Morning TV

Part of our morning routine involves watching a little Baby Einstein in their jammies while Ilan gets ready for work and I shower / eat a little breakfast.  So cute.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

The babies love itsy bitsy spider

That’s me wearing the moby wrap and the babies in their sleep sacks getting ready for a nap.  Sometimes if they are cranky I will get them ready for a nap (sing the nap time song, put them in their sleep sacks), but then they are too awake to fall asleep right away.  In that case, I sing songs with hand motions for them.  Itsy bitsy spider, wheels on the bus, little bunny foo foo.  I’m looking for some other songs, haha.  It’s a nice wind down until I see the yawns re-emerge (sometimes the sleep sacking wakes them up again), which is when I put the pacifiers in their mouths and read them a story and then sing the sleepytime song.

(picture courtesy of my mother in law who was visiting this weekend and graciously stayed out of view for the naptime routine)

A Good Day

Today was a good day but wow it was exhausting.

4:30am

Hear Eitan make a crazy noise, like totally scared and upset.  Ilan went in and his eyes were closed, we think he had a nightmare

5:30am

Wake up!  Everyone’s eyes are open, Noa is fussing, Eitan is cooing at his mobile.  I began diapering and waking up babies while Ilan prepared the formula for the day and then went to go shower.

6am

Begin feeding.  Started with nursing for 5 minutes, then bottles.

6:30am

Feeding finished.  I put the babies in the activity gym on the floor so I could clean up from the feeding and fold / put away the clean baby clothes while I have access to their room.  Ilan got dressed and then took over so I could shower.

7:15am

Came out to see this…

It’s kind of a surreal image.

7:30am

Ilan left for work, I put the babies down for their first “nap.”  Then I had breakfast, did some tidying up, and began prepping the bottles for the first morning feeding.  I knew they would wake up by 8 so I even started warming them.

8am

Awake!  Ready for breakfast!  Good morning!!!!  Eitan can be found cooing at the mobile again.  I picked out their clothes for the day.  Because Noa wasn’t fussing, I chose Eitan for dressing and diaper change first – Noa HATES it if you take her out of the crib and then PUT HER BACK IN IT.  If she isn’t fussing, she seems to prefer to be left there longer than to be taken out and put back in.  So, okay.  Diaper changes and outfits all around.

8:15am

Babies are locked and loaded in their chairs and I began the first double bottle feeding of the day.  Eitan sucked down his 5oz no problem but Noa rolled the bottle around her mouth and only ate 3oz.  This has been happening lately, and then she has been wanting another ounce or two later.  I just can’t have these partial feedings.  The formula goes bad after an hour, and I don’t want to heat up another bottle, while also managing a second baby.  So… Noa… sorry, but you have to eat at the feeding!  We can’t have this snacking business!

9am

I decided the feeding was over after waiting on Noa for a while.  Playtime began!  We did all sorts of things.
Hanging out on the boppies:

(There was screaming, not pictured)
Then spent some time working on projects in the bumbos

 
Eitan is starting to really be able to hold up his head, which is great.  Noa has discovered how much fun it is to push things off of the play tray.  Yay.

9:30am

Getting grouchy, time to go out for a walk and make them nap.  I took the snap-n-go instead of the real stroller because generally it has been fine to just go to a coffee shop and hang out for a while to get them to nap.  Lots of screaming as we load up and go, but then the babies quickly fall asleep.

9:45am
At the coffee shop, conversations about twins, blah blah.  Sit there with my iced tea and begin reading blogs, as per my new routine.  I planned on being there until 11:30.  Except…

10:30am

Noa’s eyes pop open.  Wide.  CRAP.  The only way to get her to go back to sleep would be to go for a walk, but the snap-n-go has terrible suspension and the sidewalks are just awful, so the jostling of the car seat just negates any benefit of walking for her nap.  I decided to go home and have an early feeding instead.

10:45am

Arrived at home, Noa’s eyes still open, now I end up waking up Eitan.

11:00am

I go and make my quick lunch (leftover chili in a wrap with melted cheese – aka Chili Cheese Wrap) and eat it while staring at crying babies.  Their bottles were warming while I ate, so as soon as I was done I put the bottles in their mouths and they quieted down.

12:30pm

Loaded grouchy babies into the stroller for our second walk, hoping this second walk will produce better nap results.  This time, instead of the snap-n-go, I put them in the stroller, which now has the regular seats in it instead of the car seats.  This meant I carried both babies down the stairs by myself with no car seats.  It’s actually easier to do than to carry the car seats, now that they hold up their own heads.  We walked for about an hour and a half, and even came across horses in the park!

The babies were asleep, though, so they couldn’t appreciate it.

2:15pm

Arrived back home, Eitan has woken up but Noa managed to stay asleep, even through me taking her out of the stroller and carrying her upstairs.  Some quality Eitan time.

He was then naked for 25 minutes (he loves being naked, so if he is fussy I will just take off his diaper for a little bit and he will cheer up!)

2:55pm

Woke up Noa for the next feeding, got the bottles ready.

3:00pm

Double bottle feeding, hooray!  This time Noa eats 5oz in ten minutes – it was so fast I didn’t even notice she had eaten so much without a burp.  Then she had a huuuuuuuge burp.  It was amazing.

3:30pm

More time in the activity gym while I cleaned up and ate a snack.

4:00pm

Dance party!!!!!!  Songs: Stayin’ Alive, Dancing Queen, You Should be Dancing (later this evening I made a better dance mix for our parties because these are the only three songs I had on my playlist for the almost-nightly dance parties and I would like some variety haha)

4:15pm

Dance party is over, and I notice some yawns, so I begin a nap routine.

4:30pm

Not napping.  I got a text from Ilan saying there was going to be an emergency meeting at work and he didn’t know when he would be home but he would leave as soon as he could.

4:45pm

Still not napping.  I begin planning out how to do bedtime by myself.

5:00pm

Both babies suddenly hysterically screaming.  At this point it’s getting too late for a nap.  I couldn’t figure out why they’re screaming.  I decided to try a bottle even though they had just eaten two hours ago.  They seemed hungry and I thought that if I forget that they ate 2 hours ago, I would not be second guessing giving them a bottle.  So I tried a little 2oz snack.  DEVOURED.  And fell asleep in their chairs.

5:10pm

I started prepping the bath stuff while Eitan started waking up and fussing a little.  I also pre-filled the bottles and put the bottle-warmer mugs in the microwave so when it was time for their last meal I could just warm them up and go.  I also gave myself a pre-reward of a big hunk of chocolate, knowing that it was about to get rough.

5:15pm

I started bathing Eitan, then Noa woke up and got hysterical at being left alone.  However, I couldn’t abandon Eitan in the tub, so I just had to let her be angry for a few minutes until he was out and dry (but naked! you know, so he would be happy).

5:30pm

Knocked on our neighbors’ doors for help with the babies since they were now both screaming.  Nobody was home because most people are not home from work at 5:30pm.  It just feels late for me because I had by that time been up and on the go for 12 hours straight.  I could hear the babies screaming in the hallway.  Awesome.

5:40pm

With a combination of Eitan in the rocking chair on vibrate while holding a toy and facing me in the bathroom and Noa in the bath, both babies were now temporarily happy.  Both of them love the bath, so it turned out to be okay.

6:00pm

Bath time over, I now had to get the bottles ready for their final meal.  They were SCREAMING.  OH MAH GAH WE DIDN’T JUST HAVE A SNACK 45 MINUTES AGO, AND DIDN’T JUST EAT 3 HOURS AGO. YOU NEVER FEED US. WE ARE DYING.  I was singing at the top of my lungs “A Whole New World” from Aladdin and “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid while bouncing both babies on my knees to keep them calm while the bottles warmed.  It was ridiculous.  I kind of hope the neighbors heard, but I’m sure they still weren’t home.

6:10pm

Silence, because the bottles were plugging up the scream holes mouths.

6:30

Babies were starting to fall asleep.  Ilan walked in the door.  Noa now wanted to stare at Ilan.  I hand her to him to finish the feeding because we all know how much she loves him.  Then I picked up Eitan for the rest of his feeding and some pre-bed snuggles.

7:00

Noa has fallen asleep.  Ilan swaddled her and put her in the rocking chair for the bedtime routine.  I handed Eitan to him for some snuggles and a swaddling.  He was then placed in the rocking chair for the bedtime routine.

7:15pm

Bedtime routine.

7:20pm

Babies in bed, Ilan began heating dinner.

7:45pm

Dinner & TV.

9pm

I shared with him some videos from the day, like Eitan giggling and talking while being naked.

9:45pm

I began futsing on the computer, reading blogs, facebook, writing this post, etc.

10:45pm (now)

I hope to be in bed soon.

The end.

Girls Day Out

It was really only a few hours, but I went out with Noa on Friday.    The boys were planning on going to go on a walk and get coffee, but Eitan spit up all over Ilan and then refused to go in the carrier and then screamed and was generally not doing well so they didn’t go anywhere.

Anyway, it was just us girls!

I have to say, going out with just one baby felt extremely liberating.  I basically felt like I was going out by myself.  No stroller, no crazy heavy bags, no juggling babies.  Just one baby!  Imagine that!

We went on the subway, and at first Noa was like WTF

Mostly because of the noise while we were on the platform.

I tried to get a picture of us both on the subway but it is hard to do that without making other people think you are taking pictures of them, which is awkward.

This was Noa’s first trip into the city since she was born, and her first time ever on the subway.  She was pretty cool about it.  Once we got into the city, with the loud noises and people everywhere, she was all right but maybe a little overstimulated.  We walked the two blocks to the doctor’s office, where she definitely felt more comfortable.  She was smiling at the receptionist and at the doctor.

The biggest problem came when I had to have my blood drawn, she started getting really upset for some reason (maybe she was empathizing because she just had her 4 month shots on Monday).

I ended up having to have an ultrasound of my thyroid so I had to take her out of the carrier and lie her on my belly while I was lying back on the table for my doctor to do the ultrasound on my neck.  Exciting times.  Noa was really good about it.

On the way back we decided to check out a nearby farmer’s market, but it started to rain so we quickly got back on the train.  On the way back home we stopped off at a few stores to pick up some organizing bins so I could reorganize the baby room.

By the time we got home, Noa had fallen asleep in the carrier.

If you knew Noa in real life, you would understand why I had to try to get a picture of this…  She doesn’t much like being in the carrier to begin with, and she definitely doesn’t want to fall asleep when there is so much to see.  But she was so tired; it was a loooong afternoon.

Then when we got home, I guess she decided she was a big girl now and should hold her own bottle!

She’s been trying to do this for a while now and she has been more and more successful.  She wasn’t quite holding it in her mouth in this shot, but she had been holding it in the right place and feeding herself for a few seconds right before I grabbed the phone to take a picture.

Meanwhile, Eitan, who hadn’t slept the whole time I was gone because he only wants to sleep ON MY BODY, finally slept.

(Here I am, with Eitan sleeping on me I had to feed Noa in her chair at the same time so I had to sit on the floor.)

A good afternoon. :)

4 Month Comic

Tongue Tie

Noa had a small tongue tie but since she was eating and gaining weight we never did anything about it.  But finally we were getting very frustrated at how hard it was to feed her - she would cry and refuse to breast feed, and often cry and get frantic at the bottle, and it was just exhausting.  For her and for us! I finally asked the pediatrician if that could be from the tongue tie and he said yes.

her tongue tie made her tongue heart shaped and also kept her from being able to stick her tongue all the way out :(

Yesterday we went to an ENT who just took care of it, badabing badaboom.  Like barely gave us a moment to think about whether we should have it snipped!  But I guess that's why we went, right?  To have them cut it?

It was upsetting.  The only person in the room who wasn't upset besides the doctor was brave little Eitan (AHAHA).

However, Noa got over it quickly, and we are already seeing improvements in her eating.  Much less crying in general, and is actually willing to finish a feeding at the breast sometimes, instead of stopping once the easy part is over and crying for a bottle.

Ugh I hated making that decision.  Poor little girl!!!  But she seems to have forgotten all about it.  Now when she cries if you look in her mouth it looks like her tongue is way bigger than it used to be.  And the heart shape is starting to disappear from the end.  AND she has eaten more in the last 24 hours at each feeding than she ever has, maybe because it is easier now.  Not to mention most of her breast feeding issues (breaking suction a lot, popping off, getting frustrated) seem to be improving if not resolved.  It seems like it was the right thing to do.   I wish we had done it earlier, because now we have some bad habits to unlearn... but better now than later, I suppose!

Happy Belated Birthday Dvora!

Her birthday was last week but it takes a long time for messages to get from outer space down to Earth.

10 weeks in Noa's life

Noa hasn't changed shape quite so dramatically but she is much much bigger and you can see her big personality in that little face!

3 month comic

3 Month Baby Update

How old: Three months!

Babies’ weights: Eitan, 11lb 6oz. Noa, 10lb 5oz. Eitan has now overtaken Noa by quite a bit! What a little chunker! Both babies are making their way closer to the middle of the growth charts for weight. They are both still closer to the bottom for height. They have no chance of being tall people, anyway, considering I am 5'2" and Ilan is 5'7".

Adventures this month: THANKSGIVING! We met all the cousins and aunts and uncles on my side, and even met some other babies. It was so exhausting that it took us a week to recover our schedules, but thankfully they did not come out of that weekend with their first colds (what I was afraid of).  We have also gone out almost every single day this month! The babies are doing well with being in the car seats, though Noa still doesn't like the carrier (or at least when I'm carrying her - she does like being carried by her Abba :) ). We went on a few very long walks in the park and hung out with other babies... We even tried Baby & Me Yoga, though that turned out to be me nursing the babies in a yoga studio, as I didn't even get to do one pose. We took their passport photos but haven't had a chance to send in the forms yet

What’s up with my body: My diastasis has gone down from 2-3 fingers' width separation to 1-2 fingers' width, and I have stopped physical therapy but keep doing the exercises when I'm not exhausted. I am still up 23lb from pre-pregnancy weight, but then again my pre-pregnancy weight was the lowest I've weighed since I was 15. I am only 10lb above what I weighed two years ago, so I guess that's all right.  I am starting to get really strong, though, picking up these 10+lb babies all the time! Also, I have some lasting things still from pregnancy, like feeling hot all the time and terrible acne. Bleh.

What’s up with the Babies: Smiling like crazy, and their little personalities are starting to come out. They are juuuuust starting to sleep more at night, which is amazing. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, however far away it may be...

Eitan
Eitan is still a very predictable baby. Even though he eats at differing frequencies, once I see the pattern he generally sticks to it. Cluster feeding in the morning, long nap, lunch feeding, long nap, cluster feeding in the evening, long sleep, mid night feed, medium sleep. Also, he is starting to smile a lot more. He gives really amazing hugs - he loves being on his belly and will fall asleep during tummy time a lot. And definitely if he is on his belly on someone. He is just a little snuggle bug. But he is also mister fussy pants who cries in other people's arms and whines while he smiles.

Noa
Noa has "woken up" this month in a way... she is becoming a lot more aware of her surroundings, as well as her own wants. She wants to DANCE! All the time! As soon as her neck is strong enough we will put her in the jolly jumper so she can bounce and bounce and bounce for as long as she wants without exhausting my arms. She is a very opinionated and stubborn young lady and we are working with her to get her to nurse even when it's not so easy and she is angry. But she is also extremely social and alert, wanting to be where the action is, and loves being passed around to other people.

Milestones this month: Smiles :D They both track things with their eyes and have started a little bit to reach for things (though their fists are still closed tight). And, of course, sleeping longer!!!

What I miss: The thing I miss from the before-time right now is taking naps when I'm tired. If I am tired and want a nap but the babies are up, then I am up too. I tried napping while they were awake (giving them something to look at) and they just fussed, wanting attention. Super cute, but I am also super tired. I hope that as they start to sleep longer consistently I will feel less exhausted so I can feel more energetic with interacting with them during the day. (I also just started to develop a cold so that isn't helping)

Pictures: 

All she wants to do is... DANCE!

Noa discovered dancing and now that's ALL SHE WANTS TO DO.  If she is awake, she wants to dance.  It gets exhausting but she is so cute.

Old Videos

"Old" being a relative term.

I combined a few videos I found from Sept 24-28, when the babies were about 2-3 weeks old.  I WISH I had taken video when they were born but I guess I was distracted.  I am kicking myself now.

The close-ups of the babies was me trying to capture their poop faces.  I got Noa pooping a few times in this video.  Their poop faces are SO CUTE.  This is future blackmail material fo sho.

Sleeping and Napping

Last week the babies slept 5-6 hours every night in their longest stretch and it was amazing.

This week they are only sleeping 4 hours in their longest stretch. Also, they wake up at 7am every day, it doesn’t seem to matter what time the middle of the night feeding was or how much sleep they have had.

I don’t know what was different about last week vs this week. My only thought is that Sunday night was bath night but the bath was badly timed so they didn’t get to have their bath right before bed and therefore sleep the extra hour or two (bath night is the best). What happened was Noa peed ALL OVER HERSELF, like even somehow got it on her head, so we had to have bath time early and we didn’t get to benefit from the extra relaxation that happens after they have their bath (even if they scream through it). And then their schedule was off yesterday because of it.

Here is their schedule from yesterday:

7am – wake up

7:30am – feeding begins (breastfeeding – I end up doing this feeding because it’s too late for Ilan to do it before work, I eat breakfast while nursing)

8am – feeding ends, awake time

8:30 – Eitan gets sleepy so I swaddle and put him down for a nap, but Noa is still wide awake, so we continue to play

9:30 – Eitan wakes up hungry, I give him a small bottle and try to get Noa to have a small bottle, too, but she is falling asleep.

10 – swaddles, nap time begins (finally shower, have a snack)

11:30 – Eitan wakes up again, presumably hungry, though instead I distract and play with him to let Noa have a little more sleep (snack some more)

noon – wake up Noa, feeding time again

12:15 – feeding

1:00 – both fall asleep at the boob

1:30 – go for a walk, this requires me to wake them up just a little to get them into the car seats and out into the stroller. Noa falls back to sleep and stays mostly asleep for the walk, Eitan fusses a bit throughout the walk (ate a snack while walking)

3:00 – come home, babies still asleep

3:30 – Eitan wakes up, again presumably hungry, again I hold him off

4:00 – wake up Noa

4:15 – feeding

5:00 – awake! play in the activity gym while I have a snack (guess what, didn’t write where I ate my lunch in there, because I basically didn’t!)

6:00 – hungry again, feeding again

6:30 – feeding, Noa starts screaming, ends up with a bottle

7:00 – swaddled up again and napping (scarf down dinner)

8:00 – Eitan wakes up hungry, hold him off a little

8:30 – wake up Noa

8:45 – feeding… feeding… feeding… this one takes forever, it is a double feeding and Noa is refusing the breast again

11:00 – finally the feeding ends, they are swaddled and drifting off

11:15 – in the crib for the night

3:30am – AWAKE AGAIN.

I know, that was riveting.

The point is, I think I am badly timing the naps. Like maybe I should be trying to get them to nap longer in the afternoon?  Except I have tried that so hard. I was trying last week to get them to nap from 3-5 but they would not stay asleep.  I felt like I was fighting a battle uphill, totally pointless and futile.

I don’t care if they sleep except that they get really rotten in the evening if they haven’t slept. Sunday evening was the worst one I can think of, with constant screaming and flat-out refusing to go to bed.

For many things, the babies are following closer to regular full-term 3 month olds.  They are smiling, laughing, making eye contact, reaching for things, etc.  Yesterday, Noa found herself in the mirror!  She was transfixed.  Noa also straightens her legs and wants to bounce all day.  She is holding up her head, and Eitan is almost there, too.

Also, since they are waking up pretty reliably at 7am every morning (it seems), Ilan is going to start setting an alarm for 6:30 so he can get ready for work before the feeding.  That way he can still do the feeding and I can get an extra hour of sleep.  He used to do the second morning feeding but Monday morning was too late for him, so I ended up doing all the feedings and it was so exhausting.

But in terms of sleep, we are really following closer to their adjusted age of 6 weeks.  I guess also because of their size.  They are around 10/11lb, so they aren’t big enough yet for longer than 5-6 hours at a time. Other parents of 3 month olds I’ve talked to have mentioned 8-9 hour stretches (with 12-14lb babies), which just sounds so far away from where we are now.  But we are making progress, we really are.

Noa is delicious

I caught Noa during a delicious moment this morning.  Eitan was hiccupping himself to sleep in the chair next to her.  A few minutes after this video, she started fussing and had to be swaddled and rocked to sleep.  But still!  Look at those smiles!

Tweedle Baby Battle

Babies say hi to Abba

Sometimes one baby is awake while the other is sleeping, and if that baby is calm I go to the computer and have the baby send a hello picture to Ilan while he is at work.  Today, Eitan was awake while Noa slept, and he wanted to say hi to Abba.

I also made one with Noa a few weeks ago...

All in one place

We were taking pictures to get passports for the babies and the cats decided to come check it out.

Take your daughter to work day

working hard, doing ... stuff.

just coding... you know... stuff.

Correction

In case you believe our babies smile and sleep all the time from the pictures you've seen, I'd like to correct you.

But they are still cute, even while screaming in my face...

Election day blues