knew it was a real smile! What a beautiful thing to see your babies smiling for the first time. Chaya hasn't done it very often since then, she did smile right at grand-maman right after, also caught that on camera. Anjali has smiled at us a few times too, they weren't as big smiles at Chaya's first, but they are still cute little smiles. It's so nice to see.

Happy girl Chaya smiling at grand-maman

Anjali smiling at grand-maman

Anjali smiling sideways

Chaya (left) and Anjali (right) having fun on their playmat

Anjali's funny smile

Anjali's shy smile

Anjali sort of smiling

The girls enjoying their playmat

Bessie also wants to go on the playmat!

Chaya and Anjali are focusing a lot more on moving objects now, and are looking at us in the eyes a lot more, which is nice. Chaya is a big fan of.... ceiling fans! :) She's always staring at the ceiling. I setup their playmat for the first time, and put them on it. They seemed to like it, looking at the moving toys. I took a few videos and photos. Here they are.

Chaya

Chaya on her playmat

Chaya

Anjali in grand-papa's arms

Anjali

Anjali's a little hungry

Visit from grand-maman and grand-papa!

Me and my parents in New Orleans

Prosanta and my dad fishing, with Chaya in a sling

 My parents are here visiting from Montreal, staying with us for about 3 weeks. It's been a huge help having them around, helping with errands, cooking, chores, and of course the babies. My dad was very anxious to finally meet them in person. He loves holding them after they feed, to burp them, and have them sleep in his arms. We've been taking the girls to lots of places, restaurants, stores, visiting daddy at LSU, even went to New Orleans.. Having a great time.

Sleepy Anjali in New Orleans

Drunk Anjali on Bourbon St.

Grand-maman and Chaya

Took the girls to Chimes restaurant

Dinner at Chimes

Grand-papa giving Anjali a bottle at the restaurant

New Orleans: cigar time!

Cigar and huge ass beer time

Grand-papa holding Anjali (left) and Chaya (right)

Mommy and Anjali

Trying the wrap my mom made me, with Anjali

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.