Great night, great day!

Well, the babies have been really good at night lately.. last night was the best one so far! I fed them last at 9:45pm and 10pm, and put them down around 10:40pm, after holding them for a little while (we need to hold them upright after every feeding because of their bad reflux, to avoid lots of spitting up). We went to bed around 11pm. They both slept until 3am! That's 5 hours between feedings! Lately, they had been going 3.5 to 4 hours between feedings at night. I didn't even wake up when one of them started making noise, it's Prosanta who went to their crib and told me "It's 3!" I couldn't believe it. Fed them both at the same time at 3am, and then I actually had to wake them up at 6:15am, because my first client was coming at 7am, and I wanted to be done before then. So after eating, they went back to sleep for a little while. I made myself a nice big breakfast: 2 fried eggs, 2 toasts, and some strawberries and kiwi. Hey, gotta eat a lot when I can, I never know when the next opportunity will be!

My client came at 7am. Chaya woke up at 8am, I put her in the Baby Bjorn (a baby carrier), and another client came a few minutes later. Anjali slept until 8:30am. Played with them a bit, then I fed them again at 8:48am and 9:10am. I put them down for a nap in their crib (I'm trying this out, around 10am every day to see if we can get some sort of napping routine going). Yesterday, I tried this, but they only slept for about 30 minutes, then I brought them in the living room, and they went back to sleep. I haven't been putting them in their crib for naps during the day, but I want to start doing this so they get used to it. Today, hoping they would sleep a while, I got ready to take a nap as well, in our bed, next to their crib. Brought Bessie in bed with me, she's the best napping buddy. ;) So, the babies fell went nicely to sleep, they didn't even wake up after being put down. I proceeded to also fall asleep around 10:15am. I woke up around 10:40am, and had a dilemma.. Do I keep sleeping hoping they also keep sleeping, or do I get up and take a shower. I decided to keep sleeping, and boy am I glad I did. I woke up again around 11:15am, and they were still asleep, so I then took the fastest shower of my life, went to the bathroom and ate a granola bar.. (The last 2 tasks were done simultaneously. Hey, when you have 2 sleeping babies, you take advantage of that time to try to get as much done as possible!) Chaya woke up at 11:40am, and Anjali woke up 10 minutes later. I was so proud of them! They took an almost 2-hour nap in their crib! AT THE SAME TIME!!! It had been a while since they both slept for a while at the same time, allowing me to take a real nap, so this made me VERY VERY HAPPY.

I fed them right after they woke up, and they slept on and off on the couch next to me. I lay them on Boppy pillows often during the day, and I hang out on the couch between them. I had some chili and rice for lunch. Anjali woke up at 1pm, I played with her a little while, before Chaya woke up too. She had fun on the playmat, I also read to her. Fed them around 2:15pm. I put Anjali down for a nap in their crib after feeding her, since she hadn't slept as much as Chaya on the couch.. I figured Chaya might not sleep as much in the crib, and I didn't want her to wake up Anjali if she was still sleeping. So I put Chaya in a swing in the living room. I went out in the yard for a bit to play with the dogs (our dogs and the 5 dogs who were here today). I had the monitor from the bedroom outside with me to hear Anjali, and I could see Chaya through the living room window, so I went to check on her every few minutes to see if she was still sleeping. I actually had fun playing fetch in the pool with the dogs, and I also hung up my clean cloth diapers to dry on the clothes line while I was out there.

Chaya woke up at 3:30pm. I hung out with her for a while, played on the playmat again. Then put her in the Baby Bjorn and went on my computer for a bit, while she fell asleep. Prosanta came home, and then Anjali woke up at 4:30pm. Played with both of them until I fed Chaya at 5pm, and Anjali at 5:20pm. Prosanta held both of them while I prepared dinner. Made a veggie burger and fries for him, and I ate some cold leftover chicken while making his food. Prosanta mowed the lawn, and I hung out with them in the living room. They nodded off a bit as they usually do. I had them in slings for a little while too, it always helps to relax them. They almost always immediately fall asleep as soon as they are in a sling or carrier. Chaya woke up first, and I gave her a bath, which was very  much needed! Poor thing hadn't had a bath in over a week I think.... bad mommy! She didn't mind the bath too much, it's the getting-out-of-the-warm-water part she didn't particularly enjoy. She cried a lot while I slathered her in lotion and was putting her onesie back on. I bundled her up nicely in a warm blanket, and brought her to daddy. He held her and she eventually fell asleep. By this time, Anjali was also awake, and it was her turn to get a bath. She didn't like it too much, cried a lot. Afterwards though, when she was all lotioned up and dressed and bundled up, she was nice and relaxed. I fed her at 7:15pm right after her bath when she was still awake, and then Chaya at 7:35pm. After that, I put them both down in their crib. Anjali went first, she was already asleep and didn't wake up at all when I placed her in the crib. Chaya woke up a bit during the trip from daddy's arms to the crib, but quickly went back to sleep when I wrapped her up in a blanket. Chaya is still asleep as I type this (it's a little over 9pm), Anjali woke up a few minutes ago around 8:45pm. She's hanging with daddy in "his room" right now while he's on his laptop, maybe she fell back asleep. Next feeding will be around 10pm, and then we start the whole thing over again.

It's nice when things go smoothly... Of course, I know not every night and day will go this well, but I have to say, it really isn't so bad at times! Love these babies.

Goodbye grandparents, back to twin parent reality!

We said goodbye to my parents this morning, they drove back to Montreal after being here for 3 weeks. It's been so wonderful having them here, we had a lot of fun, and really appreciated their tremendous help with the babies, and also doing things around the house. My dad fixed a lot of things for us, painted a bathroom, bought a lot of household items we didn't have, he was a huge help! It will be rough being back to just the two of us with the babies again.. especially since I've started taking dogs in again. It was nice having my parents here for the back-to-work transition. Now let's see how this working-from-home thing really works with twin babies.

More fun times with grand-papa and grand-maman

Grand-papa and Anjali

Grand-maman hanging up clothes on my brand new clothes line!

Grand-maman and grand-papa celebrating their 44th wedding anniversary with their grand-daughters

Girlies having fun

Chaya and grand-papa

Grand-maman and Anjali

44th wedding anniversary dinner made by me: squash-mushroom risotto, broccoli, lentil spread and eggplant spread on crostini

Anjali (left) and Chaya (right) playing

Silly Chaya

YEAH!

Mommy and Chaya in the baby bjorn

Dinner at mexican restaurant

Proud grand-papa!

Anjali's beautiful smile

Mommy at mexican restaurant (babies behind)

Vaccinations make very fussy babies

Our girls had their 2 month pediatrician check-up today, including their first round of vaccinations. Oh boy. I'm all for vaccinating my babies to protect them against dangerous diseases... but I wasn't ready for the side effects! Anjali especially seemed so miserable that evening, she cried and screamed almost nonstop for many hours. We had to hold them, or have them in slings the whole evening. If we'd find a comfortable position for them, they'd stop crying, but if we'd move even the slightest, they'd start screaming again. Poor things. It was definitely hard for mommy to see her babies suffering like that. They didn't have any fever though, I guess they just felt crappy in general.

Girls taking a nap after coming home from pediatrician

Grand-Papa with Chaya in a sling, trying to calm her (it worked!)

Mommy with Anjali, and Grand-papa with Chaya

Anyway, their checkup went very well. Chaya weighed 10 lbs 2.5 ounces, and Anjali was 10 lbs 4 ounces. Chaya is quickly catching up to her sister! This puts them at the 25th percentile for weights, which is quite normal since they were born almost a month early. Both their heights were also at 50th percentile. Their head measurements were both in the 50th percentile also. Anjali's head is still a bit uneven, but doc said to keep doing her neck stretches (oops!) and it should correct itself on its own. It's barely noticeable, and definitely no need for a helmet or anything like that. Chaya's foot is all better now. When I asked the pediatrician about it, she said if I hadn't mentioned it she wouldn't even have noticed it. Her foot is fine, and her ankle also is completely normal. Yay!

We spoke about my dairy-free diet, and to keep being diligent about it. Chaya still has had little tiny amounts of blood in her stool over the past few days, we're hoping it goes away totally. She wanted to do a blood test to see if she's anemic, and check her health in general. Turns out she's slightly anemic, which the doctor expected. They are both going on infant vitamins with added fluoride (no fluoride in Baton Rouge water) and iron. Babies generally go on vitamins and iron supplements at this age anyway, it's not anything out of the ordinary. They could also tell from the blood test that she shows an allergic reaction to my breastmilk, so it's pretty certain that this milk protein intolerance thing is for real. Boo. Was hoping to be told otherwise, but oh well, I'll keep drinking my soymilk and reading all the labels on the stuff we buy. Eating out is a bit more complicated, sure, waiters may tell you there's no dairy in a dish, but they might not be aware of all the dairy derivatives (like casein for example) that might be present in some foods. It's almost impossible to eat out without getting some dairy in there once in a while. Even a small amount will have an effect, and the protein can stay present in her little body for many weeks.

First night solo with the babies

Prosanta is away at a conference in Minneapolis for almost a week. My parents are still here visiting. I was going to have my mom sleep in bed with me to help me with the nighttime feedings, but then I wanted to give it a try on my own.. I could always go get her if I needed her help. I fed them around 10:40pm and 11:00pm before going to bed. Anjali woke up first, around 1:35am, fed her. Then, woke up Chaya to feed her right after. Chaya was a good girl and went right back to sleep after she was done. But Anjali decided to stay up until 3:20am. Fun times. I rocked her, sang to her, had the lights down very low, tried the pacifier, had her nice and swaddled,.. nothing worked. She just wanted to be wide awake. So I went online on Prosanta's laptop for a bit, with her on my lap, with her eyes wide open looking around. Thankfully she was calm and happy the whole time. After I finally got her to go down, Chaya decided to wake up 10 minutes later, around 3:30am. You can imagine my good mood by then. I didn't feed Chaya then though, I gave her back the pacifier, held her for a few minutes, and she went back to sleep. Alleluia! They both slept until 4:35am, fed both of them, and they both went back to sleep after. Chaya got up around 6:30am. I fed her, and then fed Anjali a few minutes later when she also woke up. Oh, forgot to mention, during Anjali's marathon awake time, she threw up twice all over herself (and mommy). We're not talking about fresh milk spit-up here, we're talking smelly deep down old rotten cottage cheese stuff. Yuck. All in all, I was able to handle both of them at once pretty well, they didn't both start crying at the same time or anything.. Just wish Anjali was a better sleeper. Hoping tonight little miss Not-Sleepy-Head decides to go back to sleep after feeding!

More beautiful smiles

Taking lots of pictures of our girlies smiling! It's so cute to see them react to us smiling and talking at them. They've also started making cute little cooing noises.

Anjali waking up from a nap in a very good mood

Anjali's shy little smile

No, she's not drunk

Chaya and her beautiful smile

Chaya's excited!

Chaya's cute little smile

Chaya smiling

Chaya

Nightswimming

Brought both girls in the pool tonight! We all went swimming, mommy, daddy, grand-papa and grand-maman. The pool is nice and warm during the summer. Anjali enjoyed it (despite the spit-up!), but Chaya was hungry, so she was a little cranky.

Daddy and Chaya

Daddy and Chaya

Daddy and Chaya

Grand-papa and grand-maman

Uh oh.. Chaya's not having fun anymore!

Grand-maman and Anjali

Daddy and crying Chaya

Mommy and Chaya

Grand-maman with Anjali, mommy with Chaya